did 'YOU' fly today??

[hoverfly]

Perhaps not such a good idea as it would probably attract plod..  

[badger1]

I really want to put IR LEDs & an IR-sensitive camera on a quad one day.  there were a few videos of people doing that a couple of years back & I thought was waaay cool.

[Bad Raven]

The last two posts don't seem to relate to previous while seem to be replies??   

While waiting for flying buddy to arrive I thought I'd fly the Babyhawk Race LOS.

Couple of circuits, then on a power climb out, all hell gets let loose, violent tumbling, and I see bits flying from it.  Fell from approx 20 foot in a violent tumble, even though disabled pronto.

When I get to it, two propellers on the same side have split cleanly across the thickest and so supposedly strongest part of the hub (two screw and centre pin fixing). I find the bits about the expected throwing distance, so not broken in fall.

Its not previously been knocked or clipped anything.

WTF...............   The broken bits at the thin blades seem just as flexible as when new.

Have replaced all four.


BTW, they were not the same colour, so not the exact same make/batch.

[badger1]

The last two posts don't seem to relate to previous while seem to be replies??   

I replied thinking it was a response to the BFU #10 thread post about flying in the dark   

[Andy7]

I replied thinking it was a response to the BFU #10 thread post about flying in the dark   

... Look out for a related video from me when I finish the edit. Something I've been working on for a wile. 

[badger1]

... Look out for a related video from me when I finish the edit. Something I've been working on for a wile. 

[apollo7]

Flight with Volantex ranger 1600 at new club, no signal issues over here, great place to fly, old WW2 airfield runway
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnW1V8AOgXE&t=47s

[ched]

Flight with Volantex ranger 1600 at new club, no signal issues over here, great place to fly, old WW2 airfield runway
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnW1V8AOgXE&t=47s

That looked a great area to fly in and a lovely day. Nice to see, thanks.

[badger1]

very nice - I have Ranger 1600 that I like a lot.  I keep thinking about getting a 2m wing set for it, but I don't fancy my chances of getting m in one piece from China.  when I got the Ranger it looked like a forklift had run over the box.   

[Bad Raven]

I'll be glad when the temperature climbs a little!

Most of the time today only two of us at field so back to back Quads r us.  Eventually ended up alone which was ideal to tune a couple of 500 Heli's, one flybar, one flybarless.  The FBL one was wandering around so with no-one to hold up I could play with gyro settings, test fly and repeat.  I found the Roll and Pitch were only set to 45%, while Yaw was 100!

Upped to 70% in stages till it felt better.

It does bring it home how stable a freestyle quad is though, and how unaffected by wind.

It was quite gusty and with the Helis I spent quite a bit of extra effort chasing the lift/drop up/downwind throttle changes till back into sync with them.

And I STILL prefer flybar as it feels more natural to me.

And the other Heli downer is the charging. 6S 4000mAh are ruddy awful by comparison on charge time!! Oh, and the cost................ 

I will soon need a couple of 5500mAh 6S for the 600............... gulp.............

[Bad Raven]

Volantex Ranger, yet another Multiplex EasyStar clone.  There are oodles, the commonest one being the HK Bixler1 or 2, the 2 having quite a following in my main club.

I have a genuine EasyStar (inherited) and have a Bixler2 and another in box waiting the need.

Said before, but the Bixler3 is way inferior, which is why after a lot of complaints, HK brought the 2 back.  The 2 will thermal and slermal (lift off of tree line combined with mild thermal).

Buddy has a beat up one that the nose is 15 degrees left, the tailplane is well squint with the wing looking horizontally and vertically.......... and it still flies well!

Have flown a Sky Surfer (actually several) doing maidens or set ups for people, they go OK, too. Never had go of a Ranger, they have never appeared here.

My Bixler2 record at my normal "flat" field site is now over 45 mins (I got bored!) with only very rare motor bursts to get through sink and dive out of lift, and that is with being limited to under 300 feet due airport zone ATC agreement.

As EP goes that style are a bit raucous on prop noise, not as bad as trailing edge chop on a flying wing though.

Current EP favourite is the EFX Racer/EFX Extra, very very fast even on 3S, blistering on 4S, and yet very quiet, good for BH fun when we have a severe noise limit.

[apollo7]

Volantex Ranger, yet another Multiplex EasyStar clone.  Only resemblance to an Easystar is being a pusher , its way better than easystar having a near unbreakable fuselage and stunning flight abilities

[badger1]

Volantex Ranger, yet another Multiplex EasyStar clone.

Only resemblance to an Easystar is being a pusher , its way better than easystar having a near unbreakable fuselage and stunning flight abilities.

it's not as if the Easystar can make many claims of originality - there are full-size aircraft in this layout going way back.

[Bad Raven]

it's not as if the Easystar can make many claims of originality - there are full-size aircraft in this layout going way back.

I have stopped laughing now, so feel I need to point out in the 1920's and 1930's there were cars and trains with similar layout, but that didn't make them good!    

[badger1]

I have stopped laughing now, so feel I need to point out in the 1920's and 1930's there were cars and trains with similar layout, but that didn't make them good!    

but the cars' & trains' wings kept breaking off when they went through tunnels?   

[Bad Raven]

Flying Buddy and I both have EMax Sport Hawk 5" er's. Both on FrSky Euro LBT.

Some while ago now and split over a couple of weeks I had two fall from sky incidents that I was unable to identify the reason for. DVR showed no reason, but both violent roll right.

In both cases subsequent flights on that day over the same area and at same attitude were OK.

Many months later, lots of use, no repeat.

Yesterday my Buddy's one, flown a lot with no sign of similar issue over many months did the same, loss of control with violent roll left to ground .

Undamaged (gotta love those folding props!), and with nothing visually wrong, he flew the rest of the battery out OK over the patch.

He later flew several more times OK, then two batteries back to back with minimum battery change stoppage to make it run at high temp (it was 26 in shade at the time, when a week ago were were huddled in fleeces!). Over exactly the same course. No SD slot for blackbox, and he does not have a DVR, so no rewind.

There was a single beep from the transmitter which spotting alongside him I heard but he didn't, occuring as he lost control, but was that the Tx reacting to loss of telemetry from the Rx or transmission loss to the Rx.

Its not known as an interference prone area.

Annoying not to know!

[badger1]

the postman brought me this yesterday & I flew it today:



seems okay, needs some tweaking to get it flying how I want.

I could also do with getting my eyes looked at so I could see it properly in the air 

[Bad Raven]

the postman brought me this yesterday & I flew it today:

Nice, I had one, felt it was rather underpowered on 3S, more adequate on 4S.  Mine didn't last long, about the fourth session it unexpectedly and suddenly speared off left on the right turn into finals through a tree gap we have to use (possibly a stall due turbulence) and got hung up after falling halfway to ground through an Oak.

Brand new 4S in it, as well.  Club Chairman and wife (who also flies) regarded it as a challenge to get it down, but it was firmly wedged in a fork way out down a Limb still 40 foot up.  They did get most of it, but by the time they did (they have far more tenacity than me!!) it had been there a few days in rain, and I was not interested in rebuilding it, too far gone, too many bits gone awol. The tail and canopy survived if you need one, its the right colour one! 

In breaking it fully apart to burn it it was clear that it was VERY well made, exceptionally so for its price and ARTF lack of status, so its decimation in the Oak does not reflect poor quality.

First accident in over a decade, Oh Well...............

[badger1]

it seems okay - I've flown these before on 3S & they're a bit gutless so I'm running a 4S 2.2Ah.  the airframe seems quite nicely made; I'm not so convinced by the powertrain though - the ESC seems to get scorchingly hot even when flying rather sedately.  I may move it to the outside of the fuselage for better cooling and/or replace it.

the forward-raked u/c legs make the ground-handling a bit squirrelly.  it's also two-piece for some unfathomable reason.

the rudder is a bit odd - it hardly works even with quite a lot of movement.  not quite sure what's going on there.  maybe the canopy needs some turbulators like the ones behind the cockpit on the AW Argosy:



bonus marks if you know the RAF nickname(s) for this aircraft 

[Bad Raven]

I'd forgotten that, I changed that excuse for an ESC immediately after a first test, in fact I Emailed them to say it was not fit for purpose.  If I had kept it I'd have changed that undercart, though exploring the crashed bits its mounted onto a complete interlocking thick ply construction that has to be seen to be believed!

[Bad Raven]

bonus marks if you know the RAF nickname(s) for this aircraft 

The Whistling Wheelbarrow.......... 

[badger1]

The Whistling Wheelbarrow.......... 

& the one for when they added the mini radome to the nose?   

[Bad Raven]

The whistling ***, you are just trying to get me in trouble...................

[badger1]

a nice pair here:

[Bad Raven]

Last week we had vandalism again, pit tables overturned, a bonfiire lit right in the middle of the runway, rubbish bags brought to site and split and thrown everywhere.

We cleared it up as best we could, though of course the grass was burned.

This morning they had smashed most of the pit tables, last week there were 11, today only five survive in semi-damaged state.

[badger1]

eugh, sorry to had this happen.  

all our pit benches have been stripped of wood for fires - including one fire *on top of* our shipping container.  doing donuts on the runway on quad bikes seems be another favourite.

I don't understand the mentality of people who do this sort of thing.

[Bad Raven]

I flew the REKON 3 again today, and really wished I hadn't, it flew that badly. Video frankly was awful. Also physically it was shaking around like it was over P'd, and significant noise bars visible.

As I was flying it close over patch as the farmer was running a tractor naround close to the patch turning the cut field grass for hay, I was pretty miffed when the video quality was that dire that close.

Back here I have just found the time to back garden fly it off a screen.  It was set to 100mW (its 25-350)  which is what I'd set on arrival, but it was on Profile 3. It does seem to have 3 profiles set, though why is another matter, since its largely meant to be cruised around on angle. And there are major differences in the settings. No explanation aanywhere I can find, and its set up was pretty rubbish in other respects.  Anyway, have set the obvious, Profile 1, and it seems better, less judder.

[Bad Raven]

This is how badly set up it came:-

[ched]

This is how badly set up it came:-

That is quite bad. Did they mount the camera with an elastic band?

[badger1]

This is how badly set up it came:-

yikes, just listen to those poor motors 

is the FC loose or something?