Death of a Hustler
Well, the hustler has been collecting dust and rotting away for a good 15 years now. It was time to go out in a blaze of glory.
I learnt to fly R/C on the Hustler many years ago. During that time it only had two major incidents. The first was a rather heavy landing which resulted in the engine mount and firewall being ripped from the fuse. A bit of epoxy soon set that right.
The second was when a mate was carrying the fuse back into the house and the tailplane caught on a door. Ripped the fuse in half at the rear. Again, a bit of epoxy and it was back in the air.
Time goes on and there's only so much storage space. The Hustler kit is no longer in production so on one hand it's a piece of lost history. On the other hand.... it was fun burning it :).
Fuel Filler in the Fun Fly
Part of the reason the Bad Boy went down is because I didn't hook up the fuel lines properly after refuelling. So to avoid this on the Fun Fly I've put a fuel filler in. It just means you can plug into the side and it automatically shuts off flow to the carby and you can fill the tank. No need to disconnect fuel lines.
Space is a bit tight in the FF but it fits - just.
Bad Boy – Post Mortem
On closer inspection, the damage is worse than I thought. The top, bottom and middle spars were all cracked. It was just really the balsa sheeting that was holding it all together. As I removed the sheeting to inspect the damage, it basically came apart in my hands.
Try clicking the image above to go to Flickr. You'll see the same image but also my comments embedded onto different parts of the photo. Cool hey. That's one of the reasons I paid for a Flickr pro account.
So I've taken the old Precedent Fun Fly out of storage and transferred the gear into it for the time being. The Bad Boy isn't dead, it just aint being resurrected this Easter Weekend.
The Fun Fly used to have an Irvine .40 cubic inch engine in it. I've transplanted the OS 46AX so I'm hoping it'll have plenty of power - but not too much.
Bad Boy – Bruised and Battered
The Bad Boy V2 suffered some rather harsh punishment today. On take-off the engine died and with not much altitude or speed, came down to earth rather quickly.
A number of factors contributed;
1. I forgot to reconnect the pressure line between the muffler and the fuel tank. As soon as it went vertical, fuel supply cut.
2. I took off too steep. If I had've climbed out nice and gentle I would have had more time to react and glide back in safely.
3. I didn't do the pre-checks like I should've. Holding the plane vertical at full throttle for about 5 seconds before takeoff will usually tell you if you have a problem. I only held it up for a couple of seconds at half throttle.
The wings are ok with minor damage that can pretty much be glued back together. The fuse on the other hand has 'had it's back broke' with the spar running down the middle having cracked. The good news is I can get a replacement fuse for about $90. The bad news is a replacement fuse will cost me about $90.
Spitfire low pass
Warning - if you're watching this at work - there's a few "fuck me's" at the end.
Bad Boy – The business end
Check out the shiny OS46AX, muffler, aluminium spinner and landing gear - comes up quite nicely.
Some follow up photos post maiden flight. A few nuts and bolts to tighten, servo leads to label.
I've swapped the 11x4 prop and plastic spinner for a 12.25 x 3.75 prop and aluminium spinner.
There's two un-nessary holes in the fuse after I had to move the tank forward to accommodate the wing. I like to think of them as speed holes 🙂
Thoughts on the first flight
I setup the control throws and CG as reccomended in the manual. There are two settings per channel, 1) Regular and 2) Aerobatic. For the maiden flight I found the Regular settings quite comfortable, plenty of control without being too twitchy. I didn't get around to switching on the "Aerobatic" rates but considering these rates are more than twice the "Regular" rates I think a bit more practise before I go there.
As you can see from the video, takeoff roll was only about 10 metres after slowly advancing the throttle to a bit over half. A couple of clicks of down elevator was needed. No adjustment to aileron or rudder required. The flight was fairly short but long enough too get the feel for it. Landing was a piece of cake. Easier than any other tail-dragger I've flown and just floated in for an almost perfect (?) 3 point landing. I reckon if there was no wind you could go handsfree and let it float it itself.
Overall I was very happy with the first flight. No nasty suprises, takeoff and landing was a breeze. The next step is to push it around a bit harder and see what it'll do.
Bad BoyV2 Maiden Flight
There's a few steps missed here in the build log due to a hurried final day assembly to get it ready for last weekend.
So here's a video of the maiden flight - fairly short flight to iron out the bugs, check CG and son on. I'm sure there'll be more video to come.