Looking great Limodune.
Here's a quick clip of one of my flights yesterday.

A320 Another Flight (0 min 50 sec)

Urrl

You have to stop flying invert---your passengers are going dizzy it's nice to see how stable that AC can be though I will never try it

I finished off the under side of the wings with covering and some quick paint but not before I added some 5mm CF hollow tube to each wing to compensate for the weaker wings due to flaps, I put them in the wire grove full length and used GG glue to hold them, also made up the main UC using the standard bogies and 4 larger wheel's, then attached them to the new alloy struts, just have to finish off the front retract and install it then I can make a test flight to see how much of a difference the flaps will make taking off from grass

Mike

a380 flaps (0 min 46 sec)

Originally Posted by Eric Henderson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkp4F-pzQM0

Got 'em all in and hooked up...

Nose leg took some creative work, but was able to reuse all of the original legs and wheels. Spring loaded wheels to present the same attitudes on landing.

Eric.

Incredible job with the retracts Eric.

can you share any info on which retracts used, parts needed and any pointers on how you did them, I would looooooooooove to do this mod on my A380?
any info is greatly appreciated

PS are you running stock motors, fans and ESC's?

Originally Posted by weeeza

Incredible job with the retracts Eric.

can you share any info on which retracts used, parts needed and any pointers on how you did them, I would looooooooooove to do this mod on my A380?
any info is greatly appreciated

PS are you running stock motors, fans and ESC's?

I started posting on the project back @ #1017.

In most of the parts are identified in the ensuing posts.

I did upgrade the EDF's and ESC's and that is in a post further back so you cam do a search on what I used. It is also essential to add a rudder to this plane.

You will also find posts that explain multi-engine control and telemetry information.

The one thing I'd love to have is confirmation that the landing gear are all down. I have been thinking about fitting micro switches to reach leg and using the voltage monitor to the LIPO battery.

I thought it through and realized that I really only need to know the condition of my flight packs after I need to lower the landing gear. If I intercept the feed to the LIPO voltage sensor with multiple micro switches that turn on when the gear is down, I will only hear my LIPO voltage being read out when all of the gear micro switches are in the on position.

Regards,
Eric.

Originally Posted by Eric Henderson

The one thing I'd love to have is confirmation that the landing gear are all down. I have been thinking about fitting micro switches to reach leg and using the voltage monitor to the LIPO battery.Eric.

How about a visual......the KISS method?

Nice work with the retracts, Eric

-Regards,
Gary

Originally Posted by bamaguy

How about a visual......the KISS method?

-Regards,
Gary

You know, on my F/A-18, both my Sea vVxen's, my Hunter and my Habu, I often have to do several passes to be visually sure all of the gear in down. Often the wing tanks and rockets get in the way and you can't fly too low and close in case you run out of battery low and at the wrong end of the runway.

These mains in particular are very small and it is sometimes quite hard to pick them out with the various color schemes of the airplanes.

That, of course, is the technical answer.

What you forget, is that I am retired, and I spent most of my life inventing/creating things either in business or in my hobbies. Now plug-in the fact that every day is a Saturday and my wife lets me have a great workshop in the house. I have also accumulated quite a few small workshop tools that let me play to my hearts content.

As far as I know there is no commercial positive confirmation system that tells any R/C modeler that the gear is down? And I spent a lot of time finding ways to use the spektrum and JR DMSS integral telemetry systems.

One of my favorites was to use the LIPO monitoring circuitry to measure the voltage of the ignition battery on a gas powered airplane. You could tell immediately from the voltage displayed on your radio the condition of your ignition pack. You could make a decision whether to fly or not based on this information.

You can also set an alarm-voltage level so that your transmitter can give you a message to say that your ignition pack is getting low. I used this several times to prevent my gas engines from quitting and also to externally diagnose why one of my gas twins was misfiring.

Back to the gauntlet thrown down about landing-gear sensors. It does take a while for available functionality, such as telemetry, to be understood and then utilized.

One thing that I consider to be really neat, is to measure the RPM on an EDF. It is a tiny little circuit board and all you do is connect two wires to any two of the three that go to the motor. Most times I just squeeze them into the brass connectors. What you do next is set your RPM alarm to a low value such as 2000 and when the ESC cuts the power to the motor your radio starts talking to you. You don't set the low value to zero because then the alarm would go off every time you throttle all the way back.

You could say, with the KISS principal that I could use my ears, but if you watch any of my recent videos you will see, or better said hear ,guys running out their gas engines in the pits. There is no way you could hear an EDF on its base leg or final with all that racket going on.

I know you're only teasing me, but I think it would be a very valuable tool to have if we knew the gear was down when the plane was a long way away. It would not be very hard to screw or glue a microswitch to the retract mechanism where the moving piece that holds the leg stops in the down position. The wiring is easy and it is just a matter of choosing the right sensor type and slot.

When the JR/Spektrum telemetry became available I wrote a post where I could think of at least another 20 sensors that I would like to use. Right now I have airspeed, altitude, receiver voltage, temperature, power pack voltage, and RPM. Not to mention feedback on how the radio receiver was performing. I would like to see data on the current use by the servos, especially when they being used to perform violent aerobatics.

I will stop now--you opened Pandora's box with your little leg pull--no offense taken, but be careful of what happens when you pull the chain!!

Regards,

Eric.

Got some more done on the A380, white vinyl has has been added to the fuselarge and rear stab and gray to the elevators, the plum color is added with enamal spray paint and then all the decals applied---big job, all the decals came from Callie including the gold and red strips, just got to finish the warning /marker lights install and silver to the leading edges and she is all done

Mike

WOW
Great job! Where do you get the vinyl?

Best looking A380 I've seen so far.

Great

Markus

Thanks guys, carrerars kind words

The vinyl I got from e-bay--search 24" SIGN VINYL

Mike

Hi Mike
It's the old fart again
Just wondering if you can give me your impressions on using the vinyl
to cover your model>
Did you do the fuselage in one piece or several?
How did you do the area around the nose?
Did you use a heat gun/hair dryer or similar?
I have my Windrider 737 ready to start and I also have some sign vinyl alothough
it is not Oracal and I'm hesitating on starting as I don't want to stuff up the foam in some way. I have decals from Callie too did they stick to the vinyl ok or did you have to do anything extra there too?
thanks
Paul

Hi Paul

Yes my 3 airliner's have all been vinyl'ed in sections
Check 'Doug W' windrider 737 post #3368 there's a pic with out lines of the section's used
I bought a H/L range heat gun, it was that or a divorce using the hair dryer
The decals stick fine to the vinyl, no prep

Mike

Ok Mike,
Now I'm really feeling like an old fart
I've checked post #3368 page 225 in the windrider 737 thread and it;s author is DerekB responding to a post by DougW but I can.t for the life of me see any photos
of Doug's model with the outlines of the sections used.
Am I looking in the wrong thread?

Paul

Opps
Gave you the wrong post No

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...66207&page=244

Mike

Thanks Mike
Just another question if you don.t mind.
When you cut a section of vinyl does it shrink much when heat is applied?
Do I have to cut a larger piece to allow for shrinkage?
thanks
Paul