Posted on 4/10/2011 11:39:53 PMAbout *#&!%@ time. A fine spring weeked for flyin' and all the good Aerojunkies were there. Which is to say, any of you AJs that didn't make it... What's up? Where ya been? Whatcha doin' that could possibly be better than this?
Lawn chairs and folding tables were arrayed. Tent and heater were not required. Hungry flyers were fed. Children and dogs were entertained. Music played. Dark Star makes for awesome flyin' on a quiet windless spring morning. Footballs were tossed. Elsie's ears were scratched. RC cars spun and wheeled and tore up the dirt.
Two fine and busy days at Mitre, orange stakes in the ground notwithstanding. All manner of aircraft were present and flown. Matt's big old flying wing didn't quite make it into the air this time, though. Not too many crashes that I noticed. Umm, except maybe for Raj's heli. Ouch. And an orange stake took a bite out of the wing of Scott's Pitts. Hopefully it's fixable.
Serious entertainment Sunday PM, with a tiny balsa glider launched X-15 style off the top of Amanda's FunCub. It took a round or two to get it right, but eventually it was launched as intended, with attendant Oooohhs and Aaaahs from the spectators as it made its way earthward. It was recovered and re-launched a few times until it finally disappeared out of sight on its last descent.
ADD took its toll and the performers moved on to aerial combat. Scott towed the streamer behind his Apprentice and kept things lively. Amanda scored a few cuts with her Fun Cub and Sam put in a strong effort with his Extra. Chip scored the majority of the cuts, requiring frequent landings by Scott and quiet, focused precision from ground crews securing new ribbons. Chip's weapon of choice was a Parkzone T-28.
New craft spotted this weekend... Steve with a suspiciously new looking Habu which he flew serenely and landed with precision. No cackling from the peanut gallery, I'm dead serious. Scott's "Speedy." Bob's Twist 40. Mo's Kinetic 800 (Merlin clone.) Raj's Kaos, back from retirement and electrified. Chip's Carbon-Z Yak. My Scorpion, Blitz, 4-Star... I made a point of "airing" the fleet; flew a dozen different planes over the course of the weekend, at least a couple flights each.
And of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention another milestone: Fettah's solo flight. Umm, in a real plane, kids! Congratulations, Fettah.
See you junkies soon. Lacrosse brats and orange stakes can't stop us.
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CommentsPosted on 3/21/2011 11:52:58 AMA taste... mind you, just a taste of spring this weekend. As I write this on Monday morning at work, it's snowing. More rain/snow forecast for later this week. Saturday was a bit gray and rather windy, but that didn't hold us back. Sunday was better in both regards, though I still felt a bit chilled after 6 or 7 hours of hanging out (42 degrees and maybe 5-7 mph wind for most of the day.)
We're putting up with the orange stakes at Mitre and determined to make the most of this park before they run the new road through it. Dump trucks have ruined the side of the park along Rte. 62, so we're back in the middle of the field.
Almost all the usual AJ suspects were at hand at some point or another, though Chip was out of town. Some new faces as well; Bing and Dan and one or two others whose names escape me. Calvin took lots of photos, you can see 'em in the gallery section.
Scotty's going nuts with his Parkzone Extra and the big hand-me-down .60-size Extra. Claims to be nervous flyin' the big one, but he doesn't look it. Sue flew the Apprentice. Bob P. enjoying his orange 3DHS Extra, Corsair, and Skyartec prop-jet, which took some hits on Sunday PM. Danny's got an EDF of some kind, and of course his home-brew Cub. Scott took up Danny's Big Bipe and handled it well.
Amanda had Carl on the buddy Box. Brought Candy, Carl, Elisie and friends. Bing flew his PT-19. Don (the birthday boy) feeling rusty. No new planes but no issues or hesitation with those he brought. A little nap between flights and he's golden.
Two maiden flights for me; a smallish "3D" ARF I bought off Danny a couple weeks ago, and a SIG FourStar 20 that I built and finished last fall. Both flew well. New Etana was ready to go, but the pilot was waiting for zero wind, which never happened. Etana maiden waits for a better day.
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CommentsPosted on 12/12/2010 8:49:19 AMIt was a balmy forty degrees, light wind, and sunny. Bob P. was out early but I missed him. When I arrived around eleven, it was just the old golfer guy and me.
And then it was the usual suspects stumbling one by one onto this patch of dirt and grass with the "runway" and dual purpose US flag / wind-vane.
Sue N Scott arrived shortly after. Bob P. came back and flew yet another plane with just one aileron. He's weird that way. Matt N. showed up with Rubbermaid work table and a HobbyCity funjet/stryker clone. Set up shop behind his SUV. After one failed attempt, the clone flew well.
Artie flew MiniMag and the Crayon Jet he bought from Danny last week. Raj. flew his 450 heli and ruminated about building himself a plane.
Don alternates between his office (inside his car) and occasional flights and quick jogs to either Dunkin Donuts or On The Run. Don's fleet doesn't change much. The WEFN news team will keep you informed of any changes as they occur.
Steve E. flew the Foon and Sukhoi and... not sure what else. He showed us the fuselage for his latest jet. Steve, we must make an event of the maiden flight.
Amanda and Chip arrived with an hour or two of sunlight remaining and then Candy, Carl and Elsie. The entire AJ crew (with one or two abstentions) collaborated on what was to become our first mildly succesful aero-tow. It involved quite a bit of twine and Scott driving his big "Magic" 3D ship as the tug-plane.
Check out the gallery in... the gallery section.
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CommentsPosted on 10/18/2010 11:15:53 AMIt's been a tough autumn for flying. As I recall, autumn last year had more agreeable flying weather.
In any case.... Saturday was extremely windy, and I really hadn't expected to do much flying. A few of us gathered at Mitre in the afternoon and shivered in the cold wind. I flew EasyStar for a few minutes and managed to get it back in one piece. Scott flew several planes, no mishaps that I observed. Amanda flew her T-28. My Turnigy anemometer was measuring gusts in the high teens.
Sunday AM several of us headed to the BRCF field for their electric fly-in. The usual Aerojunky core was there. Scott wowed 'em with his biplane, the Bronco and Spacewalker. Fettah and Amanda flew their white and red T-28s together. Chip did the Funjet and .60 Extra. Bob P. was there with his scratchbuilt twin-boom foamie. Don was there but plane-less. The BRCF boys were bitchin' about the wind but by AJ standards it was calm. No problem.
The same crowd (plus a few more) re-convened at Mitre in the afternoon. By that time the wind had come up, though not quite as crazy as the day before. Scott had a rough day of it. Maiden flight of the new Chipmunk lasted about a dozen seconds. I think he plans to repair it. Then the Bronco went down... total loss, went home in a garbage bag. Scott's beloved Spacewalker fell out of the sky and ended up in a tree out by the "Bermuda Triangle." It was recovered, with minimal damage.
Chip still hasn't tired of paintball games, though seems to have moved from model planes to human targets -- Jared and one of Danny's boys. As luck would have it, this was during a visit from Merry, who mumbled disapprovingly but kept it to herself and the book she was reading.
Carl, Candy and Elsie joined the fun for a while. Don did a pizza run for the hungry fliers. It was one of those days for chatting, tossing footballs, eating Halloween candy... and occasionally flying.
Alex seems to be back in hibernation, hopefully we'll see him again next summer. No sign of Dog, Mo, Brothers Grimm, or Phil.
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CommentsPosted on 10/12/2010 11:18:38 PMjust wanted to get this in .it was an awsum day flying nice sky good friends lite wind.we have had mid air crashes but this one was one in a million. scott calls out takeing off with sues cessana iam going right to left .i taxi down looking at the plane .mean while donovan,AKA,mal AKA,mr air traffic controller!!!! is coming in left to right for a low pass with his well known wing tiger.well we hit HEAD ON spinner to spinner you could see then both hit and both fell to the ground like lead weights.unbiliveabley the cessana was flying 5 mins later the motor shaft bent slightly to the left.mal had no visable damage but decide to keep the tiger grounded.THEN 5mins later the cessana is doing a low fly by and a super cub comes up from behind it and ever so slightly clips the cessanas wing and flys off.EFNHA MAL>>>>>.RAFE madiened his RT66 with a 60plus wing span it weighed as much as a T28 feather lite .but there was a problem it didnt want to turn on comand it kept banking left .then he would get it back to forward then it would pull left till it pulled it self into the hard mitre field.sorry rafe!! if its any consilation that plane looks like an ARF not a kit great build dude
EFNHA
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CommentsPosted on 9/20/2010 3:13:19 PMAnother fine weekend for flying. The sky was a bit gray, but winds were light both days and temperature was mild and pleasant.
We had our usual share of crashes, near-crashes tree landings and miraculous saves. Chip's big Extra took a dive, perhaps a stall. It came to rest just under the low trees along Rte. 62, across from the Chinese restaurant. Perhaps the trees cushioned the fall, but the plane seemed to have suffered no injuries.
Steve Eichel's Apprentice was not so lucky, it ended up high in a tree near the "Bermuda Triangle." Steve headed home, came back hours later, whereupon he and Don spent a good long time coaxing it down. But before Steve left Mitre for the second time that day, he'd flown his (new) Habu into yet another tree. There were a few tense moments with folks on the ground keeping a very wary eye on the obviously out of control Habu. Yikes.
My planes keep smacking into Amanda's and vice versa, wonder what's up with that. This time it was my one-ounce balsa plane (Stevens Aero LittleRod) against -- well, obviously something much larger. LittleRod kept flying as if nothing had happened, even with a good chunk of one wing missing. Amanda's having fun with her new T-28.
Scott is obviously enjoying the heck out of his big twin-engine Bronco, I think it's his new favorite plane. Well, that and the SkAT Cessna (the plane that wouldn't die) and the Orange-Winged Cub and the hopped up T-28. Big white Waco had a bad takeoff, needs landing gear fix.
Bob's Mini Funtana flew well but took some damage on landing (motor mount, landing gear... the usual.) With Bob's building skills it'll be back in the air in no time.
Brian finally got to fly his new (very much pre-owned) large Piper Cub. Scott's "Saturday" power system yielded a very short flight and a toasted ESC, but the "Sunday" power system seemed to do the trick. Odors from the burnt ESC were still heavy in the air on Sunday.
My big yellow Agri-Duck waddled through the sky, had a few short flights (flies like a brick) and then took some damage on landing, well shy of the runway. As usual for the Duck, the damage looks worse than it is, but I'm thinking it might be time to permanently retire this plane. I made it a point to fly several of my hangar queens... Agri-Duck, Skeeter, mini 4-Site, LittleRod, and the Depron 3D biplane. These last three are indoor/light wind flyers so this was the perfect weekend for them.
Ah let's see, who did I miss... Derek and daughters joined us briefly both days, Funjet still alive. Alex, Sam, Frank, Fettah, Don, Danny, Dave and Johny, Billy The Preacher... some more folks I remember seeing. [Given the nature of my memory as it pertains to people and names, that should
not be considered a conclusive list...] Fettah flew that big monster high-wing trainer for what seemed like hours and made it look easy. Chip flew that tiny monster Funjet for what seemed like minutes and made it look... very small, very fast, very high and very loud.
Seen in a grainy photo on the side of a milk carton, whereabouts unknown: Dog, Brothers Grimm, Tom S., Mo, Steve Dots.
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CommentsPosted on 9/12/2010 9:43:38 PMArtie describes it thusly...
Zen master got the most out his mosa. The most pieces after loud and spectacular crash with Amanda's easy star. Ez was towing the streamer. Chip got the most streamers plus credit for risking expensive plane. Scott flew a big spectacular twin. The dogs brother Dan? Flew a couple of his own designs. One rolled and smashed on takeoff. The other One flew fast and furious
And furiously well. Anybody a writer out there. He built the plane from craft store foam board. Triple thick for the wings. Some one needs to write a build article for model airplane news and sell the plans. Also of note there was a huge aftenoon thermal and myself and guy with wing dragon caught it. We had the motors off and were not coming down. Another fine day had by all.
Alex Sez
First shift - I flew a couple of flights early today. Calvin was just wrapping with a nice balsa E-flite T-34 Mentor when I got there. I got a couple of flights with the Extra. Bob arrived shortly thereafter to fly his custom foamies and flew a few flights with his single aileron twin boom ship. Jim Peters showed up too with his heli but elected not to fly as the rain threatened to come down. I then left Mitre, as the golfer arrived, to go over to Grove St. to join another guy Dave and fly the ultra micro Sukhoi. He was flying an ultra micro Mustang. It was fun till the wind decided to kick up, promptly grounding us. The wind also made tennis challenging for the rest of the day, got yelled at for dragging mud into the club. It was stuck to the bottom of my shoes from Mitre. One of the disadvantages of early morning flying, ground is soft. Hope you got some flying in today.
Rafe sez: Who's Calvin ?!?!? And... was this a description of Sat or Sunday??? Sorry I missed you this AM, I was otherwise occupied.
Derek Sez
Wow, what a nice afternoon flying. Even though I wrecked my Trojan chasing Chips ribbon. No biggie when I got home I was ready to hop online and order a new motor, motor mount, cowl, landing gear and whatever else it needed. Thank goodness my wife was hogging the computer ordering kids clothes, so I went downstairs to really assess the damage just to find out I was able to fix everything in about a half hour (except for the cowl). Very happy.
Thank you to Frank, Chip and the gentleman who bought the food and offered us some. You saved my ass since my phone was in the car with 3 (very old) messages from my wife saying dinner was ready :-) Amazing how you loose track of time when you are having fun.
Also glad to have successfully maidened FunJet #2, after countless failed launches with #1. I was very hesitant to send it in the air. Especially after I spent some extra time building it with carbon fibre, rudders etc. Thank you Fettah for helping me with the launch, it was perfect.
Oops, Derek was talking about last weekend.
the zen master
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CommentsPosted on 9/10/2010 11:31:04 AMWeather Underground says the wind will be even rowdier this evening, so a morning fly was indicated.
Flew small and large Formosa and had a blast. Wind was running from 7 to 12 mph, with gusts to 17 mph. The planes handled it well. Sky was clear but the breeze was cool. I was wearing a flannel shirt over a long-sleeved cotton t-shirt.
Evening flying is getting iffy, what with the sunset around 7 PM these days. I will stop my Mitre, maybe see some of you there.
Tomorrow looks good for flying -- no chance of rain, and winds topping out around 11 mph. Alex, if you're coming up for a morning fly, I'll meet you at Mitre and bring the Aspera.
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CommentsPosted on 8/30/2010 10:45:11 AMPhotos Here
After an evening of enlivening conversation involving praying manti and gross wagers, the AJ hardcore went home, took some Tums, and tried to sleep it off. Merry was not amused but got over it. Thx to Scott for the grille work. Thx to Jared for some interesting new downloads on my Android.
I met Alex for a few go-rounds at Mitre early in the morning. Good fun. Alex flew his Extra quite fast, and I went out of my way to fly the Ultra Stick as slowly as possible. Alex mentioned that he and Red had flown for a while before I arrived.
Reconvened at Mitre around two-ish to a growing party. You know I'm not good with names so don't be offended if you're not mentioned but the whole gang was there... still no Matt or Christian, or Tom S. or Derek, but Goose
(Alex) is back and Fettah and Glider Dave and The Other Dave whose young son flies a Champ like a Champ. Amanda gave up her south shore paradise to join us, and enticed us with pizza. Yum.
And of course the hard core. Sue and Skylar did several runs to the mini mart for the benefit of thirsty flyers. Did I mention it was hot? Merry showed up with more refreshments. Frank rigged tarps for shade. Teams of Eskimos hauled in dry ice.
Scott's big Spacewalker took a hit. It will fly again. Brian drew diagrams involving air flow, thrust vectors, and held forth on topics in aeronautical theory, till Scott fired up his T-28, shoved a radio in Brian's hands and told him to go fly. Chip hovered a Habu, maidened a new
Extra 260, and Fettah flew a nice foamie electric glider. On Saturday,
Artie flew the Ur-Easystar and Sam sent the Mustang on its rounds (what, no Diamante? Wahhh!) I flew three models that had been sidelined for repairs... for way too long. That little red Switchback rules. Brothers Pfaff provided entertainment as usual with fast and unusual aircraft. Their kids had fun catching dinner for Siraj's new pet. Danny's a veritable gusher of creativity. Frank pulled a spectacular nose-in with his EasyStar. Don's flying like a pro, and Siraj has a promising future in zoology. Dog is building a new Pitts, which I imagine will give Scott a woody, which might be the point, who knows.
New faces and names I need to learn. A fellow (Bob?) who patiently flew his new home-brew twin-boom foamie again and again until by the end of the day, it was moving quite nicely. (IMO, needs more JUICE.) Another fella flying T-28, Wing Dragon, and... ?
All for now. Goose was very active with his Canon D40 the whole day, and I'm expecting a new photo gallery on the AJ website soon. Speaking of which (ahem, Chip!) I'd love to see a few of those Hobie pix from earlier this summer... apparently graced by Fettah in Speedos. Oh and if anyone's looking for a hot deal on a sharp looking, fast, 23 year old Hobie Cat, drop me a line.
/rafe
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CommentsPosted on 6/28/2010 5:13:21 PMheat. hanscom. waiting out the rain. good flyin', lots of maidens and re-maidens. excellent parachute drops. just enough wind to take a little edge off the heat.
Frank has a cool new jet, flew it very well. My AT-6 flew great, as did my big 'Mosa, back in one piece after its encounter with Mitre trees. Scott flew the Albatross (amazing scale detail) and a cool new orange foamie bipe from Hobby Lobby.
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Posted on 4/12/2010 11:27:36 AMAmazingly, there was little wind before early on, but only Dog was smart enough to capitalize on that. By the time I showed up the wind was already kicking in, even worse than the previous day. Frank showed up and installed the weather station. Wind was steady in the high teens for most of the day, gusting to something like 23. Don, Chip, Frank, Dog, Tyler, Gabby, and I entertained ourselves in the morning, tossing around a football, and had lunch at Papa Ginos in Burlington. When we returned Sam was there.
Funny how I mostly remember the casualties... let's see... Tyler's Playmate flew away, to the Bermuda Triangle over Dunkin Donuts. Dog's BAE Hawk (jet) flew awesomely, but went into a spin and crashed on landing. Dog and Chip did an awesome show flying the two BAE jets together. Chip's EasyStar left a few gouges in the side of Dog's Cub -- a weird midair event where both planes landed OK. Artie did an amazing inverted landing in his Electro-Stick after the battery fell out in mid-air. The battery was recovered and the plane took very minor damage. We also saw Artie flying the infamous beater Twinstar for the first time. Chip broke a wing on his EasyStar and had it fixed about five minutes later. On his second flight of his new Predator, the wing spar gave up the ghost... Chip managed to land the plane with minimal damage. Very cool looking plane. Looks mean and insidious. The sort of plane you'd rather not meet in a dark alley.
Dave caught some air with one of his big gliders. Chip maidened the Predator. I buzzed the crowd with the "envelope" plane.
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CommentsPosted on 4/12/2010 11:27:03 AMWindy. A few of us flew indoors at the tennis bubble at Hanscom, which was very lightly attended. Chip, Steve, Zack, Steve, and Paul D. from BRCF. Chip practiced touch-and-goes off the walls with his mini Piper Cub.
Later, around five, we reconvened at Mitre, just as the lacrosse teams were packing up. The usual AJ suspects The high (low?) point of the evening was Scott's blue Corsair flying away to parts unknown. A search party was unable to locate the wayward aircraft.
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CommentsPosted on 3/19/2010 11:05:30 PMArtie, Don and I had a super afternoon today flying over the field behind the Harvard Stadium. This field is right next to the Soldier Field Road. I arrived first at around 5:15pm. There wasn't anyone on the field except a guy flying his Blade 400 helicopter. His name was Dan and he seemed like a nice guy. I introduced myself and told him about AeroJunkies. We will see if he decides joining our group. Anyway, he was on his last battery, and he left shortly afterwards.
I quickly pulled out my trusty old ParkZone T-28 Trojan and took off. It was a tad breeze, but nothing an AJ cannot handle. The sun on the other hand was annoying, since the wind was almost due west. While I was halfway through my battery Artie and Donovan shoed up, and a couple minutes later Artie's Mini Ultra Stick and Don's ParkZone Super Cub joined the party. After I landed the Trojan, I decided to make some noise, so I prepped my ElectriFly Synapse EDF jet and took off. After about six minutes of being on edge with shaky legs and making many low passes, I made a fast but successful (read: no damage!) landing. Synapse loves to fly fast (of course according to my standards, not Billy's) but It doesn't want to come down when I cut off power and keeps gliding merrily. I need to get used to this little shit.
After two flights on Synapse, I had my adrenaline fix. Meanwhile, Artie and Don have switched to their ElectriFly ElectroStick and Multiplex Easy Star, respectively. I joined them with my Trojan. We had easy relaxing fligts in the next twenty minutes while the sun was setting, creating a beautiful panorama. Artie even caught some thermals with his 'Stick. We also had some spectators: two teenage kids stopped by on their bicycles. They seemed to be knowledgeable so I asked "What do you guys fly?" I expected them to say "Air Hogs" or "Mini Super Cub", but one of them answered "I have a Sukhoi Su-47 jet and my friend has a SR-71 Blackbird. We got them from Banana Hobby." My jaw hit my feet; I mean these are middle school kids. So I asked "What did you fly before?". The other one answered "We started with Air Hogs jets and then moved on to Su-47 and SR-71." Now I am thinking that these little guys are pulling our legs. So I ask "Do you have simulators" to test if they are bullshitting or not, and they say "yeah, we use the ones that came with our jets". They were referrring to FMS. Anyway, I wrote down our website on a piece of paper and invited them to Mitre. They looked very excited. I am not sure if they will be able to convince their parents to drive all the way to Mitre, but if they do it will be fun to watch them fly their EDF jets.
My fifth and final flight was with my "elite" plane: Great Planes Edge 540. I took off from the grass, and it left its tail skid on the ground. Now I am thinking "Shit, it is going to land on its big rudder, I hope it won't break." Well, it did not. I was able to land it softly enough. I just need to glue it back before tomorrow. It was 6:45pm when Don and I were leaving. We promised to meet tomorrow at Mitre. Artie said "one last flight" and took off with his 'Stick into the sunset while I pulled off... thinking "What a wonderful way to and a busy work week!"
Hope to see you all tomorrow at Mitre. With some luck there won't be too many "other activities" occupying "our field".
Fettah
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CommentsPosted on 2/22/2010 12:57:52 PMAerojunkies ruled the day. Most of the nitro flyboys were just hanging around chatting. Fettah was there when I arrived but hadn't flown. I took the MiniMag up for a bit. Scott & kin showed up. Billy, Derek and kids showed, w/o planes. Scott flew the Piper nicely until the motor sent a smoke signal which apparently meant, "I'm dying." Landed it nicely w/o power. Then took his Waco up. Chip flew EasyStar, and finally Fettah flew his Decathlon. Some guy we'd never met showed up with a 4-ch. Wing Dragon, flew it very nicely.
Bunch of us reconvened at Mitre for a bit; Scott got another couple of flights on the Piper Cub, Rick and Brenda showed up. After which Chip and I headed to the Cambridge Armory... Fettah and Bora were there, and Steve arrived later.
There was an amazing plane there... a four-channel acrobat, 100% original design... 19 grams total weight.
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CommentsPosted on 1/11/2010 9:14:32 AMWell guys it was a great day for me and my slow planes. Start with my mini cub doing 42 mph. Yeeharr! My rocket cub doing 70 mph with seagull wings flapping funny as hell. Chip did a video of it flexing about 6 inches up and down...pissaa...The vector jet fly n 70 plus mph...fun fun fun... We put smoke on Scott' s Waco...The fuse would not light. We took a torch to it, and flew it. It was cool the first time. The second time was a little crazy! Scotts flying, doing loops like Tyler, haven a blast. We were watching from the heated tent... I start yelling “Scott the friggin plane wing is on fire! Land it, land it now!” So Scott did not waste a second. Here comes the friggin plane, right down, doing 30 mph at my head. I hit the snow, do 2 snow angels, get up and pray, and ran to put the smoke bomb out. It would not stop! Scott held it on fire in his hand and unscrewed it. The Waco is in good shape but there is 2 little holes in it, and his white Waco is now red and white… Chip and Tyler were having a blast pooping there pants! Ty was fly n inverted almost make n foam chips on the buddy box. Rafe shocked the crap out of me! He was fly n like me with his Polaris! Was rippin up the sky...You go Rafe! Get some balls and buy a jet now, he he. Don the crasher, as Tyler would say. Did a great job doing lessons on how to land in a tree with Tyler following. People were stopping by thinking that Barnum and Bailey were doing a show. They saw the huge white tent with clowns standing around...Fettah, Artie, Frank, Amanda, all flew well... Artie just wanted us to see parts fall off his plane, and see if we could find them in 7000,000 sq ft. of snow. Scott was fly n like Rafe today. Counted 3 times he almost took my friggin head off.
What a day guys! I loved it,
The Dog
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CommentsPosted on 12/13/2009 12:29:58 AMWhat a day it was! I thought I had seen AeroJunkies partake in some extreme flying when they took on gale force winds with their minature aircraft. It is my honor to report that today a new standard was set. Not only was it extremely windy but it was bone numbing cold at the AeroJunkies home airfield, Mitre International. The plows were apparently out of service as all runways were snow covered, topped with a thin and crusty glaze of ice.
I had not planned on visiting Mitre today due to the extreme conditions. Hanscom Field AWOS reporting winds at 300 degrees at 12 Knots Gusting 22. Temperature -2 degrees C. This translates to a wind chill of minus 8 degrees C or 17 degrees F. Scott "Maverick" had alerted me the previous night that he was planning an initial flight test on his new Waco. The "doubting Thomases" amongst us were skeptical that this would actually take place given the wind forecast for Saturday.
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CommentsPosted on 12/10/2009 10:47:33 AMI wonder if I'm approaching RC burnout? I had a
lot of trouble deciding on my next plane. Some of the candidates...
I wasn't sure I was up for a big build project. Takeoff/landing on snow would be useful, at least for the next few months.... but one can always bolt on a pair of DuBro skis and fly almost any plane that way. (The boys at the BRCF club do that with their big nitro trainers.)
Size matters, I guess. I've been wanting a plane around 50" wingspan. Something with enough size and heft that it won't be grounded in a 12 mph breeze. My biggest plane so far is that baby-blue 'Blitz' with a 44 inch wingspan (and about 14 oz. all-up weight.)
In the end, I decided on "none of the above." An outfit called Radical RC sells all sorts of balsa kits. One of their newest is called the Intern 66. Yep, that 66 is the wingspan, in inches, so this plane will have a wingspan exceeding my height. The very nice part of this plane is that it's very light for its size, so I'm expecting an easy, docile flyer. All-up weight is given as 3 to 4 pounds. I figure it should fly nicely on 600 watts or so. (As opposed to that 3400 watt motor on Fettah's 72 inch trainer.)
Anyway, here's the pic from the website....
Apparently it can be built with "your choice" of wing dihedral. The model in the foreground has 5
o dihedral; the one behind it has 1
o dihedral.
The kit should arrive within a week or so... just in time for a "forced vacation" between Xmas and New Years. I don't intend to rush the build -- I'll be happy if the plane is ready to fly by the end of January or so.
I'll document the build in this blog. Stay tuned.
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CommentsPosted on 12/6/2009 12:19:21 AMIt Flies!
A continuation of the
build post.
I must say, this is a REALLY nice and easy flying jet. I forgot to have someone radar gun it, but I *think* it's around 100mph. My thrust tube exit diameter is about 1/2inch smaller than the diameter of the hole in the back of the jet and measured at 81mm coming from the 96mm Himaxx fan. Not sure where that falls in terms of thrust to speed, but it felt like it had more thrust than actual top speed. Take-offs into the wind were pretty uneventful, just wait for it to have enough speed and pull up gently. On my
third flight I hit an undulation in the grass and it lifted prematurely (actually BOUNCED into the sky about 6 feet). I lowered the nose and just kept the throttle on it and it picked up enough speed without falling back to the ground.
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CommentsPosted on 12/5/2009 4:10:34 PMWhile Jets and Rockets have been around in full scale for many decades now, in the RC park flyer realm, it's still the dawn of the jet and rocket age. We're still feeling the excitement of jet and rocket propulsion that the world felt decades ago. Hence there is a mystique surrounding the aircraft and those pioneering RC aviators who dare to sit at the helm. Within AeroJunkies, Sebastien, Chip, Steve and Dog have taken this next "small step for man" and others can't help but be in awe of watching their jets streak across the skies.
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CommentsPosted on 11/29/2009 1:11:40 AM(more pictures and video to come)
I recently purchased the EasyTiger EDF Predator UCAV from NitroPlanes.com. This was my first and probably last purchase from NitroPlanes. The plane itself, for the money, is a great value.
I bought it for $119 and it's currently on sale for $88. For a 101mm EDF, that's a GREAT price, but they definitely cut corners to get the price low. Mainly they cut corners on the instructions and fit and finish. Typically, for an ARF, the instructions span across 30 or so pages, even for easy to put together planes - this instruction booklet (read: pamphlet) weighed in at an anorexic 6 pages...with photos...that didn't match this model.
Luckly, pioneers had documented their builds on RCGroups and RCUniverse which proved to be very helpfuly. Everything from which electronics fit best, to correcting the center of gravity on the plane. The CG, for reference, is at 7.25 inches from the leading edge and not 8.5 inches as specified in the instructions.
Fit and finish left a lot to be desired as well.
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