Flight log: November 8, 2020

It was a cool day but 45F+, and breezy at 5-10mph but sunny.  The forecast is for over a week of wet, windy, cold weather, so I went to fly at 11:00, not expecting any one to be at the field.  It was nice to see a couple bodies there from a distance...Doug Brown and Andy.  Doug flew his new Assassin wing and of course one of his many Nexstar’s.  I flew the Tower Kaos 40 twice and the G500 once.  It was all uneventful and pleasant.  Landings were on the runway which is good in the crosswind breezes we had today.  Mission accomplished.

Catchup catchup catchup!

Been a lazy man and haven't been posting my flight days.  So many days have gone by that I cannot recount exactly, but this will have to serve as a catchup to fill the time between July 14 and today, August 8!  I have been flying lots.  Cousin Ron visited July 21-31 and I was flying helis lots in prep for that visit.  Then he came and we flew for 8 out of the 9 mornings available to us for flying.  Up at dawn, out at the field by 7:15 every day!  Kinda grueling at first but then just lots of fun, lol!  Then after he left, I was in the habit of getting out there so early and here we are over a week later, and I have gone to fly probably everyday but two since he left.  Been doing much with helis, flying all of my heli fleet while Ron visited.  Typically I flew about 5 or 6 heli flights everyday, and then another few plane flights.  Tad came out two days of Ron's visit, Jer two too, and Quang also two, but not all the same two days for each of them, except once.  Those days when the boys played with us, we flew Battle Wings like crazy and just had a ball.  Many midairs were experienced, and some videoed by Jer!  Nothing was damaged beyond repair.

Before Ron came, I bought another Aerostar 40 from Dick, this one with flaps.  Very cool plane.  I let Jer fly it and for some reason the plane became unresponsive on final about 30' high.  It just nosed over into a dive and crunched resoundingly.  The motor nose housing area completely came off the fuselage, and the structure between there and the forward wing bulkhead was obliterated.  Jer and Ron retrieved the plane and brought back every piece of wood they could find.  I did my forensic post crash analyses and guessed that there were elements of a perfect storm that caused the crash.
1.  Plane head on to pilot where receiver was blocked by large airborne battery pack.
2.  Large sprinkler system down runway edge, the one on wheels, running from pilot to past the plane.
3.  Steel fence posts and rails running in front of pilot towards the plane.
4.  Pilot holds xmitter with arms hanging low and xmitter pointing down and out.
Altogether, this led to blackout to the receiver.   Jer said there was full control of every surface and the motor at the crash site.

After a few days I decided to start repairs and see if I finished or just would give up on the plane.  I got her done, and it looks better than new, lol!  And today I flew it with the same receiver because I figured the same four conditions would not ever occur again, mostly because I don't hold my xmitter low like Jer.  As added precaution, I relocated the receiver up higher in the fuselage.  Due to one or both changes, there was no issue today with reception.  The plane flew fine...actually better because during the repair, I added a couple washers under the right side of the engine mount to reduce the right thrust built into the firewall by Dick.  It was too much, causing right turns under power.  Glad to have the new Aerostar 40 repaired and flyable again because it is a beauty and flies well.

For planes during the delinquent period, I flew the Battlewing, Aerostar 40F (flaps), Mini Aerostar, StarStream, Star, RV-8, Toledo Special, maybe something else!  And finally, I sold the Aerostar 40 to new guy at the field who could use it.  I don't need it now with the new Aerostar 40F in the fleet.

That will have to do as catchup for the several weeks of failing to report the flight log!

Flight Log: 06/17/2017

Hey twice in a week flying!  Got out early and as usual nobody else was at the field, lol.  Flew my X5 twice, G500 twice, and 7HV thrice.  Then followed on with the Aerostar 40 electric plane twice.  With the runway still off limits, I flew it off the heli pad and road.  No issues with helis or plane today.  No miscues or misorientations on the helis, yay.  Felt good and positive and confident.

Flight Log: April 28-29, 2017

Finally got out to fly again, and managed two days in a row!  Both times were at the KRCA field.   Nobody was there either day, prolly due to the poor condition of the runway...all mud and moss, lol.  I got to fly my X5 four times and 7HV three times yesterday.  Today it was again four flights on the X5, but three on the G630, followed with two flights of the Aerostar 40 electric.  Conditions both days were primo, with very light to no wind, sunny skies, and cool 50F temps.  And I liked having nobody there to take turns with, haha.  Here are some pics:

The good outcome is that I did not crash anything, lol.  Loved being able to fly the helis again with pretty good level of comfort, even inverted.  This is the year I swear I will do inverted circuits.  Last year I had good progress, being able to fly straight inverted, stop, pyro 180, and fly straight again.  This year I will make forward inverted flight with banking a reality.

Wing Dinger!

That is what Tad and I will be called soon...instead of Krosswinds!   We are going to join the Dallas Oregon RC club called the Wing Dingers for obvious reasons....dinging wings!  We wanted a new field due to the continual threat of losing the KRCA field to the owners JB Sod.  They are escalating their types of complaints for us to be unhappy there.  Reasons now include not just the risk to their workers of getting hit by one of our aircraft, but not liking to drive around the corners of our runway, and the presence of obnoxious weeds on our runway.  Bob says JB has been asking how we are doing on locating a new place to fly, lol.  He says it is a matter of when and not if we wll be kicked out.  I feel they are just manufacturing complaints now  and voicing them often to build the case to get rid of us.

So we always knew about the Dallas club but never had a real need for it till now.  I flew there today and met lots of the regular flyers, including Doug and Cliff who were recent members of KRCA.  Good news is that the distance to Dallas is longer but the travel time is about the same because of no traffic lights and higher speeds.  And best of all, I liked the field and members there today.

 I got in 3 flights on the Aerostar 40 and one on the SNAFU.  Everyone left or i would have flown longer!  Some pics follow.

Looking east from west end of pits

Looking east from west end of runway

Straight east from west end of runway

Real nice shed

Looking west from east end of pits

Short North South runway looking southeast from shed

Doug on taxiway to main runway

Dougs Falcon 56 on runway

My SNAFU and Aerostar 40

The club regular flyers!

View to the southwest.

The tall grain elevator is gone, just a pile of rubble now.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Flew today, just 5 days after the last time, and 2nd time this year, yay!  Flew ok, but not instinctively on some hover attitudes.  Ten weeks off is way too long.  Right side facing me seems to be the toughest one, and nose in again.  Forward flight is fine in all attitudes.  Oh well, need stick time to get it back.  Still, I managed a few flips and stayed inverted in hover without crashing, so that is positive.  Flew the Goblin 500 four times today.  Followed that with the Aerostar 40 for three flights.  No crashes, no repairs, no dumb thumbs.  All is well!

NOTE the crappy sod farm that is pure humps of mud, all 80 acres of it!

NOTE the crappy runway that is pure mud and moss, all 250' of it!

Fog, Goblin, and Aerostar 40

Yesterday was calm, just above 50F, but pretty foggy at the field.  I almost did not leave home, but decided to risk it.  Same conditions at the field but I could see the farmhouse from the helipad.  Heck, good enough!  I flew the G500 four times.  Had to stay low and close, but still managed some flips to inverted and some hovering inverted.  Fog forced tighter turns too.  All good, no mishaps!  Flew the Aerostar 40 after that, and kept it close too.  Almost lost it inverted on one disorientation, lol, but recovered a few feet above terra firma.  Yay, I got to take both home in one piece.  I would have flown the 7HV but forgot the charged receiver pack at home!  Oh, the repaired Aerostar flew like it always has....GOOD!  So the damages incurred last time, plus ensuing repairs, have no ill effect on the flyability of that great plane.

Gobbies and Gobbled up!

What a great day of flying even though it was mostly foggy.  I took both Goblins today, and got in 4 flights on the 500 and 3 on the 630.  Due to low ceiling and limited visibility, I stayed pretty close with both and had much fun doing lower than usual flips and inverted hovering.  When I was done with helis, the fog was dissipating and it was much fun to fly the Aerostar 40 low through the pockets of mist, and up high where the Aerostar 40 turned to a ghost.  I got carried away though as pics will attest!  I was having too much fun flying low and damaged the right wing tip of the plane.

Rats, on my last flight, I got too close to the Private Property sign!

If just 3/4" higher, or 6" closer to me,  the plane would have missed the sign post.

The plane actually hit the top tip of the steel post, not the sign itself.  Cuts balsa like butter!

I went home and immediately got at repairing the plane.  It is ready to fly again!  With a slightly different color scheme, lol.

Actually in this one, I already cut away  most of the torn covering, and shredded balsa.
Also, I already glued two pieces of recovered LE back in place.  Good that I collected them at the field!

Repairs to wood completed.

Repairs done.  Note perfect match of newly covered area to rest of wing.
Had to use transparent orange since I don't have transparent yellow.

Foggy Fun

Flew this morning in decent weather that was 55F, mostly grey, partly foggy.  I took my Gaui X5, Compass 7HV, and Aerostar 40.  Felt good like I have been flying more regularly than actual.   Got in lots of flips, and on the final flight with the 7HV, I was doing inverted stall turns and straight inverted passes consecutively.  With the Aerostar, I flew into the low hanging clouds...sounds high but I bet it was under 400 feet.  The plane turned grey in the fog but never really disappeared, lol.

Weekend flying

Yesterday was the KRCA annual picnic and fly-in, so I took just my Toledo Special and Aerostar 40 to fly.  Got 3 flights on the Aerostar, and maybe 4 on the TS.  I forget!  Hamburgers and hot dogs were great!

This morning I flew helis with Tad.  I charged all 14 of my 4000 mah packs and got in 2 flights on the X5, 2 on the G500, 2 on the G630, and 3 on the 7HV.  When Tad came at 8AM I had 4 flights in on the smaller helis, and then we took turns from then on.  Tad had 4 flights on the beautiful Forza 700.  I did a lot of inverted practice again.  Keep on piling on the time and something is bound to improve, lol.  Tad said my pullouts from inverted were lower than ever, so that shows more confidence.  Or stupidity!  Great fun flying with Tad in the perfect weather, with no interruptions from JB or other fliers today.

Funtastic 4

Flying was exceptional this morning, again early bird style.  I was there by 7 and home by just after 9.  Got in 11 flights.  Eight were on the helis, with two each on the X5, G500, G630, and 690SX.  Gosh they all flew good.  It was clear and cool with JB way out on the south end of the farm.  Nobody else came to fly.  Flying was better than normal for some reason, perhaps due to no extraneous distractions, workers or other pilots and aircraft.  Felt very comfy doing inverted practice as usual.  Seems I might be getting a little lower at times due to the comfort level rising.  I practiced coming out of inverted by all means I know...pull half loop, flip forward/outside, roll right, and today I did many roll lefts too.  I can feel coordinated inverted turns coming soon!

 
I also flew the Aerostar 40  three flights.  Love that slow silly plank.

Still catching up!

Must be a lazy bones because I just am not blogging the same day as flying!  I think I flew three times more since the last post, including a day with Tad last Thurs on his day off.  My usual SOP of around 7 flights each day with helis, rotating among four (X5 left at home due to falling back in love with the G500 with its new XNova motor), so that is 21 total, or 5 per heli...G500, 7HV, 690SX, and G630.  I have had probs with the 7HV overheating...the motor, esc, and batteries come down super hot, so actually I have flown that a little less than the others.  Gear train seems smooth.  The can on the stock Compass motor is shifting such that it touches the bottom motor housing...burn marks from overheating are self evident.  Thus after much consideration, I blame the motor as the cause and have ordered a new Scorpion motor.  $275, arg!  Lucky I had a $25 coupon for AMain or it would be $300.

Been flying various Stars a couple flights on each day too, including the StarStream, Aerostar 40, and MiniStar.

Catching up!

I have not been blogging because Cousin Ron came for a visit from July 29 till August 8.  Out of nine days of his stay, we flew eight!  It is too hard to remember exactly what i flew how many tome, but this will be close.  I flew all five helis over the 8 days, and typically had an average of 7 flights each day.  That makes 56 total flights distributed over five helis, so that makes about 11 flights per heli over the period.  I also flew the Star, Ministar, and Starstream during someof those days.

Ron put all my helis except the X5 on governor mode in the Castle escs.  Seems to work fine except i am having a possibly unrelated overheating issue with the stock motor in the 7HV.

On one of the first flying days, Ron detected my Quantum motor in the G500 overheating.  Combined with the weird noise issue in the heli, which i have noted in other blog entries, i decided to replace the motor with an XNova motor like Ron did.  The motor came from Amain in just two days.  It solved the noise issue and is just lukewarm to the fingers after flights.

Here are a few pics from the 8 days we flew:

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.

Hot times!

Flew today early before 8AM and it was already 80F at home.  Luckily it did not rise fast while I was at the field, so I could take my time and utilize my packs.  Flew the 450 helis for a change, putting 3 packs through both of them.  They used to be squirrely to me, and not too fun, but today they were very manageable and I even did some back and forward flips, stall turns, and a little high inverted hovering and rollouts.  They also did not seem as super high RPM as I recall they were.  All in all, I can take them again and enjoy them too.  I think flying big ones has just given me lots of stick time to where the small 450 size is not so daunting anymore.

I also flew two DS planes, the miniStar and the Aerostar 40.  Got in 2 packs on the mini and 3 on the 40.  I had two more Turnigy packs for the mini but forgot they don't fit the battery compartment in the plane.  I was supposed to reserve the two Hobby People packs for the mini but in the excitement, haha, I used those early in the 450FBL heli.

Finished up by mowing most of the runway.  Could not mow east end due to irrigation pipes on our runway.

FLight log: 05/20/2016

Very gorgeous morning, cool but not cold, beats being hot!  Calm, cloudy at first.  No workers although the sprinklers were running right off the south edge of the runway.  No worries.  Flew helis first, and got in 4 flights on the G500, and 3 on the new Logo 690SX.  Still had echo issues on the Goblin.  Seemed less than last time, but not gone.  Upon further examination, I noticed that I used just one zip tie to hold the CC esc in place, and that has loosened, so the esc could wiggle side to side.  That is the only thing sorta loose that I can find, so later on at home, I replaced that zip tie and added another.  Hopefully that takes care of the echo sound.  BTW I tested with canopy off and the heli still made the noise but not as loud.  Other than that the Goblin is flying well.

The 690SX makes me smile when I fly it.  So darn quiet!  And the light disc loading just makes it smooth and responsive, and effortless compared to the other helis.

I also flew the Aerostar 40 for 3 flights.  Can't be more relaxful than that plane.

Goblins day

Could not pass up the good weather today so I flew my G500 and G630.  4 flights and 3 respectively.  Good conditions of calm wind, mostly sunny skies, and about 50F at first.  I got fooled into busting out a hand warmer at home, then did not even need it at the field as the temp rose to 60F fast.  I got to do many flips to inverted and practiced keeping it level, moderating the speed doing, pyros, and pulling out with different flips.

Finished up with 3 flights of the Aerostar 40.  Decided to decrease timer time on the xmitter to 8 minutes from 9.  Seem to be coming down with under 15% battery, too low.

Another sunny sonny day!

Tad and I were the only ones at the field today, a very cool morning at first, but soon the sun made us comfortable.  Flew about two hours.  Tad had his G500 and G570 for four flights each.  Flew with his usual smoothness and skill including inverted and backwards flight.  I had my X5 for 4, and 7HV for 3 flights.  Followed that up with 3 flights on my repaired Aerostar40 (the ESC overheated and caught fire last time, but I averted fire to the whole airframe by running to the plane and tossing the flaming ESC out of the plane, whew.)  Also had a new (third) battery for the Aerostar today.

It was great fun flying the helis and progressing in comfort level with inverted situations.  I can feel good progress coming this year in inverted flight!  It is all thanks to being able to see so well now after cataract surgeries.

Fun in the sun with a son!

Oh boy, a glorious day finally with no rain or wind or cold.  Tad and I flew yesterday for a couple hours at the field.  I went earlier than him since I had all my packs for helis, plus two for the Aerostar 40.  I got in 4 flights each on the X5 and G500, plus 2 on the 7HV!  Actually forgot to charge one of the packs at home, so I did not get another flight with the 7HV as planned.  Tad had 4 nice flights with his G500, looking as solid as ever.  His last flight was a long speed run, and it was fun to watch it fly more like a plane than a heli, with long swooping dives and passes.  I have never pushed my heli that fast with almost full collective.

Tad doing low inverted hover!

Ended the flying with one partial flight of the Aerostar 40.  After a few minutes in the sky on the first flight, the engine screeched.  I cut throttle and reapplied like normal.  It did not come back on, so I landed flat in the grass of the north field.  No harm done I thought.  Then Tad said the plane is smoking!  I ran to it and the esc was flaming and smoking.  I thought the battery was afire, nope.  Yanked the esc out, wow it was hot and totally blackened!  Stomped it and it was really just ashes, lol.  A hole was burned in the covering on the side of the fuselage, and there is still a light carbon stain in the fuse up front, but otherwise no real harm done. Shopping for a new esc now!

Was pleased to have a call from Tad later in the day that he just wanted to compliment me on how well I flew my helis today!  Lol, made me happy to hear.

Nice Spring Day!

Well it is not technically Spring for a month, but I think the worst of Winter is done.  It was about 45F when I went to the field before 10AM and likely about 50F when I was done at noonish.  I used all 14 of my 4000mAh 6s packs!  Ran 4 through the X5, 2 through the G500, and 8 through the 7HV.  That is a total of 10 flights at 4.5 minutes each.  Also took the Aerostar 40 and had 2 nine minute flights on it.  It was a lot of air time, all alone with nary a soul there the whole time.  Wind was light, sky was mostly sunny.  My new eyes worked fine with dark shades on.  While I wish the left eye could be as clear as the right, perhaps there is still hope.  The left eye surgery was just 7 days ago so more healing might be expected.  The right eye was done 3 weeks ago, and is so doggone sharp.  Left eye might be limited by worse astigmatism which is not corrected by the new lens implants.