Myself (Greg Egan), Dick Hargrave & Ray Cooper at Bairnsdale
Airshow with Duigan, P15035 and the Cat
Photo: J. Bird
"Flying: the brief period between repairs" - © G.K. Egan 2001.
These pages are a running record of my flying activities.
Very early on (1960's) at the Mildura Technical School sports ovals I flew IC powered control-line balsa planks models carrying house bricks - to see whether it could be done of course! Actually they were half bricks as that was all our puny teenage arms could cope with pulling on the lines.
From memory I started flying again around September 2001. Prof. John Bird or Ray Cooper will correct me if I have this wrong.
In reverse build order.
I am inclined to build another medium aspect ratio (1.8M, 250mm) plank along the lines of P16025 although this may simply mean flying P16025 more often!
To date I have used the EMX07 airfoil but probably would use the PW75 which has less drag than the EMX07, an adequate Cl and the same positive pitching moment. The PW75 seems similar to the JWL065 but a little more consistent over a range of REs.
The Real Deal @ Spitfire 75th Duxford IWM September 2011 - Copyright © G.K. Egan
Kit is reasonably complicated and probably more so to fly. There was no excuse for buying this! Others have had fun building it including a few mixups with the plans.
The Lancaster kit was designed by Tony Nijhuis but has a 72" span not Tony's scaled up larger 17' version. SLEC produces a part kit with CNC cut formers and ribs.
The CNC ribs I received at the time were VERY warped like the Spitfire kit. This has meant a lot of fiddling to get things lined up in an acceptable manner. I have changed the build sequence a little as I found the nominal sequence to be messy. The fuselage tops do not curve easily even when damped with water and ammonia. I would use planking next time. I have built the centre wing panels as one piece and will cut them apart later. Some templates on the plans for the rib angling for motors would have been useful as it is easy to get it wrong.
There is a construction page.
Motocalc (Full Throttle, Cruise)
Attacker 2 First Flights @ Yarra Glen 29 August 2010
Rescued from a kerbside rubbish collection in our street. It turned out that the aircraft is a very rare Japanese OK Model Co. Ltd. Pilot Hit Kit Series Attacker 2. It is probably 30 or so years old and had never been flown. I made the minimum modifications to convert it to electric (bulkhead 1) before realising what it was, otherwise it was in in the original state as rescue when flown.
Inflight noise in the video with Damien Mould flying was the fuselage film peeling off - now in the queue to be tidied up and recovered.
Freewing F35 @ Kilcunda Ridge 26 September 2010
The baby version with the 64mm fan and no undercarriage. Added two servos for elevators and the suggested duct deflector to prevent pitch down at launch. The latter was not needed, as it turns out, being spat out in flight with extreme vectored thrust and some excitement while being flown by Damien Mould. Launch slightly upwards at around 50% throttle with a little up mixed in perhaps. Flys suprisingly well according to the jet experts. Interesting to launch but easy to fly in good light and blue skies as it is grey coloured and VERY small and so not compatible with early morning fog and overcast. Happily cruises around at 35% throttle with vertical available using a 2000mAH 3S pack.
Further Modifications (Shorter Nose) @ Yarra Glen 10 June 2009
Busby @ Kilcunda Ridge 16 November 2008
Video: R. Cooper
Only a faint resemblance to the original Pushy Cat. Busby likes to go FAST and as rebuilt is great on the slope and, now it has something to hang onto, flat-field as well. Spoilerons work well to tame quick landings although it lands fine without. Have not tried an elevon configuration - yet.
There is a construction page.
RC Groups Thread (all variants).
Motocalc
The Real Deal @ Spitfire 75th Duxford IWM September 2011 - Copyright © G.K. Egan
Everyone has to build a Spitfire! The kit is a full ground up design by Tony Nijhuis published late 2006 by RCM&E. SLEC produces a part kit with CNC cut fuselage panels, formers and ribs. The ply ribs warped badly when broken out of the sheets. Unfortunately it was after I glued them in that someone suggested steaming them and then putting them under weights! Good idea Batman. There are construction photos, some while in Manchester without my workshop.
I will complete the scratch built aircraft as I just cannot miss the "joy" of construction and inhaling a tree or two of balsa, despite mask, in the extensive sanding process.
CG very difficutl with 2x2000 3S packs plus 150gm of lead predicted best airspeed 11MPS! First flight 7 January 2012 - result start picket one, Spitfire nil. Stalled on landing approach - way too slow.
Construction/reconstruction photos.
Motocalc Scratch Built
Slope Soaring @ Kilcunda Ridge 20 September 2009
(You can tell when Ray is flying - nice scale moves)
Video: Ray Cooper & Greg Egan
On 7 April 2008 I ordered a ARF HK Spitfire from Col Taylor in Oz for $89 on sale. A great deal compared with the similar cost for a box of balsa and some CNC bits and the rest to be purchased. Unfortunately the last one in stock set aside for me came to a tragic end, reportedly involving a foot, just before being shipped. I ordered a HK Spitfire from Hobby City 30 May 2008 instead. 100 odd aircraft in the shipment sold in a couple of days with no more to be available - reportedly. Mine delivered 13 June 2008. Construction commenced 20 October 2008. There are some build notes and a RC Groups Thread.
It is excellent on the slopes!
Rebuilt Quadrocopter with GPS Nav @ Home 28 June 2009
My UAVX Thread | Google Archive
My main contribution is a completely rewritten UAVP, renamed UAVX, with GPS based navigation based on the 18F2620 PIC with no other hardware mods required on the original UAVP "black" board. UAVX was release 15 August 2009 Australian EST. Thanks go to Jim Solinski (Jesolins) for much of the ongoing UAVX flight testing.
There is a Google Archive where the quadrocopter/tricopter programs I have developed/rewritten so far may be found. This also links to the relevant discussion threads.
There are also some short notes and associated video on my ZN tuning experiments - DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME "CHILDREN".
This is a little different and a reasonable alternative to trying to have more conventional aircraft work as a VTOL solution although I have the ducted fans for that as well. I am using the standard INS based quadrocopter processor board initially but then may use my autopilot.
Some initial programming issues the control software has been loaded succesfully to PIC processor and tested after some time in determinig that the "lipoly.de" preloaded PIC did not have a bootloader installed and was the wrong configuraton - my fault. Fortunately I have the kit to program blank PICs.
Construction commenced in earnest 10 June 2008 and finished pretty much the same day with all static motor tests done. Motors are 4 Hyperion Z2213-24 outrunners with Titan 20A ESCs and the normal 10x4.7 props; Quadrocopter Black Board (initially V3.15b5 firmware). Motors are at a 600mm pitch to suit the lead lengths; I had planned 800mm! Motocalc predicted performance with one Hyperion 2000mAH LZ pack is 2513gm thrust 918gm mass, 3:14 minutes and seconds @ 100% and 14:27 @ 55% hover. For 2x2000mAH, 2685gm thrust, 1077gm mass, 6:04 @ 100%, 24:03 @ 58%. Should comfortably take my Pentax Optio S with pan tilt servos.
First flights in my lounge room 11 June 2008 at 200mm off the carpet - interesting. Trims work OK, Pitch Gain was inverted so first flight resulted in a backflip. Must remember to watch the VERY bright LED as the LiPoly went down to 7.8V while I was enjoying myself. Proportional control OK but there are issues with PID integrators.
On 14 June 2008 I rigged up a tuning frame pinning the frame on either the pitch or roll axis. I suspect there may be a leak in the integrator adding to the fun. I will order ADXRS300 gyros which hopefully will be compatible with the ADXRS150 on the yaw axis. Flights June 16, 2008 good fun but the daffodils on the lawn suffered. The idle was set deliberately low at 5% so flights could be terminated quickly to avoid the surrounding shrubbery and, of course, the video camera.
Short movie [.mov 1.1Mb] 16 June 2008 nothing broken by the way, just a decisive landing to avoid the camera.
Whilst OS on holidays June-July 2008 I wrote a Zeigler Nichols tuning spreadsheet as a possible contribution to the Quadrocopter community. There seemed to be no consistent way of obtaining the PID tuning parameters other than "suck it and see". I also partially rewrote the UAVP 3.14 control code for the Microchip C18 compiler and the 18F2520 pin compatible update of the 16F876 as this was the easiest way for me at least understand what the code actually did. The Next Generation quadrocopter effort has of course jumped to ARM but there quite a few of us with legacy UAVP kit.
More retail therapy acquired February 19, 2008 - becoming a habit. There is most likely a good reason why my kit was so cheap as it may be a KNOCKOFF/CLONE/COPY. Before choosing a supplier READ THIS and THIS and make up your own mind. My kit had no instruction manual and the box had no cover label - clear alarm bells in hindsight. The kit I purchased certainly has deficiencies in quality.
John Bird's Eagle and my Cockatoo (before paint jobs) @ Yarra Glen 8 March 2008
There are construction notes and photos including bolt on wings rather than rubber bands. General EPP Eagle information from the original designer. Also the extensive RC Groups Eagle Thread.
I initially christened it a Galah (read the first paragraph) but could not stand the idea of a pink aircraft so it is Cockatoo. A good fun flyer thermalling easily but do buy the original.
Motocalc Leton 6.5x3 | Hyperion Z2213/24 10x6 | Leton 6.5x3 cf 7.5x4
Modified Canary - Flaps and Spoilerons Deployed Yarra Glen May 12, 2008
A little spontaneous retail therapy, delivered 1 February 2008 and first flown 10 February, and now something to have in the car boot. I chose yellow as John Bird chose magenta - we don't want to go flying each others aircraft as we have done before.
There are some build notes and photos. Further improvements were made by 5 May 2008 including moving the spoileron servos outboard and adding flaps; all up weight 504gm. See also RC Groups Thread.
Why "Canary"? Because its a tiny yellow bird of course.
Motocalc 10x6 800mAH
Microjet @ Yarra
Glen May 12, 2008
Spontaneous purchase to test my autopilot against Paparazzi Group's claims. I made the fins demountable by inserting rawl plugs in their bases and tapping them for 3mm nylon bolts.
The aircraft is VERY difficult to hand launch except on a slope site with
a bit of air underneath. Once in the air it is surprisingly easy to fly if
you pay attention to getting the CG just right, which you tend to do if you
spend a lot of time flying planks and flying wings. Up trim of 3mm left and
about 5mm on the right to counter torque and add reflex helps a bit. Most
wings and planks need extra up trim on launch because very little pitching
moment is generated until the aircraft is actually flying. Microjet stalls
at about 12M/S and flies at about 15M/S - how good is your arm?
The standard power-train of a 6V Permax S400 and Gunther prop on 7x500AR cells
is hopeless! I used a 6V Graupner with 6x3 folder and 3s 1700mAH LiPo which,
while still conservative, gives good ROC and a reasonable endurance at the
same all up weight without resorting to brushless motors. For folders in pusher
configuration rotate the blades and use a rectangular shim overlapping the
blade root under the spinner nut to prevent blade cross-over; this idea is
due to Professor J. Bird.
The configuration 20 April 2008 uses a Mega 16/15/2 (spare to hand from
a planned ducted fan VTOL) and a 4.1x4.1 fixed propellor with a 2000mAH LiPo.
Performance should be adequate if I can get it in the sky! Hint: do not use
long bungees for lauching MicroJets; catapults good, bungees very
bad. I should, of course, know this! Everything is fixable but too much
boiling water to uncompact EPP can lead to lizard skin.
Returning to brushed S400 for some practice. A couple of succesful flights
6 May 2008 at Yarra
Glen. Co-Pilot not useful - too sluggish in updates - removed for next
fights. Launch aided and flights made interesting by turbulent 7M/S Northerly.
Several flights 9 May 2008 with Gunther propellor at around 14A and zero wind.
The 6x3 tried way back (above) draws too high a current (18A+) with newer
LiPos and their higher terminal voltage under load. One soft landing in fresh
brown stuff (its a farm) necessitating a wash
(pretty much clean by then) under a tap. WeldBond glue joining bits together
started to melt in damp conditions so I have painted over the glue with SpeedClear™.
Used 580 of the 800mAH pack over half a dozen flights; motor and pack cold
on landing.
Very pleased I can actually launch, fly and land this thing - now I can
hangar it perhaps?
First Flights Mini Graphite at Yarra
Glen 22 April 2005
Photo: J. Bird
The Mini Graphite is an absolute joy to fly on either slope or flat field now I have now (at last) mastered the flaps, crow braking, camber control, differential settings etc etc.
Weetie Yarra Glen
20 February 2006
Photo: J. Bird
Autopilot 14 March 2004 @ Kilcunda Ridge (old video - fuzzy)
Video: R. Cooper
Weetie with wing extensions @ Yarra Glen 15 December 2004
29 October 2009 @ Fitzgerald River WA
Cornflakes "BIG Day Out" 22 October 2009 @ Bunda Cliffs SA (Google Earth)
17 October 2009 @ Carots' Bore - William Creek to Coober Pedy Road SA
Photos above taken on a little road trip of 7070Km from Melbourne to Perth on one of Australia's scenic routes.
Cornflake Mk I Short Tail 13 October 2002 @Yarra
Glen
Photo: J. Bird
Cornflake with wing extensions @ Home (sawdust is not from aircraft!)
Twin Engined Cornflake
At the prompting of Ray Cooper I tried twin S400s with 6x3 folders. The engines had to be on extended booms for CG and also so the folders opened up when the motors were restarted in flight - a small consideration. It worked quite well and sounded great but had slightly lower rate of climb than the geared 11x8 version and less than half the endurance. I thought that adding two geared 11x8 motors may be a little excessive.
Altitude Hold Tests @ VARMS
4 February 2004 (old video - fuzzy)
Video: J. Bird
On April 7, 2008 I replaced the geared S400 with a Hyperion HP-Z2213-24 outrunner followed by a cheap Himark C2812/26, 10x6 propellor, and a 2000mAH 3s LiPoly. I would have preferred an 800mAH but the CG prohibited it. Very agile and still nice to fly after all these years and an hour and a half in the air at cruise.
Primera with 2x6 Wing and original fuselage
Photo: J. Bird
Phoenix with new fuselage at Brigg's Field (VARMS)
Photo: G.K. Egan
Phoenix 25 March 2006 - flying again 29 March 2006
superficial damage only!
Photo: J. Bird
Phoenix with my Prelude wing
2X6 Wing Spoilers with direct deployment by servo arm
and retraction by magnet
Coyote Yarra
Glen 3 February 2006
Photo: J. Bird
Graupner Terry V2 with black stocking sleeve at Briggs Field Post Major Crash
Bought for slope soaring. Loss of radio control on one flight resulted in a pile of foam (not EPP). The pieces were glued back together with PVA and inserted into a length of stocking also painted with PVA; a dose of boiling water helped partially restore the shape of the fragments. This repair method, suggested by John Bird, worked fine. The wing which has no spar, relying only on the stick on logo, had a distinct tendency to fold in two and the aircraft was finally converted to a slope glider by removing the S400 and battery. As a slope soarer it tends to annoy others as it is extremely light and with the RG15 wing slippery and so thermals easily.
Resucitated 7 November 2008 with the Cockatoo's servos and powertrain. Still great fun to fly and has now been fitted with a carbon spar. Graupner has re-released in white EPP (RCM&E October 2008).
Autopilot First Flight Kilcunda Ridge 16 October 2003
Photo: J. Bird
Motocalc standard | geared 4:1 11x8.
Now flying with a Turnigy 2213/20 brushless and 9x6 Prop.
I made the winglets demountable by inserting rawl plugs in the wing-tips and tapping them for nylon bolts. The winglets are made of coreflute and the wing halves are joined using a carbon fibre rod inserted into arrow shaft spars. The original motor tray was abandoned and a fuselage box made which could be inserted at will between the wing halves in either a glider or powered configuration. The whole aircraft packs down into the original Zagi box. Many of the construction techniques were due to the ideas of John Bird.
Much redesigned Zagi 400 with removable power pod and S400 4:1 geared 11x8
Powered (with Autopilot) and Glider Configurations Kilcunda Ridge 16 October
2003
It was VERY windy hence the foot
Photo: J. Bird
Prelude (Black and Blue) and Friends at Kilcunda Ridge
John Bird's Zagi on loan and fitted with a Zagi 400 motor setup and FMA Co-Pilot
Zagi @ VARMS 11 February 2002 (old video - fuzzy)
Video: J. Bird
My son Sean and I flying the electrified Zagi at Kirwan's Port Welshpool
7 March 2002
Sean found it too easy
Photo: J. Bird
Bass Hill
VARMSGlenfern RoadTorquay Dunes - alas no more
Ray CooperJohn BirdRoger Gibbs
Copyright © G.K. & S.P. Egan - All rights reserved. Last updated 1 January, 2011.
