Maukaonyx's "Life is GOOD!": July 2016

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!!!

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Great flying conditions AND NO JB work!

I have neglected to enter my flight log the last few times. Flew Thurs, putting on 4 flights of the X5, 4 on the Star, and 4 on the StarStream! (NOTE to self: on 07/17 I added two very thin washers on bottom motor mount flanges to give more neutral thrust...stock setup has too much down thrust as exhibited by plane diving slightly on sudden application of full throttle.)

On Saturday, I flew the Aerostar 40 three flights, X5 4 flights, and 7HV 5 flights!

Then today I flew the MiniStar 6 flights X5 4 flights, and 690SX 5 flights. It was good flying conditions each day. No harvest work witnessed on Sat and Sun, and today I duly noted that the harvest machines are NOT even located at the field now. Only the mowers and sprinklers are still there. JB must have moved ops elsewhere for now. HURRAH!

I actually tried to fly turns inverted today with the 690SX. Kinda hard to see because I was too scared to try lower. I feel like I will have a brain fart and not even know how to recover, so I need to be high enough to allow my brain to think! Slight success because I made half a circle twice, and lesser arcs a few more times before bailing out to upright. I guess it is a start. I attempted left circles today, with left aileron and opposite rudder. So much to think about with elevator and throttle to coordinate. Upcoming plan....practice, practice, practice.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Another good day

While JB was harvesting, they were on the far south side of the sod farm, so flying was possible and easy. Flew the X5 4 packs, 690SX 3 flights, and the StarStream 6 flights. All went well. Did not like the 9x4.7sf prop on the StarStream (no guts), so I upped it to a 10x4.7. That was good and torquey and slightly more efficient on the packs compared to the 9x6 prop provided with the new plane by Dick. Plane had seemingly same top speed with the 9x6 and 10x4.7 but the latter was punchier so I am sticking with that for now. Flight times still are about 3.5 minutes though, nothing to brag about.

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Surprise company

Jer and Ariel joined me at the field early this morning. Jer flew my new StarStream for three packs and loved the design by Dick. I got in three flights on it too, and also 3 on my X5, as well as the Logo 690SX. Nice to have no JB workers at all while we were there a couple hours.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Where is everybody!

Flew this morning on a perfectly good day, with JB working in the distance, so flying was allowable and safe and possible. Bud was there too, but only flew a few short flights due to binding problems. I got in 4 flights on the X5, 3 on the 7HV, and 6 on the StarStream. Used 4 new Zippy Compact packs in the StarStream. They seem fine. Not happy with 3.5 minute flight time on any of my packs, coming down with about 3.75 to 3.8V per cell typically. Emailed Dick and he suggests going to GP prop of 9x4.5. I guess I will get a range of props for future use. I want to get more flight time without sacrificing much speed, but that is the tradeoff. The plane flew good, but could still use more right thrust, so I might put another thin washer in on the left side motor mount flanges. Helis were great...time to start the inverted turning efforts again!