More details….
Close up of the creative chain drive:
Keith Shaw’s Radical RC 1905 Wright Flyer Part 3
A Self Defense Free Zone Kills Again In Portland Oregon
December 12,2012: Another zone were self defense is forbidden, where dying at the hands of a wacko is held in higher moral regard than defending your own life or the lives of other Americans. Clackamas Town Center Mall, A place where your life is flippantly put at risk. Hey wackos! Come here! Come to our place where we have disarmed the “sheeple”, easy victims for you to prey upon. Score two more innocent deaths for the anti-self defense cause.
I know the anti-self defense crowd must get warm fuzzies when they post a “No-Guns” sign. I don’t question their intentions. I’m sure their intentions are good. However, when you measure the results of gun free zones, of forbidding self defense, what you really have done is made your “zone” an attractive place for a law breaker or maniac to let loose his sick fantasies upon your customers and friends. The owners of this mall are complicit for creating a dangerous place to inhabit. I am sorry for the families of the loved ones who were lost, sorry our country tolerates this kind of ignorant stupidity. Shame on you for creating another place that gives preferential treatment to criminals.
At best, missing from many people’s education and upbringing is the simple lesson that predators seek easy victims over difficult ones. Do Hyenas feed upon Lions or Gazelles? Or, do they simply begrudge you your right to choose to be a Lion rather than a Gazelle? For some it’s ignorance, others pure politics, they are offended by American liberty to choose anything.
At Radical RC we respect the right of every American to self defense. Any visitor or employee is not only welcome to carry a weapon if they wish, it’s respected. Failing to exercise constitutional rights risks lowering ones appreciation for the gift of freedom and liberty we enjoy in this country. And, it weakens our resolve, easing the way for those who are continually chipping away at our liberties. I respect your right to choose, what I don’t respect are the tyrants that feel it’s their right to choose for you.
If I err in any way, I choose to err on the side of Liberty.
My name is Dave Thacker and I’m doing something about it.
Crash Investigation, Why did it crash?
Just as in full scale aviation, crashes are often because of a sequence of things going wrong. I received a letter recently asking my opinion on a set of circumstances. At the time of this writing there is no 100% sure answer, not enough info is provided, however there is enough info to draw boil it down to a few likely reasons. It’s easier to take a cucumber cool Sherlock Holmes look at the facts when it’s not your own model. However, you should always investigate crashes and failures with cool logic looking for every possibility, particularly the human element. Read through John’s letter and see what idea’s you have based on the info provided
Hi Dave:
I have an Orbit Charger–up graded by you to accept A123 cells.–Number: 0650-05601OK
Until recently it has worked flawlessly–but that came to a “Crashing” end several weeks ago when I took of and immediately ran out of power, airspeed and ideas, all about the same time.
If you will bear with me I will run through the sequence of events:
*Prior to going to the Field I threw my Plane on Charge (6 x A123)–The Charger quickly indicated “Full and I assumed I had charged before leaving the field the previous day.
* Commenced T.O. and promptly BECed at about 15 ft–gliding smoothly into a vertical Metal Post just off the side of our runway—cleverly ripping the wing in two and tearing it off the Fuse.
*Checking the battery back at the Pits, with my Buddy’s similar Orbit Charger–the pack indicated full and would not accept any charge.
OK, that is what happened–here is the rest of the story:
On arrival at home–(I did not take my charger to the field as we have similar chargers and packs and intended to use my buddy’s) I put my Pack on MY charger–and was horrified to see, when it was turned on–“LiPo 4.2” instead of the usual 3.6!
So all was clear–somehow my Charger reverted to Lipo 4.2V/Cell, overcharged (very quickly I might add) and ruined my 6 cell pack. This without any abnormal heat or any indication (other than the initial charge settings–which I have never paid as much attention to, as obviously I should have– as it’s been “Bullet Proof” for years).
Battery Pack ruined–Airplane wing history, ego damaged–etc!
But what I would like to know–is WHY???–did my charger revert to 4.2V/Cell as I have never used Lipo Batteries with this charger since you upgraded it– and I must say it has preformed flawlessly–until now!!
I hope this ramble was understandable to you,
Regards
John, Canada
John, Sorry to hear of losing a favorite model. You say it ruined your pack, however, you don’t provide any cycle data or voltages to back that up. So, I’m going to make a guess or two to follow that presumes your pack is not ruined from over voltage charging.
You may not know, but when A123 first came out there were no chargers really. We all charged them with Lipo mode chargers. As long as they are perfectly in balance this can be done. The high voltage fuse does not open up and fail the cell until just a little bit over 4.2. So, if a fuse opened up (your pack would be reading zero) it would have to be out of balance to begin with. You don’t say your pack is reading zero, just throwing out there some information you may not be aware of. Obviously it is less risky to the HV fusing if charged to 3.6 per cell and as chargers (Orbit was one of the first) became available to do it correctly we started only charging them in A123 modes.
There is no capacity (or not much) above 3.6v so there is no advantage to charging them higher than 3.6v, just risk. They are not lipo which will puff or risk of fire if you charge them even a tiny bit above their max voltage of 4.2. A123 is a little more forgiving of it’s 3.6v cap. Not suggesting you take up this practice, just history to chew on which bears on your question.
No idea why it may have reverted. Have you run a test to satisfy yourself it is true? If it is, you could tell it that it was charging a Lipo pack of 1 cell less and it would stop at 4.2v x cell count. In this case, set to 5 cells it would stop at 21v on your 6S A123. This would prove for certain your correct.
Also, bear in mind you had some period of time of testing it and it worked perfectly. It’s possible something happened here that you may have not expected yet was exactly what was supposed to happen given the circumstances. Bear with me while I roll through the some possibilities. Anything is possible some some things are more likely than others.
Also, havn’t used one lately in A123 mode but I am wondering if the screen reads differently? It’s late or I would check it, time to go home.
****For the benefit of readers, the Orbit charger starts the charge procedure as soon as you plug in the pack. Plugging in the pack is like hitting the “start” button on many chargers. It looks at the pack for a few seconds then displays on the screen the number of cells it “thinks” it’s connected to. The user then adjusts by hitting the up or down arrow and once you hit “start” and approve it, it starts applying current and charges the battery.****
Scenario’s I’d put forth:
1) If it were in fact in Lipo Mode, an A123 Discharged to 2.7v per cell would be only only be 16.2V, the charger would have guess it was only 4 cells and charged it to 16.8v. You’d be not fully charged and your flight would end very early. Your charger would “peak” out quickly. It would be very reasonable for you to fly the pack down to that level, so this scenario could hold some water. If your BEC voltage is hard set to something reasonable like 2.3v per cell or so, you can see how quickly putting a load on the partially charged pack would cause you to hit BEC cut out.
2) If it were a tad higher than 2.7v, lets say 2.9v, it might still only guess 4 cells. Same scenario as above, you’d be not fully charged and your flight would end very early. Your charger would “peak” out quickly.
3) If you had a short flight and the cells were at 3v+ then the total would have been 18+v. The Orbit tends to guess a tad low (to be fire/damage safer on your packs) at higher cell counts, so I’d expect it to count 5 cells in Lipo mode at 18v and only charge your pack to 21v. A full A123 would be 21.6v, it would have flown fine and you’d not have detected the slight short charge.
4) The charger could have been in A123 mode, the pack could have been discharged lower than normal. Did the last flight on the prior day end in a BEC cut out? Was it a great day, perfect conditions, where you reallying enjoying yourself extra well? Maybe you put a couple more minutes on it. Maybe it was discharged a little further than normal habits and counted 5 cells. Out of habit you approved it without looking and you had a short charge at 18v to start the flight.
My guess without having anything here to measure or double check is that scenario 4 happened It is even possible you could have had the pack so low (depending on BEC settings and nature of model) that the orbit only counted 4 cells and only charged to 14.4v. This kind of oversight when your distracted or in a hurry is very easy to make. And with a floaty model with very low cruise power requirements, it’s even easier to fly a pack very deep by mistake.
I would wager (unless there is mechanical damage) that your pack is just fine, just undercharged due to approving the charge at the wrong cell count and not hitting the up arrow to correct it.
If in fact it really and truly is in Lipo mode, I have no idea how that could have happened and it’s likely that scenario 1 describes the chain of events.
Some positive action to take:
When anything happens that is unexpected, it’s worth a closer look. You had the little red flag early on that the pack filled quicker than usual.
Really looking at that screen before you approve the charge is the first step in not having a problem. The second is looking at the finish voltage when you take the pack off. Your packs should be reading close to 3.6×6 or 21.6v. Seeing this end voltage is your second charging check and really your first step in pre-flight inspection of the model. The third check is listening to the ESC and make sure it’s counting 6 beeps. If it only beeped 4x or 5x when you plugged it up, it’s a big red flag something is amiss. If you pay careful attention to all three of these steps, it would be very difficult for something like this to slip by you again.
(You might actually be listening for 5 beeps as most ESC’s presume they are counting LIPO’s to set BEC Cut Off voltage. Being aware of the regular beep count that represents a full pack is the point, not the precise number in this case since your flying A123 cells and I dont’ know which ESC your using or it’s settings. So, correct could be 5 beeps, wrong could be 4.)
Hope those ideas will let you craw back through memory and your equipment and find a satisfactory explanation. Obviously, anything that goes unexplained can easily happen again so you want to figure out as much about it as you can. This should allow you to be alerted before flight if ever there should be a next time that circumstances stack up in a similar way.
If you did mechanically damage the battery, we can usually repair them. We keep cells on hand here.
Dave
Home Made Pulse Jet
Chrome users may have to reload the page to see the many videos here.
Now what self respecting modeler hasn’t wanted to build a pulse jet? What a fun power system that would be. Video is an entertaining primer on the subject. Lots of fun video’s follow.
Hear a recording of a real V1 Pulse Jet
Looking down the throat for a real one running with modern video and sound equipment.
Below is a video of a Dynajet running. I’ve heard these on control line models at the Dayton Buzzin Buzzards speed dash contest. They make the loudest sound I have ever heard in my life. Imagine this whirling around your head at 200mph!
Below is a film from the 2008 UK Nats. Notice the pole he’s holding on to.
Paul Maddox Jets:
And of course, no coverage of pulse jets would be complete without an amphibious kayak race against a world class Olympic athlete. I am wondering if this pulse jet was the last thing this athlete ever heard. No hearing protection!
Keith Shaw’s Radical RC 1905 Wright Flyer Project Part 2
You’ll notice a detail here. Keith modified the kit so he could remove the front frame and canard assembly for easier transport. Also notice the rib detail on the foam. Keith told me he purchased a marker intended for furniture finish repair. The marker was just a slight shade darker than the paint recommended to paint the wings. He carefully traced onto the foam all the rib locations and a spar. The idea being that when the wing was painted the marks would show through the pain enhancing the illusion of fabric over ribs. Great Idea! If I build another one, I’ll certainly copy this great idea. Dave
Photos of pilot and dummy engine mounted, along with vertical radiator. Note how easy it is to work on the plane with the “head” removed.
The dummy radiator is 3/32 ply with 1/8th balsa on both sides to make it look like a strut with rear-mounted radiator. Cooling tubes are cheap 16 gauge insulated wire. Additional benefit is that it helps stabilize the center ribs by keeping them from tilting sideways. Note also the 0.1″ carbon rod going between the top three center ribs. It serves several purposes, as it helps stabilize the center rib, gives a convenient CG locator (located 1/2″ behind the leading edge), and serves as a hard point for hanging that is not dependent on rubber bands or foam. I’ll later include a photo of the hanger in my living room, where the Wright now lives.
The removable head took some brainstorming, as I needed to come up with a way to do it so that I could take at least another big plane in my minivan to air shows. Once the head is off, the plane sits front down and occupies only as much space as a normal large plane fuselage. It is still tight, but I can fit my big Bearcat or Stomo or Bugatti or Goon or UT-1 in with the Wright. I’m sure another round of photos will be needed to show everything that had to be modified, but perhaps a Mark II of this kit will include this feature. There are total of eight 4-40 allen cap head bolts that are removed, but are screwed into blind T-nuts instead of the nylon inset capture nuts. I didn’t want to fiddle with a nut driver and the chance of dropping the nuts in the grass. The bottom four connect the sled frame members with a kind of a knuckle joint with the blind nut on the inside. The top four allow the various support struts for the front canard to be disconnected, again with blind nuts on the inside of the inner most strut. The two center vertical struts are kept in place with a short length of aluminum tube to act as a kind of bushing. The mounting holes for those struts and ribs need to be slightly drilled out to accommodate the 1/4 long pieces of tube. I lightly tacked the tubes and struts together with a dot of Loctite Stick N’ Seal, a flexible water-based product similar to RTV silicone rubber. Even though this all may sound complicated, I can remove or reinstall the head in less than 5 minutes. It does have the added bonus of making the plane MUCH easier to work on in my very small shop. All of my big giant scale electric planes that everyone has seen over the years have been built in my tiny 9′ x 9′ shop.
Keith
The Most Important Documentary You’ve Never Seen
No serious consideration of global warming is complete with viewing this documentary. Many professors, a founder of Green Peace, weather specialits and forcasters. A former adviser to UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, BBC Broadcaster and other scientists.
Martin Durkin’s Great Global Warming Swindle:
After discussing with a college professor who was convinced “man caused” global warming was a real and present danger because another professor he asked said it was true and because of a movie. I took time watch his movie: Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. I was amazed at how convincing it was. You’ll find Inconvenient Truth is quite thoroughly debunked in the Great Global Warming Swindle above. Particularly the lie that increasing CO2 in the atmosphere preceded rise in temperatures when actually when temps increased CO2 increases lagged by approximately 800 years. A fraudulent attempt to deceive millions into believing the Global Warming hoax. I can see certainly see how many were duped into believing this nonsense. American’s don’t often take time to become students of important issues. They just accept the explanation that sounds best to them and move on. This sad and simple truth is the tendency that so many scams are built upon.
The witnesses:
Professor Tim Ball, Department of Climatology, University of Winnipeg: Prof. Ball: Climate Science Articles and News
Professor Nir Shaviv, Institute of Physics University of Jerusalem: Prof Nir Shaviv’s Blog ScienceBits
Lord Nigel Lawson of Blaby: Member of Parliament
Professor Ian Clark, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa: Prof’s Home Page at U of O
Dr. Piers Corbyn, Climate Forcaster, Weather Action: Weather Action
Professor John Christy, Lead Author IPCC: Wiki: University of Alabama in Huntsville Atmospheric Science Department
Professor Philip Stott, Dept of BioGeography, University of London: Wiki
Professor Paul Reiter, IPCC and Pasteur Institute, Paris: Wiki: Pasteur Institute, Paris
Professor Richard Lindzen, IPCC & MIT: Wiki: Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Co-Founder of Green Peace, Patrick Moore: Wiki: Moore’s Greenspirit Site
Dr. Roy Spencer, Weather Satellite Team Leader, NASA: Wiki: Dr. Spencer’s Climatology Blog
Professor Patrick Michaels, Department of Enviromental Sciences, University of Virginia, Cato Institute: Wiki: CATO Institute; Director, Center for the Study of Science
Professor Syun-Ichi Akasofu, Director International Arctic Research Centre: Wiki: International Arctic Research Center
Nigel Calder, Former Editor New Scientist: Wiki: Calder’s Updates Blog Site: Calder’s books on Amazon
James Shikwati, Economist & Author: Wiki: Stewardship Community
Professor Frederick Singer, Former Director US National Weather Service: Wiki:Heartland Institute, Currently Director, the Science and Environmental Policy Project
Professor Carl Wunsch, Oceanography at MIT, Visiting Professor Oceanoraphy Harvard University and University College London, Senior Visiting Fellow Mathematics and Physics Cambridge, Author 4 major textbooks on Oceanography.: Wiki: MIT Professors information & publications page
Since temperatures have been falling for years and so much of “Global Warming” and the IPCC report has been completely discredited, they want to change the name of the religion to “Climate Change”. A hoax is a hoax no mater the name.
The milk of human kindness
Officer Larry DePrimo, a man, purchases a pair of boots and socks gifting them to a homeless man. This is an example of the milk of human kindness. There was a time in this country before it was undermined by the the progressive movement that charity was handled family’s, churches and civic groups. It’s a sad truth that whatever the government pays for, it gets a huge surplus of. In our world there is a slow take over of governement atempting to monopolize the the spigot of human kindness. What was once almost exclusively given freely (a hand up) is now almost exclusively monopolized by government officials through tax collection and redistribution. Sadly, because of the limitless bounty of handouts the milk has gone sour in many places. I salute Office Larry Deprimo for helping his fellow man, for his human kindness.
Keith Shaw’s Radical RC 1905 Wright Flyer Project Part 1
This series of posts created from email correspondence between Keith and I. He’s really done a lot of neat things to this kit. Expect a new report every Thursday for at least 5 weeks. Keith is in the AMA Hall of Fame. He is one of the fathers of modern day electric flight, a superb scale builder and solid modeler in many ways. Read more on the AMA website: Autobiography of KEITH SHAW
You can meet Keith every year at the Mid-America Flies electric fly in where he and Ken Myers of the EFO club host the longest running electric power meet in the country if not the world. Both are AMA Hall Of Fame members. Lots of scale modelers attend this event. Your sure to see many very nice hand built models here. The event is usually held in June and is always announced in the Ampeer Newsletter.
On to the first installment of Keith’s 1905 Wright Flyer Project:
First up is the dummy engine and magneto. Engine is made from foamboard, card stock, bits of lite-ply, dowel, and the chain is a section from a cheap necklace. Magneto is carved from pink foam.
Pilot is from Toys R Us, a “True Heros Fire Rescue, Robert Portman”. Very close to 1/7th scale. Had to use heat gun and some carving to pose him onto the necessary prone pilot position. Figure comes with boots and a bright yellow suit with day-go emergency strips. Fortunately the strips were sewed on, so easily removed. The uniform required some tailoring to make it look more like a 1900’s suit. The collar, tie and cuffs are all thin painted card stock. Toughest thing was trying to dye the bright yellow cloth to look right. The fabric is polyester and not easy to color. Tried RIT, then some aniline dyes without luck. Finally took a black magic marker apart, diluted the liquid, ad soaked the fabric overnight. It came out a black-green, and looks acceptable. I still have to make a cap for Orville, looking for better photos of that type of “Duster” cap he always wore.
Keith
If I had it my way; The Jury of Common Sense
Oh, of course, I don’t have it my way nor will I in this lifetime. However, it does no harm to imagine how it would be in the words of a famous release from 1969 if I had it “my way.” Hear the song.
As we put criminal cases through a “Grand Jury” to allow citizens to decide if a case has enough merit to pursue criminal charges I think we should put all product liability and injury cases through a Jury of Common Sense. Our jury would be made up of citizens selected for jury duty. It’s purpose would be to decide if a case is worthwhile to trouble the courts and the accused with all the bother and expense of fighting out a case. The standard would be thus: If a the jury by “super majority (2/3) feels a citizen with a typical high school education would have naturally understood something, then you can’t sue for the injury or loss. Each party would get an equal presentation time. If it’s not compelling enough of a case to convince ordinary citizens in short period of time, it’s not worth burdening the tax payer or the defendant to pursue.
For example; Most of us would agree that we understand spilling fresh hot coffee in our lap might lead to a burn injury of some kind, then you can’t sue for it because you lack a basic understanding of temperature. It’s generally understood that it’s not safe to stand on the top rung of a step ladder, so you can’t sue for it because you were “extra stupid”. Likewise, if your too stupid to understand that you shouldn’t strike yourself with a hammer, the hammer should not require a label “just in case your a stupid ass”. Not should you be able to sue for smashing your thumb.
I’m in favor of removing the costs of these silly suits from everything we purchase and consume. It adds a big cost in insurance premiums as well as all the extra public servants living on our tax dollars that are required to deal with these nonsensical nitwits. Anything that reduces the tax burden on citizens needs to be seriously considered. Additionally, these newly available persons, besides being off the public salary might actually gain employment in the private sector where they are contributing to the production of products and services we all want.
That’s all I have to say about that,
Dave Thacker
Quick Quiz, win a free Radical RC Kit
Ok, here is the deal, I have a question. The first correct answer wins choice;; a free RadicalRC Micro Stick or Wicked Wing.
Trivia Question:
One of America’s most famous tours was shown to have originated from Alamitos Bay, California. Name it.
Post your answer, city, country and your kit choice as a reply.
If you don’t know the answer, help me get it solved. Please post a link to this question in your favorite model aircraft forum.
Rules:
Winner is the first person to successfully identify what I am thinking of in a reply to this post. Contest remains open until first correct answer is posted or I get tired of checking back to see if it’s answered. Shipping is valid to any location in the world that first class airmail serves and it’s legal to send it. Sorry, I can’t ship to the moon for which I am afraid there remains no registered post office. Dave….