The 'What did you do in your workshop tonight?' thread

[AKNick]

Got my new Multiplex FunRay all programmed up last night. I did some initial flying on Saturday with it setup like a conventional airplane, but gliders need more specific programming to take advantage of lift conditions out on the slope. So I programmed in my thermal and speed settings, as well as full length ailerons, and landing mixes last night. Can't wait to get it back out on the slope on a good day and see what it can really do

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Programming gliders for thermals does intrigue me. I really need to get my butt in gear and finish my DLG and start learning about hunting thermals and understanding how the glider reacts to the rising air. Id be afraid of loosing a sloper of a mountain here. immanent death if you try to retrieve it anywhere but from where you started. My best judgement for rising air is watching all the bald eagles with their wings level circle up up up up up. Looks like fun if I were an eagle.

 

[AKNick]

@AKNick
That build will keep you busy for a couple days. Looks like real building weather, we just got 12 inches on Sunday and it is right now -4 degrees Fahrenheit. Let’s say we are going flying today.

Starting to catch up to you! Got another 3-4" last night. Except it's 33F now. Sounds better than -4F. Supposed to warm up to the low 40's and rain by the end of this week.... Typical for around here. It's winter!!! NOT. I wish mother nature would just make up it's mind sometime.

 

[Xpress]

Programming gliders for thermals does intrigue me. I really need to get my butt in gear and finish my DLG and start learning about hunting thermals and understanding how the glider reacts to the rising air. Id be afraid of loosing a sloper of a mountain here. immanent death if you try to retrieve it anywhere but from where you started. My best judgement for rising air is watching all the bald eagles with their wings level circle up up up up up. Looks like fun if I were an eagle.

Programming is very simple, in that for thermals you just need a slight TE droop. You just adjust your ailerons down ~2º, and of course you need a tiny tiny hair of down elevator compensation. The exact opposite is true for speed.

Thermaling is also pretty simple. You're just looking for rising pockets of rotating air that will tip your airplane, or they will lift the entire thing up by several feet. The trick is to circle back around hard and then try to get the airplane to spin around inside of this pocket of air, making your downwind turn tighter than your upwind turn. There's no feeling like locking your airplane into a thermal and riding it up for several hundred feet. The look on the faces of the regulars at my flatland club is priceless when they see me hook into a thermal and spec out without a single bit of motor power.

 

[BalsaDust]

Programming is very simple, in that for thermals you just need a slight TE droop. You just adjust your ailerons down ~2º, and of course you need a tiny tiny hair of down elevator compensation. The exact opposite is true for speed.

Thermaling is also pretty simple. You're just looking for rising pockets of rotating air that will tip your airplane, or they will lift the entire thing up by several feet. The trick is to circle back around hard and then try to get the airplane to spin around inside of this pocket of air, making your downwind turn tighter than your upwind turn. There's no feeling like locking your airplane into a thermal and riding it up for several hundred feet. The look on the faces of the regulars at my flatland club is priceless when they see me hook into a thermal and spec out without a single bit of motor power.

While that is a basic start there is lots more to the programming side of things. You should see my DLG program in my Taranis. It is extremely complex yet at the same time very simple compared to other pro F3K Pilots.

 

[Snoopy1]

Got my new Multiplex FunRay all programmed up last night. I did some initial flying on Saturday with it setup like a conventional airplane, but gliders need more specific programming to take advantage of lift conditions out on the slope. So I programmed in my thermal and speed settings, as well as full length ailerons, and landing mixes last night. Can't wait to get it back out on the slope on a good day and see what it can really do

View attachment 108351

Keep us informed I have been looking at the plane to replace the hot liner I had a couple of years back, looks real interesting. Did you get it with the full drive system.

 

[49dimes]

Although not "frozen solid" it has been very chilly down here too making for some good shop time. Got the rudder epoxied in and the pull pull system set up. Also made a tank tray / thermal block to divert heat off of the canister. Will soon be addressing the engine /canister
installation .

 

[Snoopy1]

Although not "frozen solid" it has been very chilly down here too making for some good shop time. Got the rudder epoxied in and the pull pull system set up. Also made a tank tray / thermal block to divert heat off of the canister. Will soon be addressing the engine /canister
installation .

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Pilot sure makes some nice stuff. But looking at the tail wheel from the picture the tail wheel does not look like it would not take much for the tail wheel to hit the rudder or is it just an optical elision.

 

[Xpress]

While that is a basic start there is lots more to the programming side of things. You should see my DLG program in my Taranis. It is extremely complex yet at the same time very simple compared to other pro F3K Pilots.

I kept it very basic and simple as this is for product demonstration at shows and events. The manual only calls for 4 essential modes (cruise, thermal, speed, and landing) so that is what I've done here. If I wanted to, I could've spent hours mixing half a dozen flight conditions and 30+ mixes if I really wanted to

Keep us informed I have been looking at the plane to replace the hot liner I had a couple of years back, looks real interesting. Did you get it with the full drive system.

It would be more of a warm liner. It's very slippery in the air, but at the same time the wide fuselage and wings (as compared to F3- models) will slow it down with nothing to propel it. It is very much an over engineered airplane and its performance speaks of that, you won't find a foam airplane on the market with this level of construction.

 

[tailskid]

Been doing some ironing...funny thing is that I have had the iron in the workroom for over 2 months and no one has needed it other than me!

 

[49dimes]

Pilot sure makes some nice stuff. But looking at the tail wheel from the picture the tail wheel does not look like it would not take much for the tail wheel to hit the rudder or is it just an optical elision.

It is not the original tail wheel that came with the airframe. That tail wheel is on the Alien Extra. The tail wheel I installed is a "generic" CF I made from my parts bin. I think it will work fine. I guess I could shim it up a bit if it does hit the rudder.