Sunday, July 29, 2007

First rolls (Pack 122 to Pack 125)

Well, I finally did some 3D! Did my first rolls today at the field. I was practicing nose-in flights for most of the day and seemed to do pretty well. I was able to hold the nose in for extended periods of time and all my corrections were in the correct direction.

I was getting a little bored so I thought, "OK, I've been doing flips and rolls consistently on the simulator for months now and I have the stick motions down; Let's do it".

Did my first flip and it was ugly, but it was a roll. Didn't lose much altitude and the tail seemed to swing out more than I anticipated . Did another roll just to be sure I could do it. I think I'm moving the rudder unconsciously. More simulator work to practice.

The photo here is my "poor man's battery bunker" It's basically two cinder blocks placed next to each other and against a caping tile. It's got a much larger overall volume than the standard Battery Bunker so I think the gas venting will be fine. I put the charging batteries as far back as they will fit. I'll charge two batteries per "bay". I know that if one battery goes up, the other one in the bay will be burnt as well but my thought is hey, I'm not worried about the batteries, I'm worried about the garage. I know that charging outside away from everything is still the safest way to charge LiPos but I think this bunker is a good compromise for charging indoors.
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Thursday, July 26, 2007

Spektrum 6100



I got my Spektrum 6100 Rx back from Horizon. It's been upgraded to v1.2.






I've routed the gyro control and gain wire inside the frame.





It sure looks nicer than that big blob of wire I had before when I ran the wire on the outside of the frame.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Packs 120 and 121 (new canopy)

Here is a shot of the new canopy. Hopefully the prismatic green canopy will help when flying nose in.
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Sunday, July 15, 2007

Post-flight checks (Pack 120, replace belt)


Here are some pics of my brother-in-law doing some slow inverted pirouettes.

tic tocs
















And here is a post-flight inspection. (Not his Trex, mine).

Yup, a couple of missing teeth in the belt so I replaced it.

This flight is my 120th flight . I took a long 6-month hiatus following my last crash.