MA_Marlins Online Squadron

Called in at the local model shop the other day ..... just to have a mooch around and pick up a soldering iron to fix together that usb interface board (Vellemen K8055) I bought and to get hold of a battery that is needed for the trainer plane that I'm hoping to take up in the skies shortly

Got chatting to the guy behind the counter as to how this whole radio control plane thing works.. how to get into it as a hobby, what kit is needed, where to fly, insurance, cost of parts, planes etc etc and had a look at some of the Futaba radio systems...

For example, the Futaba FP6EXAP which comes with everything you need apart from a plane.. i.e. the servos, batteries etc etc...

Anyway.. the interesting (?) thing about these is that they have a nice little USB connector on the back .. which means that.. you can hook it up to your PC and potentially ditch whatever joystick you have.

Well.. I thought that was interesting anyway

Here I am, thinking that I'd love to have a go at flying RC planes and that I still love flying on the PC...so what better way to learn/combine the two than to get one of these and practice in a spit over the Eastern Front.

Still, 130 rubs was a bit too much to splash out on a whim.... so, just for a laugh I bought one of these for 20 quid as a bit of a tester for the theory and ignoring the flight sim softwarre that came with it, I hooked it up to FB.... and you know what... it works . I can fly a plane around in external view. Impossible to do much more that that as it only has 3 axes.. used for aeleron, rudder and throttle.. and lacking fire buttons etc,etc -- and a distinct need for trackIR ...but... it shows the potential.

So I'm thinking maybe that one day....I'll get one of these proper radios (with more buttons and levers on) and use it to fly online and for flying planes up on the South downs

Hi Hat,

Would you be mortally offended if I told you to start with a foam one like the Sky Solider that I have now worn out?
You see, it all seems sensible and easy, but when you smash your new pride and joy into the soil , even if it's after a succesful flight of several minutes, it's devastating.

I cannot heartily enough recommend going for something as follows.

Props either set waaay back from the nose cone, or behind the plane, acting as pushers.
Just Yaw/rudder controls and only throttle with that.

The radio controlled USB device looks simple perfect to start with, and I'd never seen one before, it DOES look ace.

But horrible as it seems now....nothing...NOTHING is more soul destroying that whooping a nice plane into the ground. And cos you're not IN it, and can't FEEL it's movement's, corecting every little error is so so SO hard and it happens SO FAST.

My Skysoldier was one of the slowest planes in the market....and it could STILL disappear over a hedgerow (that took me 1 minute to run to), in under 5 seconds.

Once the wind caught it....it was OFF.....

I now understand that my next move is to a slightly larger machine, and I dream of EITHER elevators OR Aerilons.....but not both. Not yet.

The Skysoldier (also SkyHussar) reall DOES look like a kids plane...and then you fly it for 4 minutes and still spank it over and over again, and you realise just HOW important the "unbreakable" bit is.

Then, as you get better, you literally bend the fuesalage so it doesnt climb as hard (it is flexible and starts its life by being a loop the looper all the time) until you get good at turning and climbing and controlling...and then...then that's when you grin

http://www.zen100376.zen.co.uk/data/fil ... oldier.wmv

Watch the speed it covers ground...and I had this little plane for months after this film was made, and re trimmed it for level flight so it only climbed in full throttle ....then I banked into a headwind,...climbed and climbed, tacking across the sky and had her up at about 300 feet until the battery wound down and then brought it in for a smooth landing...

It is the best feeling.

The thing that took longest to learn was to lean the stick (one engine then throttled up or the other down, casuing a wing to lift) and THEN to recorrect with opposite stick very soon.

Unlike a car, when you turn in 2d, the wing having dropped so much caused a spiral dive that took a long time to learn not to cause.

Ditto power...power caused climb, into a loop...so I learned to climb in "steps" and as the nose was about to think about looping, I eased off the power, the nose dropped and I powered up again. It's amazing to then be able to recharge the little battery out in the field from the handset (which runs on 6 or 8 AA) and go again in 12 minutes time.

One set of batteries gave me about 6 flights, sometimes more.

Plane was about £30 and batteries in packs of 10 are under £2 from Ikea.

Duracell lasted waaay longer but were waaay more dough.

If you are hoping to train on the comp, then go on to fly the real thing, you really ought to use the RC simulator. R/C's will bump around one heck of a lot more than a spit, and you will also need to get used to looking at the aircraft from a fixed position. I.e. wherever it is you are stood.

just out of interest, anyone thught of or seen a gadget that allows an X52 or 45 to power an Rc plane?

makes more sense to me than using two stick controllers.

Might be difficult to find a power socket out in a field, bob.

Or a long enough data cable