If your like me you love to build airplanes and have more projects on the board and in the queue then you’ll ever finish. For many building is half the fun in the RC airplane hobby. It can be very rewarding taking a pile of wood, foam or other material and form it into a flying airplane. This takes some work and can make a mess at times. One of the issues with building is your going to make a mess and create dust. This can be from wood, foam, fiberglass, carbon and many other materials. The problem is that dust is small and gets everywhere. At the very least it will make a mess of anything sitting in your work area. But the real issue here is that those small dust particles get into the air and you’ll end up spreading them around more then your workshop. All that dust that’s in the air means your breathing it in and none of that is good for your lungs or long term health. So let’s look at a few ways to manage that dust and keep us breathing normally.
Author Archives: Vintauri
DIY Airplane stand from PVC
The finished product
Having a good airplane stand to hold your plane while you work on it is invaluable. That does not mean you need to spend a lot of money on one. I have had a number of stands from cheap cooler style foam to expensive folding stands. They all have their place but sometimes you just want something that does the job but does not break the bank. Well if you have about $20, a few common tools and about an hour to spare you can have a great airplane stand custom fit to your needs.
The E-Flite Seafury is back!
A few years ago E-flite released a parkflyer Seafury featuring mechanical retracts. It was quite an advancement at the time. People loved the plane as it flew great and there just are not that many Seafury kits out there. Unfortunately for E-Flite the company they contracted to manufacture the kits went out of business so they discontinued the kit.
Well it’s back now and made of the more durable Z-Foam. It still has the mechanical retracts and detachable rocket armament. additionally it also retained the same stick mount setup for the motor. While not a big issue for more modelers these days it’s unfortunate that some minor revisions could not be made to update the kit for the modern electric retracts and firewall mounted outrunners people enjoy these days. But lets not dwell on the minor issues but be glad we now have a parkflyer Seafury back in ARF form. Perhaps we’ll see the P-38 revived as well? We’ll have to wait and see what Horizon and E-flite have to say about that.
Product Description
Key Features
- Durable molded Z-Foam construction with removable wing
- Striking scale detail, including panel lines and an authentic paint scheme
- Mechanical retractable landing gear included (two sub-micro servos required)
- Factory-installed spars, hinges and control horns
- Lightly loaded wing for stable flying characteristics
- Fully detailed, factory-painted cockpit and pilot figure
- Factory finished rockets included for added scale appearance
- Large, easy-access magnetic hatch
- 4- to 5-channel operation (retractable landing gear is optional)
- Propeller and scale spinner included
Needed To Complete
- 4+ channel Transmitter and Receiver radio system (5+ for retract operation)
- 4 sub-micro servos (6 for retract operation)
- Brushless outrunner motor
- Brushless ESC
- Flight battery
What makes a good second airplane?
What is a good second airplane???
So you feel you have mastered your first airplane and your looking to move on to something a little different? There are a number of questions to ask yourself. No two people will advance in this hobby the same way so there is no standard second airplane. It all has to do with what you learned on your first airplane and how challenging it was to begin with. You also have to look at what your goals are in the hobby.
WATTS over Owatonna 2011 in pictures
Winter is blowing in as we speak and the warm summer days at the field will be a distant memory while we all crowd into gyms to fly our small foamies or spend hours in the shop building for when the warm days of summer come back around. While all this is going on the planning continues for the events of next year. Not to be missed is WATTS over Owatonna. 2012 is looking to be a great year again. We’ll have all the same people back again plus the field will be tweaked to allow as much flying as possible while keeping people feeling safe. We’ll also be looking to expand the sound system and arrangements just to make things a little smoother. So get building for next year and bring that cool project and maybe you’ll find yourself taking home the best of show or pilots choice award! In the mean time enjoy the video with many photo’s from 2011.
WATTS over Owatonna 2011 in Fly RC
I was happy to see the January 2012 issue of Fly RC had a great 3 page article on Watts over Owatonna. Having worked hard to get this event running it’s awesome and exciting to see the attention it is getting from both online and print media. In it there are many photos from the event and a basic description of the entire weekend. Keep an eye out for info on next years event at http://www.watts2012.net
Crashes Happen
If you’re flying RC aircraft then eventually you will crash. It’s not a matter of if you will crash it’s when. The sooner you realize this the easier it will be to deal with it. I recently lost one of my favorite daily flyers. My 3D Hobby Shop 47″ Yak 54 went in after hundreds of flights over 3-4 years. While it’s sad to loose a plane I had become so used to flying and was very comfortable with I’m also okay with it because of two things. The plane gave me many hours of fun, and I learned quite a bit about aerobatics on this plane. But secondly I’m okay with it because I know why it crashed and I can learn from that. In this case it was the RX had reset in air due to low voltage supply. I had just taken off and started my routine roll to the left when it happened. The plane had no hope as failsafe set in with idle power and neutral controls. It simply stayed in knife edge with no power and fell to the ground. While I could be very frustrated with the radio failure and say it’s not my fault I’d rather deal with the loss and learn from it. I checked the battery after the wreckage was picked up and it looked okay but I want to test the pack under load. I have had a few cases of early cut off due to weak cells in lipo packs. The take away here is we all need to do some preventative maintenance on our planes. Check wires, and screws to make sure things have not come loose. Check glue joints to make sure there are no stress cracks. Tighten up the covering before it flies off in a big chunk right after that impressive snap roll or blender. Doing that preventative maintenance can prevent you from loosing that favorite airplane and keep your enjoyment of this hobby going strong.
E-Flite Gee Bee R2 Ultra Micro UMX
The Gee Bee R2 racer is one of those planes most everyone loves but hates to fly. With the big round body meant to house a large radial engine and just enough wing area to keep it in the air it can be a handful to fly. Enter E-flite and their new AS3X technology to tame down the beast and make it in a micro fly anywhere size.
The release date is late December of 2011 so we might not see it under the christmas tree but hopefully by new years we’ll be tearing up the ball parks and indoor arenas with this new micro plane from E-flite. Check back for my take on this plane once it’s released.
Below are the specs from E-flite. See the product page here: http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFLU4580
UMX Gee Bee R2 BNF
Overview
Gee Bees competed in all the popular airplane races of the Golden Era of aviation. These highly engineered, teardrop-shaped, super planes required a skillful hand and perfect circumstances, but with the right pilot, they ruled the speed course. The UMX Gee Bee R2 is yours to groove through the skies just about anywhere because it features specially tuned handling more in common with a Sunday sport model than a short-coupled engine with wings. The awe-inspiring UMX Gee Bee R2 replica offers handling so remarkably smooth, you’ll want to fly this authentically scaled model every day. Its built-in, specially tuned, AS3X System invisibly helps you enjoy the kind of silky handling and outstanding control you always wanted from a conveniently sized RC model, but never thought possible before now. And you get all the benefits without having to spend a lot of setup time. No special programming is required. Just charge the included Li-Po battery, bind to a basic DSM2™/DSMX® airplane transmitter setup and the UMX Gee Bee R2, enhanced with the AS3X System, will instantly offer you the best flight experience possible.
Product Specifications
| Wingspan: | 20.1 in (510mm) |
| Overall Length: | 13.9 in (352mm) |
| Wing Area: | 72.5 sq. in. (4.7 sq. dm.) |
| Flying Weight: | 3.60 oz (102 g) |
| Motor Size: | 180-size 3000Kv brushless outrunner |
| Radio: | 4 channel minimum transmitter |
| Servos: | (4) 2.3 g Performance Linear Long Throw Servo |
| Trim Scheme Colors: | Red and White |
| Prop Size: | 5.25 x 3.5 Electric Propeller |
| Recommended Battery: | 2S 200 mAh 25C Li-Po Battery (included) |
| Approx. Flying Duration: | 4 minutes |
| Charger: | DC powered 2S LiPo charger (included) |
| Minimum Age Recommendation: | 14 years |
| Experience Level: | Intermediate |
| Recommended Environment: | Outdoor |
| Is Assembly Required: | No |
Needed to Complete
Any 4+ channel DSM2- or DSMX-compatible Transmitter
Forsberg Field Dedication – North Mankato MN
On May 21st the City of North Mankato and the North Mankato Quiet Flyers held a dedication ceremony for the newly constructed Forsberg Field city park. This is a RC flying park for use by the public with electric powered RC aircraft.
Back in early 2010 the club was flying off of the local middle school soccer fields. However whenever they were in use by the soccer clubs, football teams, marching band or other groups the RC flyers would wait till the fields were clear to fly. One day a soccer coach stopped to talk to a couple members about flying and how the fields are often busy. They met again and did some flying together. Well this coach got the club in touch with the city administrator and talks about a place for the RC flyers to fly without disruption ensued. A year later the park has been setup in an industrial area where the planes have room to fly without obstruction and without bothering any neighbors. There is a 120 x 70 foot paved runway area with grass overruns on all sides.
The dedication ceremony went well even with some rain early on. The club put on a display of various aircraft including trainers, jets, warbirds, gliders, helicopters and more. Many people enquired about learning to fly and the instructors were busy handing out information and setting up contacts.
This is a great partnership with the city and a bunch of local RC flyers to help grow the hobby and introduce more people to aviation and the RC hobby.
GWS FW-190 Maiden
A few years ago I picked up a GWS FW-190 kit when they first came out. The FW-190 is one of my favorite planes and I had to have it. I could not leave it stock and just have fun. I had to modify it. I went about adding mechanical retracts, split flaps, filled and glassed the airframe, changed the cowl to be closer to scale and added some detail to the cockpit. Well time got away from me and I jumped on and off the project over the past few years. I finally decided I had been putting it off long enough and sat down to finish it. It came in at a portly 37 ounces and was on the edge of being tail heavy.
My friend Mike and I decided we were going to go maiden a couple planes and set aside an afternoon that looked like it would be decent. We loaded everything up and headed to the field. We figured that we’d get things setup and charge a few packs and mid evening the wind would calm down to a calm 5mph. Well it did calm down but not much. It was still close to 10mph but it was down the runway. The sun was setting and I was not going home to wait longer. So I let her roll down the runway and off she went. It flew well but needed some aileron trim. I did a number of circuits, tested the roll rate and then started getting ready to see how she would land. I tested the flaps and they were very effective but made the plane balloon quite a bit. I had dialed in some elevator with the flaps but not enough. I dropped the gear and started in a landing pattern. It started to settle in nice but around 5-7 feet from the ground it would get very pitch sensitive. I made about 10 passes working in the flaps and some down trim. Each time it would get close but either start to stall early or ballon on me. I finally got the timing down and got her on the ground with no damage.
I’m going to re-check the CG as I feel it is still a little tail heavy. I’ll give her another go on a calmer day and see how the landings go. But I was happy with how it went even with the crazy landing attempts.
