A hard RC lesson to learn.

Sorry Duke,

Grab a 2.4 and don't look back. Hope it's easily repaired.

hey Duke, sorry to hear...but at least it wasn't pilot error!

Hopefully not a spectrum 2.4 as the voltage brownout recovery is slow.

That sucks about the wing. Should be able to patch it up and use a carbon fiber cloth or a fiberglass cloth on the dihedral joint.

Well crap, Duke...sorry to hear.  Hope it's not too difficult to repair. I run a lot of stuff on 72 out here in the boondocks and get away with it...at least so far.

Hope you have it back in the air again shortly !

Hi Duke,  That's sad to hear or read rather. For the repair, the drawing is on Outerzone:

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=2359

Lieven

What a shame DJ
That's a lovely looking model, I'm sure you'll be able to nail it
back together though.

As an FYI...
I may have imported a buggy a few years back with 72mhz fitted.
I say 'may' but not really cos to operate it here would wind up with
me being 'spoken to' by Gentlemen with strange shaped hats on.   
But imagine for a moment that I had and expand your imagination to
Hackney Marshes that has a lot of Power Pylons running over and through it.
Then picture me and Junior racing around with exactly the same model,
(Schumacher Menace) one on 72mhz the other 35mhz, as we got close to the
cables the 72 (might have) experienced a lot of glitches.

But

Also, back in the day (5 years ago) at one of our flying fields the local authority let
the farmer put an electric fence up to keep his cattle in, the closest it came to our landing area
was about 120 yards away when approaching from ESE. An awful lot of models where lost
coming into land. Most of the boys were using 35mhz, I already had 2.4 and within 6 months so did everyone else.

That said I know power cables and transmitters are praps a little different but praps not.

Plus who knows what gear the Ham ster is using? My guess would be some kind of 'burner'
where even 2.4 may struggle.

Finally, I read yonks ago somewhere why we shouldn't use dry cell batteries in our radios
I don't remember what the reasoning was but our BMFA advises against them so if you're
using them (particularly at the RX end) praps a small purchase is in order.
 

Finally finally
For those who do a little R/Cing don't forget the most important check (after model) that
you do EACH visit to the field is a range check, I very rarely see anyone besides myself doing one
it's saved at least 2 of my models.
 

Good recount, JG. Couple of questions; by "Burner" are you referring to a linear amplifier or some sort of illegal signal booster? I've forgotten most of my radio knowledge now, but used to play with 27mhz CBs in the pre-ssb days... when I was a teenager. And how does one do a range check. Seems it may risk an unplanned hike, but of course I understand that's better than an unplanned landing.

Rusty

Yes, a range check is a short hike. 300 ft, 100 yards/meters is usually plenty for most days, although a more extreme test at 10x that range is a good idea for new models/radios, but will require a second person.

In the short test sitting on the ground is fine, for the longer test elevating the model to head height (6 ft) is an option as the range with the model in free air is better than sitting on the ground, since the Earth will absorb signal.

Phil

Yeah, you guys caught what I forgot as I typed my previous note. I'm one of those who is blatantly guilty of neglecting range checking my gear. I've been very lucky so far on 72, doing a lot of HIGH flying with no problems, other than with my aged eyesight.

I don't claim any radio expertise at all, other than MOSTLY being able to hook up the right wires on my cross-bred Airtronics radios, but during my visit (two years ago) to the local club's field, their were SEVERAL crashed attributed to "interference" with the new-style radios. I have to wonder though...if the same critical checks were done on THAT gear as in Ye Olden Days, if perhaps, the crashes could have been prevented.

Years ago, we had the "Black Wire Corrosion" crisis, where the copper in the ground wire from the battery pack would turn to black, brittle shards. I caught it on several of my packs before losing any planes, but have to wonder if interference got blamed for those less fortunate.

I take very good care of my radio gear, which is both good and bad, because it's hard to retire your stuff when it still looks new...not very bright logic of course...but still there is the pressure to make your stuff last. I may be in a fairly unique position with my semi-seclusion out here which lets me get away with such thinking.

Anyway, enough of this pre-coffee rambling, and once again, I hope you can get the Lady going again soon!

Groggy Kim

The exact procedure are all in the Radio Manuals Rusty.
For the oldie types it's easiest to leave aerial retracted, then walk 40/50 yards away with model
and see if there is any glitching/best to do this with engine running/ you'd
Be surprised at the amount of models that have crappy leads/connections etc that won't manifest
themselves until it's too late.
The new 2.4's have (Spektrum) a switch to 'power down' and Futaba a set switch on/off/on
procedure to achieve the same low power check setting.

Burner? Yes a device to raMP up the output of transmission.

BTW
Although I'm a committed (praps should be committed) Futaba man, you guys over there bear in
mind the Spektrum sets you enjoy in your stores are twice as powerful as the ones they sell
in Europe.

BTWBTW
I'm aware here that radio 'failure' is a very oft used 'reason' for pilot error.
  

 

Thanks for the well wishes for the rebuild guys. I did get in two flights the day before, and had a great time. Better than that, I'm even more taken by these big beautiful birds. The good news, I have two more wings in my boy's room. One is ready to go, on needs covered and very minor repairs. I have a DX6i and I cut out the 72mhz last night, after I cleared the tears and could see again  . I'm going to bob the nose and put the electric motor in also. I wanted to keep it the way it was given to me, BUT.....I'll just patch it together and learn to fly on it. I'm sure their will be more lessons to learn and no reason to bash up more than one of these beauties. I'll put spoilers in the last wing I have and get it covered, then it will make a nice ALES plane to learn on also. Are RC planes like CL planes, the ugly one last forever? If so, I'll just start patching with a coat of many colors.

Mark Boesen wrote:hey Duke, sorry to hear...but at least it wasn't pilot error!

I feel like it was pilot error. I remember a year and half ago when I asked permission to fly CL at the soccer field, The guy in charge said he didn't fly his gliders there because of the HAM radio towers in our area. I just remembered after picking up the pieces.  

lol, ok it's your fault! I would of done the same thing, the power of flight is too overwhelming!

I still fly narrowband fm, I'm the only guy at the field with one, never got hit...yet.

Along those same lines...for years (back in the day) whenever somebody lost it/crashed they'd always say: I got hit, I got hit (radio interference)!!!! This summer I witnessed a couple crashes...the pilot just stood there motionless with their head down looking at their 2.4 radio!

I'm sorry Duke.. That's a bummer. It would be worse though; if you had a lot of building-time invested and if this was the maiden flight... I hope you get it repaired and back in the air soon.

Roddie

I should be able to work on it more tonight.  A least you guys can make me laugh about it a little.  I feel better about it than last night.  Of course I'm not holding the carnage in my hand right now.  The biggest repair will be the stab/elev., but it's a clean break.  then I need to figure out how to bob the nose to install a 450 outrunner.  I want to put in a firewall and have the motor inside the fuse, but not sure how much structure needs to be involved.

Just a side-note...Dave Thornburg considers the Gentle Lady to be an excellent hand-launch sailplane in spite of it's 2-meter span. In some article or maybe his book, he described a guy with an extremely well-built/trimmed GL showing up and winning an event or two against some purpose-built HLG's.

He described cutting a hole in the fuse, just behind the aft wing bulkhead, reinforcing it in front with some light ply and chucking the thing!

Now you're talking! You might look at the fold props as well. I'd like a nice 'lectric glider. I've had many gliders, but never set one up with a motor.

This looks like a horrible loss of signal... or possibly mechanical failure. I don't know if there's enough left to tell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n63lfsXp998

Kim-I'm going to put a folding prop on it, I just need to get the nose bobbed and the motor in it to know 1 of 3 messurements for ordering. The draw back is that little Baby Bee is cool on it, and it's prefect for the Gentle Lady. I still have the Power Pod and when I get the ALES wing done I'll set up the other wing for the Power Pod again. I love the sound of the little guy pulling the glider up and up. It does seem wrong to get the sail planes covered in nitro and castor though. I'll have to look up that book, you make it sound good to have. What was the name of that one again? I know you offered to loan one before, But it sounds like something I should own. I like the HLG's also, the hobby shop has one with a carbon fibre pod and boom, it looks like a high proformance plane.

Mark-The ALES planes are really cool. All you hear is the wind and the servos. You should make one of yours e-powered. The best thing for me right now is I could power it back up anytime and fly it back, if I get myself in trouble.

Rusty-I'll have to get to that video later.

Hey Duke!

I think you can still get it here:

http://carstensbookstore.com/oldbusobobyd.html

Please keep in mind that it is entertaining on MY level...along with shiny rolly things and stuff that blows up...

duke.johnson wrote:  I'm going to bob the nose and put the electric motor in also.

 Are RC planes like CL planes, the ugly one last forever?  If so, I'll just start patching with a coat of many colors.

Sorry to hear about you glider, Duke.  But I'm sure you'll have it resurrected in no time.  If you're going to power it with an electric motor, do a search for what people are doing these days with a Goldber Electra.  The Electra was just a Gentle Lady that Goldberg put their electric power package in the nose.  Even with their crappy canned "Turbo 550" motor and a 6 Sub-C cell pack, it flew great.  With a proven modern power package, you'll easily spend an afternoon soaring.  I can probably scan the plans for the nose of an Electra and email them to you if you're interested.  I know there are probably a couple of dozen threads about modernizing the Electra power package.

I had one I built back around 1990 that made it up to well over 2,500 feet just outside of Birmingham, AL. The way I know it was over 2500 feet is that the small field we flew R/C out of was also used by ultralight planes and skydivers. I arrived at the field and launched my glider and flew until the battery ran down. After that I just thermalled it. A little later I heard a plane overhead and saw small specs coming out of it. Uh-oh! No one knew the skydivers were going to be jumping. They flew over from another airport and were going to be using our field for the rest of the day. So, as soon as I saw the jumpers, I put it into a spiral to lose altitude fast. But, the jumpers beat me down.

About an hour later I was at a convenience store a half a mile down the road when one of the skydivers came in and said, "Hey! Aren't you one of those guys who fly the radio controlled planes?" Uh-oh. I allowed that I was, and he asked who flew the blue and white glider. UH-OH! "I'm not sure..." "Well," he said,"tell whoever owns it that I passed it at 2,500 feet as I was coming down."

So, the max that it got that day was about a minute's worth of spiral higher than 2,500 feet.

There were flights on that old Electra where it was just a dot in the sky. The only way to get orientation was to give it a 5-count turn, and then wait 30 seconds to see which way the dot went. I was never a record keeper, but there were a couple of flights over 2 hours.

Hmmm... Now that I think about it, I do have a NIB Electra in the other room I've been holding on to for the past 20 years. Maybe I should build it with a modern motor, electronics, folding prop, and LiPo's.

Oh, and yes, the uglier the plane, the longer it lasts.

The Electrifying Mark

Kim wrote:Hey Duke!

I think you can still get it here:

http://carstensbookstore.com/oldbusobobyd.html

Please keep in mind that it is entertaining on MY level...along with shiny rolly things and stuff that blows up...

Sounds like we like some of the same things.  

Mark
I would love if you scanned the nose of the Electra. That would help constructing the new one. Thanks