|
Post by ezza on Aug 4, 2007 21:33:41 GMT 10
Hey Sean, That is the backside! Wow! I pictured alot more trees back there. Great to hear you had the Bat wound up like that! Keep that up and she will look like my Reaper soon!(hope not though). Sounds like plenty of carnage today.....always a sign of a good day.
|
|
|
Post by sean on Aug 4, 2007 21:40:11 GMT 10
Yeah it's a good spot. The tree Andrew removed was right in the middle of the saddle, you can sort of make out the stump in the pic. Removing this tree changed it from OK to almost perfect!
My Griffon-Reaper should be flying in about a week, looking forward to it. The Bat's great but it definitely has a speed limit DSing. A rebuild could fix that but it's not worth it really.
|
|
|
Post by ezza on Aug 4, 2007 21:48:08 GMT 10
Can't wait to come up and fly there, also can't wait to see your modded Reaper go! Hopefully we get a couple of more westerlies this season, don't know about up there but it kinda feels like the season is changing down here. We had some pretty good northerlies last week, which is the better winds for down here.
|
|
|
Post by jase on Aug 4, 2007 22:44:02 GMT 10
when we set out at lunch time today Sids ridge was the last place we were thinking about going. Kevs ridge was the plane in mind. but when we got to dayboro we found the wind had other intentions.
when callun came onto the scene and said 'fair game is anything that flys". i was like "right, let the combat begin". i had the best time flying to date, and can't wait till the next time i meet callun on the slopes to once again give him a run for his money.....
|
|
|
Post by ding on Aug 4, 2007 22:58:24 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by thevon on Aug 5, 2007 8:06:47 GMT 10
Hey I've meant to say, for me the highlight was seeing superb Sean's DS, but then when he started doing it inverted .... that was a bit too much! I still can't get more than 2 or 3 good loops and he's doing them upside down!
He started doing it at Bald Knob on Friday in lighter conditions but as I was driving off yesterday the Bat was sizzling frighteningly and I looked back to see it was inverted at full tilt!
|
|
|
Post by sean on Aug 5, 2007 9:28:55 GMT 10
He he, Bill reckoned I wasn't getting any flutter while inverted, but I reckon it was just cause it was slower, it doesn't maintain energy nearly as well inverted . Steve, the M60 would be awesome. Ezza's the one to ask though, he has one. He seems to prefer his Reaper though, it's a similar design with a higher aspect ratio wing and a stiffer spar system. www.southpacificmodels.co.nz/
|
|
|
Post by ding on Aug 5, 2007 11:01:57 GMT 10
Very interesting. It is quite a lot more expensive though. But then the m60 isn't in stock either.
I didn't realise rcgroups had a DS forum. I've joined up there as CunningStunts... LOL. Anyway must keep an eye on that one too. Just what I need... another forum :rolleyes:
|
|
|
Post by ezza on Aug 5, 2007 11:10:54 GMT 10
Yeah, I love the M60. It is probably easier for ds as it flies really neutral, but it starts to get flexi with good speed. I find the Reaper a little more forgiving with setup (cofg/throws), and quite alot stronger. With my crashing skills, the extra strength comes in handy. Wow Sean, ds'ing inverted?
|
|
|
Post by thevon on Aug 5, 2007 13:33:03 GMT 10
Although the LAST thing I feel like doing is building another plane just now (or even repairing the carnage of the last 2 days) I sort of sense a Reaper on the distant horizon. The extra cost hurts at the time but if it survives a long time, I reckon I'd later be glad I spent the extra.
However I must say that Sean's Bat seems so absolutely amazing (and cheap, and very tough) that it seems a very attractive idea too. I'd like to hear any good reasons NOT to favour the Bat ... I can't think of any!
|
|
|
Post by ezza on Aug 5, 2007 14:16:36 GMT 10
Yeah, I agree Andrew. If I didn't have soo many planes and wasn't so sick of building and repairing at the moment, I would get a Bat as well. I would probably cut it down like Sean's to be more manouverable. Infact I would copy the AUW as well, his just flies too good! I find the Reaper loves the big conditions it is just that we don't get that many big days. It flies fine on the lighter days, but not all that manouverable. Just fast, straight and covering lots of sky.
|
|
|
Post by sean on Aug 5, 2007 14:26:36 GMT 10
Ezza, The Bat seemed to handle the inverted DSing quite well but I did have a nasty crash out of it, it's easy to run out of elev . After flying in circles for hours a bit of variation is called for . The price of the Reaper is high and I really did think twice about spending that much on a foamy. But since starting on the build I've been really happy I spent that little bit extra, the wing comes together so stiff it could almost be a composite. The Bat is good and I'd recommend t to anyone, so long as you modify it along the Predator Bat lines, as standard they fly really badly, same speed as a Bee but don't handle nearly as well. Also if you want to DS past the speeds we got to yesterday then it'd need to be built beefier than mine. To stop the flutter mine needs more fibre tape at least, maybe a better spar than the one I used, and definitely stronger, stiffer elevons, but that wouldn't be hard because I built mine up from 1.5mm balsa over ribs to keep weight down behind the CG and they are quite flexy. The problem is though with extra weight its fairly good handling might suffer so it'd probaly be best to keep it light and have something else, such as the Drongo, for really breezy days! The Bat has been excellent for learning DS but I suspect it has a definite limit in terms of max speed, something which the Reaper doesn't have, it's so far got to 166mph and with our hills I don't think we'll be going faster than that for a long time, probably never!
|
|
|
Post by thevon on Aug 5, 2007 18:18:14 GMT 10
Just to make you guys feel better ...
I came back from flying Friday and only had a couple of things to fix - a problem with the Drongo aerial not working (had put a temporary one on) and also a broken battery contact. I wasn't going flying this w/e but got enticed by Callun, Ding, Jase etc so went to Sids Ridge yesterday. But first I had to quickly fix a broken battery contact. I rushed and tugged at glued wires etc, suddenly realized the batt was getting v hot and that I'd shortcircuited something so I patched a new lead in and headed up to Sids Ridge. When I got there after a while I switched on the Drongo, but the servos were going silly. So I thought maybe I'd fried the receiver and cut the one out of the Ozprey to try that. But when I put it in it didn't work at all. Hmm. After lots of mucking around and wasting good flying time I gave up, and flew the only functional plane - Scorpion! Not ideal for DS there but OK.
Today I had a look at it all and found that both HS85MG servos in the Drongo are faulty. Also the model alarm in the Drongo has died. The Drongo's receiver is fine, but the one I got out of the Ozprey I must have damaged when removing it (tiny MZK) and it's totally dead. Hmmm.
So I've spent hours figuring it out. I have a couple of broken HS125 servos sitting around and found that I could take the circuit boards out of them and put them in the 85MG's, and they work again. Sounds easy but has taken me ages - very fiddly soldering of tiny wires inside.
So hours and hours later, and being down the tube by one $80 receiver, I haven't yet started to fix the crash damage!
Gee I love these planes.
Oh, and by the way, the aerial problem was because when I cut the tips off the Drongo's wings I cut thru the buried aerial wire where it looped around at the wingtip. That left it running from the receiver only in a dead straight line to the wingtip and when I turned the plane it lost control - when the aerial was pointing at me, so it obviously needs some bends in the aerial wire to work well. Might explain why I'm getting more radio hits than some others - all my planes tend to have the aerial running the length of the wing.
|
|
|
Post by ding on Aug 5, 2007 18:49:30 GMT 10
Just to make you guys feel better ... I came back from flying Friday and only had a couple of things to fix - a problem with the Drongo aerial not working (had put a temporary one on) and also a broken battery contact. I wasn't going flying this w/e but got enticed by Callun, Ding, Jase etc so went to Sids Ridge yesterday. But first I had to quickly fix a broken battery contact. I rushed and tugged at glued wires etc, suddenly realized the batt was getting v hot and that I'd shortcircuited something so I patched a new lead in and headed up to Sids Ridge. When I got there after a while I switched on the Drongo, but the servos were going silly. So I thought maybe I'd fried the receiver and cut the one out of the Ozprey to try that. But when I put it in it didn't work at all. Hmm. After lots of mucking around and wasting good flying time I gave up, and flew the only functional plane - Scorpion! Not ideal for DS there but OK. Today I had a look at it all and found that both HS85MG servos in the Drongo are faulty. Also the model alarm in the Drongo has died. The Drongo's receiver is fine, but the one I got out of the Ozprey I must have damaged when removing it (tiny MZK) and it's totally dead. Hmmm. So I've spent hours figuring it out. I have a couple of broken HS125 servos sitting around and found that I could take the circuit boards out of them and put them in the 85MG's, and they work again. Sounds easy but has taken me ages - very fiddly soldering of tiny wires inside. So hours and hours later, and being down the tube by one $80 receiver, I haven't yet started to fix the crash damage! Gee I love these planes. Oh, and by the way, the aerial problem was because when I cut the tips off the Drongo's wings I cut thru the buried aerial wire where it looped around at the wingtip. That left it running from the receiver only in a dead straight line to the wingtip and when I turned the plane it lost control - when the aerial was pointing at me, so it obviously needs some bends in the aerial wire to work well. Might explain why I'm getting more radio hits than some others - all my planes tend to have the aerial running the length of the wing. Andrew, it's not the bends that help the reception, it's the length of the aerial. Even that isn't so critical, but the receiver is tuned for the length of the wire. So, all you have to do is put another aerial on of identical length, or get the receiver re-tuned.
|
|
|
Post by jase on Aug 5, 2007 19:00:18 GMT 10
i put my order in for a new glider today. fingers crossed it arrives by wednesday or thursday so i can have it ready for flying on friday. not holding my breath though. this is what i decided to get along with another JR rs70 receiver. www.modelflight.com.au/rc_model_sailplanes_gliders/canterbury_sailplane_aermacchi.htmi still have 2 servo's left over from when i bought my radio kit. i found it too hard just having them sitting around doing nothing.
|
|