Flying for Real..

[DaveB]

Hi George..

That link never fully loaded.. perhaps it would have had I left it long enough.. but I'm pretty sure it's the same link, same vid anyway, that Garry posted above. A comment underneath mentioned an R22 and the helo in Garry's clip is also an R22 The chap doing the rescuing could have been a little more gentle with the model. He was only hanging from a helicopter above a tree

ATB
DaveB

[GHD]

Sorry about that. It doesn't load in IE8 but it is ok in FF.

It was the same clip as Gary's

[DaveB]

No problem mate

I'm IE8 on this pc too (WinXP SP3) so that would explain it. The link Garry posted works fine in IE8 though.

At the end of the day, isn't that what mates are for.. rescuing your model from the top of a tree Surprised the 'tree magnet' didn't get the R22 too! I bet it cost more in fuel to rescue the model than the model cost
ATB
DaveB

[VEGAS]

Well a bit of a disaster today.

A lovely day for flying but I took the aerobatics too far.

Tried a barrel roll after coming out of a loop in front of several dog walkers who had stopped to watch.

I stuffed it into the ground after running out of height.

No one to blame but me being far too relaxed in front of an audience.

Here's the aftermath.



Thankfully all glued back together nicely. No real compression scars. Just clean breaks.

Took her back up this afternoon and she flew great.

Although the cowl is cracked and will be replaced at some point.

That'll teach me..

[DaveB]

Boy oh boy.. does that look familiar. I've done that twice mate and don't worry, you'll get to like the 'roughed up' look Still not taken mine up since the last fix mind you The damage is identical to those shots mate. Every bit you have broken there, I've had broken in 2 heavy prangs.. no more, no less. The only difference is the bit of compression scarring but otherwise, identical.

Yes.. it was a nice morning today so I dragged my butt out for an hour with the Bixler. Mind you, I'd lost the feeling in my fingers and thumbs by that time One of the old boys I see regularly said he heard something when he left his house and couldn't place what it was. He then looked up and saw the Bixler flying at altitude above him So much for the 30% noise reduction off this 6x4E prop I had the horizontal stab and fin off it when I got back. I'd initially glued it using Foam2Foam and this had worked loose a few weeks ago so I lobbed some more in. It doesn't stick like you know what to a blanket as does epoxy and it had worked loose again. No flying incidents.. just me catching the tail while taking it out of the house, bringing it back in or getting it on and off the ceiling in the shed! Anyhoo.. it had worked loose enough for me to be able to coax it apart whereupon I removed all the old Foam2Foam and re-glued it properly. I was in two minds whether to use epoxy as I know that works courtesy of the Mustang repairs but I went for F2F again. Should be ready to go in the morning

BTW.. someone here is getting ANOTHER new model. I won't say who or what he's getting other than he may need a hangar rather than a garage to put it in I don't think his CAP has flown yet either. Can you believe this !!!
ATB
DaveB

[Garry Russell]

Check this out Dave...

http://www.quarterscalemerlin.com

Perhaps your nephew could make it up for you???

[DaveB]

That's a monster and more up Dale's street

Talking of 'Flying for Real'.. I was out a few days ago with the Bixler for the first time in a week and one of the old boys I see most mornings appeared and came over for a chat. Fortunately, the Bixler doesn't command your every second so I was able to put it in a gentle, slow circle while having a chat. I looked up to see a couple of gulls following it. I turned left, they turned left. I turned right, they turned right

ATB
DaveB

[VEGAS]

I had a flock of homing pigeons follow the EZ hawk when I first got it.

Confused the hell of of them!

[VEGAS]

Well my luck goes from bad to worse at the moment.

Had a very spectacular crash with the Radian this morning.

Well it wasn't really a crash. It was literally a mid-air break up. And to watch it was sickeningly spectacular.

Had some issues with the prop and plastic assembly recently that required a replacement.

This mornings flight was to test the new prop and plastic cone.

Everything appeared fine although some minor CofG issues were apparent but not dangerous enough to require immediate return.

So having descended to about 100 ft with the intention of giving her some beans to get back up high again.

As soon as I pushed the stick forward the whole front of the aircraft snapped off completely.

The front of the aircraft containing the prop, motor, battery and receiver went thundering towards the ground at a fair rate of knots.

The rear of the aircraft, the main fuselage, wings, servos and tail assembly slowly and gracefully went spiraling downwards seeming to take a lifetime to land.

By some miracle the debris landed on the open field near to my position and far away from the large trees.

I recovered all the pieces and put the break-up down to one thing.

A poor previous repair.

I had a bad crash with the Radian some months ago if you recall and it snapped the fuselage in the spot where it broke today.

I used plenty of cyro glue to repair it but today the torque of the motor from idle to full throttle and the weak glued join caused the aircraft to snap at its weakest point.

The good news is that its all repaired again now and hung up ready for the next flight.

This time I've used double glue and several toothpicks as splints in the weakest areas to strengthen the two parts.

Heres the poor girl when I got her home.

[DaveB]

Hen's teeth mate

I can see how the fuse broke at that particular point. When I flew the ASW into the ground in quick succession on my first 4 flights, I noted a similar weakness though it didn't break thank god. Full throttle takeoffs cured that particular 'ill'!

I've a similar concern over my Mustang repair too. Much as I wanted to use Epoxy, I'd have had to have made so much up to complete the join, I went for ready made Foam2Foam instead and this has proven to be a little brittle shall we say. I've tagged the fin a couple of times on the Bixler while moving it around and it's forced the joint loose.. so much so that I stripped the lot a few weeks ago, removed all the old glue and did it again. This wouldn't have happened with Epoxy. Glad you've got the old girl back together again anyway

No flying here for over a week now. Inclement weather has been the main cause though my desire to not freeze to death hasn't helped I took the Bixler over the common a couple of days ago but didn't launch and came back home.. the windspeed was a fair bit higher than I'm comfortable with. Yesterday and today have been the same. Nice enough to walk out in (though cold) but the wind is just too high for comfortable landings.

ATB
DaveB