- This topic has 3 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated June 27, 2019 at 5:49 pm by
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Twas another glorious day down at The Farm today for flying.
It was a balmy 15 degrees with no rain & very little wind.
We had six pilots today, Ross, Kermit, Ian, Stephen, Gerald & yours truly.
Everyone had multiple flights today in the mild conditions & whilst there were a few minor mishaps all came home more or less in one piece.
First in the mishaps stakes was Ian who managed to prang his VTOL plane when the battery went flat from too much vertical hovering.
Next I parked the Bix 2 in a tree, no damage & it was easily rescued with our long aluminium extension “Rescue Pole”
Then Gerald, while attempting a ground takeoff with his Paramotor, tangled the chute line around the prop & severed a couple of chute cords.
Gerald did manage a perfect training flight (inc take off & landing) with his Bix 3 so that was a bonus.
Kermit had some issues with his Phantom & the last time I spotted it, it was bouncing across the paddock after a very hard landing, not sure just what went wrong there.
He did manage a good flight (with camera attached) with his Tundra so no doubt the video will be added to our archives.
I don’t think Ross or Stephen had any mishaps.
Later in the afternoon I managed to park the Phoenix in a pond after miscalculating the flight time and ending up with a motor shutdown @ very low altitude. Unfortunately the pond could not be seen from our LOS flying area so as I dodged the trees that I could see the Phoenix ended up with a “Splash Down” in the neighbours dam.
Camera seems to have gone to a funny angle (water does funny things to electronics)
Just out of reach !!
At least everything came home in one piece (more or less) and a very enjoyable day was had by one and all.
My contribution to the video library from yesterday’s flying exploits.
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Well after the “Splashdown” landing yesterday most of the electronics in the SkyClimber had stopped working due to water ingress.
Removed, dismantled & dried out the receiver and now that tests OK again on all 8 channels. It was amazing how much water was still trapped inside it, even after hanging up all night in an air conditioned room.
After seeing the amount of water inside the receiver I figured that the Auto Pilot would probably be in the same condition. After removing & dismantling it water was found inside but no where near as much as the receiver had. It appears to have suffered no damage so after drying overnight while in pieces, I will re assemble & test in the morning.
The battery recharged OK after its dunking but not so the one from the Bix 2 that was parked in a tree all afternoon. Admittedly it was the same battery that spent 3 weeks up a tree a few months ago and it has flown every session since without problems but this time one cell has failed. I’ll have a look at converting it to 2S or else its destined for the scrap bin.
Have ordered a couple more Floureon 2200mAh 3s 25c LiPo’s as the previous ones I had have worked great since Nov 2016 so getting close to 3 years old now & still giving their full 15 minutes of flight time
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