Castle Creations HV160 advisory
Greg Gimlick | [email protected]
MERRY CHRISTMAS and Happy New Year! I write that as I sit in North Carolina, waiting for Hurricane Earl to pass by—safely offshore. I hope your holidays are great.
I have so much cool stuff to cover this month, I won't even bother introducing it all. Let's just start.
Easy Fix for the HV160
As soon as I mentioned getting a new Castle Creations Phoenix Ice HV160 ESC for my Giant Scale WACO, I started getting e-mail warning me about a recall. The company had already notified me via e-mail and provided directions for returning the unit if I didn't want to install the fix kit.
When I talked to Lee at Castle Creations, he told me that I could get the kit for free or I could patch the HV160 using Kapton tape (see the "Sources" list) or my own heat shrink. The fix takes only roughly 5 minutes, and I was able to do it without waiting for a kit to arrive.
I merely used an approximately 1/2-inch piece of clear heat shrink and stuck the labels back on. If you peel them carefully, you can stick them back down. The kit comes with heat shrink and new labels, so it's no big deal.
Castle Creations is very good about posting service bulletins, so be sure to check the company's site before falling victim to all of the Internet babble and rumors about a product.
Scale Modelers' Treasure Trove Magic
I like all things that fly, I admit it, but my first interest is scale, and in that arena I favor World War I and Golden Age models. If you're a fan of those eras, you might already know Tom Polapink, who is a super aeromodeler.
If you've been to the Rhinebeck Aerodrome, you might have seen Tom fly one of his modeling masterpieces or a full-scale WW I airplane. He is a wealth of knowledge and talent. He is also the power behind two of the finest scale resources you could hope to find; check out his WW1 Aero and Skyways publications, available through World War 1 Aeroplanes, Inc. They have been transitioned to an electronic format and can be purchased individually online. What wonderful publications these have been throughout the years, and the electronic versions knock it out of the park. To learn more, go to the World War 1 Aeroplanes Web site. Tom's description of one of his magazines does it better than I ever could:
"Published with a rich history and a passion for vintage aeroplanes, WW1 Aero is the authority on aircraft from the Pioneer era and the Great War. We bring together preeminent historians, artists, builders, modelers and enthusiasts to offer a one of a kind journal that covers all aspects of early aviation, as it was then and is now.
WW1 Aero not only includes topics ranging from flight simulation to current reproductions and restorations, but also offers readers rare original photos and drawings of machines both legendary and obscure, many coming from our own collection which was amassed over a fifty-year period."
If you have even a passing interest in scale modeling, you owe it to yourself to check out these publications.
CX3 Brushless Update
I'm extremely happy with my brushless upgrade for the Blade CX3 helicopter, and it has accomplished what I set out to have it do. I've read on some forums that pilots are disappointed with the performance, but I am not.
My goal was to upgrade the model so I could stop replacing motors, and I have accomplished that. The kit from Dream Heli Products was an easy drop-in upgrade and works flawlessly.
I do think that there is an increase in performance, but I suspect that some of that is because the new setup is more efficient than the original brushed motors.
I've put a ton of flights on the CX3, and I'm not burning up motors. Mission accomplished!
An Old Friend
I attended the 9th Annual Randy Covington Electric Fly-In in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the last weekend in August. This excellent event is growing and improving every year.
The 2010 edition brought out approximately 85 pilots, and the weather could not have been better. The field could easily handle more flyers, and the country is beautiful, with Pilot Mountain in the background. You might have seen The Andy Griffith Show.
In the air I saw an old friend fly by. It stopped me in my tracks, because I knew it was one of John McCullough's Surprise sailplanes, and John had passed away a few years ago. John was an avid electric-power flier and competitor before his illness, and he is still missed.
I ran down the owner of the model, and it was one I helped sell after John passed. Now David Hogue of Clayton, North Carolina, owns it. It was a gorgeous sight and it performed well.
David told me that the setup is an Atlas 2927/09 910 Kv outrunner motor, Atlas 75-amp ESC, Cam Carbon 14 x 10 propeller, older Thunder Power TP4200 3S2P battery pack, Spektrum AR9000 receiver, and JR servos. It pulls 68 amps for roughly 700 watts.
FPV—A Different Perspective
I've seen ads for first-person video (FPV) equipment, but I admit that I've never paid them much attention. At the Covington Electric Fly-In I ran into Alex Greve, and he was giving FPV "rides." I hopped onboard to see what the big deal was.
I came away awed by what these people are doing. Not only does Alex build his own FPV gear from hacked video-surveillance gear, but he also designs and builds his own airplanes and winds his own motors. This young man is something.
I'll stay clear of the debates surrounding this part of our hobby and trust the AMA volunteer management to do what it thinks is right. I will report that a couple of those setups were flying at the meet and posed no problems. And the guys were great ambassadors for our hobby.
I have some information about Alex's equipment, which you can see in my photos. The Morning Star is a purpose-built FPV motorglider/thermal duration glider. Its forward-swept wing allows for a shorter fuselage (because of the increased tail moment, as the CG is far forward), and it makes for predictable stalls.
Morning Star specifications:
- Wingspan: 72 inches
- Wing area: 4.75 square feet
- Wing construction: Fiberglass over blue-core foam
- Airfoil: Gottingen 438
- Sweep: Tips 2 inches in front of root
- Stall speed: 16 mph
- All-up weight: 2 pounds, 15 ounces with video gear
- Motor: Scorpion 3014 rewound as 11-turn YY with four parallel strands of 23 AWG wire
- Battery: 3S 2250 Li-Poly
- Fuselage construction: 3/16 balsa
Video gear specifications:
- Camera: Sony 1/3-inch 540 TVL night/day model
- Video transmitter: 500 milliwatts, 910 MHz
- Base station: Home-brew diversity controlled dual receiver station with two 8 dBi patch antennas. Alex’s other station is a hacked Trimersion video game headset with a home-brew 5.5 dBi Moxon rectangle receiver antenna.
- Video antenna: The IBCrazy 135° Vee tuned for 910 MHz
I have included a screen shot from Alex’s monitor so you can see exactly what he sees as he flies the Morning Star. There is a buzzard flying just ahead of it.
Following is the data as it appears on the screen, from the center moving counterclockwise:
- Arrow pointing to "home"
- Number of GPS satellites locked
- Altitude
- Distance away
- Latitude
- Azimuth (heading)
- Longitude
- Flight time
- Signal strength
- Speed
Regardless of where you land on the debate surrounding this aspect of the hobby, you have to admit that these pilots are doing some interesting things. They spent the whole weekend giving "rides" with the extra helmet and describing everything to those of us who were unfamiliar with the setup. The AMA Safety Code does have guidance instructions for the operation of such systems. (See AMA Document 550.)
There is too much cool stuff out there to cover in one column, so I guess you’ll have to put up with me again in the February issue, after Red’s column next month. The NEAT (Northeast Electric Aircraft Technology) Fair will be finished, and I will be in the midst of building new toys.
Did I mention my new Percival Mew Gull? The new radio gear? The new park flyers? Oh man, it just gets better all the time!
MA
Sources
- Castle Creations
(913) 390-6939 www.castlecreations.com
- Kapton polyimide films:
www2.dupont.com/Kapton/en_US/
- World War 1 Aeroplanes, Inc.
(845) 835-8121 www.ww1aeroinc.org
- Dream Heli Products
(269) 649-1922 www.dreamplastics.com
- AMA First Person View (FPV) Operations:
www.modelaircraft.org/files/550.pdf
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
