Winter is here....who's been flying?

[Peter Jenkins]

2 hours ago, Erfolg said:

My hands are now so painful, I stuff them into my pockets of my old ski jacket, after 10 or so minutes the pain almost abates, 

 

I have a pair of Zippo Hand Warmers.  They are magic and can last up to 12 hours but I usually only half fill them as 6 hrs is quite enough.

[Brian Cooper]

I opened the curtains yesterday and saw the world bathed in ice and fog. 

Hmmm...

 

There was no wind, and the batteries were charged so I donned my electrically heated gilet and electrically heated boots and set off into the fog to brave the replica of the Somme - comically called our roads - and made my way to the flying field. 

 

Surprisingly I wasn't the only one there.

I stepped out of my warm car and was met with a wall of cold... All the electric accessories were switched on.

We concluded that we were all completely bonkers to be out in such conditions. . . and I put the wings onto an Acrowot. 

 

The engine sounded strong and very keen (Prosynth doesn't mind the cold) and roared off into the frosty air to play with the fog. 

 

After a few minutes, my fingers were going numb. 

I landed and there was ice on the wings. . . 

Okayyyy,  I can take a hint.

 

Everything was packed back into the (warm) car. 

Back to the relentless lumps, clumps, bumps and potholes which are still laughably called our roads, and back home to central heating, good coffee and cake. 

 

As I get older, I find I am less tolerant of the cold. 

 

[GrumpyGnome]

12 hours ago, leccyflyer said:

Bad luck man. Lose the adaptor - they are the work of the devil. Add the appropriate connector in the wiring loom and chuck the adaptor in the bin. You know it makes sense.

I agree re shop bought adapters..... I made this myself and it's clocked up over 1000 flights now.

 

But, now my stock of Lipos is diminishing, it's probably time to bite the bullet and break out the solder....

[Jake Bullit]

Fresh start to the day, but a good morning's flying yesterday with a decent turnout.

[leccyflyer]

Excellent morning flying, with half a dozen brave souls at the frozen field. At home it was dull, but just a few miles away at the field it was sunny. but very cold - minus 3 degrees was five degrees warmer than yesterday and there was a wee bit of warmth when the sun showed itself. Had my 109th flight with my Volantex Me109E  and my 600th flight of 2023, the most I have ever flown in a year. Really pleased with the battery upgrade on my Parkzone Mosquito, but I must do something about that excessive wing bending at the tips. Got some nice flights in with the Spittie dogfighter, SE5a and Super 30 as well and there was plenty of other flying going on too. Impressed with John's big fun flyer which was prop hanging, flipping and spinning very convincingly. That's three days in a row of very wintry flying - couple of very short flights came about with the batteries getting caned by the cold temperatures - I put a handwarmer in the lipo bag, which improved matters somewhat.

[leccyflyer]

My planned trip to my old club field and moving on to the AGM had to be cancelled, with the snowgates closed and various vehicles -including the gritter - off the road due to black ice it wasn't wise to make the three hour round trip. However the weather locally was fine and so got well wrapped up, inserted various heating devices into wellies and gloves and spent the morning at my local club field. Perfect flying conditions today and there was even a little bit of warmth in the low sun.

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Raining. Booh.

 

Indoor flying. Yaay.

[David Davis]

I had arranged or my Belgian protegé Frans Cooremans to come to the flying field this afternoon to fly his Radio Queen. There was absolutely no wind and the temperature was a very reasonable 7C.  I turned up with two models of my own, an ARTF Acrowot and an ARTF Super Frontier Senior trainer which is an ARTF SIG Kadet Senior clone. No sign of Frans so I rigged the  Frontier and tried to start the engine, a new Laser 80 which has had three or four trouble-free flights to its credit. At first turn of the starter lots of unburnt fuel was ejected from the silencer. I found this strange as the Laser silencer isn't pressurised. Perhaps I'd over-choked it. Eventually I got the engine to start but it wouldn't pick up whatever adjustments I made.

 

With two electric flyers observing proceedings, there were only three of us there, I gave up on the trainer and started the Laser 70 in the Acrowot. I took off and climbed to altitude, I was trying to find out how to fly the model inverted. In fact I just had to flip the model onto its back and take my hands off the sticks.  I set the model up for a landing, the approach was impeccable... until I hit a tree on the other side of the road! Depth perception has never been my strongest suit! After twenty minutes of looking in the wrong trees we found the fuselage on the ground. All of the underside sheeting was ripped away and the tailplane is a mess. I can't comment on the damage to the wing because it's still fifty feet up in a tree! I'll have to wait for a gale! Teach me to fly ARTFs!

 

That's the third Acrowot I've damaged in landing accidents. The first two which were kit-built models, were damaged when I landed them too quickly, not realising that an Acrowot is capable of flying both slowly and quickly.

 

I now only have four models in flying condition: two trainers and two vintage models.  Perhaps I ought to stick to that sort of model! ☹️

 

Frans never turned up at all which was a shame because flying coditions would have been ideal for a vintage model.

[Ron Gray]

Beautiful day today and 2 maiden flights! First up the XFly P68

 

 

And its second flight which was somewhat better having trimmed it and fitted a lighter battery

 

 

[Ron Gray]

And the second maiden, my own design Depron Mossie, boy am I pleased with the way it flys 

 

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Bit chilly but three of us ventured out with layers and layers - blue sky & very gentle breeze. 

 

I flew my Spacewalker - nice but a little more docile than I am used to.  Also put another half dozen flights on my Double Trouble. Plys acouple on the baby FW. Engine in my Wotty refused to start - needs some workshop time!

 

Kev flew his big Wotty and Super Chipmunk - until an undercarriage fixing shook loose on the frozen worm casts.

 

Tony threw his Super Zoom around like crazy.  Then lost his pretty little Yak - RIP.

 

 

Meanwhile, some RAF Typhoons had some fun...

 

[leccyflyer]

Nicely flown maiden for the cartoon Mossie Ron - very good. 😎

[leccyflyer]

 Found it quite mild this morning, so much so that I abandoned my electric hand warmers, which were uncomfortably hot even on the lowest setting and had a couple of hours decent flying in very light winds, but very little in the way of blue skies.

Flew my Parkzone Bf109g which never fails to impress, as it's such a smooth flyer and really grooves, plus my extensively lightened Durafly P-51D Candyman/Goose, which doesn't get flown nearly enough. I was just half an hour short of having the fatty Messerschmitt ME109 ready to fly, everything is installed and done right, but with the throws and rates not set on the transmitter and didn't want to rush it. Flew the wee Spittie dogfighter instead, as well as a couple of the wee fellies. Managed half a dozen flights in the couple of hours we were out, which made up for no flying at the weekend.

[GrumpyGnome]

I too was out this morning. We had lovelg blue skies but the breeze made it REALLY cold.

 

The Stinger in my Wot4 continyed to play up, although ar least replacing the hall sensor meant it would, at least, start. 'EnginewhispererKev' reckons it's a fuel issue....

 

The little TopRC FW190 had an outing, but the breeze made it a challenge to fly nicely.

 

Spent most of the morning drinking coffee and chatting.

 

Kev and Andy had fun flying their planes without issue.

 

Glow fuel's been delivered so will burn some of that next time out.... good old reliable glow!

[JOHN MOSLEY 2]

Test your engine with another ignition module, I had problems engine would run but not rev up.

 

[Futura57]

Billy-no-mates at my local club field this afternoon. A successful maiden flight for my HobbyKing Teksumo EPP foam flying wing. More like 10 micro flights actually to get the trimming correct. It's been kicking around my shed for around 10 years. I put it together in the last few days. It's too nose heavy with a 3S 2200 and a tad tail heavy with a 1300. Twitchy as hell even with 70% expo. It Dutch rolls in slow forward flight like it has clogs on. Needs a few grammes up front. Will try again later in the week.

 

[GrumpyGnome]

1 hour ago, JOHN MOSLEY 2 said:

Test your engine with another ignition module, I had problems engine would run but not rev up.

 

Hey John

 

CDI's been tested with my little module, and by Just Engines. It starts, idles for a few seconds, then speeds up (with no throttle input), then dies - just like running out of fuel.  Sounds good while it's running - no misfiring or anything.

 

I'll re-plumb it, and if it's still pants, I'll borrow the carb off another engine...... 

[JOHN MOSLEY 2]

Have you changed carb diaphragm,  they get hard because of the modern petrol. 

[GrumpyGnome]

It seemed ok when I cleaned it a while ago.  I'll try swapping it ('cos that is easier), then stripping it.....

[cymaz]

I began using Aspen 4 a few years back. Much longer shelf life than “ ordinary” petrol, more refined. 

 

Seems ok to me. More expensive though

[Cliff Bastow]

Nope, to cold for me!

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Quack, still.

[Futura57]

On 11/12/2023 at 16:14, Futura57 said:

Billy-no-mates at my local club field this afternoon. A successful maiden flight for my HobbyKing Teksumo EPP foam flying wing. More like 10 micro flights actually to get the trimming correct. It's been kicking around my shed for around 10 years. I put it together in the last few days. It's too nose heavy with a 3S 2200 and a tad tail heavy with a 1300. Twitchy as hell even with 70% expo. It Dutch rolls in slow forward flight like it has clogs on. Needs a few grammes up front. Will try again later in the week.

 

Instead of sticking weights on the nose I decided to add a little cockpit and pilot. Not forgetting some lighting. All ready to try again when the weather plays ball.

 

That's how you make the nose of a model heavier by making it lighter 😂

Edited December 12, 2023 by Futura57

[Jake Bullit]

Good day on the beach today🙂

[GrumpyGnome]

I've never seen the beaches near me that deserted; whatever the weather, or time, there are loads of dog walkers.......