Category Archives: General Info

This is where any topic can fall into if there are no specific areas it fits.

Tactic Anylink 2.4 module


Posted by Vintauri

 

For the past 8-10 years I have mainly flown JR and Spektrum radio gear.  This is mainly due to the fact that my club is mostly JR people and it makes it easier when helping each other out if your familiar with the equipment.  When we were back on 72mhz being brand specific was not as big of a deal as on 2.4ghz.  Many brands of receivers would still work with other radios due to the analog nature of the technology.  PCM and frequency shift issues changed this a little but 2.4 was the real killer.  Things are digital now and need to speak the exact same language.  So now we’re stuck with brand specific receivers.

This can be a big problem with bind and fly airplanes that are setup for a specific brand radio.  For example a person with a new 8FG radio from Futaba would not be able to fly any of the Parkzone micro airplanes that are so popular.  So they are stuck either not enjoying those planes or they have to buy a separate radio just for them.   Tactic RC decided to do something about that for their receivers and airplanes.

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I Design a plane in Google Sketchup


Posted by Vintauri

 

I’ve been building RC airplanes for a number of years now.  It all started back when I was in grade school and my dad started building a radio controlled glider.  I was intrigued and as all little boys do I bugged him all the time about it asking questions every time he woudl work on it.  Luckily for me (and an attempt to save his sanity) we went to the local hobby shop and picked up a Guillows free flight airplane kit for me to work on while he worked on his RC glider.  Once we were finished we took them both out to a big grassy field and both airplanes took flight!  From that first kit I was hooked!

Since then I have built and repaired many planes.  I do enjoy the building side of the hobby which helps during what normally is 5 months of cold and snow up here in Minnesota.  However what I have always toyed with doing was scratch building in the truest sense of the word.  To me scratch building is starting from nothing more then an idea or a picture and creating the airframe yourself.  While I have always had ideas rolling around in my head I could never seem to get them drawn out on paper or on the computer in CAD. Continue reading →


What makes a good second airplane?


Posted by Vintauri

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.

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Crashes Happen


Posted by Vintauri

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.