My latest build. Nothing fancy. Just a giant foamy. I enlarged a set of plans for a small parkflyer. I enlarged them from a 23” wing to a 77” wing.
I cut all the parts on my CNC machine. Including hot wire cutting the wing. The fuse is all 1” foam, the wheels and wing are cut from 2” thick foam.
My all up weight is 8 1/4 pounds. I hope to fly it on 6S making 850-900 watts.

If nothing else, it will be spectacular.

After years of moving planes from my basement to my truck. I finally went out and bought a trailer. I picked up a 16' Chariot mfg motorcycle trailer. Tandem axel with electric brakes. Ramp door on the back, curb side door with RV style lock and screen door. It even has two vents. One on the upper driver side and one on the passenger lower side.

I have two (2) 250 watt solar panels that I plan on mounting to the roof. I will be adding 12V 100Ah batteries as I can afford them. I would like to have a total of 400aH in all. I have taken measurements and started to lay out shelve placement for wings and fuselages. I will add some cabinets in the nose. I plan on building a nice place to charge my batteries and make small field repairs. I have a 3000 watt inverter in case I need 110 power.

I plan on stealth camping in it when I attend events. Everything will be 12V. All my interior lights will be LED's. My portable fridge and freezer run on 12V.

I need to do some work to it prior to getting started. But I'm hoping to have it ready for the NEAT fair in September.

If anyone has suggestions or ideas. Please feel free to comment and let me hear your ideas and thoughts.

-Andrew

Picture is from the Chariot mfg web page.

So after a 2 plus year absence, I am back. Hard to believe it's been that long.

It is difficult to balance work, family and hobbies.

I am hoping to make more time for my RC hobby. But I make no promises.

-Andrew

As some may know. I work for a retail service center. We are the 3rd largest in the company. With Christmas 5 weeks away. We are now 7 days a week and 10-14 hour shifts. It doesn't leave a lot of time for RC or any other hobbies. It is amazing how fast this year has gone by. It seems as if I haven't gotten out much at all. But I do have a lot of projects on my plate. So I have plenty to keep me busy.
All for now,
-Andrew

So my laptop decided to up and die on me last month. I tried patching it together with an older unit. It worked, but was very slow. I finally went out and bought a desk top. I’m amazed at how fast it is. But then again it is my first upgrade in almost 5 years.
So today I will be loading Sketchup and all my 3D printer software into it. I hope to be back in the shop building and creating new stuff soon.

-Andrew

It is hard to believe that this is the first week of August. I have been busy with family stuff, club stuff and work.
I am currently preparing for a local electric event in two weeks. I killed my laptop that I use for my CNC machine. So that’s on hold for a bit. I did pick up a new 3D printer cheap. So I have been fooling around with that a bit. I am hoping to make it to the field more than I have been. But hey, kids will do that.
This summer is flying by.

The Ragazza has sailed.
I took it to the lake over the July 4th holiday. It sailed fairly well for the first time out. I do need to work on the rigging a bit. Nothing major, just a little fine tuning. I think by making adjustments to the mast and sails, it will make the handling much better. Right now the bow dives real bad when it gets a good gust of wind.
The rudder had good authority and the boat responded welll to the inputs. It did pretty much what I wanted it to do.
I am excited to see how much more I can get out of it.

-Andrew

I decided to add a new boat to my marine fleet. It probably isn't the best boat on the planet but I got it for a decent price and I always wanted one.

So I picked up a ProBoat Ragazza 1 meter sail boat. Man this thing is big. A bit taller than I expected. I am looking forward to taking it to the pond for a maiden voyage.

A lot of the reviews said to stay away from this boat. A lot stated the directions were bad. And they were not kidding. The directions for this boat are the worst I have ever seen. Very poorly written. Who ever wrote them, definitely wasn't a modeler.

The boat came well packaged. Lots of foam to protect the hull and mast. All the parts were in their own bag with lables. ( all were wrong) The sails were packaged in a seperate tube with foam caps. The included radio was in its own box with padding to protect it as well. A nice aluminum stand was also included.

The hull is made of fiberglass. (a plus in my book) The fit and finish looks amazing But, parts bags were mislabled. Most parts were not in the correct bag anyway. A few of the screw holes didn't line up. Some of the screws looked used with the heads stripped out of them. The rigging for this boat is not very good either. The ends have crimp conections with adjustments at the bottom. I had two (2) of my adjustment ends pull apart. Thankfully I have a welder and was able to fix them. The spreader bars and crane on top of the mast are plastic. I will be interested to see how long they...Continue Reading

After a big old storm rolled through last weekend. My shop was flooded a bit. Not overly bad, only a few inches. I didn't lose any planes. I did lose all my rockets and a lot of supplies. The carpet is shot. So it looks like my shop will be getting an overhaul. In a way it needed it.

-Andrew

It is that time of year again. The weather is getting warmer and more inviting.

I have not been spending as much time in the shop lately. It is hard to stay in the shop when it is a perfect day for flying or running on the pond. My current project is a 53" Cat hull. I'm hoping to have it ready for our summer vacation in 2 months. Time will tell.

I am still working on the plexi glass sign. It is harder to draw in Sketchup than I thought.

That's all for now. Have a great summer.

-Andrew

I have been thinking about a cool new project.

I will attempt to etch an acrylic sign with my CNC machine. I want to try making one with LED's. Something like this.

-Andrew

So one of the things I have been wanting to do is cut a wing for a small parkflyer I have. A Grasshopper.

After a little searching and test cuts. I found the correct airfoil to fit the fuse. After a few measurements and small adjustments later. I have a purpose cut full wing. I need to make one small minor adjustment to it. Place the foam in the center for even end tips past the ailerons. So I now have a flat wing with ailerons, servo pockets and a spar pocket.

Nothing overly complicated. I'm just excited to finnaly get something cut the way I wanted it to.

-Andrew

Well it has been just over a week.
Last Sunday my friend Michael CRASH Hancock lost his battle with cancer.

Crash was a friend. I truly valued his friendship, and he will be missed. He enjoyed helping people. He loved sharing his knowledge. He was the constant enabler. After just a few minutes of talking to him, you would want to jump into something new. He helped many people get into CNC and 3D printing and quads. Crash got enjoyment knowing he helped someone get into a new part of the hobby or a new hobby all together.

Crash was the gentle giant. Everyone that got to meet him became an instant friend. He treated everyone like family. I am proud to say I knew him for almost 9 years. I had the privilege of flying with him on many occasions. He will be missed by so many.

And as he would end his show,

Go out and build something
Fly something
And enjoy this great RC hobby

Here is a quick video of the CNC machine I use. I have had a few inquire about it. I hope this helps and answers your questions.
-Andrew

My CNC machine (3 min 5 sec)

With the holidays coming up. My work schedule is about to explode. In the next few weeks we will be going to a 7 day work week. So that will leave about zero time for RC stuff. But a good note, I will get lots of OT. Hopefully to spend on RC stuff when January gets here.
-Andrew

So, after a lot of trial and error. Along with some colorful language. I am finally making good progress on my latest project.

Not only am I new to the world of CNC but the world of foam as well. Especially EPP foam. I have been making a lot of test cuts on regular blue insulation foam. And it has been working out fairly well. I knew it was going to change going from blue to EPP foam. I wanted to use the blue foam as a test bed for the wire path and to make sure the drawings were correct. Once I was satisfied with the drawings and wire path, I moved over to EPP.

My first cut with EPP did not go well at all. Not only did I not have the wire temp hot enough. I tried cutting it way to fast. I am very limited on my test cuts. EPP is way to expensive to be wasting with test cuts. So my latest test cuts have been very small. Just small 10 MM wing tube holes. I think I might need to redraw them to 8MM. The current 10MM is just a bit to big. I am guessing due to the slow wire speed and high temps.

Never the less, it is progress, and I am excited about it.

-Andrew

Spent some quality time in the shop.
I fired up both the 3D printer and CNC machine.

Started out printing some parts for my youngest sons plane. Nothing special, just a new battery box for his Slow Stick. Just under a 2 hour print. I had to file them down a bit to fit the boom. After about 10 min of work they fit. It holds the battery much better than the stock unit.

While the printer was running, I decided to make a few wing core test cuts with my CNC hot wire. My first two test cuts were only 9 inches wide. The cut path looked good. So I decided to up the wing span to 27 inches. Figuring the wingspan was wider, I decided to slow the feed rate down. I went from 3 IPM down to 1IPM. It turned out to be to slow. So I will be turning up the rate to 1.5IPM on the next test. Now all of this will change when I change over to EPP foam.

Regardless I'm making progress. And that's what counts.

Today was one of those days that you will remember for years.

A beautiful 82 degree day, a soft breeze, a small crowd at the field and good food on the grill. Nothing extra special about the day until 2-3pm.

My youngest son Michael has been wanting to fly. I like this idea. He took claim to his older brothers Slow Stick. So today he was determined he was going to fly it.

When time came for him to go out and fly. I was told by my oldest son, "dad, I got this". It was such a cool thing to see my oldest son helping my youngest fly for the first time.

Made me proud.

-Andrew

I'm pretty excited about this.
Through a friend of a friend. A research doctor from Hopkins has contacted me. He is interested in my CNC machine. He has asked me if I would be willing to cut some wing cores for him. It doesn't sound like we are going to be setting the world on fire. But never the less, I'm excited to be helping him. And hopefully learning something as well.
-Andrew

It has been two weeks now. I'm settling in to my new work schedule. I have to say, I'm liking it. Not real fond of the 6 days a week. But it really isn't that bad.
In the past two weeks I have managed to get a few things done. I cut the new letters for the clubs shelter at the field,, I managed to fire up the 3D printer for a small fidget for my daughter. I have also cleaned my shop. (it needed it badly) I found the new replacement flight board for one of my quads. So I hope to get that in the air soon. I want to cut a new set of wings for a plane. The new wing will be flat with ailerons. Thus making it a 4 ch plane. I have also started to take a much closer look at the drawings for a new build. I want to cut most of the parts on my CNC machine. I haven't decided on how I am going to go about it yet.

-Andrew