New Construction Report: Biplane “Joyrider”

All english posts, Biplane "Joyrider", Model Flight, , ,

About half a year after I started flying with my EasyGlider the desire for another model aircraft grew stronger.

I soon realized that I’d have to build my own models rather than buy premade ones. Especially larger models would quickly overtax my financial abilities. However, scratch building can consume a lot of money, too. So I decided to test my will: Do I really want to build a model aircraft from scratch?

Thus an old cardboard filled with balsa wood was ravaged, following the old saying: it only costs time. Taking stock, I realized that the materials wouldn’t quite suffice to build a whole plane. However, it would suffice to put my endurance under proper scrutiny.

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Porter: Li-Ion Test Run

All english posts, Model Railway, No.1 Porter,

After I finished the powerpack the next opportunity was seized to perform an extensive test run.

First the pack was connected to the charger and fully charged. To be on the safe side I placed the accu pack in a fireproof bowl and thanks to the fine weather I could move the whole setup into the garden. In case that a cell had been damaged, it would have spared me the troubles of toxic fumes in my workshop.

Test run under severe supervision.

All went well, so I could plug the powerpack into the existing R/C circuit. The results were stupefying: almost three hours of solid mileage with 40% capacity remaining. Now I’m convinced that I can get up to two hours of operations out of the powerpack without overtaxing it. Next step will be the assembly of the DelTang transmitter.

Garden Railway: Removal

All english posts, Garden Railway, Model Railway,

It’s been more than one and a half years, since I last posted on the garden railway. In the meantime I decided to remove it. The reasons are simple: no time, no money, too many ambitions.

Garden railways are expensive on both accounts. Paul Race recently published a very good article on his wonderful website: Which Comes First, the Garden or the Train? One of his core arguments is:

Initially you should plan to spend over twice as much on track as you do on trains. And over twice as much on your garden and landscaping as you do on the trains and track put together.

I concur. Besides the financial aspect I didn’t (couldn’t?) take enough time to work on the railway. And so it came during spring that my wife mentioned the perpetual construction site, which really was no pretty sight to see.

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Flying Experience: Crosswind

All english posts, Model Flight

One of the first lessons that each model aircraft flyer learns is that we’re dependent from the weather. Sunshine results in thermal lift or favorable wind conditions at cliffs.
Precipitation is so detrimental for most model aircraft, that it interrupts or downright cancels a flight day.

Particulary light-weight models are susceptible to wind. The lighter they are, the farther they are displaced above ground by the slightest breeze. In the very first flying lesson, we get taught: Take off and land against the wind. Tailwind and Crosswind are unfavorable or outright dangerous.

For me, Crosswind is fun!

Crosswind makes the flight day more interesting because it poses an additional challenge to my flying skills. It also prevents boredom since each time it’s somewhat different. I’d like to sketch out how to discern crosswind and how to make use of it.

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New type of posts: Model Flight

All english posts, Model Flight

Since August 2018 I’m flying model aircrafts again. Resuming the hobby after more than 15 years was… instinctive. The old excitement was immediately revived, fortunately the skills followed swiftly.

During the first three months my new training model, an EasyGlider 4 by Multiplex, had to absorb three crashes. I was lucky that the damage was easily repairable in all instances. Now, after more than 1,000 landings and 68 logged flight hours, I’ve started to build my own first model. I will report about that, too.

Foremost I wish to share my experiences and try to help others to (re-)engage in model flying.

Hibernation Photography

All english posts, Photography

After making 100 pictures with fixed focal length, I actually bought the prime lens. It was really a pleasure taking pictures with it.

However, I came to realize that despite my fascination for photography I feel no real drive to take pictures. Ever since I resumed flying model aircraft, photography has only been a means to document building progress or special moments. Add to this my visit to my parents in septembre where I brought my battery-powered loco. That resulted in the wish to reengage in the railway modeling.

So I took stock and decided to hibernate my photography activities. Updates in this category will be published as they emerge.