Technically Speaking ...
Greg Hahn
Technical Director [email protected]
INDOOR FLYING: If you're anything like me (that's a scary thought), your indoor slow flyers and foamies pretty much sit and draw dust during the summer months. Completely neglected, often used as stands for other airplanes or wall hangings, and, yes, I'll admit they're much like Rodney Dangerfield: no respect.
I have a close friend (Willy) who flies his slow stuff year-round, but for me, if it doesn't have retractable gear and/or twin engines, it ends up on the back burner—way back. Soon after the weather turns cold, dark, and dreary, those little stick-and-tissue flying feathers quickly become the apple of my eye—my little private pathway to a stick fix in the dead of winter. I pull them down from their summer perches, dust them off, and convince myself that they look as good as new.
Most of the time they need much more than just a dusting off; all those little hard landings on the gym floor or that chair you didn't mean to hit take their collective toll on the airworthiness of your little indoor wonders. Especially when they occur toward the end of the indoor season and you tell yourself, "I'll get that later."
Well, later has arrived and you now need to fix all those little things that will no doubt cause you grief when you least expect it. You'll need to check all the glue-joint connections and control systems. If you fly foam models especially, check the glue joints—there's not much that will stick to foam really well.
Last but not least, and certainly the most important item on the indoor checklist, is the power source. I'd guess 99.9% of all indoor stuff now uses Li-Poly batteries for fuel, and these little beauties don't like neglect. Not paying attention to them can be downright dangerous.
Age and environment are two items not often taken into consideration when dealing with batteries. We all know that they don't like to be overcharged, they don't take crash damage well, and if you happen to invert the polarity or dead short them, well, 911 could be the order of the day.
If you can't remember how old your packs are or how many cycles they've been through, you might entertain the thought of buying a couple of new packs. Also, if you see a dent or ding on the outside of the pack and you can't remember how it got there, again, it could be time to retire or replace the pack. Keeping old or damaged Li-Poly packs working is not a badge of honor.
Just some food for thought as we slide into winter!
See you at briefing. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
