Pterodactyl gets horny!

Well, I'm about there with the Pterodactyl, the horns have been added along with two ounces of lead to the head. Now the receiver and battery have been added, she balances out on the CoG spot as shown on the plan.

I'm just waiting for a calm day now and my next Pterodactyl post will be to report on the maiden flight with hopefully a video too.  I've really enjoyed building this kit and hope she goes as well as she looks. I'll probably need a valium before launching, but I guess this is what this hobby is all about, committing your work to the sky to see how it handles!  Wish me luck!

Circumstances are not helping the Pterodactly build!

Due to the sad loss of a fellow modeller, I've been very kindly given the below two models. Both are IC models and having tested them, they both run fine. I'm not sure how long since they were last started/flown, but all the electronics were installed so it was just a matter of installing my own receiver and flight batteries.

The first model is called a Trident II and features the very strange looking swept forward wings. It's fitted with an OS 46 two stroke engine and is certainly brightly coloured. I might need to fly this one with my shades on!

The second is called a Vivace and is fitted with a two stroke 62 engine. She's a low wing sports aerobatic plane and boasts a six foot single piece wing span. The installed pilot looks a bit of a cool dude as does my son Joseph (5 years old) who is posing with the plane. Joseph's practising on the RC Phoenix simulator when he can, so once he can consistently demonstrate to me he can fly circuits and not just do random stick bashing, then you never know, he might get the chance to have a go with something a bit smaller in months to come!

I'm going to renew the fuel pipe in both planes, but hopefully watch out for some flight videos and further reports coming to my Youtube channel soon!

More Tricopter fun!

Still distracting me from completing the Pterodactyl (although I now have working ailerons) is the lure of the Tricopter equipped with the GoPro camera.

I captured the following video over the weekend and diced with it a bit of flying/hovering over water!

 
I also captured the followng still picture hovering over my house. 

Lured to the dark side of helicopters! Blade 450 3D.

Since returning to the RC hobby, I've had three micro Blade helicopters. I started with the Blade MCX2 and then picked a second hand Blade MSR up off of eBay before then settling on the slightly larger Blade 120SR. Attending a few indoor flying events recently coupled with flying the tricopter a lot has got me craving a larger helicopter. A couple of months ago I decided I'd purchase a Blade 450 3D and see how I get along with that. Well the bug has certainly got me and as the two videos show, I'm not getting to grips with this helicopter following the first few flights where I was just practising hovering.  Already I'm starting to think of getting to grips with a bigger heli! Hmmmm a nice Trex 600 I think!

Tricopter Fun

As indicated in an earlier post, I've been having a lot of fun with my Tricopter recently. Here are a selection of some of the HD videos I have uploaded to YouTube showing some of the flights and what I've been up to. I'm using the KK blue controller board on the Tricopter with 3 2215/15 outrunner motors. These provide ample power and I get about six minutes of flight time from a 3S 2200mAh battery.

Pterodactyl - Progress or lack of it!

I know I know, there hasn't been a whole lot of progress with Terry over the past couple of months. Rest assured however that my intentions are good to get this bird completed as soon as possible! The body/fusalage has now been covered (see below)!  I just need to rig the ailerons up and get it all balanced out.  It won't be too much longer, I've just had the distraction of my Tricopter and venturing over to the dark side with Helicopters over the past few weeks! See separate post for some videos of my recent flying.

 Me with my little lad Joseph!