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Post by windsock on Nov 11, 2007 17:03:14 GMT 10
It's done, I've ordered my Bat . At the end of the day they are dirt cheap. I also have the added bonus of following Andrews modified Bat build on the forum. I've done some searching and found some digital servos, the ones Andrew's used in his build for $39.
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Post by sean on Nov 11, 2007 20:27:55 GMT 10
Great stuff Gerard, The Hitec digi servos Andrew used are pretty sweet.
I've been using a Corona RS610 in the Weasel, now moved to the Bat which cost I think $25 minus the crystal, and the crystal cost maybe $7? Bought from RCHobbyBoy.com it's full range and very rarely glitches, about the same performance as my JR RS70 synthesizing rx. Corona are replacing these with synthesizing receivers which could be good but you never know, might be worth waiting to hear how people get on. I've had good luck with the synthesizing JRs (one PCM and one PPM), but using PCM have had a couple lockouts at Bald Knob. In both cases my plane was closer to the tower than I was to the plane, might have had something to do with it. Almost everyone seems to have experienced something like that at Bald Knob flying near the towers.
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Post by thevon on Nov 30, 2007 9:28:38 GMT 10
Here are a couple of photos from the exploratory visit to Black Pinch, near Lake Cootharaba, last Saturday. There's some text about the day on another thread. Sean DSing the Reaper on the North end. Sorry about the blur - it was pretty gloomy weather ..... Jason sheltering the gear from the rain under a tree higher on the ridge. New Electron (yellow) on right, Sean's Dad's Bee on the left which Sean DS'ed rather impressively ...
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Post by ezza on Nov 30, 2007 10:27:56 GMT 10
Nice pics Andrew. The ridge looks nice and pointy. Looks like a chainsaw might be handy though. Maybe you should meet the land owner Andrew. ...... There looks to be a saddle back shape ridge in the background, just above and to the left of Sean's Reaper. Assuming you were flying on an easterly that ridge might work in a SE? May have trees as well though. That area seems to have the best 'pointy ridge/close to the coast' ratio. I am looking forward to getting up there for a search soon. Eric
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Post by sean on Nov 30, 2007 11:42:00 GMT 10
Nice pics Andrew. Ezza, I don't recall seeing the ridge you mention while we were there, so I suspect the photo is making it look better than it is, next time we're there I'll take a closer look.
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Post by thevon on Dec 28, 2007 19:55:27 GMT 10
Jase and I ventured to the "new" DS hill near Kilcoy today. Big gamble given the rain patches but the SE was forecast to increase all day so I thought it worthwhile. We drove thru quite solid set-in looking rain all around Woodford! Got to the top of the hill just in time to wait for the rain. Sat in the car for 15 min or so then as it got lighter we spent a while clearing rocks off the top of the hill.
Wind was quite strong when the rain cleared so we got the planes out and I had the Ozprey DSing quite well so put the Reaper up. But got frustrated again - until Jase said he was having trouble keeping his Bee up! Lift was trashy, wind was too S. So spent some time DSing the Bat ... had to work to get the drop-in height; frontside lift wasn't great. Jase had his first ever "real life" attempt at DSing with the Electron and he's going to be a natural. He was getting some good effect and kept a few fast loops together. But then suddenly in front of a big patch of rain the wind really got wild! Really crazy stuff but we both were grinning. I threw the Reaper out and at times it was almost sitting still, weathervaning to the wind direction! But we couldn't understand how with such strong wind the lift wasn't that good until we realized the wind had swung about 40deg to the NE! But it was fun anyway. Anyway to cut a long story short with fluky wing and the lift being patchy for a while, wind shifts causing big rotors, we had some bad prangs - I banged the Bat in hard a few times and tore the nose right off the Ozprey unfortunately. When I went down to pick up the Ozprey there was a VERY strong wind coming UP the backside! No wonder it went in. That poor plane; what a battlehorse. Like a cattle dog that's been trampled by a beast, it lay there in pain, whimpering "stick me back together and throw me out there ... I want more!"
Tried DSing the other way when the wind was NE and the effect seemed very strong (a real "whump" crossing the shear layer), but there are trees close to the drop-in line which scared me. Then Jase had problems with a chattering servo which pretty much put him out of action. Then the wind seemed to strengthen and steady to the ESE, providing steady lift on the front, so I put the Reaper up and it was really good. Fiddled with the weight and for the first time dropped it over the back. What a beautiful result! That thing just wants to DS. It came alive and as they say, it just wanted to stay in the groove. I had the longest session of consective DS circuits that I've ever had, (in my awkward fashion) and doing acro stuff on the way in and out seemed easy. Jase clocked it at 87mph but the wind was easing a bit. Just for fun I put another 140gm ballast in (now half the total 560gm capacity) to see how it went and apart from taking a bit longer to wind up to cruise speed, it seemed to fly just as well, and of course it was even nicer to DS! No problem at all. With the patchy nature of the wind/lift today I wondered if it was due to local wind effects, or to variability in the overall wind. Looking at Seabreeze's readings for today the wind wasn't constant, even at the coast and Cape Moreton ... it was up and down and shifted direction. So I'm keen to give that slope another session on a day with a strong SE or E. It's really a great place to DS and if we can get consistent frontside lift it will be tops.
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Post by skyzking on Dec 29, 2007 21:07:58 GMT 10
Hey everyone, the new Aussie record was re-set today by Eric at the Light house. It now stands at 214 mph.
Congrats Eric, next stop 250mph barrier.
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Post by thevon on Dec 29, 2007 22:02:38 GMT 10
Aw, man, that's amazing ... I gotta look at RC Groups ... Here it is www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=788888&page=3#post8814673Massive congrats Ezza!! It's all too much!!! We can't keep up! You're moving so fast we're getting Aussie Records Overload! Man, I wish I coulda been there! Absolutely fantastic. You're so determined and persistent! That's why you get the results! If you'd been Edison they would have had electric light about 10 years earlier! You've got guts ... landing down below is totally freaky - done it at SC and you can't tell if you're 2m or zero above the ground! (Unless there's a good shadow!). That's seriously impressive! It's a pity that only 0.00000000000002% of the population actually understand what "Dynamic Soaring" is, or you'd be on the news! But I'm sure it was totally impressive for those lucky spectators who witnessed it. Congrats again from the Windsock crew!
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Post by jase on Dec 29, 2007 22:18:37 GMT 10
not too get too off topic in this thread, but i pulled the servo out of my E60 today and tested it in another receiver.. Unfortunately it still twitches ..... and being that i head north in a weeks time, i won't be able to get it sent away to be assessed under any sort of warrenty until i get to rockhampton. I could be tempted to buy another replacement in the short term if anyone is heading out on tuesday.
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Post by atmosteve on Dec 30, 2007 0:39:21 GMT 10
Aw, man, that's amazing ... I gotta look at RC Groups ... Here it is www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=788888&page=3#post8814673Massive congrats Ezza!! It's all too much!!! We can't keep up! You're moving so fast we're getting Aussie Records Overload! Man, I wish I coulda been there! Absolutely fantastic. You're so determined and persistent! That's why you get the results! If you'd been Edison they would have had electric light about 10 years earlier! You've got guts ... landing down below is totally freaky - done it at SC and you can't tell if you're 2m or zero above the ground! (Unless there's a good shadow!). That's seriously impressive! It's a pity that only 0.00000000000002% of the population actually understand what "Dynamic Soaring" is, or you'd be on the news! But I'm sure it was totally impressive for those lucky spectators who witnessed it. Congrats again from the Windsock crew! Mate there is no hope for you, addicted.. yes. Just watching DS on the vids scares the hell out of me though in some ways.
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Post by skyzking on Dec 30, 2007 18:10:08 GMT 10
Well guys guess what. The Aussie record now stands at 249.6mph limited by radar gun.
Way to go Eric...
For more info, visit his thread on RCG.
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Post by thevon on Dec 30, 2007 22:06:43 GMT 10
Jase and I were up at Bald Knob and about 2pm or so I rang Ezza to crow about how wild the conditions were, and that I reached 120mph with my Reaper. But first I asked whether he'd flown today and he said he was just walking down to get the plane after landing on the beach, and he'd hit 249mph! It was pretty amazing. Not so long ago, Ezza's top speed was more than 100mph slower! Great flying, great plane and great location. Congrats Ezza.
Bald Knob was pretty wild. My wind gauge was showing between 30 and 50 knots on the top of the hill. Pete (Wowings owner) and Simon from the club were flying Skuas which handled the conditions amazingly well. It was seriously crazy - it was very difficult just to launch, since the wind ripped the plane out of your hands.
There was good lift in front of the Hump and the DS potential was very hot. But also huge rotor effects in the gully. Mucked around and soon broke the 100 barrier with the Bat. But then found a different line with a lot more power and got to 120 with the Reaper, then later 113 with the Bat. Both planes were fully ballasted. I feel sure that if a more capable pilot had been flying either plane, the speeds would have been much higher. Quite a few big crashes mainly due to a big rotor which periodically appeared and "sucked" the plane down as you're pulling the bottom turn. I have some repairs to do on the Reaper!
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Post by sean on Dec 31, 2007 10:05:20 GMT 10
250!!!! Absolutely amazing!!! Arrghh! Months of windless weather and then a couple of weeks of strong wind while I'm away! . I've never seen a 50kt southerly at Bald Knob before! Congrats Andrew, 120 is awesome with a brand new bird, above the previous foamie record too . I found a couple of very clean DS spots down near Port Macquarie yesterday but only have dad's Bee - had it howling a bit, but probably only 60mph or so - incredibly smooth backside though. If anyone's familiar with the area they're at Diamond Head/ Indian Head. It's a National Park, and you have to pay to get in. Frontside is awesome, there are a number of spots you can fly anywhere from NE to S. The eastern cliffs are the best with some DS potential though not A grade DS, the back sides aren't very steep. There was about 15kt blowing and frontside lift was as good as it gets. Landing is tough, you have to put down in that low, wiry scrub you get on the coast - no probs with a Bee but anything DSable would be tricky - that scrub tends to poke holes in your plane if you hit it fast.
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Post by st on Dec 31, 2007 10:38:52 GMT 10
Don't worry Sean, you haven't been here that long I've only been living here a few years, but I remember many of my childhood weekends up here - lying around in the house watching the wind driving the horizontal rain against the SE windows........... Most of Maleny would consider it a good time to be away ;D After seeing Andrews reaper at 120 yesterday, 250 must be awefully fast!!
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Post by ding on Dec 31, 2007 12:39:56 GMT 10
Congrats on the records boys! Hopefully we'll get there once the team Stafford Jdubs are flying.
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