911hillclimber

I like the idea of repeated passes and will talk this through with my buddy pilot tomorrow where winds are at 3mph to 7 apparently. The few landings I've done are all power off when at about 15 feet up. If looking bad my buddy will take the plane up and away for us to live another moment later, my last crash was bought about by clipping the invisible end of the fence which he missed too! He was convinced all was well and saw me coming in well. The crunch was as much a surprise to him as me. If tomorrow goes badly I'll ask the Club if they will allow a white split tube along the one end of the fencing, it's a good idea. Brown Gorilla glue sure is good....

The field I use has an electric fence around it to keep the sheep off when not in use. It is about 3 feet high around the perimeter and is black so quite invisible at a distance against the green of the surrounding fields of the farm. Thus on approach you have to be sure you are going to miss it. Secondly, my approach is too high and not very level or steady, but not too fast either. I have been snagged by the fence a few times, have poor placement to the center of the field landing area and a nasty habit of parking the plane on the ground rather than gliding down to a natural halt. The strip is plenty long enough. I've landed like a pro a few times as i have fluked it, bit have equally snapped the U/C off on abrupt landing. All in all a bit raggesd and clumbsy....

I find myself 'stuck-in-a-rut' with gaining experience before I can reasonably go flying solo. My so helpful buddy instructor at the local club is a busy man so I have to hope his and mine calanders line-up for me to fly safely, so this restricts the ammount of flying time i can get, thus slowing down the process of 'independence'. I can take off and fly round fine, he even compliments me, but landing is a bit of a lottery. The plane is fitted with a stabilizing module, Beginner, intermediate, switched off. I have never used this (it also gets in the way of the buddy connection), but at my stage my thoughts are to select Intermediate (minimal flight correction) to allow me to build confidence landing the plane, then when feeling good to switch it off and simply get on with it. Any thoughts to this approach please?

That's what I thought too Kim.

Update: 2 deg right now confirmed, and zero degrees up or down, that is the motor shaft axis is parallel to the engine bearers. On this design of frame, the wing is not mounted parallel to the engine bearer 'line', the leading edge is about 3 deg higher, the tail plane is parallel to the engine bearer 'line'. There are no ailerons on this plane, essentially a 3 channel design.

I think I need to find a way to measure reasonably the 2 degree off-sets first to the plane/fuselage? Is a Junior 60 as sensitive?

Just dug-out the plan. It says 2 deg Rt and 2 deg Down but adjust on 'flights' I have (I guess) zero down, and 1 deg right now I have adjusted it! (before thinking the plan might say something. An experienced flyer flew the plane early last year in 4 mph breeze and had difficulty getting it straight, it seemed trick to fly compared to his Junior 60 he flew before hand on the same day. Strikes me up/down thrust is more sensitive to a calm flight than Rt/Lt, but I have ability to trim of course on the Tx which should have enough to get around these angles? My flying skills are still crude, still knocking the UC off my Kingfisher at times, but i do hope to fly this in the middle of the year and need it to be docile.

Thank you both, I know what to 'adjust' to now! Great forum! Graham.

What is the ideal engine (electric) off-set angle please/ The angle on my Ben Buckle Buccaneer is 2 x as much as that on my FMS foam trainer. Thanks, Graham.

Got to the local Club's flying field today, gusts up to 10 mph but generally calm, sunny and dry, so perfect. Buddied up with my tutor (he volunteers to help souls like me) and he took the plane off and around a few laps and handed over to me. I took it round and was surprisingly smooth (ish) but went round for 4 mins and he landed the plane. Second battery and I took off, got up and did a fair few laps, much smoother and even LANDED the plane almost smoothly! After coffee and shortbread all round (5 of us there) went up again, and over-thought everything, got disoriented twice and landed a bit abruptly. Decided my level of concentration was done for (8 minutes...) so after my tutor's 2 planes failed to run, we all seemed to have had enough over the 2 hours there, and left. Great to get back to it, plane worked great, in one piece so all good. Hoping for a good week next week, busy this week!

Thank you both, will look into the details. Graham.

Several years ago i bought off ebay a small spark engine very kit/home made status motor but tight and 'free' bar some gumming-up of old fuel (caster oil maybe) but a nice engine. It came with a wood (old) prop, 11" x something, all good. I fancy having a go at getting this engine to run. The engine is complete almost, it has the contact breakers but no coil etc. Being a period looking engine i want to find parts to get it going, but to look period too. The engine won't end up in a plane, but this is just a 'tinkering' project. Can anyone steer me please to a source for parts?

Ha! As if... Far more likely is I have my last brain cell plugged into the wrong channel. The ignition side of this engine has been a real nightmare, dealing with the Americans involved has 'missed my expectations' by a light year. All the UK people involved have exceeded my expectations, which is the good bit.

Tis I, the missing 911hillclimber! Oddly had the incline to visit this great forum for a 'nose' around. I hope 2022 will be significant for 2 things: 1 I get more help from Martin on perfecting things with my Kingfisher. Take off and flying (round and round) is ok in my head and skill set, and some good approaches and landings at the end of 2021 were good, but need to build on those. Martin is the perfect tutor. Would also like to do less gluing on the Kingfisher..... I feel very positive towards this. 2 To fly on appropriate days my BB Buccaneer. I really want to fly this wafting along at tick over (so to speak) while the Club's wizzz kids race frantically 100 feet above me.I sill have the lovely Stoll which won't take much to get going, some new rubber bands and a Tx program for it. I don't feel inclined to fly it for some reason, but with some nice BIG wheels it should be a nice plane even with the smaller wingspan of the 2 designs. As said, I've had a torrid time rebuilding my hillclimb Porsche engine for the Lola but it all runs now after considerable effort, time and skips of money. Will be tuned on he rolling road soon ready for the first event last week in April. I managed to 'upset' my right shoulder during this engine game (rotated cuff something) and a little lady in Kidderminster is stretching/mauling/eaing me back into shape. Overall, model planes are SO MUCH EASIER! The Lola Porsche engine: [url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://i.postimg.cc/gjMfqh1G/DSC0038-8.jpg[/img][/url]

Might have flown my last day of 2021 today. Just me and my buddy tutor on a boggy car field, but the flight strip was wet but ok. A 1,000,000 curious sheep can to see us. Managed to use 4 batteries down to about 30% with a horizontal sock, about 6 mpg and gusting. Take-off were good, bit steep as the wind lifted the light plane, but flew round and round, figs of 8 and then a landing. It came down a treat, no bangs or bounces, no testing of recent glued repairs, and NO buddy interventions. 2 and 3rd flights the same though the gusts were tricky close to landing, but corrected and survived, plane intact despite a bit of a bounce (or 3). So, the end i think (might try on thursday) to my first year as a rookie. Nearly 60 years between my last flight (control line) in the village park to facing the real challenge of R/C. It has been brilliant, hard at times, but when it all works, what a great way to spend time, so pleased I finally got to get going again. I have learnt a lot and have many to thank including all the help here on this site. I wish you all a Happy Xmas, and a Very Good New Year full of smooth landings no matter what.

Just caught up with this plane. What a real cracker! And it has a pilot, nice change. Makes me look forward to 2022 when I hope to be competent enough to fly my BB Buccaneer. The plane looks really good, an inspiration to a newbie!.

My buddy link is a keen volunteer, and has sorted quite a few over the years. I am 69 and picking all this up for the first time. I jumped in for all the wrong reasons and all the wrong gear too! old dogs and new tricks describes my dilemma. However, I now have the right plane, a field and flyers I'm comfortable with and non of them have taken the Micky over my efforts. I feel I've learnt a lot sometimes the hard way, and my last adventure to the ground was totally my fault based on mis placed confidence. I do though feel sure enough to fly on my own and if I need to I can switch on the stabiliser which I have not used, but watched a similar plane fly with its device on, the stability was very impressive. I have some options! No substitute for stick time.

Ok, must have been coming in too HOT. What a year getting started. Bit irritating to be at my 'stage' and now as good as no flying unless a good day pops up. Back to the simulator.

Flew this morning at 5 degs but zero breeze. Buddies-up and all went well, 3 take offs and 3 landings and some good circuits in between. Motor control is nice and you notice the lack of motor braking on landing, there is no prop drag to slow you down! Buddie took the plane up at first to check the trimming after the Big Repair and needed to trim 6 clicks to stop it from climbing hands off, then over to me. Gulp. Felt quite tense as the memories of the crash still in my head. Got to fix that. So, back on an even keel. Buddie only cut in once when it looked like I was going to land into the field fence.... Plane in one piece, just need to warm up now. Doubt we will fly much again in 2021, might be some special days yet.

Should add, plane passed the full Range Test this afternoon too.

Indeed, we designed our instructions for the over 60's! I was the 'artist' who drew the instructions, far better than a CAD as I could 'cheat' and remove a lot of un-needed detail. The instructions were also given to the Police to check, i did domestic door locks, surprisingly easy to confuse people. 'New' Rx arrived this morning, and have just fitted. Bound easy and all functions ok My soldered aerial connect was not very assured, so used the new one.

Yes, the instructions say 10 functions but only 8 are enabled. when I worked, all our instructions were written by my engineers, re written by the marketing girls and then sent to The Plain English Society for final vetting and changes, then tested by our Test Dept! In the end we blended minimal words with hand drawn pictures, worked a treat.

I'll try here Brian, but my command of words is not the best! Here is what I discovered: Switch Tx on, then stick to max then connect plane battery. Ignore all the beeps until you hear 4 loud BEEPS, the 4 large black dots on the top of the instructions. The system is now about to start going through the Programming sequence. You hear one beep, that is telling you Brake (of the motor) is now ready to be set, ie on or off. Ignore that and you hear 2 beeps, Battery Type, ignore that, you hear 3 beeps, ignore that and you hear 4 beeps, Factory restore. After the 4 beeps drop the stick to xero. You then heara beep, raise the stick to max and wait a few secs for 2 beeps and then drop the stick The plane is not at Factory settings, but i wanted to have no throttle delay, so pull the battery lead apart, switch the Tx off. Wait 5+ secs, switch Tx back on, stick up and connect battery. Wait for the 4 x BEEPS, and follow the beeps thereafter, ignore the 1.2.3.4.5 (5 is a higher pitch beeeep) When 6 arrives (one high pitch beeeep and 1 normal beep) you drop the stick. NOW! you have 3 choices, v soft, soft, hard motor response to choose from, I wanted Hard shown/voiced as 1/2/3 gap 1/2/3 gap1/2/3 gap1/2/3 You wait as the programming paces itself, quite slowly, until you hear what you want. THEN you raise the stick and wait for 2 close beeps and then drop the stick. You have programmed now: factory reset and modified it to hard motor response. The missing bits are 1 the programming beep work like roman numbers, 1/2/3/4 are beeps, 5 is a higher beep, 6 is a V1, higher beep + 1 beep 7 = V11, 8 = V111 2 The stick acts like a switch and is used to select all you need, THAT was the bit I could not find, how to select the range of functions each characteristic has. So, disconnect the battery, kill the Tx. Pause for 5+ secs, switch the Tx on, stick at Zero, connect battery (as if you are doing pre flight check). The plane does it's set-up dance and goes silent. Test all Tx functions, rudder, ailerons, elevator and finally motor (NO prop fitted) The mototest tells it all 9for me) The motor response to stick movement is instant from Off to WOT and snapping the stick down shows the spindle gently coming to a halt, not abruptly (like it does when braked). I replaced the prop, put the plane on the floor and stood with ankles ahead of the tail plane as iif pre-flight testing. The motor would rev instantly and snapping the throttle to zero showed the prop coasting down and free-wheeling to a gentle halt. I did the floor check 3 times from Tx off and al was good. There, I will stay awake now all night after writing that essay! Local weather just might be ok for Tuesday and I hope my buddy link will also get to the field and link with me for resumption of Pre-Solo flying. I know he will not buddy unless we do this way for a few more days at the field.

Finally! Cracked it. There is a whole instruction missing from the method. I now have no brake and full linear throttle, no delay and rest is factory setting. I won't go through it all but the fog has gone and all done. Happy now the plane is set up to fly. As ever, many thanks for everyone's help and patience! Phew!

Just to vent my spleen... There seems to be no rhyme or reason to programming this ESC using the instructions that came with the plane. The key to high pitch, low pitch etc are not obvious, and I cannot find a sequence of them that tally with a particular function, ie I cannot hear any sequence to get to the factory reset so I can drop the throttle stick to OFF and that setting be established as the norm. Have tried that move several times guesstimating I was there, and nothing has changed, a soft start is still present. Everything else functions for the flying surfaces. Motor beeps are 3 for the battery cell number, followed by a pause and one beep which shows motor brake. I think I can only leave it alone now and fly with fingers crossed. What a mad system, obviously written by the engineer who did the design assuming the reader knows what he is doing!!