Another thread, Flying Day

[hghost]

Have not had many days to fly.

Weather bad, always allot of wind and have been having back issues.

Had allot of mishaps this year. Crashed planes, tree landings, lost parts, etc etc

Had a good evening a week ago. Spent 2 hours sore back and all flying.

Cause I did not know if I could stand and fly very long, just took the Champ to the field, that evening

Had a blast. Actually spent 2 hours flying that little Champ . Used 6 batteries through it. Got almost 17 minutes per flight, one was even 20 minutes
these little chiklet batteries do so well .

Got up at 6 AM, got to the flying field at 6:30, no wind, foggy and the sun starting to rise.

I have a smaller J3 Cub. About a 800 mm size . Battery box is in the nose, makes it very nose heavy, had to add weight to the tail to get it level. CG is spot on .
Could not wait to give it a try , been waiting to do so . Beautiful morning for a maiden.

Checked everything, control surfaces, etc etc....started to take off, and rose up about 6-8 feet off the ground, started to throttle down a little Thumb slipped forward,
and the stick went down...throttle off, could not recover the speed fast enough, Stall-Crash...

Another mishap. Picked it up , looked it over and the battery door came open and the battery stuck out a bit, other than that seemed fine.
Rechecked control surfaces and throttled it up and all seemed OK.

Launched it again, about 10-12 feet out from me, I heard a noise like a stripped gear sound..saw a piece go flying and down she went again...Prop broke.

SO...another bad day with another plane, BUT...out comes Old faithful CHAMP

I love this little plane

hear is a good story....I can and many will not believe it, but my Champ will fly in a perfect circle around this field without any input on the sticks.

It makes a perfect left circle. Now some would say it is the trimming or the control horns whatever .

I put trim as far right as the Tx will allow until it would not do anything but beep...still it will turn left around this field by itself. Even when the breeze
picks up blowing the other way .

I hold the Tx in one hand and put my other hand on my hip and just watch it do it's thing. The only time it messes up is if the wind gets heavier .

It is almost like having an autonomous flight , I am just a spectator . Love it .

So early this morning I spent another almost 2 hours flying the Champ.

I always take 2 or three planes at a time. I try a few and then always have the Champ with me to fly.

So far the SC and Champ are the only two I have not had much issue with . Makes no difference if it is a 3 ch or 4 ch plane, all others have give me a fit,
from pilot errors, to wind, to not enough control input and some , way to much control input . Has been hard to get a handle on stuff this year .

But again, Old faithful Champ, always saves the day .

I have a Slow Stick to build, am going to be doing that in the coming days . I love the slow flying...like the Champ, seems the SS is a great Slow flight design.

I know this is a rambling thread ( as I always do ), but I think it is good for members to share what they have been up to . ( I hope you all do not mind ?)

I know this is a Super Cub Club and I talk about many type planes and not just the SC , but we all have the SC that helps us grow into other areas .

Even with so many crashes this year, I still have had a good time ( back pain and all )

Hope everyone is having a Great flying season and if not flying , simply just having a Great time in general.

Ed.

[sham]

I'm happy to hear you getting some flights in. If it were me, I'd have been mighty discouraged by now with all the mishaps you've been having. And now another one to repair? Ah, well... It keeps you busy on the no fly days, doesn't it?

Also, I wouldn't worry about the flying in circles on the champ either. It suits you, so its fine.

My SC steers a tiny bit right. I like this as my natural tendency is to steer slightly left unintentionally while holding the sticks.

As for the SportCub, she isn't quite trimmed as I would like yet.

I like to read about the different planes on this forum, I think very few of us fly only the super cub - but it does give us something in common as a starting point.

[Knackered Sailor]

As sham said it's great that you're happy although personally I couldn't stand it if a plane wasn't trimmed. Hope you don't mind me saying but throttling back when the aircraft is only 6-8' off the ground sounds like asking for trouble. I always get at least 50' up before doing that, it allows time to correct errors.

[renard80]

Don't apologise, hghost. I for one welcome reading a fellow-flyer's "ramblings" about their flying experiences.

It's another way of keeping in touch with the sport and learning from others. And if nothing else, it is reassuring to be reminded that I'm not the only one who suffers occasionally from too much contact with Mother Earth . . .

I have just returned from the field and what should have been the ideal evening. Perfect conditions, an empty field which has recently been mown close, and - miracle of miracles - wind speed only 2 mph!

The SC performed a perfect rolling take-off and then, as she gained height, she suddenly shot upwards and began doing fast, violent loops. Taken by surprise (and in a bit of panic), I at least managed to slow the loops before she hit the dirt.

Prop gone, cowl shattered, fuselage cracked. End of "perfect evening". Now, where's the glue?

[sham]

Ouch!
Why would something like that happen?

I count myself very lucky to have not damaged a plane beyond bent LG wire on the Super yet...

Why would it lose control like that? Broken or loose servo? Damaged control rod/horn/elevator?

Hope she's flying again soon.

[renard80]

Thanks for your concern, sham.

I had already checked and all of those seem OK.

Baffled. But fortunately my amazingly clever guru friend is free tomorrow and will undoubtedly have the answer.

(Apologies to hghost if I have hijacked his thread.)

[hghost]

Well, to answer sailors question and no I do not mind at all, I had it WOT to start with, It was moving up and off rather fast, as I started to ease back a little ( as my field area is smaller ) it is then my Dumb Thumb slipped off the stick pushing it down and shutting off the throttle completely.

I do not fly very high, never have,rarely ever do, But It was Foggy and did not want it to get to far out from me to fast, was going to go back to about 3/4, simple dumb mistake. I am not one of those 3 mistakes high folks . I am a 3 mistakes Low type..Lol
Thanks sailor

Thanks Renard,I like reading what others are doing as well, makes for some interesting times, sorry to hear that about your Cub . But it is what it is . It seems this year has just been more of it.Odd it did some loops so violently and so fast ? Something amiss for sure. Let us know if you figure it out.

Sham , At one time doing things like this made me angry and frustrated, now days I laugh it off and grab another plane and fly awhile and go home and patch up what I broke afterwards .
It is just part of this Hobby. I have allot of planes. I never know how they will respond . I experiment with many things when I toss a plane in the air . I also use multiple Tx's and Rx's in different planes . So everything is like rolling the dice or spinning the wheel, never know what might turn up in a split second.

And speaking of that, here is an issue as well.

I purchased a newer Dx5e. It has the 3 position switch. The older style only had a 2 pos.switch. Seems to be the only differences..However.

In experimenting to see what is what. I bound this newer Tx to my Champ. Now with the Tx that comes with the Champ it is small and like a game controller almost type size.
To set low rates for example you just push down on the stick and the red LED will flash while in that mode and Hold down again it returns to normal rates simplicity at it's best. NOW....with a DX5e, it has a High Rate and Low rate switch a Binding or panic switch and a 3 position switch that allows Beginner-Intermediate-Expert modes that works with the Newer SAFE Units in the HH planes-Delta Ray-S version Super Cub-Apprentice -etc etc.

I bound it to my Champ and tried to fly it, it was so hard to control...low rates are extremely low and high rates are extremely higher...But here is the odd thing, on the 3 position switch if set at what would be the beginner mode it actually affects the flight of the Champ ( even tho it is not a SAFE system plane )the actual settings of the 3 position switch affects the ability to fly the Champ. When on the Beginner Mode setting I had little control surface movements, it did not turn very easy at all...intermediate was a little better but still affected it in a negative way. I had to set it on expert mode 3rd position, BUT when I had it on High rates, it was actually To high, it to affected the control surfaces oddly, a turn was extreme almost out of control, same in Low rate setting cut the control surface movements very harsh, took longer to turn for example, controls were sluggish . At first i thought the plane had a problem. I re-bound it to my Stock Champ Tx and it flies perfectly.

Now here is the thing. The Champ has a simple Control board. It is not AS3X or SAFE technology, and yet the TX switches on the DX5e affected it when actually they should not have . The High and Low rates would, but should not have been so harsh and the 3 position switch should not matter at all. I never hit the Bind or what is known as the Panic switch ( Now I wish I had ) so do not know what it would have done.

Odd things, but something I will research more to learn. Thought i would throw that out there to make you scratch your heads and wonder.

[Crazy Horse]

"Three mistakes low type"
Ha Ha, that is a fantastic statement. I love it, I am still trying to type this, shaking with laughter and tears of mirth blurring my vision!
Thanks for making a dull day bright hghost, absolutely terrific!

[sham]

HGHost.
I have heard previously of Cubs that had the act removed (even fitted with a replacement RX) still reacting to the ACT on/off switch on the TX and effectively limiting control throws unintentionally.

I think this is more likely to be the TX doing funny things than the plane.

[flydiver]

Jun 29, 2014 9:34:06 GMT 1 sham said:

HGHost.
I have heard previously of Cubs that had the act removed (even fitted with a replacement RX) still reacting to the ACT on/off switch on the TX and effectively limiting control throws unintentionally.

I think this is more likely to be the TX doing funny things than the plane.

RX mostly don't modify the signals, they just do what they are told by the TX. Dual-Rates, EXPO, etc. are all controlled by the TX. This is most likely the same.

[hghost]

Jun 29, 2014 8:33:48 GMT 1 Crazy Horse said:

"Three mistakes low type"
Ha Ha, that is a fantastic statement. I love it, I am still trying to type this, shaking with laughter and tears of mirth blurring my vision!
Thanks for making a dull day bright hghost, absolutely terrific!

Awe CH, glad to see you about and I am glad it made your day, with laughter.




I learned from the best -----> ME <------- LOL

[hghost]

SHAM and FLY- , Yeah, I believe the Tx switches are doing it...just odd that they would.

I have a Tactic Tx has more switches than I can use, but even if by accident one switch is moved it does not affect the plane I am flying, unless of course I have set it up to do something to the plane.

Thought also, unless the DX5e had that programming ability, moving a switch should not have affected anything either ?

Odd......?

[sham]

I'm not familiar with the 5e, but I know the version supplied with the Cub is different to the standard one. It is very possible that some dual rate is set up on the ACT/Safe switch.

The DX6i I use is fully programmable, the 5e is not.. Is it?

[flydiver]

The 5e is not operator programmable, but it is 'programmed' with firmware built in to the electronics. You just can't change it. The dual-rates of the little micros is the same thing. Fine, if that's all you want. Limited if you want more or something else.

[hghost]

Jun 28, 2014 23:30:55 GMT 1 renard80 said:

Thanks for your concern, sham.

I had already checked and all of those seem OK.

Baffled. But fortunately my amazingly clever guru friend is free tomorrow and will undoubtedly have the answer.

(Apologies to hghost if I have hijacked his thread.)

renard this is an everyone 's thread feel free to let loose.

No hijacking police here....