Oh for the love of,,, what have I done now??

[jperkosk]

Yeah, but they're getting worse as they get older, Andy...

[Tomstoy2]

Wow, am I fried, forgot what a day in the sunshine feels like! Feels good.

Ok, didn't start out as the best start to the trip. About 10 minutes down the road it dawned on me I forgot my tent!
Greg offered to turn back around, or I could sleep with him in his tent.
Greg and I have been fly-fishing together for 40 years. He snores something terrible!!!
For years he always blamed it on his dog, which also snored something fierce. Then one day after a particularly unrest full nite, it dawned on me the dog had been dead for 2 years,,,

I told him to just keep driving.

We got there about 1:30pm and there was already quite a group there. We started a second row of parking!

One guy had showed up the nite before and did several high altitude long range flights. Pretty damn cool to see the playback.
He warned me to make damn sure I have everything working on osd first before attempting as looking downward the terrain looks all the same.
Looking at the playback it looked like the surface of some undiscovered planet! There isn't a landmark to be found high up. Even at moderate altitude it would be so easy to get lost.

By the time we got camp set up and all the gear set up more people started coming in and the second row got longer than the first.

I decided to fly the Hexa first, but the uhf did not come on. It was all my fault, awhile back I had taken off the video receiver antenna and powered up without it. So, my vtx is shot.

Next up, the Ranger.

The wind was doing the strangest thing, constantly shifting around from north to south every 15 minutes or so and changing velocity anywhere from no breeze to 12 mph!!!

The new tires worked a treat, the take off went smooth. The nose climbed into the sky, plenty of thrust to combat the 10mph headwind, 1/2 flaps set, in manual mode.
Leveled out at about 50 feet and got hit by a wind shear throwing that massive wing vertical in a heart beet! Just as soon as the wind shear had hit it was over and I got her leveled back out and suck up the flaps.
She then starts pulling the nose hard down. I could feed enough elevator into it to pullit up, but this was still at take-off power. I put 1/2 flaps back into it and pulled the throttle off, aborting the flight, nose still in the wind and set her down still nose into the wind.
Stalled it a few feet off the ground and did a cartwheel a 1/4 mile away.

There was some minimal damage.
The canopy bottom foam plate broke in half. No big deal, a little glue and it was good to go.
The tail is designed to be removable. It secures with sheet metal screws into pvc. The pvc is pretty thin walled and that broke, thus grounding the plane, also.
It's an easy fix, but one that I will do and still keep the tail removable by installing some threaded aluminum tubes to hold that tail.
The landing gear is a little loose. I think the plywood might be cracked. This will require me removing the battery tray and making an aluminum plate. Which I'll be much happier with.

Everybody loved the tires and the look it gives the plane. That was a big hit. One guy told me about a set of air tires that are even lighter than the foam ones I used. I'll look into it, as I'm now thinking going to 6 inch tires would be perfect.

I think I'll also laminate the wing. Seeing some of the impact damage that took place laminating will help, especially cartwheeling. I got away with no damage on the wings, and would like to keep it that way.

As to why the nose pulled down after I sucked up the flaps, I have a theory on that I plan to test out, that being too much weight. Next time I'll fly with just 1 4s battery and see if I'm right.

With these improvements I think she will be just fine for rough surface use.

So, we spent the rest of the time getting to know the folks I've been conversing with over at fpvlab, checking out everybody's setup, and working up a good buzz.

Now remember, this is not some sanctioned meet, just a group of guys that for 3 years now have been gathering together for some unlimited fun in a place where you can't bother a damn thing no matter how high or far you fly.
I should go without mentioning it, but a 'club safety officer' would have had a heart attack. Not that a safety issue ever happened, other than flying over the pits, but one guy did put his wing into the ground 6 feet from Greg sitting down. I was with him and watching the whole thing. I knew we were not in trouble and didn't bother evern warning Greg. The guy was all apologetic, I just acted indignant because his plane kicked up dust on out cheese!
Even though this is not a sanctioned meet, FPVLAB sent out a rep to fly, film and photo the whole event.
So did ReadyMadeRC, Dave, who had one of their brushless hand held gimbals for the filming industry, and a 250 sized quad with a proto-type EagleTree Vector flight controller in beta version they are testing.
This is so impressive! There is a cabin 1 mile away and they have a race to the cabin and back. Dave's little 250 Vector equipped quad did it from ground take off to landing in 2 minutes and 12 seconds. He had to be hitting about 80 mph at times to do that!
The Vector flew that little 250 so impressively.
I really wanted one for the Ranger, but they ore not out yet. That's why I went with the Ruby.

Greg and I ended up getting pretty hammered and to my amazement he never snored that night. Good thing too, as finding a plausible explanation to the police office as to why my best friend died in his sleep with a sock in his mouth was something I didn't have to waist any energy on!

Next morning, partially cloudy, zero wind. Plenty of flying, guns, bows and arrows and some guy had a very serious gasoline powered off road racer that he let this 10 year old kid there have a good long go with it

By noon the clouds started looking really nasty and it started spitting rain, so we broke camp and headed back home.

The reports coming in for the people who stayed reported lots more fun, despite the tornado's in the area! 3 to be exact, one pretty damn close to where we were.
Now this is at 9300 feet, and tornado's that high are very uncommon. In 53 years of going there this is a first for me!

Below is a link to the event, photo's and vid's are starting to come in.

http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.....-June-6th-8th

So, I had tons of fun, even though flying for me was not to happen. I can't wait until next year. By then I'll have all this shit ironed out to a tee. I did take away more knowledge to make this a better airframe, knowledge that would not have been gleamed if I had not gone so that's a good thing.
Hell, it just felt good having a vacation for me instead of spending all my vacation time recovering like the last 5 years!

To top a very successful vacation and a great time, I also go news that has put me over the top.

First, my son's 2nd tour of Afghanistan ends next month!

Second, in January, he and his family will be transferring to Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs!
I get to teach my grand-daughter how to fly-fish, ( she can't fish enough to satisfy her ), and teach my grandson how to fly!

[Tomstoy2]

[Tomstoy2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=mWDaAykgpf4

[copterboy]

Was that the same place where you showed us some pylon racing a few weeks back? Looks a great location. Definately wetting my appetite wanting to fly heli's LoS, but also have an FPV option too! Looked like great fun, despite lack of airtime

[sutty]

The person who made the vid knew how to put together a video. Looked like a lot of fun Tom. Hopefully as Denis said you'll soon be getting plenty more airtime.

Cheers

Sutty

[jperkosk]

Impressive video, Tom, and an incredibly beautiful spot

A bit scary to look around and find half the people have antennas on their heads, though

[Heli Yea!]

Originally Posted by jperkosk

Impressive video, Tom, and an incredibly beautiful spot

A bit scary to look around and find half the people have antennas on their heads, though

ALIENS!

That is one fantastic vid and I really makes me wish I had gone. I will go next year for sure. Looks to be a great group of guys in one of my favorite parts of Colorado! I envy you Tom. Too bad about the Hexa and Ranger but You did make the right choice to go I'm sure you had a blast!

[Tomstoy2]

Thanks, guys. It was a huge blast and a great success! As I understand it, there is only one other group of fpv flyers down in Georgia that is bigger, but we are now pushing theirs.

An amazing bunch of people, and some real talent in the group.

The other guy with the Ranger was there, but his didn't fly either, to soon for both of us.
He's down in Colo. Springs. I told him about my son's transfer to Ft. Carson and we agreed to meet up down there and do some flying afterward!
The nice thing about Colorado is the farther south you go the more open land there is to fly over!

As nice as SouthPark is, NorthPark is even bigger, and just as diverse. Both pale in comparison the Flattop wilderness area and possibly the most beautiful spot on this planet! I have a real bug to go fly both Deep canyon and Hell's canyon there, not to mention the White river.
Then there is Grand Mesa, and let's not forget Ouray! Down South there is Painted canyon, at sunset would be a phenomenal fly!
North, not too far away in Wyoming is the Never Summer mountain range.
Just so much I want to fly!!

[Tomstoy2]

Ok, improvments.

First off, the landing gear plate was pretty much toast, being just 1/8 inch plywood. This was easily taken care of by installing a 1/4 inch oak plate.
You will notice that the plate sits on top of a mount. Around this mount goes a rather large piece of foam to reinforce it from the factory.
No problem there, but the deal here is it need to be secured around the mount. When I put this back in I will silicone it in place, This will fill all voids. Afterwards, if the gear rips out, well the plane is pretty much toast anyway.





Then, my tail mount repair. This I'm pretty proud of!
I took a couple stand off for heli frames and cut them up and tapped the long pieces all the way thru.
The narrow end goes into the tail mount securing it from any side play.
The small stand offs, I drill clearance holes and glued them into the tail mount tubes.
Now the tail will bolt together and still be removable.
Once again, if it breaks now the tail is easily replaceable.








Heading to work now, but got the weekend off. Might have this airborne again Sunday.

[Heli Yea!]

Well Tom Im heading out to south park thursday! Im going to fish Jefferson, Antero, 11 Mile, and the Dream Stream! I really need some vaca. After your trip I decided it must be done.

[Tomstoy2]

Water is high, but the color is fishable. The Weather is finally supposed to dry out by then. Should be good!

[Heli Yea!]

I guess I'll have to whip out the other bench and Tie up some streamers!

[Tomstoy2]

Both the tail and landing gear mods are complete. Very pleased with both.

The tail is now solid, any flex is in the boom, none of this pvc threads to strip or break out and is still easily removable.

The main gear is now as solid as a rock and can still be easily removed.

Got the cg set for flying with just one of the 4s battery's now. The wind here seems agreeable, wonder if the baseball diamond is being used?

[Tomstoy2]

Well, I'm still working on this bad boy.

I had my elevator servo fail the last power up, so I replaced all with Hitec hs-65mg's, but still had no elevator servo.
As all I did was unplug the servo, I then plugged it into the rudder cable to make sure it wasn't the new servo, which was ok.

I took the file and sent it to Jim to make sure it wasn't something in there., which it wasn't.
He did explain to me things to look at, and if those proved negative he would replace the Ruby.

Turned out to be a loose connection. I sent him a e-mail thanking him and everything was ok.

Now the servo works, but it stalls out. After laminating, there is too much resistance for 21 in, oz, of torque to overcome.

Well, I hate to do it, but I'm going to next rob an 85mg from my 450. Looks like an order for servo replacements for my cannibalized ones is in order.

All other control surfaces work smoothly. One thing I have noticed with the new servo's is that they are now quiet compared to the original ones in neutral position.

Wish I could take her out, but the weather has been the shits lately and the weekend doesn't look any better.

[Tomstoy2]

Well, she's done!

Seems I had Inolab 251's on the 500. So I opened up the hole, set the throw and she's good to go now.

[sutty]

Nice. Come on the weather then now.

[jperkosk]

Poor helis! Imagine all this time they had been abandoned, and now being cut up for parts

[Heli Yea!]

Get your ass out and fly Tom! The weather is perfect not a cloud in the sky, only a light breeze, watch out for thermal lift today.

[Tomstoy2]

Finally got back to the Ranger after getting the Penguin all done.

I did a quick flight, set the trim, came down and dialed it out mechanically.

The vid of the second flight. I was all done in manual mode, except for a quick test of the Ruby.

Now that I've got all the mod's done I really like the way this thing fly's!
The Penguin is a floater with a hell of a guide slope. She can't loop worth a shit, and really not that fast.
This fly's like a proper airplane should. There's a nice connected feel to it. I was impressed with how well she handled in manual mode.
She can eat up some ground in a hurry. At cruise speed, the Penguin is doing about 13-18 miles an hour, according to the gps. It will be interesting to see what the osd says when I get around to an under the goggles flight.

I've sent off the data file to Jim, so next time up the Ruby will be ready to test.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=lQqJl_7J9hM