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DLG Fun
Jul 20, 2009 20:13:34 GMT 10
Post by sean on Jul 20, 2009 20:13:34 GMT 10
I bought a second-hand Blaster 2 last week and it arrived this afternoon. It came really well packed in a wooden box so thankfully it survived the journey unscathed. It was a good price for one of these, so as you'd expect it has a few marks, a few creases in the skin and a few minor repairs but everything that matters is straight and strong. I wasted little time putting a receiver in it (the only spare rx I had was a JR RS70, which only fits with the case removed) and doing a quick and dirty radio setup (eyeballed the throws except the elev, thought I'd better make sure that was right). I headed up to Bald Knob about 40min before sunset. Wind was about 5kt or so blowing from the north, which isn't usually much good for the Knob. Long story short I had an absolute ball. Can hardly believe how much fun it was throwing this thing, circling around, catching it, doing ridiculously tight circles and loops, sloping the light lift inverted, doing tight stall-turns thanks to the crazy-powerful rudder, hovering it above my head.... I've been after a DLG for a while but I really didn't expect it to be so much fun . It was a perfect day at Bald Knob, warm and clear, was great to be up there with a new toy while the sun was setting.
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DLG Fun
Jul 20, 2009 22:31:23 GMT 10
Post by thevon on Jul 20, 2009 22:31:23 GMT 10
Nooooo! Stop causing me to be tempted by more planes!! It sounds absolutely great. Good buy.
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DLG Fun
Jul 21, 2009 0:57:29 GMT 10
Post by jirvin4505 on Jul 21, 2009 0:57:29 GMT 10
Sean - I was looking at that model and said NOOOOOO...... Really good news that the model is in the Windsock team You will have fun cheers jeff
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DLG Fun
Jul 22, 2009 0:45:39 GMT 10
Post by shane on Jul 22, 2009 0:45:39 GMT 10
Love my DLG,been flying it the last few days. ;D Nice plane Sean,you will love it at your local park,best thermal training. Anyone that sees it fly will be ordering one ,i can feel DLG fever catching on.... . See you on Sunday at the nob,and fellow clubbys. Shane.
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DLG Fun
Jul 22, 2009 10:34:30 GMT 10
Post by sean on Jul 22, 2009 10:34:30 GMT 10
The irony is I live on a ridge so my local park isn't much good for thermal hunting, there's almost always a cool slightly turbulent breeze blowing there. I went on a drive late yesterday arvo looking for spots. I started at Brandenburg but found there was too much lift (!!!) for it to be much fun. Then I headed down Brandenburg rd toward Mooloolah and sloped it off a small saddle just down from the main Brandenburg site. That was much more fun, flying around looking for little patches of lift. After that I tried a small opening on the Hunchy-Montville rd but that wasn't much fun... My next plan is to head down to Obi Obi (on the Mapleton-Kenilworth Rd) to see if there are any nice looking paddocks I can thermal over.
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DLG Fun
Jul 22, 2009 14:12:24 GMT 10
Post by mikey100 on Jul 22, 2009 14:12:24 GMT 10
Is a Kahu DLG a reasonable dlg? Saw 2 for sale at $350 each with no rx.....is that reasonable?
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drcuzo
> 100
Now I have lost my avatar as well
Posts: 185
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DLG Fun
Jul 22, 2009 15:07:32 GMT 10
Post by drcuzo on Jul 22, 2009 15:07:32 GMT 10
The alula boys will be looking to blast these new fandangled DLG's out of the sky.......... The alula will be specked out at 200'..............
until we can afford fancy ones too.
Steve
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DLG Fun
Jul 23, 2009 20:43:34 GMT 10
Post by shane on Jul 23, 2009 20:43:34 GMT 10
Mikey, i had a look at the Kahu ,looks like a good buy if it has been built well. Make sure it's boom is strong for hard launches ,bad landings. Also ask for the weight ,must be around 300 grams or less.
Hope this helps, Shane.
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DLG Fun
Jul 28, 2009 21:22:34 GMT 10
Post by sean on Jul 28, 2009 21:22:34 GMT 10
I put a brand-new AR500 (Spektrum 2.4) rx in the Blaster today and took it to Woodford. I range checked it quite thoroughly and got a reasonable range - well within spec - though only about half as good as the range I get from the AR9300 in my Orca. I installed the whiskers inside the glass nose cone on the Blaster, and the range test was identical with or without the nose cone. I probably flew it for an hour total time getting further and further away gaining confidence in the rx (though early in the day I thought I felt a very brief glitch). Then late in the day I'd managed to get it into quite a nice thermal and it was climbing away well when it just totally locked out and entered a spiral-dive (exactly the same as Nick's Fazer). I held the tx above my head and moved the sticks frantically trying to get a response, but it never recovered and crashed pretty hard (it had gained a reasonable height in the thermal). It wasn't very far away at the time so definitely not range related. Unfortunately the Blaster is pretty much a right-off. It could probably be fixed but that'd add a lot of weight and it would probably be just as much work for me to build a bagged Supergee. I had a bad feeling about this receiver as it behaved strangely during the binding process. Wish I'd went with my instincts! I'm pretty sure it's a fault with the rx. The battery has plenty of charge and when it locked out I was using minimal control input, just riding the thermal, so I don't think it was a low-voltage induced "brown-out". Everything worked fine on the ground after the crash. I'm really losing confidence in Spektrum gear... I've witnessed a number of lockouts recently and have read a lot on RCG about faulty Spektrum receivers. It sounds a bit like there are some quality control issues with Spektrum? But... the DLG bug has bitten. I had the Blaster for 8 days and probably flew it on five of those days. Been talking to Jeff and Shane about building one .
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DLG Fun
Jul 28, 2009 21:42:21 GMT 10
Post by thevon on Jul 28, 2009 21:42:21 GMT 10
Ohh, Sean that's a real bummer. That was a really nice little plane, and you (and Shane) had all of us a bit awestruck by those DLG's on Sunday. I can understand you wanting to replace it very soon! I can see myself succumbing to that bug as well.
I'm a bit amazed that there are so many lockouts happening on 2.4. Do you know whether Charles was flying on 2.4 when his plane went down on Sunday? I know he does use 2.4 but not sure if in all his planes. That was a total lockout/ spiral dive write-off too.
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DLG Fun
Jul 28, 2009 23:48:22 GMT 10
Post by mikey100 on Jul 28, 2009 23:48:22 GMT 10
Sorry to hear Sean. I lost a plane recently in the same manner- I truely believe it was low battery voltage. Have heard 2.4 will just lock-out at a certain (not so low) voltage, so was advised to use 5 cell packs for the rx.... or recharge often. Cant remember where I got the advice, think it was on rcgroups.
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DLG Fun
Jul 29, 2009 7:48:44 GMT 10
Post by nick on Jul 29, 2009 7:48:44 GMT 10
oh bugger sean
im sad to hear that, i was useing a 7000 rx in the faser and i have lock outs with the ar5000 in my foamies but no trouble yet with the 600e in my alula but that is new and im not so sure about 2.4 either now, my faser when it went down was fully charged but the area in which i had the 7000 was very cramped and i think the aerials all bent up out of shape had something to do with it?
in my foamies the aerials are all on the same plane so there is something else to think about, sorry mikey but i dont agree with you in saying it was a low battery voltage problem, as sean said it was charged and mine was charged with about 15 minutes in the air when i punched in, but im sure you are right when the voltage gets lowish in the 2.4 is't a disaster waiting to happen.
i hope you get another one soon sean, it's fun watching you fly them,
photos of the agm soon and hercules ripping up a glider in launch!
nick
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Garth
> 100
wings are for wimps
Posts: 188
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DLG Fun
Jul 29, 2009 8:50:36 GMT 10
Post by Garth on Jul 29, 2009 8:50:36 GMT 10
Really sorry to hear about you blaster Sean. I hope to see you back in the air with another dlg soon. Well mikey100 and i now have the bug, went and picked up the 2 dlg's that Ken Fox was selling last night....... Got up at 5:30 this morning and went for a fly with my new toy, dlg's a very cool and fly great. I hope Sean you still have the bug and you will get another one. Would be good to get a bunch of guys with dlg's and have a fling somewhere.( im starting to sound like chamm37) ill go now... p.s. i think thevon will be next with the bug?
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DLG Fun
Jul 29, 2009 10:58:41 GMT 10
Post by skyzking on Jul 29, 2009 10:58:41 GMT 10
Hey Sean im not sure which Spectrum Tx you are using but a fellow member of our club had similar lockouts with his 7 channel spectrum. He ended up losing 2 aeroplanes. Same with all lockouts...
After two years of flying it like that, he sent it to Model Flight for it to be checked. They found a major fault in the radio and replaced it with a brand new one for free.
The problem may be in the Tx...
Hope it helps, Abdullah...
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DLG Fun
Jul 29, 2009 22:51:37 GMT 10
Post by skyboyken on Jul 29, 2009 22:51:37 GMT 10
Hi guys,
I'm in line for a Blaster too I think!
Really sorry to hear about yours Sean. Talk to Ezza. Apparently he has a mate who had one go in very badly and after sticking back together it still goes well even though it's a lot heavier.
It does seem like there's a lot of Spektrum 2.4 problems being experienced lately by Queensland pilots. Even though I know this will not be well received I have to say that the likely culprit is battery related in most cases. There are some cases, like Nick's, where the Tx or module appears to be the problem and that's a warranty issue.
I don't say any of this lightly - I know all too well what it's like to lose an expensive and much loved plane. The reason I say it is because of what the Victorian glider pilots have to say about their experience and what Mike O'Reilly had to say at Armidale in January. In sum, there are heaps of Victorian competition glider pilots flying Spektrum 2.4 in moulded gliders at huge ranges in carbon fuselages and they are thrilled with its reliability. When I asked Mike about it he said the problems people have been experiencing are due to older receiver packs and receiver packs with not enough current delivery capacity to suit the servos and the current they can draw.
Remember, it's not simply the resting voltage of the pack that matters. The bigger problem is the ability of the pack to NEVER drop below the critical voltage, even for an instant, even when it's half discharged and 18 months old and the linkages aren't as free as they used to be and a servo is binding sometimes and everything all adds up together to produce a voltage drop which causes a receiver reset.
Before 2.4 came along we never noticed a momentary voltage drop. Our receiver packs weren't made to deliver the current AND hold voltage above a certain value.
So to use Spektrum 2.4 reliably it is critically important to ensure your receiver pack has the mAH capacity and the current delivery capacity to provide a safe margin for flight. This is the single most likely reason for problems, so please do replace your receiver pack with a better one if you have the slightest concern about its performance to these new requirements.
For those considering moving to 2.4, please take this on board. Over 75% of all new Transmitters sold in Oz are 2.4 so it is the mainstream.
I use and cannot recommend highly enough the Futaba FASST system. It is perfectly reliable and trouble-free. No-one anywhere in the world is having anything but perfect reliability from it.
Futaba have a range of excellent transmitters which are price competitive with the JR equivalents, up to my 12FG which is half the price of the JR12X and has better features for gliders (sorry Brian!). FASST receivers are available overseas for about $130 for the small 8 channel which is what I was paying for a Schulze 8 channel with crystal on 36MHz.
If you are using Spektrum 2.4 please take Mike O'Reilly's advice and replace your receiver packs TODAY unless they are new and unless you are certain they have the capacity and the current delivery to provide a safe margin.
Ken.
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