Flight Log: 01/30/2011

Geesh, today was better than yesterday weatherwise, so I left the house around 10:15 and came home around 4PM!  What a GREAT day of flying weather...around 55F, very light wind or none, partly sunny, dry, just awesome.    Had the jacket on over the vest as usual to start, then the jacket came off, then the vest!  Flew the Yak 54 again about 4x, and the SNAFU about 6x.  I say about because I just lost track.  I burned almost a half gallon of 15% today!  I tried some IMAC maneuvers called the shark tooth and reverse shark tooth, but mostly flew just about everything I know again, with very generous numbers of rolling circles.  I also had fun flying perhaps 30' off the ground doing two slow rolls consecutively, and trying to keep them on a string.  The Yak holds the altitude very well on this.  Joe brought his H9 P-51 which flew perhaps the best I have seen it fly, like a pattern plane.  We ended the day with his P-51 and my SNAFU up together, making low passes on just about every pass, and seeing who could go the lowest over the runway.  Probably a TIE, with under 2' accomplished a number of times.  I told him his passes are much more impressive because he was doing it with a warbird while I was using a slow sport plane!  LOTS OF FUN, and no mishaps or probs today.

Flight Log: 01/29/2011

No rain, no sun, no fog, no wind, and 47F.  I headed out for flying by 9 and was home by 12:15 after putting in 6 extremely fun flights on the Yak 54.  The OS 120 Surpass III ran like a top.  It does not sound like it is winding up, but it just runs quiet and powerfully on the 16-6 APC.  With each flight at 8 minutes, I got 48 minutes of great stick time doing IMAC type mostly and some 3D'ish flying.  Geesh, I did everything I know...rolls, 4pt and slow and fast, snaps, avalanches, loops, inverted everything, Cubans and reversed Cubans, stall turns, spins, rolling circles slow and 3D style (fast and furious).  Tried hovering but either I or the plane is not good at it, lol.  Might need more rearward CG still.  All take-offs and landings from west to east (opposite norm), all nice landings with power on.  This Yak loves to float in.  Had to quarter in mostly because of slight breeze from the south.  Oh yeah, nobody else showed up, on a fine Saturday AM!  No worries, that's how I got so many flights in a short time!

C5 Cruisin'

The fog finally burned off around 1PM, and it was either fly RC planes or drive the Corvette.  Since it was already kinda late, I decided to take a nice cruise in the C5.  The sun was shining, the pavement was dry except for a few damp spots in wooded areas, and the Corvette was happy to purr or roar as dictated by the curves or open road.  I drove north to exit West Salem on Brush College Rd, paralleled Wallace Rd about 8 miles, came south on Wallace Rd to Edgewater, west to 22, north on the windy road by the self-storage corner, arriving on top of West Salem on Eola, then back home via Doaks Ferry, Titan Rd, and Orchard Heights Rd.  Did about 27 miles in 40 minutes, pure exhiliaration all the way.   What a great sports car!  Yeehaw!!

Flight Log: 01/24/2011

Hallelujah, how many times are there in the Winter when you can fly 3 days in a row!?  Did it today.  Went to mow and it was very pleasant albeit overcast.  Mowed first, then flew my T-28 for two nice flights.  Would have flown more if I had not already flown 11 hours this weekend!  The field looks like a billiard table, but that belies how unsmooth it is.   It is not rough by any means, but the plane sure bounces, even on the cut grass.  I think it just gets rutted from mowing and from foot traffic when the ground is so soft during the wet season.  The T-28 performed like usual...flawlessly.  The bearing job is not falling apart, the Saito 82a ran like a top.  Gotta say this is a pretty "warbird" in the air and on the ground.  I get my jollies flying and landing with the flaps.

Flight Log: 01/23/2011

The forecast was off, and the weather was not as good as yesterday, BUT still very acceptable at about 44F, calm air, and heavy overcast.  It was cool, with one hand warmer needed, but not uncomfortable at all.  Jer and Joe showed up around 1PM.  Mike was there, and very late were Dale, Blake, and Jim.  I was there from 11:30 till 4PM.  Another great day of flights, with 3 on the Shoestring and about 5 on the Imagine.  Burning up the 15%!  The Shoe was great and the beast has been tamed.  It ground handles fine now with the MAS prop and a little toe-in added to the main gear.  Landings are much better speedwise with the flaperon deflection of about 3/8" and a little up coupled to counteract the pitch down caused by the flaperon.  Still cannot get rid of hops on the landings due to the very stiff LG, which continue to slightly delam...piece of JUNK.  Speed in the air is pretty quick, but I did not build it for all out speed.  I like it as a fast sport plane, which works out perfecto to me! Another great day at the field.

Dead Center!

Because of comments on RCU about the off centering of the engine spinner with the cowl, I was concerned about mounting my engine to the firewall.  I pretty much laid the engine template on the firewall, but fudged it a little down and a little left to compensate for being too far right  according to one guy and too high according to another who posted in RCU.  Turned out to be the perfect adjustment.  With just a little care in adjusting the cowl mounting holes on the cowl itself, I got the spinner DEAD CENTER on the cowl tonight.  Now, that's HAPPINESS!!!

Flight Log: 01/22/2011

Blessed with 45F, sun, and no rain, I flew at the field for SIX hours today, from 10 til 4!!  What a great day, but only a few of us showed up - Mike, Joe, Bruce and Brandon.  A few other folks came just to watch.  I put in 3 flights on the GP Extra 300 SP, and about 7 on my SNAFU.  Had 2 deadsticks on the SNAFU.  Wind was light and variable from the North, so I took off and landed the SNAFU on the short N/S runway...that was a lot of fun.  Both planes were great and I did not forget how to fly over the 2.5 week layoff due to bad weather.  Now, the BIGGEST JOY of the day for me was when THREE BALD EAGLES came over the field low and in search of thermals.  Two seemed to be mates since they circled constantly with each other as they located thermals.  The 3rd kept a distance of maybe 100 yards, and later separated completely.  WHAT A THRILL!

VXL Racing!

On Monday, Jan 17, 2011, Jer and I took our cars to RC Plus to race on their inside track.  We walked in without our cars to scout it out, and there were about 6 guys racing or pitting in there.  Jer brought out his car and immediately could stay up with them or pass them, being the racy guy with lots of skills that he is!  Oh, these guys were racing larger scale, I think 1/10th  or 1/8th.  After seeing Jer do well, I went to get mine too.  I did not do that well, but stayed with them once in awhile.  The track is carpet and definitely slippery for our drift car setups, but it's lots of fun anyhow!  Jer finds the good line around the track and is able to get in it quickly.  It takes me awhile to find that line (sometimes never) and to actually set up for it.

We used all our batteries.  Since Jer started a battery before me, I let him use one of mine at the end, so he ended up running through 5 while I ran through 3.  The Tenergy batts that we got for $5 each are JUNKO!  They are 1400mAh and run shorter than the Traxxas 1200, and don't have as much immediate punch either.  We will look for better ones.  Lastly, the guys we ran with were very nice fellows with good humor, and the really neat thing about RC Plus is that track time is FREE FREE FREE, except when they have organized races.

We came home with new diff loob (30k weight) and Jer changed the lube in front and back of HIS and MY cars right away.  Took between 2 and 3 hours!  Lots of work, but these cars are engineered rather well!  During the job on mine, we discovered one of my bevel gears looks badly worn.  It sounds a little noiser too.  I don't recall a change in sound after any crashes at the track.  Maybe it got damaged from a crash, or maybe it has been that way all along.  Things don't last forever on RC cars, so I'll be getting a replacement gear soon.  The cars seem unbelievably durable after our first racing day at the track!

 

Update:  I recall that when we were almost done racing, the car would hesitate before moving from a start.  I probably could not hear from the driver's stand, but I bet the gear was not meshing well, probably due to one of my runs into the sideboards.  There were some hard ones and a couple even head on into the boards.  My guess is that ruined the main gear that connects to the front differential.  I ordered a couple replacements today from Boca RC online. 

Mock Up!

First mock up of the AW Ultimate with both wings and cabane struts!  The struts fit pretty well between the wings.  Nice that AW marked the struts so it is easy to tell which is left and right and top and bottom.

Ultimate ULTIMATE, Update 01/07/2011:

It's been a slow assembly simply due to wanting it to be that way, and there is no hurry to get this ready in the middle of Winter.  I completed the rudder servo and pull-pull linkages, as well as the steering linkage today.  Now all servos and linkages are installed, except for throttle ones.  Yahoo!

Flight Log: 01/06/2011

It was a very nice flying day with 42F when I left the house at 10ish.  Took the Toledo Special for some relaxing flying.  Nobody showed up.  I got in 5 flights (5 minute timer on this plane) during about 1 1/2 hours there, with takeoffs to the east, landing as well, all pretty much light and greased on.  Did a bunch of loops, cuban 8's, reversed cuban 8's, inverted flying, rolls, slow and "fast", and some tooling around as slow as I could.  Very satisfying day!  The Saito 82a with replaced bearings ran like a charm.  One weird thing though is that before the first start, there was no compression when I propped the engine.  That soon went away, and the engine started fine with the starter.  It started several times after by just hand propping.

Big Red Vette!

It's been pretty wet and I haven't driven the C5 in a couple months.  In the last week, we have had fairly dry weather, dry enough that the sweepers removed most of the gravel from the streets, gravel that was spread for icy conditions a week ago.  Today, I took advantage of the cleaner streets, dry pavement, and over 32F temps to take the Corvette out for a cruise in Salem.  I stayed on main streets which were more likely to have been swept, and was rewarded with a nice drive of 30 minutes or so.  Man, it was great to hear the 350hp purr and growl at times through the Corsa exhausts.  It brought the GRINS back big time!!!