RC planes/jets/heli

As intense as they surely are, I don't foresee ever getting a Stryker. I have a hard enough time seeing which way the T-28 is pointed when it's more than say 50yds away!
For RC planes my eyes are cut out for big and slow, or small and REALLY slow.
Figured the green P-38 would be easier to see against the sky than the silver one, as cool as that one looks.

 

Ah, the version1 green p-38 is exactly what I have. Below is the gear I got. If you adjust the stock gear linkages so it truely locks, it is possible to land on hard pavement. I did it on my first flight. After that flight, one or more gear collapsed every landing. It looks really cool, like some stock WW2 footage, but it gets old too. With the gear below, I have never had any collapses, and I have done some not so great landings. You re-use stock wire form legs. You also need to drill and tap some holes so the new retract mounting holes line up with old mount. All this takes about 5 hours for me. Longest part is getting new front gear to work with steering. Real p-38 gear does not rotate as retracts, but front gear has dual doors.

Code Description Qty STATUS
HKD-312 Digital Servoless Retractable system (1pc) 2 Reserved
STTE-03 Servoless Retractable Landing Gear Front (St 1 Reserved

Shipment International (Registered) Air Mail 101-200g $5.99
Taxes $0.00
Total $32.58

I also switched wheels to foam type, as they give some cushion on landing. The stock gear and wheels have no springs, so the soft wheels are good. Bigger is better.

I left gear doors on for a long time, but they can open with loops. Looks really good for camera pass. If they come open in flight, it doesn't fly differently.

Another problem. I could not get one of the ESC's working right, so borrowed one from another plane.

Make sure your battery is 40C. The power draw is huge, and there is no air cooling. If not picky about looks, you could cut vent holes(I didn't). DO NOT WAIT UNTIL BATTERY IS DEAD TO LAND. Land early so if you have to go around, you have battery power.

I do not use a BEC. Just make sure gear is not bindings, and servo amp draw isn't bad.

Replacement banana hobby props are available. Almost same as HK, but a little better. If you land on grass you made need some. I see no reason why you want to land on grass, but you will need a nice long runway for first few flights.

It's easy to fly. Not too bad to land, but if engine power isn't perfectly matched, it can pull hard to side at takeoff. Don't yank back on elevator too much on takeoff, or it will stall 2ft off ground and roll over(personal experience, broke nose off, fixed in 2 hours).

After assembly, check engine mounts. Factory can be loose.

When attaching wings, I recommend running some bar into both tubes, to connect tubes, so the wing really is rigid.

Hope you have a big car!

Buy one for the wall and one for flying. It's a cheap plane, so use it as such.

Sorry if too much info, just want to pass on what I've learned.

 

Chris - GREAT info, much appreciated! Sifting through a 150+ page thread on RCG is tough going..... I must have added half a dozen pages to my bookmarks.
My HK order hasn't shipped yet so I'll have time to go through your post in detail. Gracias!

Couple more questions please if you've got the time:

Did you add any clear packing tape to the bottom (vert stabs, wing tips, fuse) to protect the foam in hard landings?
What type of glue did you use to assemble the wings? Gorilla?
Do you have your TX set up for low/high rates, and any expo dialed in?
What brand batteries are you running? Larger than 2200MAH?
I plan to check the voltage after 5 minutes at first, then go from there but not too close to LVC of course.

I was thinking about belly landing with the stock gear to avoid the likely gear failure you mention. At least for the first couple flights (before I invest ~$30 and 5 hours installing better gear).
Good tip on ensuring they're properly adjusted for full lock.

Check out this cool vid of a FMS (flaps, nice gear, etc) P-38 with a keychain cam on the horiz stab:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHROiESXULA&feature=channel[/ame]

I plan on hand carrying the 'Devil' to the school about 5 blocks away (has a HUGE paved area next to a soccer field), but if I want to take the P-38 to other fields it won't be a problem in the Mazda 5.
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We have similar tastes, as I considered buying mazda5 w/manual. Don't assume it won't be a problem. It is 44" long X 58" wide. Do you have 44+ between wheel humps? Otherwise might have to angle it vertically. I don't think you do, because I actually measured mazda5 when looking at it. I did like the driving dynamics though.

I used 5 minute epoxy. I use 3 cell 2200mah batteries in most of my planes. It works in all the full-size PZ/HZ planes. I just bought a higher C rating for p-38. Turnigy is my typical brand.

I don't use expo, and am using full rates. I setup throw rates as given in p-38 manual. I'm not saying this is the best setup, but it works for me.

I didn't add any "protection" at first because with wheels nothing should be touching ground. After some gear failures, I brushed a thin coat of epoxy under nose and engines. I don't usually add anything to wing tips, as adding weight away from cg creates a flywheel. Slows axial rotations.

Since the stock gear is so bad, and you plan to upgrade, you could put some glue in the gear mechanics while down, so they lock down permanantly.

Speaking of FMS, my co-worker just bought FMS BF109F. Should be here next week as he got it before backorder from bananahobby. Lights, retracts(even tail wheel retracts), flaps. He is not capable of flying it, so being the good friend I am, I will fly it for him. He just likes buying really nice rc planes for bragging rights. New one shows up every 6 months.

 

Measured it last night: less than 44 between the wheels, but ~60" between the rear sliding doors so with the middle row folded there will be plenty of space to transport flat (could have gone with a bigger plane lol).
The Mazda 5 is a hoot. I wish it were a little quieter on the highway, but as long as you don't need all the space of a full sized mini-van it's a great compromise for ~$19k.

the P-38 is packed and should be shipping from HK today or tomorrow, getting itchy!
Got the T-28 patched up again so hoping for a calm morning to get some more stick time.

 

The cheap and cheerful Blitzworks P-38 arrived and this morning I wired her up for a systems check. Everything works A-ok on the bench, so now the fun of routing the wires and gluing her up.
The gear snap up and down with authority, but man they are rickety! I'll try taking off from tarmac but think she'll be landing on her belly at least for the first few packs until I feels even a little bit confident of greasing a landing on these fragile things.

BTW Chris - Banana Hobbies is selling the "kit" version (full airframe with motors and landing gear, no ESCs or servos) for $80. Just add a $20 lipo for free shipping.
Someone on rcgroups just got his and it's a V2 with the servoless retracts, central wing spar and better fit and finish.

BTW - found this cool concept art by Kelly Johnson while googling P-38 images. Going to print it on nice paper and framed for my office wall.
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Went ahead and swapped out the fold-a-rific mechanic nose gear with a servo-less one which required a few fiddly but satisfying hours fabbing up a mount and making a new steering linkage, but now no worries about skidding along the tarmac on her nose, wiping out the props...
Medium speed taxi testing in the culdesac went great, she takes off like a rocket, tracks straight and turns on a dime.
Holding her vertical with her nose on the garage ceiling she can hover at full throttle :O

Sunday's weather is supposed to be a fine 60F with <10mph winds at Richard Bong Recreational Park's beautiful RC airfield, so wish me luck!
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ALWAYS double check the ailerons aren't reversed before the maiden.

Gorgeous day, batteries and TX charged, did two nice flights in the micro T-38 to calibrate my fingers and then proceed to fly the Lightning for all of ~5 seconds before drilling her into the turf.

Taxied twice at high speed then ran up the motors for nice scale lift-off (cg ~75mm back from wing root was perfect), quickly (thank god) flip the gear up as she starts to bank gently to the right so feed in left aileron.... still rolling.... FULL left aileron.... she's inverted... BAM nose first from about 10'.

Damage isn't bad IMO considering she dug up 2 nice chunks of earth and at least 75% throttle. Luckily the angle of impact was just enough so she didn't cartwheel or 'spear' into the ground.
Clean, easily repairable breaks at the thinnest parts of the engine booms, one side of the fuse in front of the canopy cracked through, ~1/4 of the elevator hinge ripped off, 3 broken props (have spares, more ordered), machine guns embedded into the ground. Wings, surprisingly, held together and no damage to the wing/engine nacelle area.
Motors spin freely and shafts don't appear bent.
Spending some time liberally coating the insides of the wing/nacelle area, wing leading edges, and entire nose with epoxy paid dividends.

At least there was only my bud and one other (sympathetic) pilot there to witness it.
The last pic is him crash landing a 90" Cub into some trees it didn't have enough juice to climb over when the wind picked up. He somehow bounced down between about 5 of them from ~25', landing with absolutely no damage. Lucky dog!

I have great video from an onboard keychain cam and my buddy of the tragic events, but too short and painful to post.

Oh well, time to have a drink, order a bunch of new clevis, break out the epoxy and put her back together.
She will fly again!
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UGH. From your flight description I expected it to look much worse. You checked post crash to confirm your ailerons were reversed?

Your adapted gear looks very well engineered. Looks like your put foam wheels on too. At least now you won't be afraid to use it, after it has a few repair lines. That runway it the backround looks nice. Is this a dedicated rc airfield?

 

Yup, confirmed. I'm an idiot. Setting up the plane had a total mental block and thought that if the left aileron went down, that wing would dip. Guaranteed I'll never make that mistake again. If I had just compared it to the micro T-28, or asked the old dude there to check out my plane first, would have taken 5 seconds to reverse that channel in my TX.
I'll never forget an RC airshow I was at about 20 years ago where a guy totaled a beautiful jet on take-off when his nose gear and rudder were reversed, which he knew but went ahead and tried to take off rather than I presume have to tear apart the plane at the field to make it right. Of course I checked the rudder/nose gear orientation at least 5 times on mine...

The gear did work perfectly. Slightly larger, more scale foam wheels on the rears (stock V1 gear) and worm-gear front with foam wheel rolled fine and held up to a bunch of taxi tests.

Thinking about sanding the plane down, patching any other superficial cracks that didn't go all the way through, and painting her silver. Now's the time.

Found another casualty: one of the cheap stock rudder servos stripped. Luckily have a few extra HXT900s so that's already replaced. Pretty amazing the vert stabs and rudders don't have a scratch.

The field is indeed dedicated to RC, and it's really really nice. Fact that it's at Bong State Park, and Richard Bong was the US's leading WWI Ace (in a P-38) makes it all the more special, and all the more embarrassing that I cocked up my flight :/
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/specific/bong/

Had yours up lately?

Here's a couple more of the field and the other pilot there enjoying the beautiful day
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If you like RC Model Aircraft, you would love this event. It is taking part this week at Triple Tree in Woodruff, SC. I have been told it is one of the largest of it's kind.

http://www.joenall.com/

 

I think you should spend less than 1 hour gluing back together and fly it. No point in spending more time and adding more weight until you have gotten comfortable using it. Just my opinion, which isn't worth much.

Haven't used mine in a few weeks. I've been flying or repairing other peoples airplanes lately. Tis the season for flying at my office.

 

I'm a slow worker, prolly take 2 hrs. Ready to reattach the now properly hinged and cf reinforced elevator/rudder assembly to the booms. Just waiting for new control rods and end clips to arrive.
Rebuilding them can be fun.
You're right, now I know she wants to fly hard.

Take some pics!

 

Ive done RC cars and planes, but by far the best moment was while racing RC boats, a guy near where we were racing boats (70-90mph) he decided to push his girlfriend out in an aluminum canoe for a romantic paddle in the lake. Apparently not realizing he pushed off in the race course my twin sponsoned fiberglas boat slammed in to his canoe at about 85mph, like a torpedo, went right through it and sunk it with them in it. It was worth the 10 hours of fiberglass repair to see them go down...
Nd

 

So you don't have control of your boat while its running?

Can't turn or slow?

What if it would have hit a person?????

 

Tried something new. Had a friend pull my old rc glider up with a hobbyzone supercub. Not easy to do but we got 3 flights in. Need something more powerfull to get up fast. Turns are difficult, so would be nice to just climb in a straight line, then release.
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Cool. Good info here..
http://www.rcaerotowing.com/getting-started.php

We expirimented with aerotowing last year. It helps to have ailerons but there is definitly a learning curve. Here is a video of our first attempt towing my Italian made Aviomodelli Asiago with added ailerons.
Dave


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3ufxi4eZsU[/ame]

 

Wow, that's a scary video. Looked like a lots of chances to destroy the glider, yet it always seems to end up in one piece. I have video too, just didn't add it to youtube. I thought ailerons would help, but it looks like you had similar problems; glider going upside down after turns. Not sure I'll do much more with my setup. Not ready into gliders, and it sure seems like a lot of work to get it up.

 

I think too much dihedral was the problem (other than my piloting skills.) If you get a slack line in a turn, the glider will roll over if the nose is jerked sideways when the line takes up. I later reduced the dihedral on that glider from 6 deg to 3 and it worked much better. That is until I ripped the wings off while towing behind a 1/4 scale Pilatus Porter with too heavy of a break-away link.

Dave
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You are describing exactly what happened. A little slack in turns and upsidedown. BTW, that car looks very familiar. We have 2 2nd gen legacy wagons.

 

Big day today: successful (re-)maiden!

After the first attempt a few weeks ago lasted all of 5 seconds due to reversed ailerons I fixed her up, checked everything 5 times, and made this one count.

Today has gorgeous blue skies and gentle 5-10mph (coming diagonally across the main runway) winds so ducked out of work for a fly.

Knees weak, fingers jittery, mouth full of cotton, pointed her into the wind, ran up to full throttle and off she went.
Only had to add a bit of down elev and a few clicks of aileron and she was tracking straight and level.

What a sweet flier! Mind you I'm coming from about 30 minutes on a 4-ch micro T-28 and 5 hours on Clearview Sim so I'm far from experienced.

Ended up running through four 3s-2200mAH batteries, each had ~11.3V left after 4 minutes in the air or so.

First 3 landings were smooth and touched down on the runway, but came in crooked so ended up in the grass (upgraded nose wheel held up of course, and stock V1 rears did also). Finished by totally greasing the 4th dead nuts straight right in the middle of the strip so was able to turn her around and taxi back, which was the icing on a very sweet cake.

On the second flight did a few quick barrel rolls. 3rd flight did more with a bit of straight inverted flight, and threw in a loop for good measure. I'm using less than 1/2 the full throws on the elevator and ailerons and she's still quite nimble IMO. Had the D/R set on 70%, 85% and 100%, expo 30. Middle setting for elev and ailerons was more than snappy enough for my first 4 flights.
Rudders are VERY effective. Can't wait to try a hammerhead next time.

On-board video from the HD Keychain cam is a bit jittery (just taped it down in various locations), but neat nonetheless.

Can't wait to go back up. What a great feeling!

PS - very cool stuff with the tow-planes and gliders!
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Nice work! Dick Bong would have been proud of you. (The camera does make the props look rather weird, though.)

 

Thanks Gator :fistbump:

Not sure what Mr. Bong would think, but hopefully he'd appreciate it at least a little

Reading P-38 pilot Robert A Vrilakas's book on my Kindle right now. Amazing story.

http://www.amazon.com/Look-Mom-Memoirs-World-Fighter/dp/1935354477/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338861144&sr=8-1

My 1280x720 30fps, 1.3mega-pixel Keychain camera (and still all cheapo ones I think) uses a CMOS sensor that can't handle spinning or fast-panning subjects very well. But they're light, and cheap

If you want the latest on these tiny cams:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1566331

The older version I have is $30:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/11-HD-808-Micro-Car-Keychain-Camera-DVR-Spy-Cam-H-264-No-Time-Continuous-4GB-/160815437859?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item257158d823

The latest, 1280p (or 720p at 60fps!?)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Updated-1080P-HD-Jumbo-Camera-Video-Audio-Recorder-AV-OUT-H-264-720P-60fps-MP4-/320912145846?pt=Camcorders_Professional_Video_Cameras&hash=item4ab7dabdb6

 

Glad to see you mastered the p-38. I'm really impressed you haven't collasped the rear gear considering how little flight time you say you have. If you get a full size t-28 you will see how efficient it is compared with the p-38. 20+ min on a 2.2AH battery instead of 5min. It flys as easy as a trainer, and can take some hard landings. Much less stress than p-38. Never had one but flew my co-workers once. If you hadn't already bought it, I would have suggested just buying the airframe parts and putting a NTM 930kV(hobbyking) motor in it. Direct bolt in, and much more power. Stock motor is OK, but doesn't have the climb out to avoid the occational tree. P-38 is underpowered in my opinion too. I had the corsair(nearly identical in every way except of course landing gear), and that's what I did. It would be a neat project to add retracts to a t-28. The wing and body are easily thick enough to do so.

 

thanks Chris, though I wouldn't say I've mastered anything yet!
The stock T-28 surprised me with it's speed actually. I've been flying it at the high school literally 2 minutes from my house, where except for 2 soccer fields there's houses, light poles, tall fencing, and a huge, unforgiving paved lot so it's a bit more nerve racking than the massive RC field at Bong park 30 minutes away.

The T-28 is MUCH more efficient than the P-38 (and much touchier controls, I have the expo cranked way up and elevator throw set pretty low) but I've been limiting flights to 10 minutes more for the pilot than the batteries.
The P-38 actually seems more stable especially landing, maybe due to the extra weight.

Got tired of parking the planes on top of cars so fabbed up some wall mounts over the weekend with scrap wood.

Wifey wants to fly as well so after a few minutes of ground school set her loose on the sim. She did pretty well! If she really wants to do it would buy her a Champ or something really basic, the T-28 is just too big and fast for a first plane.
As you can see I also sprayed a test area on the P-38 in Rustoleum Aluminum. Looks really good, so will do the whole thing at some point.

Barry - how did the Top Gun event go? Any pics/vids of your Hawk?
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