Flight of the Turkey

It's Thanksgiving morning and the wind is dead calm.  I had spent a couple of hours last night putting some last minute tweaks on my latest purchase, a Parkzone Typhoon 3D.  It is the predecessor to the Typhoon II 3D that Amanda and Steve have been flying.  A guy down in Rhode Island had it sitting in a box for a couple of years but he remains a die-hard glow fuel guy so he offered to sell it to me brand new for $50.  It's an RTF, so it came with a radio and a NiMH battery pack which I promptly swapped out for a 2.4GHz receiver and a LiPo. pack.  I reprogrammed the ESC for the 3S LiPo that I use.

I loaded up the car and headed for Mitre thinking that some experienced aerojunkie would surely be present to flight test the Typhoon for me.  As a newbie, I wasn't sure what to expect out of the 3D label on the plane along with the big control surfaces and large throws.  As I got closer to Mitre, it was clear that the fog might get in the way.  I made the customary call to Hanscom to get the latest weather.  Hanscom weather at the time was reporting, winds calm, 1/4 mile visibility and 100 feet vertical visibility, below CAT 1 ILS minimums for full scale (200' ceilings, 1/4 mile visibility).  I now had doubts as to whether anyone would be at Mitre, aerojunkie or otherwise.  I figured that this would be a good opportunity to grab some breakfast and let the sun try to burn off some of the fog.  

After breakfast at the rest stop on 128, I figured that I'd at least take a drive by since at this point I was so close to Mitre.  I could always fly one of my ultra micro twins "Stang" or "Suki" in tight.  As I got close to Mitre, I was happy to see two vechicles in the parking lot.  It's Ice and Hot Dog (Chip and Billy).  Hot Dog had mini Dog "Tyler" in tow.  Ice was flying my usual ride, the mini Ultra Stick although his plane was seeing G forces that mine has never seen and probably never will.  He was also doing donuts on the ground with it, its no wonder he lost the tail skid on the airplane a long time ago.  He's probably also worn the tread of the tires, I could almost smell buring rubber but perhaps it was my imagination.  He had the Nav lights on for better recognition in the low visibility conditions.  Hot Dog was training mini Dog on the buddy box.  Give the mini Dog a few more years and we'll be seeing him in national aerobatic competitions, guaranteed!  I can't wait to say "I knew that kid when he was just a pip squeak".

I asked Ice to flight test my Typhoon for me and he kindly obliged.  After some minor trim, he brought it back down and informed me that I'd have no trouble flying it.  I then took it up and sure enough it was docile even on high rates with no expo.  I had a big prop on it (larger of the two that came with the kit) and was hoping for good vertical performance with it.  Vertical performance was adequate but not anything to write home about.  The good news was that the plane seemed very maneuvarable and it flew slowly and in general I find it easier to fly than my mini Ultra Stick.  It also exhibits less control coupling in Knife Edge (there is still a little bit of pull towards the canopy).  It was fun to fly but it occasionally made some unidentified noises that seemed to be coming from the motor/geartrain.  Ice and Hot dog thought that it might possibly be gear slippage (gear driven brushless motor).  I also had the prop nut loosen and kick the spinner off on one occasion, Ice was kind enough to chase it down and recover the spinner.  

Amanda showed up with her Typhoon II and we looked like twins up in the air having a blast chasing each other's wake.  Amanda's mom and dad also showed up to watch the show for a bit.  Hot Dog put on a rocket show for the delighted spectators.  Ice pulled out the fun jet and did his usual impressive high speed passes and vertical pulls which on this day put him in the clouds earning him his RC instrument rating.  It was quite a sight to watch it disappear into the clouds and then see it come diving back out of the overcast.  I asked him if he had picked up any ice on the wings while he was in the clouds.  Knowing Chip he'll install anti-ice equipment on all his airplanes as winter sets in on us

Hot dog gave me a sneak preview of his latest top secret skunkworks project of which we've seen bits and pieces of in the email threads.  He couldn't divluge too many details at this point since most of it is still classified and information is only given out on a need to know basis.  In a nutshell, it's a BMW M3 model car body fitted with wings and a rocket motor, RC of course.  He will announce the date of the official unveiling and test flight at the appropriate time. He was also doing a motor modification on the Super Cub when I had to leave.

Fast Forward to 2:30pm, I called Artie and met up with him at Belmont Hill High School, my girlfriend Katie tagged along.  Artie's brother Dave was with him.  They both took turns flying the Steven's Aero Shaft.  Dave is an accomplished pilot and flew the airplane well.  He also played the part of photographer/videographer documenting the flight of the Shaft with Captain Artie O' Brien at the controls and doing some impressive slow and tight, low altitude maneuvering.  Artie had an unfortunate crash prior to me getting there, reducing his new P-47 into a pile of balsa and ply.  It had apparently tip-stalled on takeoff.  I saw the remains of the airplane in his car and it's a shame to loose such a great looking warbird.

I got a couple of flights in with the Typhoon.  On the second flight the strange noise manifested itself again, this time sounding worse and more sustained than before.  I immediately landed it and went to retreive the aircraft.  I could smell something, almost like an overheating/burning smell.  It's made me wonder whether or not the ESC is capable of handling the LiPo current although the manual claims that it's LiPo compatible.  It could also be a case of inadequate airflow to the ESC, since several folks on the online forums have complained of this.  They might have improved this aspect when they came out with the Typhoon II.   I'll probably end up replacing the ESC with a higher capacity unit and try to enhance ventilation at the same time.  I could also see if the smaller prop helps the cause.  But given the problems that the airplane gave me today, I've stripped it of the "Typhoon" name and renamed it the "Turkey" (the bird, not the country - no offense to Fettah who's from Turkey).  I felt it was appropriate on Thanksgiving.

What was really strange was the fact that Katie and I saw a wild turkey wandering around someone's lawn in Belmont on our way home after flying.  I'm not sure if this was some kind of a joke that someone was playing on Thanksgiving but it made me wonder if it was going to end up on someone's plate that evening.

I'm meeting up with Derek tomorrow morning at his house.  He's kindly offered to help me fix my E-flite Blade 400 3D since he flies the same heli and is very familiar with it and can fix it blind-folded.  Hopefully the weather will be good enough to get some flying in, either fixed wing, rotary wing or both.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the AeroJunkies!

Alex