The Squamidian Report – Jan. 11 / 14
Online Version
Issue #607
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The Ontarion
Hi All,
Ok, we haven't had any snow or ice or cold or freezing rain around here
to talk about so I'm gonna have to put you through a little more R/C
stuff, and gonna test your memory a bit as well. Do you remember that
big white R/C plane that Ryan gave me several years ago. The one that I
kept crashing which was very frustrating and puzzling and sad. No
matter how hard I tried, I could not fly the thing. Now, do you
remember that I got the little yellow plane in order to teach myself to
fly these things on something slower and more forgiving so I could
migrate up to the white one. As I've stated, the little yellow Champ
has proven to be both easy to fly and a lot of fun to fly. Because it
can fly relatively slowly, I get a lot of enjoyment out of doing low,
slow fly-bys, keeping it about 5 ft above the ground. That takes a very
smooth touch on the controls but thats what its all about. So, at some
point I needed to give the white plane, the Super Cub, another try. By
all rights I should be able to fly it now, and fly it fairly well. Last
time I tried, I crashed it so bad, again, that it came home in a bag,
again, after which I totally re-built it. In preparation for the
attempted flight, I charged the flight battery and checked the controls
while still here in the house. All went well, controls responded the
way they should. Headed down to the ball park and went through the
start-up procedure which is basically, turn on the control unit first,
then plug in the flight battery, then test the controls. All went well,
but the rudder didn't respond smoothly, then it didn't respond at all,
then it worked just fine. It worked fine during several more tests.
Because the field is grass, I removed the wheels. That way, I simply do
a hand launch and then belly land it. With tiny 1.25-inch dia wheels on
grass, it would have just nosed over when the wheels caught on the
grass. No need for that. Up it went, nice and smooth. I did a gentle
left turn and a fly-by at about 20 ft altitude. Then, the plane went
into a right turn and I could not pull it out. I managed to belly land
with no damage and checked the rudder, it would not respond correctly
and only moved to the right. Bummer. Headed for home and checked it
again. At first it would not respond, then just a bit, then full proper
movement and control came back. Yes, I was puzzled.
I did some minor mechanical trim adjustments and checked the controls.
They were working fine again. So, back down to the field. It flew
effortlessly for 10 minutes or so, stable and smooth. Then, I started
having rudder control issues again. I did a fairly nice belly landing
and checked the rudder, it would not respond. However, I did have my
first ever, crash free, 10 minutes of quite nice flying with the old
plane. Went home and let everything come up to room temperature, rudder
again responded correctly. I thought it was most likely the servo motor
not liking the cold, it was a frosty 0 degrees here and this equipment
has not been used in a long time. Subsequent testing is pointing at the
radio control unit, specifically, the rudder channel components. I put
the plane outside and let it get cold, and kept the controller warm. No
issues. I put the control unit outside to get cold and kept the plane
warm. This time the rudder did not respond properly. I did several more
tests with everything warm, everything cold, each item back and forth.
It would appear there is a some degradation in the controller's rudder
channel that is causing a sensitivity to being cold. Thats my finding
for now and future flights will prove me right or wrong. It could be
that I simply only fly the Super Cub when its a bit warmer out, or, at
some point replace the controller with either a new one or use one of
my other ones if it will bind to the plane. Either way an easy fix. Or,
at some point, I could pick up a modern, fancy controller that would
bind with all my R/C equipment but there is no need for that at this
point in time. I'd have to learn to program the thing.
And now for why I was never able to learn to fly the Super Cub in the
first place, because I should have been able to figure it out and make
it work long ago. It is much bigger and heavier than the Champ (25.2 oz
compared to 1.3 oz) but flying is very similar, just much faster and
therefore more altitude and flying space is needed. The Super Cub is
'old technology' by today's standards but was cutting edge when new.
The plane and controller are probably 3-years old now. It has what at
the time was a cutting edge on-board system called ACT (anti-crash
technology) that was supposed to prevent crashes by taking control of
the plane under certain conditions. It uses two light sensors, one on
top and the other on the bottom. The top one expects to see 'light',
the bottom one expects to see 'dark', as in sky and ground. If the
bottom sees light or the top sees dark, it assumes the plane is
inverted and tries to correct. In theory that makes sense, but not in
the real world. Every thing I've found on-line regarding this system
says to disable it, DO NOT FLY with it turned on, because, all you had
to do was fly over a walkway or roadway that was lighter than grass, or
even fly over a sandy area and you were screwed. The plane thought it
was inverted and would try to correct, resulting in a dive that could
only be recovered from if it was back over a dark surface and with
several hundred feet of altitude to work with because the ACT system
would be fighting your own flight input.. The R/C forums are referring
to ACT as auto-crash, instead of anti-crash, technology. This explains
why during my first flight attempts, I would simply loose control as
the plane suddenly dove into the ground. Now I know. A lot of time was
lost that I could have salvaged had I started digging into the problem
long ago, but, problem now solved. I've disconnected the sensors and
aside from the rudder issue which I think is solved, control was smooth
and easy. I can now fly the Super Cub as well as I can fly the Champ.
Cool.
And yes, a very big Happy Birthday to Greg. He keeps catching up to me.
doug
****
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
LOL! Just couldn’t resist starting off that way!
After all, it’s not every day that a 39 year old guy suddenly turns 65
and still looks as good as he did at his previous age! (Of course
that’s likely just my opinion.) What a shocker to suddenly realize that
I’m 65 and still kickin’! How and why is it that I don’t feel anywhere
near 65 years of age but my driver’s license says I am? I guess it must
just be all that good clean living I’ve been doing for the past how
many years. I’m so glad to still be here and still have most of my
faculties. There were a few times that I figured I was on my way out,
yet, somehow I managed to survive. I have to say that I consider myself
a very lucky man to still be here and as healthy as I am after all
these years. After two heart surgeries, diabetes and facing all the
risks that my career as a Fire Fighter presented me with over the past
40+ years, not to mention that my wife has pointed out that I’m “brain
dead” too, I guess I AM the luckiest man after all to be here and
celebrating my 65th today!
I just received word this week that a former co-worker of mine, a man
that worked for me on my platoon passed away this past Sunday after
suffering a heart attack at the age of 56! He was the picture of health
and worked out every day of his adult life. He was a very good man and
a dedicated Fire Fighter and family man. Corry Baker was a friend who
deserved better than to have life snatched from him just as he was
about to retire. I last talked to Corry in the parking lot of Steve’s
TV back in September and he told me he was considering retirement
within the next year of two. I hadn’t seen Corry more than a time or
two since my retirement in 2002 but still considered him a friend and
I’m very sad to hear of his passing! With Corry’s situation in mind, I
have yet one more reason to be happy to be celebrating my 65th and
still be looking to the future and the many things that Carole and I
still have plans to do with our life together. Thank you Lord for
extending my time here with my family and I’m looking forward to many
more years if you will grant me that luxury!
*
Just to change the subject to something happier I managed to clean up
the mess in my basement workshop over the past couple of days. I had to
return the table saw that Carole and Adam bought me for Christmas this
week since I was able to bring my 38 year old one that I spoke of last
week back to life. As I said last week there was no sense in keeping a
new one if the old one worked just fine. Carole and Adam insisted I
take the cash from the return and purchase other tools that I might
need for my wood working projects. I hadn’t done much woodworking over
the past few years but have decided to bring my hobby back to life.
Adam and I went out to Lowe’s the other night and I purchased a
tabletop dual Disk/Belt sander for my shop. I am taking my time
deciding what else I can add to my tool collection with the remainder
of my funds. I have decided to try my hand at making some wooden toys
as a hobby, just to do something different. I have made many pieces of
furniture over the past 40 years and would like a different challenge
this time. If any of you guys have plans or ideas that you can send my
way for toys made of wood, please don’t hesitate to forward them via
e-mail or “old school MAIL”. I’d welcome any and all suggestions.
I guess that’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
Immortality! What would it be like to live forever?
Hahaha… I guess nobody can answer that one can they?
****
Have a good one..
the doug
http://www.thedougsite.net
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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