Back in the Air Soon

I think I explained in my last post that I moved to Florida a year ago. I haven't flown that whole time but I've got the bug again. I have three planes ready to fly, well, I had three and will have three ready again soon. I went to fly a Tower Hobbies .60 sized trainer that I just got together. There is absolutely nowhere to fly around me here in the Orlando area without having to go to a modelport. There is a really nice one called Tangerine field that I am going to join right after I renew my AMA membership but I want to fly in the meantime. It takes time to get set up with them to fly. I have to attend one club meeting and get some kind of ID card plus I have to be a member of the AMA. I miss the Utah Modelport. It was a great place to fly and you didn't have to be a member of the AMA. I bought a Utah state park pass for about $60 a year and flew to my heart's content!

Well, this morning, I took this .60 sized trainer out to a rural road and thought maybe I could get it in the air there but it was narrow with curbs on both sides of the road and six foot marker sticks on the side of the road. I thought landing might be a little tricky but I was up to the task. I throttled up and a crosswind caught the plane and I didn't have enough rudder to kick the tail around. I had entertained the notion of making that rudder bigger because it is small. Well, the main gear impacted with the curb and knocked them loose which is no big deal, then the airplane flipped over and as soon as everything started slowing down the airplane unfolded and came apart. It was like I was watching a cartoon! I know that many of these ARFs aren't glued very well and this was no exception. There were several joints that were held together only by the covering and boy does that stuff stick. I don't know what they used but it is NOT Monokote! I had also thought about doing surgery on this thing and beefing it up but I really didn't want to ruin the finish and to be very honest, I just wanted to get something in the air!

I brought the pieces home and I've fiberglassed the front of the fuselage where it broke in half. I will also beef up the main gear. I had converted this from a tricycle gear to a taildragger and plan on putting some floats on it as soon as I have them fiberglassed. If i can get a good day in tomorrow, I should be able to get the main gear reattached and then get the sides of the plane recovered. The rudder and elevator servos are still in place and I will have to replace the throttle servo which is no big deal.

If anybody knows of any good places to fly near Winter Garden, Florida, let me know! There are some nice golf courses in the area and the fairways would be PERFECT but I don't think anyone would let me fly off of them!

Here We Go Again!

Well, things have certainly changed since my last post. I moved to Orlando, Florida in December of 2008 and got married in March 2009. Since I have been here, I have not flown. For some reason the bug bit me again. I have a Bridi Dirty Birdy that I built while I was still in Salt Lake City. I flew it one time but had a couple problems. First, the retractable nose gear linkage came loose just as I pulled back on the stick. I was able to get the plane into the air but it was very nose heavy. It was my fault, I checked the center of gravity in the wrong place. All of you experienced pilots know that it is better for a plane to be a little nose heavy than to be tail heavy but I really had to keep my speed up to keep the nose up on the plane. About five minutes into the flight, the engine died and I came in deadstick but couldn't make the runway so I put it down in the grass. The wing ripped off but the only damage was one of the two dowels that attaches the wing's leading edge. I haven't touched the plane since and that has to have been almost three years ago.

I pulled the plane out of the garage the other day and cleaned it up. I got the nose gear hooked up again and made some adjustments on the servo throws. I fixed the dowel on the wing. I also found that one of the head bolts on the Supertiger .90 had vibrated out. A quick trip to the hobby shop and that was fixed. Also, the carburetor had seized up, so I pulled the engine out of the plane and fixed that. If it flies anything like any other Bridi airplane it will be a nice flyer. It is powered by a Supertiger .90 which should be plenty of power. Power should not be an issue here in Florida when I am flying right at sea level. In Utah, we flew at right around 4,000 feet above sea level. Where I grew up in Texas, the elevation was 3,000 feet. The lowest altitude I have ever flown in was at Vegas and it was around 2,000 feet asl. I am really excited to see how things fly here. I am sure the planes will fly slower and land slower.

I have a Phoenix Models Giles 202 that I have flown quite a bit. The plane is one of the Vietnamese ARFs that is on the market. The plane is well built but comes with terrible instructions. The tank that is supplied with the kit is way too small too. As far as flying, it is definitely NOT a beginner's plane. The rolls, on high rates, are blazingly fast! I have never seen anything roll like this plane. Sometimes I am afraid I will rip the wing right off of the fuselage in a quick snap roll so I do the snap rolls more like a full scale plane, slow down, then snap it. To land this thing, you have to come in under power and really grease it in! Don't worry about this plane floating! Instead of the recommended .46 sized engine, I loaded the Giles with an O.S. .61. That was mainly due to the elevation in Salt Lake City. We'll see what it does here at sea level.

Both planes fared well on my 2,500 mile trip. The covering is scuffed badly in spots but I can live with that. There were no punctures to the covering at all and I was very surprised about that.

I would like to find a free place to fly, at least to test fly this Dirty Birdy, but it looks like I am going to have to join a club. The closest one to me and the only paved modelport in Central Florida is Tangerine Field. Bob Violet, owner of BVM Jets does all of his jet testing at this field because the runway is 750 feet long! Cost to join Remote Control Association of Central Florida is $160 a year which is not too bad. I also have to rejoin the Academy of Model Aeronautics since I let my membership lapse. Cost for that is $58 per year. I remember flying off of cow pastures and just about any place that was flat in the Texas Panhandle. In Salt Lake, we had the Utah Modelport which was a pretty nice paved runway and a state park plus we had a salt flat near Grantsville, Utah that was free to fly off of.

I will post photos of both planes soon.

I want to get out and start playing some gigs on the guitar after the first of the year so that is going to keep me busy but my next RC project is a 1/6th scale Pica Waco YMF-3. Don Piatt, who taught me to fly many, many years ago, flew one of these over thirty years ago. These kits are not for the faint hearted or the novice builder. There is a LOT of wood. The wood is die crushed and it is not the best balsa. Much of it is very heavy where it doesn't need to be. I would love to redraw this thing in AutoCad and maybe stretch the scale up to 1/5. Pica made a 1/5 scale Waco but they are extremely hard to find and when you do find one, people are proud of them so they are expensive. If I draw the plane on AutoCad, I can set it for any scale I want and have a laser cutter cut all the parts. We'll see about that,,,,

Flutter

Flutter

While flying with a friend of mine in my hometown in Texas in May 2006, his Kaos experienced flutter and crashed. What is flutter?

Flutter is a phenomenon that occurs when the airflow over the control surfaces of the airplane gets disrupted. This normally happens with the ailerons in radio controlled aircraft but can also happen with the elevators and the rudder.

Alvin’s Kaos was powered by an O.S. .46FX with a Performance Specialties muffler. The airplane was extremely fast! Flutter has an unmistakable sound. It sounds like a loud vibration because that is basically what it is. While looking through the wreckage of Alvin’s plane, the right side elevator was not connected to the horizontal stabilizer. While it is true that the elevator could have pulled loose due to the crash it is more likely that flutter caused the elevator to pull out.

There are a couple of ways to help control flutter. The first and most obvious solution is to make sure the control surfaces are faired smoothly into their respective flying surface. For instance, when you attach an aileron, make sure you sand the back of the wing and the front of the aileron where the air will flow smoothly from the wing over the aileron.

I used to fly an airplane called a Super Duper Joy Stick. The ailerons had a very bad habit of fluttering. To deal with this, several of us that flew the kit attached counterweights to the bottom of the ailerons. This seemed to help. Another thing that may help flutter is to attach a piece of tape or iron on covering across the length of the control surface where it hinges. For example, put a strip of tape lengthwise covering a small portion of the elevator and the horizontal stabilizer. This will help the air flow more smoothly across the control surfaces.

If you hear flutter, immediately pull back on the throttle and up on the elevator to slow the plane down. If you don’t, the plane will disintegrate in a very short time.

Houston, We REALLY Do Have a Problem

We have a wonderful modelport here in Salt Lake City! It is actually a Utah State Park. We can purchase a yearly pass to all of Utah's state parks, except for two for around $70 a year. The runway is paved, we have a nice frequency shack and a large pit area. Access to the flying field is just off of I-215. Everything is great except for radio interference.

I probably fly more than anyone at the Utah Modelport and I lost three airplanes this year due to radio interference. The first was my own design, the Venture which is featured on my website. The second was toward the end of the summer flying season, my Bridi Killer Chaos. The third was only a few weeks after my Killer Chaos, it was my customized Bridi Utter Chaos. Not only have I lost airplanes but radios and engines as well. I have also seen several others lose control of their airplanes at the modelport resulting in severe crashes. Many of these were by pilots who are very experienced.

A young man that works at one of our local hobby shops looks at me like I'm crazy when I tell him we have some serious interference going on, intermittently, at our field. I work with a fellow who is the president of an RC club in Davis county, a few miles to the north of us and they have also had the same problems.

While getting a haircut from a barber that is learning to fly RC, we were discussing this problem when another patron told us his son works for a communications company that is about a half mile from the modelport. He thought that might be the source of our problem.

- - - - - - - - - BREAKING NEWS - - - - - - - - - -

John Byrne, one of our local RC pilots was informed by Toole county's radio repairman that we do have a serious interference problem at the modelport. John had told him of the problems we have had so this fellow took his radio gear to the modelport. He said that there is a tremendous amount of radio "noise" and there were some severe spikes in the 72 mhz band. I called the communications company nearby and they said all they use is microwave equipment. The man I spoke to suggested I check with the Utah Air National Guard who is even closer to us than they are. The Utah Air National Guard does have a lot of satellite dishes and antennas. I will have to call them and see if they can check their equipment to see what is going on. Until then, everyone at the modelport flies at their own risk.

It is nice to know that I'm not crazy! We have been very lucky that someone has not been seriously wounded or killed by uncontrolled radio controlled aircraft. I am hoping that the radio technician can bring out his directional antenna so we can find the source of our interference. If we don't, someone could easily be killed by a runaway plane.

Jay Mc

Flying in Texas, January/February 2006

In late January and early February, I was in Texas. I had to go down for a funeral and while I was there I drove down to fly with Jim Louvier. Jim runs Apache Ranch, an exotic game ranch near Junction, Texas. If you've never seen the hill country of Texas, you've missed some beautiful scenery. Apache Ranch has a 3,000 foot paved runway but Jim has made his own RC runways in a large pasture. He has two runways crossing each other. He keeps both runways rolled and mowed! I took my Phoenix Models Giles 202 and my son's Alpha Trainer with me. With the wheel pants on the Giles, I didn't dare try flying it off the grass. I did have a great time flying the Alpha and shooting some touch and goes.

My brother went with me and the evening before, we drove over toward Marfa, Texas to see the Marfa mystery lights. If you ever get out to the Big Bend area of Texas, check out these mysterious lights. So far, no one has been able to come up with a plausible explanation of what they may be. There have been several that have made hypotheses but none of them really check out. My brother and I sat and watched the lights move around for a couple of hours. Reportedly, these lights have been seen since at least the time of the first white settler in the area in 1883!

At Apache Ranch, Jim flew and let me fly his Ugly Stick. His airplaneis over ten years old, weighs in at thirteen pounds and is powered by an O.S. Max .91. The Stick flies great! Not many people can say they are still flying the same airplane after more than ten years! My brother and I really appreciated Jim and his wife, Jo's kindness and friendliness. When we got to the ranch, Jo had cooked up some lunch which was very nice. We saw all kinds of deer while we were on the ranch. It looks like it would be a great place to get that once in a lifetime deer! I had planned on staying longer but my brother had to get back home so he could get to work the next day. Next time, I plan on spending at least a couple of days flying at Apache Ranch.

A few days later, I was about 400 miles away at my Dad's and I flew with Alvin Byers. Alvin went to school with my younger brother. His dad, Benny used to work together some in the construction industry around Spearman, Texas. I used to fly at the airport in Spearman with Don Piatt. Don taught me to fly years and years ago. We were about the only RC pilots in Spearman for a long time. Don Rice of Borger, Texas trained Alvin to fly. Don was the first man I ever knew that had an RC camera plane and that was at least 25 years ago! He also hadone of the first RC helicopters I ever saw. Alvin is doing great and is flying oneof my favorites, a Kaos! And, boy is that thing a screamer! My Giles 202 with the O.S. .61 is fast but it won't keep up with Alvin's Kaos. Alvin is flying his Kaos with an O.S. .46 with a muffler from Performance Specialties. He said the muffler made all the difference in speed on the Kaos. It is quite impressive!

While we were flying on our good second day, Robert Reed was at the airport and was about to take his homebuilt airplane up for a flight. I graduated from High School with Robert's sister, Stephanie. Robert's airplane looks GREAT! At the time I took these photos, he had a total of eight hours on his plane. He said it took him about a year to build. I was sure glad I was able to get a few good days of flying in while I was in Texas. Usually, in the Texas panhandle, the wind blows so much you are limited as to when you can fly but things worked out well on this trip!

Jay Mc

Robert Reed of Spearman, Texas.

Robert Reed and his homebuilt airplane.

Benny and Alvin Byers from Spearman, Texas flying an excellent plane, the Kaos!

Jim and Joyce (Jo) Louvier.

Just some of the deer my brother and I saw at Apache Ranch. There are all kinds of deer at Apache Ranch, these were white tails.

Photo 2 of Jim Louvier at Apache Ranch, near Junction, Texas.

Photo 1 of Jim Louvier with his, over 10 year old, Ugly Stick! This thing flies GREAT!

New Year's Day 2006 Fun Fly

One of our local RC pilots, Jerry Kitchins told me a few days
ago that it is a tradition to have a fun fly here in Salt Lake City every New
Year's Day, no matter what the weather turned out to be like. Fortunately, the
weather couldn't have been better this year; 45 degrees, the sun shining and
as clear a sky as I have ever seen. The fresh snow on the mountains from the
night before sure made for some incredible scenery! I hope that this kind of
weather will prevail this winter so we can have many more flying days but that
sure makes it hard to get those winter building projects done.

Here are photos from New Year's Day at the Utah Modelport:

Greg Corliss flying his Raptor helicopter. Dave Fox with his 5.2 ounce foamy! Sorry I didn't get this pilot's name but his Katana was an awesome performer! He had lots of help too! Don Steigler's 3D Bipe. These things are great 3D performers! Father and son team, Mike and Gary Wekluk flew this beautiful P-51. Pilots line up for their turn to fly. Dick Hansen with his electric fun flyer. Eddie Acoba is always tearing up the sky with some great 3D flying. He put on quite a show with this plane! Jeff Blaylock, one of Team Futaba's members, was on hand with his Carden Extra. You don't want to miss seeing Jeff fly! Jerry Westergard with his Goldberg Tiger. A great looking and flying plane

New Year's Day Fun Fly

I found out that each year there is a fun fly on New Year's day in Salt Lake city regardless of the weather conditions.

I'll be there for sure with camera in hand. I'll be sure to post photos on here for all of you to see.

Jay Mc

RealFlight G3 Simulator

I have decided to make my edited aircraft and aircraft repaints available again for the RealFlight G3 simulator.

There are 4 edited helicopters, 3 edited electric airplanes and 21 edited gas airplanes for a total of 28 edited aircraft. These aircraft fly much better than the stock planes and helicopters included with G3.

There are 20 paint schemes for helicopters and 10 paint schemes for aircraft. Some of these repaints and edited aircraft will require that you have the add-on disks for G3.

All paint schemes will work for RealFlight G3 and G2. The edited aircraft will only work with G3.

Click Here to go to my RealFlight G3 Download Page

Houston, We Have a Problem

While flying my new Utter Chaos today, I was once again hit by something that interfered with my radio. The plane went down and exploded into tons of pieces. I think it is time to call the FCC to have them check it out to see what is interfering with our radios at our modelport. We have lost too many planes lately due to radio interference.

JayMc

Bridi Utter Chaos

I test flew my new Bridi Utter Chaos today. I am reluctant to really call it an "Utter Chaos" because I made so many modifications to it. Here is what I changed:
1. I clipped one wing rib off of each side of the wing. My Killer Chaos' wing was just too long and this is basically the same wing. With the wing clipped, it is almost exactly the same as the Super Kaos. I had hoped for better roll rates and I was not disappointed!
2.The horizontal tail and elevator are a built up framework that should be covered with an iron on covering. Since I was going to fiberglasss the fuselage, I sheeted the horizontal tail with 1/16" balsa and used 3/8" balsa for the elevator halves.
3. I made the plane a tail dragger instead of using the tricycle gear arrangement.
4. The plans call for a fuel tank hatch on the top of the fuselage. I put the hatch on the bottom and put the canopy a little more to the front of the airplane.
5. I made the rudder about twice as big as the original and I made the leading edge of the rudder at a 90 degree angle to the plane where the original Utter Chaos' rudder slopes aft.
6. I used a single dowel to hold the front of the wings to the fuselage instead of two. I hope I don't live to regret this change!

I used Rustoleum paint over the fiberglass and used a DuPont clear coat but I found out that the clear coat is not fuel proof! The funny thing is though, I'm running FAI fuel with absolutely no nitro and it is still eating up the finish! I used Rustoleum Gold on my Super Kaos and the FAI fuel at it completely off. Another problem I have had with the Rustoleum is that it will not stick to the fiberglass or the primer. I actually used a different Rustoleum primer on this plane. On the Killer Chaos, I used a gray, sandable primer. On this modifed Utter Chaos, I used Rustoleum Auto Primer. It is black and quick drying. I am hoping the paint will stick better to it. On my Great Planes Super Skybolt, I tried using a Rustoleum latex primer so I could brush the first coat on to fill the low spots. The problem I found with this is that I can't wet sand the fuselage. The latex primer starts to ball up and come off.

The plane's paint job looks really good. One of my fellow pilots saw the plane today and thought it was an ARF and he thought the fuselage was covered with Monokote until he got closer and saw that it was painted. I hope the paint will stay put so I don't have to refinish it. I can build a Chaos in one day but it takes me several days to finish one.

Have any of you developed any good painting tips for fiberglassed airplanes? If you have, let's talk about it!

I used a Fox Eagle 4 .60 in the plane. I bought it used and it doesn't have the compression I would like to see. I may need to replace the piston and cylinder sleeve. In the meantime, I have replaced the .60 with my Fox Eagle .74. It is exactly the same engine except for a larger bore. The performance specs of the .60 and .74 are almost identical though! I was going to go back out to the modelport to try the .74 but we had a heck of a rainstorm move through the Salt Lake Valley this afternoon. I'll go back out in the morning and see how much more performance I get with the .74. I've run the engine on the test stand and it runs great.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

Jay Mc

The Super Skybolt and the Utter Chaos

The Bisson muffler for my Great Planes Super Skybolt came in Wednesday. I have to install the aileron servos and the throttle servo and she’ll be ready to fly! The aileron servos mount to small hatches that screw onto the bottom wing. My Skybolt has been sitting in the garage for about eight years and I have no idea where the old hatches went so I made some new ones today. I got one of them together and ran out of gas. I’ll try to get the other one together tonight or in the morning and get the servos mounted.

After work, the other morning, I framed up one side of the wing on my Bridi Utter Chaos. It took me about 15 minutes! Isn’t CA glue just the greatest! For those of you that don’t remember, we used to have to pin our parts down over the plans, glue them and then wait overnight for the glue to dry. The older type glues also added extra weight! When I was younger and the CA glue had just come out, I would sit down and build until I had an airplane built. Sometimes I’d go without sleep for 48 to 72 hours. I still prefer to build airplanes from kits. I think it makes you appreciate your plane more and you know EXACTLY how that plane is built!

If you’ve never flown any of Bridi’s airplanes you really should try one. The first one I built was a Bridi Super Kaos, probably around 1978. I built my second Super Kaos about three years ago and still have it although engine problems and stalling caused some damage the other day. A little epoxy and fiberglass clothe and she’ll be good as new. I just need to get an engine that will run right.

I’f I feel a little more inspired tomorrow, I’ll have my Super Skybolt ready to test fly the next day. We’ll see what happens!

Jay Mc

Want to Learn to Fly Your Very Own RC Airplane?

Have you ever wanted to build and fly your very own radio controlled model airplane?

I have an incredible opportunity for you!

I meet people all the time that want to learn to fly but don't know where or how to get started. I will build your plane for you and teach you how to successfully fly your plane. I will have details on my website soon. For details go to JayMc.com.

Jay Mc

Peregrine Falcon at the Utah Modelport

Today, I helped John Byrne fly his Hobbico Arrow. As I started home, there was a Peregrine Falcon right beside the road to the modelport. As I photographed this beautiful bird, it's mate swooped at me a couple times and made the loud shreaking noises they make. I love things like this!

I once got very close to a moose in Grand Teton National Park. I would have been toast if the moose would have decided to take me out. Luckily, he was more interested in eating than charging me!