More flight video… boring for some, but at least this time it’s pretty complete video. Mostly solved the auto-focus problems, but the camera still pretty much sucks for shooting this kind of video. It’s amazing J.Wood could pull this off as well as he did. This IS a big, SLOW target, so it’s not quite so tough to keep in view.
Had a few good flights of both the biplane, and the Telemaster. I’m finally getting my wind-legs with these gas motors, and have now had several trips with no major incident. This should be one of the last videos before we start doing some onboard telemetry and video, which should make for some more interesting vids.
Flight Video:
OK the landing is ugly, but you try to get one of these planes to glide downward with a positive attitude. They just want to keep flying, so u gotta point ‘em down. It was pretty windy, with a nasty cross-wind. It’s kindof funny, every time I landed, I couldn’t seem to convince my planes to taxi back to me easily… the wind kept pushing them away… hah.
Yesterday, I had the best day of flying to date. All in all I flew five flights… three with my Biplane, and 2 with the new Senior Telemaster. The bipe is getting better, but I still wish I had a larger engine in it. I had a successful dead-stick landing with it when I ran it out of gas. I need to pay more attention to my fuel!!
The big yellow bird flew without incident, and is actually REALLY FUN to fly. It is a great change of pace from the adrenaline and stunt-filled acrobatics. It’s really fun just to float around. And boy does this plane float. The biggest problem I had was getting it to land. With this much engine, she still wants to fly at IDLE… and to get her to come down, I have to get the idle speed low enough that it will kill the engine if I’m not careful. So I’ll have to do some propeller experimentation, and find a slower (lower pitch) prop that will give me a slower landing speed.
This baby can take off at 1/3 throttle, and never needs to exceed 1/2 throttle. OMG it is powerful. The perfect utility plane, and I am very glad I chose to go with the gas engine. She should lift POUNDS of weight, and the power will make all the difference.
Here is a quick video from the field. Terrible video, and only got a couple of usable shots. I hired a volunteer to shoot this, and he had some trouble. But at least it proves it flies. And interesting thing to point out.. notice how the tail comes up immediately on roll-out. That is because it has a “lifting tail” unlike most models which are just straight planks for control. That helps this baby lift so well.
I got a GREAT DEAL on ebay last week. I found an RC Airplane Engine test stand for sale, hand built by a gentleman in Arizona. I have seen some professional rigs that cost over $150, and I got this for a fraction of that, and is every bit as good. This guy is really a great craftsman!
You just bolt your motor under the well made clamps, and hook up the pushrod to the throttle. The gas tank can be raised/lowered to be even with the carb (very important to start some finicky engines). I tried it out, and it works like a charm, is easy to use, and looks nice to boot! Completely fuel-proof, too… so I am impressed!
I was able to fine tune my Saito .82 to get the most out of it, learning a bit about what propellers this engine likes as well. The 13×9 grey APC propeller only topped out at 8200 RPM, while the smaller Zinger 12×9 produced a whopping 9600 RPM. Clearly the 12×9 zinger will give me a LOT more power. In addition, I tuned the mixture, discovering that I was only producing about 7200 RPM on my first couple of flights with my Bipe… and a rich-sputtering 7200 RPM at that. So the improved mixture, and better tuned propeller should give me a much improved third outing. Can’t wait to get it in the air again.
So the test stand has already paid off for me, and should for years to come.
So I was working on my biplane, fixing little bits that had rattled loose after the first flight, when I noticed a little hole in the top of my wing. I didn’t recall the hole being there before! Then I remembered that after my first flight, I spent some time in the driveway wiping the plane down, and looking at the exhaust that had come loose. I also recall that I had a 2 year old little girl waddling around me, “helping”. I further recall that I inexplicably lost a small metal mini-screwdriver bit from one of my tool sets that I know she had been playing with.
I put these facts together, and picked up the plane… holding it to the light.The picture to the right is what I saw! She had poked the bit through the wing covering, and stuffed it INTO the wing. THANKS BABE. After some fiddling, and poking around with the hole she had made (and slightly enlarging it) I managed to coax the little bugger out of there. Note the tiny tweezers used to poke around
I had a few “star stickers” laying around, so I went ahead and put three of them in there, because not only is three always better than one, but it’s an homage to the fact that this is the THIRD ultimate biplane I have put together, frankenbipe notwithstanding.
Man… you have to watch your back with these little ones!
I flew a new glow-powered plane this weekend, and this time didn’t crash it into tiny bits. It is a Seagull Models Ultimate Biplane 46… right-sized for my twice-widowed Saito .86 engine. The flight was “just OK”. It took me a while to get it trimmed straight as it was so windy. I probably should have waited for a less windy day, but it worked.
A couple of friends met me up there and were great help. We got some video, but learned a hard truth about the finicky nature of the auto-focus on my vid camera. I need to see if I can turn that off somehow. But we got some shots, and the takeoff and landing (such as it was). So here it is for you to enjoy… or at least humor me by watching. HAH!
I learned that the bipes, being so short, like to flip! That, and the low clearance afforded by the wheel pants make it not roll that well in grass. So I’m going to likely ditch the pants, and put some slightly larger wheels on it for next time. And go for a 3-point landing, rather than a fast rollout like I tried here.
I only had one flight, as I shook a bolt loose on my exhaust, and couldn’t field repair it. Damn four strokes shake like the dickens. I only noticed as I was sizing it up for the next flight, and it was probably a sign to go home while I still had it in one piece. The “Butcher of Powell” (thanks, Matt) would spill no blood today.
And interesting thing to point out.. notice how the tail comes up immediately on roll-out. That is because it has a “lifting tail” unlike most models which are just straight planks for control. That helps this baby lift so well.
Subscribe to this Blog (RSS)
