Vegas Trip. Cool pics
Just returned from a work trip. A lot of prep work and then a busy schedule during the week. The show is a lot of eye candy and neat attractions but make no mistake, there is a lot of serious business going on here. Though, it is funny to see men in suits and women in dress-skirts playing carnival games and munching on sample cotton candy.
Project Dune Buggy (AKA Bonzai Buggy)
I have been rolling this idea around in my mind for a while but haven't had the chance to put foam and glue to the concept until recently. I am a big fan of flying things and have made many flying cars. I was getting ready for a trip out to the desert for some camping at Glammis and our good friends have an amazing sand rail (aka dune buggy). Having gone flying through the air 5-6 feet off the ground and being called back to earth by gravity, I have always been impressed with their suspension design and how much it saves my back. My other cars had suspension but it was more for preservation of the depron airframe and not so much for off roading... although they do pretty good on dirt and grass.
I studied the front suspension of my buddy's sand rail and was also inspired by Leadfeather's Mario Cart and a mod C/F did to one of my GTP cars a while back for light and easy rear suspension. I used the existing planform and parts from my GTP kits and scratch built the 4-link suspension using some 3/16" aluminum tubing, .060 carbon rod, piano wire, Dubro ball links, and some ABS plastic. The actual shock is aluminum tubing with a carbon tube inside with assorted pen springs for rebound. They work fantastic and the geometry is amazing to see in action. The rear suspension is a sudo trailing arm configuration using rubber bands for spring and tension.
The airframe itself is chopped and simplified, while the motor mount was raised to gain a little more ground clearance. I also had to move some servos and linkage around.
I was really hoping that I would be able to ROG off of the sand while making the maiden flights at Glamis over the weekend. I quickly found out that the narrow wheels were digging in despite a light wing loading. I was able to drive in some areas of hard pack but anything too fluffy and the dips and valleys would catch the wheels.
I hand launched for the maiden and all other flights over the weekend. There were too many vehicles and RVs in the hard packed areas to do otherwise.
The flying went very well. I was nose heavy on the first flight and slowly moved it back until the elevator gained better pitch authority and overall flying qualities improved as well. It was about 1" further back than the original GTP due to some planform changes. I feel a slight difference with the motor and prop up higher, but will continue experimenting with some 3-bladed props to hopefully lower it down some while still keeping prop/ground clearance.
The LEDs work great at dusk, but pitch dark flying proves difficult in maintaining orientation. I did enough laps to impress the campers and freak the dogs out before I decided to call it quits.
I can't wait to get out locally in some dirt and grass to do some actual ROG flying. I am also working on a decent color scheme as I cannot fly unpainted foamies... I know the club flyers will like this one for sure!
Hopefully I will get some video in the next week or two and continue tweaking the design.
I studied the front suspension of my buddy's sand rail and was also inspired by Leadfeather's Mario Cart and a mod C/F did to one of my GTP cars a while back for light and easy rear suspension. I used the existing planform and parts from my GTP kits and scratch built the 4-link suspension using some 3/16" aluminum tubing, .060 carbon rod, piano wire, Dubro ball links, and some ABS plastic. The actual shock is aluminum tubing with a carbon tube inside with assorted pen springs for rebound. They work fantastic and the geometry is amazing to see in action. The rear suspension is a sudo trailing arm configuration using rubber bands for spring and tension.
The airframe itself is chopped and simplified, while the motor mount was raised to gain a little more ground clearance. I also had to move some servos and linkage around.
I was really hoping that I would be able to ROG off of the sand while making the maiden flights at Glamis over the weekend. I quickly found out that the narrow wheels were digging in despite a light wing loading. I was able to drive in some areas of hard pack but anything too fluffy and the dips and valleys would catch the wheels.
I hand launched for the maiden and all other flights over the weekend. There were too many vehicles and RVs in the hard packed areas to do otherwise.
The flying went very well. I was nose heavy on the first flight and slowly moved it back until the elevator gained better pitch authority and overall flying qualities improved as well. It was about 1" further back than the original GTP due to some planform changes. I feel a slight difference with the motor and prop up higher, but will continue experimenting with some 3-bladed props to hopefully lower it down some while still keeping prop/ground clearance.
The LEDs work great at dusk, but pitch dark flying proves difficult in maintaining orientation. I did enough laps to impress the campers and freak the dogs out before I decided to call it quits.
I can't wait to get out locally in some dirt and grass to do some actual ROG flying. I am also working on a decent color scheme as I cannot fly unpainted foamies... I know the club flyers will like this one for sure!
Hopefully I will get some video in the next week or two and continue tweaking the design.
EMAC: Contest Pictures
Here are some pics from our recent EMAC (an electric IMAC) contest. The SEFSD club runs the contest as a "run what ya' brung" scheme so that you can fly either a scale aerobatic ship (per true IMAC rules) or an appropriate pattern plane. This makes it so that almost anyone can fly something they have in the hangar or simply fly what they want.
The flying conditions for the day were a bit more challenging than usual due to a strong south cross-wind blowing 90* to the runway. This made staying on course difficult as well as some very tricky landings. The crosswind was anywhere from 10-15mph so with some of the lighter wing loading airplanes this really pushed airframes around. It is a good way to learn how to use the rudder through maneuvers and how to anticipate which way to go during the maneuver: example; hammerheads into the wind vs with the wind.
Enjoy the photos:
The flying conditions for the day were a bit more challenging than usual due to a strong south cross-wind blowing 90* to the runway. This made staying on course difficult as well as some very tricky landings. The crosswind was anywhere from 10-15mph so with some of the lighter wing loading airplanes this really pushed airframes around. It is a good way to learn how to use the rudder through maneuvers and how to anticipate which way to go during the maneuver: example; hammerheads into the wind vs with the wind.
Enjoy the photos:
Wonderful World of Rapid Prototyping
Some pics from a rapid prototyping show I attended for work. The technology for this area of manufacturing is amazing and it is a truly satisfying business for modelers to be involved in.
Venus 40, Neu Power Video
| Venus 40 (4 min 10 sec) |
Rise of the Venus
I am putting the finishing touches on an airframe I bought 4 years ago, tore all the covering off, and then procrastinated finishing it. I designed a color scheme on the computer for the fuse and hand drew one for the wing. This is a glo to electric conversion so I had to figure out a few custom details for batteries and motor. I had also Swiss-cheezed the fuse to lighten things up a bit. I am about 90% done but am waiting to mount the cowl until I get the thrust line dialed in and get a new spinner.
Power is:
Neu 1910-2Y
3S-3300 Lipo
13X10 or 14X8 prop
Maiden flight was last weekend. More pics and video soon. She flies on rails.
Power is:
Neu 1910-2Y
3S-3300 Lipo
13X10 or 14X8 prop
Maiden flight was last weekend. More pics and video soon. She flies on rails.
GTP Flying car at the Beach
| GTP Flying Car at Carlsbad Cliffs (3 min 25 sec) |
Another reason to hate Mondays...
So Monday rolls around and Angela and I are at work all day. The Santa Ana winds are starting and it is hot, dry, and windy. I hop on the train at the end of the day and head for home. As we roll along on the train we get about half way home and round the corner at San Clemente. I see a rather large plume of black smoke obviously coming from Camp Pendleton. I log onto my Blackberry phone and search for news of the fire. There is info on a fire at the "Back Gate" which is basically where we live. I call our day care lady and she gives me more up to date news and adds the comforting words "It's in your neighborhood." I immediately call Angela and tell her to get on the road and head home. We have to pick up our daughter from daycare and somehow rescue the dogs who are locked inside the house. A few of the passengers on my train are talking to their family about the fire and start naming off streets. They are dangerously close to our track of homes. I finally arrive at the Oceanside station and try to get home quickly. As I roll down the 76 I get a glimpse of the magnitude of this fire and it looks bad. I go the direction I least expect for them to block off traffic if they are indeed stopping cars in the area. I am getting closer (about 2-3 miles away) when the police block all further traffic. I am stuck! I call Angela and she has already made it to the day care and heading to the house. She is going a back route I was sure they would block. I call my good flying buddy Neil who lives in the track I am stopped next to and he says to swing by and I can figure things out. I roll up and he is in the garage. He suggests I borrow a bike and go talk to one of the cops to see if I might be able to work something out. So I hop on a Beach Cruiser and start pedaling towards the blockade. When I get there I can't get the attention of any cops and they were not letting any cars in period. I look up the street and see many people walking that direction and also a few bikes. I ponder the situation and realize I am going to have to bike the rest of the way. As I pedal along the long stretch of road the scene in front of me is frightening. I can see flames on the hills to my left and the black plumes of smoke ahead in the vicinity of my neighborhood. I call Angela's cell and she has somehow made it to the base of our neighborhood but has to sneak in through the adjacent street to get in. So here I am pedaling down a deserted street wondering what I am doing as about 1/2 a dozen fire trucks go racing by me. At about the same time I am watching a helicopter swooping down to drop water on the line of fire a 1/2 mile ahead. Once he clears out I hear the distinct sound of a large, multi-engined plane only a few hundred feet overhead zoom by and he unleashes a torrent of fire retardant in the same area. In a surreal moment of thought I realize that in another place and time I would really enjoy this airshow above my head but the adrenaline and focus of getting home blocks out the curiosity of watching the action. I finally get to a street I can turn up into the neighborhood and I ride by a news camera setting up for footage. I then climb a painful hill that seems a mile long. Legs burning I just keep going. I finally get to the house and my legs are Jello. Angela is inside with Brooke throwing everything she can into baskets and suitcases. Since the big fires last year got us into better preparation most of the important stuff was easy to grab. Brooke is excited yelling Dada-dada. I begin to load up the car (wishing I had the bigger vehicle) and I see all my neighbors doing the same. I get the car loaded as best I can and now we try to figure out if we are truly in danger. I drive up to a high spot in the neighborhood to see the action and it looks ok for us for now. The fires are everywhere but the immediate canyon behind our close neighbors. It turns out that the fire had already blown past the closest point before we got home so we were actually watching it move away from us. Watching the news later that night we saw video of several landmarks on fire that told us just how close this thing was to our street. I stayed on watch from several points in our neighborhood and took the pics attached. It is totally amazing that no houses were burned given the size and speed of this fire. The fire-breaks that the Marines maintain along the base fence line without a doubt saved many homes. I woke up the next morning and the fires were gone other than a few smokey patches surrounded by firemen. I ended up going into work late (~10:30am) and on the way up the 5 half way through Pendleton I drove past a wall of flames from a new, small brushfire started by a weedwacker on base. They put it out quickly but I was imagining another day of adventure trying to get home again. Big thanks to our Firefighters and Marines who combined efforts to keep our citizens and properties safe! Also thanks to Canada for leasing California your Super Scooper aircraft as they were vital in the fight.
My GTP Flying Car Video
| "Flying Car" GTP RC Plane/Car (3 min 59 sec) |
A-7 Corsair Ducted Fan
This is a video I made for a flying buddy Tom. He did a superb job detailing this Jet Hangar Hobbies kit. O.S. 46 VX-DF motor.
| RC A-7 Corsair Jet (5 min 11 sec) |
Tiger Demon Video
Tiger Demon video is done. This flight was run slightly rich to preserve glo plug. Still shortening the pipe to get best RPM for prop. Definitely a new skill for me to tune this motor in but happy with the ole' K&B so far.
| "Tiger Demon" Delta RC Plane (3 min 35 sec) |
Tiger Demon
Keeping in tradition with my Tiger Yak, I decided to go for another one with the Tiger Demon. The visibility of orange is always welcome.
Screamin Demon
More work on the delta. Adding some carbon "Bling!"
Screamin Demon
A new project I started. To break up the norm I decided to build a noisey, greasy, smelly delta in the name of fun. This is a Screamin Demon from plans by Mike Connor. I have been scratch building this and am about 4-5 evenings into it now. I'll need at least another 4-5 to consider finishing. The motor is a K&B rear exhaust with a Mac tuned pipe. I added a carb for throttle to this motor years ago with another plane and it works quite well for originally being a venturi motor.
BD-5 on Display at French Valley Airport
I went to the French Valley Airport near my parents house in Temecula, CA to have breakfast at their nice little cafe. Good food, lots of planes, and a cool BD-5 parked out front (on a stick). I've seen models bigger than this... :)
New F5D video
| **Fast** F5D Pylon Racer (2 min 50 sec) |
Tiger Yak Video
I finally got a chance to compile some pics and video of my Tiger Yak I built a couple months ago:
| **TIGER YAK** DW Foamies Yak-54 (4 min 14 sec) |
Videos, Videos,Videos!!
Just added some more videos to my YouTube site:
Oldie but a goodie:
| Cool! ME-262 German WWII Jet Fighter (3 min 27 sec) |
| F5D practice run (1 min 34 sec) |
| FUNNY! Tundra Tires, Natural Tire Enhancement (1 min 13 sec) |
Oldie but a goodie:
| B-25 flight and unfortunate ending. :( CRASH (1 min 40 sec) |
Maiden Flight on Yak-54
Wonderful day of flying! It was a beautiful morning... the birds were chirping, the sky was clear, the lipos were charged!!!
I set up my Yak with a Scorpion 2212-22 because I had one and knew it pulled over 22oz of thrust. Knowing Pedro was flying his on a smaller prop gave me confidence it would be fine with a 9X6 prop. I did my usual preflight, juiced the throttle, and under-hand tossed it into the sky. I immediately noticed I was twitchy and was going to need some more expo, but after the initial climb out I got the feel of it and just kept it light around center sticks. The motor combo I thought was going to be mild was, to my surprise, wild and fast. It had zoom galore and rocketed skyward like a home-sick angel. Me likes! A few clicks of trim and tested out some up lines to see how it tracks, very nice (Borat) Once it was flying straight I came in for some torque rolls. In the still morning air it locked into a hover and just started spinning. It didn't fight me at all. I zoomed out of there and tried some knife edge circles and a knife edge loop. Once again very nice... Got up high and blendered into a really nice inverted flat spin. I just kept thinking that this was going to be one of those planes that just makes you look good because it is so well balanced and predictable. I flew some basic pattern style lines and it tracked nicely there, too. After 11 minutes my timer went off and I didn't want to land. I was having too much fun. Brought it around, pulled up into a hover, and snagged it out of the air by hand. I was jazzed and ready to throw in another pack!!
My over all impression of the Yak is great. It is easy to build, easy to set up, and flies wonderful. Kudos to Mike and Pedro for getting this one right! I am definitely going to be adding some color to the bottom because by contrast to the top, stark white is tough to see out at distance.
I didn't get any video but managed to get some digital pics.
Build Log here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=718670
I set up my Yak with a Scorpion 2212-22 because I had one and knew it pulled over 22oz of thrust. Knowing Pedro was flying his on a smaller prop gave me confidence it would be fine with a 9X6 prop. I did my usual preflight, juiced the throttle, and under-hand tossed it into the sky. I immediately noticed I was twitchy and was going to need some more expo, but after the initial climb out I got the feel of it and just kept it light around center sticks. The motor combo I thought was going to be mild was, to my surprise, wild and fast. It had zoom galore and rocketed skyward like a home-sick angel. Me likes! A few clicks of trim and tested out some up lines to see how it tracks, very nice (Borat) Once it was flying straight I came in for some torque rolls. In the still morning air it locked into a hover and just started spinning. It didn't fight me at all. I zoomed out of there and tried some knife edge circles and a knife edge loop. Once again very nice... Got up high and blendered into a really nice inverted flat spin. I just kept thinking that this was going to be one of those planes that just makes you look good because it is so well balanced and predictable. I flew some basic pattern style lines and it tracked nicely there, too. After 11 minutes my timer went off and I didn't want to land. I was having too much fun. Brought it around, pulled up into a hover, and snagged it out of the air by hand. I was jazzed and ready to throw in another pack!!
My over all impression of the Yak is great. It is easy to build, easy to set up, and flies wonderful. Kudos to Mike and Pedro for getting this one right! I am definitely going to be adding some color to the bottom because by contrast to the top, stark white is tough to see out at distance.
I didn't get any video but managed to get some digital pics.
Build Log here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=718670
Yak 54 by DW Foamies- New Build
Discussion / Posted by Troy / Jul 26, 2007 @ 01:06 AM / 14,070 Views / 32 Comments ( 
1 2 3 ) / Reply
1 2 3 ) / Reply
Building the new DW Foamies Yak 54 to give feedback to Mike on how it builds, flies, and 3D's. I have been flying the Double-X Bipe for a little while and this Yak is a new design by a fellow IMAC buddy Pedro Brauntas.
I really like the looks of this and wanted to do something fun with the paint job. I'm not sure what inspired me but I wanted a really wild theme and tiger stripes came to mind. While searching for good pics of tigers I came across a few tiger faces that I thought would look cool blown up big on one wing half. With flat foamies I always paint the parts separately so it's easier to mask and paint. The paint is Plasti-cote Glow Orange and the other colors are a variety of markers. The photos below show the process:
I really like the looks of this and wanted to do something fun with the paint job. I'm not sure what inspired me but I wanted a really wild theme and tiger stripes came to mind. While searching for good pics of tigers I came across a few tiger faces that I thought would look cool blown up big on one wing half. With flat foamies I always paint the parts separately so it's easier to mask and paint. The paint is Plasti-cote Glow Orange and the other colors are a variety of markers. The photos below show the process:
