Progress Report

[Tomstoy2]

It's a constantly evolving project. I don't think he will ever be done.

It was the highlight of the event, for sure!
He freely let anybody have a go that asked.

He said down below the bungee works good, but up at 2 miles, maybe 50%.
When a launch f** up, it was spectacular!

Honestly, it was 4 days of pure fun! Can't wait for next year!

[Tomstoy2]

" say hello to my little friend! "













She's away from being done yet, but getting close now.
Just got to build the fpv cabling and laminate.

Going simple on this one.
Motor is a spare for my wav turning a 5" prop.
Receiver is just Futaba.
200mw 5.8ghz tx.

Down and dirty fpv fun!

[sutty]

Hello Tom's little friend.

Looks too cute to risk in the air. Hope it performs as you expect.

Cheers

Sutty

[Tomstoy2]

And her sister, the Popping. Setting up as a racer!

[sutty]

Didn't realise you were getting a wing. So that's going to be an FPV speedster?

Can't imagine my wing being FPV, or how I would get under the goggles, as it flew away. It's so fast over the ground I'd be worried about being out of range before I could get set. I panic a bit with my quad, and that's got GPS hold, lol. Will you have some sort of hold device, to cause it to circle, like you mentioned before, or how will it work? If you did that would be a lot of gear on a little wing, would it not?

Come on Denis, what's happening on the 600 front and the Vortex. Anything to report. I'm looking forward to hearing some good news.

Cheers

Sutty

[Tomstoy2]

No stabilization. Rules don't allow it. She will have uhf and osd/GPS, but rules say not stabilization.
I'm deviating only slightly from a true Popwing racer, in that the battery is larger, and I'm running a second battery for the fpv.
It's allowed, and she needs a ton of weight in the nose to balance her out anyway.
Couldn't move the main battery closer to the nose due to a spar in the way. So, a slight enlargement of the equipment bay and a 2200mah 3s fits nicely.

I picked up a sample pack of Kevlar cloth so I Kevlar coated the nose. Should hold up nicely. Pretty sure the nose of this thing can now do some serious trauma!

The motor mount is custom, ( allowed ).
The camera mount is made from the stock motor mount from the kit. All corners are Kevlar'd, and then the whole assembly Kevlar'd to the wing.

Colors are neon red, neon yellow and medium purple.
She's made to fly and take damage, not be pretty. Color choice is for identification.

I'm using one of my camera's instead of a small Pico camera. I hate the view of those things. Watched quite a few flight over the 4 days at Hartsel, not a single Pico camera was any fun to watch.

Getting really close to getting her done now.

I've never flown a wing before, so this ought to be fun.

The Mini Skywalker is almost done, too. Just waiting for a tiny connector for my camera and then I can finish it up, too.

[Tomstoy2]

Having never set up a wing in a transmitter before, I was a little leerie, so I checked my Futaba manual. Gee, what a great bit of help that thing is!
So I googled it, no problem. A couple quick steps and you're all done.
Why the hell can't Futaba ever make a manual one can understand?

Anyway, down to just one last thing to do and I'll be ready to apply power. Hell, I could be ready to fly her by morning!
Too bad it's supposed to be 90% chance of rain!
Doesn't really matter. I really want one of the wing guys to have a look over, if possible.

[Tomstoy2]

Just got to set the throws on the Popping, then it's time to throw it.

Time to finish up 'my little friend'.

[Tomstoy2]

Well, they are now both done!

The msw I had to move the vtx from the boom to the nose to balance her out.
Not much room in this tiny bastard! I think there may be 1/2 cubic inch of space that is not utilized.
She's as basic as fpv gets. Futaba receiver, a 200mw vtx and a camera, that's it.
She'll be for up close flying, up to a mile.

Not much chance of doing maidens in the morning. Too damn wet, still!

[Tomstoy2]

Well Shazbat! Just confirmed, my camera for the mini Skywalker is dead

[copterboy]

Sorry Andy, I've been busy the last week getting involved in a campaign to ask for law reform over medicinal cannabis. I think as Chad would say, I've been learning how to get my 420 on.

I've kept this on the QT, but my dad was diagnosed with skin cancer a couple of months back, so it has been a trying time. Doctors wanting to perform surgery, and me wanting him to use cannabis oil to avoid the need of surgery. Anyway, thankfully, he had the surgery last week, but he is still suffering a bit and I'm having to help out at home with some chores. Just waiting for further test results now to see how effective the surgery was.

Anyway,I have been hearing that the law in the UK is about to go the same way as the U.S., so it seems the UK campaign is not far from achieving its goals.

The car needs new brake pads, and there has been several hospital visits the past week, also Jack is here this weekend. So there has been no way to get down to the club to hopefully do the final test before the FBL conversion. So I'm resigned to trying another few tests in the garden tomorrow morning if I don't have to work, which is on the cards.

If that doesn't happen, then it will be well into next week. Works plans had to change because of school holidays, so I'm still tiling and doing the odd day for the old boss, and I'm working all next week! Realised that if I took a new job, I won't have worked long enough to earn any holiday entitlement during summer holidays, hence why I dragged out the tiling work again!!

I'm not in any rusht, but I can assure you it is still at forefront of my mind And I'm just waiting for the right opportunity!!

[Tomstoy2]

Sorry to hear about your Dad, Bud! Hope the results come out ok. He'll be in my prayers.

[sutty]

Understandable, and hoping for the best for your Dad's results and wishing him all the best too. Sounds a little trite, but I can't say I'll pray for you all, since I'm not religious. Can't be an easy time for the whole family, but you'll just have to pull together and be strong for each other.

Wasn't meaning to rush you though, was simply keen to find out how you were getting on with the Vortex and the conversion.

On a personal front I've been off work for the last two weeks and have flown almost every day. Had a great nearly moment today. The farmer had mowed our field, and had pulled it all into lines ready for bailing when it's properly dried. I think he'll have to turn it a couple of times tomorrow too, but it's been windy so it's drying fast. The nice rows of drying grass made a good target for some inverted hovering, and grass blowing. So that's what I did and had a lot of fun.

Then, all off a sudden, middle of my 4th pack, I touched the top of a pile of this long cut grass, and straight into the rotors it went, as I selected more -ve to come away it was spinning it into a long rope, so I instantly hit throttle hold. Just after I'd hit TH though, the grass got twisted off, as the head would have been turning so fast, the air resistance of the grass holding itself back was such that it just snapped itself off and came clear, but I'd already hit TH. I knew that the Vortex would now be back in soft start mode, so there was no point trying to power up again.

So I was committed to getting it down best I could, as it continued to climb inverted, I flipped it over, listened to the head speed, and thought shit, not much left there, so I tipped it forward into wind, and selected about mid -ve collective and it came down fast. As it did so, I found myself wondering if I was going to have enough headspeed to stop it at the bottom. Just before the ground I levelled the cyclic, and put in some +ve collective, and arrested the descent with about 2 feet to spare. From there I just let it baby auto in.

Then as it touched down I heard the slightly sickening crunch of stripping gears, but it stayed on its skids, so I knew it wasn't going to be bad. The noise was the tail rotor getting itself wrapped in this long cut grass, and grinding itself to a stop, with the ensuing gear strip.

After a major incident like that avoided, with a proper emergency auto, I can handle one stripped tail gear set, which I've already swapped out and test flown since.

So pleased I've practiced a few autos recently, or I just simply wouldn't have been able to react like that.

All's well that ends well.

Cheers

Sutty

[copterboy]

Life is all about energy, positive, negative and benign. But even benign energy can become active from either a positive or negative energy, in a positive or negative way!!

If you don't believe in God, then God = Good/positive energy.
Which naturally concludes that the devil/evil = negative/destructive energy.

The universe and all that is in it, is either positive or negative energy, or God and the devil, whichever way you choose to look at it.

I am agnostic, but I don't dismiss religion. The undeniable truth about religion is the wisdom passed from generation to generation, but it is the foundation of the beliefs which I am unable to concur with.

Therefore, I appreciate both your prayers and your thoughts.

Asked if I could go to the club on Sunday but they refused as I need to get BMFA sorted out, so no test flight there. Jack hates the noise, so doubt very much if I'll have time over the weekend. Working all next week so looking like next weekend now, as I'll be working late Tuesday-Thursday. Potential for test flight on Monday evening, if I get home early enough and weather permitting. Returning to the unsettled shire again next week!!

Good news on the job front today, old boss rang me up, said they've secured a load of new contracts in the last few weeks and more to follow. 20 installs lined up, and likely never to get quiete again!! More money and promised me a van again!!

[Tomstoy2]

Fingers crossed, dude.

Well, the mini Skywalker is ready for her maiden! Hopefully tomorrow morning.
Would love to go now, but I have my pre-op physical in a few hours. After that, sleep.

Problems with my popwing!
My t8fg Futaba receiver is throwing one of my ailerons all the way to the hard stop. Got to figure that crap out.

My best friend, Greg, after 2 years has finally ordered a quad! We used to fly a lot together. So, I'm pleased as can be about that.
Chicken shit ordered a RTF. Said he can't see abusing himself like I have for the past 4 1/2 years. Truth is, I couldn't piece one together for that price.
Now to see if it trys to return to China on it's own!

[Tomstoy2]

Needs more power. Got another one coming.
Re-did the crappy pushrods with something the wind won't bend. All I had on hand is 2/56 rod, but the length is just a few inches so n ot too much weight.
Might have to adjust the cg further back, felt nose heavy.

Got to redo the vid, post it in a bit.

[Tomstoy2]

mini Skywalker maiden 1 (0 min 20 sec)

[sutty]

Ooo, not so good there Tom. Exactly right there with your almost comment, but even if you'd managed to arrest the descent, right at the last minute, and get airborne, it still would have been sadly lacking in power.

What do you mean you have another coming? How will you get the power required. Looks like it needs like 20% more or something?

Cheers

Sutty

[Tomstoy2]

Exactly! The motor was a spare off my qav250. Kind of small for the job, but I thought what the hell.
The new motor is the next frame size larger and 700 more kv. That should do the trick.
Actually, at sea level, the old motor would work, but up here our air density is 20% less.

I have an orange x receiver coming along with some more turnigy servos, to test out the popwing.
This will confirm if it's a ezuhf thing or that my t8fg radio just hit a speed wall.
If the radio is not going to work then I'm prepare to jump ship to an mz-24 an be done with it.

[Tomstoy2]

Ha! Figured her out with my t8fg!
It was in my end of the programming.
Afterwards, it's pretty damn simple.