Anyone else into model aircraft?

[SeaComms]

Finally got back out to the flying field this morning after a looong time away...

Damn it was fun!! Had a blast, everything came back in one piece and even won a new battery in a lucky door prize! The Pitts Special has only been flown a couple of times in the last 2 years due to the field surface needing to smooth out more, but was perfect today and got a few more flights with it and very happy.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h137/SeaComms/Heli/318394_10150316995309506_720989505_8206825_4218347 44_n.jpg

[sandjunkie]

Nice collection mate been thinking of getting a park flyer myself just to start out my old man is a pilot and is way into rc aircraft looks like alot of fun.

[anotherblacktj]

Got a couple of heli's,trex600 ESP and ablade 400.been thinking of getting a plank, like the look of the parkzone corsair

[SeaComms]

Got a Blade 400 in the garage too, what do you think of the handling of them? I find it so twitchy and unstable just trying to hover the damn thing!

[pwy]

Some bigger helis and plenty of planks here. This stuff is as addictive as Jeeps :D

[anotherblacktj]

The blade is twitchy as hell, haven't really flown it since I got
The 600

[SeaComms]

I have tried using expo and travel limits to tame it down but none of it really made much difference. I recently chucked some weights on the flybar and that has made quite a difference. Still just in the hovering practice stage in the back yard, but at least havent damaged anything for a while!

[CRDSTU]

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h137/SeaComms/Heli/318394_10150316995309506_720989505_8206825_4218347 44_n.jpg

That Pitt is awesome - there's a real one that looks very similar in Toowoomba.

[Phate]

I have a few small light indoor R/C's.... mainly 4ch's

Tho my favorite purchase has been the AR Drone for the iphone..... loving it so far and it hasn't run away yet.... cant beat having the camer's :-)


Also have a few Night Ranger 3D heli's tho never been able to control em...... lol

[SeaComms]

Stu, the Pitts is a cheapie from China, but build quality is awsome for the $72 I paid for it.... Flies like a dream, floats in for landing (usually!) and always gets comments at the field.

If anyones in the area, pop in to the Coolum club any weekend, whilst I might not be there, there is usually plenty there to look at!

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~suncoast/Images/LocMap.jpg

[Jimmyb]

I remember a friend was getting into heli's for a while there, lot of hit and miss and crashes costing bucks. I did try once, was to super sensitive. I thought about planes many times, whats the yellow and black one worth, I like the look of it!!

[SeaComms]

Paid $72 US + freight from hobbycity (china) in ARF form (almost ready to fly - means all body and wings are built and covered, just need to assemble wings onto body and stick in your own electrics). Cant buy the covering for that down here (same plane off the shelf here would be $400+).

Add to that radio gear, couple of hundred, but then I use the same transmitter for multiple planes and receivers are around $120 down here ($15 from china). Servos it needs 4, again I use chinese ones at about $8 each rather than $40 each here. Electric motor and speed controller about $50 from china again, bout $200 to $250 here.... And finally battery, I have 4 in the size I use in the Pitts, but use them in other planes as well, I paid about $30 each - bout $150 + for equivalent down here....

So being the cheapskate I am, bout $250 in the air flying (excluding transmitter). For those not so much of a cheapskate who buy their stuff locally, prob closer to $1000.

[Jimmyb]

How much fly time do you get? What happens if you go out of range or have a glitch like sometimes happens with rc cars?

[pwy]

How much fly time do you get? What happens if you go out of range or have a glitch like sometimes happens with rc cars?

I'm not Dave but I can answer your questions as well....

You don't get out of range as a modern standard RC Air-Radio has a range of at least 2.5km. You will be out of sight long before out of range!

Also the modern breed of 2.4Ghz radios use frequency hopping technology and all sorts of modern tricks to make sure there are no glitches. It helps as well that you always have undisturbed line of sight to your plane. There are usually very few obstacles in the air :D
I had not a single glitch for the last 5 years...

Flying time for electric varies according to setup but in general from 5min (fast ducted fan jets) to >1h for special efficient planes but usually between 10 and 15min for models like the ones shown.

P.

[SeaComms]

^^^ What he said!

With the Spektrum radio gear that I use, the main receiver runs a dipole antenna setup (two 1in long antennas one straight out either side, one as the antenna the other basically as a ground plane). The I run a satellite receiver with the same antenna setup that I mount on the opposite plane to the first as far away from the first as the cable will allow (about 6 inches), so one antenna setup across the plane, the other vertically in the plane. This arrangement gives the best possibility of no reception shadow from metal or carbon fibre etc in the craft.

On top of that, the Spektrum gear receives on two channels simultaneously on each receiver for redundancy, so in fact running dual redundancy on two different antenna planes.

As mentioned above, this will generally give around 2.5km minimum range. The smaller single receiver versions are referred to as park flier receivers and only recomended for smaller light weight models that are usually kept closer to the pilot. I only use these in cheapie foam models.

On top of that, the Spektrum gear (as well as others) has a failsafe mode so that if reception is lost the control surfaces all return to a preset position (usually level) and motor drops to low/off.

As far as flight time, I usually set mine up for power, so I average 6 to 8 minute flights, which is quite long when flying fast or fancy. That little foam jet under the wind of the Pitts only weighs about 500 grams and has been clocked at 192km/hr :)

[Wrangel]

Anyone into fpv flying, I have. Plane and ardrone and am looking at getting further into fpv planes and cars

[SeaComms]

Not yet, been thinking about it, but the cost has prevented me so far.

[puzzell]

What fpv ?????

[Wrangel]

First person view, lookup fpv off road on you tube or fpv rc plane. Flying 10km in the air for hours hitting thermals and checking out the awesome views is the dream. It's a long wayaway at the moment. Or having a little fpv jeep and smashing up the beach a few km or seeing what's down a trail a few km without getting out of the car lol

[CRDSTU]

First person view, lookup fpv off road on you tube or fpv rc plane. Flying 10km in the air for hours hitting thermals and checking out the awesome views is the dream.

Now that sounds awesome.

I'm having a ball with my Apache Heli at the moment <$90 from Honkas and loving it.......:mrgreen:

[Rubi2012]

Yeah I've got some helis , love them hanven't quite mastered the 3d yet but have a TREX 550E flybarless 3/4's built but may sell it as time and interest have dropped a little,mate flys the Eflite park Zones which are great and also the Gliders which he has a ball with.

[SeaComms]

For anyone wanting some fun, I picked up a couple of minature helis from K-Mart - $25 each. One for me and one for the misses, been flying them round the house for hours annoying each other and the animals :)

Charge up from the PC's USB port in about 10 minutes, flies for about 6 minutes. Infra red controllers is the only downfall, so cant fly around larger object or with sunlight (indoors only until the sun goes down!)

Pics not fantastic, but then taking a photo of a heli with your phone WHILE your the one flying the heli... lets just say they are pretty stable!!

http://shop.kmart.com.au/product/3-channel-gyroscope-helicopter/113264

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h137/SeaComms/Heli/WP_000324.jpg