Yep, Ouch squared. Well, trying to make myself feel better with that title. After two years of collecting dust, I got out my 3D Hobby Pattern plane and thought I'd go through some batteries. I got through one. Not making excuses, but I learned a few lessons. When I go fly at my neighborhood field, I move around so I have the sun at my back. Well today, I went to the RC flying field for the runway and plenty of room. To avoid the heat of the day, I went out this morning and the runway is lined up North South and faces East. So the lighting was difficult and the contrast was not good on the plane.
Since I hadn't used the batteries in a while, I used an alarm to warn me at 3.7 volts/cell. Of course, the alarm goes off at the furtherest point, the contrast is not good, and I haven't flown this plane a while. I forgot how it tip stalls very easily. So I make a turn to base too slow and she fell out of the sky. Broke in half. So look on eBay for some used batteries, motor, servos. 30 years ago I hung up the hobby after crashing my Carl Goldberg Super Chipmunk. This time around, I'm just saying no to balsa and store bought planes.
I had also taken my balsa Edge to the field. She is going to collect some dust as well. Then I had crash number 2 of the day. Yep. Been there done that, repeated. Saddest part, I've crashed before the same way. I swapped out the FP for the NTM 2700 on my Mig-V4 NAMC v1. During the build I added carbon square tube to the back of the motor mount and on top on the wing carbon spar to reinforce the motor mount. Previously on a prior Mig, I had ESC set with the engine brake on. During a rapid deceleration it ripped the motor right off but I was able to save the plane and land.
Today, I was having a blast ripping up the sky. The plane made a really cool sound that must have come from the hollow carbon square tube acting like a resonator. Not so lucky today with the motor mount. The ESC engine brake was off, but during a Cobra maneuver it ripped the motor off which then took out my aileron and elevon on the same side. High speed lawn dart into the ground. Either I be more gentle with the deceleration maneuvers or I further reinforce my mount. With the extra power and speed I was able to do my first ever straight line knife edge. Not all was lost!
This brings me to my next build. I've been closely following Scott and our NAMC evolution. As we have said before, we are fine tuning these planes to our flying styles. My brain has been churning so back to the real deal for me. Here is a drawing of the scale Mig vs the v4 wing plate and NAMC tail plate and elevons. I am waiting on a picture of the SebArt Mig from a friend for another comparison. I'm leaning towards cutting back the wing leading edge to scale which would also increase the LERX. I will probably leave the v4 LERX because the HOA flight characteristics are excellent. Scott and If have found it is better to make one major change at a time. Though I'm all for braking rules! I'll try Scott's new ailerons, but I'l stick to the NAMCv2a rudders (will increase size and use same leading edge as Scott) because of knife edge flight. The full length rudders add some roll that makes knife edge very difficult though.
Hopefully next time I'll keep in the blue skies above!
Stephan
Hi Stephan -
ReplyDeleteSorry about the carnage, my friend... :/ I have had a couple of those "double header of destruction" days in the past myself, so I feel your pain. Ironically both days involved an RCP Mig29 V2, that plane was my absolute nemesis, surprising that I love the Mig so much now, amazing the improvement of the V3 and V4 over the V2.
Congratulations on the straight line knife edge, even if the motor mount came apart later on, not all was lost... :)
I'm interested to hear and see more about your next Mig with modifications inspired by the Sebart Mig, always fun and interesting to break new ground in a different direction. Breaking the rules where these planes are concerned is part of the fun, the whole risk/reward thing keeps things exciting I find and at the end of the day it is just a couple sheets of foam, a person can always build another!
Cheers,
Scott
Man that's a bummer I still have not finished my balsa eagle 2 due to Hobby King. Still waiting since June 26th lol so pathetic. But I'm afraid I might crash it. Think I'll get a stability controller for it to help out would probably be worth it. Been thinking of just selling it with my new 4 stroke motor to buy batteries I've burned mine up don't get much flight time and takes hours to charge lol think I'll invest in a audible warning for volts like you have. On Sunday I Crashed My FT 3D needs some serious repair lol but it happens.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge.
Rob
Hi Rob -
DeleteSorry to hear about your woes with Hobby King, I think everyone has had their issues with Hobby King at one time or another, 79 days for an order to come through that was supposed to be "EMS Express" for me, so it seems like you have me beat there almost... :/
Sorry to hear about the FT 3D, will you fix it or just build another? I have a couple speed build kits from FT that were given to me, I should get busy this winter and build one of them for fun and for a change of pace.
A timer or audible battery alarm can sure be helpful to extending the life of your batteries. I think I might have mentioned I try not to run my batteries below 3.7V per cell, I get about 6 minute flights with a 2200 3S battery with my Focal Price motors and 5 minutes with the NTM Prop Drive motors. This allows for lots of "thrash and dash" (aerobatics and speed runs... : ) ) and I still land with about 3.7V per cell. As batteries get older or start to puff a bit I take it a little easier on them mostly by cutting the flight time down a bit. I also found this summer when we had lots of days well over 80 degrees that I only flew for about 5 and a half minutes with the Focal Price motor planes.
Other than some of my Nano Tech batteries which wore out on me really quickly, I have managed to get hundreds of flights out of some of my batteries by keeping the 3.7V per cell rule and I try to balance charge them whenever I can.
I find if I fly for more than six minutes I either start to lose focus or I start getting cocky and try something that looks really cool right up to the point of impact... :/
Thanks as always for your kind words and support, other than Stephan and I, you are our biggest contributor to the blog... :)
I'm shooting a build video as I go along with my FRC Su35 MK2 build right now and I think Stephan and I might try and shoot some videos on how we do certain things with our builds over the winter to help folks out as well, or at least show one or two different ways of doing things.
So is the back healing up OK if you are able to get out flying on a regular basis? Hope all is well with you and yours.
Cheers,
Scott
Yes would love to see more videos you two are very talented I would look forward to seeing them. Not been flying to much hobby king has got my money tied up I wish I had just spent it on more batteries cause the 3 I have only give me about 2 to 3 minutes flight time lol. Kind of makes me not want to waste the gas to drive to the RC club.
DeleteAs for my back they have me on 13 different medicine which after going to the ER for my first migraine that lasted for 4 days I'm only taking 3 of them since none even helps with the pain. This 1100 dollar back brace helps when flying so glad I finally got it took 3 weeks. Besides laying around on my back it's about only way to stop the pain. Was supposed to get cortisone shots in the back twice now but once I had a fever and the other I'm on antibiotics. So looks like next month. But overall that $34,000 surgery really helped a lot I figure by next summer I'll be good. Thank goodness for insurance.
Think I'm going to get started on a NAMC mig next week. Got house guests showing up tomorrow so won't be able to til then.
Rob
Hi Rob -
DeleteSounds like a struggle with your back, but hopefully you are making small improvements every day. I've never had surgery as extensive as yours, but have had a few injuries in my time and the body can be pretty miraculous at healing itself, it often just takes time and patience, both of which are difficult to have at times... :/
Thanks for the feedback on the videos, if there is anything you need help with on your Mig build or questions you might have regarding what we have done, please don't hesitate to ask. Stephan and I have played around with several different variants between us with respect to rudder and aileron shapes and sizes mostly, depending on what we are looking for, that is the fun part of these planes, a little tweak here or there can make a big difference in building the plane to perform how you like it. I think the common thread for both of us definitely is keeping the weight as light as possible unless you are using an NTM motor and need to beef it up a bit, we also are in agreement on the downsized and reshaped elevons that Stephan designed and extending the trailing edge back on the KFs as well as opening up the prop slot to reduce the surface area in the back to help prevent fish tailing in crosswind turns.
Have you built a Mig29 V4 already? The stock version is still an awesome plane, by far the best stock built park jet I have ever built and flown, our modifications have just seemed to be helping make the plane more stable and more crisp and precise on the controls.
Once you decide on what you want your Mig to do, ask away and we can try to select something from the "Mig menu" to help you out... :)
Cheers,
Scott
Awesome thanks. I have not built a stock one yet but from all the subtle changes and results you two are getting I want to just go with the NAMC version the rudder especially and the stability I'll make a stock one maybe later.
DeleteThanks
Rob
That's cool, Rob, no worries, unless you want to see the differences, once you build the NAMC version, you probably will not want to build a stock one...but then I guess I'm a bit biased...:) The extended KF and reshaped vertical stabilizer and rudder definitely stabilize this plane much better in the wind, that is for sure and really lock it in when you want to get some serious speed runs going... :)
DeleteCheers,
Scott