911hillclimber

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!!

Bit of a final message on this (I hope). Plane all back together and working. Side strengthening strips on and damaged area painted to try to hide the mess. all looks square and true, flying and trimming will tell. Tried to reset the ESC to factory default, and tbh not sure if I have. The sequence of beeps do not tally to those in the FMS manual. The sequence starts with 5 loud beeps, manual shows 4, and it goes on from there. Hard to spot the sequence from the ESC to the manual. The normal start-up sequence 'says' the motor brake is ON, the factory default should set it to OFF... Throttle response is just as it was before the crunch. My aerial re-solder seems to have worked, needed to do it to sort the signals out, but will test it and the ebay unit when it arrives, and will go with the ebay unit if range test is good. Ran the plane up to WOT many times to test the glue on the nose, all ok, but a flight is needed (by my buddy link guy).

Thanks to all as ever! This would be a mine field without the forum! Decided to do a simple strengthening mod and with 1mm ply, two side strips down the nose and under the c of g about 35mm wide, and 200mm long to cover the cracks and fractures just bonded back together. A simple attempt to stress the nose to the cabin-back resulted in no movements but i can help 'sensing' the motormount is tilted back slightly so will add a washer to the 2 uppermost motor mount points to bring it down a touch. Parts will need a flash of satin blue which I happen to have to 'hide' my surgery but this is definitely the last song for the fuselage. Electrics next and sorting that pesky ESC to factory settings. My booster shot yesterday has made me feel a bit under the weather with a few muscle aches, so have some steady time today. I think the membership is at the end of the season, next week looks evil so I might not fly again this year

Indeed, by the time it was getting difficult, the plane was all but 20 feet or less off the ground and heading due south. Back to today, and a little diversion please: All the major foam parts are now done and tomorrow the glue will be set. I'm pleased, and the motor mounting face looks nice and true to the fuselage best as I can tell. I installed a fresh block of EPO to the U/C mounting area giving a nice flat gluing face and it looks far better for it. Now, do I re-enforce the sides/nose with small wood squers (sp)? I would think about 5 mm dia if they make them and run 4 or 6 through and glue, but I'll never get glue all the way down a 6" length. Not sure if this will actually benefit the plane structurally. I welcome any advice!

Self inflicted crunches: Yes Accepting the Instructor knows best? Too true! I insisted he allowed solo and would only take over when asked. (we were buddied for the fatal flight). I simply did not have time/ presence of mind to ask and I doubt he would have had time to respond successfully. Fuselage? Good idea Ditch the ripped Rx? Yes, and also checking the ebay one (from a model dealer) All the electrics are unplugged to do this repair, so will build it all up and return the esc to factory which is the middle of the 'very soft start' to soft Start to no soft start range. Gloves? I do tend to suffer instant cold fingers when it gets cool and suffered a bit last Monday, hence the brain wave of using thin cotton/neoprene coated gloves I use when on the cars. Ditch those, and go bare handed! I think I'll see the year out soon still on the buddy link, and kick off next year the same. I've learnt my lesson.

I very much appreciate all your inputs to mt First Year adventure. I've taken up a lot of time on here with various issues mainly due to my own deep ignorance and under-estimation of the depth of this hobby. With everyone's help, getting there, enthusiasm undiminished! The Club is affiliated and has a small membership of about 80 people. Many fly weekdays and all are retired like me. They were most welcoming from the very start, and because I was on mode2 only one other was! He took me under his experienced wing and has been my buddy link. Occasionally i fly his petrol plane as I did yesterday straight after the Big Crash to 'get back on the bike' so to speak. That long flight (just circuits, buddied-up) went well, very different dynamics to say the least. Too full of enthusiasm (a regular prob of mine and impatience especially) I asked to go solo yesterday. My Buddy link was not at all sure, but i insisted. Because it was 10 deg there with a gentle breeze i wore thing gloves... that did not help. The plane left the ground and picked up speed almost alarmingly so I throttled back to vertical stick and started to bank left, usual routine, but my inputs were too abrupt and too much and the plane came down close to a nose dive but hit the ground upside down. Happened and over in 2 seconds. There were no cheers just silence and disappointment, they all wanted me to progress from the perfect day of last Monday. I have no issues with the club, the open field and the members I have flown with for the last months. With lots of how to rebuild a wreck advice I stayed there to see others flying and went to the model shop for some glue. The repair is progressing well. The nose is back on leaving the undercarriage which has been torn out before. My plan is to use the float hulls that came with the kit and splice in fresh foam to the underside and let the hard plastic u/c seat into that. Also, I will try to introduce a few re-enforcement inside while the bottom is open and access is good. The long aerial was pulled out of the Rx, but i think I can solder it back. Spektrum AR610 Rx are oddly rare, but a good one on ebay is on it's way for £20. I think if this crashes hard again it will be the end of the fuselage, a new one is £75. While I'm crashing about I don't want to buy a fresh plane.

Thank you Simon. That certainly makes sense. I had a lot of time to consider there tech things today as My over confidence going solo came to a crashing result. The plane was expertly smashed to pieces by this so called pilot. Terrible result, front of the fuselage clean off the plane at the leading edge of the wing. A chunk out of one wing machined by the propeller... My fellow fliers went silent and the foam cascaded to earth. Went and bought a fresh tube of foam glue and 1/2 of it is pieced togehther and setting. Lots of other damage, but I'll get it sorted!

No i didn't Simon, it all seems to work, so I've let sleeping dogs lie to be honest. There have been many times I've tried to tweak these electronic/programming things and ended up in deep water and on this forum to find a way out... Just come in from the big project in the garage. Turned the Tx on, check routine beeps and twitching all good. Held the plane as if testing it all before take off and just tickled the throttle, no reverse moving. back to off. tipped the throttle stick to wot asap and the motor followed it and was screaming within 1 second, so much for my exponential throttle curve. Will check Flying Field web page tomorrow morning and if the breeze looks livable will be there and i hope exhaust all the batteries. If it all goes pear shaped I'll be back!

Thanks Brian, but... Got myself ready for the Battle of the Beeps but first moved the B (buddy enabling) switch from the usual buddy position to off. On switch on the Tx now goes straight to normal screen, ie batter level, pic of a fixed wing plane etc. Switched off. Switched the B switch on (3 posn switch) and restarted the Tx, and the No Slave signal is on the screen, reverts to normal after a touch/movement to any stick. Switch Tx off. Took the prop and nose cowl moulding off to expose the motor completely and allow almost total extraction of the ESC. Nothing catching on the motor case or it's mountings, esc insulation sleeve is intact and no signs of heat bubbles, all smooth. Wires all good, and outside all clean of mud or corrosion. So, switched the Tx on, buddy switch off and the check sequence was completed as per usual. Motor gave 3 beeps for the 3S cells and a pause and a single beep which indicates braked motor. Screen was normal showing battery level etc. 'just' touched the throttle stick up (0.5 mm?) and the motor case rotated correctly!! No judders or clockwise rotation. Typical. Miffed almost, (or relieved) tried it again from 'off' and same again, just turning anti clock and advance to WOT with a snap stick movement was about 1.5 secs which is helicopter mode. Motor will rev from off (no motor case movement) to WOT to mid way etc etc totally easy and keen to regulate motor speed to stick position. No sluggishness, no delay. The climb of the motor speed certainly follows an exponential curve, not a straight line. Where are we then? I'm not going to 'fix' anything. nothing seems broken, the characteristics are manageable, so I will hope to do 4 x batteries tomorrow and lots of landings, so take off, a few circuits and come down I hope smoothly. Should get 4 of those to a battery. The grass length on the field is a bit high and when dew/wet is quite a drag on the plane but takes about 15 feet to come to a halt. Prop is stationary before stopping on the ground. One thought before I almost leave you all in peace is, if the motor is braked with the throttle off how come the prop free wheels coming in to land or is the braking really quite weak just to allow the prop blades to collapse?

You have just made me think Brian. My Tx has the B switch set to enable Buddy when I got to the field. The instructor used this to link the Tx to his so converting my Tx to Master, his to Slave and we would swop Tx's before flights so he could take over at any time he touched any control. My Tx is still switched that way as I was testing last night, prob why the Tx comes up with ;No Slave' when i switch it on! Yes, the motor responds in the air fine, so i get the delay just as I start the take off, 10 feet of slow moving over the gound on what feels like 10% throttle and then the speed of the motor increases over the next 2 secs to full speed and the plane moves forwards quickly and in 20 feet I'm climbing off the field nice and progressivly to height and turn (etc). Once up there, throttle back to 'vertical stick' giving enough speed to maintain the trimmed height 'hands off'. If a bit windy, ie 5 to 8 mph it will need a bit more motor to keep the flight speed up against that breeze. Landing is get aligned to the field and start decent, 1/4 motor down to about 15 feet up and drop the stick to zero. The prop will then free wheel (I presume it is) and it lands with some flaring by elevator. On the ground the prop has stopped. As to motor function, the defalt is soft delay, but later in the instructions it say to run the motor on hard start. When I first had the plane I'm sure the motor had no delay. Should have some quality time today to try to get this all sorted. Could be good flying weather locally tomorrow, so want to get this right for tomorrow.

The sluggish throttle response is on the model tonight, no buddy link, but since linking his Tx some months ago when I switch my Tx on the screen says No Slave, and if I touch am nd move , say, the rudder movement the screen immediately changes to normal. Connect the battery in the plane and it goes through its check, twitching the surfaces. the motor jolts and beeps 3 times, pause, and a final beep and silence. If I then just touch and slightly move the throttle stick the motor will judder backwards, move it further and it stops that and revs correctly and has a short delay to rev in unison with stick movement to wot. The motor responds to stick movement from wot to stop and never faulters. On the field, pre flight checks all ok, move throttle to advance to take off speed and that is when you notice the delay. Within 10 feet or so the motor picks up to wot and the plane takes off a dream and flies really well. Landing is all good, throttle to no revs and flare the plane down. The prop still rotates, but at a speed you would expect as the planes speed keeps it turning. When stationary, the prop has stopped. Hope that lot might help. Again, am I worried about nothing? the motor delay has 3 steps, very soft, soft, and none. The instructions say default is soft, a one second period to control the motor speed front nil to max, plane without prop fitted.

None of this is simple! At the moment I've changed nothing. Tx on Battery connected (100% charged) and the plane goes through it's set up routine. All control surfaces pulsed. Motor beeps are 3 short ones (for the 3S cell batt) and then a short pause, one then follows and then no more, which according to the FMS ESC manual (page 27) is the motor braking is ON. 2 beeps after the 3 and the motor braking is OFF. I don't think the motor should be braked for a fixed wing, but possibly no big deal either. Am I getting hot-n-bothered about nothing? There is a lag between throttle off to WOT but the motor sure revs when is up there and is totally adjustable through the rev range by the stick.

All good info gents, and I thank you all. The motor is stationary on the groung just before take off checks. All checks good and this is where if I just move the stick the motor ill judder backwards, then it will speed up slowly as I progress the stick to WOT. I flew again yesterday and it consistently does this trick. On landings (all successful yesterday I'm pleased to boast) dropped the throttle to 'off' but the motor kept going slowly but the prop was still spinning but nowhere near enough to prevent the landings. Found the FMS manual last night, so this afternoon will try to reset it all to fixed wing assuming it is not already sett to that, can't hurt. I'll post when I've done that.

The judder on the prop clockwise (from the front) has been a recent observation, and I think followed a crunch where the motor was running on the buddy stick but the motor stalled as the prop was in the tall wet grass of the landing strip perimeter. That is all a bit of faded memory. I have changed nothing on the Tx from the start of the year before my first flying attempts. Strikes me reading all these very useful comments a new ESC would be a good idea, only £20 so no great damage, and I would have peace of mind too. Last thing I want is a dicky throttle control. With the stick at WOT after about 3 seconds the motor will get there as if following an exponential curve, not a simple sloping line path on a graph. This is on starting take off. The poor throttle response is noticeable and my buddy helper has commented on it several times too. In the air, the throttle response is good, BUT when practicing my landings this morning the prop did not stop with throttle totally off.... A new ESC I think unless this last post give rise to more thought, but I'll check any mechanical rubbing first and report back.