Ep 141: Flaps and Field Boxes

[00:00:06] Hello, everyone. Welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I'm Ron. And I'm Dave. This is episode 141.

[00:00:19] That's adding up fast.

[00:00:22] It's been, yeah, it's been a while, so I've actually paid attention to the episode number before we recorded. So, yeah, episode 141. We've got a few things to talk about. Not a lot. We've both been extremely busy with other things. Yeah, life takes over sometimes. Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of chance or a lot of time to play with airplanes as much as we have wanted to. But I'm not going to dwell on that. Let's talk about the fun stuff.

[00:00:46] First off, I wanted to tell everybody that we are taking the next episode off. I remember when that's supposed to be the, doesn't matter, the next episode from this one. Whatever two weeks from this Friday that this releases is, we're not going to have anything. I do think I'm going to re-upload and re-release our Halloween episode from a couple years ago and have that come out around Halloween time.

[00:01:08] That's a fun one. We have new listeners that probably haven't heard the original one, so we'll play that again. Really? Wow. You should listen when we release it. Cool. It was kind of fun. I enjoyed that one. So yeah, no episode after that. And then we'll play it by ear after that. We should be fine in a month. But like I said, there's some stuff coming up that we have to do both. I mean, not like hobby-related. Yeah. So it's going to be taking up some time.

[00:01:36] I got a lot of dog stuff coming up in October.

[00:01:39] Yeah.

[00:01:40] Yeah, I got to move the trailer around a lot.

[00:01:43] We have house projects that we have to get done.

[00:01:46] Yeah, I've got roofers tonight, so we'll see how that goes.

[00:01:49] Well, that's good. You're not doing it. You're just paying somebody, too.

[00:01:53] Yeah, that's mixed feelings on that.

[00:01:56] I get it. But I'm getting to the age where I don't want to do anything anymore. I'd just rather pay somebody. So I have time for fun stuff. Sure. But anyway, I digress. So let's see. Last episode came out right before the scale event at Eli Field. It was a lot of fun. You didn't make it.

[00:02:15] I didn't make it.

[00:02:16] You had other things going on. I went over there Saturday. Which was the last day of the event. No, it went to Sunday. Oh, it did? It did. It was Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. But anyway, I went over there on Saturday. Didn't fly anything. I brought stuff, but it was a little bit windy. And the stuff I brought was small. And the stuff that was there was big. The way I felt in straighter. Well, but your stuff was still, like, bigger. Since when is quarter scale tiny?

[00:02:44] Well, I know. That's the problem with hanging around with, like, these big fly-ins that have lots of big airplanes in them. You just kind of feel a little minuscule and insecure.

[00:02:55] Well, and honestly, like… I think there's support groups for this.

[00:02:59] There could be. But honestly, like, the only… I did not plan on taking anything big to begin with. Because I don't have a lot of scale stuff. Most of mine is… Well, pretty much foam at this point.

[00:03:12] You find mostly sports stuff.

[00:03:13] Yeah. And not a lot of it is based off of a real airplane. full-size airplane. Which I completely forgot. And I don't know why. I planned on taking the air tractor.

[00:03:25] Oh, yeah.

[00:03:25] Yeah, forgot all about it. Got home, was bringing stuff in, and I was like, oh, that one would have fit in perfect. But, alas, no. I'm an idiot, and I forgot.

[00:03:35] Still need me… Let me paint it gray.

[00:03:37] I know. I thought about that. I really did. And that's not out of the question. But I like that airplane. Yeah, it's a good flyer. It's a good flyer. It looks good. And I like the colors on it, so…

[00:03:49] Air Tractor did a nice job on it. They do look good. Even though they're all yellow and blue. Maybe I'll have to buy another one that you can paint for me. I've been thinking about that UMX one, although that thing's a huge UMX plane. It's a good size.

[00:04:04] I know. I was looking at that when we went up to Brian's when we were at the Streeter Fly-In. I was looking at that and another one. And the thing that stopped me on that was just the battery. I don't know if we talked about that or not. Yeah, it's an other-sized battery that you don't own. That I don't already have. And it's a weird-sized battery that isn't a smart battery. So it's like, eh,. I like the smart battery because it's so easy and I'm so lazy.

[00:04:28] But I still might end up getting one of those.

[00:04:30] Speaking of batteries, I found a deal on Amazon for the little single-cell. There's supposed to be 500s that go in the Alteryx and the other single-cell airplanes. The Twin Otter and that type of thing. I got five 600 milliamps with a charger for $22. $2199. No shipping. Really? And like I said, I got five of them and a charger. I mean, it's just a simple USB charger, but still.

[00:04:57] Yeah, that's not bad at all.

[00:04:58] That's not bad at all. So, it looks like they're flying pretty good. What kind of connectors? They've got the red BEC, JST connector or whatever the standard red one is. It comes on the planes. Cool. And then they've got an adapter for that weird white one that some of them use. Those came with it as well.

[00:05:18] I don't remember what that is.

[00:05:20] It's a little Molex of some sort. I don't know what it's called.

[00:05:23] I should know because that's the one that's on the charger, I think. And then I have to adapt from that to the JSTs.

[00:05:30] Yeah. And that's the same. That's the reason they gave you the adapter. That was what was on the charger it came with was that little white deal. That sounds like my exact same setup.

[00:05:39] Except mine. I mean, yours isn't Spectrum then for that price. But…

[00:05:43] No, but they're 100 milliamp more, and they're essentially the same size. They're a millimeter or two longer than the 500 milliamp battery, but not bad.

[00:05:54] I'll still fit in that, no problem.

[00:05:55] Oh, yeah. I've slid them right in there. Works good.

[00:05:57] You might have to send me the link come spring. I need to get more batteries.

[00:06:01] For $21.99, I couldn't pass it up.

[00:06:03] Yeah, because I think come spring I'm going to get all new small batteries. But, I mean, they're so cheap, and I know I don't take care of them. I keep them charged. I don't storage charge them. They're $4 or $5 a piece, so I don't mind having them and just kind of throwing them away. So, I think… Yeah, I'll send you a link. Yeah. Come spring I'm going to replace all the small ones I have.

[00:06:23] Don't know even how I ran across it. I was just on Amazon and, hey, look at that. Nice.

[00:06:30] Cool. But, anyway, so back to the scale event. There were some cool airplanes, a lot of big jets that, like I said, I didn't quite fit in with. There was a guy there that had a PC-21 turboprop, which I thought was kind of neat, an actual turbine-driven propeller. They sound so weird, but they're cool airplanes.

[00:06:48] Oh, yeah, they're cool.

[00:06:49] It just…

[00:06:49] I always have trouble wrapping my head around that. It's like, man, you spent all that money on the turbine, and you could have just put a piston engine in it.

[00:06:56] Oh, completely different sound, though.

[00:06:58] I know, I know.

[00:06:59] And a completely different cool level. It is. I mean, like, that plane is perfect for that kind of… It's just my own hang-up. So, but it had… I'm trying to think what else. It was a pretty good size one. I don't remember what scale it was. There were a couple fifth-scale F-16s there and a bunch of other airplanes, too, that were kind of neat. But it was a good time. Like I said, it was very laid back. There weren't a ton of people there.

[00:07:23] So, it was perfect for me because I don't like big crowds.

[00:07:26] You don't like the crowds. But, yeah.

[00:07:28] So, what else do we have? Oh, Spectrum came out with a new transmitter. This is polarizing. This is a lot more polarizing than I expected, especially if you've seen any of the reviews. Not reviews, but the reactions online. So, if you haven't seen what I'm talking about, Spectrum came out with a new DX7E. I guess the E is the lower end of the Spectrum line.

[00:07:53] Seems like every time they hang an E on something, it's the lower end.

[00:07:55] Yeah. Like, oh, maybe it's entry-level. Oh, maybe. Huh. That'd be kind of cool if I guessed the code.

[00:08:02] Look at you filling out the blanks.

[00:08:04] But, anyway. So, it looks like more of an entry-level radio. It is polarizing by its looks. We'll talk about that in a minute. But, specs-wise, it's pretty cool. 250 model memory. That seems to be pretty much standard anymore. And I think a lot of people are not going to fill 250 models up. That should be plenty for most people. Should be. Should be.

[00:08:26] Except for Bob.

[00:08:28] He's not there yet, I don't think.

[00:08:30] Not flyable.

[00:08:32] It's got the folding antenna pretty much that almost all Spectrums have gone to now. It's a nice thing about Spectrum is they have the BNF airplanes with E-Flight and all that that just bind and fly. So, that's built into that, too. So, it's got, like, a library in it? Is that?

[00:08:48] Mm-hmm.

[00:08:49] And then you can usually, I don't know what this one, I don't know how this works. I haven't spent a lot of time with it. I don't know if the entry-level ones have the Wi-Fi built into it. Most of the time, like on the higher-end ones, you can just go straight online with your radio, update it to get new files and stuff. Right. If not, this might be when you have to plug into a computer with a USB. I don't know.

[00:09:10] It's got the USB-C cord, so that makes sense.

[00:09:13] Which is nice. I'm so sick of the ones that are the old style, the mini or micro USB plugs. It's just a pain. So, yeah, and then a 2200 milliamp lithium-ion battery, and then charges with, like we said, the USB-C cable.

[00:09:31] Neat little specs for an entry-level type radio.

[00:09:34] Oh, and $299.99. I don't think that's bad.

[00:09:40] It's not awful.

[00:09:42] It's not. I've still got a little gripe about that, but we'll talk about that in a little bit. So, here's the issue that people are kind of not liking. It's black and white. No, it's white with black. Okay, it's white and black. Okay, you're right. It's kind of cool, though. It does not look like any other transmitter out there. Like, when you see this, you will definitely know what it is.

[00:10:03] Oh, yeah, you're not going to misplace it at the field. And I like different.

[00:10:06] Like, I'm a fan of things that look a little different than normal. So, I think that's kind of cool.

[00:10:11] And I'm good with a different color, just not their particular choice. You don't like the white? I want to see what this thing looks like at the end of a flying season. The dirt and the oil and the grease.

[00:10:22] I mean, you have a valid concern. And I guess time will tell.

[00:10:28] I'm just going to see a lot of radios wiped down with bleach wipes.

[00:10:31] And that's probably not a bad idea. Maybe we should be doing that anyway. I don't know. But it has the little lights. I don't know if you saw the lights that kind of go between the colors. Yeah. You can change the colors on that, I think. I say I think, because it says you can, but I haven't seen a lot of it.

[00:10:48] They're changeable colors, but I'm not sure if they went with that or just the screen. Well, I've seen that in different colors. Okay.

[00:10:54] But I don't know if it's like any color you want or just a couple different colors or what. But I have seen it. You got your five fixed color combos or whatever. Yeah, it could be. You never know.

[00:11:02] But it's a cool looking… I didn't take time to read the manual. I just skimmed through it. I didn't either. Because I'm not going to buy it.

[00:11:07] I mean, it's not for me. No, it's not for me either. But you had a couple issues with it.

[00:11:13] So let's hear it. Okay. So the gripe I got is a color.

[00:11:17] Mm-hmm.

[00:11:17] And I'm good with any color just except for white in a dirty environment. Why is it a dirty environment, by the way? You're at the field. You got grass and dirt. And if you fly glow, you've got a huge greasy mess going. Okay. Never thought of glow. You're right. Yeah.

[00:11:34] But I tend to not get my hands messy when I'm flying. So that's why I wasn't scared about them.

[00:11:39] I'm down in the grass a lot, sitting on the ground. And so I'm getting dirt picked up on my hands all the time. My radios are dirty. Every year I clean them. I get the Q-tips out.

[00:11:49] Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. Well, see, same with this. You could do that and just make it sparkly white.

[00:11:54] But that white's going to turn yellow. Oh, you ever look at an old white plastic item? You don't know that yet. They have a lot of new assets out. Like I said, I want to see what it looks like in a year.

[00:12:02] That's true. I'm sure once, what, four or five years roll out, we'll see some used market or use on the or somebody's on the used market and stuff and figure out what it looks like.

[00:12:11] My radios get glue on them, so the black and the dark colors tend to hide that stuff. How do you get glue on your radios? Because I build. During my workshop, they're sitting next to me and I'm working on something. And, of course, you always knock the thin over and that little drop goes flying everywhere.

[00:12:27] I guess that's true. But whenever I'm assembling or building or anything like that, I don't have my radio sitting right there. Yeah, I usually don't either.

[00:12:37] But it's that final assembly and it is what it is. Okay. Anyway, so that's gripe one. Gripe two. Once again, it's a design issue. The thing is very smooth and contrary, very, very sexy looking, but not much to grab hold of when it's 95 degrees and 95% humidity outside and your hands are nice and sweaty. So you go to toss your nice new little hand launch, whatever, and your radio is on the ground. Therefore, now it has a grass stain on its white.

[00:13:08] Maybe. I mean, your gripes are not.

[00:13:13] Without actually physically holding one. This is just based on what I'm seeing in the photographs. It looks very nice and smooth. Looks nice to hold on to, just not grippy.

[00:13:24] And maybe they have grip tape or something that's on the back that you don't see.

[00:13:27] Right.

[00:13:27] I mean, who knows?

[00:13:28] So I'm going to give a little bit of that on this one, but as it stands right now, it looks slippery.

[00:13:32] Yeah.

[00:13:33] I've not held one, but they look cool and I like it. And I took it through my gas powered, my glow powered hand launch the other day. So, your hands are covered in castor oil. Then you go to grab a radio. Yeah.

[00:13:47] Okay. Okay.

[00:13:49] Like I said, not unfounded. Just. We'll see how it plays out.

[00:13:53] Yeah.

[00:13:53] Third and final gripe. It does not include the stuff you need to use as a master trainer box in the package. If you want to use a corded trainer, you have to buy an adapter for the back. If you want to use it wirelessly, you have to buy the extra receiver to put in it. For $300, at least put the corded option on the airplane or on their transmitter.

[00:14:17] So, okay. Okay. Devil's advocate. And this is not the end all radio. This is a good radio, but this should not be, I shouldn't. Okay. Hold on. How do I word this and be.

[00:14:33] It's not an entry level radio, but it's not a.

[00:14:35] Well, it is more. I mean, it's more of an entry level line.

[00:14:37] It's closer to the entry level than, the DX9 or above.

[00:14:42] Yeah. And I think by getting rid of some of those options that you don't need for a radio like that, you get the price point down. You do. But how much does a phono jack cost? I mean, I see that, I guess. But maybe that's not even built into the way the board works. I don't know. Yeah. But like, to me, that's an entry level radio that will work, by the way, as a wireless trainer, not as a master, but as a slave. Any of them will.

[00:15:14] So if you're learning to fly, I don't see anything wrong with having it set up that way. Yeah.

[00:15:19] But as you're getting into a seven channel radio, you're getting to the point where you'll probably be helping other people out and need that master.

[00:15:26] Maybe. We can argue this for a long time. I can see that. But I just, I think every radio has its place. This is not a radio I will be getting because I don't, I mean, like I have passed the need of a radio like this.

[00:15:50] Right. I don't know what it is.

[00:15:53] And I think it will. It'll do fine.

[00:15:55] Yeah.

[00:15:55] That's just Dave being a downer. So that's just, just me. I've been in one of those moods lately. Well, that's too bad.

[00:16:03] But we'll see what we can do about fixing it. Seven channels. What are your thoughts on channels? Because that's the other thing. Like how many channels do you need?

[00:16:10] Six channel is absolute minimum. I would not even think about doing anything less than six. I won't even buy a less than six channel receiver.

[00:16:16] Yeah.

[00:16:18] Seven channels is a nice alternative if you're not going to spring the bigger bucks for the eight or nine plus.

[00:16:25] Yeah.

[00:16:26] But if you're doing anything at all, you need that minimum six. So seven gives you a little bit of bumper room to have split flaps or whatever you're going to play with. So I think seven is a nice choice. Although for probably the price difference, I would go the eight and get the nicer radio for not much more.

[00:16:44] So I don't give channel count much thought anymore because I know the radio I have will do whatever you need. Pretty much. But when I was doing the cry cry, putting that together, all I had was a six channel receiver. And I figured that's going to be plenty. I never even thought in my mind about how the plane goes together because that one's a little bit different.

[00:17:06] So I ended up getting an eight channel receiver for it because I gave up and I decided I didn't want to use Y harnesses. But that one takes two channels for the ailerons because they're split, which is fine. I like that better. Takes one for the elevator, two for the rudder because one of them actually runs the rudder and then one runs the servo that steers the nose gear. Usually that's on the same servo, but this is completely separate.

[00:17:33] Y harness is perfectly acceptable there, but it would be nice to have on separate channels and you can adjust the throw on the rudder versus a throw on the tail wheel. Right.

[00:17:42] That was kind of what I was thinking too. Not only throw, but you can adjust center for each because sometimes you don't… Your tracking in flight is different than ground handling. Than how you want it in the ground. And yeah, you can probably fix that mechanically.

[00:17:58] And you certainly can because we did it for years.

[00:18:00] But it's a lot harder.

[00:18:02] It is.

[00:18:02] It's just a lot easier to be able to center the servos separately however you want them.

[00:18:07] And I will have to admit that if it's just a small adjustment, I'll do it electronically. But if it's anything more than a small adjustment, I'll still go in there and mechanically do it.

[00:18:17] I respect that. And usually stuff is pretty much straight to where you don't have to worry about changing a bunch of stuff. But there are going to be times where you have to worry about some adjustments. And I would prefer to do it.

[00:18:29] It's like where I'm at on the… What is it? Skywarden. That four-stroke in it has a lot of torque. And it wants to turn left really hard. So it could use a little bit of different trim for the tail wheel versus the rudder for takeoff.

[00:18:46] Yeah. I can see that.

[00:18:49] I've noticed that in the video. As soon as I let off the rudder, she crabs really hard to the left.

[00:18:55] Well, have you thought about, like, changing the thrust line and all that kind of stuff? Or is it good enough in the air to where it's just different on the ground?

[00:19:04] It's trimmed out in the air. It's fine. It's just the takeoff roll where that prop is torquing so hard. Yeah. Yeah. But once it builds up speed, it tracks nice and straight. There's no problem there.

[00:19:17] Okay.

[00:19:18] So back to the cry-cry. Cree-cree. Still don't know how to say it. The French cricket.

[00:19:23] Yeah. The last two are motors. So obviously the motors could be Y-harnessed. But I didn't want to do that because I wanted to make sure I had full control over each one. You want differential thrust. Right. And so here's what I found that was kind of cool. So I'm setting it up. And originally I wasn't thinking much. I just slaved another cylinder. Or a cylinder. I'm for some reason thinking transmissions. I slaved one of the channels to the throttle channel.

[00:19:50] That way they were matching up and down and all that kind of stuff. And they worked the same. Worked great. No problems. Until I tried to use a throttle cut.

[00:19:59] Yeah, I only cut one.

[00:20:00] Throttle cut only cut one. So I was trying to figure out how to do that. Going through the radio, I found out on the radio I have, the iX-20, you can actually tell it how many motors you have, up to four. Okay. And so with that, then it copies all the settings for motors over to the other channels. And I was able to use the throttle cut for that.

[00:20:25] So you're basically Xeroxing the throttle channel onto the other three, or up to three.

[00:20:30] But you still have independent control over each one. So whenever we get around to finally, one of these years, building the tri-motor, it will be nice to have throttle cut and all that stuff be able to be built in, but still be able to tune separately for each one if you have a different throttle curve for each motor that you needed. But I just thought that was cool.

[00:20:48] Like the longer I have things or we have things in the hobby, and you come across more things that you need to do with it, it's good to know that people have already thought of that. And you can do what you need to do without realizing when you bought it that that was something you needed to do. Did that make any sense? Made sense to me.

[00:21:06] Good.

[00:21:07] I felt like I was rambling, but I was trying to get there.

[00:21:09] You went the long route, but you got there.

[00:21:10] And I knew where I wanted to end up. But I thought that was kind of cool. So it worked great, and I was happy about that.

[00:21:17] Cool. Yeah.

[00:21:19] So the other thing, I told you guys a while ago, I had a mishap with a slow UltraStick. It still isn't fixed because the parts are backordered.

[00:21:32] I got duct tape and popsicle sticks.

[00:21:34] I know that's about all it needs. But I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and saw somebody had the same problem I did, and they ended up printing, 3D printing pieces to fix it. And they broke the tail just where I broke mine, that little plastic piece. And I was like, that's a good idea. But I was at work. Didn't even think, like, to actually get in touch with a guy then, ask him for files and stuff. So long story short, ended up going back, trying to find it.

[00:22:00] Couldn't remember where I found it. Searched all that kind of stuff. Couldn't come across it. So then I thought, well, I'll try Thingiverse. And I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Thingiverse is awesome for parts like this. So there's a guy on Thingiverse that already has the piece designed in free download for the tail. And I was a little concerned with 3D printing not being as strong as what the actual molded parts would be.

[00:22:32] Apparently he was, too, because he designed a piece to go inside of the channel also. So there's a piece that goes inside, has screw holes in it, to where that all becomes one piece. All locks it together in one big chunk. And so you have more support on the back. And then he also, well, actually it might have been somebody else, had designed the battery holder. And you can print that also. Everything you need. So those are downloaded.

[00:22:57] I have not actually started printing those yet. I will probably do that tonight or tomorrow and hopefully be back in the air with that this weekend. That's so cool. I mean, you've got to love the community. Like, seriously, parts you need, you can find them online, you can print them yourself, and you're good. And they don't ship them in a padded envelope. But we're not going to talk about that. Okay. Then we won't. What else?

[00:23:21] I know you had a couple other things you wanted to talk about. So we're going to make this the Dave show now.

[00:23:26] The Dave show? Mm-hmm. Well, hmm. So looking at the Discord server, there's been some questions in the last couple weeks about flying with flaps. Mm-hmm. So do you fly with flaps often? Often? No. But I do when I need to. Then you find a slightly different style for each aircraft. They're all a little bit different as to what they want or when they want it.

[00:23:50] Yeah.

[00:23:51] But maybe just let's go over some basics, and they can be adjusted to your own liking. Okay. So we're just going to talk about a standard 40, 60-size sport airplane. Nothing special. Flap setup. Of course, make sure to set it up in your radio system. I don't like to fly any flap compensation, at least in the beginning. And flap compensation, for those of you who don't know, most aircraft will either pitch up or down, depending on their aerodynamics when you apply flaps.

[00:24:28] Most aircraft that I've run across will pitch up, but not always the case. I do have my something extra pitches down with a vengeance. Now, it's using flapper-ons. That's another story. Flapper-ons is where you use your ailerons as flaps as well. It drops them, but they work independently as ailerons still. But my something extra pitches down violently with flap application.

[00:24:50] And when you say down, you mean nose down.

[00:24:52] Nose down, yes. Just for fun, years ago, we had a Avastar. I think it was an Avastar. Put flaps on an Avastar, which is totally unnecessary, by the way. Yeah. Aircraft would loop without any elevator input. All you have to do is just put the flaps down in full throttle, and it would loop. It's pretty cool. Impressive. Yeah. But the flap compensation is for smoothing that out. Like I said, I don't like to fly with it unless the aircraft is severe, like my something extra.

[00:25:28] And there's different types of flaps out there. There's split and Fowler and all that type. We're not going to go into any of the aerodynamic types. These are just plane flaps we're going to talk about.

[00:25:36] And how to fly.

[00:25:37] And how to fly them.

[00:25:38] So I find it interesting, by the way, that you say you don't use any compensation because I like setting up flight modes. Like maybe I'm cheating again. I don't know.

[00:25:49] No. I'm just old school, and we didn't have it, so we didn't use it. And now it's hard to get into the habit of using it.

[00:25:57] Oh, that's a good reason, I guess. So with flight modes, okay, like with the Twimber, that's the newest one I got, the newest one that has flaps, the newest one I've been playing with. That one likes to nose up quite, no, I'm sorry. Oh, now I've got to think. That one likes to nose down when you give it flaps. When you give it flaps and throttle because of the thrust line. Right. So you're always going to be flying with throttle, even when you're coming in to land.

[00:26:24] So with that one, it needs a little bit of up elevator. Right. So I have that built into whatever the flap setting is. You can adjust that on the elevator based on your flight mode.

[00:26:35] Right.

[00:26:36] So my switch for flaps doesn't just change the flaps. It actually changes the flight mode.

[00:26:40] Now, are you using it just one setting for your flight compensation, or is it key to the throttle? So the more throttle you apply, the more compensation it gives you. Just one.

[00:26:48] So you've just got a simple set. I don't remember what the percentage is, but yeah, pretty much.

[00:26:52] Usually it's pretty small, like 5% or less.

[00:26:55] Yeah. It's a few clicks of the trim is all that I ended up putting in it. Because you can change the trim as you're flying to get it nice and balanced for what speed you want to come in at.

[00:27:05] I've got something similar with my F-14. It doesn't use flaps, but it does have the swing wing. And as the wing swings backwards, you need a little bit of up compensation. What F-14 do you have? That foam belt one that I, it's Steve Shoemate built out of the foam core. I don't think I remember seeing that.

[00:27:23] Do I? Have you flown it recently?

[00:27:26] Last I tried to fly, it was a year ago at Streeter, and it got rained on and the wing box swelled up and went.

[00:27:32] Oh, I remember now. Yep. I'm sorry. That's my bad.

[00:27:35] Yeah. It's since shrunk. It's usable again. Anyway, we've gotten way off track on this. Yep. My bad. So, getting out, flying a standard approach. I like to make a downwind leg, start slowing the aircraft down. Usually I like to extend my flaps in the downwind leg once I start slowing the aircraft down a little bit.

[00:27:58] So, as you're coming around, before you make the final turn to come in, the airplane is in front of you. Going downwind. Going downwind. So, you're getting ready to make your final turn, final approach to come in and land. And you're going to have those down before that. Yep.

[00:28:11] And if you have a radio that allows them to come down slowly, even better. Because as slower they come down, if there is a pitch change.

[00:28:20] It is. Yeah.

[00:28:20] It smooths out that. Sometimes you don't even notice the pitch change.

[00:28:24] Yeah. So, what do you consider slow?

[00:28:27] I like in the neighborhood one and a half to two seconds. Okay. Depending, once again, depending on the airplane.

[00:28:33] Yeah. I usually do ride around two.

[00:28:35] Yeah. My stuff, it usually is like one and a half and change sometimes. I rarely go full two, but that's an option.

[00:28:43] Yeah.

[00:28:44] I don't like anything slower than two, because if you have to do something, it takes too long.

[00:28:49] Yeah. Okay. That's a good idea. I never thought of that.

[00:28:52] You can also set it up that it goes up faster, but don't worry about it. Anyway, so we're on the downwind leg. We're slowing down. Flaps are out. I usually use, I usually have two settings, and some people have them on a dial. I like having consistent flaps where I get the same thing every time. So I find two settings on the dial that I like, and then program that into a switch on my radio. So I always name half flap and full flap.

[00:29:22] Whether they're actually half flap and full flap, to be determined. Yeah. That's what I call it. So usually I have like half flap, although I do have full flap for playing around with things. But half flap is usually where I want to be. So the airplane settles into a nice downwind leg, slowing down, dropping a little bit. You can turn on the base, and then on to final, and just continue slowing down the whole time and dropping altitude.

[00:29:51] As the airplane slows down, the nose is going to start dropping. Now, this is where flaps start coming in. Again, you can keep, you can make a steeper approach and push the nose over and not build up as much speed as you come down onto the runway. Or you can use the extra drag from the flap to help slow you down from a faster approach.

[00:30:12] Okay.

[00:30:16] Your first few approaches, I would recommend coming in a little bit high and pushing the nose over. So you can change your speed, and you can pick up more speed if you need to, if you find yourself getting low. Because the flaps will also add drag, which slows the airplane down. So you either have to carry a little bit more throttle, or you have to come in higher and push the nose over. I tend to like to come in a little higher and push the nose over.

[00:30:38] I can always trade altitude for airspeed.

[00:30:39] Yeah. One of the things that I always do before I try to land with flaps, I will put the flaps down and just fly. Just get an idea of how it handles with flaps.

[00:30:50] How much it's going to slow it down.

[00:30:52] Right. What's my stall speed? And I'm not saying fly fast. Like you want to act like you're coming in for a landing, but high enough to where you have enough room to recover. That you're well above stall speed. Right. Well, and it's good. No, actually, it's good to get to stall speed. See what that speed is and what happens when that happens. Because you want that to happen 100 feet in the air, 200 feet in the air, as opposed to 10 feet off the ground.

[00:31:12] And sometimes flaps can make that happen more aggressively when it does stall.

[00:31:16] More quickly, more violently. It might hit that faster and doesn't give you the – it doesn't tell you it's coming. It doesn't start feeling mushy as much. Right. Because flaps kind of make it mushier to begin with.

[00:31:28] Yeah, they kind of hide it.

[00:31:30] Yeah.

[00:31:32] So you just make that approach, keeping a little bit of throttle on until you're a foot or so off the ground. Once you're a foot off the ground, go ahead and chop that throttle and just let it float on in.

[00:31:41] Yeah.

[00:31:42] Now, flaps are not your friend usually on a windy day. When it's really windy and gusty, you might want to use a lot less flap or no flap at all.

[00:31:50] Yeah. The slower you're going, the more you're going to be affected by crosswinds.

[00:31:53] And this by no means works for every airplane, but this is a good place to try it out and see what happens for you.

[00:31:59] Yeah.

[00:32:01] Yeah.

[00:32:02] Good.

[00:32:03] So play with the flaps. What about takeoff flaps? Takeoff flaps, it depends, again, on the airplane.

[00:32:12] Let's put it this way. Are there any airplanes we would have that really have to have takeoff flaps?

[00:32:19] Nothing I own has to have takeoff flaps, although they are nice to have. My F-86 on the grass field, my F-15 on grass field, flaps definitely help shorten the takeoff run. But I found out with those, I don't want to deploy flaps until I'm up to speed because they add so much drag. They work as a brake? They work as a brake. So get the airplane up to speed and then pop the flaps down. That's where you want a little bit faster flap. So they come down a little faster. Okay.

[00:32:46] And helps rotate.

[00:32:49] And get you in the air as opposed to the draggy grass.

[00:32:52] Right. Okay. My deceased, Grand Tundra, it had stupid flaps.

[00:33:00] Yeah.

[00:33:01] And it would allow you to take off in its own length.

[00:33:04] Yeah.

[00:33:06] So they're fun to play with in places like that, but it took off just fine without them.

[00:33:10] Yeah. Instead of a foot and a half rollout, it was six feet rollout. Right? I mean, like, you didn't have to have them.

[00:33:17] Right. You did not have to have them in the least, but they were fun to play with.

[00:33:20] Yeah. And it's just another level in the hobby of something to just kind of play with. That's what all this is, is just toys to play with.

[00:33:27] Trainers with flaps. So you can do loops without elevator input.

[00:33:31] That's just silly. All right. Anything else? Oh. What's your next? What else? One more thing. This is going to be kind of fun. What's in your flight box?

[00:33:42] Mm-hmm.

[00:33:43] So what's in your flight box, Ron? That's not fair. Because I don't carry a flight box with me.

[00:33:48] You don't have a flight box. I just realized that this evening when we're talking about this, that your flight box is your radio case.

[00:33:53] My radio case. That's where I keep all the tools I need, which most of the time, especially this year, I've been flying pretty much nothing but electric and mostly foamies just because of the ease of it. So because of that, I haven't had to have all the extra gear to go with me that you would take to the field or something like that with nitro or with all the other stuff. that'll change next year just because like you're going to need a flight box.

[00:34:24] Well, yeah, just because like I said, now I have a vehicle I can trust so I can actually take some of the bigger stuff to the field. but what do I keep in my air quote flight box slash transmitter case? I'm a little weird in the fact that I keep contacts in there, disposable contacts and sunglasses. I usually wear glasses. I can't see without them. I like to wear sunglasses. So I always keep my contacts in there because I see better with them.

[00:34:50] If you see better with them, see.

[00:34:53] Yeah. Yeah. So transmitters, I have both my master and my slave just in case, which has come in handy a few times when Piper has been out with me. I actually keep two LED headlamps with me. Not too handy this time of year, but once we get into fall, winter and spring. We do a little night flying. We do because it gets a lot darker, a lot earlier.

[00:35:16] And so having the headlamps there makes it easier to see when you're taking things apart at night, especially with, like I said, the night flights, the shiny and all that kind

[00:35:25] Of thing. Not having to have that car headlights on and that type of thing. Well, and it's nice to be able to walk around, hold stuff and actually put the light where

[00:35:31] You want it by moving your head. Plus it's easier to go around at the very end of the night to make sure you didn't forget anything because we have all done that. let's see. I also have, once again, this is for more of the winter time. I keep hand warmers in there because I get cold hands.

[00:35:46] So we're talking about these little chemical pack things.

[00:35:49] Little ones that you break open and then they just get warm and you put them in your pocket. And when you're not flying, you keep your hands in your pocket until it's time to. so your hands are nice and warm. I also keep, and this is why I, I, I don't fly with, fly with neck straps, but for some reason I keep two neck straps in my case. I always think I'm going to, but then I don't. Yeah.

[00:36:11] So anyway, screwdrivers, I keep a full set of screwdrivers, precision type, and then also the, standard and metric, hex wrenches because most of the stuff you're taking apart, electric stuff is going to be the smaller things like that. I'll keep bind plugs. There's a several in there because bind plugs get not stolen. Misplaced. Well, you, if somebody needs them or if somebody needs them, it's one you give to them and a lot of times you don't get them back.

[00:36:43] It happens. I get it. so I keep several of those in there. Tape, just in case, scissors, pliers, and adjustable wrench. I think that's all I have.

[00:36:53] That's a pretty good assortment for not having a flight box.

[00:36:56] Well, it's a big case. It is a big double transmitter case. So I fit a lot in there, which is nice because I don't have to worry about a whole other box to go with me at this point. And so I go to the opposite extreme. I have three different flight boxes. Well, hold on. We'll get to that in just a second.

[00:37:12] But I just realized too, like some of these bigger airplanes that I have, like the card and yak sitting over here with your big airplanes, how do you keep all the tools and stuff separate for those? The reason I ask is because inside of that airplane is a box. It's a servo box with all of the screws that I need for it, wing bolts, all that kind of stuff, and all of the tools that I need for it. I keep an extra set of tools for each airplane.

[00:37:39] With the exception of the L4, I don't go to that extreme. All my aircraft that have multiple nuts, bolts, washers, fittings, those all have ziplock baggies that are kept inside the aircraft when they're not being used. My L4 has a specialized screwdriver that I built. I built a screwdriver because you have to reach through the fuselage to tighten the wing bolt. It's darn near impossible to get to with a regular wrench.

[00:38:12] I actually took a ball wrench and turned it down on the lathe so the handle's stubby, so it reaches where it needs to go. And I just keep that special ball driver in the cockpit.

[00:38:23] That's the only one I actually keep the tools in the aircraft. It's just easier for me because then I don't have to try and remember, what does this airplane take? What do I need for it? That's because you don't have a flight box that has those specialized tools. And maybe I'll change my mind when I start going the other way.

[00:38:40] It works.

[00:38:41] There's nothing wrong with it. Well, like I said, I haven't flown these very much, so that's the issue of not having a way to get them out to the field. So I've been smaller airplanes that have just been simpler this year.

[00:38:52] And all my stuff with rigging wires and all that, I've got so many screws and everything. If I were to try to just keep those separate, it would just be all the way to place. So keeping that in a Ziploc baggie in the fuselage when I'm not using it, it works great. And I usually have one or two spares because you're always going to drop one in the grass and never be able to find it.

[00:39:09] That is true. I've seen you do it, as a matter of fact.

[00:39:12] Anyway, so what do you keep in your flight boxes? So the three different flight boxes I have. I have my daily, everyday carry box, which actually is one of those canvas totes. It's kind of hard to explain. It's got a rigid, hard to handle on the top, but it's a canvas bag. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. It's usually got a hard bottom on it. Yeah, it's got a little hard cardboard bottom in it.

[00:39:35] Yeah.

[00:39:35] And it's got little straps around the edges. Yeah. And that's my everyday carry box. And that's going to have most of the stuff I need from a day-to-day basis. Flying, electric, some of my gas stuff, some of the glow stuff. But mostly it was oriented. It originally started out being my electric box. And as time's gone past, some glow stuff has mitigated itself into that box. I got the standard assortment screwdrivers. Zero, number one, number two, Phillips.

[00:40:06] A couple different straight blades. One of them has their long, narrow, skinny one for tuning glow engines because, they like to stick the needles deep inside an arm. So, there's always got to make sure you've got at least one pair of vice grips. Vice grips will get you out of all kinds of trouble. So, yeah, it's got also the L-Wrench set, standard and metric. And then I got a ball driver set.

[00:40:35] They're all, except for two and a half, two and two and a half millimeter, they're all the standard size. I rarely need ball driver. I rarely need anything more than those two sizes. And if I do, they're on the L-Wrench set that I carry.

[00:40:49] Yeah.

[00:40:51] I've got those, like I said, a couple micro screwdrivers, little Phillips ones. Basically what you're carrying, just everyday stuff. And then inside there, I've also got a plastic servo box that happened to fit real nice for the wattmeter. So, I have a wattmeter there so we can take some measurements if anybody needs to. And I've also got some spare battery straps, the Velcro straps, because I like to He-Man in them and break them. So, I've got a few backups of those.

[00:41:27] A couple smaller propellers. My little pusher stuff that I fly all the time, those propellers get whacked every now and then. So, I've got a couple spare APC, four and three quarter, whatever they are. I've got a Popsicle stick in there. We don't know why that's in there. And usually there's a small Dixie cup in there for mixing epoxy in. Although, typically, I don't usually have the epoxy with me.

[00:41:56] But, eh, every now and then it's in there.

[00:41:58] Yeah. But then you get to the good stuff. And that is, right now I've got Tommy's receiver in there. I've been carrying that around all summer.

[00:42:07] You'll see him soon enough.

[00:42:09] But the real fun box is the little compartment nylon box that lives in the bottom of my box. And that's got a roll of hinge tape, which I rarely ever use for hinge tape at the field. Usually, it's fixing holes in Monaco when the bean stubble goes through it.

[00:42:29] You mean like the Blenderm tape or?

[00:42:31] Yeah, it's the Blenderm tape. I've also used Band-Aids for that in the past. Anyway, a little roll of Blenderm tape in there for just usually patching up holes and covering. But it can be used for all kinds of stuff. There is a small bottle with a precision point on it of oil for motor bushings and that type of thing. Some people's landing gear like to squeak. It drives me nuts. We won't name Reggie's name. Or relations.

[00:43:01] I was going to leave him out of it.

[00:43:03] Yeah, his big stick right now is just driving me nuts. Squeak-a, squeak-a, squeak-a.

[00:43:07] Yeah. Really? Stop.

[00:43:11] So I got that little bit of oil in there. I've got an assortment of nuts and bolts and washers, both in metric, standard, self-tapping, and machine screws. I've got E-Connects in there. I've got clevises in there, both standard and metric. And a lot of times you get a ready-to-fly or whatever, and it's going to have a little hardware pack in it. There's always a couple spares. Throw those in there because those little plastic clevises break all the time. We've got the clevises.

[00:43:37] I've got a little wad of plumber's putty in there. Plumber's putty is for adding weight. That's removable. That's a good idea.

[00:43:48] Yeah.

[00:43:48] And I've also got a few stick-on lead weights in there as well. I've got a spare gear set for one of my gear drive motors. Just I have nowhere else to store it, so I might as well just keep it in there. I haven't flown the airplane in five years, but I carry the gear set with me every day.

[00:44:01] Carry it everywhere you go.

[00:44:03] Everywhere I go.

[00:44:04] Extra weight. That's good, right?

[00:44:05] Yep. There's a pair of tweezers in there, and one of the things I use constantly is a small six-inch ruler, metric and standard. Why do you use that constantly at the field? Always having to set up somebody's control throws. Ah, okay. So, yeah, it comes in really handy. There's a Sharpie in there as well as a regular ink pen. A couple spare number 11 X-Acto blades. And this is all in this one? This is all.

[00:44:35] The electric box.

[00:44:36] This is all my everyday carry electric box, yeah. There's three or four prop adapters in there for electric motors, and that's just because I keep throwing them in there because I've got nowhere else to put them.

[00:44:47] Okay.

[00:44:47] Never have needed one, but I've got them. I seem to be very unprepared. I've got some spare prop washers for my Xanoas. Why they're in the electric box, I will never be able to tell you, but that's where they live.

[00:45:00] But you can change this, right? Yeah, I know. You can do it correctly. I know.

[00:45:04] Okay. So, I mean, there's a lot of miscellaneous stuff like that in there. And there's probably some stuff in there I don't even know I have just because it ended up in there one day and it stayed there. Then we take a move on to my glow box. My glow box is actually part of my larger field box. My big field box is in two pieces. So, I've got my main box that I rarely ever take with me. That just goes to big events or when I'm doing special projects.

[00:45:33] But the end panel of my flight box was detachable. And it's got my battery in it. It's got the fuel. It's got a fuel pump on it. It's also got my electric starter, the power panel. There is an old school quick field charger mounted to the side of it. And that also has some more screwdrivers and the so-called chainsaw tool that comes with the Zenoas that fits the props. It's also got a Phillips screwdriver built in the end of it.

[00:46:06] It's just handy to use for taking your spark plugs off and that type of thing. All right. I know what you're talking about now. So, that's on there and my glow fuel and the starter and all that. So, that goes with me for if I'm flying glow because I don't like hand flipping. I'm not Tommy and I like to have them on my fingers where they're supposed to be. I don't know why you're looking at me. Well, I don't know either.

[00:46:34] But anyway, I've always got my electric starter and electric fuel pump. Had to buy a new fuel pump. My 30-year-old SonicTronic bit the dust. I mean, that happens. It happens. After three decades.

[00:46:44] Yeah. I don't know why it failed.

[00:46:47] I did learn something, though. You mount it with the fuel pump part down so that when it leaks, because apparently they do leak, they don't leak onto your motor and rust your motor out. Oh. So, yeah. Always make sure the fuel spigot slash pump end of it is down and the motor is up.

[00:47:06] Okay.

[00:47:09] So, anyway, that's for that. And I use that sometimes for my gasoline engines. Usually, I do hand flip my gasolines, but it is there for that. And then I've got my big box, which has even more specialized tools in it. And there's a box of spare rubber bands in there. By the way, there's some rubber bands in my little plastic divider box, too. Just number 64, so you can't go wrong. Yeah, that's true. But it's got more stuff in it. And I've got my digital tachometer in there.

[00:47:37] I've got a very old airspeed sensor. So you could actually get airspeed using an actual pitot tube.

[00:47:49] Yeah, this is some older stuff. -huh. I've got some bigger wrenches and so forth that I keep in there. Another couple pair of needle-nose pliers. So odds and ends. This is stuff I would use at a big event where I might be doing some major repairs, removing an engine or something like that. And then my glow box also has my big adjustable wrench in it, which just happens to be made by Rubbermaid. I never knew they made a wrench, but by golly, I love this wrench.

[00:48:15] Yeah.

[00:48:16] It's got a big rubber grip on it. Mm-hmm. It's so nice.

[00:48:18] Blue? Blue. Yeah. They make decent tools. I tried to find another one. They don't make them anymore.

[00:48:26] Yeah. Not their adjustable wrench. Oh, okay.

[00:48:28] I was going to say, I thought I'd seen some, but it doesn't matter. That's, so how often do you clean it, by the way? Like, there's a lot of stuff in there, I hear, that could stay out of them.

[00:48:38] Yeah, there's a lot of garbage in there that you don't need. But I've been dragging it around for this long, long change. That sounds like a great idea.

[00:48:47] I, well, you're getting older. I mean, we all are. That's my thing that I didn't like about the flight boxes and why I kind of tried to condense. Like, all the tools that you're talking about, I have them. I just don't want to lug them with me everywhere. So they're stored here at home.

[00:49:00] And that's why they're split into three different boxes. My area carry has just got the minimal tools, and then I've got the big box with all the tools.

[00:49:07] Yeah. I mean, I guess. I'm just trying to think of. See, I guess you will do more at the field than I will.

[00:49:16] Basically, if I don't, bigger, heavier stuff, if I haven't used it in a couple years, it gets either removed or put in one of the other boxes. Yeah.

[00:49:24] But there's a lot of repairs. Like, if I'm having major engine problems or something like that and can't get it to start, I'm not going to take the motor off there to diagnose. I will bring it home and do that.

[00:49:35] And once again, that's an everyday thing. But if you're at a big event, you get some time to mess around with it. That's true.

[00:49:41] That's interesting. That's a lot of stuff I need to think about moving, I guess, into a mobile. There's a lot you can put in that little divider box. I get it, but that's the weight that gets to me. Like I said, I don't want to carry around something that's 70 pounds.

[00:49:57] Well, I mean, I have to carry it one-handed and manipulate a crutch at the same time.

[00:50:02] Yeah.

[00:50:02] So it's not that heavy. My everyday box probably weighs between 5 and 10 pounds. Oh, that's not bad. No, it's not bad. Because I'm not carrying fuel.

[00:50:11] I'm not carrying a battery.

[00:50:12] That's true. And I've got, usually in that box, I have two of my chargers as well. I take two chargers to the field for electric. Okay. And they're small.

[00:50:21] Yeah.

[00:50:21] I've actually thought about getting a separate box for those just to protect them a little bit better.

[00:50:25] They live in a Ziploc bag. That's where I am. I have a separate case. It's actually a LiPo bag that I use for carrying my chargers.

[00:50:31] Yeah.

[00:50:31] That way it all matches. And it's, I mean, that's the cheapest way that I've found to get it. Because I think those LiPo bags that I have are $12 or something silly.

[00:50:40] A nice big one is $12.

[00:50:42] Well, I don't want huge ones. Like, I would prefer to have more smaller ones, just in case. I don't want to lose all my batteries if one goes bad. So, anyway. Well, that's cool. That's good to know that you have that much more stuff than I do. And I guess I need to pay attention and perhaps get some more.

[00:50:58] Oh, spare plugs, too. I keep those in my electric box. Makes a lot of sense, I'm sure.

[00:51:03] Well, because they run on electricity. Yeah, that's it. I don't know. I was trying to help you out. Anyway. All right. Is there anything else you want to talk about? Are we good? I think we're good for tonight. I'm ready to get out of here.

[00:51:18] I'm tired. Me, too. I had a really big day at work.

[00:51:20] Well, I hope you have a good night and enjoy the rest of your weekend. We will be back. Like I said, we're skipping the next episode, but we will re-release the Halloween episode on or around Halloween. So, be on the lookout for that. And until next time, I'm Ron. And I'm Dave. Good night. Night.

[00:51:41] We hope you enjoyed this episode of the RC Plane Lab podcast. For topic suggestions, to ask questions, or to give any feedback, connect with us at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either ron at rcplanelab.com or tom at rcplanelab.com. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, may your landings be gentle.