Yay and Bah!

Yay for the Trex 450 FBL which flew good.  While I put the flight mode on SPORT, I think maybe that is where it was originally because it felt exactly the same today...sensitive but not uncomfortably so.  I have now set it to NORMAL for next flying day to see which I like better.  I got in two safe flights on the FBL today, and am liking the feel of it.

Bah for the Trex 450 FB because the DELAY did not help at all.  I tried various amounts of stick deflection, as well as gain settings again, and nothing really helped.  Probably I am just getting used to the tail jitters because it was more controllable to me today, lol.  I quit while ahead and will probably now resort to a new tail servo.  If that does not work, then the gyro is screwy.

Also got in 4 packs through the Showtime.

Intruder and Showtime

I broke out the Intruder for 3 flights today, and the repaired and regapped OS 91 Surpass II is making the plane sing like when it was new.  I can hear the whistle of the plane during the whole flight when at WOT.  I also flew the mini-Showtime to see if it would do the Hop and Stop task, but I don't think I like for that task because the plane noses over easily.  That would result in DQ points of -100, so I think I will stick with the Star for the finals two weeks from now.  Gorgeous cloudless day with very light winds.

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.

Flight Log: 07/28/12

Had a great day flying the 50cc Extra 330L.  I had 3.1 flights, and Jer had a full flight with it too.  The DL-50 started the day well, then ran rough at the end of the 3rd flight, and for next partial flight.  It started running rough, like there was air in the fuel right after I did some hover attempts.  Tuning it more at the field did not work. I brought it home and returned the needles to 1.5 and 1.25 (H and L) open per the manufacturer's manual.  Then I ran it on the side patio, and it ran okay, but needs some fine tuning after flying at the field.  It did not however sound like it did at the field when it went burbly.  Tad had a flight with his Extra after returning his needles to these original settings.  The engine almost cut out on his first partial flight.  After tuning, his ran fine.  Jer flew my Showtime and crunched it, but took it home to fix as best he can.  No big deal!!  Before that happened, I had one battery on the Showtime.

Flight Log: 07/27/12

Wow, today was more Springlike weatherwise than Summery!  Don't think the temp got much above 70F while at the field today, but it was comfortable and NOT raining, which is what matters.  Light wind was mostly from the West which made landings nice.  I flew the CG Ultimate 10-300 four times, and used three battery packs on the Showtime.  One of the four packs had a bad cell, so it is not recharging anymore, and I am thus down to 3 packs for the Showtime and Blade 400.  The Ultimate was its usual self, in other words lots of fun.  It's always a treat to fly that plane with the reliable OS 120 FS in it.  Just looks good AND sounds good.  Dean came again today, with his Yak 55, and Rudy showed up later too with his electric pattern plane.  Dean's DLE-30 is now running reliably with a replacement carb given to him by Tom at Valley View...makes for a great flying Yak 55!

WOT after WOK!

Went flying today, the day after our WOK event.  Today I had a WOT event!  WIDE OPEN THROTTLE!  On my second flight with the Sbach, shortly after gaining altitude after takeoff, the DLE-30 got stuck on WOT.  Throttling down for any purpose did not work.  I was stuck with full throttle, but not to worry because on this gasser I have a kill switch, so not once did I panic.  Well, not a lot, haha.   My only decision was to situate the plane correctly for when I wanted to kill the engine.  I did it on a downwind leg with ample altitude, and made a good touchdown on the runway, with generous clearance over the irrigation pipes in the field...WHEW!  Upon investigation I found that the servo output shaft broke just below the screw holding the servo arm to the shaft.  Joe surmises the screw bottomed out on the shaft and caused a tension crack.  It  looks to me that there is a bubble in the molding of the shaft.  In any case, it's a simple fix to replace the servo.  I might contact Tower Hobbies for a replacement...it is worth an e-mail.

I also had fun with the Showtime, making 5 flights with my own 4 packs, and one of Joe's.

Extra Extra, read all about it!

Tad and I took our 50cc Extras to the field today.  Albeit a bit breezy, we flew the planes and had fun.  I think we flew in under 10mph.  My DL-50 acted like it had a problem at first.  It took something like nearly 100 flips to get the first cough out of it, and that was only after I tilted the plane nose down on the ground, and pumped the prop back and forth to encourage fuel to go to the carb.  I think it was just too dry in there due to not running for probably half a year!  After that first cough though, the engine started right up and ran fine.  With more expo dialed in the, the Extra 330L sure flew smooth, like my smaller planes, and I did not have any twitchiness like I remember from previous flights.  Today was the first time flying with the dual 1100mAh LiFe batteries and dual switches, which gave me more confidence that I would not run out of servo and receiver power.

Tad's Extra flew well.  It died on the first landing, after pretty much coming to a stop on the runway.  Subsequent ground tuning showed the DLE-55 dying after some seconds of full throttle.  He opened the high needle just 1/8 turn, and the engine ran steady and strong after that.

We both flew the Showtime in the high winds at the end of our stay.  I dorked the last landing and stripped the gears in the HS-55 servo.  Actually, the battery power was too low on the landing, and I tried to get more power, but the battery would not respond, so I had to try to stay level and set her down.  The rudder must have hit too hard and thar she blew!  I found a Cirrus 21 servo in my parts box that looks like it will fit and be adequate!  :)

Back to Sbach!

Very nice day for flying today, with summery weather but not yet 80F when I flew in the AM.  Had 2 flights with the Sbach 342, but had to quit when I performed a routine check for anything loosening on the plane.  Sure enough, one bolt for the Jtec muffler was missing, and the other was holding well, but the muffler could swivel.  Upon inspection at home, even the gasket was totally gone...and I am guessing it got shredded by vibration once the bolt came out.  I cleaned the muffler out well, found replacement bolt and lock washer at ACE (got an extra pair for future use), and made a new gasket out of a playing card.  Will bolt it back on with red (permanent) thread locker, and should be good for the next day of flight.

Also flew the Showtime twice, but quit after seeing how low the xmitter battery was dropping, down to 9.4V.

Flight Log: 07/08/12

Flew the Toledo Special 3 times and the Imagine twice today, also the Showtime once.  It was kind of an off day for me, timing wise, so practice for the duo routine with Jer was limited and will be continued next weekend maybe.  Flying was still fun with all the planes!  Tad joined us again with his big Extra and made two nice flights.  Temp hit 80F by noon and everyone was getting tired early!

BTW Jeremy filmed the TS a bit with my camera, and here is the vid that I posted on You Tube: