Stevan Wilson

Hello Again, I did a thread last year as I was making the Ripmax bf-190 and sadly on its maiden voyage it kept flying and never came back, much to my disgust. I have, after months of sadness, purchased another identical model but due to inflated prices could not afford to use the same equipment as last time. Please could one of you knowledgeable flyers tell me whether the advice I got from Als Hobbies was correct for the purchases I have made. I have got the Dualsky XM4250CA-6 with Max Power of (15s):900W (it looks very big) but states it only takes propeller sizes of 12*6...14*7, my last model had a prop size of 10*5. The ESC is model number Dualsky XC6018BA 60A and the battery is a DualskyXP38003 GT-s 3800mAH 11.1v. Is this going to work or have I been given bad advice. I look forward to hearing from you, Steve 

It could be me!!!!!!!!!

Firebird Freedom is the best one out there!

The fields have now been cut and ploughed and no ME 109, parts of it are probably in a loaf of bread somewhere being eaten with cheese and onion!!!!!!!!

i have lost my Ripmax ME109, now my wife has left me, all the pets are going and I could be losing the house as well, please give me some GOOD news for a change!!!!!!!!!

well the field i think it is in has now been cut and the BF-109 is probably in 1000's of pieces inside a combine harvester or sitting on a farmers mantlepiece as a WAR RELIC, bring on my new project, possibly next year!!!!!!!!!!!

Chris, if you are looking to get into planes i would suggest you start of with the Firebird Freedom with Anti Crash Technology (ACT) I learnt to fly on one of these and I still enjoy flying it today,the battery life can be excellent because once you are up there the plane is so light you can glide alot just to get used to the controls, these only cost around £100.00. Spares are easily available and if you get the trojan it can be a nightmare, I have been waiting for a cowl for 3 weeks now and cannot fly it!!!!!!  

1 word of warning, I have damaged my Cowl on the Trojan and there are none in the country if anybody has one they want to sell I will negotiate a price with you

The search has now officially been called off, i have put ti down to experience and will not make the smae mistakes again. I will now have to gave up for  new equipment as I cannot get the Capital expenditure signed off by the wife!!!!!!! 

Search for the missing 109 with bad ending i would like everyone to know it was very windy while I was filming!!!!

Could somebody please tell me how I set a link to Youtube to play a video as I have been trying for ages with no result.

Well it has gone from bad to disastrous, I was out flying the Trojan last night with the Flycam one2 and was happily trawling up and down the field with my best mate and Father in Law with me and I lost sight of the Trojan behind some trees and guess what, it crashed!!!!!!!. No problem I thought I knew exactly where it had come down (or so I thought), this was at 7.30pm. You were all right about how much further they come down than you actually think at 9.30 we still hadn't found the Trojan and by this time I was seriously p'd off. I decided to try a little further out and turned on my T/X and heard a beeping noise of the ESC and shouted to my Father In Law and mate to come over but they couldn't hear it, we all moved forward and kept stopping and I was using the T/x to control the servos. We heard a faint noise and thank god we found it with the Flycam still attached but a little bit of damage to the plane. On viewing the footage I still cannot see the BF-109 but having seen how much further on the Trojan was than we thought I have decided to rebuild the damaged parts of my Trojan and try again, I am going to try and upload the video, if any of you see anything let me know. I am still nuts about this sport but it has now become very very expensive. I have learnt a very expensive lesson regarding this sport with Flight conditions, COG, flying space etc, I suppose you never really stop learning!!!

The first flight in the first field was a no result, we are moving up to the next field tonight, I cannot judge how far it actually went so it may take a few nights but at least I have managed to cover the whole of the area I thought it was in, I may post my flight tonight on this blog and see if anybody out there has an eagle eye. It was a bit windy last night so the into wind shots were fine, even at low throttle when the Trojan turned into the wind it went a little to quick so I had to keep turning and turning to cover the area. The Flightcam is an awesome piece of kit.  

I have today managed to get my hands on a Flycam and I am going out tonight to do the shots that may give me success, my fingers are crossed and I look like the National Lottery emblem at the moment.

i think i will have to get a Flycamone and have a go, if i took a pc with me can you view it as you fly or does it store all the data on a memory stick???

oh yes, the Spitfire and the Trojan are in almost daily use, I couldn't do without my "Fix" each day, I still walk over the fields every night looking, at least it gives me a good deal of exercise!!!!

i have spent 13 hours looking for it now, it is in Norton somewhere I think it will be another victim of a combine harvester, the saving up has already started and I will make my own plane, thank you all for your encouragement, my next one will be something sensible, I can fly But these things happen, any ideas, it has to be something that is hand launched.

I cannot find anything, it has gone.

Complete disaster, the plane took off fine, gained height, seemed perfectly balanced and then the tail kept dropping and it was gaining height, I tried to counteract it with the elevator and I could not turn it towards me, it kept going and going and going, it kept gaining height and the tail dropped and I've Lost it. It is in the middle of a field somewhere along way away and I am gutted, I wouldlike to find the pieces just to recover the expensive bits inside. I will be out again tomorrow night looking for it!!!!! 

Well I have finaaly checked the COG and it is perfectly balanced, the wind is a bit strong at the moment but hopefully it will calm down later and I will go for it. I almost scrapped my project and decided to built a boat instead after all the rain, now, no rain, lots of wind, the British weather is so frustrating!!!!!

Thank you David, I will give it a try tonight and see what happens. Is there anybody out there that can stop the rain, if you can, can you give me tonights lottery numbers as well!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would love to win this in case my Ripmax bf-109 goes to heaven tonight!!!!!!!

Thanks for the advice, silly question but if the COG is wrong what will be the characteristics in flihgt apart from the obvious!!!!!!!! Complete destruction.

Good point I will do that on the maiden voyage. Just a quick question what are the usual failures that arise on maiden voyages are there any things I need to look out for and potential problems that many people face???

Tonight I have completed the model and tested everything to the max. I have replaced the servo in the wing and connected the Y connector to drive them. The wings are attached to the fuselage and angles are checked to ensure they are o.k. A little modification to the battery connectors to keep them in the right place. The radiators on the bottom of the wing are fixed in place using the superglue. The completed picture of the model from 2 elevations. And finally the battery has to sit as far forward as it can go and is a snug fit, although the picture does not show it I have nicked a Velcro strap of my Spitfire spare crash box and screwed this in place to hold the battery still. Well hopefully tomorrow I will be up, up and away, or down and out, I will try and get some pictures and if everything goes well I will get some video at the weekend!!!!!!!!