2012 Zillah Big Bird Opener!

It's taken me almost a week to recover from the incredible weekend at Ben's Field in Zillah, WA.  I was fortunate to make it out there for the Spring Big Bird Opener and all I can say is what an event!  Located on the other side of the Yakima Valley, the YVAM boasts a 400ft paved runway with just as much runoff on either side.  Be warned, the sun comes up early!  This shot was at 5:15AM but I couldn't be more pleased with the field or weather.

It's rare you find a field with a paved strip, plenty of soft grass, utilities, and unlimited sky, but I found them all in one place.  For the pure spectators there's also elevated parking on the hill, best view of the valley by far!

And now for the good stuff, the planes!  The Spring Opener attracts all types from all over the Pacific NW.  Giant scale aerobats, warbirds, jets, helis, pylons, flying lawnmowers and more flock by the hundreds.  Here's a few of my favorites (that I didn't bring.)  I didn't get as many pcitures as I'd like since I spent most of my time flying...

You better believe I came well equipped for the long weekend.  I was lucky enough to borrow a trailer so I packed it with everything I could!  Tough to see but there's 9 planes, 4 gallons of fuel, 5 gallons of smoke, a sample of every prop Xoar makes (for show and tell), and more batteries than I care to admit to.

Nothing like flying with your buds! The Huckfest 3 musketeers (SupaTim, Dirty Low Dave, and Matt-tastic) laid down another great session of follow the leader for the Saturday noontime demo.  JetMan Joe and Vitter made a cameo and little did they know they were "volunteered" for noontime demos as well, in true 3D Flashmob fashion they didn't fail to wow the crowd!  Joe saw 162mph on one pass on his EDF jet, not bad for a maiden!  Poor Vic stunned the crowd with the biggest Electric plane most of they'd ever seen and was forced to answer the endless "how big, how much, how fast...)

 

Even with a few "incidents" it was still the greatest RC weekend I've had yet.  Will I go next year?  Try and stop me!!!

Let's try this again!

After a lot of searching finally found the real life reset button on my Yak55SP! A few weeks ago had an "incident" with old faithful and went from hovering and a strong pull out to a big pile of kindling...

Work has been a real inconvenience on my RC life but after a few long nights here's 2.0 in all her glory!  Thanks again to Valley View RC for helping me get her back on her feet.  Snuck in a maiden + 4 flights and she's just as sweet as the first one! Only difference is this one doesn't have 300+ flights on it so the hinge pins are tight and now there's NO slop! Now that Spring is here you better believe this is just the beginning of a great season!

 

 Still running the trusty DLE-55 on the nose with the Xoar 23x8 carbon fiber prop.  UNLIMITED power at a price you can't beat. 

Hitec HS-7954SH digital steel gear servos on all surfaces guide this baby straight as an arrow and at 333oz or torque per servo provide more than enough power to keep it there!  

Did the rudder horns different this time. Before I opted for the horns at the bottom of the rudder, worked fine but on inspection of the last carcass discoverd hardpoints in the center of the rudder. When I looked deep inside the fuse also found exit tubing for pull-pull above the stabs?! Figured geometrically it's more of a solid link, in the air it was even better than expected!

One of the reasons this bird flies soooo well is the fact it is stretched a little from scale. At 82" it's lean and mean! The Yak55 by nature has a broader surface on the side which helps it in low speed/high alfa flight, but the SP has a raised turtle deck compared to the M.

There's ample space in the fuse for whatever you want to put in there, but the one thing I like to do is KEEP IT SIMPLE!  Good products properly installed shouldn't have to rely on multiple failsafes.  With a little thought and planning it's easy to keep it all clean and simple.

All in all she's definitely a keeper.  Keep your eyes peeled as this great plane should be in regular production this summer. 

Finally some nice weather at the NCC!

Spring has sprung and that means liquid sunshine most of the week.  I couldn't take it any longer so I played hookie on the last hour of my work day and snuck off to the NCC. I had some major RC catching up to do so I brought out the biggest, loudest, gas guzzler I owned and burned as much fuel as possible!!  The trusty Yak has been put through wringer in the last year, but the TMM-106i still seems to gets better every flight out.

Had so much fun I didn't see the canopy monster sneak up on me until it was too late...  Thank God for Spring and looking forward to way more to come!

3DHS 51" Slick and plug and play lights!

It's been a cold, windy, wet spring but it won't stop me from having some fun!  A few weeks back I picked up the new 51" AJ Slick from a buddy on RCG.  I teetered between my faithful 48" Edge and the new Slick as they both use about the same power system and were similar in size.  Boy was I wrong...

Not only is the Slick 3 inches bigger in both length and wing span, it's a much bigger fuselage.  Don't get me wrong, the 48" Edge is an amazing platform for extreme aerobatics, but the Slick makes the same maneuvers seem effortless.  You do sacrifice a few ounces in weight but it translates to just enough mass to lock into rock solid harriers and rediculous pop tops and KE spins.

  

 

Oh and it doesn't stop there!  Thanks to Michael Holman (more info here) I lit this baby up in less than half an hour.  He's in the early stages of an inexpensive alternative to strip LED's for night flying but and man what a result.  The beauty of the whole thing is that the lights illuminate the plane instead of your face as you try and look at your plane!  At 26 grams the weight is not even noticeable other than the fact that the world is dark and the night is your playground!   

Northwest Model Hobby Expo

For me it's just like waiting for Christmas, but finally it came...  The Northwest Model Hobby Expo is the greatest gathering of all things RC and hobby related in the NorthWest.  Hobby lovers from all over WA, OR, and ID gather to walk the aisles for the latest and greatest of all things RC.  As well as the new vendors there are about 200 swap meet tables that are sold out months in advance!

This was the wide angle shot of the Valley View RC booth.  I had the pleasure of helping out this year with making gas powered dreams come true!  The display planes ranged from 20cc Aeroworks profile to the 170cc Aeroworks Extra 260!

Here's my 50cc Yak55SP on display with the newest addition to the SupaTim fleet.  The "Sunkist" orange V3 100cc Goldwing Sbach 342 is ready and waiting for a little attention, but that build will happen sooner than later...

One of the most beautiful Cardens I've ever seen was on display and won top honors for paint and monokote scheme.  This baby was a few years old, but was the first of it's kind to sport the Gary Ward MX airshow scheme.



At one point I swore off helis but if I were to jump into a biggun' this would be the one.  26cc two stroke gas swinging 6 ft of blades!!!

All in all the show was amazing.  It was my first attempt at indoor flying (went well BTW) and definitely not my last...  I picked up a few goodies while I was there so stay tuned as I put it all together in the next few weeks!  

More great flying from Joe Smith!

Spring showers have finally caught up to our freakishly nice NW weather so it's time to turn to the web  for inspiration.  For you Futaba lovers, you'll love this video.  It's the newest video of Joe Smith from 3D Hobby Shop and his 8FG showing stick movements.  Totally inspiring me to the max even if he's a finger flyer!  I love his style: Low, Loud (stock exhaust), and Huckin in a hayfield!!

Flying People?!

Call me an egomaniac but I usually only post about my wacky adventures but when I saw this I had to share with the world.  In hindsight homeland security probably frowns against this but I'm sure it was pretty cool to see!



Time to dust off the big birds!

We're halfway through winter in the NW and that means one thing, water and lots of it.  Water in the sky, water on the ground, water seeping into your bones...  The beauty of living within 10 minutes of the NCC means that any time there's even a chance of dry weather I'm going to take full advantage of it!  The big Yak 54 has been giving me sad eyes all winter long so I finally got a chance to dust her off and let her rip!

It's tough to tell from the pic but this is the 104" Yak about to dip her tail in the drink!  I'm not sure what the allure is to keep trying to do it but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to "get wet!"

Capt Tom brought out the 100cc PAU Ultimate with probably the strongest running DA100 I've heard yet.  To see it fly you'd never guess it was a 30 lb + plane.  Maybe it was the fact that it's been waiting on the bench for the last few months to come out and strut it's stuff but as always it put on a great show for everone there.

Spring keeps peeking it head out once in a while so you better believe real flying season is almost here.  Stay tuned for more mayhem at the No Club Club!!

HobbyKing Funfighters!

A few weeks ago I was up at Marymoore where I witnessed Robert's little white blur... Somehow I got bit by the go-fast bug but didn't know where to turn. Fast forward a few weeks to New Year's Day at Flaming Geyser and the sky was filled with these little monsters called "FunFighters" and from that point I knew I had to have one...

 

Long story short, USPS showed up with this bad boy and a half hour later she was ready for the skies! There are about 12 different warbirds in the series so knowing that anyone I fly with will most likely go with one of the classic US planes I opted for the BF-109 and the opportunity to rewrite history... Since it's receiver ready it was put together as quickly as it took the 2 4s 850mah nanotech packs to charge.

 

 

A quick peek at what's in the box. The fuselage and wings are one piece molded and painted EPO so it's just a matter of gluing tail feathers into the molded and cutout locations. Servos, motor, and ESC are preinstalled, elevator horns just needed to be glued in and connected. THAT'S IT!

 

 

Daylight couldn't come fast enough but when it did you better believe I didn't let the 28 degree morning hold me back! Although it only takes a 3s 850mah pack to fly, I opted for the 4s set up and all I can say is it is everything I'd hoped for and more! For a 3 channel setup it flies straight and smooth and at the recommended CG (50mm from leading edge) WOT flight is as smooth and uneventful as a creeping crawl.

 

So far today I logged 6 flights and am proud to say that not only is it still in one piece, it's put me into the 100mph club!!! Looking forward to all the high speed adventures to come...

Nothing like a great shot!

When I'm out hucking a club or field, I'm so focused on making it look good that sometimes I wish I could just step back and see how it looks outside of the blinders...  A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to have a local photographer capture a few GREAT shots on a clear December day in the NW at the Mt Ranier club.  You gotta love a great backdrop too!

Great shot of the Valley View Yak55SP churning out another roller.

Jet Man Joe's old MX-2 locked into a nice harrier.

One of these days I'll find someone to take some great video.  Guess I'll have to string together a sequence instead of just hovers and rollers...  Time to start practicing!