Flight log

F3B Worlds Championship 2011 China

2011-09-14T20:47:00.001+08:00

Hello glider fans,

The F3B worlds championship will be held 21-29 Sept in China. Its my privilege to be able to attend, instead of just going as a spectator, i wanted to do more,be involved, learn and kick-start this discipline in SG. Thanks to Roman , the contest director, who linked me up with the organizer. i am able to be there as a volunteer. Will share some of my notes here.

F3B is the pinnacle of FAI Sailplane model class, the Formula One of RC Soaring. The models are winch launched and required to compete in 3 demanding tasks:
A: Duration. Ten minutes thermal flight with precision spot landing.
B: Distance. Four minutes distance flight over 150 meter closed circuit (to get as many laps as possible.)
C: Speed. Flight over 4x150 meters, (to get fastest speed as possible)

Links

Official website http://www.f3b2011.com
pod cast with TeamUSA http://glidefast.typepad.com/files/f3b-team-podcast-1.mp3
- website of contest director http://lomcovak.cz/wp_eng/

Team websites
www.teamusaf3b.com
www.lsfaustralia.org.au/
www.f3bteam.fr/
www.f3b-team-germany-2011.de/
www.f3b.ru/

Heading over to Jinan tomorrow.

2010 Slope season pics

2010-01-16T21:30:00.002+08:00

We are a month into the slope season for 2010, today the wind's direction was not too good, so ended up taking photos of the planes static display.

Jeremy's cappu

Ken's zoom

Ken's Typhoon

Serenity

New owner of Serentiy

Full battle order

Wind too left

Cobra

4.6m ASH 26

Nexus 900

Flasher 600 ESP build review

2009-11-30T13:38:00.002+08:00

This review focus on the Flasher 600 ESP kit from Heliguru.sg. The Flasher 600 ESP kit comes very complete with CF frames , full metal head and tail and torque tube drive. Another Glass Fiber with belt version is also available. The bare bone kit versions are particular suitable for modellers who wish to use their own electronics.

Kit. - The kit comes in a nicely packed box with the components grouped into their respective packaging.

Head Assembly - Pretty much the standard stuff, quality of the metal and finishing is reasonably good. The swash uses sealed bearings.

Frame - Frames follow the newer ESP design and at 2mm thick, are slightly thicker than the standard Align ones. Carbon weave was uniform throughout and well cut out. One thing to note, the metal aileron levelers are the old electric version and not the new ESP version which is slighly slanted at an angle. This should not affect the flying in anyway as the geometry of the linkages remains the same.

Metal holder with CF servo frame for tail servo

Torque Tube Drive - Gears fit well together and torque tube is solid.

Tail assembly - Tail comes all metal with the metal tail pitch slider and metal tail rotor holder. Pitch slider slides smoothly on the tail shaft.

Canopy is the standard lighting yellow fiberglass canopy. Material is solid and paint work is ok.

Issues and conclusion.

The assembly of the kit is fairly standard, the only issue i faced during the assembly was the tail rotor hub needs abit of sanding for the tail rotor shaft to go through smoothly. Other than that, everything fitted well together.Quality and finishing is reasonably good. Will review how it flies after i fit the electronics on it.

Time of the year again

2009-10-27T11:39:00.000+08:00

Its time of the year again, looks like its almost there, the winds are coming straight through from northeast, once the rain clears, hopefully the slope season will be here. Dust off those gliders, recharge those batts.

Predator 2 DLG - Build and fly review

2009-06-04T11:41:00.006+08:00

Just came back from test flying the Predator 2 DLG. This kit is available from Soaring Composites.

Building

Not so many build pics as I built it stock following the build thread here. Build process was not too hard as the instructions in the build thread was clear. I used HS45hb x4 , 4.8v 300mah rx pack and berg 7 rx. The space in the fuselage was small and it was a tight squeeze to get all the wiring in. I ended up slightly nose heavy and had to add 5 gram lead at the tail to get the CG to 72mm from LE. The boom was cut at 68mm so those using heavy electronics may want to leave a longer boom. AUW was 285g.Flying

I did a few javelin throws to get it trimmed. After adding in few clicks of up elevator, it was gliding like forever. As this was my first DLG, and have not tried DLing before, i had some hesitation discus launching it. Kept doing some more javelin throws till pick up enough guts to just do it. Started with small on the spot discus throws. Slowly got the hang of it and progressed to full discus launches. Was surprised i managed to get quite high launches towards the end as this was my first time doing DLs. Woo hoo it was getting addictive to launch the glider up high. When my TX batt dropped low, i told myself it will be the last launch, but every time i picked up the peg, i just wanted to go at it again!.

Didn't managed to get any good thermals as it was fairly windy and cloudy. The P2 penetrated the wind well and was responsive to any slight draft of wind. It was quite agile in turning and stall characteristics was predictable. It was great first session getting to know the plane, even managed some hand catches towards the end. The only spoiler was that the wing hit a stone on one of the landing. I think it was like the only stone on the field.... duh, some luck.
Overall, its a good value first DLG kit, not to difficult to build, good flying characteristics.

Charging my batts now, looking forward to the next session later...

Back from Korea

2009-05-25T15:35:00.004+08:00

Got back from F3F Typhoon race 2 weeks ago. It was a great trip, eye opener for us and we learn so much from it. More TR updates at the team blog. After we got back, i seem to be a bit lethargic for RC. It seems that its not only me, but the rest of the team members as well.I guess its cos of all the anticipation, excitement, adrenaline flow is now over, we need to recover abit.

Well on a personal level, i'm glad i got this trip started and ended with what we set out to do. I hope this will pave the way for future pilots from SG to venture overseas and take part. It showed as long as we put our hearts to it, we can do it even without the proper resources (like a F3F capable slope in Sg)

Time for a break from the slope, another 6 months before the slope season comes at the end of the year. New goals to set, new targets to be achieve.

Final preparations

2009-04-25T12:46:00.005+08:00

Some final preparations before going to Korea next week.

Added in the ballast tube for javelin. Ballast will add another 800 grams , with full ballast AUW will be 3.6kg.

Packing and made the box to carry the planes.

Final charging before packing it in

Sloping in April Again

2009-04-09T23:51:00.004+08:00

We did it again, winds came back in April for 3 years in a row now and we managed to have some extra time at the slope. Although the winds are not as strong as in Feb, it was smooth to fly.

I managed to maiden my 3m Javelin before bringing it to korea for the race.

This season was a short one , ended 1,2 weeks after CNY, being able to slope again after 1.5 months was great. If we are lucky we may be able to get 1 or 2 more weeks with flyable wind on some days as past 2 years the wind stop around mid Arp. Hope for the best and the windgods may just give us some time extension again.

Die hard slopers group photo

Segar Friday Night Funfly Pics

2009-04-06T10:29:00.005+08:00

Some pics of Segar Aeromodelling Club funfly pics last week,courtesy of CKS and Justin

Flying arena at Street Soccer Court

Funfly

Typhoon race korea - Trip Cost

2009-03-29T21:25:00.003+08:00

One more month to go, we are getting ready for the trip. Here's how the cost like:

Flight tickets :
SG to Seoul via Cathay - $580 (with extension in HK on the way back)
Seoul to Jeju via Asiana air - $181
Hotel :
USD67 (~SGD 102) per room per nite for twin sharing. So each person 6 nites (102 x 6)/2 = $306
Registration and banquet - USD70 ~ SGD $106

580+181+306+106 = $1170 per person, thats excluding meals and other expenditure.

Segar Aeromodelling Club

2009-03-20T11:44:00.002+08:00

A few of us got together and formed Segar Aeromodelling Club at Zhenghua CC.

The CC has kindly reserved the street soccer court for our funfly. For now due to space constrains we are starting with electric helis, 250/450 size is great. 500 size prob ok for scale flying.

More details at Segaraero.blogspot.com

TR Korea 09 Competition site

2009-03-16T23:43:00.003+08:00

The koreans put up some pics of the competition site.

Flying at the volcano! Flying is possible in every wind direction. View from top looks manificent. Looks like its possible to DS in the middle of the crater as well.

Team F3F Singapore

2009-03-12T18:59:00.007+08:00

We have been flying slope for a few years now. Our only slope in Singapore is very gentle so the lift is not very strong, it is more suited for thermals. Hence we have been travelling to other parts in nearby regions (Sedili, phuket) to fly in stronger winds condition.

And this year, most of us have graduated into big composites. We luv the size and speed and want to find better conditions to really fly the planes out. It started with a innocent suggestion at sedili, "Hey maybe we can go to hongkong to try out F3F" as they good flyable conditions all year round. Then it so happens there is going to be a regional F3F race coming up in Korea in May. Ho Ho Ho. I decided to just do it, life is too short to think too much, grab hold of a few other crazy enough flying buddies and proposed to them that we send a team there.

After much discussions and persuasions, Team F3F Singapore is formed to take part in the upcoming Typhoon race in Korea. We hope to go there and do our best as well as make friends with fellow slope pilots from the region.

I hope by sharing our experiences here will encourage more fellow slopers to join us on the next trip.

What is F3F?
About typhoon race.

More details at www.krsoar.com

Short short season

2009-03-10T09:53:00.005+08:00

This year's slope season has to be the shortest ever, winds suddenly stopped 3weeks ago and the directions went all haywire. And now it has been raining cats and dogs almost every day. Not just here, everywhere else in the world seems to be experiencing weird weather. Extreme weather weather patterns have hit Australia, USA, UK, China with cyclones, snow and heatwaves , I wonder if all these are due to the global warming.

Most of us have not had enough of sloping yet, although the weather does not look very promising for any more slope flying this season, deep down we hope the winds will come back.

Videos

2009-02-17T12:51:00.003+08:00

Some of the recent slope action. Rest can be found at my youtube channel.

Weights

2009-02-09T17:15:00.005+08:00

Many a time, we often have to add a lot of lead weights to the front of our gliders to get the correct CG. An alternative and quick method to casting your own lead is to buy fishing weights that are of the correct shape to fit the front of fuselage.

A wide range of shape and sizes are available from fishing shops. One good place to get them locally in Singapore is at Joe's Tackle at Beach road. They come in different shape and sizes. The ball and bullet shape ones will fit our glider fuselage very nicely. Cut away any hooks and use blue tack to stick them in. Fill up the gaps with smaller lead shots.

They fit nicely into ballast tube as well

Sedili Slope trip report

2009-01-25T11:22:00.016+08:00

A group of us slope soaring fanatics went up north to Sedili for some crazy slope fun over the weekend last week. It was located at a resort with steep cliff facing the south china sea, this offers us superb slope lift during the northeast monsoon. Normally we make one or two trips there each season.

Directions

The place we headed to is tanjung sutrera resort. Its about 2 hours drive away from the causeway. After crossing the causeway, get on highway 3 towards kota tinggi, drive towards Mersing. After about an hour or so, turn right when you see the signs towards sedili. Follow the signs towards sedili besar, you will cross a bridge then turn into a plantation. Keep driving till you reach the resort.

Packing all 6 glider in the car

There is a great eatary famous for its Bak Kut Teh along the way which we normally stop by halfway towards sedili. Was too busy savouring the food, forgot to take photos of the Bak Kut Teh.
Bridge towards sedili besar

Resort

The resort itself is a quiet and serene place to relax, it offers chalet like rooms and meals are catered.

Most importantly it offers us a great flying site.

Only thing to note is the landing can be a bit tricky, there are no proper landing strip and normally we dive into the bushes to land. This may seem scary at first but it becames easier after a few attempts

Landing area

Arrestor net

Landing 101

Flying

I brought 6 planes along and all of them managed to get flight time. Lift was superb, and got better in the afternoon. Planes could float and fly around faster than our usual slope at bedok.

Beevolution - test plane for wind conditions, combat bee , managed a few hits and got hit landed up on the roof.
Le fish - acro warm up, found it to be way too slow compared to the Voltij.
Miraj - great flyer, big presense in the air, managed to practice some F3F like turns. Luv the way it picks up speed when turning at the corner. With flaps on , it could come in real slow for landing.
Salto - it flew! Didnt flew well at bedok as it had a nasty tip stall habit. It flew much better at sedili, able to go fast, great looks. But during the landing i brought it in abit too slow, and it tip stalled again. Tore one of the wing skin along the spar, tips cracked. Crashed but i m happy it flew like it shld. Will try to get it repaired for the next trip.
Banana - proven sloper, fast.
Voltij - this has to be the best plane for me this trip. Superb acro, fast, knife edge, inverted stall turns, outside loops. I had set it up for 4-axis flying where the throttle stick controls the camber/reflex. Wow what great fun, its like heli flying, i push up and it floats up, go inverted i pull the stick down n it rises inverted. Super cool, i managed to hover and climb up inverted to fairly high. "Portery in motion" as one fellow flyer put it. Simply superb.

Miraj and Voltij.

Damage on the salto

Plane hanger

Flyers enjoying themselves

Full flaps diving in to land

Our VIP
Most of the times we land in hard to reach places in the bushes, Mimi will help us to retrieve them. She is really good at finding planes and retrieving them. Thanks mimi.

Doing her stuff

Seafood dinner
We headed out to the town for a sumptous seafood dinner at night

Another great trip, im looking forward to the next one.

More pics of this trip can be found here.

Sedili Slope trip - preview

2009-01-17T01:35:00.002+08:00

Going for a slope trip up north. Last month when we went, the winds were not blowing right. This time round, i'm going back for revenge! lol.

All pack for the trip

Engine troubles - OS 50 hyper

2009-01-10T22:36:00.003+08:00

The OS 50 hyper had been properly tuned and running well for 13 gallons, yet out of the blue, the piston ring broke for no particular reason. It happened when i ran dry the engine at the end of the day's flight which i have always done. A 'Ting' sound was heard and i knew something was wrong.

Piston ring broke and chip off abit of the piston

Engine was ran rich and very new

Bearings after 13 gallons

So i spent 50 bucks and got replacements

I took time and carefully changed the parts. Made sure all was working properly before refitting it back to the heli.

I was looking forward to run-in the engine again, but WTF the ring broke on the first crank??!?.
i was very sure the parts was installed properly. This time the damage was worse than the first time, the inside of the crank case got scatched.

Crap, was so disappointed that i decided to try another engine. Just received the new engine in. I look forward to testing the new YS , will be back with review once i get a few gallons in.

Fly well, fly safe, cheers and many happy landings

2008-12-31T19:57:00.004+08:00

As the year come to a close, news of two major flying fields had been closed down due to various reasons did indeed leave a sour end note to many. However i m sure the passion in RC will see this precarious hobby through. I urged all modelers to be responsible in their flying and conduct.

It has been a great year of RC flying. Besides the new planes and helis, most important to me was the bonding and friendship that had built up with fellow modelers. Without them, this hobby won't be as much fun and enriching. Thanks guys, i hope we have more good flying years to come.

Fly well, fly safe. Cheers and many happy landings.

Combat ready!

2008-12-10T23:47:00.012+08:00

Flying wings are versatile, fun, great for combat and commonly seen at slopes, one of the most popular one is the Windrider bee. Ming of Windrider has recently came up with a new version , BeEvolution. I bought one during my trip to hk.

It was suppose to replace his old version Bee, however the old bee was so popular that i think he continued production. The new Beevo has a thinner profile n less sweep ,is said to fly faster than the old bee which can float n recover better during combat , so both has its merits.

This is going to replace my weasel as the to-go sloper.

The kit came very complete, with 2 wing cores made of modded epp, balsa elevons, CF ribbons, various tapes , hardware and even a bottle of CA. However the CA is foam safe type and takes longer to cure so I used normal CA which i had around. The EPP foam is CA ok. Build was fairly easy and can be completed in a few nights. Just need to glue the CF ribbons in with CA, glue the wings together, install the electronics and tape them all up. Done.

Build

Whats in the kit

Glue in the CF ribbons, glue both wings together, tape the center.

4xAA Eneloop going to power this bumble bee

Taping pattern for reinforcement

Install electronics, i used the new Hitec HS5485 digital karbonite gear servo as they were on sale at good price. Any standard servos will do though.

Tape it all up

Choose your favorite colour packing tape. Can be obtained from Art friend or SKP. Use a credit card to help remove air bubbles during taping.

I changed the stock horns to better quality ones, less slop.

Bottom view

Ready for combat!

Lastly Goop the leading edge with thinned goop to protect the tape from tearing during combats and those bad landings.

Flying

Managed to fly this in fairly light conditions a few days ago. It needs to be on the move, can't fly it too slow or it will be tipsy. Once it gets into speed, the handling is quite good. My CG is around 8inch from nose, (RCG recommend 8.5inch). Reduce throws on elevator and keep it smooth and it will fly OK. Haven really tried out combat yet, so cant comment on the recoverability, speed wise it felt slightly faster than the old bee.

Time for combat!

Gentlemen, start your engine

2008-11-12T18:37:00.006+08:00

Wind is on the way as can be seen from the charts today. (How do you interpret this? If you see straight north east lines passing through and no dark patches around the region means weather is most likely be good, no disturbance from anywhere and winds will blow away most clouds However, dark patches around the region means it will bring in the rain. If you see circles nearby means bad day, where most likely be thunderstorms and rain. This is where the two air fronts meet.)

Once the current weather system (those circles cirlces) passes by, slope season should be here.

Time to start monitoring the weather again.

Here's the links

http://www.weather.gov.sg/wip/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=PUB.1023.8
http://www.weather.gov.sg/wip/pp/wx.html
http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=312

I better start cycling those rx packs soon.

RC great deals

2008-11-01T10:46:00.004+08:00

I frequently come across great deals on the web and other places, so started another blog to consolidate those findings.

With the financial crisis hitting us, i hope with those good deals ,we can still enjoy the hobby and be easier on our pockets.

Feel free to share your finds too.

Blog is at RCgreatdeals.blogspot.com

Hong Kong RC trip - Buy Buy Buy

2008-08-12T21:22:00.014+08:00

Hong Kong is truly a shopping paradise and the great thing is you can get everything in the one area. You only need to go to one place and thats Mong Kok, there are sports goods, electronic goods, fashion and even RC stuff all within a few blocks. Since so many variety of goods congregate at one area, the bad part is of course the huge amount of people traffic there. Every where are people and more people.

There are many RC shops in hongkong, the ones i visited mainly focus on heli and aircraft stuff. Tons of others that deals with cars and boats as well. The prices for most branded stuff are generally cheaper and most shop staffs are friendly to answer any questions. Lets get started.

Most of the shop's details were obtained from one of my flying friend's blog over here and searching various online forums. Can goto www.centamap.com for street directory of hongkong to search for address. I merged them together into one map for simplicity. Shops are highlighted in blue below.

First stop take the MTR to Yau Ma Te station. Here they are

1) Flying – Hobby (www.flying-hobby.com)
Room 5, 5/F ,Cheung Hing Building,
46 Pitt Street,Yau Ma Tei, KLN ,HK (MTR Yau Ma Tei A2 Exit)

Its the building near to the A2 exit. Sells mostly online, not much of a shop front. Online prices are standard prices , not that cheap.

2)Waigo hobby (www.waigohobby.com)

1/F., No.7-8 Tung Fong Street
Yaumatei, Kowloon

Hong Kong

Mon - Sat: 10:30 - 20:00
Closed on Sunday

Stock : Heli, planes, electronics, blades, cars.
Good buys: Blades, Futaba servos.

Then, take a short walk along Nathan road over to Mongkong area where the big circle is.This is where there are a lot of Hobby shops that are not just RC. There are also static models, Guns, Cars.

One of the many shops selling model guns. They looked exactly like the real thing.

3) Modern Model Company. Its in a alley with lots of hobby shops before kwong wa street. This shop is like a all in one, RC, models, guns , everything.

Good buys : Servos, Align stuff, Spectrum. I think i saw a 2.4 DSX9 set is only going for 4000ish HK dollars. Cheap.

Some of the helis on display
Walk through the alley make a right turn , you will find Kwong Wa street. Again many many shops.

4) Good-Tech
Carries heli, aircraft stuff. Supposed to be Spartan dealer but no stock when i was there. Nothing particularly cheap here.

5) Skytech RC

12 Kwong Wa Street

Carries : Good range of hyperion planes, Align stuff, Scorpion motors.
Good buys: Hyperion planes on sale.

After that there is one more shop that is worth a visit, its located along the main shopping area in Mongkok.

6)Top Tech Trading Co. (http://www.top-tech.com.hk)

Rm 1407, Good Hope Building

No.5 Sai Yeung Choi Street South,

Mongkok, Kowloon

Carries a big range of heli products and electronics.
Good buys : Electronics , Align.

7) Jethobby http://www.jethobby.com
Shop F, G/F, 13 Liberty Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
One more thats nearby but there is not much air stuff, mostly cars, boats.

These shops carries most of the branded RC stuff at competitive prices, a little asking around before buying can save a few dollars here and there. If there is still time in hongkong, can take a 30 mins train ride from mongkok to visit RadarRC (http://www.radarrc.com). Huge range but prices there are not cheap. Good for the world model planes, hirobo, windrider products.

Conclusion

- Bring lots of cash.
- Try not to go in july, its dam hot.
- Buy Buy Buy.

Hong Kong Trip Goodies

2008-08-01T21:22:00.009+08:00

Came back from a short holiday in Hong Kong with boxes of RC goodies. Ho Ho Ho. Detailed trip report including shops visited, route taken, recommendations in next post. Now here's the stuff.

3 boxes. All marked Fragile and checked-in. Boxes came out slightly crumpled but all in all was ok. Thumbs up for HK n SG airport.

Trex600 Nitro Super Pro. Yes its the 2nd trex i bought, sold the first one that i got in TW few months ago. The price of this one is simply irresistible, i had to get it. lol.

Some spares.

Servos aplenty. Got one of the newest Futaba brushless servos intended for heli application - BLS 253. Very similar to BLS451, Full specs here

More A123s

Hyperion Yak 55sp-25e. Was on sale this one. I think it still is at aircraft-world. Hmm, yellow black seems to be the in colours.

The new bee from windrider - BeEvolution. All ready for next slope season.

May day fun fly

2008-05-01T12:16:00.005+08:00

Its been awhile, weather was good this morning. Great to have the usual kakis at the flying field, haven have them all together for awhile. New toys for some, edf F5 tiger and 90 size Stratus.

Although foam, the F5 tiger's quality feels good and comes nicely painted. Together with 3 retracts. it uses 8 servos total. Although the madien didnt turn out quite as planned, the stock power system felt quite good. I m sure it will be back for some sorties around the field after repairs.

Cleared for takeoff.

Sleek lines
CKS with his new toy, Stratus.

90 size has a larger presence in the air, looks more stable than his R50.

Guppy

2008-03-23T11:10:00.008+08:00

The slope season is almost over, past few weeks have been pouring rain, with the occasional sunny days in between which we managed to get some good lift. I was able to complete the Guppy and had some air time with it.

It is a smaller version of le fish at 48 inch, the build is almost similar to le fish except the placement of the servos are on the outside. This made the build slightly easier and allow the servos to be serviceable if need be.

At our slope, le fish only managed to keep up on good lift days, so i wanted to keep the guppy as light as possible - only used single filament tape at places when its really needed, placed the electronics as far forward as i can and keep the weight at the tail down.

Sand it round as usual

Dry fitting to measure the amount of weight needed for correct C.G which was set at 2.25 inch from LE. HS65 for ailerons.

Only the CF rod reinforcements, battery and weight goes inside the fuselage this time. 4xAAA eneloop rx pack.

Everything else goes on the outside. HS56 for elevator, HS65 for rudder, Berg 4 rx.

The vertical fin was glued to the horizontal stab this time round and glassed at the joints.

Cover it all up with the left over oracover from le fish and cut a slit for the wing extension on both sides.

All done top and bottom

Head to head with le fish

The build was straight forward after having experience with le fish. It turned out ok and not much trim was needed on madien. With a lighter wind loading, it could stay up in lighter lift conditions and climbed higher than le fish could. That said, it still need quite some lift to fly though and fun only starts when the lift picks up.

It felt much more agile and nimble than le fish, i needed to turn down the rates to keep it from being too twitchy. Due to the lighter weight, it doesn't has as much energy retention. The tail as similar to le fish is the weak area, after a few tumbles the epp at the tail area tore open. A few drops of light CA and back to flying again. All in all a fun plane to wack around with.

With the wind dying down, i will have to wait til the next season to fly her again. It has been a fun 3 months sloping with the guys during which we flew, chatted, ate, complaint abt the wind together and in the process knew each other abit better. It was great, see you guys next season!

Online hobby shops

2008-03-04T16:16:00.009+08:00

I had received a couple of emails and PMs before asking where and how to purchase certain stuff. A lot of times, certain items are not available at LHS or they are simply cheaper to get overseas, the Internet is a great source to search for stuff. For easier reference, I thought might as well list down the shops that i have purchased online from before, the good buys, and the shopping experience.

In no particular order of merit,

shop :www.aircraft-world.com
products :hyperion stuff. connectors, berg rx
method : web shop direct
payment : paypal
shipping : very fast ( 3 days from JP to SG via ems) , cheap (2.50usd normal shipping)

shop :www.shyau.com.tw
prdts :Thundertiger, Futaba, JR. Click on shopping link at the top of website to browse
method :email the items to tom@shyau.com.tw
payment : Credit card
shipping :very fast (3 days from TW to SG via ems)

shop :www.rc-champ.co.jp
products :Futaba, JR, hirobo, japanese brands , pricelist on the left side at www.rc-champ.co.jp/Champ_koukoku/air_index2.html
method :email champ_international@yahoo.co.jp
payment :paypal
shipping :very fast (3 days from JP to SG via ems)

shop : www.b-p-p.com
prdts :Castle-creations, Hyperion chargers
method : web shop
payment : Credit card
shipping : Slow (2wks from US to SG), but cheap, sometimes free shipping.
others : Have a habit of mixing up orders and delays. Have 5% discount sales ard US holidays. Often have sale of CC ESCS

shop : www.lenger.de
prdts : Sailplanes, gliders
method : email info@lenger.de
payment : bank telegraphic transfer
shipping : Slow (2wks from DE to SG)
others : Gliders galore

shop : www.icare-rc.com
prdts : sailplanes,scale gliders, spares
method : direct webshop
payment : Credit card
shipping : Slow (2wks from Canada to SG)
others : Gliders galore

shop : www.z-rc.com
prdts : Kasama heli prdts
method : direct webshop/ email
payment : Credit card
shipping : fast (3days from Thailand to SG)

shop : www.leadingedgegliders.com
prdts : EPP gliders, Le fish, guppy
method : direct webshop
payment : Credit card
shipping : fast ( 1 wk from US to SG via EMS), but expensive

shop : www.dream-flight.com
prdts : EPP gliders Weasel pro, alula
method : direct webshop
payment : Credit card
shipping : slow ( 2 wk from US to SG)

How many gliders can you count?

2008-02-17T23:07:00.010+08:00

Sunday at the slope.

From another view.

Let's count :

Unknown balsa, alula, blade, crazy banana, serenity, mini salto, 2m spyder, 36" raptor, jazz extreme, cularis, 4m china ASW, baudis salto, le fish, CMpro discus, left over of Ehawk 1400, weasel, mini fox, ASK 21, sierra, ASW 27, mystery 2.6m.

Thats 20.5. There's still at least another 5 at the other pavilion and another 5 or 6 in the air. More than 30 of them woo hoo what a huge turnout. Weather was great, sunny and cloudless, thermals aplenty and good periods of lift came on and off. Beside the few not-too-serious mid airs, everyone had fun.

Some pics taken by this cheeky little girl

"You move there, you you move there, ok dont move ah"

CNY slope pics

2008-02-10T21:34:00.000+08:00

Some pics from weekend's slope. Its the CNY holidays and the winds normally reach peak during this period. Well, the wind is definitely blowing but the direction is slightly off. The lift came on and off but nevertheless it was the company that made it fun! Hope there are more good weekends ahead.

Had to put down both back seats to transport the planes to slope

All want to molest the new toy for the day. Ammo's Zoom!

With a 3.2m wingspan and a fuselage almost as tall as WY

Setting up Zoom

Ready for launch. It flew beautifully with good energy retention. Luv the sound it makes as it cuts the air.

Pilots having fun.

Getting ready for launch

Art hobby Sierra with Windrider bee.

Le fish ready to jump into the waters.

Fox and bat

Dg1000 coming in for landing

Fish covering

2008-02-02T20:24:00.000+08:00

All ready for covering. Used Oracover , bright n visible pearl yellow with pretty pink. This is my first time covering, it took awhile to get use to it, there were some some crease and wraps along the way overall turned out quite ok. The quality of the Oracover is good, the adhesive is activated easily and it sticks quite well to EPP without the use of 3m77.

Covering

Trim the cover to about 1 inch oversize all round

Iron was set to 250~300F for the full balsa surfaces.

Pretty pink.

Bottom of wing in pink too.

Fuselage in yellow, Oracover doesn't stretch much so small pieces of covering to go around the edges first.

Covered up with 2 whole pieces on each side.

All covered up

At this point i compared the wing sizes of Weasel pro, Elster, Banana, Fish. Le fish wings is at 1.65m, ops may have problem fitting it into the car.

Drew out some designs and cut out the templates for the trims.

Assembling

At this stage its time to glue everything together. First the wings are inserted and Gooped to fuselage

Apply Goop to filer and slide in between fuse and wings

Hole cut in the fuse to accommodate the connectors. Taped over and covered up.

Check the incidence before gooping on the horizontal fin.

Vertical fin next

Ensure all squared up.

Trims applied to wings
Hinge

Over and under tension hinges use to hinge the elevator and rudder on.

Control horns attached and looking good.

C.G

Left one last step, thats to get the C.G. The 2 small weights that were glued in earlier was not enough to balance the plane at 2.75 inch from L.E. Had to do some surgery and added more weights.

Cut open the front of the fuse.

Weights needed to get C.G at 2.75 inch from LE.

Tons of goop poured into the nose.

Surgery done.

Temporary design in case need to adjust the C.G again. Fishy!

Finally all done! Going fishing, flight impressions in next post.

Not my day...

2008-01-27T07:59:00.001+08:00

You know its not your day when....

Strike one. Raptor 50 "ops i did it again on autorotation". Last flight in the morning auto landing, misjudge height pull up too late.

Strike 2. Salto madien flight less than 5mins. Horrible tip stall from 5 storey high. Tried to pull out, it went down like an arrow, no chance. Cracked fuselage, canopy , V-tail reaped off.

Strike 3. Shark fin soup anyone? After having a blast with Le fish, someone decided to have some shark fin soup. Flying wing came along sliced off the fin.

Not forgetting the hit i got on my head from a fellow sloper's balsa glider. Ouch.

0wn3d. GG NO RE THX.

Le fuse

2008-01-24T18:13:00.000+08:00

The fuselage was sanded to fish shape earlier on, its time to add in the internal electronics. All the electronics will be buried inside the fuselage with the battery to rx connectors outside. The fuselage is strengthen with 3 pieces of CF rods. The rudder, elevator servos are placed one on each side for balance.

Rough layout

Mark out the lines and start dremeling

Everything was measured as precise as i could and dremel out. Turned out nice and clean.

Goop in the stuff

Close up. The elevator servo will be connected to the Rx just before gluing the halves together.

The tail felt quite weak, added some CF strips for reinforcement.

3M77 was used to glue the halves together. The battery connector to RX sticking out for on-off and charging.

Tried on the wings and it seems there is no way i can squeeze those connectors into the fuse. Will cut a slot near the wings for them later.

Taping

2 piece of filament tape across the fuse on each side first.

Tape the edges with smaller pieces of bi-directional tape to get around the curves

Finish up with tape running vertically.

Prepare the Elevator halves for connection
Drill hole and sand in a ditch for the torque rod

Make sure they fit nice n tight

There were reports of horizontal stab cracking easily so glassed it with 3/4oz cloth. Squeeze out as much epoxy as i could to keep the weight out. Vertical stab was also glassed.

Almost there...

Le wings

2008-01-14T18:32:00.000+08:00

Been bz building and hoping to complete the fish soon for a slope trip, its nearly complete so a quick update. After shaping the fuselage, i proceed to work on the wings.

Electronics going into the fish. HS85mg x 4 , CC Berg 4 rx and 4xAA eneloop pack

Tape the alierons on and cut away the excess length.

Measure aileron servo location. Mark out location.

Dremel out the foam. Use a piece of masking tape as depth indicator.

Pot in the servos with epoxy and cling wrap.

Gooping

Before taping up the wings, its time to toughen up the epp. The best way i learned from RCGroups is to apply thinned goop(TG) . TG to epp is like epoxy to wood, it adds a rubbery like coating that bonds the epp beads together making it much stronger. My first time trying this out and found out that it really works, the epp is much tougher, yet remain flexible and bounce back to shape. Apply too much however will add weight.

Here's what needed, Goop, Goop-off which acts as a solvent for goop, glass jar and foam brush.

Squeeze some goop into the glass jar, pour the solvent and start mixing till u get syrup like consistency.

Apply to the epp with foam brush. Solvent in jar will evaporate off quickly so add more solvent to maintain consistency. The fumes are not so good for the body, do it in well ventilated area.

See the film of thinned goop when i tried to peel off the masking tape. It sticks to epp really well. Add more coats for strength.

To keep the weight down, i applied 2 coats TG only to the leading edge and wing tips. It takes about a day or two to dry completely.

Taping the wings

At this point, its time to tape the wings.

Been looking for bi directional FG tape, finally found it at www.rssingapore.com. Its about SGD20 a roll and free delivery!, definitely much stronger than the normal unidirection filament tape.

3M 77 is first sprayed over area before taping. Tape is layered on smoothly and not stretched so that wing will not warp. I m quite concerned about adding too much weight so only keep the taping to key areas.

First taped a layer length wise top and bottom across the center to cover the spar area. Then a whole piece over the LE. Then also at the TE. Center the servos and goop them in and slice a path for the servo leads. Tape over the sliced paths.

Tape up the wing tips.

Add some X strips.
At this point, the wings still feels abit flexible around the center so added a few more pieces of tape.

Top of wing
Bottom

Finish up with another coat of TG. The whitish parts are the TG areas after its dried. Wings feel stiff now span wise, but torsional stiffness still not as good. It should better after its covered.

A thicker layer applied at the tips to fill up the gaps.

Wings done, tackle the fuse next.

Sand Sand Sand

2007-12-26T12:19:00.000+08:00

Wow, this fish kit actually requires quite a bit of work, much more than rest of my other gliders! Time to for some sanding and shaping.

The TE and balsa TE need to be sanded flush with the wings.

Sand the balsa tail bits down to get a airfoil shape. Improvised sanding block and stand. Lots of dust everywhere. Start with 80grit sand paper and finish off with 400grit

Sand and shape, hands and shoulder started to ache.

Have to do the fuse too... This EPP is stubborn stuff unlike balsa.

Have a vacuum cleaner ready

Starting to get fishy

Le Fish

2007-12-22T23:27:00.000+08:00

One thing great about slope is there are so many flying types and planes available, speed, scale, thermal, etc. One type that is getting popular particularly in the US, Europe is slope aerobatics.I not talking about the basic rolls and loops, i meant 3D style aerobatics - flat spins, snap rolls, blenders, rolling circles and even Knife edge, yes knife edge.

Do that at the slope, close in your face and you have what the French called Voltige Très Près du Relief (VTPR) which, loosely translated, is "aerobatics really close to the ground". This minitoon video will give an insight what VTPR is about.

It has been great fun doing close range stuns with the Weasel and i wanted more, enter Le Fish! . Inspired in equal parts by fullscale aerobatics gliders, the French VTPR phenomenon, and the desire for an EPP glider capable of unlimited aerobatics performance, Le fish is original design by American Steve Lange.

This plane is directly inspired by the MiniToons, the Voltij, and all the other very cool French aerobatic gliders that share a similar "fish" design. Steve has partnered Jack at www.leadingedgegliders.com and made this plane available to all as a kit. He also has a cool site at www.slopeaerobatics.com with some great videos. Got poisoned by those videos, and clicked the order button. Ops...

Here's the kit. A set of EPP wing cores, EPP fuslage, CF spars, balsa tail bits, misc hardware. I plan to build it light as possible as our slope conditions are not that great although we do get the occasional huge lifts, also the slope is slanted at a gentle angle and does not generate those vertical lifts that are great to perform VTPR.

Balsa tail bits

Misc hardware

Wing cores came with pre-cut slots for the CF spars

Glue that works well with EPP is Goop. Its a very strong contact adhesive which remains flexible when dried. One caution make sure area is well ventilated as Goop gives off not-so-nice vapours as it dries.

Glue the wings together with Goop and wait for it to dry.

Goop in the 2 CF spars and place the wings on the wing beds to ensure they are straight n true.

Stack weights on the wing beds while the Goop dries

Some parts of the CF spars didn't contact well with the wings so used thin CA and flooded the gaps. After its dried, glue on the hard wood trailing edge and balsa TE.

Salto - Fuslage

2007-12-15T21:23:00.000+08:00

After that good weekend of flying, the real raining season started. Down pours everyday, took the chance to finish up the salto. Started on the V-tail and work backwards to the servo tray to ensure a perfect fit.

The V-tails came with a set of torque rods for controls.

Glue the torque rods in with epoxy, make sure they are 90 degree when view from front and side.

Epoxy in a link ball to the ends, raptor link balls used. Note the distance between the two link balls. This will be used for the servo tray template later on.

They are connected to the servos in front via CF tube. 6x4mm CF tubes were used as they are quite stiff, less slop. The end of the CF tube was a raptor ball link, glued into a short section of 4x2mm CF as spacer.

Its abit tricky to clip the ball link onto the ball , used a long nose plier to hold onto the CF tube through the small gap at the tail.

Made a template for the servo tray in front. The distance between the link balls was 20mm. Use this to ensure equal distance at the servo end so to get the correct geometry between the servo horn, CF tube and V-tail torque rod.
Trial fit with the servos. Adjust and mark out positions then cut out the servo tray from ply wood.

Connect up the V-tail with the CF tubes, the other end of CF tube glued with threaded rods to thread into clevis for control horn. Ensure V-tail at neutral then epoxy in the servo tray. Also epoxy in the connectors for the wing servos.

To keep the antenna straight in the fuselage, use some plastic tubing.

Cut the wing servo covers to size.

Had to add more than 200grams of weight in the nose for balance. Fishing weights and blue tack work great. CG set at around 55~60mm from LE.

Finally done, a coat of polish to finish up. Now we wait for good conditions to madien

Great start to slope season

2007-12-04T22:24:00.000+08:00

What a start, the slope season started the way it ended, with a blast! And it came early. Usually it will go through a transition period for the wind to build up but not this year. The winds just started blasting strongly out of nowhere, just that the direction is abit off from the left and abit cold at times.

Well, the die hards are well prepared. Some came with new planes, some came with refurbished planes, some just came to look see and say hi.

Its more than just flying at the slope, as what one bro said "This glider flying is somewhat special. We meet for 3 months and don't see each other for 9 months, when we meet again, some trying to remember each other's name but immediately the conversation continues like we only met yesterday."

Every year for 3 months, men from all over the island make their yearly pilgrimage up the scared hill.
The pavilion, where we sometimes huddle together to hide from the rain.

The whole gang is here.

While we enjoyed ourselves, i notice there were some construction on both sides of the hill, a face lift perhaps. Lets hope they preserved the hill, its the only one that allowed this kind of graceful flying.

Something fishy...

2007-11-30T23:35:00.000+08:00

Something fishy arrived last week...
7x5USD + 4x1USd worth of stamps
All the way from Kanas, USA
What could it be???
Fishes!

Salto H101

2007-11-26T23:25:00.000+08:00

Last year around Nov, i ordered the discus, banana and the salto. Well time flies, the discus and banana have flown, now its time for salto. Reason i got the salto was i wanted something different from the discus, a change of flavour, something faster and slick. It looked fast n slick.

This is the 2.4m 1:6 scale by Baudis model. Here's the specs,

The kit - a pair of wings, fuselage, V-tail and some misc hardware. Usually, the lesser the pieces the higher the price. lol.
Dry fit
The stuff going in - Hs65 on the ailerons, JR DS362 for the rudder-elavator V-tail, Great-planes nylon control horns, FG wing covers, 3 pin deans connector and Berg 7 rx. Going to reuse the same battery from the discus.

On with the build, for fix-wings, it alwvayz startz viz zhe vingz.

A pair of beautiful straight wings. (Madien day must buy 4D.)
Date of birth.
The servo bay is fairly close to the hinge line, had to cut out abit of the top corner to prevent binding. Test fit everything first before marking out where the control horn go, glue it in with some epoxy + chopped up FG mix.

Use transparency and mark out position of 3 pin dean connector. Drill hole for it. Flip the transparency over n do the same for the wings. This will ensure the position for the connectors matched up.

I 'm going to do plug n fly wings using the 3 pin deans connectors as similar to what i have done with the discus. Suffer once, enjoy later. Made twisted extension wire, solder to servo, pull through the hole and solder on the connector

Made the connector for the fuselage side. -> So that can use it to center the servo. All this wirings and soldering actually took up quite a bit of time, 2~3 hrs.

Center the servo, glue it in place with epoxy mix. Servo was first wrapped with layer of masking tape. Notice the servo horn is angled towards the front. This is to get differential throws, since we need less down throw and more up aileron travel.
Glue the connector in and make sure its flushed except the 3 pins sticking out.
Wings considered done less attaching the servo covers later on. Next is the fuselage, that will be the tricky part...

Checks checks checks

2007-11-23T19:22:00.001+08:00

Past few flights, raptor seems to be pitching down during fast forward flight, even after making a few clicks to trim. During pre-flight check just now, discovered that the elevator push pull lever had wriggled loose and was only hanging on by a few threads. Can't imagine the consequences if it pop off in the air.
The thread had worn out prob from all the vibration. Removed the 2 self taping screws, lifted the pitch control arm, cleaned up the hole and added some CA. Then change the screw to a longer 3mm cap screw. Holding tight now. One more item to add to pre-flight checklist...

Discus repaired, rainy days begun

2007-11-12T21:59:00.000+08:00

With the rainy season approaching, i finally got down and repaired the discus. The tail took most of the damage during that fateful collision. It was patched up with the usual FG cloth and epoxy.

Was left with some visible areas where it was patched up as i couldnt find matching colours to spray. Oh well it will serve as a good reminder to take extra precaution when landing. One more month to go... better start on the others soon...

Added a layer of FG cloth in the front for reinforcementPatched up tail
New horizontal stab. Part of the vertical fin that was patched up.
New canopy and good to go.

Too slow too low

2007-10-22T22:33:00.000+08:00

Crash number 3 => Too long didn't fly, first flight of the day trying new moves , too slow, too low a roll.

Didnt get to fly for a few days and felt out of touch. It was my first flight of the day and was still feeling abit sleepy. Was fairly comfortable going fast forward flight high up and rolling already before this. Normally the first tank is for warm up but no idea why, nearing the end of the first tank, i just felt like going lower, slower and rolling.

First slow pass from right to left the roll was clumsy, 2nd try left to right around 4m high, roll.... the heli just dropped in attitude so fast before i could react and think oh shit, it had already been sallowed by the ground. Could hear the canopy shield crack into pieces. Ouch. Pain.

Prob hit the ground inverted as the canopy shield cracked and boom bent downwards. Besides the usual, boom, flybar, spindle, blades, the shield and landing skid needed to be replaced too. Belt had a few teeth stripped,found out later that main gear had 1 teeth broken too. Arg have to change! On fast forward flight, i usually give non or only a slight + collective punch before the roll to maintain attitude. I think i had too slow forward speed and didn't punch collective on that roll, the heli just drop like a rock. Dumb and expensive error. New moves should be tried out at least 3 mistakes high.

Got it up ASAP, with new canopy shield and align blades. Low, Slow n Roll is no go, yet...

3DX Singapore

2007-10-14T17:21:00.000+08:00

3DX SG was held at BBAFC over the weekend. It saw pilots from around the region coming down to compete. Caught some 3D action live from the field. The Thais dominated the action with some superb flying, great efforts too by the local pilots.

Kudos to the organisers for bringing the event here. The cometition has inspired many ,yet at the same time i realised there is still so much more to learn, felt like a noob again. Well thats what make RC heli so challenging and addictive, always pushing ourselves to achieve the next level.

More pics here and here.

Spectators and officials
Competitors table
Team Malaysia with their Compass Knights.
Thai team

Ron Sebastian from germany was one of the judge.
Ron Sebastian did a 3D master class demo
Markus Fiehn - another judge
Markus's demo machine - Trex 600 with modified frames + 10s
Bling Bling machines
Kasama upgrades for Stratus, and RJX Extreme

Shifting winds

2007-10-07T21:47:00.000+08:00

I could feel the direction of the winds starting to change while flying today. Had to compensate for it coming from the left instead of the usual right. The winds are starting to blow from the north. Woohoo! which means the slope season is near. It will be just awhile more before it correctly aligns in the north east direction.

Wind direction starting to changeTime to take out those gliders from their storage and wipe the dust off, recycle those batteries and do the repairs and touch up. I still got the Discus to repair and two new kit to build up. Been focusing much on helis and sitting on them for too long. Ahaha.

I hope to start on them soon.

Sprinter

Baudis Salto

I m very sure the rest of the die hard slopers like me, are waiting eagerly in anticipation with their gliders too.

Cracked tail servo plate

2007-10-01T20:23:00.000+08:00

Found a crack line developed a few weeks ago on the tail servo plate during a pre-flight check. Had a hunch not to fly. Lucky, as the plate split easily along the crack when i took it out for replacement. It had happened before some time back. Another flier had the crack line developed at the same spot too.The metal material is probably too brittle and stress line developed as the servo plate is being pull n push against the plastic frame all the time. Note to check for those using tail mounted servos.

Visitors

2007-09-15T23:42:00.000+08:00

Some flying buddies came over from east and north side to visit us at segar field this morning. It was great to have them over. Weather started well, cool and slight overcast.

It was a warm feeling to see and have flying kakis from all over to come and join us at our usual field. I very much enjoyed the interactions and chit chats. We were all having a great time when the skies decided to open up. Well at least everyone had at least one flight.

Here's some pics of the cool guys. You guys are always welcome anytime.

Helis everywhere
WY looking cool
CKS after a satisfying flight
Check out his full house tray
Fit catching up on some rc news
Happy CJ

Ken from RadioControlSports put up a aggressive 3D display.

Ipod inspired tx.
Shocking pink. Nice!
Helping to mow the grass
So much was achieved with just tt50, stock pipe, align 3amp bec, berg 7 FM rx. "Its the pilot". Hohoho
He brought with him the new BEAM heli from korea.
Bling Bling. Simple and solid.
Packing up before the storm hits.

Biggest motor?

2007-09-06T21:57:00.000+08:00

What's the biggest motor you ever owned?

Here's mine.
LOL. The electric starter for engine.

Eagerly wanted to fly yesterday after work, brought all the stuff to the field only to find out that the spinner cup of the starter had came loose. Duh... cant start engine, cant fly.

I couldn't remove the nut as i had applied some CA last time. So had to dissembled the starter to remove and then re-tightened the nut.
The whole starter is the motor itself, simple design n works. The hard part is putting everything back after that. The brushes has a spring that pushes it against the commutator.Huge magnets
Contact switch
The trick i found out is to push the brushes back,lock them in place to make sure enough gap for the armature. Install the armature, then release the brushes so that they push against the commutator. Followed by the outer can and the rest follows.

Heli litters

2007-09-03T21:58:00.000+08:00

One of the interesting aspect of this hobby is meeting (new) people who share the same interest. At funflys, pilots share their stories like old friends. There is much to chit chat, see, learn and get inspired.

Was at Tampines ave 5 last Sunday, the field was very big stretching some 200meters, able to accommodate 2-3 flight lines. There were at least 10 over pilots with their helis and planes littered all over the pavement.

The flight lines
Plane fliers gathered at one side of the field
Pilots Helis
Gold plated 90 SE with muscle pipe. Bling bling
Somebody got a new toy
Kamelot hotliner. Beautiful sound as it cuts the air, unfortunately, it folded its wings in a spectacular dive.
Brushless slowstick. There were a pair of them, flying so high in the skies.

Clutch replacements

2007-08-27T21:54:00.001+08:00

Replacements has arrived. New oem clutch, liner, and clutch bell bearing (which is same size as those use in raptor's blade grips , d6xD13xW5). New gears for 9252.
I wrapped 2 rounds of electric tape around the clutch and glued liner in with 30mins epoxy.
Changed the gears and made sure the servo was working by cycling it a few times.

Sticky clutch

2007-08-23T20:20:00.000+08:00

Seems like problems comes one after the other, after the fixing back the tt50 engine, i soon faced another, sticky clutch.

Symptoms: For the past gallon, the clutch was engaging very early, even on very low idle. I thought it was cos the engine was still set to be very rich, the vibrations when the engine is 4 stroking sometimes caused the clutch to be engaged once awhile at idle.

I could still fly but the problem got worse ,so much so that i when i crank start the engine , the blades will want to spin. making the engine impossible to start when holding on to the blades.

Went back dropped the engine and examined the clutch. Found that clutch has sprang opened fairly wide and liner was thin. WY suggested to press back the clutch n try again. i did that n the it idles up nicely but the problem came back immediately after i landed.
Removed the liner for replacement
Found that the starter shaft was making click click noises when turned by hand. It turned out that the clutch bell bearing is notchy. Heat up the bell in the oven n slowly tapped it out.

Notchy bearing
Off to get some spares...

Stripped servo gear

2007-08-23T20:15:00.000+08:00

The aileron 9252 servo when turned by hand was making click click sound too for quite awhile already, but it still function normally when power is turn on. I suspect it was stripped, probably during one of the auto rotation crashes. So took this chance to remove the aileron servo to change the strip gear. One of the white gear had broken teeth.

So was out of action again for the next few days...

Taiwan trip - part 2

2007-08-16T22:38:00.000+08:00

Ok so after taipei, i stopped over at taichung for a few days. Its a less vibrant city , things move at a slower pace. Align and thunder tiger factories are located in taichung county but a quite a distant away, naturally the RC stuff are cheaper here due the the close proximity. This is where i got most of the goodies.
Visited 3 shops in the list.
The first shop was syhobby.com which is walkable (25mins) from the train station area where most of the hotels are. Although the shop front looks abit old, it has quite a comprehensive stock list, from cars,tank to planes , helis and even boat. They have some nice gliders but boxes are quite big to carry back...

Next stop was ACME-model. Its located at the outskirts in some sort of industrial area, about 15mins ride by cab from train station. Shop doesn't stock much stuff as they do more mail orders. Warning : Quite hard to find cab back from there.
I did most of the shopping at RC extreme sports. Mostly heli and planes stuff, 10mins by cab from train station. Carries the full Align stuff at quite good price. Shop looks family owned, father, mother, 2 kids were all helping out and owner has good contacts with the Align factory. I wanted the trex600 pro kit which they ran out at that moment, he gave a call to the Align factory and asked if i could wait awhile. So 1.5 hrs later, the align guys delivered the kit fresh from the factory. Hohoho. It so happened that the new Align pipe was just out from the factory, so i grabbed what ever i could. Too bad they don't ship overseas...

The pipe looks like the hatori 522 , abit bigger though. Beautiful chrome finishing and comes with nice little accessories.Compared with a 522.
Got a few pairs of CF 600A Align blades as well, which had some good reviews. Quite good finishing, value for money blades.

Edit 23/08 : Warning some issues with this sets of blades throwing leads out here. Hope its just isolated cases, no flying with these sets til it get solved.

Edit 16/09 : The affected blades were the FGXXXXX series. I had a pair which was affected, contacted Walter at Rotor hobby and he was kind enough to help me send back to Align for replacement even though i didnt buy the blades from him. Thumbs up for him again!!. Got my blades back, going to try them soon.
So a few guys asked how i carried back so all those stuff. Well i asked for a big box from the shop packed all the stuff in, and pad with dirty clothes to make sure they didnt move about. Taped up the sides of the box with masking tape and check-in as Fragile item at the airport. The stuff reached back in pristine condition.

More reviews after i tried out out those stuff. For those looking for Align/TT stuff, taichung may be worth a visit, as its only 2.5hrs train ride away from taipei. Can do all 3 shops in a day. Thats it in Taiwan, didn't explore the southern parts, Kaohsiung has a large lists of shops as well, maybe next time...

Discus parts

2007-08-14T19:21:00.001+08:00

Discus spares finally arrived 6 months after the crash.

They were ordered from www.icare-rc.com , Canadian base hobby shop specialising in Scale Sailplanes and gliders.

5 more months to go to slope season. :-)

TT50 reloaded

2007-08-10T22:39:00.000+08:00

Luckily the engine failed while hovering so autorotated down n heli is ok.

Its simple to just get an OS but this TT50 is not that bad, has been quite reliable and managed to start almost every time. On top of that the fuel consumption is great (12mins per tank) .

I read somewhere in the engine manual that tt has warranty, so i contacted Rotor hobby and told Walter abt the engine. He asked me to bring it down for him to take a look. He examined the engine and commented that it did not have any signs of lean or over heating. its maybe due to too high rpm.

He advised not to run high rpm and use higher nitro/lub content fuel. He then offered to replace the damage parts with half an engine for FREE, so practically i got back a new engine except the heat sink and carb. And he will be sending the busted engine back to TT for further analysis.
Kudos to him for the fast response n service.

The engine was only 5 months old, still not very sure what caused it. I m very sure i assembled back the engine correctly and didn't ran it lean, was shocked at the holes in the casing as well. I have asked around , and some fliers said it may be due to cleaning of the piston, cylinder,etc with scotch brite, which may destroyed the smooth running surfaces...

Another lesson.. Will be using back the replacement and has started to break-in the new engine...

TT 50 busted!!

2007-08-10T17:03:00.000+08:00

Last sunday, i took out the engine to install rev max. So took the chance to change the bearings since i was at it i thought might as well do some cleaning up. The piston had some carbon residue on top and a ring of slight brownish patch around just below the ring. The cylinder sleeve has some black patches at the exhaust ports.

So i used scotch brite n clean away the residues on both the piston n cylinder. took out the con rod n clean the inside of the piston as well.

Changed both the bearings and assemble back, everything looks ok. turn the crank shaft by hand it was normal and there were no signs of binding.

After which went to fly, first flight - richen the engine abit as bearings are new. Flight was mostly hovering and slow figure 8 using only normal curves to let it run in abit. Felt it was smoother then before i change the bearings. back plate temp was cool . I thought all was good.

2nd flight - started with normal curve , flew around landed n tested back plate, temp ok. then switch to idle 1. headspeed higher. responsive and quite good power, so i thought great the bearing change works. Then i test the rev max on idle 2. i set the limit too low so proceed to land n increase the limit.

I throttle up again on my normal curve, while hovering at eye level,can hear the engine start to get higher pitch like leaning out. then followed by metal sounds then engine cut...

i thought it was the fan came loose. When i came back, realized the con rod broke n was shocked to see the engine case broken with 2 extra holes!!

Dam what went wrong?
Damages:
-con rod broke, piston sides broke, engine case broken with 2 holes

-cylinder looks ok.the rest of the engine looks ok except for scratches inside the casing.

Taiwan trip part 1

2007-07-30T19:19:00.000+08:00

Taiwan, beautiful country with nice and friendly people. Its also where many of the famous RC brands , GWS, Thunder tiger, Align among others came from. Took the opportunity to visit some of their hobby shops and grab some goodies back.

I was looking out for shops selling heli and Align products to visit. This was the list of shops from Align website here. I m sure there are many others. First stop taipei.

Taipei is very much like SG, well connected by mrt and buses. Most of the time exploration was done on public transport. Its like the taiwanese variety program shi zhi lu kou, instead of hunting down and trying to find the different variety of foods, we were hunting down hobby shops!

I tried to mark out the shops' location on a tourist map i got from the airport and see if i could visit them when i pass by their area. Was quite difficult to find some of them as the map dont show the small roads' names. Had to make U-turns and go merry go round a few times, but it was fun lol.

A word of caution, call the shops up before embarking on a hunt to try to find it, cos i spent quite a long time tracking down the first shop on the list only to find that its actually a housing apartment with nobody inside!

Visited some of the shops in in Taipei County, mainly those in Taipei City and Sanchong City. The rest were abit too far. There are 3 shops in SanChong city area, so if you plan to visit them can do 3 of them together. A few in that list have websites.

The first real shop found was Oriental Asia International RC ( www.oairc.com ). This is the shop that supplies mockingbirdrc locally. Here's how to go there. Take mrt to Mingquan west station. From Mingquan road, take bus 225 towards SanChong City. Bus will go along Sanhe road, alight when you see junction with Ziqiang road. Its 5mins walk from there.

Alight at this junctionOAIRC shopfront
The shop is more like a show room then a retail outlet. There were only a few of each items, all neatly displayed. Saw a room of computer terminals with workers, must be busily taking orders. There were a stack of radix blades that looked really tempting but prices were only slightly cheaper so only bought 3 pieces of rev max from here. They were kind enough to show us directions to the next shop on the list and even gave us towels, to wipe our sweat!?! lol.Next shop visited is B. Nothing much of interest as they carry more rc car stuff.Didnt have time to visit C that day. But from the tw rc mag i bought, this shop carries quite alot of stuff. Should be worth a visit.

C's Advertisement in TW's RC airtech magazine.While exploring the east of taipei, came across a GWS hobby shop just besides the Kunyang Mrt station. Quite convenient for those looking for GWS stuff. From there can take a 5mins cab ride to infinity-hobby.

Map to infinity-hobby.
Small shop front.
This shop has a online presence on rcgroups, carries many Align and other heli parts too. One of my flying kakis ordered from there before and prices are fairly reasonable. Shop owner was a nice chap, one of the few shops that sells pre-packed A123 cells for RC use. Was told that he orders the A123 cells individually and sent them to local factories for assembly. While i was there many came to enquire about the A123 cells.

Got myself a A123 charging adapter that just came in fresh from factory that day. It allows charging of A123 cells with normal chargers. Now don't have to spend a bomb on new charger to try out those A123...

Thats about all for me in taipei, next stop taichong, where align and thunder tiger factories are located...

Back

2007-07-21T18:40:00.000+08:00

Back from Taiwan trip and bought back some goodies. Kekeke. More updates later, need to unpack n do some washing!

Resistance is futile

2007-06-30T13:04:00.000+08:00

We have all succumbed to the dark side. Two of the kakis madiened their trex 600 Nitro today. Woot!.

The trex 600 N looks good with its aerodynamic canopy and CF frames feels sturdy enough. Its definitely much lighter. When i lifted it up, the trex600N with full tank feels lighter than my raptor without fuel! The wires can be nicely concealed and the battery tray allows the electronics to be mounted neatly.

There were some minor issues though. The starter coupling lost its grip on the starter shaft a few times, had to really tighten them. The tail pitch slider if pushed all the way to the tail case side can get locked. This happened in one of the machines and the tail went crazy. Luckily the damage was not much. Proper limits must be set on the gyro. The CF align tail blades are quite soft and hollow. It broke easily after clipping the grass lightly.

All in all its a good start. Time to have some oily fun.

Trex 600 Nitro pics
Zimmermann pipe -Superby finishing.
Metal head
CF fins
Metal tail
Torque tube
Setup
Setup 2
Rev max fitted nicely in the tray.
Last min checks
Running in engine
Locked tail -> crazy piro
Pilots and soon-to-be pilot.
Baby's raptorCKS' s raptor
Group

Heli comparison guide - Flight cost per min

2007-06-21T22:48:00.000+08:00

There were a lot of new helis released over the past year or so. Especially so in the larger sized heli market segment , with lipos becoming more and more affordable, 30-50 size electric helis are making a storm. This has to be one of the best time to venture into larger helis.

Align first came out with the trex 600, Thunder tiger countered with the E550 and E620 series. Let's not forget the nitro helis although they have been around for quite awhile, they still have their plus points. Raptors having dominated the everyday flyer's market for so long are being given a run for their money by Align's Trex 600 Nitro.

With so many choices and factors to think about, we hobbyist have a hard time deciding which one to invest our hard earn money in.

I did some comparison between the more popular helis in the SG market today and this entry will examine the flight cost of the energy system which has to be one of the more important factors in making the decision as the cost for a year of flight can easily run up to a few hundreds of dollars and even more than the heli itself.

The following are compared : TT50 engine on CP 15% nitro, OS 50 hyper on CP20% , 15cells A123 , 6s 4900mah lipo , 10s 3700mah lipo, 90 size engine on CP30% and trex450SE motor on 3s 2170mah.

Some assumptions i made in the calculations. All prices in SG dollars. As i don't own or have owned all these power system before , some of these figures were estimated using details posted by users from various forums. I have gone through quite a number of threads and came up with the figure which i felt was a good estimate.

6 minutes of flight times for electrics is a rough estimate for mix sports/3D type of flying. Hard core 3D will see the flight time reduce and simple flying around will see longer flight time.

Lipos life time are estimated at 50 cycles per pack. Heli flying demands a lot more from the lipo packs, with amps draw hitting 20, 30C often, so 50 cycles are a good estimate. From past experiences if a pack can last 50 cycles is already considered very good. More often than not, they bloat or lose power/capacity before that.

A123 cells are spec at 1000 cycles . With our kind of use, 200 cycles are achievable as some users wrote in various forums. Some of them are running test right up to 1000 or more cycles and these cells have performed incredibly well. Only problems are getting them cheaply from ebay and the trouble of assembling the packs yourself.

For those using other power systems, the figures can be used to do a rough estimate. E.g. Ep8 or Hurrican 550 using 2packs of 3s packs in series just need to double the figure for that of trex 450 size.

The figures gave a rough estimate of the flight cost per minute of flying. Nitro helis are still fairly cheaper to fly. Coming in close are the A123 cells which combine many benefits of lipos at lower risks and costs. 10 cell dewalt packs are around USD100, add in shipping and other assembly costs, 15cells will cost around SGD300. There are now retailers selling them for USD17 per cell. If this figure was used, flight cost per min will come up to 0.35, still very comparable to nitro.

Using 10s lipos will costs almost 2 times that of 90 size engine on CP30%. It maybe to many people's surprise that cost of flying a electric 450 motor sized heli can be more than a 50 size nitro.

Well this is only one factor in comparing the helis, there are many others like power-to-weight ratio, flying constraints, cost and availability of spares, etc , etc , which i will try explore later on. Make your choices and go for it!

OEM repairs

2007-06-16T12:26:00.000+08:00

After the autorotation crash that day, i went down to mockingbirdrc to get replacements and spares. Their oem raptor parts are cheaper than the original TT ones, some almost half the price. The quality feels similar and there is no difference in flight after the repairs.

For the cracked servo tray, i had used some epoxy to glue the crack and it held up well till today. The whole tray broke off and I lost rudder in flight! Was doing a stall turn when the heli refuse to turn when i give input. Managed to stabilise it while it was still pirouetting slowly, i cut throttle and autorotate to safety. Phew.

At first i thought my gyro was dead, when i went closer, i saw this! Broken servo tray. Another lesson, going to get a replacement later.

Extra - GG

2007-06-13T19:55:00.000+08:00

Took the extra out for a fly last weekend at BR. While doing a super low harrier, tail touched ground and fuselage broke into two. It was a weak point from a previous crash. Decided not to repair and wrote off the plane. A good plane that served well, the only bad thing was like all filton planes, it was too fragile. Hmm no more powered plane in my hanger olready... GG!

Some new toys seen at BR. Multiplex Profi MC 4000 Tx with extra long n big sticks!

New bizoom. Looks boring to WY. haha
New FlightTech 75amps ESC from KP, comes with a 4amps switching Bec, pretty cool

Safe Flying Please!

2007-06-11T00:25:00.001+08:00

Today afternoon, went down to Segar field for some heli practice. When i reached, there was already a group of fliers getting ready for flight. I popped over, said hi and do the necessary frequency checks . Its always more fun flying with more people.

A few electrics and one 60-sized nitro warbird. Hmm i thought to myself, is there enough space for the warbird to takeoff and land. So i asked the owner, who seems like a nice guy. He said no problem, just 10 meters is enough for it to take off. Well ok, i think he is quite experience so should not be a problem.

After a tank on my heli, i landed. Then the 60 size warbird was up next. The pilot that was going to fly the warbird was the owner's friend i think. Fair enough it only took 10meters to take off. But what was scary was the way it was flown. He was flying all over the place! The block of flats on the right was only around 300 meters away and he was flying very close over them.
Oh man, not just that , he was flying in front , behind, overhead, everywhere including over the expressway and also very near to the flats. Kao! Dangerously low at times. Being a warbird, it has to be flown fast and there were a few times he was doing high speed low pass diving at the pit area. Freak, if there was any glitch or mechanical failure that's the end. I m not sure about him, but i still want my life.

Towards the end of the flight, he mistimed a landing and had to pull up very last min else it would have overshot the runway and may land on the jogging track. Crap!

I mean fair enough he maybe a experienced pilot but shitz happens when we least expect it. Some things are just beyond our control. It does not mean that if one is experienced he can forget about safety! There is no compromise!

I wished he could keep in mind the safety considerations when flying. The field is not very big, at most can accommodate a 40-size trainer? Besides there are quite a handful of joggers and people around that area at times.

Our aircrafts have limits that need to be respected and this hobby is much better if we stay safe. Not only do we do this for ourself and our machines but also to keep members and spectators safe so we can all enjoy the hobby. There are not much fields left locally to fly anymore, and knowing people here like to complaint alot, the risk of sites being banned from flying will increase if fliers fly around recklessly. Lets not give others a reason to complaint.

So fly safe please!!!

Autorotation boom strike

2007-06-08T23:07:00.000+08:00

Crash report : 3rd Jun Sunday

Was practicing full auto-rotations when i misjudged and it came short. I started the approached high up from the left coming towards me, gave it abit of forward speed, flick the throttle hold and started the descend. It dropped fast but descended too far away as not enough forward speed.

I couldn't tell if the heli was tilting forward or backwards when it was near ground and tried to land. Arg! heli tip over and boom striked! It happened so fast, it wasn't in my mind that i could abort the auto.

Need more practice on the descend and learned my lesson : Keep the heli within view and always be ready to abort if need arises.

Bend boom

Double strike!

The damages : boom, support rod, flybar,blade, tail rod.

The force was great enough to force the blade grips over to the other side and made some scratches on the head.
Found out the rudder servo tray had a hairline crack as well!

Makeover

2007-06-05T20:04:00.000+08:00

Completed the canopy paint job after 2 weeks. It was sanding and sanding and more sanding. Each colour was sprayed , sanded, sprayed and sanded again to ensure a smooth surface. After which clear coat was applied and lightly waxed.

The top coat was done.

Bottom sprayed in flouro green.

Some parts of the paint peeled off when masking tape was removed. Had to sand and spray again.

Canopy cover was painted from the inside with some leftover tamiya black acrylic paint. Sand it rough first to give the paint something to bite.

Lustrekote crystal clear was applied to give it a shine and fuel proof the paint. The instructions stated it was fuel proof only up to 15% nitro.

The completed canopy! Avant inspired colours kekeke.

Looking good.

Maintenance done

2007-06-03T14:48:00.000+08:00

I had to replace the rusty crankshaft and bearings in the tt50.

Searched around and went to this bearing shop, Kian Ho Bearings, quite near Rotor hobby along jalan besar to get replacement bearings. The shop lady was friendly, i showed her the rusty bearings, she took some measurements with a vernier caliper and found the bearings i need in no time. Saved 10 bucks on each bearings than if i had bought them at Rotor!

See how shiny a new crankshaft is compared to the rusted one.

The engine was assembled in the reverse way it was taken apart. Run-in a few tanks to get things working smoothly again.

Changed the clunk lines and replace the fuel filter as well.

The exhaust gases discolored the clunk lines! and made them rubbery.

TT's fuel filter, came with a small plastic holder.

Took the opportunity to clean up the heli abit. The brush with long bristle is useful for sweeping away all the sand n dirt. Paper towers and alcohol to wipe clean the heli.

Strip engine!

2007-05-31T12:41:00.000+08:00

I proceed to strip the engine to access the damage.

First remove back plate.
Remove the engine from the mount, then use the crank shaft locking tool to remove the clutch, fan.

Remove the carburetor.

Remove the heat sink. There is a small notch on top of piston for realignment when assembling.

Next remove the cylinder sleeve. Mine is quite tight, so i heat it up in the oven n then push from behind with the back of toothbrush.

Now the slide the con rod out from the crankshaft and piston can be removed.

Slide out the crankshaft and we are left with the 2 bearings. Heat it in oven for 5mins. then hit the engine case against something hard. The rear bearing will drop out. Freshly baked TT50, kekeke try not to let your other half see this.

Same with front bearing, heat in oven then push it out from inside.

Place everything neatly so that its easy for reassembling
The crankshaft is badly rusted! The larger rear bearing rusty as well. Feels notchy when i turn it. Front bearing looks ok and the rest of the engine are fine. Time to get replacements.

Maintenance time - engine rattling

2007-05-29T20:17:00.000+08:00

Pics tell it all. Starting to hear funny noise from engine, rattling at normal, high pitch at idle up. open up the back plate n wah didnt know so bad til WY told me. Time for some maintenance after almost 9 gallons through the TT50.

More pics to come when i dissemble the whole engine. Well at least i managed to try out some full autos today before this downtime.

Brownish crankshaft. Bearings looked rusty as well. Haiz

Canopy Spraying

2007-05-18T22:24:00.000+08:00

The last few gallons were spent learning and practicing backward flights. Boy, its one of the tougher maneuvers, yet... During which there were many occasions when i couldnt judge which way the heli was tilting. The whole yellow canopy didn't give much perception of depth. So i decided to put some colours onto the stock canopy that came with the kit.
Prepare the surface for spraying. This is the most important part for most spray jobs. Its hard to for paint to stick to the raptor's bleech bottle canopy so the first step is to sand it rough! I started with 240 grit sandpaper, then 400 before finish up with 600.

See all the mess!
Wipe clean the dust with cloth and use a lighter to slightly torch the surface. Then clean again with alcohol.

Found a use for those fuel bottles, can use them as spraying stand. I spray white paint as base coat. Let dry, sand and spray another coat, sand again. Now its really smooth and ready for some colour.

Mask with masking tape.
Again spray 2 coats. Found that paint didnt stick well to some parts, sand and spray again. Still not complete yet, wah its dam tedious all those sanding n spraying. No wonder those custom canopies costs so much.

Good read

2007-05-11T23:59:00.000+08:00

Found another great heli site while searching for tips on doing funnel.

Check out www.scotiabladerunners.ca. Great technical details and good pictures that explain some of the concepts very clearly.

Heli mania tbp

2007-05-07T00:28:00.000+08:00

Pics from an unexpected large turnout of helis today at tbp. Saw a R90 flew , very stable, very nice. Big is definitely better.

Helis all over the place

R90 sui ah
How many guys does it take to start a heli? Five. One to hold the blade, one to hold the starter, one to hold the glow plug starter, one to tune the throttle, n one to supervise. Ho ho ho.
120size acrobatics plane. Big is good, visible from far
R90 setting up
R90 test fly
Tuning the walkera
WY's heli repaired with new pipe
Check out the new Align 6amp regulator. It got a built in switch, nice.
WY test fly
Some serious discussion going on.
Another big plane.
Stand-by heli!

Canopy Mod

2007-04-26T21:45:00.000+08:00

Did the canopy mod to prevent it from slipping out on backward flights. Item needed - 10mm long M3 cap screw.

Drill a hole on the canopy clip big enough to for the M3 cap screw to go through.
Put the canopy on n mark out where the screw should be. Screw it in place.
The canopy should clip on nicely to the cap screw, this will prevent it from slipping.

Main needle screw loose

2007-04-26T21:40:00.000+08:00

On a flight on the titan few days back, the engine started to sound funny, n heli started to wobble alot. I landed and found that the high end needle was loose! It got unscrewed while in flight probably due to all the vibrations. The black clip was not pressing onto the needle tight enough. Those using TT50 engine may want to take note. Unscrewed the high end needle out and bend the black clip to tighten the hold on the needle.

Adiós trex

2007-04-26T21:18:00.000+08:00

Sold off my Trex a few days back. It has served well for the last 6months, hope it will serve its new owner just as well. But seems like the trex is getting out of fashion now, had to reduce my selling price quite abit to get people interested. The in thing now is tt's mini titan, everyone is ditching their trex to get it.

I say hold your horses first. Trex is a tried n tested, proven platform that has gone through many revisions and improvements. As i mentioned before it is a good heli to start on, with cheap spares aplenty. The mini titan is still new and there are some issues yet to be iron out. Moreover spares are quite limited.

One last tribute to trex

New LHS

2007-04-18T19:31:00.000+08:00

Recently, around past one year or so, the RC scene in SG seems to have pick up abit. More people are getting interested and taking up this hobby despite the lack of open spaces in land scarce SG.

The availability of cheaper RC products especially those made in China has lowered the cost of entry into this hobby and the convenience of electric flight have certainly paved the way for many to fulfill their childhood dream of flying a radio control aircraft. Quite a few enterprising hobbyist have set up shops to cater to this increased demand.

Today visited a newly open LHS www.mockingbirdrc.com during lunch. Located at beauty world plaza, the shop seems like a one man show,being a subsidiary of Taiwanese hobby distributor www.oairc.com. The parent company is one of the sponser for 3DX to be held here later this year in Oct. Owner is quite a nice chap, offered us drinks while we chat abit. He said they set up a small store here to test local market first.

He stocks mostly heli stuff catering to the nitro crowd at the moment.He brought in brands like Model Avionics, NHP, Quick UK, Zimmermann which were locally not available previously. The prices of most of the accessories under the RCT brand are cheaper than rotor's excellence. The items were neatly displayed on shelves.

Some good deals like a pair of oem wood blades for trex going for only 10 bucks, the prolux manual fuel hand pump is half price of rotor's. Arghh, I could have save quite abit buying the nitro accessories from here.
Here's what i bought today. Tail support bridge for the titan and Triflow , oil with teflon for lubrication of the main shaft and tail shaft after flights.

With so many RC suppliers now in the local market carrying a wide variety of stuff, the prices have become fairly competitive. There were already a few price wars, the winners will be us hobbyists. Well, i definitely will be visiting there again, its only 10mins from my place. Ho ho ho. Now if only they stock up Coolpower fuel, it will be prefect...

BR field , TBP weekend

2007-04-15T23:48:00.000+08:00

Went back to the east during the weekend for some funflys. Had a fun time chatting with the BR gang whom i haven flown with for awhile. Seems like the planes there have been all UPSIZED like mac's evm. LOL. They all flying much bigger planes now compared to last time, made my filton extra looked really tiny. ahaha.

Sunday evening met up with some flyers at tampines bike park to fly heli. Mostly raptors and an evo. Got to see some nice 3D action close up from one of the young talented flyers. He executed his moves very low to the ground, tats 3D. Good to fly with people flying similar machines, get to learn alot from them.

Br gang
New AM
DIY plane with a cute pilotExtra KE
Kel with his huge ass motor and huge ass plane.
WY hovering

TBP
Yellow seems like a favourite colour
Root bear anyone?Need to get one of these

Really smokey with so many helis flying at the same time, some more they use 20% n 30% nitro!Pitch screw servo came loose, lucky he managed to land

Madien flight

2007-04-12T18:30:00.000+08:00

After 3 weeks of assembling and setting up, finally madien the raptor titan last weekend with help from CKS. Thanks!. Change the lipo to a bigger one, 3s1800mah to get the correct C.G.
I started at 3.5 turns out on the high speed needle and 3 turns on the low. We could not get the engine to start and i was getting anxious. Slowly trimmed open the throttle to around 30% and lean the low speed needle 1/4 turn before it got started. Quite a bit of fuel was splitting out from the exhaust at idle indicating a rich setting. The new engine needs the piston and ring to seal properly so the extra lubricant would help wash away any debris.
I let the engine idle for awhile before proceeding to hover the heli slightly above ground. After awhile i realized i forgot to remove the glow starter. Didnt know as the canopy wasn't on. lol. Landed the heli and removed the starter. Wah it was hot, n prob burnt out the battery indicator on the glow starter.

Went on to hover the heli for 30seconds then idle again for 30seconds, repeating the cycle for the first tank. The sound of the nitro engine was intimidating and smoke was plentiful, made me almost forget that im in control. As the heli idle, i touch the back plate to test the temperature. It was cool to touch.
The first tank of fuel finished fairly fast. I let the engine cool down before refueling. Ah as i refuel, i forgot to clip the fuel line to carburetor and fuel started leaking out of the engine. First time on nitro, dont know the SOPs yet. Quickly stopped, clipped the line and resume refueling.

I proceed to crank start the heli but it wouldnt start. At first i thought was engine flooded due to the refueling. Later found out the fan has dislodged from the engine and got stuck at the clutch bell. Dam no more flying for that day. Had to borrow a crank locking tool to tightly secure the fan down.
Went back to run in the engine the next day. Repeat the hovering and idling cycle for the next 4 tanks , gradually prolonging the hovering period. Next 4 tanks started to do abit of flying around. Slowly getting use to the size and noise. So far it feels more stable and far more easier to orientate. Finished nearly a gallon now. Fun!

Wirings

2007-04-08T22:31:00.000+08:00

With so many servos, plus the gyro and bec, the wiring can be quite a mess. The wirings should be kept neatly to prevent interference and for easy serviceability. I planned to keep it simple and spent quite abit of time arranging the wires.

Zip ties are great for bundling the wires together but the edges are quite sharp and with so much vibrations on the heli, they may cut into the wires. A simple solution is to use some fuel tubing as cushion.
Tidy up the gyro wires and zip tie them to the hole at the back of the frame.
The wires from those servos in the servo frame are bundle together and 2 small holes are made in the back of the servo frame to fastened them down. Some of the wires were too long so loop them around the gaps at the back of the servo frame. The BEC is installed in the empty servo space in the frame. The gyro wire and bec wire were bundled together.
Lastly the antenna is routed out of the receiver strong box through fuel tubing into the antenna tube at the bottom of the skid. The end of the tube is zip tied to the alum support rod.
Finished up the canopy and its good to go.

Extra time?

2007-04-06T23:24:00.000+08:00

Something unheard of, something i think never happened before. Winds is blowing from NE again after 1 month and we are sloping in April. Weird. Seasons normally end by march. This year it ended in early march, and so we thought. Strangely enough, the winds picked up again this week and it was almost peak conditions winds , hitting 13knots yesterday. Crazy weather.

Went down today, winds was quite consistent although fairly light. The usual suspects were there lol. Great to see them again, flew abit, chit chat abit more, most of them were pleasantly surprised by the winds, some managed to madien their gliders that were meant for next season. Be it due to global warming, wind god taking pity for the short season, no one is complaining about the extra slope time. Its a bonus, take it and fly...

Usual suspects
The guy with the biggest planes was flying the smallest and he flew it thermal scale style. lol.
Look where the bug ended up

Setting up

2007-04-04T22:57:00.000+08:00

Servos installation and setup. This is the most critical part of the built IMHO. It will determined how well or bad the heli will fly. A poorly setup bird will be hard to trim later on. A comprehensive setup can be found at raptortechnique, i did some adjustments as mine was a titan with push-pulls.

The servos were first installed as per manual and the push-pull links setup to the recommended lengths but not snapped on yet so that adjustments can be made later on.

The goal here was to work from the swash up and make sure that at half stick, the swash plate is level, then the wash out arms are level, followed by mixing arms level and then lastly the blade grips at 0 pitch. Make sure radio is at half stick at the start of setup! I use the throttle curve to ensure it to be digitally half stick.

To level the swash , i used 2 pieces of balsa with equal height as a guide. Started with the elevator since the A-shaped elevator control arms are fixed. Level the swash with the balsa pieces.
Fix the servo horn slanted at an angle on to the servo. Adjust the length of push-pull linkage rods so that they can snap on to the ball links on the control horn. The important part here is make sure both the push-pull linkage rod are equal length else it will cause binding. Use sub-trim to finish off keeping the swash level.
Next do the aileron. Again level the swash, keep the aileron linkage rods equal and aileron push-pull rods equal length.
The ball link on linkage rod A has the thunder tiger wordings facing inside the swash, while that on B is facing out to ensure both are same length.

For the pitch, adjust the collective control arm such that the washout arms are level. Then adjust the length of the vertical connecting linkage rod so that it can be 90 degrees to the pitch push-pull subassembly. This is to get same amount of movement up and down pitch,prevent differentials. The push-pull subassembly will be slight slanted when setup properly and not perfectly horizontal.Next adjust the mixing arms' long linkage rods to make them level. Then the short linkage rods to get blade at 0 pitch.
For the rudder setup, the best position for tail centering is to adjust the rudder link so that you have 4.5mm between the pitch slider and the tail rotor casing. This is to get around 15 degree of tail pitch built in to counter main rotor torque. Then use a horn with a hole far enough such that the linkage rod can be as close to 90 degree as possible to the horn. Finish up by CAing the 3 rod guides to the tail boom. Set up the gyro as per normal.
For throttle, use the ATVs and adjust the linkage rods to ensure no binding at both ends before snapping on the links.

Heads up

2007-03-31T00:54:00.000+08:00

Next up was the main rotor assembly. Slowly worked from the swash up. The kamasa head assembles much as the stock one accept for the metal blade grips. The metal blade grip had to be heated in the oven to install the radial bearings for a tight fit.

The washout arms and the bell-hiller mixing levers have 2 holes on each side of the pivot point. They can be adjusted to give different pitch range to suit different flying style.
Red dampeners and green ultra light paddles used instead of stock ones.
Kasama tail feels solid and no slop.Hands were starting to ache after all that screwing. lol. The mechanics part is done. Up next will be the electronics setup...

Main frame assembly

2007-03-25T14:27:00.000+08:00

Build started! It was fairly straight forward and manual has large clear pictures to follow. The assembly guide from www.raptortechnique.com is also very useful. There are quite alot of resources out there so i will just add some of the useful tips i found.

Edited : Found another good titan review at rcuniverse here.

Kit is build stock with a few upgrades, swapped out the plastic white frame spacers for Aluminum ones (PV0104) for reinforcement, changed to the new 8.73 ratio main gear (11Tpinion , 96T main) , replaced stock clunk tubing which are known to fail after few flights with thicker ones.
A good set of tools will make the assembly easier. Some of the tools used. The denatured alcohol is used to remove any grease n oil from the screws before applying loctite.The fuel tank nipple is quite tight and hard to remove just by pulling. One easy way to remove it is to use a small screw driver and slide it under the notch and slowly lift it out. Less risk of breaking.One of the harder steps was putting the snap ring onto the one way clutch shaft. A snap ring plier would make this easier but i didnt have any around. Looked around and found the ball link plier could be use to get the job done. Slide the tips of the plier into the 2 small holes and pull open. Took a few tries to get it right.
The parts fitted together well, but there is some slop at the elevator push-pull lever, due to design. The collar which prevents over tightening is a bit longer that the lever so there is some movement. Some added a bit of CA to the collar , i just left it as it is.Before fitting in the TT50 Engine, i did the needle mod which is explained here and here. The TT50's idle needle does not taper down at the end and can cause mid range leaning issues. The needle was chucked into a drill and the tip sanded down.Fan and clutch installed on engine.
Some epoxy to seal the exhaust nipple.
After 3 nights, its starting to look like a heli.

Bling Bling

2007-03-23T00:09:00.000+08:00

Had enough of slop in the stock Trex head, and its safer to put in a metal head on the raptor as there were cases of the plastic head exploding on high rpm flights.

After reading so much good reviews on runryder about the kasama head, i couldn't resist and ordered from www.z-rc.com. Kasama is actually made in Thailand so the delivery was quite fast, got the package 3 days after i paypal them. The sales guy, Johan was a nice guy to deal with and he even gave me a discount as i ordered the head, fan and tail combo.
The blings came individually packed in small sealed bags. The quality of the workmanship was good. But alas ,was disappointed when i opened up the packages. Some of the bearings showed signs of brownish rust. I took a pic and emailed Johan about it.
He offered to send me replacements the next day via EMS, while i could send back the parts with rusty bearings at my own time. Cool , now that's customer service. Great guy to deal with. Got the replacements, no rust,I'm happy. Here's how the complete head will look like. Now back to my build...

Engines 101

2007-03-18T13:37:00.000+08:00

It is often the fear of the unknown that prevents people from trying out new things. That flutter in your stomach, that vague discomfort when you get close to the edge of familiarity. That was how i felt when i decided to get a nitro heli. I m not familiar with engines. How do you tune the engine? What fuel to use? and many more questions popped up.

So i asked around and read up on the forums, often i see general replies like " oh use this and this engine with this n this fuel , try turning the high speed needle 5 clicks anti-clockwise, use a hotter glow plug...". They sounded more like trial n error experiences, there must be more science to it. It is important to know exactly how each part works to be able to fly the heli around with confidence and safety. So back to basics, engines 101.

Engines convert energy stored in fuel to mechanical energy to turn the blades through 4 processes characterized by movements of a piston in a cylinder: 1. intake stroke 2. compression stroke 3. power stroke 4. exhaust stroke known as the Otto cycle. 2-strokes engines accomplish the Otto cycle in 2 strokes and are commonly used in helis. Animation below courtesy of Marshall Brain. "How Two-stroke Engines Work". April 01, 2000 http://science.howstuffworks.com/two-stroke.htm (March 17, 2007)

Can refer to here for more details. Or see below
For the titan,I m going to put in a TT50 Pro engine as oppose to the more widely used OS50hyper. Although it maybe harder to tune and less powerful, TT50 gives better fuel economy and more flight time (14mins to 8mins on hyper). It will be lighter on the pockets and serves well as a good beginner engine.
The unfamiliar becomes familiar and it became less daunting after reading up abit. More on tuning later...

E-setup

2007-03-15T23:06:00.000+08:00

Electronic setup : With specs of speed: .14 sec/60 degrees and Torque: 91.6 oz/in (6.6 kg-cm) the futaba 9252s are chosen for the cyclics as they had good reviews in various forums for their reliability and precise centering. A higher torque but slightly slower 9255 will be use for the collective pitch servo to handle the blades' load. The titan's swash plate is the conventional mechanical mixing using individual servos for each control axis so they don't have to be similar type.

Will be using a 9252 as well for throttle. Ideally the throttle servo should be faster than the collective to reduce bogging on the engine as you want power to increase before the blades load up. Searched the net and found one taiwan website selling them for quite a reasonable price.
The items where ordered from www.shyau.com.tw. The response time of the sales guy was quite fast, few emails and 4 days later the stuff arrived. This website carries a large variety of rc brands and prices are way cheaper than LHS. For small items shipping is not very expensive as well. Highly recommended if you are looking for futaba, jr, or any tw brands.

With my current skill level, i won't need the gy611 any time soon. Will be using gy401 combo which i got earlier here. The electronics will be powered by a switching BEC so that i can reuse my 3s1p 1200mah lipos. The hyperion TICOOL bec has a switchable 5/6v, 4amps sustained, 5amps burst output and can take up to 10S lipo. With a full digital setup on a 3D flight, the estimated amps drawn is 3amps average with burst up to 4-5amps. A flight will used up around 300mah so each of these lipos should last 2-3tanks. Although more efficient than linear regulators, the draw back of these switch type regulators has been radio noise that the switching can create. The hyperion TICOOL suppose to come with this Noise Elimination Technology, not sure how reliable yet as not much reviews online. It comes with a ferret ring as an additional insurance. Without load, the output was measured to be 5.2v with the 5v jumper, 6.2v with the 6v jumper. With load, it should hold at 5 and 6v respectively. Will update in due course.

The kit

2007-03-13T19:58:00.000+08:00

Purchased the titan kit from rotor hobby. The box is slightly bigger than the align carry case. Inside are parts neatly packed in smaller packages according to the assembly steps. Flipped through the manual, looks quite comprehensive and clear. Almost ready to start..

Dark side awaits...

2007-03-12T22:10:00.000+08:00

The time has come... My current stock trex XL is reaching its flying capability soon unless i upgrade it. It is one of the better mini helis to learn on, i have progressed from heli noob to hovering, forward flight, figure 8, nose-in, stall-turns and recently loops on it. The size is fairly easy to carry around yet much more stable than those micro helis like honeybee, dragonflys which i have seen flyers crashing and spending more than 1/2 of the time at the field doing repairs.

But the trex gets affected by the wind and cant fly far before its hard to judge orientation. Flight time is awefully short with just 2 packs of lipos. A bigger heli with more flight time will be a better platform to progress on. 50size helis seems to be the right size. The choice is then electric or nitro.

I would prefer electric given my EE background and the convenience it offers at the field. Besides plug-n-play, quiet, lipos and brushless motors are more efficient than glow engines in converting energy to power. The power to weight ratio for E-heli surely overwhelms nitro ones. Electric power has arrived and is definitely the way to go in the future. However for now have to look into one very important factor. The moolah, $.

Just compare the energy source alone, for a hard 6 mins 3D flight will need a 10S1p which cost USD400 or SGD600plus. Will need 3-4 packs to fly comfortably long and be satisfied. Each pack properly balanced, charged and used within specs suppose to last up to 200 flights. Can lipos really last that long given the abuse we throw at them?

So far i had 3 packs bloated and 2 packs cant sustain high discharge well even far before they reach their 100th cycles. Not forgetting i have seen bad crashes that totally destroyed lipo packs. Then you have to consider the ESC, motor and higher end chargers which are not cheap. Being electronics, they can get destroyed easily with improper care. And also the numerous hours spent charging the lipos.

Comparing apples to apples, a OS50SX-hyper on 1 tank of 20% nitro can go ard 8mins, each gallon costing S$40 can last 10 tanks so each flight is about S$4. You simply pay as you fly while lipos , you pay in advance but without the insurance of it lasting you 200 flights. The downside is the oil,smoke and loud noise. Some flyers love them though so its subjective.

Glow nitro engines have been around for the last 30-40 years ,its old technology but right now its the most cost effective. New and better lipos are coming out each day and the prices are dropping due to competition from the increasing numbers of manufacturers. It will be soon i hope when the it will be affordable for the majority to fly large electrics.

I did my sums, raptor 50 titan it is..

Incoming!

2007-03-08T19:28:00.000+08:00

How does it feel to be kena arrowed? I meant literally. The smaller field beside our usual flying field at Segar was fenced up recently and it turned out that it was going to be used for archery , presumably by the nearby CC. Today the target boards are up, and they are aligned towards the direction of the flying field.
Kao. I sure do not wish to be at the receiving end of any stray arrows. Even though the distance from the shooting area to the road seems quite far , there are occasional joggers and vehicles passing by. So I thought it will make more sense to align the target boards against the raised slope to make sure the arrows wont hit anything or anyone. Remember Murphy's Law?

Flying shld be done more towards the left side of the field now, just in case our aircrafts become moving targets. Watch your six...

Decapitated trex

2007-03-03T22:10:00.000+08:00

I was moving on to learning loops on the Trex recently after getting a hang of nose-in and stall turns. This morning during one of the tries, the rudder went haywire on top of the loop.I couldn't maintain control.By the time i saw the orientation of the heli, it was coming down fast from about 2 storey high towards the pit inverted!

Holy crap, i pull full negative collective hoping to lift it back up before i flip it back over. The rudder managed to hold ,but it was too low and not enough power to get it back up. I saw it inverted low pass right in front of me before smacking into the ground. The main rotor head snapped off, and surprisingly, the other only damages were the broken blades,bent flybar and main shaft. The main gear is still the same one since day one!
AAR - I think it was because the rudder cant hold the tail when the pitch changes too fast. When i do pitch pumps on idle up, there were times, it simply pirorettes awhile before getting back the tail. Lesson learnt.

The plastic head has quite abit of slop, and will need to upgrade to metal head and a better tail servo like 9650 if i m going to continue progressing with the trex. The metal blings are not cheap and it doesn't seem worth it for a small size heli. Been doing research on the titan for awhile now. Think its about time...

Slope jumping

2007-02-24T23:30:00.000+08:00

WY calls it post mid-air therapy. Something we have been thinking of doing, something we wanted to do for awhile. Just do it. Enjoy the vid.