Third Flight of My eRC B-25

This is the third flight of my eRC B-25J from Hobby Lobby. This flight, the engine cowlings are mounted and I used the retracts in flight for the very first time.

The flight to place on the evening of June 21, 2011. Ricky Taylor was using my camera as I made this flight at the Lubbock Oddball RC Society (LORCS) airfield (i.e. Ricky's backyard).

It was a hairy take-off, I almost aborted when it finally broke ground and started climbing. It looks like one of the main landing gears did not retract fully.

The Youtube links are down in the ref section. Part one is the take-off. Part two is the landing.

Part One

Part Two

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e RC Spitfire

This is so cool. And so affordable, that I have actually made a down payment with my LHS (Local Hobby Shop) for the Spitfire. e RC also makes a P-51D Mustang in the same scale. They also have a B-25 and a Electric Duct Fan (German markings) Typhoon jet model. All can be purchased from Hobby-Lobby.

Just watch the video. This may well be my first baby steps BACK into the hobby. This part of the hobby is known as Micro RTF (Ready-to-Fly).

Edit: Ok, the stupid size of the video frame issue again! Ok, just click on the stupid thing and watch it on YouTube directly.

UPDATE 1 (June 2, 2010): Finally received my eRC Spitfire yesterday. Had a thunderstorm in the evening so unable to make any test flights then. Did charge up the two batteries that were included in the package.

This morning, braced with the warnings of my friend Henry, I quote: Be careful – with the elliptical wing, it will snap roll pretty easily. Take-offs are cute – it will roll about 8ft. and then jump into the air. Landings are not so easy – you’ll need to keep a little power on or else it will fall out of the sky. My problem is that the speed control doesn’t seem to be very linear, and intermediate throttle positions with the inherent flight characteristics (read snap roll tendencies) are difficult to maintain. end quote.

I can confirm the need for a little speed for landing. I made my test hops without the landing gear. By the way, there is no mention in the instruction manual on how to stick them onto the model. I didn't have any foam safe CA glue at hand and I didn't want to risk regular CA (i.e. Super Glue for you non-modelers out there). First three flights lasted about 3-4 minutes while trying to trim the little Spitfire out. It still behaves like it is tail heavy. Before the sixth test hop, I took an X-Acto knife and trim the battery compartment a little to allow the battery to sit slightly forward than what the model allows. It flew a little better. It might fly better once the landing gear is glued onto the wing-this is one of those have to wait and see experiments. If you try to do the same thing yourself, don't take too big a piece of foam out-that will get you into the drop down gearbox for the prop. I got a part of it-but not too bad. No more than 2-3 mm at the most.

The Sixth flight started off ok, it was beginning to fly more level and not pogo on me too much, but then it seem to lose radio signal strength, so I throttle back and tried to glide it back to my position. It landed in my neighbor's back pasture. No problem since we don't have a fence there. This may be due to the fact of charging the batteries the night before and the earlier test hops plus one other battery charging cycle. Those (4) AA batteries are just standard ones from what I can see that come with the model. I will have to buy another package of Double A batteries for this weekend to see if that is the real cause or not. I also think that since I was using the indoor prop and not the outdoor prop-another reason why my particular bird might be tail heavy-that might be another factor in the tail heaviness of my Spitfire that I witness today.

Knowing these things now, I still like this little beauty. Had a beautiful morning, light winds so I could do my testing before 9am. Then I had to get ready for work. But I can keep the model in its original box and store it in the rear cab of my pickup truck for fun whenever.

Radio Control Model Airfields

For the first time in 8 or 9 months, I was finally able to attend a WINGS Miniature Aircraft Society club meeting. Currently, I am not a member of that club due to my current finical status, but I got to touch base with some old friends and to find out what is going on.

The subject of how to attract new members came up and by extension, a discussion on trying to get another field here in Lubbock, Texas, set up. Currently, WINGS MAS has an agreement with Abernathy, Texas; to operate off of that town's small airport runway. The club has put in taxiways and a ramp west of the north-south runway. By the way, the flying site is approximately 4 miles East of the city of Abernathy, Texas on FM2060 at the Abernathy Municipal Airport.

Also, Abernathy is still a functional airport, but with low useage. The few pilots who park their full-scale aircraft out there don't even live in the city of Abernathy.

Link below is to the WINGS MAS website and more information can be gained there.

Lubbock, Texas has another flying site out near Reese Technology Center locally known as the "FM-179" site since its right off Farm Market Road 179. Officially, its a city party of Lubbock named after Col. Davis who was a pilot in the Korean war.

What I took away from that discussion was the need for a small flying site - visible to the public - but not in such a way that can cause a safety issue. FM 179 is just hanging on life support right now since alot of new homes have be built out there. As soon as the cotton field to the north of the airstrip is purchased, that pretty much kills off that site for radio control flight for the nitro/gas power models. Model Helicopters can still fly out there and of course electric models. There is also a grass area that is set up for control line model flying.

On You Tube, I came across this video of a Hangar 9 B-25 Maiden Flight that was filmed at Scobee Field in Houston,Texas. (see embedded video with this article). This size and set up our club would love to have here in Lubbock (or Lubbock County). In fact, I think ten years ago - we as a club were hoping to make FM179 into such a flying site when the opportunity to fly off of Reese Technology Center came up and FM179 improvement plans were set aside when that happened.

The drive to Abernathy take an extra ten minutes than a drive out to FM 179 (or to Reese Technology Center when we were able to fly off that former airbase runways). That extra ten minute drive appears to be some straw that is breaking a lot of club members' backs. I personally have to plan trips out there as if I was taking a cross country trip due to the current cost of fuel. And when I go out, I do not have a plane to fly once I do get out there. That's just makes me a watcher.

That extra ten minute drive means that its harder to plan on having a quick evening flight after putting in a hard day at work. I for one do not know the answer to these questions. Nationally, there is a problem I'm told of attracting new people into the hobby. Why join the AMA and pay club dues when I can fly my super cheap Wal-Mart special out in the park?

Well, I think that the AMA and Radio Control model clubs are for those individuals who want to "go beyond" the Wal-Mart specials. To go on to something like flying a big pattern airplane. To fly a scale model and go to Top Gun. To get into actual turbine jet models.

UPDATE: I posted this blog early this morning. I now have had all day at work to think back over it some. With 20/20 hindsight, I think I can say that Reese Technology Center was the best thing that ever happened to this club - and the worst.

Nothing can compare to a two mile long, 150 foot wide strip of concrete to play with. Lubbock (as of 2 years ago) has no piece of land that (WINGS MAS could use in my opinion), isn't flawed in a major way that will hamper flight operations. There is land to the east of the city, but that puts it near the feedlots (good strong east wind can ruin a picnic), plus it would be under the flight path to Lubbock International Airport to the north, or Town and Country Airport to the south of the city. Both airports are east of the Interstate.

Land west of the interstate the further away one gets just gets even more expensive. Even if the club had a rich sugar daddy and momma to buy a section of land with protected land for our models to fly over, housing developments just keeps on growing southwest of the city. The town of Wolfforth, Texas is a true suburb of Lubbock now. The city limits of Lubbock extend right up to the city limits of Wolfforth. Good land there - just cannot afford to buy it as individual citizens.

So - we have the old rock and a hard place. Like I stated above, I do not have the answers to this problem. But I hope that some can come up with one.

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Ref. WINGS MAS.org (http://wingsmas.org/).

Picture of rc model of F-4 Phantom II from websearch.

Dumb Thumbs and the Outlook on Life

Today was one of those days that a person can just enjoy living through the experience. Had the day off so was able to sleep in late. I now have TWO jobs, a full time one and a part time one. I much rather prefer to have just a single job, but for the short term, its a must. I need to raise capital for improvements to my property in order to start living full time in my RV by April of 2009. But, I am getting sidetracked here.

Lunch time found me dropping by the local hobby shop (Wings & Things) where I sold off my radio control models and equipment too last year. I had recently discovered a instruction booklet that one of the radios that I had sold to the owner and turned it over to him. Then sat around in the back of the shop with him and several other members of the local flying club (Wings Miniature Aircraft Society) remembering a fellow club member who had recently passed away in an untimely manner. Ed Deaver will be missed. He was into the big 3D IMAC and pattern airplanes and he was nationally recognized too.

While there, fellow club member Steve spoke with me. I was going on about what life had done to me recently and he stopped me and let me know that I really didn't have to give up the hobby(RC flying). And he is right. And, I haven't given UP the DESIRE to fly model airplanes. I still want to. When you are good at flying model airplanes, you're "Smooth on the Sticks." When you screw up, you "Dumb Thumb It(the model airplane)." In his own way, Steve was telling me that I was dumb thumbing it by not setting time aside to relax a bit. What I didn't tell him was that I had a new outlet for such feelings and emotions - drawing now. Something else too - that no matter what, I still had friends in the hobby who care about me and how I was doing.

How can one NOT feel better after hearing some words of encouragement like that.

Well now, after that, it was over to the mother-in-laws house of a fellow Star Trek club member and where our club(the USS Lone Star) parks it full size shuttlecraft replica. Today was to be a work day - and only I and David where the only ones there to remove the Christmas lights from the hull that were put in place for last December's Christmas theme parade "Lights on 34th Street" in Lubbock, Texas. The shuttlecraft also needs some repairs done to it's roof and we talked about how to go about doing that when the club could come up with the money for new plywood. Plus a winch for the heavy rear boarding ramp that is needed. And funds for the Plexiglas's front window. And a new paint job, etc, etc, etc.

To cap off the day, it was over to Freeworld Burritos for the weekly Sketchclub meeting. And there were a whole bunch of new faces there. Maybe nothing really important happened to me today, but it was a pleasure to experience the day anyway. And that's the important thing to take away from this posting.

(Attached picture was taken back in November 2008).

9th Annual T-38 Jet Rally (August 13-16, 2008)

(This was originally posted to my other blog on August 17, 2008)

One of my hobbies is playing with radio control model airplanes and the club that I belong to help put on, what in the past was a big money maker for our organization, the T-38 Jet Rally. This year, the 9th year of the event and with gasoline prices being what they have been; it was a very low key affair. Members of our hobby that have the need for speed and can afford it – fly model airplanes that are equipped with either a duct-fan or an actual, miniature turbine.
This article will be broken up into two parts.

The first part deals with the hobby of flying model airplanes, with a focus on turbines, but will include regular duct-fan and electric duct-fan power aircraft. Recently, in the August 2008 issue of Model Aviation which is put out by the AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics), there were several articles about model jets. One article by Pete Oochroma detailes how someone can get into the Turbine part of the hobby (“Turbine Modeling Made Easy,” page 51). In another article (“Instant Jetification” by Curtis Mattikow on page 41) deals with electric duct-fans. Finally, for larger electric jet models, there was an another article written by Curtis Mattikow entitled “Large EDF Comes of Age” on page 65.

The easiest way into the jet part of this hobby is the electric ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) or now, the two new boys of the store shelves RR (Receiver Ready) and PNP (Plug and Play). Most of the models in this class are foam models. Such models would have all the radio servos, wiring, speed controller, and the motors and duct-fans already installed. To power these models, Li-Poly batteries are used. In this mode, just the basic components are used to make it fly. It is up to the modeler if he or she wants better performance, then they can upgrade the speed controllers, motors, etc. Curtis Mattikow included a list of RR models. Those include a F-15 from E-Do, a F-18 RTF(Ready to Fly) from StarMax. Kyosho has both scale and sport model electric jets such as the F-16 and the A-6 Intruder. A sport scale model jet is something that looks cools, but was never made into a full scale aircraft. Hobbico offers a electric duct-fan called the Diablo. It offers upgrades that take you from novice to a ace with the same airframe. GWS offers a electric duct-fan kit of the F-15 Eagle.

Now we make the jump up to larger jets. The ones that use glow motors inside a duct fan or actual turbines. The leader of the pack is Bob Violett Models (BVM). He offers both sport scale and scale jet models. For the past few years, his scale models have finished quite high in the standings at a event known as Top Gun. Sport scale models that he offers are the Bobcat, Kingcat, and the Ultra Bandits. BVM's scale offerings include such aircraft as the F-4, F-86, the F-16. BVM is also working on conversion kits for their big models that can be switched over to electric power. Now, there are other jet companies out there such as Composite-ARF, Aviation Designs, Jet Hangar Hobbies, and more. Companies that build and sell the turbines are several in number. Jet-Cat Turbines, WREN Turbines, Jet Central Turbines, and others. But, here in the United States, in order to operate a turbine power model airplane, the modeler must go through a process of training in order to secure for themselves what is known as the AMA (Turbine) Waiver. This helps supplement your home owner's insurance in case something goes wrong. This is basically a notarized form that is sent to AMA headquarters in Muncie, Indiana. As a bit of trivia for you – there are about 900 turbine waiver holders in the United States right now. To learn more about this and other issues dealing with model aviation in general, go to their website (http://www.modelaircraft.org/).

Part Two will cover the 9th Annual T-38 Jet Rally in particular. Lets begin with a little history behind our local jet rally.

Our club (WINGS Miniature Aircraft Society) was able to use the main runway of the former U.S. Air Force base west of Lubbock, Texas, that was known as Reese Air Force Base. Now it is known as the Reese Technology Center. From the late 1990s up until the early 2006, our club was able to operate out of there since Reese Technology Center no longer operated full scale aircraft. Now, when Reese Air Force base was operational, it was a training base operating T-37s and T-38 jets. Reese had three north-south runways. The shorter, eastern most runway was closest to the flight line. The other two runways were longer and further west. These latter two runways were used by the T-38s and thus, that is where the name for our jet rally came from.
In 2006, rumors of the runways being purchased by Wal-Mart or some other group for storing shipping containers came true and the happy times of flying out there on Reese's runway came to an end. Our club eventually located a runway near the small town of Abernathy, Texas, that welcomed us. Different rules had to be observed since the Abernathy airport is still a active airport. With that in mind, WINGS Miniature Aircraft Society began site improvements with the pouring of concrete pads with little taxiways going out to the main active runway. As time and as additional money comes in, additional site improvements will be made.

Now, as for this year's Jet Rally, the weather played havoc with us during the overnight hours, but gave us some great flying weather in the afternoons. Friday, there were crosswinds for the flyers to deal with. The rest of the time, the wind was usually out of the south. For the onlookers and support people, we would usually stick under the tents or the pop-up shelters to beat the afternoon heat. Saturday evening, the Contest Director Mike Danchak handed out the wooden plaques to those who flew and or help out with putting the event on. Eahc plaque had a metal plate with the T-38 Jet Rally logo on the bottom and on top, behind a clear plastic cover, was a photograph of the person with one of the jet planes that was present.