Back to Basics

Yesterday's unfortunate episode with a reversed throttle left me feeling a bit gloomy. I wanted to take the 4 star 20 for its first flight with a FrSky receiver. Having a motor with a bent shaft seemed to have put paid to that. I'd ordered a new shaft but that was late morning so it would be a few days before it arrived.
WRONG!
I'd forgotten how good the service is from Overlander, the new shaft arrived this morning, less than 24 hours after I placed the order
The 4 Star 20 has its motor back in and will be at Cashmoor tomorrow.
Well done Overlander!

One the most inventive excuses I have heard in a long time. :lol: Good 'ole Overlander ruined it.

Brian - Taking up Phil's theme, indeed you were very lucky to get away so lightly.
The 3rd possibility was that the model could have taken OFF & created mayhem
in your neighbourhood.

Catch up tomorrow.

Colin.

Most of the activity on the model building front came to a halt at the end of July. Nothing serious, only a delivery of long awaited trellis panels. Then followed the usual mind numbing task of slopping preservative on the lot, making new cappings as only solid ones were available. Finally its all up and done and I can nip back into the shed again with a more or less clear conscience. This year has been quite eventful, it saw the completion and first flights of the SIG Kadet Senior, the dodgy refurbishment of the cranky old Panic bipe, the unexpectedly complicated refurbishment of the Flair SE5A, its first flight consisted of a ground level half roll after take off, spectacular and fortunately left the model virtually undamaged. The cause appeared to be a failed Lemon Rx receiver, which had successfully operated on the range check previous to the flight attempt. Now replaced with a FrSky item which needs a bit more setting up before trying again. Bit by bit I'm changing receivers from Spektrum to FrSky/Taranis. The first successful one was in an odd little model based on the old design "Das Ugly Stik", it was picked up in a sorry state at a "clear out" earlier in the year. Tarted up and fitted with a new four channel receiver it proved to be an exciting introduction to Taranis. I was pleased with the results, and suitably encouraged I changed the receiver in the SIG 4* 20E. This model proved to be a bit difficult to fly. It was OK on Spektrum, but control by Taranis seemed to be a lot different. Last Wednesday, I realised why the model wasn't responding as well as I'd hoped, I had completely forgotten to retrim it after the receiver change.Three trimming flights later and the 4* cruises along with almost no input from the sticks, and even better, a six minute flight leaves the 3S 2200 battery at 53%, so lots of safety there. I'm starting to clear the bench for the next project which would have been started a while ago if it hadn't been for the interesting models collected along the way. I'm sure that Jon and Kevin will be pleased to see one of the two Merco engines they donated towards my project, up and running at the front of a Mike Birch Moonglow. So far all I've done is unroll the plan and hope I can do it justice. It'll be a slow start, but with luck and patience it'll get to Cashmoor eventually. Watch this space.

Sometimes things don't go quite as expected. Today I took the SE5A to Cashmoor. The model had its newly fitted FrSky receiver range checked, the engine performed faultlessly. Take off was pretty relaxed, rudder and aileron control was good but elevator was a bit twitchy. After climbing and turning crosswind, made a second turn onto the downwind leg and I started to close the throttle a little and lose height as I wanted to land and sort out the sensitive elevator. I was about to turn the SE crosswind prior to making the final approach, when it slowly started turning right, the right turn ended in a spiral dive. I had no control at all. I thought that was extra bad luck to get two radio failures in two flights. Tim kindly helped me retrieve the wreck, which at first look didn't seem too bad. This evening having spent most of the afternoon dismantling and collecting reusable bits, I tested the receiver, it was still bound and all channels worked perfectly. Digging further into what had been the battery bay just under the fuel tank, I found the cause of the crash. The battery lead had been extended, the two parts of the connector had come undone, there wasn't a clip or any means of holding them together. The joint couldn't be seen unless a determined attempt was made to remove the battery. When I first got the model, the battery checked out OK on the meter I didn't look any further. As the accident wasn't a radio fault and the Saito FA.50 has survived undamaged, tomorrow I'll see what has to be done to get the SE airworthy. It just might be worth the effort.

really sorry to hear that Brain after all the rebuilding you posted.

However, I assume you're about to try the Extra Wot from Simons collection. Now we all loved Simon to bits but unfortunately his technical skills had a few flaws - so double check the model !

Yes, I did find some "interesting" things built in to the WOT4 XL, on the first engine run, the unsupported long flexi exhaust gave up and broke off. The first full power run blew the side trims from the fuselage. Now the engine has been rebuilt, the first run made the pull/pull rudder fixings come loose and fall off. Would have been exciting if it had happened in flight. I'm going to replace the cord with wire and I'll not forget to lock the locknuts!

That's a damn shame with loss of the SE5a. May I suggest that where leads are extended and then hidden or are paramount to flight control use these. So cheap but so useful. Come in many colours! Admittedly I used to use electrical insulation tape many years ago but was awful trying to unwind the stuff to replace a lead or servo. If there is one thing Hobbyking can be thankful for it's these.

Thanks Phil, the unsecured connectors have made a lot more work to repair the SE5A. Unfortunate that they were buried in the fuselage, and couldn't be seen unless the servos and battery were removed. With a bit of luck, the SE5A will fly again, it took me a long time to dismantle the wreckage, but with the "bits" cleaned up and stowed in a cardboard box, the rest of the model looks repairable. The engine survived without any damage ,and the damage to the wings is minor, needing only a bit of tweaking and a spot or two of glue. The cabane struts took a bashing and were completely out of shape, fortunately they were torn from their mountings without damaging the fuselage. They have now been invited to assume their original shape with the assistance of a vice and a plastic faced mallet. The front end of the engine cowling was damaged beyond repair so a new "front end" will be needed. A couple of formers yielded to the impact of the "arrival", but will be repaired easily with thin ply doublers. .

Hi Brian - Just doing a bit of catching up - so sorry to read about your SE5A's " incident" on Thursday.
Hopefully you can get enthused sometime to repair her.
I too have some horror stories of
pre-owned models that looked o.k until closer inspection.
Badly soldered battery connections wrapped in insulation tape etc.
Catch up soon.

Regards
Colin.