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It’s been a couple of years since my ASW28 powered glider was built & first launched and even though it had a lot of flying time in 2017 the same can’t be said for 2018.
Now here we are in the midst of our 2019 flying season so this week it was time to get the “Gooney Bird” out of mothballs, give her a tidy up and start FPV flying her again.
The “Gooney Bird” is equipped with a High Definition fixed camera on top of the cockpit & another Full HD recording camera on the wing.
Here is one of the videos from 2017;
This year I have decided to improve the equipment layout as the “Gooney” was always a bitch to get the battery back far enough for correct balance. This was primarily caused by the great big landing wheel cover that virtually filled the fuselage
After removing the gear tray & landing wheel it was a simple process to remove the original wheel cover & replace it with a much smaller 3D printed one that gives heaps more room.
With all this new found space it was decided to 3D print a new GearTray to hold the AutoPilot & 2.4Ghz 8 channel receiver and allow them to be removed as one piece rather than disconnecting & reconnecting many wires.
The prototype gear tray has been printed, fitted & modified and now the (hopefully) final production is on the printer
This will carry the Autopilot in the dropped front section & the receiver on the rear flat tray. As long as the wings & struts are removed first the tray, fully wired & equipped, should slide straight in to the fuselage.To Be Continued…
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The Gooney Bird alterations were finally completed today and she is all back together, programmed & tested ready to go chasing Thermals.
By Version 4 of the gear tray I had everything fitting just the way I wanted and now there is plenty of scope to move the battery back & forward to set up the COG just right so hopefully no more nose heavy flights or having to add lead to the tail to balance.
The New setup, Rx on top & Auto Pilot underneath
FPV Camera, AutoPilot GPS module & FPV 600mw Video Transmitter
Plenty of battery room now
Finished & ready to soar
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Latest update on the “Gooney Bird”
On the last outing 20/6/20 the motor got very noisy. Luckily the plane was landed without incident.
I dismantled & fixed the original motor, as suspected the circlip holding the front bearing had dislodged & the bearing came loose in the housing.
This has now been repaired but I’ve opted to replace the original Volantex B4023/Kv850 with a slightly more powerful Volantex B4023/Kv1050.
I’ve opted to keep the original 10 1/4″ x 8 folding prop but I also have a 10″ of the same pitch to try.
Bring on the next flying day!!
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BY THE GODS I LIKE THAT….. I ESPECIALLY LIKE THE IN FLIGHT FUEL PROBE AND THE EARLY WARNING RADAR DOME
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On to Glider No. 2
The “Phoenix” – Rising from the ashes.
Well it looks like another of my big gliders has been resurrected, the ex Moose SkyClimber that I managed to write off in Feb last year is finally ready to take to the skies again. This was one of my favourite FPV planes to fly and although I have a spare complete SkyClimber (ex Mike (Flat Battery – VK7FB) I was determined to at least try and get the wreck flying again, just like a Phoenix rising from the ashes.
In fact, given the condition of the LiPo battery when the plane impacted Terra Firma at 82kph, it was very lucky the whole thing wasn’t reduced to a smouldering wreck
The crash was caused by a failed CF main wing spar that allowed the wings to fold in half, looked quite spectacular coming down, just a pity the only video was from the onboard camera.
The rest of the wreckage
Even destroyed the FPV pan/tilt & Video Transmitter, lucky the camera survived
Anyway, that is how it was on that fateful day in February 2018 (Video of final flight & crash below)
Back to today and the “Phoenix” is ready to fly again, after a lot of hot glue, reinforcing tape & a few 3d printed spare parts
Won’t have to wait long as it looks like we will be flying tomorrow.
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