Graham Lorimer Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 10 hours ago, StraightEdge said: Fantastic flight David - just goes to prove that it isn't all about just the gear! Graham, very respectable too, I'd be completely made up if I'd done that! On your chart, what does 'Filtered Altitude' mean? I really don't know what the Filtered Altitude relates to. Still learning to get the set up of the Nano correct and being able to download afterwards. Someone with more experience may be able to assist with that one. GL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentPilot Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 I think filtered altitude means it has the curve smoothed out by removing obvious error plots on the graph. Could be wrong though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Northiam Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 I finally got back into the post-lockdown air yesterday (11 April 2021) with my RES-Eagle for a flight of 4m 6s at Pevensey Levels. It could and should have been a much longer flight as I got off the bungee at 51m straight into strong and wide lift. Very annoyingly, as I first passed 90m, my tx started shouting "Low signal" and "Lost frames" which didn't go away changing Tx antenna orientation. At 103m I cursed, opened the spoiler and dropped back to 50m. Still getting problems at lower altitude (but still with lift present), I had to land. Here's my log (red line altitude, green line my time-off-bungee marker): I found the culprit this morning: an rx antenna had become unplugged - my bad. Before I got into this discipline, yesterday was not the sort of weather I would have chosen to fly: showers in sight, cold, quite gusty at ground level. But oh! Those vacuum-cleaner cumulus! Now I get it! I will be back - soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Lorimer Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 Nice when you can find an indisputable reason for a problem like the one you had. No guessing required. Graham 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cirrusRC Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 Pete, I'm under the impression that frsky receiver's only use one aerial at anyone one time (they flick between both to get best signal). Might be worth reviewing your position and placement of both. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Northiam Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 1 minute ago, cirrusRC said: Pete, I'm under the impression that frsky receiver's only use one aerial at anyone one time (they flick between both to get best signal). Might be worth reviewing your position and placement of both. Just been looking at the rx wondering exactly that and guess what: _other_ antenna was also loose! My even badder bad. I swapped the originals for the extended versions (long story) and used a different goop to fix the plugs on the board sockets. The original yellow goop is Kafuter K-1668 which sets hard. On the replacements, I used a Radiospares electronics-compatible RTV sealer but turns out that only gelled and didn't set hard. So, neither was well supported though I don't know exactly when they started to part from the rx . Since then, I bought some K-1688 (From Ebay) but didn't go back to redo them. I am today! Lesson of the Day: "This Is Why God Invented Failsafe." Or maybe that should be Foolsafe... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 I went out with my venerable Slite today - first time flying in ages and fantastic conditions. Managed a 9:33 and decent specky flight before on a subsequent flight the TX battery failed on me and the model dorked in - bunting loops into the ground, fortunately in the field but major damage to wing tips, tail and fuselage Ho hum. So I'm bowing in and almost immediately out of the challenge with: Jon Whitmore; Slite; 12/04/21; 9:33 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightEdge Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 Jon, I'm SO sorry to hear that - huge condolences! Do you not have anything else that can at least ride the air? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 Thanks Jon, Not really at the moment - I have a couple of F3K models but they need converting to me y set up... I'll have to build a new 2m I think - the Slite is pretty knackered. Not a total write off but nearly and I'm not sure I have the appetite for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Lorimer Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 Nice couple of hours at Fish Meadow today, I had spent some time listening to Neil Jones on Sunday explaining how he always manages to fly straight into lift that no one else can see, and I guess a tiny bit of his wisdom has rubbed off. Today I had a best flight of 42 minutes 40 seconds, motor cut out set to 60 meters / 20 seconds. The interesting thing today was the total inability to be able to tell if the model is in lift or sink when it is over 300 meters, and these 2 meter gliders sure do drop fast when they are in bad air. Graham Purito Electric at Fish Meadow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martynk Posted April 13, 2021 Author Share Posted April 13, 2021 Wow.. And its still only April. We have 5 competitors so far and another 2 weeks to carry this forward. Cracking flight Graham. Keep those scores coming in.. Technically, I could put a score in for 00:05 due to 2 levels of incompetence (1 is, I forgot to start the timer) but I am still mending my glider. Oh dear.. However, I now have time to complete the repairs and hope this weather holds out.. P.S. Things are a bit slow at the moment, we are packing ready to move house in about 6 or 7 weeks time. It takes a bit of real effort to find my PC... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightEdge Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 Well done Graham!... who I don't think I'm going to embarrass (or David or Jon W either) but I'm pleased to report that I got out this afternoon with my PuRES for the first time this year. Frustratingly I couldn't leave home this morning, but at least that gave me time to replace the V-tail springs with 0.5m wire (was 0.4 which had resulted in dangerous fluttering last year) and set up all travels etc properly again. By the time I got to the field the best of the thermal action was gone, and a good hour and a half was spent sorting out trims, spoiler stuff, etc. Then, around 4pm, the clouds cleared enough for a solitary red kite to be seen aloft, and I launched into reasonable air - and was both astonished and very pleased to score a 10:37, and pleased also that the launch altitude with my original HK red bungee was a shade under 80m. Hope to get out again tomorrow morning before the wind picks up again... Jon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cirrusRC Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 Congrats Graham, looked like a great flight. Jon, pleased to hear you are back in the air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martynk Posted April 14, 2021 Author Share Posted April 14, 2021 Updated table... Now 6 in the frame, the most we have ever had.. Wonderful... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 Nice work guys. Certainly been good conditions here since I totalled my Slite! (I seem to have been credited with a considerably longer time of 33:00 rather than 9:33 on the table.) Jon, that plot looks like you had a low level/work hard kind of ten minutes! How do you like the Pures? I'm considering my options for getting flying again quickly and it's either buy a kit or build another Skidoo... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightEdge Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 Jon, I'm still learning so, although it was hard work bobbing around on the bottom of the good air, at least I could see the model well enough to not over-control it! I was out again at lunchtime today and got much higher this time, well over 200m for a flight that lasted about eight minutes, but with the ambient breeze carrying the climbing model quite far downwind it became a struggle to get back as usual - sink really seems to shove the model hard down so very, very quickly! Maybe its due to my lack of experience, or the topography of my local launching field and surrounding landscape (also depending on wind direction etc), but its much more usual than not to see kites riding all sorts of thermals well away from the field rather than anywhere near it! Re the PuRES - and allowing for the fact that I'm only barely proficient so not the best person to ask - it is certainly a very nice and easy to fly model. Boffin's old X-RES (once I'd recovered it etc) was also very nice indeed (still have it but not the heart to re-build it after the OOS incident last year!). David (CirrusRC) has his own second-hand X-RES and clearly does extremely well with it. Both are still available from Hyperflight, both are still pretty competitive (certainly for our purposes) and neither are that expensive. The Slite II is obviously very well regarded and now there's the new one from the same company, the Purito, but both are dearer and presumably would take longer to build. Of the two, the Purito has a greater wing area and consequently a lighter loading still, which might suit continental flying conditions but I'm not certain our own windier ones. So, if I were in your shoes with the season already just underway, I'd go for either a PuRES or X-RES kit, get it done as soon as possible, and re-join the fray! Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightEdge Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 PS - Hyperflight are also showing the new Eli, which looks very nice and is much the same relatively modest cost as the PuRES/X-RES. Maybe it'd be worth calling Neil and asking him which of the three would be the quickest and least controversial to build? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Lorimer Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 12 minutes ago, StraightEdge said: Jon, I'm still learning so, although it was hard work bobbing around on the bottom of the good air, at least I could see the model well enough to not over-control it! I was out again at lunchtime today and got much higher this time, well over 200m for a flight that lasted about eight minutes, but with the ambient breeze carrying the climbing model quite far downwind it became a struggle to get back as usual - sink really seems to shove the model hard down so very, very quickly! Maybe its due to my lack of experience, or the topography of my local launching field and surrounding landscape (also depending on wind direction etc), but its much more usual than not to see kites riding all sorts of thermals well away from the field rather than anywhere near it! Re the PuRES - and allowing for the fact that I'm only barely proficient so not the best person to ask - it is certainly a very nice and easy to fly model. Boffin's old X-RES (once I'd recovered it etc) was also very nice indeed (still have it but not the heart to re-build it after the OOS incident last year!). David (CirrusRC) has his own second-hand X-RES and clearly does extremely well with it. Both are still available from Hyperflight, both are still pretty competitive (certainly for our purposes) and neither are that expensive. The Slite II is obviously very well regarded and now there's the new one from the same company, the Purito, but both are dearer and presumably would take longer to build. Of the two, the Purito has a greater wing area and consequently a lighter loading still, which might suit continental flying conditions but I'm not certain our own windier ones. So, if I were in your shoes with the season already just underway, I'd go for either a PuRES or X-RES kit, get it done as soon as possible, and re-join the fray! Jon Interesting comment Jon regarding any sink being very detrimental to the floaty / glide ability of these new 2 Meter models. I have noticed that any sink encountered is very hard to get out of before the ground looms up. Yesterday I was starting to have thoughts at about 40 minutes of when I might choose to put the brakes up and come on down, flew into sink and it was all over within a couple of minutes, no brakes required! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 Cheers Jon. You learn a lot from that sort of flight. I've had some really memorable ones where I've had 10-12 minutes below 70m in overcast very still air and had to work for every inch of altitude Thanks for the Pures info. I'm a bit cheesed off to be in this position - I should have realised the TX battery was duff. I never really loved the X-RES when I had it (I think Dave has another ex Boffin build) The Slite was a not quite to my taste handling wise (I'm a lazy pilot) but a great model. If I was in this position by choice and had my 'model building head' on I would get a Purito and build it properly or commit the time to a serious own design. But I've got a Heron dinghy to restore for the summer and have just about committed to build a canoe and the climbing season has just started with the end of lockdown it's a tough life... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightEdge Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 Graham, I'm glad I'm not the only one to find this with 2mRES types!! From the small amount of DLG flying I've done (I have no other thermal experience, e.g. large full-house classes) the contrast is clear: their thin, carbon, variable-camber wings do penetrate through sink in speed-mode much more efficiently. With the PuRES I tried to emulate some sort of speed-mode by putting in a few clicks of down elevator, but this doesn't work at all: the bottom line is that all these 2mRES models are light and slow by design, so if the down-draughts are strong then down you will go........! Jon, you're just like me... far too many interests for our own good! Just order a kit of your choice and get cracking! Reckon that with your existing experience and with a bit of focus you'd have it done in a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now