Video: Heatwave In The Heartland ’09
As usual the Tulsa Gluedobbers put on a great event with their 60th annual Heatwave In The Heartland. Here are just a few of the highlights that I was able to capture.
Video: DL50 Re-Maiden
I had to rebuild the tail feathers on my dl50 because the original ones were warped. This time around I used light weight fiberglass and WBPU and a wax paper bagging technique that I learned here. http://www.rcarticles.9f.com/WaxPaper/waxpaper.htm It was quite windy so I wasn’t getting very good flight times but it was launching nice and high and fairly straight. I can’t wait to get this little plane into a Killer Okie Boomer! Come on warm weather!!!!
Aerial Footage
This was taken back in 2003 at my uncle Jack’s hay meadow.
Video: Tony’s Creation
Steve and Tony came up for some after work flying earlier in the week and they brought along a creation that Tony designed from the carcass of an old cheap foam plane that “just never flew very well” I gotta say that after the addition of a couple brushed ducted fans Steve had laying around it has found new life.
Video Update: Down and Dirty Wing
DnD Wing - Down and Dirty built over this weekend out of foam sheeting insulation aka FFF, it has a 28″ wingspan, 2 HS81 servos, a 2800Kv outrunner motor and flys off of 2 and 3 cell 1300mah LiPo batteries and a 6×4 Stryker prop. Should be a screamer! Wish me luck with the maiden I’m probably going to need it.
Update – Maiden Report: Well the first flight was not pretty, it went something like this; side arm launch, roll, inverted nose dive into the tarmac, but being a foamie it bounced right back. Sure, it was dented up but still very flyable, so after I dusted it off and checked everything, back out we went. I made a few power off test glides and decided it was time for the real deal. No more side arm launches for this little bird, its not a Superfly. Ok the second flight was, how should I say this, FAST and twitchy but it flew and that’s the most important thing. I brought it in and adjusted the control throws way down and went back out, better, man this thing hauled the beans! At this point I really needed to just chill and take a minute so I did. I brought it in safely and took a break. I watched Jeff fly his Stryker and toned the throws down a bit more. I don’t know why I chose to do so but I grabbed one of my old 1250mah 3 cell lipos and strapped it in. Back out to the flight line we go, launch was normal and I got it trimmed for nice level flight, man, I’m really starting to get the hang of the speed of this thing and the key is to just use half the throttle. I was pretty sure Jeff was itching to try it out so I offered it up and he accepted. I was climbing out to get some altitude so I could hand off the radio and wham it rolled over inverted and spiraled into the ground from about 60 feet up. I had no control, none, nada, zilch and that is not a good feeling. You can see the aftermath and destruction in the last picture below. Also, Jeff shot video of the first couple flights and if it turns out I will be sure to post it up somewhere and share it with you all.
Ok, so I have come to the conclusion that the old battery was the cause of the crash and the reason I say that is I fly the same sized battery in my Superfly and I tried them out in it today. When flying the Superfly with the questionably old batteries the throttle would cut out on me and its slow enough that I was able to glide around but what I noticed was that if I dropped the throttle stick all the way down and brought it back up it would start back up and run normally for a few minutes before it would do it again. When the crash happened I thought that the radio had somehow failed but on the other hand now I think the DnD may have stalled when the throttle quit and maybe that’s what caused me to think I had no control over it. I’m not making excuses but it was quite a ways out from me and the wind was blowing so I really could not have heard the motor running even if it was. I was having so much fun on that last flight that I will build another one of these before too long.
Video is up and its the very bottom of this post. Once again Jeff has done a great job filming. Thanks Jeff!
