Aloha and Welcome to my small speck of cyberspace! Dec 8, 2010 is the birth date of my blog. Never had one before, but my son encouraged me to have one, and it seemed like a good way to at least keep a log of my RC airplane building and flying. With the initial design kicked off by my son, I'll carry on from here and have fun with it. Now that I have it, I will use it to also keep track of my oil painting efforts, and any other ideas, hobbies, travels, or whatever else that come up. LIFE IS GOOD!

Update on 02/25/2011. It's been a few months since I began this blog, and I am enjoying creating and having it! I like documenting the things I have done in my hobbies, and sharing with my small family. I think Jer and Tad actually view it fairly regularly, as a means to see what I've been up to lately. At worst, it serves as a reference for my own use.

Update on 12/22/2011. This blog stuff is habit forming. My blog is a year old now, and I make an entry about every other day or so as that seems to be the frequency of doing something in one of my hobbies. Like my hobbies, this blog is a lot of fun, and it has become in itself another hobby that I enjoy.

Years are flying by...update on 01/11/2013. Still enjoying maintaining this blog even though hardly anyone sees it. I don't advertise it anywhere or to anyone, and it is mainly just a way for me to keep my own notes and thoughts on my flying, painting, and cars. If a stranger happens upon it, I think it is by pressing NEXT at the top of the current blog they are visiting, lol. It's a great device for me.

August 2014: still here! Took up flying RC helicopters one year ago and got hooked. Had flown micro Helis up to then, but got serious with 450 size for a couple months, then bought the Goblin 500 and Gaui X5 . Also got my Boxster in April 2013. Most importantly, Ariel was born 12/02/12 followed by Skylar 07/20/13, and they are little beacons of joy in our lives. Life is indeed good!!!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

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:

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