Hurrah! Spring's finally here, how much flying are you getting in?

[GrumpyGnome]

Wind's gone - hurrah !

Rain's here - booh

GG

[MikeS]

I think we can say so far this year looks a lot like last year. Right now though which is strange it's overcast, dry and little wind. Almost perfect for flying but as normal the Mrs has other ideas.

Edited By MikeS on 17/04/2013 08:12:12

[Rich too]

Hopefully a lot now that the evenings are lighter! David, where in Kent do you fly from? Cheers Rich

[GrumpyGnome]

Yep - spring's here !

40+ mph wind, sleet and rain. Nice.

Not sure if even the die-hard slopey lead-slead fiends would be out in this.

GG

[Rich too]

Forecast is for calmer winds Friday onwards - maiden on Sat!!!

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Posted by Dickster on 17/04/2013 08:16:49:
Hopefully a lot now that the evenings are lighter! David, where in Kent do you fly from? Cheers Rich

Maidstone club Rich......about 7 miles south of the town. You?

[Rich too]

I'll have to check out the location. I'm near Brands - Concorde MFC is 5 mins away, but its not a great location, and I believe Bickley is nearby... a friend of mine is a farmer and he kindly gave me a great field to fly from (share with sheep!), the only problem is that its a bit rough so I tend to hand launch. I am hoping to maiden a larger petrol model on Sat and that has 5" wheels which will hopefully cope! I did join a new club near Wrotham a couple of years back, and that used a private airfield but unfortunately it (the club) was subject to a police investigation and soon disbanded.....I believe. I left when Maidstone CID called me and informed me that my BMFA subs had not been paid by the club....

[RustyCavalier]

Managed a few decent flights with my nanoCPX, nothing to shout home about but able to get out in the fresh air and turn some tricks.

Sadly, no pictures, not really anything t see with a nano.

[ross blackwell]

Well It sounds as though a lot of you "English chaps"are starting to have some fun over there.I can.t help but be reminded of where I was living down here in Tassie about 20 years ago & we were fortunate enough to be able to fly almost at our "back door" During a period while I was building our house in the southern midlands my buddy & I used to take our slope soarers up on to a ridge about 500 metres away from the house & sit amongst the serrated tussocks twiddling the sticks until the batteries were getting low then walk / fly down to the house,land in the back yard have a cup of tea & solve all the worlds problems. Its not as cosy now days & our cool weather is here so I'm a bit jealous just reading of the fun you chaps are having. Ross B.

[Martyn K]

Posted by Martyn K on 15/04/2013 13:02:45:

 

I have replaced the servo (a budget unit) - which was new to the model - life = approximately 30 minutes... and I need to fasten the rudder back on again. I'll have a look and see if I can find out what caused the servo failure.

Not sure if there is a lessons learned experience from this, there must be some somewhere, it took me most of Saturday afternoon to wind down after the experience, quite exciting.

 

Further to my earlier post, I stripped down the servo last night and 'surprise surprise', i found this.

Spot the broken wire to the position feedback pot! The motor or power amplifier will probably also be burnt out unfortunately as this is quite an easy repair.

Lessons learned - strip your servo down before installation and give each wire a gentle tug. It could have been so much worse.

BW

Martyn

 

Edited By Martyn K on 19/04/2013 09:40:40

[Glyn R]

When was spring I must have missed it. I thought it was tomorrow.

[Rich too]

It is so you havent missed it? Maiden looming......can't wait..

[Martyn K]

I have been out with the AcroWot again this evening. Got the engine running much better and I think I have nearly finished trimming it. Quite breezy, but a lovely bright evening lighting the model up against dark clouds in the east.

Much better than last weekend... and the car is packed ready for tomorrow morning.

Martyn

[Rich too]

Was still quite windy but the sun was shinning and I finally got to maiden my Pulse 125XT, also my first petrol model (Zenoah 23) - who said they weren't messy!! Flew great, and note the 5" wheels as I fly from a farmers field!

[Pete B]

Cooler, cloudier and breezier day than expected down here at Lalbenque. I joined Terry W, John and David for a session, taking my Phoenix 2000, HK Salto, Druine Akrobat and Sea Fury. Terry was armed with his Boomerang, P2000 and YT Monsun, which I was yet to see in flight.

David's outing with his EG Pro was short-lived, with a fin attachment problem but had a flight with Terry's P2000. I spent some time with John, turning his Easyglider from an over-sensitive uncontrollable beast into the docile soarer it is designed to be. We're almost there, John...

It raises an interesting point - without a bit of guidance, how does a newbie know just how much to tone down control surfaces, add rates and expo and generally make a model easier to fly? Nothing can dent the tyro's confidence more than a badly set-up model making the flying so much more difficult than it need be.

We did the same with his foamy Cessna (170?) - pretty unpleasant to fly initially but after some fettling, it was cruising around like a good'un

Whilst I was otherwise engaged, that sneaky Walters guy launched his P2000 under a brooding grey cloud and promptly went up like a lift - bottling out, I reckon, before he speck'd out........

The sky started to clear after that and the lift, although present, wasn't quite the same...particularly when I came to fly my P2000 - well, that's my excuse...

Meanwhile, Terry had got his hand in with the Boomerang and then the Monsun came out....nice bit of kit but he'll have to tell you what pulls it along....I'll just add a few pics:

Chocks away!...

Climbing out with take-off flap...

Needs a driver....

Looks good...

Low pass with full flap...

I didn't get the chance to shoot anything else - so here's a couple more!...

Unfortunately, the next flight didn't go so well, with the cockpit canopy parting company a couple of hundred feet up and the resulting landing being a little hard on the noseleg.....

Never mind, Terry, she looks and flies great!

Best weather of the day turned up at 5pm, as we were packing up, of course - next time, next time!

Pete

[Nev Haycox]

Hurrah, I actually got out today, only the second time this year. I found I was a lttle rusty (no surprise there) but soon got the thumbs going in the right directions. 4 flights with the Renegade, maidened my Acro Wot foam-e and a quick thrash with the Habu.

Lets hope for more days like today and I may just get around to maidening my Seagull Zlin and Harmon Rocket.

Nev.

P. S. All seems well with my newly repaired DX8 (RF board replaced)

[Nev Haycox]

With regards to Pete B's question above about how a newbie sets up a plane to fly correctly, well, today when I maidened my Acro Wot foam-e I had to put in a load of down elevator trim, does this mean she's needs a little weight taken off the tail? (20 grams added to tail to balance)

Nev.

[Turbycat]

Finally maidened my Black Horse Pitts yesterday. Only built it in January!!

Flew really well. Bit of down trim as I hadn't quite got the elevators adjusted right and 2 clicks of left aileron.

Andy

Edited By Chris Bott - Moderator on 23/04/2013 22:40:41

[Gordon Bushell]

Not much spring flying for me, work has been in the way.

I was overjoyed to get to the field on Saturday, on a nice warm calm day.

After some difficulty shaking the rust out of my landings on previous visits this year, I decided to do some circuits and bumps.

After a mammoth session with the trainer, the Acrowot had two packs of circuits and bumps, and I thought I had it cracked.

I was just about to pack up when another member turned up, so I thought I would use up another pack in the acrowot.

Shortly after take off, the gentle easterly breeze was cancelled out by a good southwesterly sea breeze, so the final approach was from the other end of the strip.

As I approached, I let the plane slow too much, and almost stalled. I opened the throttle, thought I'd still be able to get in, and shut down again.

The plane fell like a shot pheasant, and I was left looking at a gap in the sky where it used to be.

Drat.

I'll have to get some engine mounts, and glue the fuselage back together, but it looks like it could have been worse.

Still, at least I won't be too upset if im stuck at work all weekend...

[Pete B]

Looks nice, Turby....

Yes RS, worth taking the weight off the tail and see if it trims out OK without. You're effectively adding noseweight so you shouldn't get any unpleasant surprises....

Pete

[MikeS]

Went down the club today. Got out the car and stood there for a while. Something was not right but I could not put my finger on it. What was this strangeness

I got out the Pulse and did a flight but it did not seem to fly right. The take off was great, the rolls and loops where almost perfect and even the approach was spot in with a nice greaser of a landing.

I went back to the Pits a but puzzled, checking over the airframe found nothing wrong. I went up again but his time so did a RV-8. Both models flew great. On the approach I figured it out. I noticed the wink sock was broken as it had not moved since I'd arrived. That was the problem

Some pics from today, my P40B

Colins RV-8

Some of the lads and my Pulse XT 25E

Mike

[Ian Jones]

Had a good few flights with this one today, oops yesterday. The forecast wind of 8-9 mph turned out to be 15mph which doesn't bring out the best in this model.

It sounds great with it's OS26 4stroke, looks brilliant and is relatively easy to fly. It has Telemetry on board and normally I see a top speed of around 50mph in a dive, today it managed 72! Hard to believe but it's true. I also managed to get it down to 15mph and it would probably have managed less but at 30 feet high I decided not to try .

Edited By Ian Jones on 24/04/2013 02:09:08

[cymaz]

Down in deepest Cornwall......Last Saturday, stiff breeze and cold at the field. Wore hat and coat. Today, misty and damp. Next Saturday, North wind and cold

...............................roll on winter, should be nice by then

Edited By cymaz on 24/04/2013 06:48:16

[Terry Walters]

Posted by Pete B - Moderator on 23/04/2013 21:51:52:

Meanwhile, Terry had got his hand in with the Boomerang and then the Monsun came out....nice bit of kit but he'll have to tell you what pulls it along....I'll just add a few pics:

Pete

Great pics Pete and a good write -up - thanks! The Monsun is the YT one which SWMBO bought for me for last Xmas during YT's sale - a very nicely made aeroplane and a lot of it for the money. The engine is an ASP .91FS - sounds great.

There is a blog 'in another place' by which identifies the weak nose leg ('Weak' means unable to stand up to my heavy landings!) and the canopy fixings. I added 2x 2mm cap head bolt through the rear lugs and into fixed tee nuts. The aerodynamic shape of the canopy + vibration = no canopy. However the canopy was retrieved from the wood with no damage!! How good is that!

Pete was flying his Ripmax Druine - that is really nicely sorted out, His tatty old foamie Sea Fury which flies so so well and that Salto with such a convincing whistle on a high speed pass.

It's been a long Winter - dare we hope that Spring has actually arrived?

Terry

Great afternoon out!

[Turbycat]

Well 3 days flying this week!! Would have been 4 but I had to work tuesday!! Can't believe how much better I feel about it now. 2 weeks ago I was on the verge of putting everything on ebay!!

Now I'm thinking what aircraft to get next!!

Andy