A few pictures from the FSS (Florida Soaring Society) contest #16 Mixed launch (electric & winch) hosted by the Orlando Buzzards, December 12 2020. Mostly cloudy and dark, drizzle off and on, and a few heavy rain showers but still had a full day of flying. The contest is part of the Buzzard's annual Toys for Tots campaign.

Self-running slideshow version of the gallery is available here.

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Some pictures from the Florida Soaring Society #13 F3-RES contest, 2020-Oct-17 hosted by the Orlando Buzzards at Christmas, FL

Slideshow can be seen here...Continue Reading

Flight-Time logger Widget for OpenTX/Horus X10

This Horus X10/OpenTX widget is based on my Taranis flight-time logger, written to work under OpenTX 2.3.9 on the FrSky Horus X10/X10s as a full-size widget.

The widget keeps track of the number of flights and flight time on individual models. The logging data is stored in GVARs and therefore will remain intact as long as the GVARs 8 & 9 (on all flight modes) are not changed. The logger data can be backed up along with the model setup using companion.

When used with a variometer flights are automatically counted when the aircraft is above a specified height above the ground for specified length of time. The flight ends and the flight time calculated when the aircraft drops below that same height for another specified length of time. Alternatively a toggle switch can be used to manually start and stop flights (ie: a toggle used for normal flight-timers).

Requirements:

• Originally written for use with OpenTX 2.3.9 on a FrSky Horus X10/X10s - it may work on other platforms but has not been tested.
• v1.x is intended to be used only as a full-size widget with trims visible, running it in a smaller window may not work.
• For fully automatic operation the script relies on telemetry data from a variometer (VARI-N, VARI-H, or G-RX6, G-RX8, etc) with the sensor's altitude reset before takeoff. In some situations the sensor calibration may cause it to immediately show very high readings at power-up, if that happens the

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This is a simple LUA script I wrote to help keep track of the number of flights and flight time on individual models. The logging data is stored in GVARs and therefore will remain intact as long as the GVARs 8 & 9 (on all flight modes) are not changed. The logger data can be backed up along with the model setup using companion.

The script is intended for fixed wing aircraft, primarily gliders. Flights are automatically counted when the aircraft is above a specified height above the ground for a length of time. The flight ends and the flight time calculated when the aircraft drops below that same height. Alternatively a toggle switch can be used to manually start and stop flights.

Requirements:

• Originally written for use with OpenTX 2.2.1 on a FrSky Taranis X9D+ it may work on other platforms but has not been tested.
• For fully automatic operation the script relies on telemetry data from a variometer (VARI-N, VARI-H, or G-RX8) with the sensor's altitude reset before takeoff. In some situations the sensor calibration may cause it to immediately show very high readings at power-up, if that happens the telemetry should be reset immediately or false flight times will be recorded.
• Manual operation can be configured that will use a toggle switch input instead of altitude.

Limitations:

The flight times currently cannot exceed 1024 hours. This may be revised in future versions. However, the flight counter is not restricted to 1024 flights (it has been tested to over...Continue Reading

Lots of fun watching people fly that know what they're doing! Really need to get some practice. Hadn't flown but once since November - and my landings sure showed.

Didn't take that many pictures this time, didn't want to push my knee too much (I was really giving out at the end)...anyhow, here are some snapshots from today:

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2017 Slideshow (9 min 10 sec)

Scratch building a Gentle Lady. Trying to make it a "quick build" project over Thanksgiving. We'll see!

The plans are floating around the internet but I have an original RCM set and a set from a kit around here somewhere. The .pdf-based plans are kind of rough, but dimensionally fairly good and usable for creating parts. As long as everything fits it isn't overly critical anyway.

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Day one & two, weekend prior to Thanksgiving - worked on drawing up the parts in CorelDraw. I already did the basic rib layout a while back in Profili/Wing Dev but tweaked them for the build.

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Before laminating the ply doublers to the balsa sides I set things out as they should be first. I'll inevitably do something really boneheaded if I'm not careful, so this kind of thing keeps me from making two left sides.



I also tend toward using slow glues where it makes sense so I at least have a little time to align things (thin CA wicked into an assembly already dry-fit is an obvious exception, if that technique is appropriate for the situation). For the doublers I opted for slow-setting CA. During previous projects I've found this type of CA also tends to flow out nicely when the parts are clamped, giving a really solid bond across a large area - and it doesn't take a whole lot of glue to do it.

Working quickly I glued up the ply, lined everything up using a board with a jig on it that kept the ends of the doubler/balsa assembly flush while keeping the bottom edges aligned by pressing the edges down on the board together. Quickly clamping the assembly between two planks assures a good bond between the parts and keeps everything flat in the process. Even though it's CA I give the slow stuff several minutes to completely set up before moving on.



For those that haven't seen the instructions, plans, or kit, it may be helpful to know how everything is designed to go together - at least up the "pod" stage (presumably the rest will be equally well thought out). It's well designed to be self-jigging, the parts all line themselves up with minimum effort...Continue Reading