April 2009 Archives

Final Golf Dome Highlights

|
| Comments (0)
April 17th, 2009 was the last sort of official indoor golf dome rc flying event for the season. A good crowd was out to have fun! The night included lots of flying, a sacrificial parkzone and even a bunch of prizes (quite possibly subsidized by CellarDwellar since their staff have been heavily involved in the planning and organizing of the events). Here are some planes that were spotted that night:


golfdome11.JPGA flying shuttle. Pusher prop, nearly stands on the prop to fly slow. Even still, it moves real fast and the pilot needed to be on the ball!

golfdome7.JPGThis little guy is made from the guts of a Parkzone citabria or cessna. Zips around and looks really fun.

golfdome4.JPG
A dual gyrocopter 3D. Being 3D meant it could hang from the prop and work up the speed for the gyros.

golfdome1.JPGThe new Parkzone / Minium Piper Cherokee - 4 channel RC goodness in a little 1 oz plane! Sadly it still uses the proprietary Kyosho Tx/Rx, but still neat to watch it fly.

golfdome3.JPGPrizes! Some planes (bodies), servos, bags, tools and other goodies. (Sadly I did not win anything - oh well, maybe next time.)



The sacrificial Parkzone - listen to it get pulvirized by the helicopter. Sorry I missed the actual action, but at least I caught the sound - notice how distracted I get!!!


Indoor flying - Golf Dome - April 17, 2009 from Alex Wiebe on Vimeo.

Some silly video of me hand launching and catching my parkzone citabria!

Thanks for reading!



Potentially fatal crash - pilot survived

|
| Comments (0)
Ok, I'm being a little over dramatic. However, tonight at the WHAM indoor flying club I frequent Monday nights, I flew the Citabria too close to the gym wall. I tagged the wall, fell the floor and it appears I have stripped the rudder servo.

The servo is an integral part of the main board, which costs 50% the price of a completely new plane. And I have spent my last few pennies (in advance even...) getting some equipment for the StarLite park flyer.

Looks like the end of the road may have come for the Citabria. Pics of the servo may or may not appear. *sigh*. Nearly 14 hours on the airframe over 12 months of flying and probably over one hundred flights. It has served me well.

Rest in pieces little buddy.

FPV Micro RC Helicopter - PD-100

|
| Comments (0)
Wow! This thing is TINY - and it includes a live feed video camera!!!




I want one!

My bad - no StarLITE at last Golf Dome...

|
| Comments (0)
Just received my order of RC bits. Had trimmed back my order to ensure that:
  1. Received 2 sets of wheels for the Fokker - Check!
  2. Received batteries (check), servos (check), props (check), ESC (check) and motor (Do'h) for the StarLITE plane I'm slowly building.
Well, I guess I forgot to double check the motor. I had planned on ordering a $6 25g 1600kv outrunner which probably would have been suffecient for the plane, but I guess somehow I missed the fact that I removed it from my order to keep my costs within budget.

Oh well. I will assemble what I can and make sure to get the wheels on the Fokker so it at least is ready to fly.

(Also filed under Grounded - cause I'm an idiot...)

By the way - this Friday (April 17th) from 10:30PM to 12:30AM is the last (semi)-official indoor fun fly at the Golf Dome! I'll be there with my Citabria!

Come watch for FREE!

Fly for $20 (I hear rumor of prizes???)