A new video, several rocket gliders...

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burkefj

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It was a beautiful day today so I took out a bunch of my early RC rocket gliders that I either semi-retired or don't fly that much for some reason....Here is a compilation. All flying on E-6 RC reloads. The screw heads on the rail buttons on the shuttles kept catching on the runway matting and giving me an instant stop..

Buran
Shuttle
Space Battleship Yamato
Boeing ALCM
Bomarc

My new video camera is pretty good and I was happy to get some better video of these old planes.

[video=youtube;YbLrrzGKOq4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbLrrzGKOq4&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
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Here's a great video of a demo flight I did for a fly in this weekend, actually planned to and hit the runway.

[video=youtube;kRc0rVXp5ok]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRc0rVXp5ok[/video]
 
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I picked up a single cell 450mah cell yesterday and removed all of my bec's and rebalanced my rocket gliders. I did five test flights on the single battery and it was only down 25 mah from a full charge. Thanks to Ari and Brian for confirming this would most likely work, for most of them I was able to remove 1/2 ounce of weight which is pretty good in a 9-10 oz glider. All of these I'm just running an AR-400 rx and two hs-55 servos. In addition this saves about $10-$24 for the bec that people don't have to buy and the single cells are only around $8...So that gets the kit+component cost to less than $100 per model rtf, or less if you cut and build them yourself from the plans.

I'll have a video shortly, including the X-2.

Frank
 
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Here's the videos.....

[video=youtube;UTpSQCEAKdM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTpSQCEAKdM[/video]

Frank
 
I picked up a single cell 450mah cell yesterday and removed all of my bec's and rebalanced my rocket gliders. I did five test flights on the single battery and it was only down 25 mah from a full charge. Thanks to Ari and Brian for confirming this would most likely work, for most of them I was able to remove 1/2 ounce of weight which is pretty good in a 9-10 oz glider. All of these I'm just running an AR-400 rx and two hs-55 servos. In addition this saves about $10-$24 for the bec that people don't have to buy and the single cells are only around $8...

I'll have a video shortly, including the X-2.

Frank

Glad we could help. Was there any noticeable affect on the flights?
 
Not that I could see. I bumped the aileron on the F-106 boost but that was my fault. They all flew as they did before. Only my InteR/Ceptor seemed to have a bit more sluggish servo movement, not a problem in flight though, but it's one of my older models, probably 5-6 years old, its servos are also slower on 2s compared to my other models, so the servos just might be tired on that model. This is a nice setup, makes it a pretty clean install on a profile model. One of the complaints people have is you can see the components, but now all there is are the two servos, the receiver and a tiny battery, not much wiring at all, I don't notice it in flight.

Frank


Glad we could help. Was there any noticeable affect on the flights?
 
Wow! Beautiful craft and fantastic flying Frank! Thanks for sharing!

I'm drooling since you have many of my top 10 craft are here...the Shuttle (although the Russian version), ALCM, SR-71, X-15 and Bomarc. The X-15 and Shuttle flights were breathtaking! :clap:
 
https://www.gravesrc.com/common-sen...-30c-lipo-battery-with-walkera-connector.html

I did scavange a standard receiver connector off of an old dead servo I had so that I could plug this directly into my receiver. If you have a dead bec, you could use that as well, you'll only need two of the wires though.

You'll want to test it on the bench and make sure it is working ok with your servos....

It is a 2C charge rate so .9 amp is what I'm using. My charger came with a female receiver connector so I could plug it right in.

This may work as well...https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking...o_Pro_328_Eflite_MQX_120SR_AU_Warehouse_.html

Frank
 
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So, these aren't really rocket gliders, but parkjets with airstarts...First one is my XF-91 Thunderceptor which was an interceptor that had four xlr-11 rocket motors above and below the jet nozzle, same motor used in the X-1....I built it with an 18mm above and 24mm below and this video shows some flights with a C-6 on the bottom, a D-12 on the bottom and then a D and C combined...the motor really needed a 7x5 prop for good flight performance but for rocket boost that was too large a diameter and it was in the exhuast stream so I had to use a zagi carbon 5x5 which was too small for the motor but didn't melt..Since I had set it up as a pusher, I could have done a tractor as I did with my X1A and avoided that but I was trying to stick with pushers at that time..Rockets were more just for effect, if you watch them in .25 speed you can see the flame pretty well... The thunderceptor was an oddball, wing tips were wider than the roots and had tandem wheeled wing mounted gear that retracted toward the wingip, since it was wider there the tandem wheels worked...

[video=youtube;6c5wDtBgmeU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c5wDtBgmeU[/video]

Second is my X1A rocket plane which has a tractor in the nose and I airstarted a quest 20mm D-5P in the tail, again more just for effect...

[video=youtube;AYr6JuyDtTo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYr6JuyDtTo[/video]
 
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I picked up a single cell 450mah cell yesterday and removed all of my bec's and rebalanced my rocket gliders. I was able to remove 1/2 ounce of weight which is pretty good in a 9-10 oz glider. In addition this saves about $10-$24 for the bec that people don't have to buy

"Simplificate and add lightness."

Ari.
 
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