Return to model flying (thank goodness)

Last year I made an unplanned vertical landing of my 16 years old Tutor 40. 

I had learned to fly with that model and since those early says I have always kept it in flying condition as a model I can always go back to or make other uses of: a bomber, snow aeroplane on skis, camera plane or just fun. So it's demise just had to be made good. After a year of waiting I finally bought a hardly used model from some very nice people via Ebay, (thank you).

Early on with the original model I experienced some flutter on the rudder and fitted snakes to both the rudder and elevator which produced accurate and faultless control from then on. Consequently I fitted sankes to this model too. The noseleg had been "locked off", there is no good reason for doing this, however it's popular in certain outdated ways of thinking. To refit steering I 3D printed a steering arm and mount in some very strong and durable nylon and gave it it's own servo. Whilst I had the 3D printer in action I also printed some snake exit covers, just to be tidy.

As we all know the pandemic has interfered with so much and in this context suspended model flying. Having missed out so much the previous year due to some personal down time and mixed weather, I've been longing to get flying again. So once I'd fitted my own radio equipment and a fresh battery, it was time to go to the SCRCS field.

Down at the field it was time to start the engine for the first time and once it had spat out the the good glug of after run oil I had treated it to, it started easily. Final setup for idle on the transmitter was needed and the usual pre-flight checks followed. Next job was to take it to the strip and do some taxi tests, after that though there was nothing else that could be done; except to fly!

I let it have a good long take off run, pulled the stick back and it took off gracefully, then a bit of dip as I eased the elevator off - some elevator trim needed. There was also a tiny roll to the right. Once trimmed it flew just as expected and when the stall test revealed excellent low speed handling I knew the landing was going to be a doddle. A few rolls and loops confirmed all was well and so as expected a very nice landing followed.

After checking that no issues had developed a second flight followed and the tests from the first flight were repeated, together with a few wing overs and brief spells of inverted flight during which the engine did not miss a beat. So, two good test flights over and all was well. Next few flights may involve tinkering with control surface adjustment ranges too suit my preferences and I may also adjust the CG a little to make it just a touch tail heavy as this helps models such as this to stall into a spin more easily (when required of course!).

Here's a video of those first two flights recorded by my wife:

3D Printer Maintenance and Mods

Quite a lot of work over the last few days partly necessity and partly for convenience.

The function selector was faulty, so needed replacing. This required removal of the front panel, so this was an opportunity to fit a 3D printed mount to angle the panel upwards by 45 degrees, making it much easier to see. At the same time I replaced the control knob with a 3D printed raised knob which is much easier to use.

The extruder fans were getting noisy and running unevenly. The nozzle heights have been uneven from new; it's necessary to remove the fans to adjust these. If there's a blockage it's often necessary to remove the fans to deal with it. Removing the fans required the removal of 8 dome nuts and then the fans had to be slid off their mounting pins, made difficult because their wires were too short to allow easy removal. In short replacing the fans was an opportunity make other tasks easier.

So, it was off with the old fans and new ones fitted with longer, rerouted wires. I fitted 3D printed fan holders that the new fans just slide into and whilst the fans were off adjusted the nozzle heights.

It didn't stop there. For some reason instructions sent to one extruder were being duplicated by the other extruder, making the use of dual filaments impossible and having double extruders pointless. I've tried time and again to resolve this through printer and slicer software settings without gaining anything other than the knowledge that this was a printer fault. Well I went for a factory reset in the hope that it would fix the problem; it did, yipee 😀

Warmingham And Minshull Vernon Walk

Keeping up with exercise whenever possible. We've eaten well since the pandemic restrictions started and still lost over 1 stone in weight. Good going!

I recorded the walk with the Relive tracker which you can view here:

Relive 'Warmingham, Minshull Vernon.'

You can step through the "Route Card" if you want to take a closer look at it on a map and/or take your time looking at the photos by following this link

My short walk near Middlewich

Having not had any exercise for a few days and wanting to test out the Relive tracker, I nipped out for a short walk near Middlewich. Part way around the walk my Dad called me for a "Zoom" meeting on my mobile phone, it worked well and Relive carried on working too. I recorded the walk and you can view it here:

Relive 'Walk near Middlewich'

You can step through the "Route Card" if you want to take a closer look at it on a map and/or take your time looking at the photos by following this link

3D printing with nylon

Printing with nylon can be very tricky so I did a lot of research before trying it. All the same my first attempt at the white servo arm failed to stick to the print bed.

The second attempt worked and now it's time to print the blue (PLA prototype) mount in nylon.

Being able to print with nylon opens up so many opportunities to print strong durable parts with confidence.

First Day Out Since Coronavirus Measures

Last year my trainer made it's final and unplanned vertical landing 😲. That shortened it considerably and what could be saved was consigned to the spares store. I'd flown it for 16 and as I always like to have a trainer to play with I sought a replacement, which courtesy of a seller on Ebay I bought one. This involved a trip to Blackburn on 31st May 2020; our first journey anywhere since the coronavirus measured were introduced.

As this wasn't very intersting for my wife we coupled it with a visit to Ribchester on the way there and Whitewell on the way back.

At Ribchester we went for a walk in the countryside and had a picnic on a hill overlooking the River Ribble. We made our way back to Ribchester alongside the River Ribble and on the banks we were lots of people enjoing the sun.

After the visit to Ribchester, we made our way to Blackburn to pick up the model aeroplane (more on that in other posts).

Whitewell was a very nice place to stop for an hour. Not a lot there really, a big hotel, another river, some countryside and only a few people moving around; just right!

To end the trip very nicely, Hilary spotted this chap at the side of the road. It's a snipe, they usually remain well hidden but this one must have fancied some sunshine.