Vulcan bomber r/c rocket glider

[burkefj]

Aww you should do one too and compare notes..

For me launching an angle sometimes can be problematic since I like to put the rail buttons up off of the ground which means they're offset slightly on the top right or bottom right so if the rail is angled that means it's hanging with a twist and you have to put Wing supports to keep it from binding, on the smaller models where they're directly on the top or the bottom it's not so big a deal.


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Coo!!

Excited that my musings might have nudged you into trying this….

I might have to do the Athena since you are doing the Vulcan…

My BT101 is quite old. A buddy bought two full boxes at a price of 1-2 bucks each at a close out sale in the mid 1990s.

I would think that you could safely stretch to 33-34 oz, with a slightly inclined launch rail. Over the years, most of my RC RG tended to be launched at a slight to moderate angle, except for the SR-71. Note the typical launch angle of the Aerotech Phoenix. Some have noted the the AT Phoenix falls off a little bit at this angle on the G8, but is easily controllable.

 

[burkefj]

Just waiting on BT 101 tubes now. Little one is 24" span 5 oz rtf 1.6" diameter,6mm wing, medium is 30.5" 10.5 oz rtf 2.6" diameter, 9mm wing large one is 46" span, 12mm laminated wing, 32 oz rtf, 4" diameter.

 

[burkefj]

1/25 scale Avro Vulcan bomber ready for decals. 47" wingspan, 4" diameter, 41" length. Right at 32 ounces with 29mm H13 installed. Max did his best JJ Abrams lens flare photo

 

[tab28682]

Awesome!!

 

[burkefj]

 

[aerostadt]

Is that the wind that I hear in background? Sounds pretty bad.

 

[burkefj]

Is only 5 to 7 miles an hour it depends on which way the person videoing is standing whether or not you get a lot of wind noise or not.

Is that the wind that I hear in background? Sounds pretty bad.

 

[burkefj]

Decals arrived yesterday

 

[boomtube-mk2]

And the next thing you know it gets hijacked, ditched in shallow water and suddenly S.P.E.C.T.R.E. has themselves a couple of nuclear bombs.

I mean jeez luweez people, has nobody seen the documentary Thunderball?

 

[burkefj]

Two more great Vulcan flights today!

 

[burkefj]

The weather was so good today bright and sunny and no wind I drove up the gorge to goldendale and flew my vulcan again twice on H motors. This thing is so majestic and lands so slowly I'm really having a fun time with it. Consistently over 3 minutes with it, but it is a bit draggier on initial boost so my micropeak will not detect launch, it has to be 100 feet in 3 seconds or something, all my other gliders trigger it but not this one in several attempts....

 

[Brian V]

That is AWESOME!!!! And it’s beautiful in flight

 

[TheAviator]

That looks super easy to fly on boost. It's amazing what a larger plane will do for you.

 

[burkefj]

It actually takes a bit more finesse to fly this and I'm giving a lot more control input than I normally do for the smaller models, the boost speed starts slow but then increases a lot due to long burn time and weight burnoff, you have to manage angle so you don't lose visibility and don't get too fast or too far away, it is trivial to fly once in glide mode.

That looks super easy to fly on boost. It's amazing what a larger plane will do for you.

 

[burkefj]

Another great flight with a 3:45 glide time

 

[Brian V]

Frank that is Totally AWESOME!!!!!! I Love it!!!! What system is the live altimeter did you use? And where can I get it? I know you can’t kit that one will you sell plans for it? If you do I would be very interested in a set.

 

[burkefj]

It's the spektrum 6610T and as long as you have a newer spectrum transmitter that supports voice and telemetry it should work as is.

Frank that is Totally AWESOME!!!!!! I Love it!!!! What system is the live altimeter did you use? And where can I get it? I know you can’t kit that one will you sell plans for it? If you do I would be very interested in a set.

 

[Brian V]

Thanks Frank I do have a new transmitter I will look into getting that 6610T

 

[burkefj]

Once you do "auto" under telemetry when you have bound the receiver, it will find rpm, altitude and variometer, I simply went into telemetry afterward and set variometer to "ignore" I think and then you don't get the constant beeping...I just left rx voltage and altitude active under the telemetry option. I couldn't figure out how to disable just the variometer sounds...

It's the spektrum 6610T and as long as you have a newer spectrum transmitter that supports voice and telemetry it should work as is.

 

[tab28682]

Frank, are you doing audible altitude announcements on demand on your TX?

I do that with my sailplanes and powered gliders. I have the vario on a switch so I can turn it off, when I do not need it.

I set up the voice response on the bind button on the TX. Fun to tap it and sample the altitude once in a while.

When I build a RCRG for the H13, it will have altitude telemetry for sure.

 

[burkefj]

It's just the automatic altitude telemetry with spektrum. I just removed vario from the telemetry so I don't hear it.

Frank, are you doing audible altitude announcements on demand on your TX?

I do that with my sailplanes and powered gliders. I have the vario on a switch so I can turn it off, when I do not need it.

I set up the voice response on the bind button on the TX. Fun to tap it and sample the altitude once in a while.

When I build a RCRG for the H13, it will have altitude telemetry for sure.

 

[tab28682]

Another thing you can do with the vario is to set a larger threshold value before it sends a audible tone for sink. I like to hear just about all the lift, but edit out minor extra sink above the normal glide decent rate.

Might be useful to have the vario sound on a switch if you boost to near the limit of visibility, so you could get feedback on sink rate if you want it. Easy to switch off once it is a little lower and easier to see.

 

[Brian V]

Cool thanks Frank

 

[tab28682]

I made it out the the DARS launch last Saturday and had a fantastic flight with the Vulcan.

The ranch land launch area there near Gunter is actually on the side of a shallow hill that drops away to the southeast. The prevailing wind was somewhat up this long shallow slope and there was enough of a slope effect to add some duration to the flight as I flew it back and forth. The wind was light and it produced a quite large area of reduced sink instead of a narrow band of more noticeable lift. Probably added 30-45 seconds to the normal dead air duration. Wish I had timed it.

Dave Schaefer was in attendance and put one excellent flight each in on his Centurian T-25, his BT 55 upscaled Space Plane and his vintage HobbyLab SR-71. (All RC, of course.)

A beautiful day, a large attendance of great rocket folks including a number of TARC and university teams and lots of great launches. Totally worth the 160 mile round trip from far south Fort Worth to Gunter, well north of Frisco.

 

[burkefj]

Some great photos from Jim Wilkerson shot at Tri Cities Rocketeers Sodblaster IV last weekend of the large Vulcan.

 

[burkefj]

 

[burkefj]

Typically I'll boost my large H,-23 powered models like the Vulcan so it climbs across either right to left or left to right so I can see if I have any wing tipping and then I'll do a climbing turn the other direction about halfway up and go back the other way so it doesn't get too far away from me. This helps me judge orientation a little better than just climbing straight away from me and looking up the rear end of the model as the wing is so thin it starts to disappear.

At my local R/C club air show I had a perfect flight the first day but on the second day I accidentally leveled out too long transitioning into the reverse climbing left turn and my controls would not let me level out and I had two visible series of wing tip flutter at high speed, on the second one the plane slowed enough my controls regained effectiveness and I was able to pull into a vertical climb and complete the flight. It happened about 8 seconds into the 17 second burn.

The wing didn't show any signs of damage nor did the control horns or servo mounts and I thought I had just gotten lucky. I went out to fly it again yesterday and in doing my PreFlight I noticed one of the elevon controls was acting a bit funny around center kind of moving in sudden little jerks so I unplugged the battery and moved the servo by hand and I could feel it slip around the center position which is an indication that I had broken one of the carbon impregnated plastic gear teeth. So I had gotten lucky. I took her home and replaced the servos with some metal gear units and had her back up flying the next day without any issue. PreFlights are important. I have about 30 flights on this model and that was the first time I've run across this issue so I'll need to be careful and make sure I keep it in more of a climb.

In replacing the servos the new ones had much longer servo wires which allowed me to move the receiver about 8 in further forward into the nose cone along with the battery placement and take out about a third of an ounce of the nose weight so in the end I came out with a lighter model.

 

[burkefj]

 

[Aeronerd]

Wow really nice flying field you have there in goldendale! Love the size of the glider