How much did you spend on the hobby in 2009?  How much will you spend wrapping up Xmas, and how many of you will receive gift certificates that will be spent before year’s end?

Gift from Horizon Hobby

I think I must have spent too much this year, because the mailman brought me a little Xmas gift from Horizon today. 

 It’s a nice little aluminum water bottle, came with a card and a discount code good for 20% off a single order.   Thanks Horizon! 

I contrast that to my other experiences – I’ve been trying to get a return call from somebody (anybody?) over at Hobby-Lobby for over a week now.     Their customer service has really gone to hell in the last few years, and I think I may have placed my last order with those guys.

I think it’s interesting that the hobby industry has not been hit as hard as other ‘non essential’ industries, and it’s encouraging to see companies like Horizon succeed.   I can only hope that the recession causes other, less responsive firms to either tighten up the ship or get into a different business.

Happy Holidays,

- Eli

After owning the camera for a few weeks, I have a much better feel for how it works, and how to mount it without so much worry.  The mounts they give you are very secure, but I find I need to run a thin strip of tape through them in order to keep them from rattling slightly in the audio.

Firstoff, Gopro:  We really need the proposed upcoming firmware patch that will flip the video right side up in the camera without needing to use editing software.  I end up flipping it in Premiere Elements, which is time consuming.

The non-waterproof door is ideal for RC use.  You can hear plenty of detail when the motor is not running, and also wonderful wind and servo noises if that’s the kind of thing you like.  Everybody I talk to says they prefer music, but I can see some utility for having accurate sound reproduction, especially from a glider.

Here is my latest attempt at a short (~7 minute) film.  I took it from the same brushless Aspire as I did the last video, and I really tried to use only the sections of footage that I thought were interesting.  There are plenty of air/air shots of the other planes at the field, and what I think is some of the best bits from ~25 minutes of footage.

We also had a chance to play with the still camera mode, and this turned out very nice.  I will comment that it looks a little grainy under certain circumstances, but I also didn’t take any pains to adjust the camera for the ambient settings.  First time.

5MP still image from Gopro HD Hero

 The wide angle is extreme, and it does look cool for a lot of stuff.  At this price point, I’d love to see a camera of this quality that had interchangeable lenses. 

It handles difficult conditions well – the sun is a nightmare in this shot:

5MP still image from Gopro HD Hero

Next I’ll try some more exotic locations.

I’ll continue to experiment as my time and hardware permits. 

Also worth checking out – a gent named Mario Schimanko wrote me last week, he’s got a Hero and has been doing some FABULOUS work on Vimeo.  Check it out!

- Eli

I pre-ordered my Gopro HD Helmet Hero the first week of October, after yet another day of disappointment at the field with my Flycamone2. 

Well, my unit turned up today on Fedex, and I regret that I pretty much trashed the box taking it apart.  It’s got cool-looking packaging. 
*More on the packaging later!

I’d been looking forward to this day for some time.  Last week, I was in contact with the Support group at Gopro, and they are effective and nice.  The company is located in Half Moon Bay, very close to where I live.

The instructions consist of a non-assuming large folded sheet of glossy paper.  There is a surprising amount of information on this large form, and you can fold it up & fit it in your pocket without trashing it. 
The instructions state that the battery comes with a storage charge of 50%, and that you can just go out and play if you like without hurting the battery,  I like the fact that they thought of this.  I was a good boy and charged the battery anyway.

I had a litle bit of a dilemma deciding where to mount the camera on my Aspire.  The package came with a pair of nice sticky mounts for the camera, but I was nervous about just sticking this to the monokote.  With the sun settling in the winter afternoon sky, I had an idea – use the ’shoe’ for the camera that came with the packaging as a mount! 
I quickly knocked the sides off with a hacksaw, drilled a couple of holes, backed the bolts up with some plywood to reinforce the weak balsa floor and called it good:

Now, in retrospect I realize that this mount could use some improvement.  First of all, I need better foam dampening between the mount and the body of the airplane.  Also, I think the packaging ’shoe’ fits more loosely than the real thing, so this mount is definitely a 1.0 revision.  In the video I hear something rattling, and I think it’s some combination of these problems causing the noise.

The camera has a number of modes, the nuances of which are discussed in the instructions.  I wanted the glories of full-blown 1080p, though I ended up scaling that back down to 720p in Premiere later to reduce the size of the file I’d be uploading to Vimeo.  When I got home and read  the docs again I realized that I made an error – the camera has a nifty feature that allows you to tell it that it is inverted. 
That way, it records the video on the SD in the correct orientation! 

A note on noise:  When inside the housing, this camera lives up to it’s claim of fending off wind noise.  It has an amusing legend on the back of the unit, that advises the use of the waterproof case door if the wind encountered is expected to be faster than 100mph

I decided to buy Adobe Premiere Elements as an editing tool – I’ve been using good old Windows Movie Maker for a long time.  Most of my evening was spent purchasing, downloading, and getting to know the product.  Overall, I’d rate the Adobe online fulfillment experience as ‘deeply annoying’, but we got the job done.

I need to experiment with some mount options to see what I can do about the noise of the motor resonating through the airplane, and I am planning to be very careful about where I fly until I get a larger glider.   In it’s protective housing this camera weighs darn near 6.5oz, and the case is a blessing.  It adds an ounce and a bit more to the overall weight, but it’s one tough cookie and you would be insane to use this camera for RC stuff without it.

The camera was easy to use, and I’m very happy with the results.   Considering that I was flying in the poor light of a Winter sunset, had a quickly rigged mount plus lousy Premiere editing skills, this product is a miracle.

Update 11/19/2009 – I put the camera on my Ultra 25 in better light, better mount, and with the sub-100mph door.  The results are much bettter. 

.. Now it’s time to improve my skills at video editing, for a start!

Zeke reviews the Hangar 9 RV-8 ARF, a 46 size sport- scale rendition of the Van’s Aircraft RV-8 build-it-yourself civilian aircraft.

Lid popped

After enjoying the E-Flite RV-9, I decided to get something similar yet larger. I just picked up the Hangar 9 RV-8 46. It’s a clean looking rendition of the Vans Aircraft RV-8. This is my first ARF from Hangar 9 and with a wingspan of 5ft. and a length of over 4ft. it will be the largest in my fleet at this time. It’s designed for 2 or 4 stroke slimers or a Power 46 / equivelant EP motor. After unpacking it and checking the contents I was quite happy as everything is mint. All the fragiles are individually wrapped and secured. The covering is excellent, better than I have ever seen from E-Flite out of the box. No warps, wrinkles, bubbles, or tears. The manual is well-written and logical. Hangar 9 got it right on this aspect.

I will be using mostly the recommended gear, though I’m not a fan of E-Flite ESC’s. Here is my config:

E-Flite Power 46
Castle Phoenix 60 ESC and CC-BEC
6x JR DS821 high-torque digital sport servos driven @ 6V, 2x for Flaps
JR R921 RX with 4th. receiver
4s lipo – likely 2x 2500 mAh 30C’s in parallel
I’ll start with an APC 13 x 8 prop

Will be flown with JR X9303 so should have 2048 resolution w/the R921. Also ServoSync. I bench tested everything and was surprised at how smooth and accurate the servos are as well as the torque and holding strength. They are standard size, yet light. I will be using 7 channels on the RX as I prefer a channel per aileron and flap – no “Y” harness. This gets you subtrim and the ability to configure differential. For this setup you will need 2x 6″ extensions for the ailerons.

The Du-Bro 2.75″ white spinner is recommended. You will want this, catalog # 290.

The hardware kit is complete and includes proper components. This was meant to be either a slimer or an EP so the hardware is sturdy. Some may prefer to swap out the nylon clevis(s) with metal hardware.

All control surfaces are pre-hinged with control horns attached. The rudder employs a pull-pull linkage via cable. The elevator is dual halves and the horizontal stab halves mate together with the fuse via 2 joiner tubes.

There is a ton of room inside the hatch, making easy work of servo, linkage, and radio / lipo installation. Eases cable tidy-up as well.

The hatch has magnets holding it in place and you can also bolt it in from both sides.

Electronics

Bits

Fuse / Hatch

The tail halves

The 2-piece landing gear. Boo!

Radio gear pre tidy-up

Elev. and Rudd. servos installed

The rudder and elevator servo installation is easy, place the servo in the tray, mark inside the grommets with a pen, then use a pin drill to make pilot holes. Wick thin CA over the surrounding wood and when it cures bolt your servos in. The JR DS821 servos fit perfectly in the servo tray.

Careful when cutting out the exit!

Horizontal stab prior to joining to fuse

Tail mated to fuse

You will want to use low-tack tape to hold it in place while you gently apply pressure or lightly clamp until the epoxy sets.

Canopy installed & curing

The canopy is another task which requires patience & skill. You have to cut it out of a giant mold without damaging it. Canopy scissors would be the clear choice however I don’t own a pair so I used Fiskars. Cut all the way around within .5″ of the mold lines. Then trimmed up with a razor knife and hand sanded. Ya! Use canopy glue to secure it to the hatch and keep an eye out to wipe up any drips.

The instructions for the cowl are complete shennanigans. They say to use a hobby knife to cut out the air inlets. Good luck. You will need a rotary tool with a drill bit to get going then an attachment to route it out. I finished it up with a sanding drum on the rotary tool.

Finished cowl

Motor mount template

The included motor mount template makes it easy. Tape it up, mark the holes, pin drill them out then BAM. Enlarge the holes to about 4.5mm to allow for the mounting bolts. Das Schroeder!

The Power 46 X-mount included also needs to have the outer mounting holes drilled out to about 4.5mm and the bolts and included spacers keep it all together.

Power 46 mounted

The cooling vents need to be cut out from the firewall – this is a pain because the firewall is coated in adhesive to prevent fuel damage. I used a rotary tool to punch through and route out the cooling vents.

Once that is complete,  it’s a simple matter of connecting the motor to the ESC, and mounting the ESC with the leads out of the way.

The cowl bolts right up easily. The prop adapter & spinner backplate is installed along with a prop, then the spinner hub is attached.

Left-side

Right hand side

I used wire keeps and double-sided foam tape to tidy up the electronics as best as possible. This setup has 11 leads coming off the RX due to the satellite receivers and FlightLog interface!

All in all, I think Hangar 9 did a fine job with this ARF. They included silly foam wheels, which is crap for something this size. A few dollars to replace with something nice though. The motor mount template is brilliant, saving wasted and potentially inaccurate work.  The finish is high-quality and clean, very true to the full-size RV-8. I did not find any potential gotchas with the manual, it is well-written.

Overall, I’d have to rate this ARF high up on the scale. I look forward to building more Hangar 9 ARF’s in the future.

-Zeke

The Parkzone BF-109 is an interesting product.  Like most scale warbird replicas, it does not have the most forgiving flight characteristics, and it has a couple of quirks.

I’ve flown mine about ten times now, and I would say that landing smoothly is the biggest challenge.  One tip I can immediately recommend is to pull BACK as soon as the main gear contacts and the wing has stopped flying.  If you don’t pull back, the tail likes to float and the model tips forward onto it’s nose.

I wanted to fly the BF-109 a few times before trying the flap option, and after dumping the 109 on it’s nose a few times this weekend (plus 2 good landings!) I was ready to give it a shot.

The gray tape that covers the aileron servo wires does not survive being peeled back gracefully.  Plan to get some new tape in a similar color before you start.  You will also need a servo Y adapter, a pair of sub micro servos (I used HXT-900) and the pushrods and stuff that came with your kit.  The manual says you need to buy the linkages for flaps, but everything I needed came in the box of my BNF example.

The first brain teaser is how to make the flaps work, considering that the Ar500 is only a 5ch reciever.

On a DX6i, the answer is to plug the Y harness into the ‘gear’ channel on the reciever.   Then go into the flap setup in the DX6i, and set the flaps to 100% down.  Most airplanes need some down elevator to prevent the model from ballooning up when you apply the flaps, but this particular model does not with 1/2″ of flap travel.  I set the correction value to 0, and it stays level, hands-off.

Next, you need to mix the flap channel with the gear channel.  I put this on Mix1, set it to active and 125% down.  Lastly, I reversed the gear channel from the ‘SETUP LIST’, ‘Reverse’ menu.

The mechanical part is pretty easy, too – Place your servos, route your Y harness, and mount the control horns as per page 14 of the manual.  I left my RX powered up so I knew the ailerons were centered as I set it up, and cut the flaps out as per the recommendations in the manual.

With the clevis connected to the third hole on the flaps, and the flap->gear mix set to 125%, I’m getting about 13mm of travel from the flaps when deployed, which is close to the PZ recommendation for half flaps.

My DX6i only has a 2-pos flap switch, and I decided to leave this at the more conservative setting until I have had a chance to fly the model.

Wrapping up the modification, I moved the clevis from the outer hole to the second from the bottom on the ailerons, and overdrove the aileron servos a little bit to get the PZ recommended 3/4″ (19mm) travel out of the ailerons.

This morning, the Winter storm that has been hitting Northern CA took a break, so I rushed out to the field.   I didn’t use the flaps for takeoff, but I flew around with them and did a bunch of approaches.  The flaps do slow the model considerably, and it takes out some of that low-speed wing tipping that everybody is noticing.  Again, there is no elevator correction required at 1/2″  flap travel, I wonder if it will be required when I dial the flaps up to 3/4″. 

It will be a few days before I figure it out, because in the gray skies I got disoriented and had a little mishap.  Thank God Horizon has spare parts in stock…

Please don’t take my numbers as Gospel, and I hope this article helps some folks wrap their head around the custom mix they need to do in the DX6i.

- Eli

**Update 10/26/09 – Crash repairs consisted of a new fuselage and wing

In this iteration, I put the clevis on the inner hole on the flaps and ailerons, and over-drove everything to 125%.  This yields 1″ of flap travel, and just over 1″ of aileron travel.  The aileron roll rate is quite manageable, and there is still no need to dial in an elevator correction with the flaps. 

My 109 on approach with flaps deployed

The flaps slow the model down, but the tip stalling is still there and you still need to land under power.  An experienced pilot friend of mine suggested that I cock each aileron up a few degrees to see if that tames the stalling a little, and I’ll be trying that this week.

Keep the shiny side up,

- Eli