Ultimate Time

Took the AW Ultimate 20-300 out again today since I only got in one flight on windy Sunday.  Today was great weatherwise, but JB had the sprinkle pipe line on the west end of our runway, and they had the wheel system about a 100 yards out stretched from east to west for the length of the field.  I elected to do takeoffs from the west end of the runway heading east, and to land on the sod farm grass between the pipe line and wheel system, taxiing back to our runway.  It worked well and I was able to make 3 nice flights today, all 8 minutes long.  I figured out how to use the countdown timer.  The 8 minute flights require filling the tank back up with about 75 cranks of the manual pump.  As I recall, the initial fill takes just over 100 cranks, so the 8 minute flight is consuming about 3/4 of the tank capacity.  I am comfortable with that margin of safety.

The Ultimate appears to need some aileron throw mixed in with KE, to keep the plane in KE, otherwise it wants to roll upright.  I don't recall it doing this before, but it could be due to the CG being more forward than during initial flights last year.  Other than that, this plane flies so nice!  I got more comfortable and courageous with it today, doing slow rolls perhaps 50' off the deck, and a few rolling circles.  I am trying to get it to fly smaller, as it is large and wants to fly LARGE.

The DLE-55 has been easy peasy to start up each day and each flight.  I love that reliability.  Idle seems to be a little high, but it helps keep the airspeed up during landings, and it keeps the engine running after touchdown.  If the plane is rolling too fast and nearing danger, I hit the kill switch.  I noted today that the DLE must be breaking in because there is hardly any black exhaust residue on the bottom of the LG and fuselage anymore.

As I get used to assembly and disassembly, it seems to be less arduous, and shorter each time.  As I like the plane more, my attitude towards assembly and disassembly is improving, lol.  I am biased, but I can look at the plane sitting on the grass, and just STARE and GRIN...it is so beautiful!!  So since I did not take pics today, I will post an old one:

Waterfalls Galore

I watched Bob Ross and got gung ho to do the painting he had on his program today, so I did my own version of what he did.  It was a 5 hour struggle from 10AM till 3PM, but I like the result.  Many times during the process I felt like I was really lost, and I never remember the exact steps Bob takes, or the exact colors, so I winged it my own way.  In the end I fixed it so it looks pretty ok, haha.  I call it Waterfalls Galore and it is my 68th painting, and 18th for 2012.

I sure was torn between going to fly my AW Ultimate today or painting.  Once I got underway on the new painting, I forgot everything else for 5 hours.  San had to stop me at 1:30 to come up for air and eat lunch.  She even brought it up to me in the bonus room on a tray.  My sweetie.

Ultimate Comraderie

It was breezy when I got to the field before 9AM, and the wind just continued to build all morning.  I flew as soon as I got the AW Ultimate assembled, and had a nice long flight followed by a safe landing in a strong southerly crosswind.  After that flight, the wind increased and I later decided not to fly again.  I still stayed and enjoyed the banter with the other fellas, most of whom did not fly due to the wind.  Even with just getting one flight in, I really enjoyed the comraderie of the guys...we do have a great bunch of members who like to get on each other with good natured wise cracks and kibitzing.  I left around 1PM with good vibes from the day at the field.

Frustration

What a great day for flying, but I got zero flights, haha!  First, I got to the field and had chosen the wrong wing tube for the Giles 202.  I brought one for the Yak, arg.  When I did get the right joiner, very happy that Tad brought it, I promptly started the Giles and went to the pilot box to run up the engine.  I ticked the corner of the left stab with my foot as I lifted my left foot to straddle the tail.  That SNAPPED the control horn and made control non-existent.  Luckily I noticed it did not center the same as the right stab.  I thought maybe the servo gear stripped, but found the broken control horn.  I removed it, and at home installed a regular nylon horn, screwed into the ply support of the  stab.  Used CA to make the holes tight, and just screwed the horn on rather than using a backplate for bolts completely through the stab.  It should work fine with the ply plates and CA hardening.  Got in one partial flight on Alex'es trainer, who continues to show quick skills  on the Alpha 40.  :)  Alex got in 2 flights, one with a takeoff, and one with a landing before we stopped flying the plane due to rudder servo probs.  That later turned out to be a badly binding nose gear strut in the nose gear mounting bracket.  We reamed it out with a drill and it should work great from now on.

Top Off Cruzn!

Just got back from a 63 mile jaunt in the Corvette with the top off.  It was about 65F+ but with wind it felt pretty cool at times, so I put the heater on now and then.  I drove east on Silverton Rd all the way to Silverton, then south from there through the beautiful forests of Silver Falls State Park.  Came down through Sublimity and onto Hwy 22 to return home.  The 63 miles probably took about an hour and a half.  It was a very satisfying drive, just listening to the wind and the engine.  Did not play the radio once.  Home by 11:00AM.  Gave a wave to one mag red C6 on Glen Creek as I returned home, but I don't know that he saw me.  Maybe it was Oh Al.

Talk About Quick Study!

Tad and I took Alex out to fly the Alpha 40 trainer today.  He took off for several flights, but get this...he did more loops, his first rolls, some were even two point rolls with controlled inverted flight, AND he had his first landing.  The landing was entirely on the runway at that!  I mean it would be great to accomplish just one of those things in a day at the field, but he had multiple accomplishments.  Yup, I AM proud, lol!  We had Spencer along, his roommate, because Spencer wanted to see Alex fly, and he enjoyed the experience.  (Later in the day they played with my Real Flight simulator at home.)  Rudy was another witness to the awesome events and progress.  CONGRATS ALEX!!!

I had my Stinger II along, and got two flights with it.  The engine was hard to idle, and it seems the idle mixture screw got loose and vibrated downwards.  I just guessed at how far to bring it out, and the YS 63 ran pretty good after that.  I need to find a way to get the screw to stay where it is set.

Update on YS 63:  I got the idle mixture screw out with the cowl still on (could not remove it due to stubborn muffler that would not come off engine).  It needs a new O ring.  Hard to find those...I cleaned the screw and added a very small drop of blue thread locker on the threads.  Re-inserted.  Hope that holds.  My next idea is a small bit of plumbers tape.  If that fails too, then I will try ACE, and next ordering an official O ring, lol.

Relaxation

It is the day after the Valley Challenge, so I got to fly very relaxed today with my Sbach 342 and Toledo Special.  I got in 4 nice flights with the Sbach and am getting more and more used to how it flies.  Today I mixed in a little more up elevator during right KE, when left rudder is top rudder.  That straightens the right KE a little better.  I find flying with low rates is most smooth and relaxing, but I flip to high rates for trying hovering and harrier rolling.  Needless to say, I rarely use high rates.  The Toledo Special was its groovy self and I got in 3 flights with it.  Tad came and we had a good time together.  He flew his big Extra thrice with all good landings and flights.  Both of us had no probs with the DLE engines.

I was able to fly Rudy's Osiris electric pattern plane once when he asked me to see if it was pulling left or right on up lines.  I think it was fine and my only change was one click of right aileron trim.  Did not touch rudder.  That plane flies nice.  I did some slow rolls and point rolls and that plane just does them so smooth and at a nice pace.  One beauty of the modern electric pattern plane is the ability to fly slower but with great authority.  Maybe someday I have to consider getting one...you feel good about that Rudy?  :)  It was a nice day at the field as usual.

The Spoils of Victory!

The Valley Challenge Finals today was hard fought among Joe, Brandon, and myself.  It matters not that none of the other 5 clubs invited by Bob to compete bothered to show up.  That meant the top three finishers were the 3 KRCA pilots who qualified for the finals by winning our KRCA flyoff two weeks ago.  It was a tough battle with Brandon finishing 3rd with about 1355 points out of 1600.  Joe had 1502 and I eked out the win with 1508!  Holy Moly that was just by a whisker, but a win is a win no matter the margin (sorry Joe).  The pic shows the fine awards for 1st place...$50 cash, the H9 Katana 50 (valued at $250 and donated by Horizon Hobby), and the very important trophy for a year and BRAGGING RIGHTS as VC champ for a year, lol.  I wonder what Bob has in the back of his devious mind for next year!  It was good fun among a bunch of good guys today.  Here is a link to the "awards ceremony" courtesy of Chris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMSStibd2Fc&feature=em-share_video_user

Oh, I flew the SNAFU all day today.  It performed flawlessly.  I did not hit any balloons or fly outside of them on takeoffs and landings.  Ron said I got extremely close on one landing, but the fuselage was inside the white balloon.  My point deductions were something like 1 on task one, 27 on task 2, 52 on task 3, 1 on task 4, and 10 on task 5.  My big blunder on task 3 was getting rattled when Bob announced my mid loop time.  I thought I was running behind schedule, but Iwas really just slightly ahead.  The mid loop time was just under 3 minutes out of the 6 minute target, BUT I was basically done with 3.5 steps out of 6 at that point.  I needed to slow down at that point, but my brain at the time said I needed to speed up.  BRAIN FART!!!  I should have ignored Bob's midpoint time and just flown at my own pace, trusting my instincts, but I got rattled and recalculated what to do, doing so the wrong way, haha.  Oh well, it made the margin of victory smaller, and made the task 5 flight very exciting when Joe only got 6 deduction points!  At that time I was between 10 and 20  points ahead.  All I could do was fly task 5 at the same pace I flew in task 1, and hope for the best.  Whew, I flew task 5 at just 10 seconds longer than task 1, and narrowly won by the 6 point margin, good grief!  I'll take it!

Practice Practice Practice

Hope it makes perfect!   Took the SNAFU out for practice for tomorrow's VC fly off with the other clubs, if any even send participants.  Actually I had the Showtime with me too for the primary purpose of testing to see if it can do the deadstick loop.  It can.  But I went on to check the SNAFU out for that task again, and found I can do it IF I dive long enough and most importantly pull up elevator gently, and increase the amount throughout the loop, giving full up just around the time the plane goes vertically up.  For some reason (calm?) the plane climbed very high today and it is ample altitude to both execute the loop and then glide down for landing in 60 seconds from the kill engine command.  My trouble on other days was inability to climb as high in 30 seconds...either the engine was weaker that day, or the wind really killed the climb on those days.  It was seemingly easy to gain lots of altitude in the calmer air today.  So today I had to cut the glides short where other days I had to try to prolong them, which is tougher to do.

My timing in my head always seems to be less than the clock.  I routinely had 50 or 55 seconds when counting in my head, vs 60 seconds on the watch.  Tomorrow I shall adjust by adding another 5 count (one thousand and one, one thousand and two, etc) for every 60 seconds I count in my head!

Oh well, ready or not, I'll try to be calm and fly proficiently tomorrow.

Alpha 40 and SNAFU

Alex flew his Alpha 40 today, 5 flights!  After Tad took off the first one, Alex made takeoffs on the next three flights.  With the strong crosswind, this was no small accomplishment.  The first two suffered from not enough left rudder, so he had S curve takeoffs to the right toward the fence, with recovery back to the left, thus the S.  On his 3rd takeoff he compensated a little too much resulting in a takeoff over the left edge of the runway, and as he put it, the ground dropped off rather than him lifting off with up elevator, lol.  I took off for the 5th flight.  Alex showed really good and consistent control of the plane at all altitudes, making both left and right turns, and many passes of descending altitude in prep for landings someday.  Awesome!  Tad had lots of fun training Alex today.  I also flew my SNAFU a number of times in prep for the Valley Challenge flyoff this Saturday.  Almost biffed the plane up good on one taxi practice when I dropped the xmitter and the throttle went up, as I was checking a stop watch.  I quickly throttled down when I righted the transmitter on the ground, and the plane stopped short of any accident out on the sod farm.

Ultimate & Shoestring

On some days the flying just feels right, like an extension of yourself, kind of effortless and in rhythm with the brain and fingers.  Today was like that.  I flew the CG Ultimate and the Shoestring, three times each, and just enjoyed both immensely.  Both engines ran good enough, but it seemed the OS 70 Surpass II in the Shoestring started to go off tune on the last flight, probably due to the rising temperature...when I got home at 1:30PM it was 90F, and it was probably under 70F when I started flying at 8:30AM.  Still a great day of flying.

Who Flew?!

On Friday, August 10, 2012, Alex flew his new Alpha 40 today after Tad maidened it.  Tad gifted Alex with the complete RTF consisting of plane, engine, and RC gear (Spectrum 5ch), so he had the honors to maiden it today.  All went well, and then Alex got to fly three flights once either Tad or I took off.  We also landed the plane, but it won't be long till Alex can takeoff and land, as he exhibited positive and consistent control of the Alpha 40.  He did rectangular circuits, figure 8's, and even a handful of loops.  The plane flies well and the Evolution 40 starts, runs, and idles really nicely.  CONGRATS ALEX!

Planes on Rails

I took two of my fastest planes out today, the INTRUDER and Stinger II.  Both make a cool whistle as they whiz by on low passes over the runway.  Made two flights with the Intruder and three with the Stinger II.  Engines in both ran great.  Winds were fairly brisk approaching 10mph at times and varied out of the north and west.

Yak 54

I took 4 flights with the Yak 54 today.  Temps were around 70F with a breeze of about 5mph.  The Yak flew well but I was not very inspired...I think I need some new maneuvers to learn, practice, and keep improving.

Our Sunflower!

This sunflower looks like a beanstalk heading for the clouds in Jack and the Beanstalk!  It's a volunteer no doubt planted by some bird pooping just outside our back wall.  The plant is at least 8 feet tall, and I cannot reach the yellow petals with my outstretched arm.  We are enjoying watching it grow and develop.  For a couple months it was growing around 6"-12" per week!  Very COOL.

Flight Log: 08/05/12

Great day at the field with a little more wind than usual, but still just between 5 and 10mph, and from the South.  I flew the Intruder twice and the Toledo Special 3 times.  Temps were better today, probably around 80F.  Both planes flew well with no issues.  I helped Harvey take off and land his electric trainer...he flew it well.  Joe lost control of his EDF F-18 at altitude over the north field.  It slowly rolled during a long vertical full throttle dive into the ground.   As Joe walked out he saw smoke develop so Chris and I ran out with water bottles while Ken trailed with a fire extinguisher.  The 5 cell Lipo pack went up in flames and smoke.  Luckily the dry grass had been bailed and collected last week, or there might have been a bad fire.  Surprisingly only the fuse from the wings forward was totally destroyed.

Valley Challenge KRCA fly-off

Today we flew the KRCA club only fly-off for the Valley Challenge.  The events dreamed up by Bob were heavy on being able to time yourself either on the ground or in the air.  Pretty hard to do, for me anyhow.  I consistently ended my tasks over a minute early, thus incurring negative points...one for each second off the target time.  Everyone started with 1600 points and Bob limited points loss to 400 per each of the four tasks.    I thought I did worse, but ended up with about 1395 points, Brandon had about 1470, and Joe about 1570. I sort of think both had some point deductions that were somehow missed...but maybe I benefited equally...that is my hope.  I know for sure Joe left the ground on a taxi event, when his plane lifted off and cartwheeled which is a 50 point deduction, but his total points do not reflect that.  In any case, I made it to the finals in two weeks.  I will practice the events to improve my scores.  Others who competed today were Rudy (I think he was very close in score to me), Ashton, Bob Ross, Ron, and Mike Florea.  BTW it was a scorcher.  Temps were probably near 70F when we started and near 95F when we quit.  I flew the SNAFU, with Imagine 50 as backup (not needed today).

Flight Log: 08/01/12

Took the SNAFU and Stinger II out today, a very sunny and slightly breezy day.  Got in 4 flights with the SNAFU in prep for Valley Challenge on Saturday, and 3 flights with the Stinger II.  The durn OS 52 in the SNAFU died several times, so I kept raising the idle trim and also opened the needle a click.  Hope it stays running on Saturday, or I will get no score for some flights, argh.  Tuning on the high end seems pretty good and strong, so I don't want to fiddle with it much at all.  Oh well, I will have the Imagine for backup if needed, but that would be after the SNAFU fails and results in probably no score on a flight, too late in other words.  Might have to reconsider and just fly the Imagine?  The Stinger flew well today with speed and good engine reliability.

Update on 08/02/12:  I put a new OS Type F plug on the engine.  Also put new tubes from tank to carb, and tank to muffler, left fill line as is.  Replaced the three fuel tubes (to klunk, muffler, and fill line) inside the tank as a maintenance precaution.  Tightened up the rubber plug on the tank real snug.  The engine flameouts should not be due to cracked fuel line anywhere.