COMMENT O' THE MONTH
Email Article ;)
Every once in while, we get a great comment to a blog posting. Sometimes we get things like links to "enhancement" websites. But this comment needs some air, so here it is. A customer reports on his experience building and flying our QB F-15 Eagle....Enjoy.
Good news! Just maidened my F-15 Quick Build. Took me awhile to get it
together for a variety of reasons, but it was worth it in the end.
I'm
a very low time pilot. I.e., 3-4 hours total over the last two years on
computer simulators, and literally 5 minutes in the air.
I'd
bought a couple of those low/slow "trainers" (E-Starter and Slow
Stick). With brushed motors and such they were sluggish pigs, slow to
respond, and I thought very hard to fly and not much fun. guess I
needed something with more pizazz!
I got the Quick Build because
I didn't want to spend another 10-20 hours or so (I'm a bit of a
perfectionist) putting together a trainer that would end up mangled and
unsatisfying anyway. The QB went together well and I headed out to find
a place to fly it.
Various potential sites (no clubs in my
countryfied surroundings) proved too small or were in use. I went up to
the park on the hill overlooking the highway (Chatham, NY) where there
are three little league parks. No one was there, and although there are
fences, buildings, obstructions and the like, it was the best shot I
had.
Although I'd flown the E-starter into a fence there on
its maiden a couple years ago (been away from the sport for awhile), I
thought with the recent practice I had earlier today in the Clearview
simulator on mycomputer, flying a Yardbird Su-27 i think it was (it
would be great if someone would do the F-15 for Clearview), I'd give it
a shot.
I throttled up to about 1/2 (Grayson power module they
sell here is what I have, along with a Zippy 1300 mah, 3S 11.1V
battery). I tossed her out in front of me. Trim was a little down and
she flew toward the grass but I got enough (over)control and jammed in
throttles and zammo!, she was rocketing for the sky. wow!
I
throttled back and she politely nosed over. I got her flying hands off
nice and level with little trimming needed. Very stable, no turn
tendencies, easy to fly.
I made one circuit of the field, even
zooming over a roof once, then cut power to see how she glided in.
Smooooth and stable even at lower speeds. And a perfect landing,
absolutely no sweat. Remember, I'm a novice.
Three more
flights, more confidence with each one. She's a sensitive bird in that
it's easy for a novice to overcontrol, very responsive with just the
elevons, but not overly sensitive. And she'll slow down nicely and
float along.
I got careless on flight #5 and beaked her in, so
I'm looking for some scrap Depron now but can't wait to go out again.
it's a real cool airplane, if you're looking for a confidence-building
way to get into prop jets, this is a great place to start. Very stable,
responsive, fun plane to own and fly. I'm going to order another QB,
they're really a blast.
Fly safe!
Jim
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Reader Comments (1)
The more I fly it the more I appreciate just what a stable but responsive bird the F-15 is with the Grayson power package. Full throttle and it specs out in just a few seconds (Come back here, Eagle!). Chop the throttle, point for the ground and it's screaming down like a Joe SixPack on the scent of a case of Bud. Round out, glide over the ground, throttle up, stick back and right and she's in a screaming climb with taileron rolls up and up and up. Wow! This bird is really teaching me to fly.
I don't have proportional controls in or anything like that, just the mixer, so I tend to overcontrol at times, mostly when I think I get reversal into the sun. But I'll learn how to set that up. Having too much fun right now. Mostly, if I get in trouble, I point the nose up, jam on the throttle for a couple seconds to get clear of the ground (altitude is your friend...to a point), kick the stick left or right, then I know where I am and it's back to fun time.
Absolutely, this is the kind of fun RC flying I've wanted to do for so long. I fly regular aircraft and hang gliders so I've got some sense of flight control. But RC is a whole new world. Before I mostly loved to build. Now I can finally say I love to build and FLY!
I've since built the F-22 (Also cut some ailerons into it, rigging that was a bit tricky) but haven't flown it yet. When I took it for it's maiden, at my 4000' local grass strip airfield (I even have permission!), I plugged in the battery to the ESC using the dean's connectors. These connectors are very stiff and usually difficult to mate. This time, the little flat metal spring that's attached to each pole bent down as I was shoving it home, arced to the other pole and FLASH! POP! A quick puff of blue smoke, and the battery, ESC and receiver were all deceased. Bummer!
Man, that was one expensive Dean's connector. So I haven't flown the Raptor yet, but hope to this weekend.
Meanwhile, can I talk myself into the Sukhoi jet as my next 6mmfly bird? Odds are good. I'm running out of wall space to hang these babies up. I've also got the F-14, F-5 and an F-18 (from another company). Halfway through the F-5, another nice kit.
Naw, I'm not hooked. I can quit any time. Really.
One critique which I'm not sure I've offered before: the plane of the laser cutting in the depron isn't 90 degrees, i.e. the cutting beam for some reason must not be perpendicular to the foam when it cuts, which creates extra trimming or sanding when putting the pieces together, and gaps where you don't want them, especially with tabs or interlocking pieces like with the nose of the F-22. Seems like it should be an easy thing to fix but thought I'd ask why it's like that.
Otherwise, great job everybody at 6mmflyrc. Keep up the good work, we're having too much fun out here!
High flights
JIm