Chris Walby
-
Posts
2,833 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
3
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Gallery
Calendar
Downloads
Posts posted by Chris Walby
-
-
I don't think speed will be an issue for me....power to weigh is a challenge with pusher motors that far back + CofG is another challenge! Batteries are currently in the canopy area and a fair size as well. I am maxed out on props 9x8 so need to dolly launch or it will prop strike & the U/C nose wheel seems to have a mind all of its own! Wing joiners are a mare & ESC wiring is about 4 ft long.
Other than that once the building board is clear I'll finish it off and see what happens...
-
Thanks guys, I'll do as suggested.
Denis, I inherited it and it was nearly fully build with no rudder + its a bit on the porky side so I'll save the weight of another servo!
-
Bounce - Is Denis's advice the entire collective knowledge of the forum members? Very disappointing.
Thanks Denis for your help its appreciated,
-
Advice requested regarding control surface mixing for an inherited Graham Dorschell Vulcan.
It has inner and outer control surfaces (no rudder) which I assumed were flaps and elevon, but doubt has set in as it was mentioned that the inner control surface can be elevator only.
I can mix almost anything, but I don't have any experience with delta wings of this size.
If there are any suggestions could you please include some rational, thanks
-
Thanks Jon, I had not really thought of it much as my assumption was that wire is cheap/non scale (like my Speed Air) and Oleo's were for more scale look and better suspension (no down side)!
My BH Hurricane has 4mm to 5mm pins between the electric retract & Oleo that are mild steel (what I could find at the time!) with the result that they tend to bend if its a pants landing! Good news is that nothing gets broken, just a tweak to get them straight rather than retracts ripped from wings.
Better to have a known weak point that does not result in major damage than it all ending in major repairs
-
Sorry to butt in with a slightly off topic question, but I have a few edges of film overlapping film where there is a glue mark.
Any advice on how to get the glue off without marking the film? Thanks in advance
-
A bit more of a push and we could have a squadron!
Has anyone decided on colour schemes and markings?
Ops my birthday is in September....I thought I needed to have it finished ready for that, not just buying the kit! Well that's my excuse...
-
A while back (once my son and I had passed our A's) we were up the field with the foam RIOT (max control throws set) and Alex was practicing his fast/low head on approach with vertical climb out when he mentioned that you could see the wings really bow.
That reminded me of all of the wrinkles in the upper wing decals so out of devilment I suggested that he should even them out on the other side.
He duly obliged on the next pass by flying in inverted and whipping it to vertical...and yes the wings bend the other way too!
Fortunately for the plane the time was up for that Lipo and with finger and sticks dialled back in his attention focussed on his plane to fly!
I am no expert but is there not a trade off between tough and hard/brittle e.g. flex as opposed to snap?
-
Good points Richard
Is it a cost and weight exercise by the big boys? I have a E-flight Carbon Yak 54 (48" wingspan & weighs under 4 lbs) and can do 10 times more than I could hope to achieve in flight envelope! The point is what did it cost to make and with some clever electronics (AR636) is a tame as a pussy to fly even in breezy conditions.
I don't think small manufactures could ever possibly compete with large volume production manufactures, so where is your market? Low volume quality products with top notch support/service.
People will always whinge on about cost, but you don't get something for nothing. I would rather have someone in the UK to talk to (by whatever means) than save a few quid only to find they provide a useless far eastern help line!
The market is to pick up on the people who have learnt to fly on cheap foamies (easy to fly & fix) and offer them something more rewarding to fly.
Each successive model I pick is a mix of challenge and reward, sometimes its a disappointment because to does not challenge me and other times I need a cup of tea between flights! When I look back in retrospect the most enjoyable flights are normally the most challenging.
The downer for me is the number of kits being sold with old out of date drawings (brushed motors), out of date instructions and poor options (was IC but and with an electric option, but only if I completely re-engineer major parts and add a massive of lead to get C of G).
As an example many years ago I was amazed at the statistics of the kit car industry as about 5% of all kits sold made it to the road. My point is you need to sell kits and get people to build them, then more people will see them flying (self publicising). Product reviews and air shows get publicity to a wider audience and advertisements are targeted, but its a small pool of punters.
Sorry I don't have answers, but IMHO in this age, time appears to be limited and thus customers expect well packaged products (well sorted) as opposed to loads of headaches. The less hassle the quicker it is in to the air and he more chance of someone else thinking they might want one!
-
Darn...Darn ...Darn
This all fits into my cunning plan Baldric!
Bench back log should be finished by April, I have a motor that will fit (sorry Jon it will start off electric while the twin IC project gets bogged down in complexity & experience needed in building/flying).
So add me to the list for one Hurricane. Deposit no problem I'll treat it as staged payments, harder for the boss to detect the real cost....although she bought the Spit airframe & I bought the rest (heavy end!)
I must admit the build blog did put me off, but there are club mates and here to assist so I am sure I'll get by even with my limited experience!
-
Thanks to all that have contributed its been really helpful.
I am off to the drawing board with some yellow, red and blue covering...+ if nothing else it will give me some ironing practice to boot!
-
I am nearing completion of an electric 42" wingspan low winger that should be rather fast and will covering it but want it to be as visible as possible
First thoughts are red/white chequer pattern on the underside of the wings + red fuselage & upper wings with yellow wing tips.
What does anyone else think is both easy to see and able to differentiate ordination?
-
Sorry off topic!
Jon,
When I took up this
obsessionhobby I had a bit of time to sit and watch others fly (while waiting for an instructor) and came to the then conclusion that to keep whatever in the air relied on two things. Firstly the reliability of the model and second the skill of the pilot.What I noted was the number of IC powered craft "dead stick" mostly resulting in the need of a bin liner + my now preference for warbirds (less forgiving, but that's part of the attraction/fun) brought me to the conclusion to stay electric.
Its a balance of risk for me on twins, larger models are better (IMHO), but keeping it all electric is expensive, but reliable. So going for a TN mossie is about the limit for me, then (with the laser reliability) you answered a guys question regarding fitting a 70 or a 50 size....now that ticks a lot of boxes...a reliable twin that makes all the right noises very tempting!
-
Great stuff guys I agree completely, there is nothing worse in my book than (and this is ARTF companies and shops) that say they have a plane or spare, but not actually stocking it !! Worse is they will take full payment as well.
I have waited months because a shop said they could get a foam canopy, but in reality they waited weeks to get a big order together and then weeks for the part to come in!
Good idea about the deposit although it has to be time bound (cut off date) to work for me, that way I would know if its going ahead or not (always worth broaching the subject with the boss before the box turns up on the doorstep!).
Hurricane... did someone say?....no..no.. stay focussed! FF ME 109 to finish, then DC3, then another Mossie (I blame John for posting a photo of a Laser engine on top of a plan)...
-
As someone new to the hobby and this is just my view from my limited experience with a balsa kit (wood pack/drawing and no instructions) a veneered wing kit and 5 BH ARTF planes + a few Parkzone/Eflite models is:
Some manufactures produce a really well sorted package (well engineered, clear instructions and fly well) others produce kits that still show brushed motor installs, mistakes in instructions and errors in the order of instructions + a bunch of assumptions that keeping the novice guessing or at worse assumptions/mistakes/re-work. Instructions are for people that need them and should be written assuming they know very little, not for the experienced builder.
I would really like to go for another kit, but the building board is backed up with headaches that for the experienced builder would know how to deal with, but the novice left plaguing his club mates to canvas assistance on a weekly basis.
I am not saying BH serve it on a plate because in the their models (95% complete ARTF) it take a very large 5% of time to sort them out (so much for the so called "electric ready" versions), but in comparison its manageable for a novice
I am not intending to upset or offend anyone and you guys will blow me into the weeds with build quality, build speed and flying skill, but none of us are getting any younger and for me that's were the future is with younger people. If we don't ger more people involved in the hobby it will just disappear.
Now I like warbirds, but is there enough people out there to get a minimum order for a single version? Looks not.
Dare I say...how about something a bit more modern....90's, 80's or 70's (that's like +45's ago!)?
With far east costs going up for ARTF kits is there an opportunity for UK manufactures, yes but where is the bulk sales?
Hope this helps and bye for now...
-
Should I own up? Same issue with the sun so I thought fly something bright Yellow!
Yesterday 2 flights with the trusty electric BH Speed Air to get my fingers working and then out with the (less that 10 flights) Electric WOTS WOT.
Had a flight with my slightly puffy Dynamic lipo and then put the brand new nanotech in for the second flight, definitely a bit more punchy and after a couple of vertical climbs and stall turns until on one decent the battery cover (held on with magnets popped off (thanks to some very observant club members and a quick shout out).
Levelled out on to a down wind leg to land ASAP when I noticed something dangling out the front of the plane... that will be the 5S4500mAh lipo on its EC5 connector !
Gentle turn to land, but still 50ft high so decided to go diagonal across the filed, Its not a very draggy plane when trying to descend and then the lipo departed the plane.
We all then watched (me include with TX but no RX!) as it headed across the field, and quite quickly met the ground!
U/C and wings ripped from fuselage, big hole in one side of the fuselage and a few holes in the coverings - repairable and will be flying again. It must it is tough
Lesson learnt, not to rely on a Nyloc screw to hold a 500g lipo on its tray in that does not fail safe (the keyhole is shaped such that the battery can slide down and out). Need to improve the securing system for the lipo and might think about a locked in battery cover, but then again I don't want a 500g lipo rolling around the fuselage, but it would stop it falling out!
Thanks to one club member who said "keep the wings level" after the lipo fell out and another who said that at least all the debris was in the field! Thanks guys and cheers for the bin liner...
Edited By Chris Walby on 06/01/2017 14:24:28
-
Hi,
Sounds like RX, but I had a lipo cell fail on me. The ESC would power up and self test okay (does a cell count), but under load after a short time one cell would fail (almost short circuit) so the ESC shut the motor down due to low voltage. The BEC I the ESC was unaffected hence no Issue indicated on the RX.
Hope you find the problem
-
Could try a Tony Nijhuis design and scale to down to a size that suits you.
-
Shaunie,
I don't think you can back to back them as the reverse bias current is too small to get the other one to light up. It would be possible to do that with three wires or as I suggested run them in parallel just some facing one way and the others the opposite way.
Of course depending on the applied voltage you could have a string of LED's in one direction and another string in them in the other... that way you could control each alternate string as Andy48 suggested.
Personally I was more concerned that I was at the top of a ladder that my wife was footing while hanging them on the gutters than thinking how they worked...
-
Martin is right... the give away is in the name L.E.D's
Light Emitting Diodes....so if you run all of the LED's in parallel, but half are one way around & the other lot the other, you can control them independently depending on which half cycle of the ac supply you change...
I liked the "old" filament ones in series....you get 240V ac across the faulty lamp...! What do the say " if it didn't kill you it made you
strongerwiser! -
Cymaz,
Gyro's can help...they are fast and can take workload off the pilot, but ask people who fly with them and an often complain about "less feel"
Its a very fine line between control and stability, but not over control!
This is like doing a headstand on a broom stick and then trying to fly a plane ! My point was that lots of designers work very hard to physically move components about to make things work, Tony just does not have that luxury which makes it a bigger challenge!
I think its great there are the people out there to push things along and can't wait for another instalment...Better go off and do a bit of balsa bashing to calm down !!
-
Keith, Are you sure...I think going from level flight to hover will be much tougher nut to crack.
Only my view but hover to forward flight is a case of gaining forward air speed until sufficient lift is generated for normal flight...with sufficient height and into wind you stand a good chance of diving in to it if it gets ugly...but doing the opposite in a controlled way is much much tougher.
Go to VTO mode with high forward air speed and its going to be a significant stability challenge as to where thrust is directed to maintain height + low air flow over any control surfaces (+ their effects wanted or not!). Pull back and nose up to flare in to it (like quads and watch their gyros go mad to fight the instability). Quad designers stick the props outboard on arms with a well distributed mass where as Tony has a concentration of mass and fans close together.
I think Tony has taken on a real challenge and deserves the credit due for spending many hours work.
The more I look at it, the more convinced I am that the concept (original and Tony's) should not fly (for all the technical reasons!), but the original did very successfully and I am sure Tony will get his working.
Merry Christmas and best wishes to all at this festive time
-
Any news on how the fund raising is going?........bump!
-
Hi Tony,
Any further updates on how the hover & forward flight test went? I appreciate you have been busy with other aircraft, but just wondered if you could conclude whether the idea is feasible or not with the current technology?
Cheers,
See quads are useful
in All Things Model Flying
Posted
The quad was no use at all as the guy still had to change the lamp!
I still don't know why they don't employ base jumpers....much faster on the way down and they would probably enjoy it.