Anyone into RC planes?

[RisingFury]

@RisingFury;

Are you planning to test the DG on the same field as in your videos here?
If so, may I strongly suggest going to / using a (way) bigger and open area? Maybe there are RC clubs in the neighborhood too.

Nope.

I don't wanna crash this into a building.
My club found a good area here:

I flew that day, but forgot to ask peeps to record my flight.

I also started my flying hobby with RC planes (still do RC often), and started on my own, without going to any club. Teaching yourself to fly involves a lot of crashes, as you may have noticed . Experienced the same here, but can be fun and educational too. Things like reversed ailerons all sounds familiar, probably didn't do any quick pre-flight checks at all those days... Sounds crazy to me now!

I started flying on a sim and accumulated some 100 hours before my first flight... I fly 3 mistakes high and don't try any over amicious moneouvers, but the sim just doesn't prepare you for reversed ailerson. Believe you me, I learned my lesson

I think the reason they were reversed was because after the failed servo crash, I put in a new servo, but might have put it in 180° rotated... I remeber checking the ailerons the night before, but I might have been standing in front of the plane when doing the check.

But one difference is that I used a much bigger field. Starting with the fast trainer like yours, that close to all those houses, imagine what damage it can do.... If it was a lighter foam plane it would be less worse, but still..
To me it sounds a little bit like the guy in the other topic wanting to launch a 5 foot metal HP rocket from a public park...

Yea, it was a stupid thing to do.

Poorly tuned engine, high winds, cold as hell, first flight, small field, buildings... I got LUCKY. You can see when the engine fails to throttle up and the plane stalls to the left... you can see it flying between two buildings. That could have been a disaster.

I hope you won't feel offended, it's just some advice! I really like your new DG project (hope it actually flies! ) and don't want to see it ruined by crashing into houses on it's maiden!


regards,
mcduck

Naw, no offense taken. Thanks for the advice!

I think the DGIV will fly, as long as I get the CG right. I'll be putting on a 6S1P 20C 3600 mAh battery, but I regret not checking the weight before... it's 590 g, so that brings the total weight of the plane to around 3.5 or 3.6 kg, deppending if I decicde to use the BEC or not.

The wing loading will thus be around 90 g/dm^2 if you don't count the body. The landing speed will be around 50 km/h and I'll be happy to have the extra mass for a longer glide...

I just hope the engine can produce enough thurst to go vertical.

 

[Turbinator]

My friend bought a $200 6 channel giro stabilised RC Helicopter (full 3d flight), we would mostly fool around with it, by having one hold on to the helicopter, while the other would crank up the main rotor speed up to the max. The helicopter was so powerful, I had some real trouble holding on at max speed. And the wind being blown at you even in summer is freezing cold.

The reason we didn't really fuly it that much at all was because we where afraid of crashing it. It was a really fine, detailed machine and it would have been a shame to destroy it. Flying a helicopter on it's own is hard, now flying a remote controlled helicopter, where your sense of direction changes every 5 seconds is near impossible.

He did end up flying it straight in to a tree one day, ended up busting the main rotor blades, but new replacement ones where only $5. He got Carbon Fibre rotors for $10. Same crash also ended up braking one of the control rods on the swash plate. Replacement for that was $25. After that he sold the helicopter, and wanted to buy a duct fan RC plane, because they are so simple to fly. However winter came, and we didn't do it.

I learned everything I know on exactly how helicopters are able to move back forwards, left or right with their main rotor, by examining that RC Helicopter. It was amazing to look at, seeing so much engineering crammed in to such a toy. It was awesome. And the Swashplate is where they magic happens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swashplate_(helicopter)

This is the exact same main rotor structure, as his Helicopter:

This was the helicopter, it was pretty huge, big enough to comfortably mount a DSLR camera on:

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

Nope.

I don't wanna crash this into a building.
My club found a good area here:

Ok, great!

BTW, I do remember something stupid I managed to do multiple times: using a field next to another one full of cows.
In the beginning I often landed in the other field accidentally... Those cows are ridiculously curios for anything 'strange', so they always go standing in a circle around my plane.
When I scared them away, they often run over the plane damaging it even more...

Flying a helicopter on it's own is hard, now flying a remote controlled helicopter, where your sense of direction changes every 5 seconds is near impossible.

Too bad he never flew it.. but I understand the reason.
However, you might want to take a different route, by first trying a slightly more easy helicopter.
For example, those co-axial helicopters (like E-sky Lama) still offer full 4-channel controls, while they are more stable by nature and less expensive (btw $200 is quite inexpensive for the full 3d heli you mentioned!).

So with a co-axial, you'll learn all the helicopter control principles, with probably less crashes and cheaper spare parts.

After that he sold the helicopter, and wanted to buy a duct fan RC plane, because they are so simple to fly.

Though be warned that those (scale-like foam) EDF jets (electric ducted fan) are not the most easy planes to start with.
They're quite fast, and (also the small ones) are very agile over the roll axes (unless you put gyros on all axes, which is what I'm going to do next, if I find some time for it ).
As a beginner with R/C planes you're probably best off with an Easystar, EasyGlider or equivalent. They fly great and are easy to repair!


regards,
mcduck

 

[RisingFury]

My friend bought a $200 6 channel giro stabilised RC Helicopter (full 3d flight), we would mostly fool around with it, by having one hold on to the helicopter, while the other would crank up the main rotor speed up to the max.

Yea, be careful with that... I know of someone who lost 3 fingers starting a 15 cc nitro engine. They managed to reattach two, but one is completelly imobile and the other one has only partial mobility.

There's also a video on YouTube of someone spinning up a nitro chopper to full speed on the ground and making it push into the ground, by inversing the blades for inverted flight. Looks like the undercarage broke and the blades struck the ground. The chopper exploded and fragments flew out at high speed in all directions.

BTW, I do remember something stupid I managed to do multiple times: using a field next to another one full of cows.

I would *totally* buzz the cows! :lol:

 

[Turbinator]

There's also a video on YouTube of someone spinning up a nitro chopper to full speed on the ground and making it push into the ground, by inversing the blades for inverted flight. Looks like the undercarage broke and the blades struck the ground. The chopper exploded and fragments flew out at high speed in all directions.
:lol:

Yeah, larger RC Helicopters can be very powerfull, I was amazed by the sheer pulling power. After holding on it for a while, as hard as you can, you get the feeling like it's going to slip right out of your hands. Playing with fire...

Too bad he never flew it.. but I understand the reason.
However, you might want to take a different route, by first trying a slightly more easy helicopter.
For example, those co-axial helicopters (like E-sky Lama) still offer full 4-channel controls, while they are more stable by nature and less expensive (btw $200 is quite inexpensive for the full 3d heli you mentioned!).

The helicopters RC controller came with a computer hoock up, and a simulator. We practiced flying the exact heli on the computer, and got good at 3D flight and gettign it to fly up-side-down, back and forth, in an arch, that was fun. However we could never get it to land without craching in the sim. That's why we never tried it in real life.

 

[RisingFury]

3D helis have significaln pulling power. You'll see maneuvers, where the pilot reverses the blades and it shoots the heli from a freefall to a fast climb instantlly...


Also... flying upside down, doing loops and rolls and tricks like these with a heli are easy. You first need to master how to hover on one spot for a long time, hover, when facing the heli head on, flying it slowly, but preciselly over a pre determined track and then landing it.


It's pretty much the same with planes, just I wish someone told me that in the beginning...

 

[guitarist473]

well with my new set up from xmas.
i got a 98% ARTF ultra fly 32e.
a spectrum 6dxi controller
2 EXTREME!ly powerful batterys
and a bunch of kickass servo's
heres a vid i put together when i was down at the flying field near my town.

this plane is actually MASSIVE! it may look small but its huge!
i took her up did a few loops (it was crosswindy so hardto do stunts)
then on landing my dad forgot to get off the runway when filming... that could of ended bad!
OFF-CAMERA!!! when i took it into the pits i was holding the planeand i forgot the most inportant rule... STAY AWAY FROM THE MOTOR WHILST THE PLANES ON!!! and accidentaly caught the throttle stick while my hand was still o the cowling!
got out of it with only a bruise and two cuts. the advantage of having electric powerd planes... nothing gets completely sliced off, just a small cut.
but yes, im very 'into' r/c planes.
so anyways, enjoy the vid

 

[RisingFury]

2 EXTREME!ly powerful batterys
and a bunch of kickass servo's

Any more details on those?
Numberof cells, how much mAh, C rating, weight of the battery?
Torque of servos? Metal gears? Speed of servos?

I'll be getting myself 4 or 5 6S, 20C, 3600 mAh batteries, at 590g for my DeltaGliderIV.

I recommend high torque metal gear servos. I had my aileron servo fail cos it didn't have enough torque and burnt and when the plane hit the ground, the nylong gears of the throttle servo stripped...
For my DeltaGliderIV, I got myself 72 Ncm torque, 90°/0.4s speed, metal gears. No way those babies are gonna fail. They're overkill...


Nice vid. You picked a good place to fly, but be careful when landing. I also almost hit my camera man head on when landing due to a freak crosswind.

How big is the plane? Look like something around 150 cm wingspan...

 

[guitarist473]

for servo's you cannot go wrong when you have some gud spektrums plugged in.
(i think mine are metal gear)
the best response ive ever had from a plane is when its got those servos in them.
asfor wingspan you hit the nail on the head (almst) wingspan: 145cm
here is a link for info on the plane: http://www.aeromodelselectric.co.uk/prod-70.html
the battery is a overlander 3000mAh 3S Lipo (10C), i get phenominal proformance from this battery, atleast 10 mins of high power 15 mins on med power (cruise).
and my plane weights 1.5kg! which is heavy for an electro plane.
the batts are abit heavy bt not too heavy.
the servo tourque im not too sure, it was a (a)RTF plane so i didnt by them seperatly so no idea, sorry
if you need anymore help just ask
oh and may i ask what TX/RX have you got?
thanks

 

[RisingFury]

for servo's you cannot go wrong when you have some gud spektrums plugged in.

You can go way wrong... you need to have plenty of torque or the servo will burn out. You need to have metal gears so the torqu and crashes don't break them and you need to have quick servos too if you wanna have plenty of deflection. If not, the servos will take too long to move around and the plane will "lag"...

Here's what a bad servo does:

asfor wingspan you hit the nail on the head (almst) wingspan: 145cm
here is a link for info on the plane: http://www.aeromodelselectric.co.uk/prod-70.html

Yea, 145, 148, 150cm wingspans are very common for trainers. I'm assuming this is your first plane. If so, you picked out a good trainer.

Though if you join a club, you'll see that wingspans of 3 meters and petrol engines of over 50 ccm are nothing out of the ordinary. Bigger and more massive planes generally fly better, because of increased Raynolds number...

the battery is a overlander 3000mAh 3S Lipo (10C), i get phenominal proformance from this battery, atleast 10 mins of high power 15 mins on med power (cruise).
and my plane weights 1.5kg! which is heavy for an electro plane.
the batts are abit heavy bt not too heavy.

Yea, that battery should give you plenty of cruise time and plenty of power. The website says you have a 10x5 prop, which is what I started out with. Though I have a 6.5 ccm nitro engine that's a bit more pwerful and could use a 12x5 prop...

An electric motor is easy for starters - you don't have to tune it, it's not messy, no problems with starting it, no problems with glow plugs and are generally half the weight of the same power nitro engines, but if you want more power, I advise nitro / petrol engines.

I need around 4 kg of thrust for my DeltaGliderIV and I'd generally pick a nitro engine for it, but went with electric, because I need the engine in the back. Nitro engines have to be specially designed for thrust (they have to turn in the other direction, their exhaust has to face back,...), but with an electric engine, you just invert two wires.

For my engine, I'll go with 6 cell, 3600 mAh batteries, but at full thrust, they'll be emptry in 4 minutes, where as a nitro engine of the same thrust can have a much larger fuel tank...

the servo tourque im not too sure, it was a (a)RTF plane so i didnt by them seperatly so no idea, sorry
if you need anymore help just ask
oh and may i ask what TX/RX have you got?
thanks

Ah, I very much doubt they're metal gear servos then... RTFs usually get stuck with cheap servos. As long as you don't set the deflection too high, they shouldn't fail...

Do you have one servo controlling the ailerons or two servos?

And my transmitter is a Futaba, but forgot the model. Reciever is R136, I think. It's a 35 MHz, 4 channel radio that I bought years ago. I'm planning to upgrade this summer to a Futaba FASST 6 or even 8 channel...

 

[guitarist473]

its my second planebut the firs wasnt really a big plane just aittle foamy.
i asked around the club and they said spectrum servos were the most reliable?
and yeah ive seen MASSIVE airplanes at the club, one guy i no has a 2m long BAE hawk real jet turbine. (althou not any more i dont think, plowed it into the runway on lnding
http://lemac.org/gallery/slides/Goshawk1.htm
my ailerons are controlled by one servo,
my servos are very fast and when i switch D/R on i get amazing turnsand pitches from the aircraft.
im hoping to go flying tomoro so il try and get a better vid.
btw what isa metal gear servo?
im not sayig you have to buy it but if i may i would like to suggest the dx6i or dx7 spectrum controller. its a 2.4G TX so no interfernce... EVER. its 6-8channel with several other functions and an onboard mini computer, inclueding timer and various other usefull things,it also has a backup satellite RX so youll never loose radio contact with the craft.
just a friendly suggestion
plus my friend who works at this r/c model shop says now ive brought that TX i will never need a nother one, this fits and model, multiple models all from one TX/RX combo.
it can handle data from over 16 different aircraft includeing helicopters
i have this controller and its great. so if your interested just ask for any more info.

thanks

 

[RisingFury]

i asked around the club and they said spectrum servos were the most reliable?

Well... just like everything else, servos are of higher and lower quality. You might buy a Futaba, Graupner or Spectrum servo, but if it's the cheapest one, don't expect much...

and yeah ive seen MASSIVE airplanes at the club, one guy i no has a 2m long BAE hawk real jet turbine. (althou not any more i dont think, plowed it into the runway on lnding

Unless it's a total wreck, he'll fix it...

btw what isa metal gear servo?

A metal gear servo is a servo that has it's gears made out of metal.

Here's a servo I bought and intstalled into my plane after the aileron servo died. To it's left is the burned out motor, to it's right are some of the nylon gears I salvaged from it for later use.

You can see through the plastic and you'll see metalic gears. These are so strong that they'll survive just about any crash...

im not sayig you have to buy it but if i may i would like to suggest the dx6i or dx7 spectrum controller. its a 2.4G TX so no interfernce... EVER. its 6-8channel with several other functions and an onboard mini computer, inclueding timer and various other usefull things,it also has a backup satellite RX so youll never loose radio contact with the craft.
just a friendly suggestion

Thanks. I heard a lot of good about DX6 and 7 and the only downside is that they burn through the battery quickly. I'll see what to buy once I actually buy it. I already have a cable for the computer, to connect to my Futaba, so if the new recievers use the same plug, I'll probably stick with Futaba...

plus my friend who works at this r/c model shop says now ive brought that TX i will never need a nother one, this fits and model, multiple models all from one TX/RX combo.
it can handle data from over 16 different aircraft includeing helicopters
i have this controller and its great. so if your interested just ask for any more info.

thanks

Yea, if you're really interested in RC and know you'll be doing it for years or decades to come, then buying good radio equipment definitelly pays off.

 

[guitarist473]

yeah, if youve got the cables n such, stick with the futaba.
the dx6i has a display on the mini computer how much battery is left and mines still on 5.9v and im still using the batts that came with it, ive had it about 2 months now 5.5v is when you should change them, 5,0V is... CHANGE THEM!!!! i think
im thinking of making a hybrid after xmas... or early 2011.
a plane that takes off but has rocket motors on the back, then when its gliding (after engine cut) i will egnite the rockets and zoom off doing kick ass stunts etc...
but this is after ive got money from xmas.
my servos probably arent metal then, not to sure tho tbh.
but i think this hybrid will need carefull planning if its going to be ble to withstand the forces it will experience inflight, im thinking X-1 sortof design. or x-15? or even xr-71?

 

[RisingFury]

Keep away from rockets dude... you're loading your plane plane with 100's of dollars of electronics and 100's of hours of hard work, while rockets have a tendency to go boom.

Besides, planes are kinda heavy to be lifted off by rockets. There are some vids on YouTube, where people strap rockets to their planes for a launch, but it's nowhere near as spectacular as you'd hope:

This is just a small, light glider and as you can see, it doesn't get it far off the ground with a high speed.

If you know you'll be doing RC for years or decades to come, then I suggest building your own planes, instead of buying kits. You'll learn the how's and why's of aircraft design and you'll appreciate the model far more, then one that you buy. Also, you'll have the ability to customize it according to your own preferences

My suggestion for your next model would be something that can give you an intro into 3D flight. Something along the lines of SU-31, but anything with a low wing, powerful engine and big control surfaces will do. Keep away from Yak 54, Extra 300 and 330 and Edge 540... those are more advanced. A nice plane for hovering is also Giles 202 TOC, because it is a very tail heavy setup, but still very nice to fly.

Though if you're going for a sailplane, a Solution, Ventus or even DG-808 or 1000 are nice, just go big... 2.5 m wingspan minimum.

 

[guitarist473]

i took it flying today, had to bring her down on emergency landing after 4minutes, it started to rain pretty heavily at the airfield.
i was thinking then of getting somthing like this?
http://www.aeromodelselectric.co.uk/prod-65.html
like a real jet type plane, i mean in a fewyears time
then when i get more used to the speed of faster aircraft i will build my own.
...when i have a job, still not old enough :L

 

[RisingFury]

An EDF, huh?

Yea, 3 cell EDFs are pretty common, but definitelly learn how to fly, before you attempt this one.

What bothers me about this one is that it has no landing gear, but relies on a catapult to get it up in the air. This is a MIG-15 being launched:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDx-NAf-prg"]YouTube- MIG 15 EDF by J.Perkins[/ame]


I'd build an undercarrage for this plane, that the plane can ride on, but stays on the ground after takeoff. That way you can take off of paved surfaces and don't need to rely on the catapult.


By the way, did you get the vid of the flight today?

 

[guitarist473]

yeah, i was thinking of fitting retractable gear to it if i buy it.
and no sorry i didnt get a vid
i will probably go to the field tomoro so i will get a vid then if i hav chance

 

[RisingFury]

yeah, i was thinking of fitting retractable gear to it if i buy it.

Hmmm... will there be room to stow the gear anywhere? You might be able to stow the main landing gear by using a servo to tip it back, I don't think there will be any room to stow the front one.

My DGIV features a system that allows me to drop the gear after takeoff or leave it on. The front gear is also steerable. That way I can take off and the springs built into the gear will make sure it gets ejected. It'll clear the belly, so I can land in tall grass

 

[guitarist473]

as promised i got a vid of the flying today.
im not too sure on the gear buisness, have to wait and see, dont think i will get that plane actually, i was thinking more of somthing like...
http://www.allelectricrc.co.uk/lockheed-c-130-hercules-artf-scale-820-p.asp
anyway heres my vid:

thanks

 

[Sky Captain]

I`m wondering has anyone put a camera hooked to transmitter on a rc plane to get a live video feed from flying plane?