Catalina - A Watery End ?

After the maiden flight

Here's my Hobby King Catalina after it's maiden flight.

The weather was a little breezy but not bad and well within the conditions I would expect to be suitable. I decided the maiden flight should be over land or really more to the point, the maiden landing would be on land so that recovery in the event of any power problems would be straightforward.

The aeroplane was pleasant to fly after a little trimming and had sufficient power to combat the breeze. After the necessary trimming out, low speed and stalling tests I was satisfied that landing would not be difficult and carried out a few runs through the landing strip. Only one problem, that breeze was building up and the sky was becoming more overcast. 

On my first landing approach the dull visibility meant that when I descended after passing the hedge at the end of the field the mostly dark front of the model seemed to lose itself in the leafless hedge so an abort was an easy decision to make. The second approach, with a proper breeze now, was proceeding fine except as I neared the landing strip the breeze lift  the model up and slewed it sideways... another abort. Third time and all went well, I had to work the throttle a lot to maintain a good descent and approach over the strip. It did try to float up again in a flurry of a breeze but this time I was ready for it a good landing followed in the middle of the strip. The model looked elegant in the sky and flying from water should provide an interesting alternative to field and slope flying.

Box Contents

All sounds great doesn't it? Well it's not so bad now it's built but as you will see I experienced many problems getting ready for flight. It was a budget buy stated as being "PNF" which I presumed to mean plug and fly, that is plug in a receiver and a battery and it's ready to fly. The idea was that I could quickly get this model in the air inbetween other builds however when I opened the box and surveyed the parts it's clearly more of an ARTF (Almost Ready To Fly).

Okay let's argue that PNF means that you have to plug in (and glue) the parts and then it's ready to fly. Well let's not because to be able to plug in the parts they would have to fit together properly and accurately; they didn't. There were other issues too, so much so that in my opinion whatever PNF is supposed to mean this wasn't one, it's more of an ARTF with issues. I can't criticise the kit enough and just to give an idea here a list of the main issues:

• The wing halves couldn't be joined because the one of the spars was longer than the other preventing the joining surfaces from meeting. This problem on it's own perhaps isn't too great an issue but it it wasn't on it's own. 

• The instructions state to fit the ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) in the servo bay, near the front of the aeroplane. There's actually two ESCs, one for each motor and as supplied they can't go in the nose because the wires are only long enough to reach the middle of the wing. Worse still there's nowhere mid wing to put the ESCs, I ended up mounting one on each side of the battery bay so I had to buy suitable wire to make extensions.

• There was nowhere to put the wing servo wires and motor wires. In some parts the main spar was deep enough into the wing to allow the servos leads some recessing but it wasn't clear whether this was intentional or not. I had to make a channel for the motor wires which wasn't the end of that problem as the wires also prevented the wing from seating properly and more cutting away was needed to sort that out.

• There's another thing about these wires under the wing - they have to have joins in them and they are not sealed against water. It's intended to be used on water! I have fitted heatshrink tubing over the joins.

• The model is intended to be used on water so one might reasonably expect a waterproof hull but expectations were dashed when I found that it leaked. I had to seal it myself with thinned down epoxy which found the gaps and sealed them up.

• These spinners are supposed to round! They are both for anti-clockwise rotating propellers too. I tried to get them back in shape by pushing them into a tube and then warming them up with hot water. It didn't work, so I had to throw them away.

• On the subject of quality, care and attention, is the glue intended to fill the channel the spar is in or not? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Glue was splashed on the wing surface too. The spar at the front in the second photograph below is not fitted level with the underwing surface. That's a problem in that same spar rises through the top of the wing where it forms the mounting hole for the motor bearer. So that wasn't level either and that caused problems fitting the motor bearer because the low corner was below the surface of the foam.So I had to fix that.

• The mounting holes for the other motor bearer had a different problem, they were not aligned correctly resulting in a misaligned bearer. To accommodate side thrust? No because the the other bearer was at 90 degrees to the wing and Hobby King had provided clockwise and anti-clockwise rotating propellers - the purpose of which is to eliminate the need for side thrust. This makes water taxiing so much easier.

Before

After

Those then were the main problems, there were others and all in all it took far too long for a model that should have been quick and straightforward to assemble. I'm just going to make one more point for now though - the floats. In themselves they appear to be okay but how are they supposed to be fixed to wing? One might quickly say glue and that would work but Hobby King do say that the model is intended for field use too - just by removing the floats, erm not if the are glued in! I've fitted neodymium magnets; it seems like a good job but I haven't tested them out yet.

Two Tucanos

In 2011 I took part in the Radio Control Models & Electronics (RCME) magazine's website Webbit Mass Build. That was a non-scale model, this year is a stand-off scale model of the Shorts Tucano designed by Nigel Hawes.

I've always wanted one of these, actually I've got another designers rather more scale like  version still in it's box but that's another story. Not content with building one for the 2013 Mass build, I've set out to build two! One as you might expect with a 2 stroke glow engine; the second one though will not have a power source, it will be a slope model.

I'm a bit late getting started and I may have taken on more wood than I shape but I'm going to give it a good run. Since the original design was for electric power there will be much customisation as I go along. The slope version will be built from a laser cut kit and the IC version will be built roughly to the plan - using the kit for templates where possible.

 

The slope version is coming on well as shown in this photograph.

I have most of the main parts for both models cut out but in many ways that's the easy bit, kitting them out with control snakes, servos, receivers, power and batteries and then the final finishing is likely to be far more demanding especially since the centre of gravity must work out right without having to add too much weight.

Once again RCME Mass Builders will be meeting up at Greenacres near Walsall in June 2013.

The full build story is here.

Latest Glider Flies At The Great Orme

Back in September 2012 I mentioned that I had bought an unidentified glider and that I was waiting for the opportunity to fly it.

On 24th February 2013, my wife and I set off for a 2 day visit to Landudno with the plan to let me loose on the Great Orme with a model or two on the first day. My friend Tim Mackey lives in the area and I was pleased to find that he was available to give me the benefit of his experience.

We assesed the available lift with our foamies, Tim with a Wildthing and myself with the Fusion; it was good and smooth but not massive. I checked what Tim thought the my control throws on the glider and we decided they would be okay, so with nothing else to check up on and no excuses left Tim chucked it off the Great Orme into the north easterly. It started losing height straight away and a tiny over correction by me followed as I found out how the model reacted to elevator inputs then it just gently slipped out into the rising air. An absolute doddle, a little trimming for that pitching down and a click or two on the ailerons and it was sweet as a nut.

Exciting, well yes and no. A maiden flight of a model type I haven't flown before is exciting and I'm thrilled to have another sloper at my disposal. A resereved "no" is just that the available lift was decaying and I couldn't get a lot of penetration to gain much speed for aerobatics - I did do a slow roll but it was meant to be rather quicker than it turned out. No big issue but since I couldn't gain a great height to dive from either I decided to save further exploration for another day and bring it in for a landing. First attempt wasn't bad but I overshot and so on the second attempt I went a little further down wind - a little further downwind too much and landed short. No harm done apart from a bent rudder push rod - a clear sign that a modification is needed.

Happy? You bet. I love my IC power flying but it's quite different having on board thrust. Flying the elements with only pitch to control speed is something else and I'm loving that too.

On top off all this and with the helpof my friends at the modelflying.co.uk website I now know that the glider is a "Sailplanes International Secret Weapon" .

2012 Review

Looking back through my blog for 2012 I'm reminded what a busy year it was professionally and personally, yet I have mentioned only a few activities that could be of interest. So in this post I'm going catch up a little. A little? Yes because to include everything would generate a post so long you would need tea break and a meal break to get through it all!

We had a family holiday in Exmouth in February. February, yes why not? Actually February 2012 was quite mild, there was very little wind and plenty of sunshine.

Beach walks were really enjoyable and the sunsets were fantastic.

We visited Paignton zoo and that was very worthwhile. It seemed much larger than last time we were there, that was quite some years ago now though.

Some days were misty which gave quite an eerie feel to some places, Beer was an example:

There were lots of birds to be seen that we don't see much further north; such avocets and brent geese. Egrets seemed to be just about everywhere these days and make a great subject for a photo.

Exmouth and the surrounding area is  excellent for birdwatching and it was also interesting to note how early some of the flowers were. Daffodils were really conspicuous and it seemed odd to find them next to snowdrops.

More travels, this time Suffolk in April. Picturesque Suffolk doesn't seem to be a common phrase but it truly is so. Unfamiliar buildings, expanses of shingle beaches with fishing boats waiting for their next call of duty and masses of flat countryside, often intensively farmed bit that in itself can produce some eye catching scenes.

Minsmere is an RSPB reserve we always try to visit when in the area and the atmospheric coastal towns of Walberswick, Southwold & Aldeburgh are places I don't like to miss too. 

Here are just a few scenes that I have space for here. 

The tower, once a water storage tower is now known as "The House in the Clouds" and is near Thorpeness.

This field of rapeseed was the only one we saw on this visit. I feel there must have been more, perhaps they just hadn't burst into colour yet.

One day we arrived at Dunwich beach quite late in the afternoon. It was surprisingly cold and I think windy too. That's not apparent in the photograph of the red fishing boats but the accompanying sunshine is. Walberswick with Southwold behind it are in the distance.

Happy Christmas

Warmest Greetings for the Season

Keep Calm and...

Keep Calm and Carry On continues to be a popular slogan with unlimited variations but I wanted one related to flying so I decided to do my own.

Some of the "Keep Calm" range

Well quite a few actually because I think that many model & full size pilots would like the same sort of thing too and I've ended up making up a quite large range of T shirts, hoodies, jackets, mugs and other accessories that I'm sure will be suitable. 

There's lots of women flying these days and so I haven't forgotten to include them. Just in time for Christmas of course!

Not just Tee Shirts!

I took the opportunity to use some of the aeroplane graphics I created to make up some other very nice products too.

All of these items are available in my online shop IPJ Aeroshirts

Magazine Journalist?

No I don't really think so but a review I have made of the Hitec Eclipse7 Pro transmitter has been published in the November 2012 RCM&E (Radio Control Models & Electronics) magazine; that's RC Model Aeroplane in North America.

The old QPCM at the back, the new Pro at the front

My first Hitec transmitter was an Eclipse 7 QPCM purchased back in 2006. Now we have the Eclipse 7 Pro and as I was one of the first in the UK to buy one of these I offered to write a review.

It wasn't easy because these devices  have a lot of features these days and I had a lot to say about it. One of the latest features in the RC world is telemetry which has so many uses ranging from GPS information to more vital details such as engine temperature and fuel/battery levels. To complicate matters even more the telemetry can be displayed in various ways: a digital readout on the transmitter, a display on a computer and even overlaid on Google Earth.

Laptop Display

Squeezing the review into just 6000 words was quite a challenge. I enjoyed the experience and may write something again but I don't think I will be making a habit of it.

Incidently if you have one of these transmitters the upgrade to V1.13(0) software for HPP-22 programmer allows model memory saving and loading, Eclipse7 Pro firmware upgrading (V1.03(0) available at the time of writing) and also updating of the built in 2.4Ghz spectra module.

Overlaid on Google Earth

If you want to know more about RCM&E then click here

Bye Bye Olympus OM 35mm SLR Equipment

Its been hard trying part with my 35mm SLR and it's associated lenses etc. but the time has now come.

First to go is this 50mm Zuiko Lens

Looking adoringly at my much loved old equipment, like my Olympus OM20, it's hard to part with it and a less sentimental look at the facts was needed:

• It's about three years since I last used up an old out of date roll of film.
• I'm not likely to have a roll of film to hand should I decide use it one day and would have to go out and buy one.
• Economics don't add up.
• I can get better results with my Olympus E420 - and I can know that's the case before I leave the scene of the photograph.
• Saving it all for it's future high antique value will be a long wait.
• 35mm cameras are still in use so I might as well get what I can for it and let someone that will enjoy it do so.
• Finally, really, am I ever going to use it all again?

It's the last point that does it. There is no likelihood of me using 35mm camera equipment again and as I said in opening, the time has come.

So up for sale first is my standard 50mm Zuiko lens. No doubt I will be disappointed with the auction price it goes for but fixing it at a value that it is actually worth is unlikely to gain a sale at all.

Middlewich Wartime Weekend 21st-23rd September

MK356 provided a thrilling flypast

I was again invited to make a static display of model aircraft as examples of aeroplanes that had featured in the 1st and 2nd world wars. Only problem was that I didn't have suitable aeroplanes.

Thankfully fellow SCRCS members were willing to lend some models, help with the delivery, help with the setting up and generally lend a hand. As a result we had 7 aircraft on display for which I prepared information sheets about the real aircraft and also a few notes about the models.

The models displayed were:

Model Display

• Supermarine Spitfires (2)
• Messerschmitt bf109 (2)
• Piper L4 Grasshopper
• North American P47 Thunderbolt
• Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a

This was a Middlewich Heritage Event with re-enactments, exhibitions, displays, activities and entertainment, flight simulator, spitfire static display, military vehicles, stalls and even a flypast by Battle of Britain Memerial Flight Spitfire MK356.

New DH 100 Vampire and Slope Soarer

As I'm not buying anymore new aeroplanes this year, here's a couple I have just,  ahem, acquired, oops!

First there's the ducted fan Durafly Vampire. This is made of foam, is lithium polymer battery powered, looks good and sounds good too. There have been some problems with the booms flexing which I have re-enforced with carbon fibre and two of the retractable undercarriage units have packed up which the supplier had agreed to replace. Those issues aside it flies well for an electric "foamie" and I can see it being a lot of fun.

A rather more serious aeroplane the second one. This one I bought second hand and at the time of writing I have yet to fly it. This is a slope soarer of uncertain design but very similar to a Chris Foss Phase 6. I need to fit a receiver and battery, then check the control movements and centre of gravity before venturing out but those matters are straightforward and I'll soon have them done.