Took few EDFs out today, including the "Yak" , and what a yakky day it turn out to be, cold, windy even worse with the X westerly, a real battle to bring them down.
The slowest un-intentional rotation due to my bumpy short and narrow strip, got away with it after some quick thump action. "Yak."

This must have been the slowest take off so far with this heavy foamy, the Westerly X-wind had something to do with it plus the bumpy grass strip, "yak"!

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- always a handful to bring it down.

Over the last half a dozen of flights I had to cycle my landing gear few times for one or the other to come down before landing. Now after and before each flying session I lube the sliding slots on the mains which can jam up from my experience. Just as with the real things, the maintenance is the key of the success.

Latest upgrade to my nose gear oleo is fitting even stiffer and longer spring to minimize the bouncing off the grass strip while taking off. FOP was also removed, only creating extra drag along the grass.

I have been reading with much interest about the modifications that you did to the intakes. It is not clear to me how much this improved static thrust with the 6S setup, did you measure that?


Thank you,


Phaedra

Hello Belgique chick, sorry I never flew this model on 6S, but after my intake innovation the thrust improved by ~500 grams with my 8S power set up. I have done a lot of home work with different power units, intakes and exhaust tubes before flying this model.
It would make a huge difference even with your 6S, I guarantee, the stock intakes are very poorly design. I have also extra cheaters on the top and the bottom fuse for better performance.
I'm not sure if it's the "SM" fan but this model has probably the closest imitation sound to the real thing, jet turbine, tho lot quiter.

Ok, thanks for the reply.
I can't see the top cheaters on your pictures, can you show a pic of them?


I have a beat-up fuselage with which I can experiment now, I will do a similar modification to the intakes and do some measurements.


Thanks!


Phaedra

Originally Posted by Phaedra

Ok, thanks for the reply.
I can't see the top cheaters on your pictures, can you show a pic of them?


I have a beat-up fuselage with which I can experiment now, I will do a similar modification to the intakes and do some measurements.


Thanks!


Phaedra

I have cut out an air vent in the front of the canopy, also on the belly just behind the nose gear and also removed the small front part of the nose gear door to get more air in, which also benefits air flow over my batteries. (pics)

Few more flights in the log book with the ruski tank, my strip is bit harsh for the flimsy nose gear, and more so for the front gear door sometimes popping out with those 1mm long hinge pins!

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(YAK dead calm)

While visiting one of my clubs It caught up with me yesty! Nasty "CRASH", shortly after take off, due to the insufficient battery voltage or bad batt. connection. It looked horrendous, hitting the ground after almost vertical nose dive from 50 meters somehow it leveled off slightly when final ground contact with the whole front fuse section and canopy in hundreds of tiny pieces.
After recovery of even the most miniscule pieces I thought its just about good enough for a trash bin, but back on the bench today and close up inspect, with bit of LTC it's coming back to its old glory.

Shame about the crash but thankfully it was rebuildable!
What were you powering the RX with?
What will you do to prevent it from happening again?

Too hot for flying today, rather got stuck repairing the ruski tank , main structure all fixed, but lot of fiddly cosmetics taking most of the time, canopy won't look too pretty but practical for more future action, and more care taken with pre-flight checks.
This crash could have been easily avoided as I had had clear warning not to fly it, with some retract issue as soon as I hooked it up, but unfortunately I have pushed my luck too far in this case, my wife takes the full blame!, giving me restricted time to fly only 2 models in limited time while being on the trip. At least I had someone to blame and bash on the way back.

What do you power the radio with?
Passing on experience with a few details can actually help others rather than trying to sensationalize every post.

During few recent flights my nose gear doors popped out of pin hole hinges, due to the bumpy grass strips.
After little micro surgery I have reinforced the control horns with h/wood ply and longer pins to make it more secure. Fiddly job but worth it on the long run.

Perfect weather, hot and dry for quick repair jobs.