70th Birthday present

[planedriver]

Today I received a FMS Cessna 182 R/C kit with 1.4mtr wingspan from my ex-daughter-in law for my Birthday.

 

Being an old fart who used used to build these sort of things out of sticks of balsa, etc; I was amazed at the precision of how well these modern "foamy"aircraft come together, complete with 6 channel digital R/C, led nav lights etc;

 

Having not flown R/C for quite a few years, I feel it would be wise to get someone in the know, to test fly and trim it, before I have a go.

 

Is this a wise thing to do, while I study the Chinese Model BAK?

 

At least with this one, I don't need to take 5 ltrs of washing up liquid to the flying field to get rid of the stink of the burned methanol and caster oil left on my hands and the car seats?

 

Maybe just a vacuum for the remaining foam chips at the end of the day.

 

At least Godfrey's have some good specials on!

 

 

[facthunter]

I reckon they might be harder to fly properly than the real thing. Nev

 

 

[mAgNeToDrOp]

Electric seems to be the way it's going these days. I've got a 1.20 Four stroke motor that I've converted to petrol instead of glow fuel, it's more to protect the fiberglass finish ( if I ever finish building the damn thing that is...) I like the sound of the motor but it's definitely messier than electric.

 

 

[facthunter]

What size is a 1.20? a .61 used to be 10 cc. Is it 20 cc?... Messier make brake assemblies for large planes.

 

 

[dazza 38]

Off thread, but since 10cc is mentioned above. I have a question. Is it true that the band 10cc was named as such because a certain bodily function when err, making babies contained on average 10cc worth of fluid ? Useless information but just curious.

 

 

[mAgNeToDrOp]

What size is a 1.20? a .61 used to be 10 cc. Is it 20 cc?... Messier make brake assemblies for large planes.

Yep you're correct 20 cc, or 1.20 cu inches. I bought it for a 1/6 (approx) scale spitfire mkVb ( 72 in wingspan) build in progress.

 

 

[planedriver]

Happy Birthday Nev (old fart).

Hey Mike, it's Planey who had the Birthday and now qualifies as an old fart.

 

Nev stopped having them years ago:whisper:

 

Nev said QUOTE :

 

I reckon they might be harder to fly properly than the real thing. Nev

 

I found that to be the case some years ago, so today ordered a R/C simulator online from the same manufacturer as the kit.

 

At $26 odd delivered from China, I figured it would be a worthwhile investment, not only will it help me back into the R/C scene, but after a few weeks I might qualify for the l/h seat with Asiana.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

10cc....that's what I heard also Dazza....at the risk of showing my age, I did once see the band live in London at Wembley Stadium, and they weren't bad. Don't like Jamaica though......................

 

 

[Cosmick]

Hey Mike, it's Planey who had the Birthday and now qualifies as an old fart.Nev stopped having them years ago:whisper:

Nev said QUOTE :

 

I reckon they might be harder to fly properly than the real thing. Nev

 

I found that to be the case some years ago, so today ordered a R/C simulator online from the same manufacturer as the kit.

 

At $26 odd delivered from China, I figured it would be a worthwhile investment, not only will it help me back into the R/C scene, but after a few weeks I might qualify for the l/h seat with Asiana.

Appols to Nev then , Planey I've tried a bit of RC, all fine heading away but turn back left is right, what? confusion - crash. I got a Helo once only to see it disappear over the trees and not bounce well next door.

 

Oh and many happy returns

 

 

[planedriver]

What size is a 1.20? a .61 used to be 10 cc. Is it 20 cc?... Messier make brake assemblies for large planes.

Yes Nev its 20cc

 

 

[planedriver]

 

Appols to Nev then , Planey I've tried a bit of RC, all fine heading away but turn back left is right, what? confusion - crash. I got a Helo once only to see it disappear over the trees and not bounce well next door.Oh and many happy returns

Thanks Mike,

 

Well it's finished and ready to go, but i'll wait for the simulator to come from China to get a bit of practice first.

 

I couldn't get over the price of the sim direct from China. I would have thought that $26 odd would not have even covered the postage.

 

It's nothing like some of the classy models like Mick and others have shown us on here, but it looks pretty good, I reckon, and should be good fun.

 

Kind Regards

 

Planey

 

 

[RKW]

Hello Planey, happy 71st. How did the Fms Cessna go? Is it still in the land of the living? Regards, Bob

 

 

[planedriver]

Hello Planey, happy 71st. How did the Fms Cessna go? Is it still in the land of the living? Regards, Bob

Thanks for the good wishes Bob, funny you should ask that mate! (not really)

 

However, in the top of my wardrobe, I do have a jig-saw puzzle which when finished with all the bits obtained from around the globe, should hopefully resemble the photo I posted much earlier in this post:yikes:.

 

I should have known a lot better, but after take-off, turned cross-wind and reduced the power too much as to me it seemed so fast, stalled a wing and didn't have quite enough height to recover.

 

Thinking of buying myself a cheapie motor glider just to get my hand in again. 1 jig-saw puzzle is enough for me these days.

 

Kind Regards

 

Planey

 

 

[turboplanner]

How did the $26 simulator work out?

 

 

[planedriver]

Good fun at home Turbs, but wonder now whether I should have bought the $30 one.

 

 

[sfGnome]

When I started flying models (without tuition/assistance), it took me about a year before I got to bring the model home in one piece. I used to fly it each weekend until it crashed, rebuild it during the week, and repeat ad nauseum. Got a bit wiser on the second attempt a few years later and joined a club. Then I only crashed every second weekend! :)

 

 

[gandalph]

Off thread, but since 10cc is mentioned above. I have a question. Is it true that the band 10cc was named as such because a certain bodily function when err, making babies contained on average 10cc worth of fluid ? Useless information but just curious.

Ah Daz, the truth is much more mundane. The name came about from a (dry) dream their manager had. The other sad news is supposedly that the average is only 3cc! See: www.snopes.com/music/artists/10cc.asp

 

Can you let the Maj know please, as I'm still on his ignore list (sniff).

 

 

[turboplanner]

Realflight 7 will allow you to hook up your own controller, make control reversal a breeze, eliminate that urge to pull the throttle back, and gives you good partial throttle feel to hold position for great landings, I couldn't find the current price - maybe $200 or $300, but that allows you to press the reset button when you screw up, which I've done a few hundred times.....which is cheaper than rebuilding.

 

 

[planedriver]

Is this what you trained on before or after your heli wound up in the dam?

 

If it was after, my $26 sim looks to be of similar value.

 

 

[turboplanner]

The dam incident was a lesson learned - don't buy a cheap helicopter with an on board camera and an infra red control system - it only has a range of about 50 metres. The wind carried that one out over the dam, and before I could make a forced landing, control was totally lost.

 

To give you an idea of the value of Real Flight, my instructor gave me full control on the second flight of the RC, and was telling everyone around to look at me, and what a find I was "He's only had half an hour's instruction" he marvelled.......but I'd done about 30 hours on the Realflight sim (with about 200 crashes).

 

 

[planedriver]

Joking apart, Real Flight looks very good as a training tool, especially as some heli's have amazing performance and can be very expensive.

 

It's also wise to have an instructor with a buddy-box, which I didn't have.

 

At the time I thought to myself, i'll be OK, ive done this before.

 

Like other forms of flying, recency, should not be underestimated, or be prepared to possibly pay the price, which I did in a very short time.

 

 

[RKW]

I have the older version, Real Flight G3, and it's very good, so I imagine the latest version would be better still. It is worth the dollars especially if you want to fly choppers!

 

 

[M61A1]

I have the older version, Real Flight G3, and it's very good, so I imagine the latest version would be better still. It is worth the dollars especially if you want to fly choppers!

I have Realflight G2, even that has worked a treat for me. I had never brought one back alive until then. I am in no way a good RC pilot, but now I have aircraft that are over 12 months old and have been well flown. I fly out in the sticks, and have never belonged to a club.

 

 

[flyerme]

Without buddy box ,I take off and trim the plane and once at hight and lvl I hand the controller to the student ,I can then voice directions and if needed ie they loose control I can take the controller back and recover. I have never lost one doing it this way..

 

 

[RKW]

I practised on the simulator and then bought a Parkzone Trojan and flew it at the local park. There were a few other flyers as well until the council inspectors threatened us with big fines if they caught us there again. They got our names and car rego and took photos of us and our models. It was a bit depressing to have the council come down on us like that. Anyhow we approached our local councillor and to our amazement, he was very supportive of us. We had to form a club and get insurance, but it has been worth the effort. The club has been going for about 12 months now and we have around 100 members including a few very keen juniors.