Dave Smith's Blog

I mounted my friend’s all-weather Oregon Scientific camera to his EasyStar today and took some aerial video near my office. We mounted the camera sideways right in the EasyStar’s cockpit. Here are the results:

Today I visited the Jordan River Modelport on a whim to see what was going on during the holiday. I was surprised to find only a single flier there, named Micah, which I got to know as I watched him pilot his 62″ .60-sized 4-stroke gas plane. What a great bird! He was a very aggressive flyer pulling out all the stops at low altitudes. With such a beefy motor he had unlimited climb, and he made use of every bit of it.

On his third flight, he handed me the controls. Boy was I nervous, but I pulled off an aileron roll, snap roll, and even an Immelman maneuver. Great fun! There was more wind than I would have dared fly my Super Cub in, but this plane handled it like it wasn’t there. A great day at the flying field!

I built a Multiplex EasyStar for a friend last week. We bought the receiver ready version, so it came with servos and motor mounted, and fuselage almost totally assembled. It wasn’t much of a build. The motor is slightly underpowered with a 7-cell NiMH battery, so we’re upgrading the ESC and throwing in an 8-cell NiMH pack. I’m sure it’ll do much better.

The maiden flight went very well. The best indicator of a good flight is a smooth landing, which this video shows:

This video shows some of the aerobatics the plane is capable of with stock motor:

Today we went out and thermaled it from the heat of our park’s parking lot. I kept it in the air for about 5 minutes with no power. It was great.

Today I had the distinct pleasure of watching several talented R/C pilots fly some amazing aircraft at the Jordan River Modelport. The first plane I saw was a GWS Corsair built and flown by Brent Hecht. Brent clipped, sanded and spackled the wings to improve aerobatics and cut down on the weight (much like full scale modern Corsairs). The plane rolled very well and had a top speed of around 60mph. Looked fantastic in the air. Incidentally, Brent and I use the same radio.

Next up was the F4D Skyray scratch-built and piloted by Rodger Hecht. Here’s a shot of it next to a ParkZone J3 Cub:

I’m told this plane can hit speeds of 100mph. It rolls so fast it has earned the nick name “the drill bit”. It uses pneumatic retractable landing gear. After the second take-off, one of the 3 gears failed to retract, so Rodger inverted the plane and applied some negative G’s to put the wheel away. Worked like a charm!

Chris Hecht played with his newly built GWS P-51d Mustang using (ironically) a Park Zone Mustang power plant, gearbox, and radio:

It flew quite well too and Chris handled it like a pro.

Last to fly today was the F18 Blue Angle, another one of Rodger Hecht’s creations.

I’ve never seen such a scale model fighter plane in both looks and behavior. Rodger pulled a cobra at one point, and (until the very end), I would have sworn it was the real thing. From a distance, it’s hard to tell if this is a model or not:

Unfortunately, the model lacks landing gear, so it has to find soft grass to land on. During its last landing, it almost augured into the bank of a small ditch we didn’t notice. Here’s the fresh landing shot (no damage to the plane):

What a great day at the flying field. Big thanks to the Hecht family for letting me spectate.

I am planning on attending the Electric Fun Fly this June 23rd at the Jordan River Modelport. Hope to see you there!