Author: Charles Cupp (webmaster)

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New visitors plus FPV


This weekend was perfect weather for some fall flying. Luckily, we had a couple new visitors fly with us this weekend. Harold Belcher and Brian Sumpter paid our club a visit.

Harold is from Big Stone Gap, VA. Harold, likes building the FliteTest planes and the Experimental Airlines planes. He brought out full sized and scaled down versions of the Experimental Airlines Peace Drone. Harold had even built his large Peace Drone plane with the foldable wing that makes it great for transporting. Good times were had among the group discussing and flying the foamboard constructed models.

Brian is from Greenville TN and is really into FPV. There was lots of discussion on what it took to get into FPV. Brian set up his viewing monitor on a tripod and we got to watch as he used his FatShark goggles to pilot his quadcopter to some amazing heights and distances.

Jack and I invited them to come back and fly with us and encouraged them to join our club.

This is some GoPro footage Brian captured while doing FPV from his TekSumo wing during the visit. Brian has several other videos on YouTube which can be seen at the following link:
Brian Sumpter videos on YouTube

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Charles flying his 148% scaled FliteTest Versa Wing RC plane

Watch in 108P HD on YouTube! Here is some footage of Charles flying his 148% scaled FliteTest Versa Wing RC plane. He named this model The BA Versa Wing because it has the Best Attibutes (BA) of:

1. It’s scaled up 148% in size resulting in a 57″ wingspan that fits door-to-door in the back of his car/truck.
2. It uses an affordable and easily acquired Turnigy D2836/8 1100kv motor
3. It uses an affordable and easily acquired 11X8 Master Airscrew Prop
4. It uses 2 affordable and easily acquired 9 gram metal servo servos
5. It uses an affordable and easily acquired 2200mah battery that gives 6-9 minutes of flying time
6. It’s super durable (this video is after the plane had been crashed 3 separate times)
7. Making the 57″ version was almost as simple as making the standard smaller version
8. Most importantly, it flies and performs amazingly well with this basic configuration. Watch how well the plane does vertical climbs in the video.!

Don’t be surprised if, after watching this video, you decide to build your own BA Versa Wing. To get you started, more information on the normal Versa Wing can be found on the FilteTest.com website at this link:
http://www.flitetest.com/articles/ft-versa-wing

Spoiler alert….I know this is a long video, but if nothing else, watch the “spot-on” landing at the end of the video!

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FT Storch and 57inch Versa Wing Share Air Space

Watch in 1080P HD on Youtube! Jeremy’s FliteTest Storch and my custom 57 inch Versa Wing Share Air Space. We’re both kinda new to RC building and flying…but we’re both fans of the FliteTest designs. Jerem’y FT Storch is built from the basic FT plans with a few minor modifications. My FT Versa Wing is built from FT plans that were scaled up to 148% resulting in an overall wingspan of 57″ (Almost too wide to fit the back of my car or truck). Both planes fly wonderfully! Wanna get in on the sport…contact us about visiting our club.

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Custom-built true soldering station for R/C tasks

I bought a Aoyue 469 Variable Power 60 Watt Soldering Station with Removable Tip Design- ESD Safe from Amazon. This is a great soldering station, but it’s a little bit light in weight. This makes it quite easy for it to kinda slide around when you’re using it.

The brass soldering iron cleaner I got was also very lightweight.

So, I took all of my soldering items and mounted them to a finished piece of MDF board with ShooGoo adhesive.

Now, whenever I want to do some RC Plane soldering, I merely pull down the assembled soldering station and everything is available, stable and ready to use.

Here is to the soldering station:
Aoyue Soldering Station on Amazon.com

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Highly Recommended: Aoyue 469 Variable Power 60 Watt Soldering Station with Removable Tip Design- ESD Safe


Let me just say that up till today, I hated soldering anything……but that just changed! I recently polled club members about their soldering tools. The responses ranged from cave man fire sticks to high end professional soldering stations. After much review, I settled on the  $29.99  Aoyue 469 Variable Power 60 Watt Soldering Station with Removable Tip Design- ESD Safe from Amazon.com

This thing heats up quick and hot. I had absolutely no problem quickly and easily soldering an XT60 battery connector to my new ESC. Soldering ESC wires to the motor….a snap!

AND OMG…..the best part….my wife started a trial of Amazon Prime membership….and my order for this soldering station arrived at my house in less than 24 hours after I placed the order!!!!

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Our newest pilot, Jeremy Penley, takes to the air.

Jeremy’s a great guy. He can build some really great looking Flite Test foamies. But his flying skills at first were a little rusty. But WOW, with a little practice, some flight simulator time, and some help from his club friends, he’s now officially “all over it” with his flying.

Here’s his YouTube video of his first successful full RC flight from launch to landing. He’s flying a modified Flite Test – Simple Storch that he built himself.

Great job Jeremy!!!

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New Club Banner for Wally’s Squadron visit.

Here’s a couple pics of our new 4’X7′ color club banner. This replaces our old black and white 2’X4′ banner. Thanks go out to Jack for his artistic insite and to Kevin for actually making the new banner. Come to Wally’s Squadron event next week to see it proudly on display!

About Wally’s Squadron event August 13-15, 2015:
Aircraft of all tops giant scale,aerobatic warbirds, turbine jets, helicopters, micros to 60%. You name it. Best night flying anywhere. Free pilot drawings. Free pilot and family dinner Saturday. Venders welcome, no setup fees. No charge for admission. On site primitive camping. Lots of nearby motels.
Lots of prizes. You could be a winner. First prize will be your choice of diamondback 9 mm pistol or diamondback DB-15 AR 556 caliber rifle. Second prize will be remaining gun. Drawing to be held August 15, 2015. Donations five dollars each or five for $20

LPRCFlyer-Banner-1LPRCFlyer-Banner-2

 

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Charles’ 57″ BA Versa Wing gets maidened (and nearly crashed!)

This is the maiden flight of my 57″ FliteTest BA Versa Wing. I used the FliteTest plans to make this plane. I scaled up the pdf output to 148% which resulted in me getting a 57″ wingspan on the final product. Now that the maiden is successful, I’ll add some color to her!

  • It’s named BA which is short for Best Attributes of:
    57″ Wingspan fits “door-to-door” in the back of my truck or car
    Uses a 3 cell 2200mah battery with 7 minute flight time
    Uses a D2836/8 Turnigy motor
    Uses an 11X4 Master AirScrew propeller