yup, gotta grab the shotgun for this one!

Originally Posted by foam and tape

hmmmm, one possible question (or problem) One would think about is...... BIRDS! this thing is about the size of a small bird and especially since there's no annoying brushed motor or whirr from a park 180 to scare the birds off. I wonder if birds may get really aggressive towards it. I wonder how many eagles or falcons may make dinner out of the glider.

"horizon help line, how may I help you"
"yes a bird ate my glider''
"well do you still have the plane"
"no, Its in the falcon's stomach"
"hmmmm, well can you ship the falcon in the ASK box back to us for a replacement?"
"Sure, I think he'll fit nicely in the box"

Trust me, a little motor doesn't scare them. The ASK as a bigger wingspan and should fly much higher than most UMs so it should be fine!

Here's a video of my UM Mustang with a few birds wanting a part of it!

Parkzone UM Mustang P-51 VS BIRDS! (2 min 35 sec)

RealGambler,
"Wow that has to be a worlds record on flights"! And they still have not taken you out!
Good thing that you have some good speed to fly another day!

Where I fly most of the time there are a lot of medow larks at times and they can really get in the way. When my son flys one of his helis there it gets to be a full time job spotting the birds for him.

Only times I have had close encounters with a Hawk was when flying a glider with motor off in a thermal and I got above them which they do not like one little bit.

I read several reports here on RC groups where gliders have been attacked and some shreaded by Hawks.

Charles

This little critter is so cute, I'm more afraid of some buzzard snatching it as it's latest sweetie than trying to eat it.

I used to fly a Skyseeker quite a bit. I'd power it up to altitude and then glide it around for awhile. It's fairly close to the size of the little ASK and the birds in my area were always checking it out. Not quite sure why they favored it over other planes I fly. No really aggressive attacks, though.

My only run with a hawk happened several years ago when a small one swooped down and grabbed a little Aero Ace bipe out of the air. He took to the top of a utility pole and shredded it. I guess he was looking for the tasty bit's.

When redwing blackbirds were nesting no sailplane was safe no matter what the wing span. If you didn't want dings you didn't fly over their nesting sites. They knew no fear and had a kamikaze attitude.

Foam and tape,

That was really funny!

Joel

Regarding the battery - they're recommending the Eflite 150 'UM' cell. A 180 or 240 mAh cell will likely provide more than enough flight-time for all but the most hard-core endurance fliers. Plus, true c-rating should be much less of a factor on this plane, since there is no motor load.

Regarding over-discharging the battery on the ASK-21 - flying any of the powered UM aircraft to LVC will kill the batteries in short-order, as doing so typically results in a 93-95% discharge. Discharging a LiPo beyond 90% even once can cause irreversible cell damage. So, HH intentionally sets the LVC in the UM bricks low enough to kill LiPos. They even have a disclaimer in the manuals that says 'Note: Repeated flying to LVC will damage the battery.' They're already used to people killing their UM LiPos.

Regarding AS3X & flying gyro-equipped planes in a sim - that's about like comparing apples to cumquats. AS3X is much more than three gyros - each simply doing its own thing. Coordination of the axes is what separates AS3X from the independent gyro setups. With AS3X, the flight-controller takes input from the gyros & then coordinates the movement of the control surfaces accordingly - similar to how a pilot would correct for turbulence & other factors.

Regarding thermalling stuff that's not supposed to be thermalled - I often caught parking-lot thermals with my Hobby Lobby Wingo. I also used to surf the ridge-lift from buildings & treelines. Many times, I was able to remain aloft for 30 minutes or more - power-off. I once thermalled my 1/4-scale Super Cub w/OS 1.60 flat-twin. At one club field where I used to fly, I often thermalled my 72" wingspan, 30 oz/sq ft, Saito .91-powered Ace Bingo. On hot summer days, there was nearly always a strong thermal about 100 feet or so off the east end of the runway. Once I got into the lift, I could throttle way back & rapidly gain altitude.

On birds & planes - one time, I stayed up for about 5 minutes with the Bingo - with the engine just off-idle. Gained a surprising amount of altitude, too. Then the bald eagle attacked.

I saw him coming in from above, but didn't even give him a thought. After all, the unmuffled Saito 91 was rather noisy, and the plane was nearly as big as the eagle. After he started his dive, I suddenly realized that I was about to be in some deep doo-doo if I didn't get out of there quickly. I hammered the throttle, dropped the nose & got the Bingo up to speed. Not quick enough, though. The eagle was on my six, and he was obviously very angry! At WOT, I could just barely stay ahead of him. I tried to shake him by maneuvering aggressively, but he could easily stay with me. In the process, I had scrubbed-off enough speed that he closed in for a pass. I heard the slap of talons hitting the solid balsa elevator. The plane yawed wildly. He broke up & to the right and came back around for another pass. As a last resort, I rolled into a dive & headed for the deck @ WOT - in hopes that he'd break off the chase. No such luck! He followed me down. I opened up a pretty good lead during the dive, so I started doing pylon-style laps around the field. The eagle stayed above the plane, waiting for the right moment to make the kill. I decided to try a mock approach. As soon as I slowed down, he made a diving pass at the plane. But he missed! I nailed the throttle & lowered the nose to pick up some speed. I was now only about 20 feet AGL, and had no more altitude to trade. I'd been up for more than 10 minutes when all of this started, and knew that with all of the WOT flying, I had to be running low on fuel. I wondered if I'd run out of fuel before the eagle ran out of determination. All-of-a-sudden, he broke off the chase & flew away. I landed immediately, taxied back to the run-up area & shut her down. My hands were shaking. I pumped the fuel out of the tank just so I could see how much I had left. Less than 3 oz of useable fuel left when I landed! At WOT, that would be maybe 2 minutes of flight-time - tops.

I learned some important things that day:

1) On some days, one could probably thermal a brick. Or maybe even an F-104.

2) The sound of an unmuffled Saito .91 swinging a 13x8 Rev-Up extra-wide prop does not faze a bald eagle that thinks you're invading his territory!

3) A bald eagle can easily out-maneuver a 72" Ace Bingo!

4) In level flight, a Saito .91-powered 72" Ace Bingo on 25% nitro & propped for speed can just barely outrun a bald eagle!

5) A bald eagle can have a surprising amount of determination & endurance when it's really mad at your plane!

6) If there is a bald eagle headed in the general direction of your plane while you're lazily circling in a thermal, effectively mimicking a large raptor's 'hunting circle' - there is a good chance that he is not 'just passing by'.

Over the years, I've had quite a few bird encounters while flying RC. That was by far the most memorable.

Interestingly - at the school parking lot where I used to fly my 1s UM planes before I moved to the country, the local swallows would come out of nowhere every time I flew my Sukhoi XP. At first, I though they were mad, but I soon figured out that they wanted to fly with the plane for some reason. I found that I could lead them around the parking lot & they'd follow in loose formation. They'd even follow me through mild maneuvers, such as zoom-climbs and wingovers. But if I started doing loops or more aggressive maneuvers, they'd fly off. It was pretty much like clockwork every time I flew there. By the time I'd get airborne, I could hear them chattering - and they'd swarm in before I even completed my first circuit. At times, 20+ swallows would be following my plane around the lot. I had never experienced anything quite like that before, nor have I since.

Joel

Joel,
I was not saying as3x is like gyro planes in the sim, im sorry if it came out that way, i was trying to say that as3x is nothing like a gyro plane in a sim, in the sim with a gyro plane everything is unnatural and has huge corrections and completely unnatural and almost unenjoyable, that as3x is totally different. Just the same way that the hyper taxi is not a copy of the VFO, as3x is not just a couple gyros.

this looks like the gravity hobbies dx220 body, that they fully made rc, i bet the motor pod will bolt up, but i dont see a opening on the rx for a speed controller

Originally Posted by airpower

Joel,
I was not saying as3x is like gyro planes in the sim, im sorry if it came out that way, i was trying to say that as3x is nothing like a gyro plane in a sim, in the sim with a gyro plane everything is unnatural and has huge corrections and completely unnatural and almost unenjoyable, that as3x is totally different. Just the same way that the hyper taxi is not a copy of the VFO, as3x is not just a couple gyros.

AP,

You said it clearly enough. I must have been having a 'senior moment' while reading your post!

I agree with you 100%. The three-axis gyro-equipped planes I've flown in RF feel like each axis has a mind of its own. They aren't much fun to fly. I don't believe that it's possible to emulate an AS3X-ish flight-controller in RF.

Eventually, the hand-wringing over AS3X & other systems like it will die down. I remember when expo was first introduced. A large number of RC pilots cried 'expo is cheating!' At first, many of the traditionalists refused to use it. Before long, you could hardly find a competition pilot who didn't use expo. Within a few years, the 'expo is cheating' mentality had all but disappeared.

The same thing will most likely happen this time around.

Joel.

Originally Posted by turboparker

Interestingly - at the school parking lot where I used to fly my 1s UM planes before I moved to the country, the local swallows would come out of nowhere every time I flew my Sukhoi XP. At first, I though they were mad, but I soon figured out that they wanted to fly with the plane for some reason. I found that I could lead them around the parking lot & they'd follow in loose formation. They'd even follow me through mild maneuvers, such as zoom-climbs and wingovers. But if I started doing loops or more aggressive maneuvers, they'd fly off. It was pretty much like clockwork every time I flew there. By the time I'd get airborne, I could hear them chattering - and they'd swarm in before I even completed my first circuit. At times, 20+ swallows would be following my plane around the lot. I had never experienced anything quite like that before, nor have I since.

Joel

Great post! I have experienced the same thing with my UM and swallows. At first I thought they were going to attack. Then I realized they were following the plane and seemed to enjoy chasing it.

I'm filling my garage with UM planes in their boxes. I really enjoy these things and will be getting the ASK-21 but I need to retire some of these to make room for all the newer ones.

Originally Posted by ducatirdr

Great post! I have experienced the same thing with my UM and swallows. At first I thought they were going to attack. Then I realized they were following the plane and seemed to enjoy chasing it.

Yeah, I was good for at least 2 flights a night with my UM T-28 and the swallows that would shoot up and out of the corn field behind my house as soon as I passed over. They never attacked or acted aggressive. They would just follow along. If I swooped, they swooped. If I dove, they dove. If I performed any maneuver to double back on them, they would double back and lead me around. I can get about 20 of them that jump out of the corn field and fly around with me.

I've had the same experience with swallows, its rather fun flying with them

Same here with the swallows. If I fly the micros right after I mow I get a lot of them.

The more interesting flying buddies that I have are the hummingbirds that nest in one of our trees in the summer time. When I fly my Plantraco by the tree they always come out. Problem is they are very territorial and aggressive. Those little buggers can do a lot of damage to foam when they get the little mind to. And if they want to put a hole in the foam there is no out running or out maneuvering them.