Another glorious perfectly calm day with blue skys. Almost don't recognise the country I'm in. If this is global warming, please burn more oil :D

Yesterday I flew on St. Annes beach and was followed by a camera crew filming a chap sat in a green leather chair being served by a dish on a silver platter...which is a bit surreal. Me buzzing them with the hawkeye probably didn't go down well.

When I came into land i just managed to miss the dry island of sand I was stood on and the Hawkeye got a light dunking in salty seawater :rolleyes: Damn speed controller...battery had plenty of power left but it entered a soft cut-off mode and I just couldn't make it the few extra feet. No damage just a lot of wiping to remove the sandy spray.

Amazing flying weather today which makes a huge change from the recent dull, wet and windy weather in the UK.

I've been trying out my Hawkeye over the last few days on and off between the showers. It's been a struggle sometimes..despite the inviting blue skys and apparent low winds the weather has turned out to be much better suited to my easystar with high level gusty conditions.

Finally today it was perfect and so I nipped down to the notoriously magnetic Lytham windmill for some AP. Despite forgetting to set my camera to infinity it managed to pull off some fairly decent shots. It was also a pity it filled up the memory card and missed the low passes over the life boat station and life boat pier. It also missed an awesome Tornado fighter pass that gave me the fright of my life as it buzzed the Lytham coast.

I brought the Hawkeye into land at one point over by the lifeboat station carpark. This was a tight spot and I wasn't able to land into wind. Came in a little hot and fast with too much height. Had to dump the height fast and the fast rollout would have meant a heavy impact with the building if I'd not been standing directly in front of it. It came to abrupt halt against my hand with gasps from onlookers who thought moments before that it was a full sized ultralight coming into land. Very cool!! But what I didn't know is my camera managed to eject it's battery door and battery in the sudden deceleration. So a little later I was flying around trying to set up some shots of a passing low flying Hercules transport plane when someone tapped me on the shoulder saying 'you'll be wanting this'.....Eek!! my camera battery. Phew would have lost that for good if some eagle eyed passer by hadn't spotted it on the ground.

I finished my flying day when the speed controller decided it'd had enough and prematurely shutdown the power. But met some very nice retired folk out walking who chatted to me for a while. They were very impressed and thought Joel's Hawkeye was absolutely beautiful. I do too, and it's really an enjoyable machine to fly in good conditions. I just need to order a bunch of batteries to keep it up in the air. Nice days are few and far between and I need to make the most of those opportunities when they arrive.

Slowstick is still going strong and earlier in the year I got it up to 2500ft as registered by the onboard altimeter (Eagle Tree).

http://www.vimeo.com/4834833

It's about time I updated this blog.
2009 has been the year of the EasyStar and onboard HD video.
Powered by a 400 sized inrunner, this is what it looks like being drilled into the ground....

To kill an Easystar (0 min 56 sec)

The intention was to clear the sails and make a left bank around the back of this 18th century listed building but a major depth perception issue caused the turn to start a little early.....

http://www.vimeo.com/1042971

The servos shunted forward on the stick due to the initial impact and pulled both connectors out of the rudder and elevator. That just left throttle and two loosely flapping control surfaces. Came down gently enough but nosed it in at the final second.

The only damage to both slowstick and windmill...one broken prop.

Picked up a Flytech Dragonfly cheap a few weeks ago. Always fancied an ornithopter of some sort and I'm pleasantly surprised....Well actually....its AWESOME!!!!
Just needs a bit of nose weight to stop the stall/bob and I'm really having a lot of fun doing circuits around my garden, occasionally dive bombing the kids who like to chase it and it's great to get my dad involved - he loves to to take snaps of my flying toys.

The only thing I'd add is some form of elevator control...maybe a servo or actuator on the tail to adjust cog. Has anyone done this?

Heres some of the pictures taken by my dad. Not exactly great conditions to fly.....still very cold and in the dead of night - it was very hard to see - but he insisted so.... :rolleyes:

Not been doing any flying this year.....weather in the UK was terrible.
Heading into winter I've started to miss the fun I had last year, grabbed a slow stick to build into a decent AP platform which I probably won't be able fly till next year. :(

The Hoverdisks were tonnes of fun but are tricky to store and transport. I'll let you know how the stick goes and I'll stick up some pictures just as soon as its ready.

Meanwhile I got into tanks....yep tanks.....those slow heavy garden munchers. Not sure how tanks are going to fit in with my website but I'll think of something.

Its just a cheap HengLong ebay German WW2 Tiger 1 but now much upgraded from a cheap plastic toy to a real heavy metal monster. I can never leave things alone :rolleyes:

Check out my mods & upgrades thread here...

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=743482

Low passes over spikey bushes, with hindsight, was a dumb idea...

Video here

Bit of vibration on the vid but hey...I don't need to fix it now.

Bust up the mini-disc too. I felt it was a bit nose heavy so I pushed my rx back and it ended up permanently wanting to sit on its tail. Had the power with the little Feigao to head for the stars but ended up upside down and into the ground. Chipped a corner off one of the elevons but I managed to continue to fly it and eventually tame it. The big disc is soooo much easier to setup....well it doesn't really need any - just tends to fly right from the off no matter what the hardware, CoG or weight so I'm just going concentrate on getting Hoverdisc No 3 in the air.

Flew my big disc with the GWS 15T and 800mAh 3cell yesterday on a 7x3.5 prop. Flew really nice.....gobs of power, lots of hovering, harriers, vertical take off with half throttle and just general extreme slow flight. Only 10 minutes flight time though before sudden unexpected LVC.

I want more from the one battery so I'll stick on a 6x3 prop which will hopefully still give me adequate performance. Having said that, the figures for that prop on that motor on the GWS website suggest not. The numbers look a little screwy to me which I've queried here.
Basically its saying that a 6030 produces less thrust at 11.1v than it does at 9.6v and yet pulls more current than a 7035 prop at 11.1v. :confused:

Less hovering also will help the flight time but I just can't help it. Its soooooo much fun :D

I had a go with a my heli's 2.1Ah 3cell battery. Carried it fine but of course at 150grams along with a 1oz camera it lost all of its nice floatyness and vertical ability - wasn't much fun. The hoverdisc flys much better when its sloooooooow. Now if I'd taken the camera off... :o

Meanwhile a new servo came in to replace the intermittant one on my minidisc so should have that up and running over the w/e.
I'll prop it down aswell....with so much power in reserve I should easily be able to drop down to increase flight time without compromising too much power. Have never had a full flight with the mini disc so far, so I have no idea what the flight time is anyway. Hopefully will find out soon.

....and another thing :mad: Damn camera is playing up again. Cutting out after a few seconds of video. Had this problem some time ago but resoldering the battery connections seemed to fix it for a while. Maybe the battery is on its way out this time. Damn nuisance. Ho Hum.

I've had a couple more flights with the mini-disc. None of them good so far.
IPS with a pixie7p was a disaster. It works well with the GWS brushless 15T though if you keep the weight down and the amp draw low. Couldn't quite figure out why it was handling so strange until in one of those 'one more go' moments it ended up embedded in a spiky bush. One servo was severely chattering away to the bush but the bush wasn't interested. When the minidisc was finally released the other elevon servo apeared to be dead. I figured it'd burnt out but a sharp flick brought it back to life. Ah! this is why the minidisc was behaving so badly in the air....basically I was getting a roll everytime I dialed in a bit of elevator and aileron was not nearly as effective.
Took the servo apart and resoldered internal motor connections but it appears to be the wires that directly enter the motor which are a bit tricky to access. So another servo on order. :mad:
Meanwhile I installed a 12mm Feigao and 3cell 360mAh battery and with the dodgy intermittant servo I gave it another go...mad or what? :rolleyes:
Sure enough the servo died mid flight :eek: but I managed to keep the minidisc flying. The Feigao with a 3cell and 10x4.7 prop has gobs of power. Anything above half throttle and the minidisc went vertical...but with half of its elevators gone this was sudden uncontrollable roll/spin territory. The best solution I found was just to float it around with a nudge of throttle and gentle rudder control and most of all a cut short flight. Phew!!
Another week of bad weather drifted by and another single weather window finally opened up. This time I opted to take the big disc out for its first spin.
Again using the 15T and 8x4 prop on a 2cell. I've ordered an 800mAh 3cell for a bit more power but for now this is where its at, just gently drifting around a field scaring the cows.
I decided not to fly over the road this time, especially as there was a copper in a layby directly opposite pulling over teenagers with backwards facing caps. The quiet drone of the 15T sill managed to catch his ear though and I noticed him at one point peeping over the bushes to see this huge UFO hovering in the sky.
Couple of minor tweaks required. Too much tail weight on the big disc and too much nose weight on the minidisc. I wired the minidisc with the RX up front and the big disc got in it in the rear [ so to speak ;) ]...so I just need to swap over the minidiscs long servo extensions for the big discs shortened ones. A slightly heavier 3cell should also help on the big disc.
Anyway no more chat. Heres some pics...

Finally got out and maidened my mini RCDisc (as it's now known - damn lawyers :rolleyes: ) on a damp, overcast, cold evening with the light quickly fading. Initially I tried a 7x3.5 prop on the GWS brushless 15T motor and together with a heli 25amp ESC and 1200mAh Lipo it flew not very much like the big floaty 3' disc. Did someone say fast??!!! :eek:
After some quick passes and general 'getting a feel for it' I decided to bring it in. The trouble was that the field was chock full of cow pats so there's no way I was going to let it touch the ground and it wasn't going to easily float into my hand like its bigger sister. This mini disc was coming in hot. It was like a moment from a USAF carrier operations training video showing F16's being snatched out of the air. The main thing is I got it home excrement free....well apart from maybe on my shoes :rolleyes: - well its only cow poo. :o
Next day I switched to an 8x4 prop with the idea being that I could slow it down with high pitch and prop hang...but I'm still giving it full throttle as a hangover from many a practiced geared 350c launch. Bad idea.
It was quite a shock & awe moment as it shot over to the other end of the field before I'd finished the throwing action. Had to make a severe hard turn to avoid the hedges and then it was back over to me in an instant....hard right to avoid my head....AAAGH tree!! throttle full, full elevator, scuff the top branches and finally I was off into the tupperware lid grey sky giving me just enough time to settle down. WOW this thing is like flying a Zagi. Luckily the clone disc with its full sized FG rim handled the unexpected aerobatics with no sudden foldups and after about 10 minutes I decided my skill level wasn't up to it. I carried out another extreme hot catch manoeuvre to yank it out of the air before I ended up pile driving it.

One thing is it really glides well and fast...none of the floating down for a vertical landing as the big disc does. I could shut down the motor and keep flying round in circuits. It really should be good for fast flying, aerobatics and windy days but with this weight/power configuration it's never going to be floaty like the big disc. For me, right now, with my skill level, I will kill it. So the 15T comes out ready for the big disc build.

Tom from www.rchoverdisc.com has added a velcro upgrade to his RC Disc design which I've received along with a few extra's...Thanks Tom. So now I'm ready to start on a big disc resurrection.

Going back over the many pages of the RC HoverDisc thread here it was mentioned that an IPS worked ok on the mini disc and brought the weight/performance down to equivalent floaty levels of the larger version so hopefully by my next post I will have this with a pixie7p and 350mAh Lipo installed and ready to go.

Finally.

In between family holidays, birthdays & days out I managed to put together the mini hoverdisc kit that Tom from www.rchoverdisc.com very kindly sent me after the untimely death of my first disc.

Tom sent me a shed load of Overbreak Hoverdiscs of both 3' & 2' variety but I decided to try out a build over a 2' clone-disc that I picked up from a local bargain store. The Overbreak 2' disc uses a much thinner fibre glass rod than the original 3' disc and requires a rod extension to pull excess material taut. This clone disc uses a full sized rod providing a stiffer structure and the material is taut from new. It does however seem to be a slimmer saucer profile so it's most likely to be a bit faster and a little less floaty than Overbreaks disc*. Time will tell.

[*Edit: I finally got round to modifying the Overbreak 2' disc with a thick fibre glass rod from the 3' disc cut to the correct length to pull the material taut. I was surprised how much slack I was able to take up and gradually the oversized inflatable cushion look was replaced by exactly the same slim line aerodynamic profile of the clone disc.]

After an experiment with 3M dual lock velcro-ish type stuff I eventually opted for a mixed foam backed double sided sticky tape and hot glue build. I've used dubro-esque ez-style connectors for the tail feathers with a couple of cheap/light 5.6 gram Tower Pro servo's and an HS50 nicked from my heli. The servo's are routed up to my trusty R700 RX by a bunch of servo extensions taped to the underbelly. Power is provided by a GWS 15T brushless outrunner and my heli's 25Amp ESC. I'll continue to use a 1200mAh Flightpower 2 cell and swap between a 7x3.5 prop for duration and 8x4 for hover power.

As a final touch I locked the motor stick over the fibre glass rod with an additional stick. This takes the weight off the foam to disc mount so hopefully no sudden separations.

So now I'm just waiting for decent weather for its maiden voyage.

Note: In the 4th pic below my wife didn't like our kitchen background so I've quickly/messily cut & pasted a nicer kitchen in. Trouble is now that my wife has seen this it could end up costing me 10 grand on a new kitchen :eek:

A parcel came for me today....Tom from www.rchoverdisc.com sent me a whole bunch of hoverdiscs both mini & full size along with both kits and a couple-o'bombs. I can't thank Tom enough for his generosity and for getting me back in the air quickly after the sad demise of my HD. Thanks Tom :D :D

I intend to have a go at the mini rchoverdisc first just as soon as I get some pico sized servo's. In the mean time I'll be going over Greg McNair's thread for setup details here.

Ok, yeah I'm pining for my crashed RCHoverdisc but I thought I'd dust off the old x400 heli and give it a quick work out. I've not flown it for 6 months or so, so I did nothing spectacular....just flew around a bit to make sure I hadn't developed any heli killing nasty habits. I remembered quickly that concentration is required. You can't go looking away to swat flys - that results in carrying heli's home in a plastic bag. Also I quickly realised that I'd got used to a big 3 foot inflatable 'space hopper' which is a helluvalot easier to see and fly at distance than a 1/2 metre class heli...so chasing sheep was a no-no apart from the two that had strayed close to the kill dozers.

The trouble is with my heli and the main reason why I haven't been flying it is the battery is toast. Too hot to touch after just a few minutes with a 400dh motor and now even swelling. Thats not good at all.

I might switch back to my old Ark motor and drop to a pinion down to see how it handles that but after 50-odd flights of abuse its not looking well.

Anyway heres a quick video. The only good thing about this one is the lack of vibration. The camera is just stuck to the canopy with a few strips of double sided foam backed tape. Seemed to work well. Also near the end as the power fails you might also be able to see the flashing lights of a fire engine dealing with a roadside bush fire. Tried to sneak a decent view but my heli wasn't having it and I had to land before it plummeted.

At least it doesn't look to bad standing still with its Panzoa carbon frame, FG T-Rex canopy and black T-rex LG...but needs some money throwing at it to get it back performing well again.

Well for me anyway ;)

Tom of www.rchoverdisc.com has offered to send me a replacement kit plus his very cool new bomb system. Check out Tom's entry on the main RCHoverdisc thread and and here's foamaholic's video of bomb dropping from his RCHoverdisc :cool:
Can't wait to try this out. Imagine the possibilities - onboard bomb video's. :D

Can't fly this evening - I crashed :(
and look at that sky...

In case you missed it....
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=546282
So what happened?

I was attempting to take it up really high to see if I could see a nearby military base runway. I wanted to bring it back towards me as it was heading over the road but as I turned it around the nose dipped. For some reason at that height I thought it had suddenly steeply pitched up so I gave the elevator a nudge forward. As it was actually already in a nose down attitude I inadvertantly caused it to become almost inverted while still at full throttle. This caused the 'infamous LE distortion' and collapsed the saucer.
It righted itself pretty quickly but unfortunately the collapse and the violent righting knocked the prop off its prop-saver and broke the elastic band which fired the prop into outer space. I've not had a prop bashing landing in a long time and if I'd bolted the prop on no doubt it would have easily been recoverable.
So then after it had flipped a few times and without power I just couldn't get a handle on it to stabilise and glide it the few yards over into the field. It ended up diving into the bushes of a dual carriageways central reservation.

The noise....well I saw something flick off and fall but I didn't know that it was the prop so I left the throttle maxed. Without the prop it was even more painful to listen to than the regular noise so I figured I'd save all your ears and muted the sound on the video after the incident.
It was a good place and a bad place to crash. A couple of feet to one side and it would have been on the road. A couple of yards of gliding and it would have been safe in the field rather than in spiky mylar tearing bushes.

It was a real heart pumping moment as I saw it disappear over the road. This was a dual carriageway with a 70mph limit (where most people seem to travel at 90!!) and I thought it had landed in the road. I had to run down from my field, leap over a gate, cross over the east bound lanes and run down the central reservation on the west bound side. I was expecting to see it lying in the road but it was nowhere to be seen. So then I started looking for debris in case a car had torn it apart. There was no Hoverdisc, no shattered servo's lying around, no ripped mylar scattered and thankfully no broken windshield glass or cursing drivers.
I kept walking down the central reservation with cars screaming past just feet away when suddenly I heard servo's rattling in the bushes - I had turned my TX off so they were going crazy - and there it was looking a bit deflated deep in the bushes. Apart from the prop and large rips in the mylar it was completely intact. All expensive stuff present and correct. Once it was all safely laid to rest in my car I went back to have a quick look for the prop. Its not anywhere obvious on the road so no doubt it'll be in the same area deep in the undergrowth where it will stay.

I felt a mixture of relief, a comedown from a rush of adrenaline and overwhelming downheartedness. The weird thing is I've lost a £2.50 prop and a £10 disc. No biggie, but I've never been so sad to crash a plane.

I have learnt another bunch of valuable lesssons today - don't lose an aircraft over a £2.50 prop...fly in and over safe locations...learn how to glide...etc etc.

The omens weren't good that day. Earlier I did this...
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=546123

Replacing the disc is the cheapest option but I would like to replace the tail feathers so I might just buy the whole kit again.
I'm also tempted to try the 2' version instead but I only have naro servo's so its getting expensive to replace all of that as the 2' needs pico's.

I'll be up in the air again soon, bugging the sheep, no worries there.

http://media.putfile.com/RC-Hoverdis...2006-Part-2-23

Can't bring myself to talk about it other than to say 3 big tears in the saucer. I've tried taping them up but I think it's terminal :(

You see that tree leap out like that...

http://media.putfile.com/RC-Hoverdisc-July-22-2006

Damage: It landed on its tail which took a corner off one elevon. Hot glue to the rescue and ready to fly again.