Electrics - 2010/12

112 MODEL AVIATION
Also included in this column:
• Awesome scale info
• CX3 motor upgrade
• An old friend
• One FPV experience
Castle Creations HV160 advisory
Electrics Greg Gimlick | [email protected]
The author made the fix to his Castle
Creations Phoenix Ice HV160 ESC.
Specific spacing is required, and a piece of
heat-shrink tubing does the trick.
This well-dressed pilot is Alex Greves,
holding his Morning Star FPV platform.
The AMA has specific safety guidelines for
the use of this technology.
The author’s old friend’s Surprise sailplane
lives on and reminds Greg of him. When you
pass on an older airframe, it helps to know
that it’s in the hands of someone who
appreciates it.
WW 1 Aero and Skyways are dream publications for the Scale fan. Tom Polapink, who is a
super aeromodeler, is the person behind these electronic resources.
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-
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December 2010 113
This is an example of what Alex sees when he flies his FPV system. There is much
information at his disposal, including the way back to the field.
Alex sits by his equipment and flies the
airplane. AMA rules require a spotter, and
the model must not leave his or her sight.
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 fiftyyear
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
couldn’t have been better. The field could
easily handle three times that number of
fliers, and the country is beautiful, with Pilot
Mountain in the background. You might
have heard of Pilot Mountain if you 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 McCollough’s Surprise
sailplanes, and he 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 purposebuilt
FPV hotliner/Thermal Duration
glider. Its forward-swept wing allows for a
short fuselage (because of the increased
tail moment, as the CG is far forward), and
it makes for predictable stalls.
The Morning Star specifications are:
• Wingspan: 72 inches
• Wing area: 4.75 square feet
• Wing construction: Fiberglass over bluecore
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
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• 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