(Almost) Queens Birthday Fly-In

[Predator]

Only a day late but today the flying weather was perfect, pity the flying wasn’t the same.

I got the day off to a good start by pranging the Raptor FPV plane about 3 minutes into its maiden refit flight. At the time I had no idea why but it didn’t take long to realise “Operator Error” in that I was trying the Horizon mode without first tuning the PIFF settings, no wonder it wouldn’t respond to the sticks, a quick switch back to manual or angle mode would have saved the day. Oh well nothing a bit of glue & some 3D printing wont fix.

Andrew, Gerald & Moose all flew without incident and now that Uncle G has sussed the issue with Moose’s Razor it flew perfectly along with his Cessna.

Chris had an ESC failure in his LePetit biplane but luckily no other damage.

Ian was minus a plane today but he did manage a few flights with his Phantom 4 Quadcopter.

Big Bad Dave continued his flight training lessons today & after a couple of practice flights on the Buddy Box system he graduated, first to landing the Bix and then taking off unaided.

Just about ready to start flying your Razor next time out eh Dave.

 

Kermit unfortunately pranged his last years birthday present today, the “Rainbow”.

He has flown it perfectly on several other occasions but today it went into the dirt & removed the entire nose.

I finished the day by planting the Bix in the paddock where it went down a couple of weeks ago, same problem as last time (still unresolved), plenty of signal strength but no control. This was the flight where I fitted the onboard camera to video Dave’s prowess @ takeoff & landing. Camera was still recording when I found it in the paddock near the wreckage, great I thought, at least I got the crash video (almost makes all the repair work worthwhile). It was then I discovered the lens cap still firmly in place, yes it protected the lens in the crash but all I got was 15 minutes of black video and an aggressive sounding audio track.

Oh well once again (as they say in the auto trade) it will buff out.

Luckily the previous flight was recorded ok with a different onboard camera.

Probably just a well given the close proximity of a couple of Kamikaze Kermit’s passes.

[Hoppy]

My LePetit biplane hadnt flown for a while. For some reason the ESC died on take off so a brief video for this! Only a 20amp ESC so maybe its not enough.

 

 

Best flight was from the Drifter as first flight of the day so still clouds around the hill top. Played near the clouds:

 

 

[Predator]

Nice one Hoppy, reminds me of the Cloud Surfing days we often had down @ Calverts Lagoon.

[Sinker]

Kermit, from another camera

[Predator]

Not a good day at all !!

[Kermit]

[Hoppy]

Good videos today but some of the prangs were missed. In the Falklands conflict the British used VIFF which was vectoring in forward flight to get the sea harriers to quickly target the enemy aircraft by adjusting the jet nozzles in a turn.

Mike has PIFF settings, no idea what that is but I’m going for Pranging in Forward Flight.

[Kermit]

Nice one HOPPY   I have a fail safe mode   built in BNFF  unfortinually it wasn’t connected “as usual ”  it also does the PIFF  scenario    its a cheap item easy connected  you just listen ….yes it talks   it goes something like this    BEST NOT FLY FROG     SUCH IS LIFE ………………..just say’n

[Predator]

PID (the old AutoPilot Control Loop)

P = Proportional

I = Integral

D = Derivative

PIFF ( the NEW iNav AutoPilot Control Loop)

P = Proportional

I = Integral

FF = Feed Forward

Now to understand how it all works Google it in YouTube

Enough to say I forgot to set it up correctly. Oh well lessons learnt by mistakes stay in the brain a little longer.

[Kermit]

BNFF (THE OLD WAY )

B= BEST

N= NOT

F= FLY

F= FROG

DFTI (THE NEW THOUGHTS )

D=DONT

F= FLY

T= TODAY

I= IDIOT

NOW to understand how it works  go to the field

an watch the frog

[Moo]

I would just like to state my appreciation of all those who have made me so welcome and have been so unstinting in their help. Having now pranged the Bixler three times leaving Mike to glue it back together yet again, having one flight with our Top Gun School of Fright and pranged that, I also totally agree that I should be pranging my own in future. Many thanks to all and in particular Predator, Kermit, Uncle G, and Moose who have laboured so unstintingly towards having a geriatric menace to safe flying space. It is a great hobby and you have me hooked.

[Kermit]

Sorry to throw a wet towel on ya MR WILLIAMS  but for every newbe  ie  YOU  the recruiter gets  A FREE SOFT WARE UPGRADE  so far MR MOOSE  is in the lead he got two people  PREDATOR gave me his for you  UNCLE G  has one  and a half  that’s one full upgrade an a not complete one …..as for a geriatric menace  narh we have MR MOOSE  an his side kick UNCLE G for that    you may join them later on  if you wish ……………………………….just say’n

[Predator]

Thanks David, would do the same for a white man !!

Just to let you know your Razor is setup & ready to go along with its very own Buddy Box system.

Just need to make sure you bring the wings & the Prop assembly along if we don’t catch up before we fly again.

[Kermit]

WHY DOES Dave require the wings  isn’t he just pushing  it along the ground like you taught me  ?

[Former Members]

Mr kermit I thank you for your loyalty to long time so called friend

[Kermit]

ARHHHHHH AT LAST  a bite    I thought every ones got finger cramp

[Former Members]

There was an old frog who lived in a bog

A slimy old bog as it happens

He bred young frogs by the masses

Alas when he taught them to fly

All that happened were crashes

[Kermit]

ohhh my gosh  what on earth has made MR MOOSE  so angry at me that he would insult and defame me in such a manner an put it in a  poem  WE have been mates like forever an now out of the blue he goes on this rampage of insults  (well one actually  ) but still totally wrong and hurtful  and I refer to the first part of his poem  where he falsely claims that I quote  “there was an OLD  frog  ”  I am not old  I HAPPEN TO BE CLASSED AS MATURE GENTLEMAN   not old    the rest of the poem  is fine  quite accurate  but if one makes a statement it should be  true or near enough  like my stories about UNCLE G  which are totally true ………………….just say’n

[Sinker]

Sorry Kermit, but no bites from me. cobber, mate, pal!

[Predator]

After our “crashingly good day” on the Almost Queens Birthday Fly-In the 3Dprinter has been working overtime today.

Started out with a new canopy for Hoppy’s S800 Reptile flying wing (lost during flight)

then a new camera plate for the “almost” indestructible Pan/Tilt gimbal for my Raptor

and then a new engine mount & wing joiner for the Raptor as well

All the minor foam repair work is now completed so just need to repair the battery tray & reassemble it all before fixing the PIFF settings in the iNav Flight Controller.

By the time all this rainy weather goes the Raptor FPV should be ready for another iNav maiden test.

[Former Members]

You are a clever little boy

Great stuff well done

we will have to call you Mike the miracle man

[Predator]

No need for fancy names, just need to improve my flying !!

[Kermit]

well I have the school for you  we at TGFS SPECILISE IN OLD FLYERS  refresher courses for those that wanna but cant any more   sign up now an get 1%  off   but wait if your one of the first 2  you get a free  wee on your tyres from our president   but wait there’s more  be  the first in you area an get an almost free DINNER SPOT AT THE FLIGHT LINE CAFE  for two  ……….  sign up now

[Author]

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