RCAviator.ca

August 1st brought an absolutely perfect day for flying. Since I was only flying electrics today I figured I’d get up early and head to the field. What a day we were treated to. The air was still, the sky was blue with no signs of clouds and the temperature was warm but not humid. It was a perfect morning.

I managed to put in several great flights with the Trex 600 and tried out a few new things. I only managed to scare the crap out of myself twice. Doh!

I was also flying a Parkzone Extra 300. I continue to be impressed with how nicely these foam planes fly. This little plane groves along and tracks very nicely through all maneuvers. There’s some pitch to rudder coupling that I’ll need to mix out but no big deal really. I burned through 3 packs in short order. What a blast this plane is.

There were quite a few others out today including Ben, Ed, Brad and Jason, Marc and Mike to name a few. Ed brought along his new Eflite Extra 300 to maiden. This electric plane is almost as big as a 40 size glow plane. It looks great on the ground and when Ed got it in the air it didn’t disappoint. I didn’t fly it but it sure seemed to fly great and tracked like a much bigger plane.

Along with the planes and heli I brought my camera out to the field today to try out my new Satechi timer remote to do a little time lapse photography. I set the camera up on a tripod on top of the trailer, set the remote to fire a frame every 10 seconds and let it run for a couple hours. I used iMovie to convert all the still photos to a video and the results are below.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Happy Landings

I had looked for it but could never find it. The expiration date in my Extra 300 that is. Yep that’s right it expired on July 25th at the Upper Canada Zone Fun Fly.

I performed a snap roll on my first flight of the second day of the event and the starboard side wing panel blew apart. Nothing I could do about it the plane was going in. The result…….well the pictures speak for themselves.

The crash aside it was a great weekend at the Fun Fly. Stephane, Josee, Emanuel and I all spent the weekend at the Smith Falls airport and had a great time flying, watching and socializing. This event has grown to be one of the premier events of the summer flying season drawing in pilots from across the zone as well as out of towners.

The Quebec Air Force once again showed up with a nice array of jet models. They’re always thrilling to watch.

Emanuel got to fly off of pavement and in front of a large crowd for the first time and he did a great job of it. No mishaps on his part.

The event is held at a full size airport and some of the members put on a show for us. A father and son team wowed us in their Pitts Specials and we were also treated to some close in and very low high speed fly pasts from an L39 Albatross. Nice toy for the rich.

Don’t worry about me and my Extra 300. I’ll miss it for sure, it was one of the best flying airplanes I have owned but I have found a replacement that I hope will fly just as well and will provide me with just as much pleasure. My new Aeroworks Extra 260 should arrive on Friday. I’ll try and post some pics of the build.

Happy Landings

Scott

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Happy Landings

The weather forecast was perfect for Sunday morning so I rounded up the troops and we had a great day of flying.

I flew both my Extra 300 and my Trex 600e FBL. I really love both these birds. I put on a smoke show for a photo enthusiast who dropped by the field with the Extra. I can’t wait to see his pics.

Jason, one of our newest and youngest Wings recipients (13 years old), was out to fly for the first time since receiving his wings. He did a great job considering a nice little cross wind had come up. On his final flight of the day he asked me to spot for him. I had a great time talking him through some new aerobatic maneuvers. Had him doing Immelmans, Reverse Cuban 8′s and Snap rolls before the flight was over. Congrats Jason!!

This weekend is the annual Upper Canada Zone Fun Fly at the Smiths Falls airport. It’s a great event for model pilots and spectators alike.

Happy Landings

Scott

What a great day! It started out cloudy but the sun came out and it turned out to be a great day.

I got a few flights in with the Extra and put on a smoke show for some that had never seen one. I had a lot of fun. The upgraded motor is really producing a lot of power and as always the Extra is a blast to fly.

The usual Sunday gang was out and today Todd and Mike Jr. treated us to a spectacular mid air collision between two 1/12th Scale warbird combat planes. They collided and both fuselages headed in oposite directions but without wings they didn’t fly long. lol

I really should start to take my camera with me so I can post some pics. I’ll do that next time.

Happy Landings

Wow! This past weekend was a long weekend for us Canadians and it was a great one for flying. We had light winds and sunny weather for most of the weekend. I put in a bunch of flights on my recently upgraded Extra 300 along with some stick time on my 1/4 scale Cub and of course the TRex 600FBL got a workout.

The Extra got a horsepower boost in the form of an upgrade from 50cc to 55cc. This has allowed me to swing a bigger prop and right away the difference is noticeable. My uplines are nicely extended and I can power my way through all verticle maneuvers. I was already in love with this plane and now I love it even more.

The TRex 600FBL (flybarless) have proven to be an outstanding heli. I really enjoy flying this bird and I’ve got more stick time on helis so far this year than I had for the last two seasons combined.

Monday morning a small group of us all got up early and headed for the heli field. We enjoyed the early morning calm and got some great heli flying in. I shot lots of video and when I’ve got it processed together I’ll post it here.

Happy Landings

Scotty

Well spring came pretty early around here. We’ve got no snow left and the temperatures are decent but the wind has kicked up and it’s not too friendly for flying.

I’ve got a new Trex 600 ESP flybarless ready to maiden and I can’t wait to see it in the air. I’ll post a flying report as soon as it’s been in the air.

Ed and I are also waiting to maiden our new FPV ship. It’s a heavily modified Multiplex EasyStar. We hope to get some better quality video, better handling in the air and increased range. To get the range we’ve added a diversity receiver setup with antenna tracking to our ground station. We’ll see how that goes.

I know it’s been way too long since I’ve posted here and I’ve probably lost what few followers I had but I’m turning over a new leaf this season. I’ll post here at least once a week on my flying exploits.

So stay tuned it’s going to be a great summer

Happy Landings

Scott

Sadly yesterday a dear friend and fellow modeler Ford (Slim) Sommerville lost his battle with cancer. Ford was always ready to help out a fellow modeler or around the club. You could often find him looking after the transmitter impound during fun flies in the summer. I first met Slim 25 years ago when I first joined the Stetson Flyers and he was just as active in the hobby recently as he was then. He left a lasting impression on this young modeler and I will never forget him.

To Ford’s family I’m sorry for your loss. He will be greatly missed.

Scott

What a weekend for the RCAviator!

On Saturday I finally got out and used the anniversary gift my wife got me back in July. An hour and a half introductory flight in a Cessna 172. Since I was allowed to bring a passenger along I decided to invite Ed along for the ride. Well things had changed when I booked the flight and we weren’t going up in a Cessna, we were going to go up in a 1962 Beech. Well that too changed when we arrived and the instructor realized that after putting the 3 of us in the plane there was no room for any fuel. Hmmm that doesn’t sound like fun. So the good folks at OAS did what they could and found another plane and pilot to take us up. What a treat we were in for. The plane as it turned out was a Diamond Star. A modern all composite plane with glass cockpit and lots of other goodies. More after the jump Read the rest of this entry »

Ok so this one was back in June and it represented a few firsts. It was the first time I’ve travelled to a flying event in the USA, first road trip with the new trailer, first time renting an RV. We were headed to the IMAA Rally of Giants in Hamburg PA.

Goose and I were the first to head down. We loaded up my trailer with my planes, Mike’s planes, the generator and various other camping supplies. The plan was to head to PA for 5 days of flying and fun. I had arranged ahead of time for a rental camper to be delivered to the site and it should be waiting for us when we arrive. The drive down was pretty uneventful and we found the site with problems. Our trailer was there waiting for us and it was a great unit. There were quite a few other campers there. After the long drive we settled in for the night.

Ed and Mike both joined us on Friday morning. Ed riding down on his Gold Wing and Mike arriving in his car.

The flying site was beautiful. The grass runway was 1600 feet long and was like a fairway at a top golf course.

Lots of other flyers had come from all over, some with some pretty fancy RV’s and trailers.

There were lots of different models covering all aspects of aviation. Biplanes, aerobats and warbirds of all shapes and sizes. Even a huge 60% Cub!

As it turned out the weather was pretty brutal. We had rain for most of the trip but when it stopped the flight line was always busy. I logged quite a few flights with my Extra during the day and with my electric Edge 540 and Trex 450 early in the morning before anyone else in camp was awake.

As always Goose took some great photos of the event. You can find his gallery of the event here.

The guys at SKS Productions were there as well and have published a DVD of the event. I was fortunate enough to be interviewed at the event and I have received top billing on their website description of the DVD. Check it out SKS Video Productions