A-40

[Cavo]

Hey Trash,could you pm me when the planes arrive.Thx cavo

[trash]

not probs cavo, and anybody else wanting them… I’ll let you know when they get here.

[trash]

I see jaycar have the UFO that I got from china.
They are selling them for $70 ouch !
They cost me $25usd plus postage.
They are a lot of fun, but I didn’t think they were worth that much.
I took one for a fly out tamworth over easter.
300ft at night, they look like something seriously extra terrestrial !

[z-beam]

got any pics of that ufo trash?

[oldtamiyaphile]

Red Dot in WA has the UFO’s for AU$40.

Anyone have a pic of a real A-40? Was there one? A search for ‘Bombardier’ found a bunch of planes, but nothing that looks simular.

[trash]

Go the Red dot … that’s a really good price !

there’s a picture of one chasing my cat on my webshots page… look in the RC Air section.

[oldtamiyaphile]

Nah, I just bought one (for my Bro’s Bday but I suspect I’ll get one myself), I’m after info on a 1:1 scale A-40. Imagine a real one chasing your cat! 👿

[trash]

They’re here.

They came in at $66 this time. Customs slugged me $6 GST on each one. Mongerals even charge gst on the postage! (landed cost) They had a go at applying import duty too, which can be as much as 22%. Thankfully, they dropped that idea when I talked down their value as a ‘disposable’ item.
I guess I can’t complain, I have heaps of people who see me fly them in the park and hand me $100 note and walk away with a box. I wouldn’t mind paying the $6 tax if only there were more people in the park. I think the next batch is going to come sea freight …It peeves me off knowing that most of the cost is in freight. This box looks like an xmas present … it’s absolutely covered in stamps ! For ausmicro members they’ll always be available at cost.

[TallduDe]

hey trash willing to part with just a plane?

i got a controller but lost the plane (remember dat) i couldnt save it before the rain hit it 🙁

now i have a controller and no plane.

[trash]

ummm… I got fuselages, wings, wheels, props…
enough to build another plane except an RX board… If I’d thought about it I would have ordered one of those too ! Do you want me to find out how much it would cost for the RX board.
The wings used to cost $10 but I just rechecked what I paid for them this time round and I got slugged $11.70,($12) the fuselage cost $10.20 ($10),
I thought they might have the rxer board included, but my list says they cost $15 each.
They say they don’t do orders of less that $200usd, but I think I got shonked on the wings this time around (not that they’re already dirt cheap) so I might get them to send me an RXer board as compo 🙂 Harrass me more often and I’ll let you know.

[trash]

SOME HELPFUL TIPS.

– … NEVER FLY IN WIND !! Just don’t !
– stay away from trees and buildings !!
-fly in big open parks like cricket pitches with no trees nearby.
– start with small step… don’t try loops until you can fly level and land on a cricket pitch runway !
-Height is safety… flying low is just asking for trouble… ask Shirley Strawn .. oh: he’s dead ! you have no time before you hit the ground, a safe height is about 30 metres (100ft)
and not more than 300ft.

When you get an A40, put a piece of tape along the top of the fuselage from the windscreen to the rear window, over the two screws. Often in a hard impact, these will pop out to absorb the force. The tape stops you loosing them in long grass.

I also put a bit of fibre tape on the nose.
The nose is always the first thing to damage, but it does not effect how the plane flys. I find that a very light coating of 5 minute epoxy gives it a nice shell that resists damage.

I also sometimes put a piece of fibre tape under the wings to help re-inforce them. They don’t need it, so it’s sort of trivial.

If you make a habit of flying into trees, and some people just love them, putting fibre tape on the leading edge will help, BUT .. ANYTHING you put on the leading edge or the top side of the wing must be smooth as you can get it, no creases.
This is extreemly important. The front and top sides of wings is what makes them fly, any disturbance to the airflow, they are no longer wings !

I also use some fibre tape over the tail to hold the horizontal stabiliser in place as the provided double sided tape is sometimes dodgy. (for easy replacement). If the tail comes off in flight, the flight bit is over !

When you launch … a gentle but firm push aimed slightly above the horizon with full throttle on ready to correct any roll quickly. Remember, you fly the plane, don’t let it fly you !

Practise flying straight first… turns latter.
Start with a cricket pitch… fly down and land.
The fly down, turn slightly and land.
then a 90 degree turn and land.
then a 180 degree turn and land, then a 360 and land.
This will build up you confidence to turn…
often somebody will make a turn and decide they will not make it… two things happen… they try and turn back (wrong – make a decission, and stick to it) or they have made a bad decission and that tree is coming up a lot quicker, and they turn hard, with a dive. If you have enough height, you’ll live to learn from the mistake.
If you don’t, then you’ll learn how to crash with the minimal amount of damage. 🙂

Turn slowly… sharp turns result in dives and sometimes spins (spins are bad) Safe height will give you room to dive if you do have to turn quickly.

Land and launch into the breeze. If it is windy or a strong breeze…. consider coming back tomorrow ! The wind on the ground is always weaker than in the air, so don’t be fooled into thinking those trees are waving because they want too !

Don’t try and squeeze every last drop of power out of the battery… the motors steer the plane, if you only have enough power to run one motor, then you don’t have control of the plane.
The plane will have trouble climbing when the battery is low, time to come in and land.
Loose hieght over the area where you going to land… I always do figure 8 turns at one end of my park over the soccer goals before turning up the field and flying down the center to land.
Always turn INTO the breeze ….avoid turning down wind unless you have lots of clearence from objects etc. Hitting something at high airspeed can break things a lot easier.

If there is any kind of object in the park like goal posts of lights… do not fly near them, be aware of them and don’t look at them… if you look at an object, you WILL hit it. You should be watching the plane ! Murphy’s law and a thing called object fixation will cause you to hit it.

[TallduDe]

all i go to do is bug ya aye……hmmmmmmmmm

http://i.imdb.com/mptv1.gif

enuff bugs for ya?

do what you can man 😀

Edited by – TallduDe on 04 May 2004 20:59:27

[trash]

I’ve got Cavo’s plans ready to send, but he’s fallen off the end of the world.
Looks like I can get a whole replacement plane for you talldude. I’m not sure what’ll cost yet,
it should be about $35. It can piggyback in another box since it weighs almost nothing.
the TXer is most of the weight.
They have the whole GWS range in stock now, but it looks like about $300 for the planes and all their bits/radios/esc/servos etc and then the postage.(yuck) A good deal compared to the $880 I saw one for the other day… Pirates!

[TallduDe]

sweet man tell us when you can get us the plane and ill work something out with ya for the cash delivery.

you still want to get the GWS B2?

ive seen the mustang but thats a bit toooo advandanced, maybe in a year or two ill get a tigermoth or pico stick.

it depends on my bank balance!!

[Cavo]

Trash I’m still here,had pc troubles.Tried to contact U by phone but no luck.I thought you were sending them COD as you gave me no details for payment.Please ring me if you do not hear from me and leave payment details.Thx Cavo

[Cavo]

Well,I took my yellowbee for a fly on sat and guess what..It flew like an Eagle(better than its first flight…crash).Your right Trash they are overproped.Mine needed a bit of trimming but it flew well for 10 mins on very little throttle,had to land I was goin to have a heart attack.Been a while since I’ve flown and being a new plane did’nt help.Now I know how they like to fly I can start havin some fun.Can’t wait for the a-40’s,should be heaps of fun for the weekend.What goes up,must come down,only the speed varies !!! mmmm!

[TallduDe]

ahhhh another person with the bug for flying.

i really enjoy flying my aerobird even when strangers stare at me while im flying it at 630am!

[Cavo]

ooh yeh ! went to fly again 2day and got to see another plane crash.It was a foam wing pusher prop type(very underpowered,he took off down wind..??)and that was that.The yellow bee went well even with a little wind and I dont think the other bloke was too impressed.I dunno,I luv to see my planes crash as long as its a bloody good one and people get to see it.(must by a camera one day) !! Fly on !!

[trash]

.. finally .. I’m back on… I’ve been having trouble getting into the website past few days.

I’ve crashed A40’s into just about everything..
I flew one deliberately into a wall the other day to destruction test it. It survived with a crumpled nose. I picked it up and it flew again instantly.

Cavo, when you get the A40’s .. put a piece of tape on top of the wing over the screws and washers. I run fibre tape from the front window to the back window over the wing. It stops the screws/washers popping out if you hit the ground hard. It’s easy to loose them.

I make it a habbit of not crashing !

[TallduDe]

man the A-40’s i had crashed like a champion.

they hit so much stuff it wasnt funny due to the fact that i was learning to fly the bastards!

when i got my aerobird ive only had one major crash which wrecked a wing, cesides dat all my incidents happen on landing when i come in tooo fast and bend the wheels slightly.

wouldnt mind a new a-40 i know what im doing now! LOL

[Cavo]

Trash the A-40’s arrived 2 day,Bloody little rippers !!Thx man.. Pitty its a windy day I was gunna fly ! Damn…!I read your helpful tips,very helpful.Once again Thx Trash and may we all Fly High !!

[trash]

yep, wait for a really calm day cavo.
They are very jumpy in even light wind.
Later on that jumpiness you can take advantage of to do aerobatics. Practise trying to fly with level wings first, then the harder stuff 🙂
I was teaching my friend to fly circuits the other day… in the mild breeze it was quite hard to do.

I’ve got all the bits for you talldude… only the RXer board is required. I was under the impression that spare RXer boards came with the new chassis, but that wasn’t the case.
I’ll let you know when I do the next order.

[TallduDe]

sweeet man.

i can wait man in no greeeeeat hurry.

still takin vid’s of ur flying man trash?

[Cavo]

Hot Damn,,success Fellas,my A-40 flew like a bird first time out,apart from being swooped by 10 galars it was great.Had a few problems with the 27 mhz,lose wires on the circuitboard TX but easily fixed.Trash,one thing I noticed is 3 of the controllers have a charging circiutboard inside the TX with a multi (red,on/green,charge) LED,while one just has a red led that does’nt come on when charging and does not have the charging circuitboard inside but it still charges ok,is this just an older controller where u charge for under 5 mins then disconnect when hot(no charging light/timer).Looks like I’ll have a few more to order in a few months or so and might get a few spare plane batts at the same time.Might have to take a week off to fly me thinks !!!

[trash]

Wow, that’s new … Green for charge !
They use to be that the power LED was not on (the txer switched off) to charge the battery.
NEVER EVER let the controller get out of your hand when charging. I lost another battery because I got distracted and put the controller down for 5 minutes and the NiMH’s exploded. DOh !
I do keep spares, that is the third time I’ve done it now !! I’ll order some more with talldudes rx board. I have a box full of spare chassis and wings at the moment.

All my controllers are the old type then, I wasn’t aware that they have finally did something about it.
Which wires did you have a problem with in the 27mhz ? I had one go in flight… was like trying to land a DC10 with hydrolics failure 🙂
I should create a web page for them, with circuit diagrams and tips and tricks.

I’m not sure if the ‘flight school’ posts are still on the forum … have a search for them.

[Cavo]

The 27 mhz A40’s,one had a loose wire for the left turn,the other was a red power wire that goes to the (new) circuitboard from the other one,(always to a good ground test).Two dabs of solder the job was done.Now to buy a nicad pac from dicksmith $29.95 with charger,same as yours Trash.Fly on !!!!

[Cavo]

Trash,see if u can buy the timer LED circuitboard to put in your old controllers,it looks like all they just solder on the TX board as an add on.Just look in a new one and copy the wiring,the holes are already there.It might save you a few batts.The green light goes out on 5 mins,but I still time it to make sure no more than 5 ish !! A friend wants to camo his A40,I said use markers or water based paint or dye ? not sure he was serious though.

[trash]

The best way to test the pain is on an old styrofoam box. If it doesn’t eat it, it’s all good.
It’s basically petrochemicals and solvents that eat it. The timer board I may be able to build them. I’ll also try and see if I can order them.
I’m bad for blowing up batteries.

I’ll try and get them ordered and sent before the weekend.

Do you notice insects chasing the planes ?
where I fly locally here, there are always two or three flys or wasps chasing my planes.

Have you managed any aerobatics with them yet, other than hitting the ground ? 🙂

[Cavo]

My A-40 flies like a dream.Have done a few wingovers,spiral dive with a cool pull out but no loops yet.If I trim both elevators down a little I get great level cruise speed,If I trim up it’s more like a glider,cool ! I timed an engine run on cruise speed it was 4 mins,3 ish mins with full throttle.What sort of time do you get Trash on cruise or full throttle ? My flight batt does’nt get as hot as the non timer TX,but both have the same run time of 4 mins on a charge.It’s 5 mins for the new controller to charge,1.5-2 mins on the old TX its hot to go.Wierd !! My first flight lasted 7 mins but all flights since about 4-5 mins,Wierd again !! Luv em ! wish they could fly for 20 mins on a charge,damn battery companies.

[oldtamiyaphile]

I get 20 mins, or close to it, using a real charger. Don’t blame the batteries! It might get a single lipo for 40 min flights.

[trash]

Yep, I get 5 minutes if I’m power on all the time.
If I’m conservative with the juice and flying for performance I can get 15 minutes without much effort. My best is about 20-25 minutes using thermals.
Have a search for the ‘flight school’ thread… I think there was some interesting stuff in there.

[Cavo]

What type of wall charger can you use for the A-40 flight batts?.Any idea where to get em ?? I asked DSE but the salestaff still have nappies on and looked at me with lost eyes ! We have no idea and that was all 3 Staff !! Are there any longer life batts avaiable to use for the A40 ???

[oldtamiyaphile]

I’d skip the wall charger idea, there are no power points at the park. I use a SJ Swallow peak charger now, it’s around $120, and runs of a 12v car battery, much more useful at the park.

If you can’t spend that much any wall charger with ~300mah output and 6v will do the trick, you’ll have to fashion your own charging plugs (change them all to Deans micro plugs, which I use on all my micro cars/boats/planes).

You could add bigger batteries but the extra weight will adversly affect performance. The answer for doubling flight time is lipo’s, but that requires the charger mentioned at the top of this post.

[Cavo]

Oh well,more batts=more fun ! got a 12 min flight today.I noticed the 27 mhz A-40’s tailwing is set different to the 49 mhz,thus reducing climb.A small sand to the fuse(tail wing mount,down at the front) to set dead level with the mainwing trailing edge and climbs much better.I’m sure I read someone had hight problems,this might fix it.Fly High all !!

[trash]

Yeah, dick smith do have them, it helps if you have a catalog number for the brain dead staff at DSE. I find it’s morally wrong not to take advantage of their stupidity and quite often they ring up cheaper prices on the register for items.
The battery packs are 9.6V. Have a look around the radio control section, or just ask them where their radio control battery packs are. If they’re there, then you should have no trouble finding them, especially in a super center.
Sorry , I don’t have the cat number on me at the moment.
You can charge them of a car battery lighter plug. A 10V regulated/reduced supply will work just fine. I just use 4 power diodes and a big arse low value resistor in series to drop the voltage, but I keep my eye on it and don’t let it overheat.

[Cavo]

So a 10v regulated/reduced supply will charge the batt,any certain amps or it does’nt matter just straight 10 volts till hot ? Did some cool areobatics today thanks to a slight breeze,almost had it hovering only to turn and fly like a torpedo downwind and then fly back upwind like a kite to its original postion,cool.Not so cool my mate just missing my head on a low level fly with his A40,(real pilot showing off),3 flights and he’s a pro ! Ha !! Dogfights on !!

[Author]

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