#87/#7 Sunset Solace

Just finished painting this one today.  The last two seascapes made me want to do yet another, but horizontally on the canvas, and sort of close up.  Not bad, my wave splashes can still use more refinement, but I am happy with the overall feel from it.  Good fun.  Did black gesso below the horizon, allowed to dry, then followed by liquid clear, and then pthalo green with some cad yellow in the center third of the ocean, and pthalo green with prussian blue and pthalo blue on the outside thirds.  There is dark sienna and cad yellow on the bottom third of the ocean, ie the beach.  This all is just brushed on any old way, as underlayment, and then the waves with titanium white are created over that, and blended, etc.

The sky was done first using the typical liquid white underlayment, and then creating the colors of the sky first, followed by layers of clouds.

This is my 87th painting using Bob Ross'es wet on wet method, and my 7th for 2014.

Goblin Gaggle!

Today was a Goblin day with 4 at the field.  Tad, Anthony and I brought our 500's while Quang brought his 700.  I only got two flights on mine, two on the X5, and another two on the 450's (one each) due to the need to take turns flying.  It was inspiring to see Tad and Anthony fly sport big sky while Quang did extreme 3D and big sky.  I have to accelerate my progress to try to catch up a little bit to Anthony and Tad.  Those guys are flying/improving on inverted and backwards (upright), so I need to grow some cajones and try those too.  So scary with a big expensive heli!  I can do some on the sim, but it is a completely different ballgame with the real thing due to the high value of the helis.  I demonstrated the shudder in the X5, and Quang recommended reducing the tail gain, so I will try that.  They seem to like the X5 enough to be talking about the range of sizes offered by Gaui wowee.  Good fun, should be a great Summer coming up as we get to fly our gaggle of helis more often.

Goblin Gaggle.  Pic by TAD!
L to R:  Anthony's 500, Tad's 500, Jon's 500, Quang's 700

UPDATE on tail gain:  I hooked up the laptop to the mini VBar unit on the X5, and also did some research on the HF forum.  As a result I learned that I had set tail gain to 70 on my Futaba transmitter...this was a setting that lots of folks reported was typical for the X5.  When I opened up the VBar software on the laptop, which was hooked up to the VBar, with battery power to the unit on, the slider image on the laptop showed some crazy high gain number like 115 in the VBar unit itself. My research confirmed that the slider is supposed to be set around 70, with the number on the transmitter being whatever it has to be to get the slider in the right spot.  Turns out the number on my Futaba transmitter is around 20 when the slider is at 70!  Since I have a 3-position switch on the transmitter for gain, I set it for 20, 33, and 60 on the transmitter, yielding about 70, 80, and 100 on the VBar slider image.  This way, I can switch among those gain settings in the air, decide what one works best, then later at home again reset the settings to what I have concluded works best.  Live and learn.

Another great day for flying!

I got to fly for the 2nd day in a row!  Once again I got in 3 packs with the X5, 3 with the Goblin, but just one with the 450 DFC, one with the 450 FBL, and 6 flights on the Star.  I did not do any flips with the helis today, just tried to fly steady.  Never got disoriented today, a good thing.  One issue arose as I flew the X5 in fast forward flight...the heli shuddered like when a plane has a loose aileron that causes flutter.  Not sure what it is, but I did some research in HF and found that some pilots think the mini Vbar does not handle fast forward flight well and allows the heli to flutter, so to speak.  I might try it again tomorrow in front of Quang to see what he thinks.  Other than that, it was a great day of flying.

Finally Flew!

Geez, nearly 3 weeks of not flying due to the weather, made me stir crazy, and I was very happy to get out today!  I flew 3 packs in the 450 DFC, 2 in the 450 FBL, 3 in the Goblin 500, and 3 in the X5.  I also had 3 flights with the Star.  Conditions were good with over 45F, light wind, grey skies turning partly sunny.  I did not do much other than get used to the helis again.  I managed a few flips on the Goblin, but just wanted to feel steady and confident with each heli.  I never lost orientation on any of the helis, so that was a big plus.  Did a lot of hovering in all different directions, plus lots of slow forward flight mixed with fast forward.  Threw in some stall turns here and there.  All went well, with good landings to finish each flight.  Note that today there were two tall stacks of pallets off the south edge of the runway, and bare dirt/mud starting to surround the runway as the sod harvest continues.  UG!

Surf at Sunset

I used a totally blacked out canvas (black gesso) for this painting, and it came out pretty satisfactory!  Had fun just being very loose on what I deemed a practice canvas.  Bob Ross did one on Monday, so I tried my hand at it.  One thing he did not say he did, but I took it upon myself to coat the canvas with liquid clear on top of the yellow, lavendar and brown that is below the horizon.  I did the sky first without using the liquid clear, and that made blending the sky very difficult, as I added white on top of the yellow, alizarin crimson, and lavendar/blue.  Next time, liquid clear goes on top of the black gesso, then the undercolors, then the white on top.  Hard to explain unless you paint with the Bob Ross wet on wet method.

This is my 84th painting overall, and 4th for 2014.  :)

Super Bowl Sunday

Jon and the SAB Goblin 500, snapped by Jeremy

This is not about the Super Bowl, but it is about what I did that morning before the SB!  Got to fly my 4 helis with Tad and Quang, with Jer spectating.  Flew 5 packs through the 450's, 2 through the Goblin 500, and 2 through the X5.  All so satisfying.  Tad, Jer, and Quang were happy to see my X5 fly, and they thought it looks like a good heli.  Tad did a fine job with his Goblin 500, getting lower and lower while inverted, and faster in big sky circuits.  Quang wowed us with his Trex 700e, and Goblin 500.  His 700e was crazy with all the LED lights illuminated for night flying.  He flies so well.

Jon and the Gaui X5, again snapped by Jeremy

X5 Maiden Day!

I maidened the X5 today.   I was down to two big packs after flying the G500 first, and all the 450 packs.  As it got windier, I hesitated, but went ahead and maidened the X5. Seems good.  A bit more sensitive to the sticks but that could be Vbar vs iKon.  I did notice before today that when playing with the cyclics on the X5, they don't act mooshy going back to neutral like they do on the Gobby and the 450's.  Could be  a simple setting in the Vbar to change that, but to tell the truth it still feels good.  First flight was all in normal mode.  2nd flight I went in and out of IU1 and 2.  Sounds heap big powerful when changing into IU.  I guess I set everything up OK in the X5 because it flew well with no cuckoo behaviors, so yay! 

Glad to report the X5 is highly visible in the air, but then again I did not get far away.  I stayed low and flew different sides facing me, and some small circles and 8's.  It is a good heli and will be fun splitting time with the other helis.  Makes me want to get more big batteries so that I can take just the Gobby and X5 to the field!  Yike$!  Sad to report I did not take a camera to capture some maiden day pics.

Flew 7 packs through the 450's with no issues.  Both DFC and FBL are doing fine, the FBL now with the Dominator motor and a 14T Pinion.  Seems a little better (less cyclic wobble) than the 13T pinion after adjusting the gains on the BeastX.  One pack (from Anthony, an old one) will be trashed, as it made the DFC motor run high and low, and the tail twitched a little.  After changing to a new pack, those issues were gone.