Well decided to post a few areas that I fly in.
Obviously the very large next to Parkland College can only be flown in when no soccer or softball games are being held. But the grass areas are find for my Piper Cub to take off and land on. The parking lots have been used for ones that don't do to well in the grass.. Last time out I lost radio control and lost my Clipped wing Piper Cub. But now i have a even larger yellow Piper Cub. It has three gyros on it for amazing stabilization that I use for take off and landing. Or super realistic level flight. The other lot is north of 74 and Mattis ave. It is a housing area that has not been completed for quite a while now. The roads are quite wide, and depending on wind direction, you can choose which road to head out on.

Well changed the settings in the camera and the Swift. the camera filming looks better. But the settings in the Swift are way worse. I had it set at 1500 head speed and 1900 at full throttle. But as you can see, when it is given full throttle it really sounded bad and caused a very sever yaw. I will take the settings on the Swift back to what I had.
But in the video you can see me flying ! Finally did nose in flight. And did pretty darn good !
Behind me you can see where I work. Peter B's Automotive in Urbana, IL. And the large field I can fly in !

Spidious Swift 16 flight 8-20-2008 (7 min 3 sec)

2:27 Grass clipping Oops
2:38 Full throttle
2:48 Full throttle
3:16 Nose in
3:59 Nose in
4:41 Nose in
5:29 Full throttle
5:59 Nose in
6:34 Touch down safely !

I did notice that the battery was hardly even discharged running almost 6 minutes at 1500 rpm. But I think I will sick to the 1800 rpm, has better tail control and transition to 1900 at full throttle it stays locked in and not the sound and adverse turning.

Well somebody on the forum asked about buying my Spiderman painted Ikarus ECO8 set up.
It got me to thinking of what I had in it...
I think if somebody were willing to offer me a good price. Keeping in mind that I would sell it complete even the nihm and nicad batteries. I think it would do a lot better on lipos . So the shipping would run about $60, and I would cover the rest if the offer is good enough.
Trying to remember what all I have in it so here goes.
Custom Gaui woody blades
Red aluminum head
Red aluminum small arms on head
Red aluminum blade grip arms
Aluminum swash guide plate
Red aluminum swash plate
Blue aluminum frame support
Blue aluminum upper bearing support
Red aluminum frame
Carbon Fiber tail boom
Red aluminum tail pitch slider yellow large modified paddles
Swift flybar modification
Ikarus Jet Ranger Fuselage
Custom Spiderman paint job ?
T-Rex skids
"Z"20a 1500 motor
T-Rex flybar controller
Custom LED lights
Castle CC45 ESC
AR7000 receiver
Hitec 85BB servos x3
Red Polo digital tail servo
Futaba GY401 Gyro
Blue aluminum tail blade holders
Carbon fiber frames

At last total I had over $1500 tied up in it !

I flew about a few weeks ago, and it still flew good. Below are some of the latest pictures of it. Yes that is dust on the body. I am really having a lot of fun with my new Swift ! The black circles at the top rear were some exhaust ports I had on and knocked of carrying it outside... Duh, never did fix...Continue Reading

I have decided to give the 4 bladed head a try again.
I have a picture of it below that I have for my background. Sorry for the large size. But I figured if somebody else wanted to use it they could download it...

Well having the Spiderman Jet Ranger all together. I finally found a Hughes 500D body. And Lynxman is designing a four blade setup for the ECO8. So I thought I would do a four blade set up on my next project a four blade Hughes 500D !

So I will take out the Polo red servo from the Jet Ranger and the two extra ones I have and use all there on the ECO8$. I already have the red swash plate and many other parts waiting to put it all together. But here are some pictures as of now and the Hughes 500D

Well i finally got my DX7 radio in and programmed !
A nightmare for me to figure it out. But once i started doing it it made sense to me.
I really like the small size of the receiver and antenna. No big antenna hanging out the side of it now !
And I can finally turn my landing light on/off remotely now !
Don't think I will sue the nicad 4.8v battery they give you. It is huge and not even a 6v !
So I have a nimh 5 cell 6v coming for it. Till then I will use my 4.8v 2200mah nimh.
Sorry, no pictures to post right now, is late and put inside the ranger before shooting. SO i will have to sue my wifes camera tomorrow to get some shots inside of it.

Got it in the body and finally flew it on Friday. Took the controls out and will be going to a Spek radio. Should be here this week ? Hopefully !

It flew very jerky due to bad glitches...

Well I have done some more add ons since I am waiting for my controller to come back from the repair shop.

Well I have my ECO8 together and waiting for warmer weather and training gear to try it and get it dialed in and some time on it before I put the Jet Ranger body on it. I have moved the gyro to the front, the receiver just behind the main shaft. Put the tail servo on the boom. Now I have a space just behind the gyro to mount my spy camera !
Below are some shots of different parts of it so far..