Fly Before You Walk
Our daughter has been watching us fly from day 1. She's always been fairly mesmerized by things moving around in the air (Vapor and mCX first, then the Slow Stick and Superfly later on). After realizing I had a few Havocs laying around, I decided it was time to pass one down to her. She's a few weeks shy of her first birthday, and already she's showing some proficiency and interest in flying helis. Interestingly, she's not fully walking yet, but she's already flying.
| Fly Before You Walk (1 min 36 sec) |
Sunday Slowstick Project
After hearing about the Slowstick Adjustable Motor Mount on All Things That Fly, and looking at the rest of the slowstick mods at http://www.radicalrc.com/shop/?cart=2240601&cat=249&, I dedided to buy some EZ connectors and relocate my servos from the middle of the plane to the rear of the plane. Here is what I ended up with:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/forkmantis/3168445748/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/forkmantis/3167614269/
Ultimately, I will probalby buy some of the RadicalRC hop ups. I'm particularly interested in the motor mount and battery tray.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/forkmantis/3168445748/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/forkmantis/3167614269/
Ultimately, I will probalby buy some of the RadicalRC hop ups. I'm particularly interested in the motor mount and battery tray.
Slowstick Video
Here's a video my friend shot of me flying my slowstick. We didn't think we were going to get to film because it was raining, but just as he was about to leave the rain cleared up. We had awesome clouds to use as a backdrop.
| Post-Rain Slowstick Flying (2 min 2 sec) |
Accidental Vapor
My wife started flying my slow stick once I got my superfly and she no longer felt like crashing the slowstick would leave me planeless. She's done very well, w/ about 20 flights so far and not so much as a broken propeller. We have very tall grass where we fly, which helps eliminate the effects of an occasional not-so-beautiful landing (most of her landings have been excellent).
After flying the slowstick for a while, she's taken an interest in the hobby, and is wanting a plane of her own. She thinks the superfly is too fast, but immediately fell in love with the LightFlite.com's RC Bug. We're planning on having one for her by her birthday in October.
As a first step, we purchased a Spektrum DX6i with the funds from our garage sale this weekend. We were expecting to pay close to $200, but our LHS had them for $155. We joked about getting a bind n fly vapor along with it while in the hobby store. We asked how much they were charging for them, and they had them for $87. We were expecting them to be $99, so we were a bit surprised. We decided to be mature and wait. By the time we got out to the car, though, we both looked at each other and knew we couldn't leave without it. So I go back in, as Liz straps our daughter into the car, and grabbed a vapor. What choice did I have? How can you buy a transmitter and not have a plane to fly with it?
I have to say, after 2 nights and a day with the vapor, we both love the thing. We were pretty sure we wanted one after seeing the videos on youtube, but it still impressed us more than we thought it would. We've flown it in our house, our garage, and outside in light wind. I'm surprised at it's durability, it's precision, and how much wind it can handle. I wouldn't take it out in heavy or gusty wind, but it doesn't have to be dead calm like I thought it might. Now we can't wait for the Blade Micro CX RTF to come out.
After flying the slowstick for a while, she's taken an interest in the hobby, and is wanting a plane of her own. She thinks the superfly is too fast, but immediately fell in love with the LightFlite.com's RC Bug. We're planning on having one for her by her birthday in October.
As a first step, we purchased a Spektrum DX6i with the funds from our garage sale this weekend. We were expecting to pay close to $200, but our LHS had them for $155. We joked about getting a bind n fly vapor along with it while in the hobby store. We asked how much they were charging for them, and they had them for $87. We were expecting them to be $99, so we were a bit surprised. We decided to be mature and wait. By the time we got out to the car, though, we both looked at each other and knew we couldn't leave without it. So I go back in, as Liz straps our daughter into the car, and grabbed a vapor. What choice did I have? How can you buy a transmitter and not have a plane to fly with it?
I have to say, after 2 nights and a day with the vapor, we both love the thing. We were pretty sure we wanted one after seeing the videos on youtube, but it still impressed us more than we thought it would. We've flown it in our house, our garage, and outside in light wind. I'm surprised at it's durability, it's precision, and how much wind it can handle. I wouldn't take it out in heavy or gusty wind, but it doesn't have to be dead calm like I thought it might. Now we can't wait for the Blade Micro CX RTF to come out.
Experience: What You Get Just After You Needed It
The toughest part of RC flying for me is that I don't have any experienced friends. The LHS is helpful, as is the internet, but when it comes to flying or building, I'm mostly on my own.
I've been listening to the http://allthingsthatfly.com and InsideHeli podcasts for a few months now, and that's helped out a lot. This is significant for two reasons. First, because of the recent episode they did on Maiden and Preflight, and second, because of the Yak 55 3d Foamie my wife recently bought me as a combo birthday/father's day gift, which I maidened last week. This was my first build more complex than a slowstick, and the first plane I've owned w/ ailerons. I took slowly worked my way through the build process, partly because of our first child (2 months old), and partly from me doing research on the net and asking questions at my LHS.
So I get the plane built, and take some time to get the throws, dual rates, and expo set up between the plane and my Airtronics RDs-8000. I never consciously adjusted the throws on my slow stick, so I took a little extra time to get it right on the Yak. After adjusting the push rods, and then the servo centering and extents, I got the throws dead accurate for both rates. With the battery and motor I had, the plane was balancing about 1/4" ahead of the recommended 3" from the leading edge, which I expected to work out just fine.
Liz and I took it out for our maiden flight, and I had high expectations. The final procedure was to do a range check, which I remembered from the podcast. That worked out OK, so I prepared the plane. Wanting to get it a few mistakes high as quickly as possible, I give it full throttle and hand launch it at about a 45 degree angle. Once the plane left my hand, I gave a slight elevator and aileron adjustment to keep it towards the center of my flying area, and the next thing I know, it's lawn-darted straight down at full throttle! I couldn't believe it. My first flight lasted maybe a second, and I had already broken the first propeller. The worst thing is that I had absolutely no idea how it had happened. Not even once did I feel like I was in control of the plane.
I put a new propeller on it later that night and got it ready to fly the next day. It didn't go any better. I hand launched it twice, and got maybe 1.5 seconds of flight time the first time, and maybe one second of flight time on the second flight, which again resulted in me lawn-darting the plane and breaking the balsa wood motor mount. During both of the two flights, the plane did not seem to be doing what I'd asked it to do. Additionally, there were several crack/break/tears in the styrofoam nose and wings. I was so bummed, I didn't even touch it again for a week. All I could think is that I was too stupid to build and/or fly a 4 channel plane, and that I'd have to do at least 20-30 minutes of work to fix it up again for another sub-2 second flight. I flew my slow stick a little during the week just so I'd have some sort of positive RC flying experience fresh on my mind.
Yesterday I decided that rather than sit around moping about the yak, I should start fixing it. I got it glued and repaired yesterday morning, and thought through the 3 short flights I'd had with it. I'd noticed that in each case, the plane seemed to roll to the left, inverting itself, and then crashing before I could react. I decided that perhaps the aileron trim was off, even though I'd set them to be visually even with one another. When I took the plane out to fly it yesterday, I decided I'd start by adjusting the trim so that the ailerons would cause a slow roll to the right. As I clicked the trim to the right, the events of the past week instantly made complete sense to me. The ailerons moved the opposite way than they should have. So I move the stick to the right, and again, the ailerons move the wrong way. Yes. That's right. Perfectly adjusted throws don't mean a hill of beans when your servo is going the wrong direction. The first thought that ran through my mind was the ATTF Maiden and Preflight episode mentioning that you should verify that all of your control surfaces move the correct direction. They explicitly mentioned that when you move the aileron sticks, the control surface in the direction you move the stick should move up, while the surface opposite should move down. How could I have not checked that? I've never felt quite so brain-dead as I did at that moment.
Realizing the problem, I made the adjustments on the transmitter, re-adjusting the center point and trim. I hand launched the Yak at about 3/4 throttle, and immediately knew everything was OK. My first successful flight with my first 4 channel plane lasted about 6-8 minutes, and included inverted flight, barrel rolls, a loop, and a hammerhead. It completely lived up to the expectations that I'd had from 3-4 months of experience with Real Flight. I was so stoked over my first successful flight, it took me an extra hour to go to sleep last night.
Ultimately, I think I'm going to have to buy a new plane body. My first few flights thrashed it pretty hard. I think I can do a much better job on the build this time, and you can be sure that all of the control surfaces will move in the correct direction before I try to put it in the air.
I've been listening to the http://allthingsthatfly.com and InsideHeli podcasts for a few months now, and that's helped out a lot. This is significant for two reasons. First, because of the recent episode they did on Maiden and Preflight, and second, because of the Yak 55 3d Foamie my wife recently bought me as a combo birthday/father's day gift, which I maidened last week. This was my first build more complex than a slowstick, and the first plane I've owned w/ ailerons. I took slowly worked my way through the build process, partly because of our first child (2 months old), and partly from me doing research on the net and asking questions at my LHS.
So I get the plane built, and take some time to get the throws, dual rates, and expo set up between the plane and my Airtronics RDs-8000. I never consciously adjusted the throws on my slow stick, so I took a little extra time to get it right on the Yak. After adjusting the push rods, and then the servo centering and extents, I got the throws dead accurate for both rates. With the battery and motor I had, the plane was balancing about 1/4" ahead of the recommended 3" from the leading edge, which I expected to work out just fine.
Liz and I took it out for our maiden flight, and I had high expectations. The final procedure was to do a range check, which I remembered from the podcast. That worked out OK, so I prepared the plane. Wanting to get it a few mistakes high as quickly as possible, I give it full throttle and hand launch it at about a 45 degree angle. Once the plane left my hand, I gave a slight elevator and aileron adjustment to keep it towards the center of my flying area, and the next thing I know, it's lawn-darted straight down at full throttle! I couldn't believe it. My first flight lasted maybe a second, and I had already broken the first propeller. The worst thing is that I had absolutely no idea how it had happened. Not even once did I feel like I was in control of the plane.
I put a new propeller on it later that night and got it ready to fly the next day. It didn't go any better. I hand launched it twice, and got maybe 1.5 seconds of flight time the first time, and maybe one second of flight time on the second flight, which again resulted in me lawn-darting the plane and breaking the balsa wood motor mount. During both of the two flights, the plane did not seem to be doing what I'd asked it to do. Additionally, there were several crack/break/tears in the styrofoam nose and wings. I was so bummed, I didn't even touch it again for a week. All I could think is that I was too stupid to build and/or fly a 4 channel plane, and that I'd have to do at least 20-30 minutes of work to fix it up again for another sub-2 second flight. I flew my slow stick a little during the week just so I'd have some sort of positive RC flying experience fresh on my mind.
Yesterday I decided that rather than sit around moping about the yak, I should start fixing it. I got it glued and repaired yesterday morning, and thought through the 3 short flights I'd had with it. I'd noticed that in each case, the plane seemed to roll to the left, inverting itself, and then crashing before I could react. I decided that perhaps the aileron trim was off, even though I'd set them to be visually even with one another. When I took the plane out to fly it yesterday, I decided I'd start by adjusting the trim so that the ailerons would cause a slow roll to the right. As I clicked the trim to the right, the events of the past week instantly made complete sense to me. The ailerons moved the opposite way than they should have. So I move the stick to the right, and again, the ailerons move the wrong way. Yes. That's right. Perfectly adjusted throws don't mean a hill of beans when your servo is going the wrong direction. The first thought that ran through my mind was the ATTF Maiden and Preflight episode mentioning that you should verify that all of your control surfaces move the correct direction. They explicitly mentioned that when you move the aileron sticks, the control surface in the direction you move the stick should move up, while the surface opposite should move down. How could I have not checked that? I've never felt quite so brain-dead as I did at that moment.
Realizing the problem, I made the adjustments on the transmitter, re-adjusting the center point and trim. I hand launched the Yak at about 3/4 throttle, and immediately knew everything was OK. My first successful flight with my first 4 channel plane lasted about 6-8 minutes, and included inverted flight, barrel rolls, a loop, and a hammerhead. It completely lived up to the expectations that I'd had from 3-4 months of experience with Real Flight. I was so stoked over my first successful flight, it took me an extra hour to go to sleep last night.
Ultimately, I think I'm going to have to buy a new plane body. My first few flights thrashed it pretty hard. I think I can do a much better job on the build this time, and you can be sure that all of the control surfaces will move in the correct direction before I try to put it in the air.
RC Helis on TV
I've recently run across RC helis on two separate television shows that were not specifically RC related.
In Season 3, Episode 9 of Rob and Big (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_and_big ) in which Rob settles on RC helicopters as a new hobby. He's not very good at it. After crashing the first 2 he purchased, he goes back to the store and buys 10 more, and flies them all until they're crashed, and then remarks "Man.. what a dumb hobby."
There's also a new show on G4 called Unbeatable Banzuke (http://www.g4tv.com/dutyfree/). One of the challenges on that show is called Super Helico, in which contestants must fly their RC helicopters through a very challenging obstacle course. Unbeatable Banzuke is worth checking out regardless, but it was a treat to see that RC heli flying was one of their many different challenges.
In Season 3, Episode 9 of Rob and Big (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_and_big ) in which Rob settles on RC helicopters as a new hobby. He's not very good at it. After crashing the first 2 he purchased, he goes back to the store and buys 10 more, and flies them all until they're crashed, and then remarks "Man.. what a dumb hobby."
There's also a new show on G4 called Unbeatable Banzuke (http://www.g4tv.com/dutyfree/). One of the challenges on that show is called Super Helico, in which contestants must fly their RC helicopters through a very challenging obstacle course. Unbeatable Banzuke is worth checking out regardless, but it was a treat to see that RC heli flying was one of their many different challenges.
