Tag Archives: Vintauri

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 →


Great Planes – Electrifly Gee Bee RxR


Posted by Vintauri

 

I’m a sucker for the golden age of aviation.  There is something about the big round engines and rounded airframes.  The open cockpits and big wheel pants.  Perhaps it’s because it could be considered the youthful time of aviation when we were still figuring out this marvel of flight.  One of the iconic airplanes of this time was the Gee Bee R1 and R2 racers.

History

Back in the early 1930′s air racing was a hot sport.  Records for speed were broken every year.   Howell “Pete” Miller and Zantford “Granny” Granville worked on the Gee Bee R design.  They theorized that a teardrop shape would induce less drag then the typical standard taper.  So they spent 3 days in a wind tunnel testing the design.  They also moved the cockpit as far back as they could to maximize the pilots viewing area in tight pylon turns.  What they did not count on but were pleased to find out is that the teardrop body acts as a large airfoil so in a tight knife edge turn the plane would hardly loose any lift.

The R1 won the Thompson Trophy race in 1932 being flown by Jimmy Doolittle.  He loved the airplane and spoke very highly of it.  However in 1933 pilot Russell Boardman was killed During the 1933 Bendix Trophy race.  The airplane quickly became known as a killer in the hands of an inexperienced pilot.

Replicas

Non-flying replicas of the R-1 have been built using original plans for the aircraft.  A flying replica of the R-2 was built by Steve Wolf and Delmar Benjamin that first flew in 1991. Benjamin flew an aerobatic routine in this aircraft at numerous air shows until he retired the aircraft in 2002.  This aircraft was put on display the Fantasy of Flight in Polk City Florida in 2004.  I had the chance to see this replica fly at an air show once and it was a sight to see.

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Park Scale Models – Drake Floatplane


Posted by Vintauri

Every winter the Minnesota Area Radio Controlled Electric Enthusiasts (MARCEE) is able to secure some indoor flying time at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.  I went up for a day of flying and had a good time.  One of the main things I wanted to do was to fly a new plane I picked up from http://www.parkscalemodels.com  The Drake is a micro float plane design and I had recently finished it.  Flying it in the calm and relative warmth of the Metrodome was much more inviting then the cold outside of late December in Minnesota.  The flight went great and I was able to get Chris to run the camera for me.