Autumn's here, who's been flying?

[GrumpyGnome]

P'r'aps we should just ask the mods to change the title to "who's been flying" :-)

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Where would you like winter to start - the thread could certainly be split off...

 

The more appropriate thread, given the recent weather, is:

 

Anyway while I'm here, our usual Thursday bunch all flew today - after the rain stopped conditions were great for flying if a little grey.  Maidened my new little Arrows Hawk...smooth as a larger model and excellent performance...how good are they?!!  You'll note the careful and conservative exploration of the flight envelope - sorry but it just felt so right!

 

[GrumpyGnome]

Those little Arrows edfs are great!  Hawk is deffo the nicest of the bunch, even on 3S.  My second one is quite battered now, and in need of a quick lick of paint and some more varnish to make it nice and shiny again..... if they brought out a Hunter the same size, I'd snatch their arm off.

 

Re the thread, there is already a Winter one which has some posts from this month.  My tongue was in my cheek when I made the comment 🙃

 

 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

I had the LMC one what a great plane to fly with a startling performance with a piped .60, I piled it in

on a too low dive in a half loop around 3 years ago 🤐 RIP,,,

[Chris Walby]

 

There was a good nip in the air this morning, but what better way post Christmas to squeeze a few hours in with a nice pair of twins 😉. The GTC was again loads of fun with big aerobatics while the WooHoo is just a blast.

 

We had a field invasion by some errant sheep and while we were dinking tea in the clubhouse they made their way up to the pits. Could have used a couple of sheep dogs but due to new club rules a club member had to go a do the job! Didn't work as they would not leave the field, but did stand at the end of the field for more flying.

 

 

 

[Steve Colman]

I've been flying a mix of models every day since last Frday. The afternoons from about 1 to 5 have been fantastic with blue skies, almost zero wind and temperatures around the 15 degree mark so I've been making the most of it while I can. I'll be out again tomorrow too.

[Peter Jenkins]

You do like to torment us with your Spanish weather Steve!

[Steve Colman]

25 minutes ago, Peter Jenkins said:

You do like to torment us with your Spanish weather Steve!

No torment intended Peter although it must appear that way.

But. it's not always so balmy at this time of year in the North of the country. In fact, we've had snow as late as April and haven't been able to get out to fly for weeks. 

[GrumpyGnome]

Had a lovely few hours on Xmas eve - warm, gentle breeze. Nice flying, nice chatting - just 2 of us there.

 

Xmas day wet and windy.

 

Today was crisp..... calm this morning but I had chores to do; turned breezy later on 🙁 

 

Forecast now pants for days!

Edited December 26, 2022 by GrumpyGnome

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Well, perhaps sadly, Autumn has officially arrived so it's time to use this thread to record our flying exploits!

[Futura57]

I'm at the first of three possible outings this weekend. We have a new 12 year old member learning to fly on a Wot4 and a Uno Wot, which he prefers. The instructor is in his eighties.

Edited September 23, 2023 by Futura57

[leccyflyer]

Suoer afternoon at the field, high, bright overcast, very light easterly wind and a good turn out. Really enjoyed flying my wee depron Super 30 on the vintage Digimac III transmotter is some fairly raggedy formation with my pal Bob's very similar half size depron Super 60.  Both models had good ROG takeoffs from the short grass strip and pottered about the sky in a very relaxed manner - had probably 30% of the flying On The Button single channel style, but mostly flying on the sticks, trying to keep in more or less the same bit of the sky.

 

 

Lots of flying of other small depron creations and the wee fellas,  but with a few other great performing models thrown into the mix. We had a couple of young visitors who were very taken with the excellent flying of the wee Volantex squadron. Model of the day for me was clubmate John's O/D depron Sunderland style flying boat,  which carved up the air very convincingly and was well matched by the rather overcast skies. Brilliant fun and hopefully more to come in the morning.

 

 

 

[Futura57]

A bread-and-butter flying afternoon at Epsom Downs race course today. Very little blue stuff around. The Autumn clothing is definitely coming out. Six flyers turned up. Training seems popular today. I spent some time with a new-ish member who is learning to hover his Raptor heli. He is also learning fixed wing, but finds it harder.

[Jake Bullit]

At the field for 7:45 a m today and I wasn't first there.

Had lots of flights despite the field and pits being partially underwater.

The skipper came in handy today, lots of laughs and bacon butties, top morning.

Here's an FPV flight from the Spitfire. Pan cam was playing up.

 

 

https://youtu.be/Cxg6nEvMSvw?si=7cgd6sQqyFbESKIh

[David Davis 2]

I flew the Super Frontier Senior (SFS) yesterday powered by the Thunder Tiger 54. I'd paid £40 for it a couple of weeks ago when I was in England helping my mate build a garage. While the engine was capable of flying the model, unsurprisingly I needed to use almost full power most of the time, the model has a two-metre wingspan after all! The exhaust is loose on the TT. The cockpit canopy was covered in black oil residue after the first flight, a combination of oil and aluminium dust. I know a tame engineer who can probably fit a helicoil insert into the exhaust port. I felt that the model would also benefit from a little more weight in the nose as I had to use over 70% of down trim so I will fit my beloved OS 61FS Surpass which will kill two birds with one stone. I'll also introduce a little side thrust.

I plan to fly it in this configuration this afternoon. I'll take some photographs.

[Peter Jenkins]

David, if you can reduce thd incidence of the wing (packing under the TE assuming it's a high wing config) you will reduce the amount of elevator down trim needed as well.  If the aircraft is stable it shouldn't need any more nose weight.

[David Davis 2]

2 hours ago, Peter Jenkins said:

David, if you can reduce thd incidence of the wing (packing under the TE assuming it's a high wing config) you will reduce the amount of elevator down trim needed as well.  If the aircraft is stable it shouldn't need any more nose weight.

 

Too late! I replaced the engine with the OS 61FS earlier this morning but I made a mistake in my previous post, the OS is not a Surpass it's a pre-Surpass engine which runs very well. At 19.06 ozs (540 grammes) it's nearly five ounces (120 grammes) heavier than the Thunder Tiger 54. I'll report back later hopefully with some pictures.

[Peter Jenkins]

23 minutes ago, David Davis 2 said:

 

Too late! I replaced the engine with the OS 61FS earlier this morning but I made a mistake in my previous post, the OS is not a Surpass it's a pre-Surpass engine which runs very well. At 19.06 ozs (540 grammes) it's nearly five ounces (120 grammes) heavier than the Thunder Tiger 54. I'll report back later hopefully with some pictures.

If you still find that you need a lot of down elevator trim, then it's worth looking at my suggestion.  Good luck with the next flight.

[john davidson 1]

21 hours ago, leccyflyer said:

Suoer afternoon at the field, high, bright overcast, very light easterly wind and a good turn out. Really enjoyed flying my wee depron Super 30 on the vintage Digimac III transmotter is some fairly raggedy formation with my pal Bob's very similar half size depron Super 60.  Both models had good ROG takeoffs from the short grass strip and pottered about the sky in a very relaxed manner - had probably 30% of the flying On The Button single channel style, but mostly flying on the sticks, trying to keep in more or less the same bit of the sky.

 

 

Lots of flying of other small depron creations and the wee fellas,  but with a few other great performing models thrown into the mix. We had a couple of young visitors who were very taken with the excellent flying of the wee Volantex squadron. Model of the day for me was clubmate John's O/D depron Sunderland style flying boat,  which carved up the air very convincingly and was well matched by the rather overcast skies. Brilliant fun and hopefully more to come in the morning.

 

 

 

Sunderland is only cartoon scale , always had an itch for one so set to with 3 view and a big lump of blue foam. Resulted in a lot of debris and a suprisingly light fuselage. Wing made from grey depron , quad esc at centre section and a lot of wires, four more than individual  esc's, all made up to a very heavy wing (four motors too of course} which disappointed me, I thought the quad esc would simplify and lighten. Flies nice though, session curtailed by a wing bolt mount  coming unglued.

[Futura57]

Spent today at the BMFA South East scale fly-in hosted by the Epsom Radio Flying Club (not the Epsom Downs Model Flying Club) in a field less than a kilometre from Gatwick airport. A pretty good turn out considering the 15mph wind gusting to 25mph and 45 to 90 degrees to the strip. Around a dozen pilots plucked up the courage to fly, including myself. Though I elected not to fly my GeeBee. It was very turbulent at all altitudes up to 400 ft. I was permitted to fly my Top Quark (not scale) but it was blown around all over the place. The heavier faster models certainly faired best. Great banter, great hospitality, great BBQ burgers and hot dogs and a good day was had by all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[leccyflyer]

1 hour ago, john davidson 1 said:

Sunderland is only cartoon scale , always had an itch for one so set to with 3 view and a big lump of blue foam. Resulted in a lot of debris and a suprisingly light fuselage. Wing made from grey depron , quad esc at centre section and a lot of wires, four more than individual  esc's, all made up to a very heavy wing (four motors too of course} which disappointed me, I thought the quad esc would simplify and lighten. Flies nice though, session curtailed by a wing bolt mount  coming unglued.

Thanks John -  I think your Sunderland looked very convincing in flight yesterday, really nice. As I was saying this morning I think she'd go really well off the wet grass and we're not likely to be short of that in the coming months.😎

[leccyflyer]

Much better than expected session this morning, as the mizzle melted away and the predicted rain didsnlt start until later in the afternoon, so was able to get plenty of flying in. Only slight mishap was with my profile prop-in-a-slot Su37 Super Flanker, which made a bit of a strange noise on handlaunch, which dissappeared a few seconds later. Flew the model about for a bit and landed fine at the end of the flight to find that the velcro-mounted receiver had slipped back in flight and the longer of two aerials had been sucked into and eaten by the prop disc, turning it into a mini strimmer and whipping a couple of wider slots in the fuselage. Didn't encounter any radio issues in flight with just the one aerial and the RX has now been replaced with another one.

 

Also got some decent flights On The Button with my Super 30, with most of the flight being single channel, though I had to save a dodgy looking landing and use the sticks for that.

[Stephen Jones]

I have managed to get some flying in on Saturday the day started out gray and damp so was undecided  pretty much like the weather but by 2pm it brightened up I even had to take my coat off by late afternoon.

Did more testing of my own design but still not managed to fly version one of this model due to wind direction.

 

Steve 😃

 

[leccyflyer]

A few piccies of Saturday's sorties with the wee profile depron half sized Super 60's, courtesy of clubmate Steve Firth, with thanks. The red and yellow one (Bob's) has been flying for years and I borrowed the templates the other day to knock the blue and yellow one together as a test bed for the Digimac III conversion and my first forays into button pushing. I must say that I'm really enjoying it, though mostly consisting of steering the model around the skies, no aerobatics so far and yet to successfully manage a full flight from take off to landing, on the button. That might have to wait for flying on the larger field, rather than the precision landings required on my local strip. Anyway, thoroughly recommended as a relaxing flyer for minimal investment, just a few hours, a quid's worth of depron, couple of micro servos, small RX, cheap outrunner and ESC and small batteries

 

[PDB]

No flying for me yesterday due to the strong wind however I spent an afternoon with club members who slope soar and got an introduction to this discipline, now considering my first slope model. 

 

Fascinating selection of models and we have some excellent slopes in Wiltshire.