Well, approximately 8 months after receiving the XPro I won in the TeamUSAF3J raffle last summer, my XPro is finally complete and ready to fly!

Since this was my first 3m moldie, Pat McCleave graciously offered to help me get it assembled and set up correctly. It took me awhile to get the build components together because I wanted to put the best components I could afford in it. I started going over to Pat's one night per week on average and we got it knocked out. I think it turned out great and I'm looking forward to getting this beauty in the air. Unfortunately, with Uncle Sam making me move to South Dakota in less than 2 weeks, I don't know if that will happen terribly soon...but you never know!

Build details are in my other blog thread.

Here's the setup:

- Airtronics 94761Z's on the ailerons, elevator and rudder.
- JR DS3421MG on flaps
- All wing servos in frames
- 1500mah elite 5-cell pack from cheapbatterypacks.com
- JR R921 RX using the "whiskers" method for antennas
- AUW just under 78oz
- 68" PlaneQuiver II wing bag

I did some range testing today--tested in all orientations and directions and the shortest range test I got was 75 paces with about 85-90 being the norm. I think, aesthetics aside, the whiskers are going to work out fine.

Anyhow, here's some pics...

A buddy of mine has a 50cc Velox and it's given me the bug to pick up a large gasser as well...so when the opportunity came to pick up this Extra 260 on a "local" pickup deal, I couldn't pass it up. Thanks to Rob in Oklahoma for meeting me halfway!

This plane has a few flights on it, but it looks nearly brand new...best part is the uncut cowl as it was flown as an electric! I can't afford to keep this monster as an electric, so it will be getting a 50cc engine when I can afford one...leaning toward the DL50 from HobbyCity.

If anyone has experience with this airframe, good, bad or indifferent, I'd love to hear about it...

A very non-typical late December day here in Kansas...60+ degrees and NO WIND! So naturally, I had to take the opportunity to go flying.

I got two maidens accomplished today as my brother was in town visiting for Christmas...I flew my 55" 3DHS Katana and my Reichard XL3200 e-sailplane for the first time. Both flew perfectly and made for a great day of flying.

The Katana:
- 3x HS-225MG and 2x HS-5245MG servos
- Reaper GR-60 motor
- Castle Creations CC-80 ESC
- Castle Creations BEC
- XCite 4100mah 4S lipo
- AR7000 RX

Combo produces 925W on a 15x7" APC-e...unlimited vertical.


The XL3200:
- Futaba 3151 digi on elevator, S-148 on rudder, HS-85MG on flaps, Dymond D-200 on ailerons
- HET 2918-14 motor
- Castle Creations CC60 ESC
- Castle Creations BEC
- TrueRC 3200mah 4S 15C lipo
- AR7000 RX

Combo produces 450W on 13x7" Graupner CAM folder. Good for steady 55 degree climbout.

All in all, a great day of flying!

I got the opportunity of a lifetime when my unit was asked by the Kansas Speedway to provide personnel for security augmentation at this past weekend's NASCAR races. I'm not a big NASCAR fan--in fact I know nearly nothing about it besides what I catch on SportsCenter from time to time. But the "wages" that we earned would be used for our unit's Christmas party so it sounded like a fun fundraiser--beats a car wash any day. So about 35 of us headed up for a long weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun). There is no tent camping allowed on racetrack grounds normally, but as we were basically "volunteering" to work the races, they found an out of the way location for us to do some tent camping while we were up there.

Friday was pretty quiet, with just some qualifying for Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series (formerly Busch Series, IIRC) race. We just worked security details in the motorhome campsites as fans started arriving for the weekend's activities. That afternoon Ford racing held an autograph signing event and we worked that as well. There were about a dozen Ford drivers present, including Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth and others. First real taste of how totally into this sport the fans are... These guys are treated like rock stars...When it was done we literally had to make a circle around Carl Edwards so he could leave.

Saturday started out slowly, as we worked the Midway where all the vendors peddled their wares. Our main job was just to...Continue Reading

Well my loving wife surprised me with a 60" LEG P-51 kit (with collusion from Jack ) for my birthday. There have been a ton of LEG build threads, so I'm going to keep this one in my blog. I'll be closely following the technique demonstrated in the excellent 60" Spitfire build by Jack Cooper and Jeff Charlot.

I'll let the pictures below tell the story......Continue Reading

Returned from an impromptu vacation to Minnesota to find a large box waiting for me...the Xperience Pro that I was lucky enough to win in the Team USA F3J Raffle. Bob and the rest of the crew at SoaringUSA did a GREAT job of packing the glider so it arrived in perfect condition.

I'll be using this blog entry as a mini "build thread" as I have a local F3 builder who has agreed to help me get this beauty built RIGHT over the next few months. Not 100% sure what servos I'll be using in this bird yet but the plan is to use servo frames for installation, and since this is not a 2.4GHz-friendly fuselage version, I have a 72MHz Hitec SuperSlim or JR 790 ScanSelect PCM RX that will work with my XP9303 if I switch to the FM/PCM module.

Preliminary pics are below...I'll add more as the build progresses. Thanks to the USA F3F raffle organizers and SUSA for this tremendous model--I'm looking forward to getting her in the air!...Continue Reading

My well-used FunJet was starting to show its age--a dead TX battery awhile back caused a minor crash which broke the nose off, and all the belly landings were starting to take their toll on the paint. The repaired nose looked OK, but was not as strong as it had been so I decided to add some CF reinforcement as insurance. On top of all that, the Grayson Hobbies motor finally gave up the ghost in the form of toasted bearings, so I decided to step it up a notch with a Mega 16/15/3 and CC T-Bird 36A ESC.

I cut a slit along each side of the fuselage where the canopy sits and inserted a strip of .007" CF tape secured with thin CA. I did the same on the bottom, and covered with 3M Extreme strapping tape. The bottom was repainted blue--the paint will wear off the tape but a periodic shot of fresh paint will be easier than allowing the foam to erode with each landing.

The top was repainted red, with the only change being the addition of red to the wingtips for a little additional visibility contrast.

Overall, it added a few extra grams but the Mega more than makes up for it. With an APC 5.1x4.5E prop, the Mega delivers about 350W of power. It really turns heads at the flying field!

This is a Great Planes Ultrasport .40 that I kit-built (starting about 16 years ago) and finished about a year and a half ago. It flies great, but I'm making the move to 100% electric power. I'm posting these pics to go along with the For Sale thread that I have started for this and the Tower Trainer.

These rotors are supposedly dynamically balanced at the factory...it certainly doesn't seem to be statically balanced however.

HET 6904 rotor balance (0 min 12 sec)

A friend of mine is making the leap from glow to e-power, and jumped on the "Yak Attack" sale that Extremeflight.com had on their popular 47" Yak-54 awhile back. He also picked up the recommended Torque/AirBoss power combo for it, and asked me to help him get it ready to fly. I got it mostly done over the past couple evenings and we finished it up tonight.

Also included are some comparison shots of the EF Yak with my recently acquired 3DHS 47" Yak-54. Biggest difference that I can see is the that EF Yak's fuselage is MUCH larger in diameter than the 3DHS Yak. Construction quality is excellent on both--I'm looking forward to doing a head-to-head flying comparison of the two, since I've been appointed chief test pilot for the EF Yak as well.

At $80 shipped for the EF Yak, and $70 local pickup for the 3DHS Yak, I think there is a lot of "bang for the buck" in these pictures...

I got the fuselage painted yesterday and covered the wings tonight. I still need to chase out some air bubbles (typical with covering sheeted wings) and add some pinstriping trim.

All that's left to do is radio gear install, balance and fly!



UPDATE: Finished covering scheme, waiting on ball links to complete wingeron linkage. Then all that remains is to balance, program radio and fly!

Back home after 7 weeks of schooling and the weather hasnt been suitable for any outdoor projects or flying, so it's time to build. This is one of the "Turbonator" kits that Oranator and friends whipped up back in late December. He was kind enough to send me one of the extras that was built that day--thanks Oran!

I actually hadn't planned on getting started today, but one thing led to another and before I knew it I had gotten quite a bit done WITHOUT TAKING ANY PICTURES...DOH! The kit was very complete, with wing sheeting bagged on to blue foam cores, fuselage built and tail templates traced out onto balsa sheet.

I cleaned up the wings as they were bagged without any wax paper between the sheeting and the foam beds--no problem cleaning them up though. Added a hardwood leading edge and balsa wingtip and lots of sanding. The wings are nice and straight and look good. A little finish sanding and they will be ready to cover.

I cut and sanded the tailfeathers to a nice profile--ready for covering as well.

The fuse required the addition of 1/32" ply doublers on the forward section of the sides for strength. I also added ply to the bottom of the fuselage to help protect it during less than perfect landings. I feathered the ply into the fuselage and did some sanding. I kinda like the squared off look of the fuselage so I'm not going to try to make it too rounded, especially at the expense of strength. Drilled the wingrod hole and called it a night.

Here's a pic of where it currently stands.

Still to do:
- router the "smileys" for the wingeron linkage
- mount tailfeathers
- install servos/rx/battery
- covering
- balance and fly!


First edit: Added some pictures from post #3 showing the fiberglass/WBPU/primer and a bench fly picture.

Picked this up over a year ago and haven't had a chance to do anything with it. Added some CF tow and fiberglass inside the fuse to beef it up. Took out the ply motor mount in favor of a fiberglass one from espritmodels, custom made for the HET 2918-14 I had planned for it...more to come on that as I was extremely disappointed in that motor when I finally ran it up. Re-wired the wing connectors with MPX plugs and built a new servo tray for the R/E servos.

Here are some pics for now, I'll get some of the repairs/improvements I made when I get a chance.

...

Now that I'm back from deployment, I've got some building to do! I managed to sneak out of the house last week for a day and headed up to Lucas where Jack and I did some building on our Guppies. No pics from that day, but we managed to get the fuses shaped and gear installed (minus RX) and the wings joined, spars installed, and trailing edge/sub-trailing edge installed. I then "gooped" the leading edge of the wing and the nose area to add some strength and let it cure for a couple days.

Today I manged to get my Canuck Engineering switchjack installed, along with the Spektrum AR6100E RX, Coroplast hatch, and wing servo extensions installed in the fuselage.

I also made up a servo installation template for the HS-65's and routed the servo locations in the wing, and shaped the wingtips and ailerons.

Left to do:

- shape and install the tailfeathers
- tape and cover the wing (I'm going with Ultracote and a "light" tape job)
- glue the wing into the fuse and tape/cover the fuse. I'll save the nose for last so I can add some weight to get the CG right.

Hopefully ready by next weekend...I'll add pics as I make progress.


EDIT: Finished--added pictures of complete Guppy, AUW 21.9oz.

Here are some of my pics from the inaugural LEGfest hosted by Jack Cooper and Leading Edge Gliders in Lucas, KS. No slope wind to speak of for the first two days, but I heard it picked up for the last couple days. Nonetheless, there was plenty of thermal, electric, glow, aerotow, helicopter and every other kind of flying to be had...Big thanks to Jack and LEG for hosting the event--I hope it will become an annual event!

Here are a few of the pics--I'll try to add some more later. However, I'll be deployed from now until January so my internet access may be limited....Continue Reading

Second plane completed in a week...surprise, surprise--another MPX kit! Their plan to get all my money is nearly complete...

I couldn't pass up the Grayson Hobby FunJet/power combo at such a killer price. The Grayson 2212-06 outrunner screams with the 6x4 prop--should be a good match for the speedy FJ.

Completely stock build, a little paint and some stickers...AUW 18.9oz with EP 2200mah 3S lipo. I hope to maiden this week!

Here's some pics of my newest addition...the Multiplex Twister. I managed to snag this as part of a batch that Randy at Dynamo Electrics (Termite on RCG) managed to import...glad I didn't have to wait for Tower Hobbies to get their act together! Thanks Randy!

Build is pretty stock...added a high-vis paint scheme and the cool clear canopy conversion that "Sparks" at ParkFlyer Plastics put together. I think it really completes the look of the Twister and makes it appear much more "scale".

Stock power system draws 36A on 3S lipo...probably won't be a speed demon, but hey! That's what MicroJets are for, right?

LMR floater......Continue Reading

Here's the specs:

LittleScreamers Purple Peril with 6x5.5 APC prop
Custom motor mount
CC25 1.5A BEC
GWS Pico Servos
Hitec 05S AutoShift Full-range SC RX
Carbon reinforcement from nose to mid-wing (thick flat stock)

Quick Krylon fusion paint job to help with visibility--it was terrible in stock trim!

Flown on 1800mah PQ 3S packs...easy to handlaunch due to light weight, and very fast! Tons of fun...