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Moose’s Razor looked a treat in it’s new red & white livery;
but unfortunately it still didn’t take long for him to lose it. The first time it came back by itself but the next flight it disappeared into the Never Never when the ZOHD RTH failed to operate (more on that matter later).
Moose & Stephen went looking but had no luck. After lunch I put my Ham Radio Foxhunting skills (from many many moons ago) to use and using the RSSI signal on Moose’s Taranis Radio I (ably assisted by Hoppy & Ricky) tracked the plane through the bush for probably over 1 Klm to where it had come down way over in the next valley. Apart from a small ding in one wing the Razor was undamaged.
As for the problem with the ZOHD RTH it turned out that Moose was flying on his old Bixler programming which was set up for a FY-41AP autopilot that uses 2 switches to control it. The ZOHD only uses 1 switch and that one was disabled.
The radio had initially been set up correctly by Uncle G but there were two Razor profiles in the radio (one by Moose & one by Uncle G) and as is often the case the wrong profile got deleted in a recent clean-up. A bit of reprogramming before the next flight & all should once again be working as per normal.
Well, no excuses now, we will expect to see many quality productions from Kamp Kermit in the future, flying & boating.
Hoppy was going to put up a calendar entry for Friday so lets hope this weather has all blown over by then.
All you need is your super new video camera (with NO soft focus) and you WILL be up to scratch with the rest of us in no time flat.
I may have another video or two to add later once I sort through them.
This is from the first flight this morning with my MDM-1 Fox self-powered glider.
I just don’t know, let you blokes out just once without adult supervision and it’s anarchy all round.
Nice looking engine you have got yourself there Tug. Nice little plaything for when the weather turns cold & wet again.
Now that you have your RunCam 2 finally unboxed & working you can strap it on to the train & give us a drivers eye view of your layout (or is that still in the planning stages like my Digital Slot car layout that I started acquiring bits for many many years ago & its all still in boxes)
The V tail is not loose, it’s just that the V tail is so large & the rear end of the fuse so small the V tail loading twists the fuselage slightly in hard turns. The way its fibre-glassed on it is unlikely to ever come loose.
The eagle was very close at times but never showed any aggression, just liked tagging along I think. Mostly he was just gliding along just above & behind the V tail.
Never got around to updating this build thread but if you have been watching our flying day reports you will already know that the BumbleBee flew (and still does) very well after a bit of tuning.
How she looks now I finally got around to painting the tail
A couple of months ago the reduction gearbox (3 to 1) on the drive motor seized so I replaced the motor and gearbox with an FSP 830kV direct drive motor. Using the same 11 x 7 folding prop the new motor is running about 1500rpm slower than the geared drive but it still has more than enough power to quickly launch up to where the thermals are and the much lighter setup in the nose makes BumbleBee an absolute pleasure to fly. The HobbyEagle A3-V2 stabiliser is no longer required to keep the plane flying level & there is now even a bit of room to move the battery forward & aft to better suit the flying conditions.
Having learnt to fly at a later age and using a stabiliser/autopilot all the time it has taken a long time to wean myself off them.
It all started with the Eyas Eagle “Little Eagle” as this was very aerobatic but needed the stabiliser either off or in 3D mode to allow it.
Now BumbleBee flies with no stabiliser as does the new Pulse XT 25e so I’m getting more used to it all the time.
Might have to retune the poor old Bixler 2 Sport for bareback flying as currently it is still equipped with the fullblown FY-41AP autopilot as are all my FPV planes.
The last 2 flying days I have flown the XT 25e and been very happy with it.
The ZOHD Kopilot is only needed for RTH (I’ve had to use it a couple of times already as the predominantly yellow plane disappears the moment you take your eyes off it) . The ZOHD Kopilot also has a built in switchable stabiliser that make landing in the wind a tad easier but you don’t really need is as the plane has that good “locked in” feel about it.
Today the new 12 x 8e APC prop turned up (this is the recommended size but I have been running an 11 x 8e as it was all I had) so it has been fitted ready for another test flight.
I have also ordered a 4200mAh 3S 75C LiPo as the current ones I have – 3000mAh 3S 30C LiPo’s trigger the low voltage telemetry back to the radio very quickly at WOT. Back the power off and at least 10 minutes of flight is achievable. Testing this morning shows the motor draws 8 amps more with the larger prop so I think the larger capacity battery will be needed.
For those that are interested here are the test results with the two props, both tested on a fully charged battery.
E-flite Pulse XT 25e
Motor – Turnigy 25e 870kV (theoretical 9918 rpm – no load)
ESC – Aerostar 40A reversible
Battery – Floureon 3000mAh 11.4v 3S 30C LiPo
Prop 11 x 8e
RPM – 8700
Watts – 360W
Current – 34A WOT
Prop 12 x 8e
RPM – 8100
Watts – 470W
Current – 42A WOT
Tug, just a quick “maybe” with your RunCam 2. The battery connections to the camera are a pretty poor design and I found almost from new that I needed a piece of card (cut same size as the battery) jammed underneath between the battery and the case to get a reliable connection.
Of course the other option may be a stuffed battery if it was stored in a discharged state for a long time.
