Ep 209: The Beginner’s Lounge, Trailer Upgrades, and the RACores Yak‑55 Assembly

[00:00:04] Hello everyone and welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I’m Ron and I’m dave. What’s up? We’re back at this, so it feels like it’s been a long time and I think that’s because we recorded a little bit early as soon as we got back last week, so we’re about a week off, so this is almost a three-week run for us and I almost forgot that we had to record this week until you texted me last night and said: hey, we’re recording tomorrow and I was like, why would we do?

[00:00:37] That and I look at the calendar, I was like, well, we absolutely need to do that. So, yeah, otherwise it’ll be a mad dash tomorrow night, I know right. So how have you been the last couple weeks busy? How about you? Well, yes, and that’s okay. Yeah, not a lot of rc stuff, but things that kind of support the hobby. How’s that sound? Yeah, that sounds good. The journal is coming up. It actually will start. What? In two weeks? No, yeah, two weeks, now a week, I don’t remember. I saw somebody post. I’ll see.

[00:01:09] Him monday it’s like I’m trying to do the math in my head it’s like monday doesn’t add up now it would.

[00:01:14] Be a monday or two from now, but anyway we’re not going this year. I know it’s very sad I’m. That upsets you quite a bit. It does. I actually have mixed emotions, like I. I tommy’s obviously still gone, so it’s not worth the trip by myself because you guys were out this year already. And actually five dollars a gallon- it’s that fuel that would just suck the fun right out of it- and five dollars a gallon for fuel and a vehicle when we drive that gets five miles a gallon.

[00:01:45] At a little over 1500 mile trip. That’s 1500 just in fuel to get there and back. So we’ll stand down this year and we’ll see what next year brings. Hopefully next year be a little more affordable. Yeah, I don’t like. I. Well, I guess we’ll see how the rest of the summer goes, but I know we have a few things that we’ve talked about doing. Nothing like far drives or anything like that, but has the gas prices like affected your thought on travel for the hobby? Oh, absolutely, I’m, I’ve got.

[00:02:16] Maybe I’ve got one, maybe two trips up the street or with the trailer and that is it, and that’s. That’s going to be an expensive weekend, just to sit in a lot and fly, yeah, and enjoy the hobby. But

[00:02:28] Yeah I just I mean and I made a trip up to brian’s last week and it cost me like 65 bucks.

[00:02:35] That’s that’s pricey yeah so and I bought a bottle of zip kicker so that’s a really expensive bottle.

[00:02:43] 75 Bottle of kicker. Wow, yeah, I know I got the text from you saying that you were up there and asking if we wanted anything. It’s like I mean, yeah, no, I appreciate the thought, but I think I’m stocked up for now for what I’m doing. Yeah, so for us here, I think it might put a little bit of a damper on plans for summer for far away trips or anything like that. You do have an electric car, though.

[00:03:11] Well you can’t fit much in it yeah you can I’ve seen you stuff that thing to the brim well I mean.

[00:03:16] I can’t fit the jet in it but I mean it’s not as for family vacation yeah but I mean yeah like I.

[00:03:25] Don’t know, it’s just I don’t know. And my new truck does not get the world’s greatest mileage. I mean it’s not awful for what it is, but it’s worse than the expedition by a long shot. Yeah, but I mean, yeah, I get it.

[00:03:38] But it runs. It’s just one of those things that we shall suffer through this, I guess, and hopefully come out better next year, like I kind of feel. I kind of feel like this is my- I don’t want to say off year, but like I have shifted focus on what I want to do this year and I think that’s in preparation to make next year a bigger year for rc. Does that make sense? Yeah, this is a prep year. Yeah, like I’m trying to get stuff out of the way that I know I need to do that. I’ve been kind of putting off that.

[00:04:10] Will help support next year to make it a better, more enjoyable year where I don’t have so many things hanging over my head. That way I can just relax and enjoy it. It’s kind of how I’m looking at.

[00:04:21] This year at this point. It’s like last year was such a dud for me with vehicle issues and not being able to move the trailer right, so I was hoping for this year to be the big year, and then now we got these fuel prices and just not really having the motivation to go anywhere, because it’s like

[00:04:35] I’m cheap, well, and I’m going to be honest, when, when one third of the trio is gone, it throws off, throws off the balance, yeah, it throws off a lot of the, the gumption, the oomph, the, whatever it’s like. Oh, we’ll just make do until tommy gets back. I know, right, that’s that’s also kind of my like, the things I can do until we get reunited. I guess for a better, for a better, get the crew terminology, yeah. So I don’t know, I mean it’s, it’s okay, because, yeah, I’m really getting really sick.

[00:05:09] Of talking to you. I would too. Don’t worry that kind of hurt, by the way, but that’s okay, I’ll survive. Makes it for all the leg jokes. You only get half of them, okay. Did you hear, by the way, about waco? Waco, tell me how to say it, right again.

[00:05:31] I believe it’s waco, but, excuse me, waco, but you don’t even know it comes out wrong. I am not 100 certain, especially with the new company, that’s well, yeah, so I, I started out as weaver aircraft company. So whether it be waco, but I don’t, I don’t know. Waco, waco, whatever you want to call it.

[00:05:54] I’m good with it and it doesn’t matter at this point because it’s history. Yes, unfortunately, they closed the doors, absolute slammed them shut, abrupt shutdown. So they were based out of battle creek, michigan. For those that don’t know, you want to explain what they are? Do you want me to really quick? Yeah, go right ahead. So they were a company that had about 60 ish employees and they were a company that still made brand new old airplanes. Right, the rest of mods, you might call them. Okay, yeah,

[00:06:24] So they, they had the, the ymf-5, and I think they call it the great lakes or something. I don’t remember what that other one was, but there was a couple of them that they were known for. So these are the, the biplanes, and they’re updated 1930s style and they were still made out of wood and, like the old fabric, radial engine, right. So, the, the old style airplane, they were what like half a million dollar and up airplanes well outside my price range, right, but still, and then

[00:06:58] Something happened and they just abruptly closed the doors. No parts, no service, no, no, nothing, I know like nothing. Like the phone doesn’t even answer, I guess, like it’s not even just new airplanes not being built, it is: if you have one, you’re sol. Sorry, if part xyz is bent, you need a new one. Sorry, you’re not flying. Yeah, so I guess that was this. Monday is when I saw the, the announcement, yeah, but like said, apparently just note on the door. Employees emailed and told not to come in, and it’s, it’s weird.

[00:07:33] Though, because they were just at. What was it? The thing in florida, sun and fun, sun and fun. They were supposed to be at, I want to say joe and all. That’s not right. The, the oshkosh. They’re supposed to be up there showing off their planes and their wares and stuff, and just out of nowhere, and they. They had even announced- I think it was like a 12 million dollar expansion, like the company that owned them- I don’t remember what the name was, but it’s a german company that owned them- and they were going to start making another old type airplane, apparently, and they were.

[00:08:08] Putting millions of dollars into the plant in michigan I guess that is all just topsy-turvy and.

[00:08:15] Shut down somebody woke up one morning going numbers don’t add up yeah shut her down boys yeah.

[00:08:19] So that kind of sucks for rich people, I mean honestly anything airplane related, that companies and stuff like that, that close, it’s just it’s bad for aviation in general. Right, so full size and model, yeah, because I mean, yeah, you’ll have models, I guess still of the wako, wako- I still don’t know, but you’ll still have models of that and stuff. But yeah, it’s just, it’s too bad. Yeah, it’s sad chapter.

[00:08:50] Another one closed. Another one bites the dust and it’s full size this time, and not hobby. Yeah, you got a fly buzzing around in here. Well, no one that. I had a drink. I don’t know what I did.

[00:09:01] With. I thought I carried it down. I’ll be okay, I’ll be parched, but it will work out. I’ll share- not even completely- mine. This belongs partially to my wife, so oh, there you go. It’s extra spit.

[00:09:14] I’ll be the third wheel you want to move on to new airplanes yes go right new airplane.

[00:09:20] New airplane. You want to tell me about it? Oh, I’ll be nice if I do the research on it. Well, to be honest, I didn’t either. I just printed it. To be honest, I haven’t even seen anything up about it until I got here. So this: when did they announce this? It was today. No, I didn’t. I didn’t take a.

[00:09:38] Lunch today so I didn’t get a look at my phone it’s the hanger 9 valiant I know that it’s a 20 cc.

[00:09:42] Size. There we go. Here’s the stuff. Okay, good, valiant, 20 cc ARF. It’s an 86 and a half inch wing, semi-symmetrical wing, typical r15 to 20 hours. It’s wood built up. Engine size: 20 cc. Two to four stroke gas petrol. It also does four, six and five s electric, depending on how you want to set it up. Their specs are kind of weird. It says retracts optional. You’re gonna put.

[00:10:20] Retracts in this. No, no, I think somebody messed up, somebody screwed that up when they copy and pasted from the last airplane they released optional retracts on a fixed gear plane. Okay, so it’s a.

[00:10:33] Cessna looking tail dragger. Yeah, not a scale airplane, but it’s got the look. Yeah, it’s a very, very nice looking paint scheme. It’s a blue and I’m not sure if that is white or cream Ron’s, I think it’s. I think it’s whitish. Yeah, your printer might be a little off on the, I mean.

[00:10:55] Maybe it was also the picture they had on there. Yeah, who knows? I think the one you’re looking at was one that was taken at dusk, so it has a little bit of a pink hue to it from the sun. Yeah, I’m thinking.

[00:11:04] It’s more white than cream, I think, so looks like it has lights. It’s a nice blue, silver and white or cream paint job. Looks nice pretty good. Size: airplane: 20 cc. So

[00:11:16] Lots of gasoline options daniel has plenty of those yeah I don’t know how many engines.

[00:11:22] Let’s see here we got a couple different prices. Looks like airframe only is $449.99 And the electric plug-and-play- I believe you told me it was, yeah- is on a sheet of paper.

[00:11:37] I can’t find. I want to say it was $799.99. $799.99, Yes, sir, so 800 bucks and I’m going to be honest, that’s about the same price as I. I got the 10 cc hanger- 9 cub, for that was in the, the plug-and-play version. For those of us that just like to get something that’s pretty much put together, man, that was nice. Yeah, like pretty much a bolt together, drop together. It might a little bit of glue, yeah, the half hour, maybe, something like that. It was not hard at all to put together.

[00:12:05] So yeah, if you’re in the mood for a new airplane in that size- what was it? 82 Inch? I think you said wingspan. We’ll run 86 and a half, 86 and a half, so it’s a good size airplane. It’s strong.

[00:12:18] And stiff. Do with that as you weigh. I mean good for you. That’s, that’s right here on the sheet, fast and easy bolt together assembly: no glue or special tools required. So it looks like she’s all bolt together. Yeah, cool, nice, so nice. Check it out. Nice. Good size, wooden built up level three plane.

[00:12:42] Okay and that’s all I got to say about that okay then you move on tell me about the airplane you.

[00:12:49] Brought me today. So let’s see here. Toledo, both of you and I bought an ra core plane, you bought the yak 55 and I bought the blufo, which I’ve had to do some digging to see how that’s.

[00:13:04] Actually pronounced and that’s that’s right. Right, at least blufo, yeah. So blufo, blufo, but it’s not blue, which is well, it was. It was white. It was white, yes, but I don’t know what color you’re gonna. You’ll probably make it blue and silver. I’ll just try to paint it gray, just to piss off tawny.

[00:13:23] That should be our goal. No, I don’t know. I’ve been around some schemes where I had thinking about painting it green and making it look like a squid. Okay, I don’t know, possibly to match possibly more of and making it look like a squid too. I don’t know.

[00:13:39] What I’m gonna do with it to match daniel’s dory yeah you guys could be flying under the sea.

[00:13:44] In the sky. Yeah, that looks cool. I did find out that the blufo I have recently bought the real flight simulator. I don’t know. You did, yes, you did, yes, I did. That is amazing and I’m using.

[00:14:00] My free sky radio on it so you got the dongle nope how does that work just plug it in it runs oh.

[00:14:08] Okay, I gotcha. The free sky has got a joystick mode. So when you plug it in and turn it in, turn it on in the right order, it gives you a joystick mode. You tell it’s a joystick. It works really well, except for I need to get a longer usb-c cable, because mine’s only six inches long and

[00:14:26] I’m kind of tied really close to the computer. If you think about it before you go, or remind me because I think I have a 10 footer, you can. Oh, that’s, that’s an overkill, it’s fine anyway, I ended up.

[00:14:40] Buying that. But then I found out as a separate download for free you can get the blue fo blue full. Oh nice, I had to go around change it a little bit. It had a really bad tendency to nosedive constantly so I had to add some up trim to it in the model wise. But looks good, flies good. I’m sorry, I’m.

[00:14:58] I just I can’t get you actually bought the like that I don’t know why that floors me it just does.

[00:15:03] Tower was running some sort of 30 off or something, one day sale, nice, and so I bought the cheapest real flight simulator they had, which was 100 bucks, and that took it down to 70 bucks.

[00:15:19] And I was that just the code then or you didn’t get a disc I mean no you get a box.

[00:15:25] Nice size looks like the box you would normally get a cdn size box and there is a cardboard card.

[00:15:32] Inside it for the code. Right that, yeah. So talk about just be able to get environmentally not friendly, yeah, but I guess people want to see what they’re getting. They want to have something in their hand, maybe, maybe, but okay, you’re, you’re really making it into this century. Well, I bought a new computer.

[00:15:51] I know- and that was a whole back before, as my old computers never could hack it. Yeah, so far this one’s doing pretty good. I get a small hang every now and then, but it’s not bad- yeah, bad at all, considering how much processing power is needed to make this thing run. Yeah, well, I know one thing:

[00:16:08] With real flight is they. They dumb it down a lot. So it will run on older computers too, so you don’t have to have the brand new top of the line gaming computer to run it. No, I did buy a laptop with a fair.

[00:16:20] Amount of ram in it, just because I’m tired of taking an hour open stuff, yeah. So I was hoping it would run on it. I thought, worst case scenario, I could send it back, I guess. But runs good, yeah, yeah, nothing. I’m flabbergasted, I’m floored, I’m shocked I’m still got my dave brown simulator. I know that’s kind of what I figured you’d try and use. Oh yeah, anyway, got that. Anyway, we took.

[00:16:54] And bought ra cores. You and you bought the yak 55 and on our way trip back to from toledo I said I’ll just take it, I’ll build it for you because- and I was- I know you’re never going to get around to it because you got foam stuff sitting around here for two years. Okay, well, that hurt again.

[00:17:09] But I was like: yes, please, I will take you up on that. Thank you, I enjoyed building it. It was fun little build. So for those that don’t know, ra cores is a flat profile foamy. I don’t know what foam was that. I think it’s epp, epp foam. And the nice thing about this airplane for those of like me that don’t necessarily want to put a lot of work into it, and especially none, because you did it all for me- but it comes pre-painted, like the one I got was pre-painted, so that makes it a

[00:17:41] Lot easier too. Yeah, that saves a ton of time, makes it look a lot better. I mean I could have painted it, but the details they got into it with the checkerboards and the canopy, and they would have taken a lot of time to mask off and paint. So I’m real glad that you bought the pre-painted one. Me too, and most of the time it was just waiting around for the glue to dry because it’s all put together with the foam tack glue. Yeah, I added a little extra canopy glue just to help bolster some joints, but yeah, it was went together really nice. We’ll have to say some of their pictures.

[00:18:12] Aren’t the clearest but it’s nothing you can’t figure out on your own it’s it’s there’s like six.

[00:18:19] Pieces in the bag so it’s not a big deal yeah it’s a profile form or foamy so there’s not a ton.

[00:18:24] And there’s a top and bottom, a left and a right and a couple reinforcement pieces. That’s pretty much it. The hard part really was just cutting the bevels on the control surfaces. I tell you that foam is hard on razor blades. Oh, you had to cut those. Yeah, so those weren’t pre-cut, they’re not.

[00:18:42] Pre-cut okay you could cut two cuts on a razor blade and you had to toss it and get a fresh one.

[00:18:50] That stuff’s incredibly hard on razor blades but went together nice well kind of looking forward to.

[00:18:57] Seeing you fly it, me too, so I’ll probably end up putting a receiver in it. I think I have an old dumb one sitting around here I can throw in there, because I’m not going to put anything. I don’t put anything good in expensive in it. This is a good place for a lemon and an orange. I don’t think I have any of those anymore, but I’ll go through my stash and see just something that’s. This thing ain’t gonna hurt anybody or anything. If it goes nuts, yeah and I. If it’s, I mean like I don’t need.

[00:19:20] As3x. I don’t need any of that stuff on it, so no, yeah, it’ll be cool, yeah, so anyway, that’s what I spent a week doing. I found out the hard way that apparently, canopy glue will instantaneously.

[00:19:34] Rust one, two, three blocks, little machinist blocks, they’re just steel and I know they rust because I have to. I hit mine with scotch wright pad every now and then, probably take them out and hit them with a coat of a clear lacquer or something. But yeah, they rust fairly reasonably fast. But I waited it down with one, two, three blocks. After I put the canopy glue on, it came back an hour later and they were rusted like they’ve been at the bottom of the ocean- rusted, oh wow.

[00:20:06] Unfortunately stained your airplane a little bit. I’m sorry, Ron, I had. No, I had no idea that was going to happen. Nothing to be sorry about. Scrape the glue off the blocks and the blocks are permanently stained. That’s amazing. Yeah, I couldn’t. I couldn’t believe it must be very acidic or something. Yeah, anyway, no big deal, lots of fun. What else? Well, like I said, I appreciate you doing.

[00:20:30] That I’m, I’m hoping this weekend, knock on wood- we’ll be able to make it out to the field. I’m hoping, hopefully, hoping. It has just been so windy here, like ridiculous amount of wind. We have had so many storms this year. That’s non-stop 25 plus, yeah, and even that is a calm day most of the time anymore. Yeah, I’m trying to think: what was it we I heard, was it a week or week and a half ago? We had sustained, not sustained, but gusts of like 75. Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s crazy. Now I live.

[00:21:06] In town so I’m pretty sheltered. Yeah, so it’s not really that bad, but I do have some sticks down in my backyard I need to pick up. Yeah, I was trying to paint some primer on my the beaver project. Trying to do that saturday night. I think I wore more primer than I got on the airplane. But

[00:21:24] I’m not surprised. Like I said, it’s, it’s. It’s been a very windy spring, so I’m hoping that means it’s going to be a calm summer. But it’s also been 90 degrees in march, so I can’t wait for august. Yes, but now it’s may, almost tomorrow’s may- and the height of day was 65. Yeah, I was going to say 64, 65 with wind, so of course, in clouds, so it was chilly. Yeah, it’s, it’s just going to immediately drop into the 90s.

[00:21:55] And high humidity and yeah no wind but I mean I don’t know about the high humidity part but I’m.

[00:22:02] I’m ready for some summer weather no I’m yeah I used to be a summer person but as I get older that heat.

[00:22:13] Just drains me. Yeah, I can deal with the cold better than I can the heat anymore. I’m the opposite and that’s the way I used to be. Yeah, I don’t know, I’m. The cold bothers me more because it’s like bone chilling when you’re trying to fly and move your hands and move your fingers and stuff.

[00:22:38] But the, the heat, I mean I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem to take as much out of me as it used to not saying I like it hot because it’s still. I mean, yeah, I’m, I’m a fair weather type person. I have like four degrees, yeah, in between there I’m happy. Other than that I’m not. Yeah, but anyway, so we’ll see, hopefully, like so, we’ll make it out to the field this weekend.

[00:22:57] We all have new planes to fly well I’ve got tons of new planes and tons of rebuilds to.

[00:23:04] Yeah, refly. So I will spend tomorrow and saturday morning finishing up a couple things. Put a receiver on that ra cores plane and hopefully be good. Yeah, you need to put some velcro on it to mount.

[00:23:17] Your battery okay I didn’t put any velcro on it because I wasn’t sure what battery you had and.

[00:23:23] Where it needed to be yeah no that makes perfect sense I got to look up and see what battery on.

[00:23:27] There too, I think it’s a 1300, 3s 1300. The instructions don’t say I. I did do some research on the internet and I think it is a three cell 1300. I think I think that’s what tommy said he used on his, and I think mine is set for three cell 1800. So yeah, see, I don’t have one of those. So

[00:23:43] 13 Will be perfect. It’s a small motor so I don’t think it’s going to draw a lot of no, apparently flies forever on that 1300. Nice, looking forward to it, but anyway. So moving on. Where do you want?

[00:23:56] To go next. What do you want to talk about next? Oh, let’s see, here I’ve been working a lot of projects. I picked up another Reggie project. Whether I wanted it or not, no, it’s fine, it sounds like, or not? Yeah, actually it wasn’t too bad. When I first got it was supposed to be patching up some broken nylon parts and push rods and that type of thing. He bought some carbon fiber rods in toledo. Unfortunately, we got the wrong size but they’re too big. But I can, I’ve got the parts that I’ve.

[00:24:27] Salvaged from other aircraft that I can use for to do this. The problem being is it’s probably a mid-2000s ARF and the covering on it is pretty scuzzy. It’s really wrinkled and pulling away in places and just trying to clean it up using the iron set on low temperatures to reseal it, I got the edges to reseal okay, but then you go try to shrink it and this material, whatever it is, just doesn’t want to shrink really well and they don’t have much margin overlap on the

[00:25:01] Surfaces, and so as soon as it tries to tighten a little bit, it pulls away from the edge and then loosens up again, and then you got bare wood on the edge. So what turned out to be a pretty, pretty quick touch-up job turned out to be: I’m going to have to recover this entire thing. So, oh my god.

[00:25:18] And what is it’s an ultimate 10 300 okay yeah e-flight.

[00:25:28] I don’t know 20 I always call it 20 size but it’s I don’t know what they’re calling it size wise.

[00:25:34] Would that be like the old 15e type? Yeah, I think that’s pretty much where it’s at. That’s about. Well, the 15e is the same as your small cub. Yeah, it falls in that same range, okay.

[00:25:50] Biplane: shorter span, a little chunkier fuselage, so, yeah, I think it’s a little bit larger than the cub scale wise, but still one meter ish okay. So it’d be interesting. But I got to take and recover all that and I just wasn’t really wanting to recover it. But here we are and I gave him the option several times, like okay, why don’t we just fly it as is? See, if you like it, right, if you like it, then crash it before you. I’ll I’ll strip and recover it. Yeah, if you really want to like it and want to.

[00:26:21] Hang on to it’s like no just recover it’s like damn it rarity how many times do I have.

[00:26:24] To tell you, let’s just, yeah, check it out, for I mean, let it be held together with packing tape for the first flight. Yeah, I, I can throw a bunch of duct tape on it to patch the holes in it. But

[00:26:35] Yeah nope we’re gonna go ahead and do full bore we are huh yeah we are.

[00:26:42] Well, I mean it keeps you busy. I told him not to be in a hurry for it. Oh, he’s got plenty other airplanes, so that’ll be all right. Yeah, he just bought something new. I can’t remember what it was.

[00:26:56] Off the top of my head but it came in a big box oh yeah he got the brand new f-22 eight cell.

[00:27:01] Yeah from the 90 millimeter yeah that’ll be nice airplane yeah a little jealous of that one.

[00:27:06] I want to see the v2 I want to see the changes well that’s what he got right yeah he got the v2 yeah.

[00:27:11] Because he was thinking about that v1 in toledo right, which I mean whatever it was sold. So that’s probably a good thing. That way he could get one that’s all ready for him, all new, don’t have to worry about it. Yeah, yeah, I can’t wait to see that one fly. If it’s anything like their smaller f-22, the 64 millimeter. All those f-22s fly great. They just- I mean, it’s a floater- yeah, lots of wing area. Lifting fuse- yeah, great. Flying airplane. Okay, do you want to go that next? Sure, it’s time for rc plane.

[00:27:47] Labs tool of the week. So, Ron, whenever you have a brand new electric airplane and you need a battery strap, how often do you go digging in your box of battery straps and never have the right size?

[00:27:58] Well, it’s very often dave, and I have a whole big box of battery straps and there are a lot of different sizes, but I can never find the one that I just need. Yeah, it’s never the right size, it’s always.

[00:28:06] Just a little too short or way too long and you can’t cut it without having to re-sew it. Yeah, I’ve never had it too long. I’ve always had them too short, too short. Yeah, what do you got, dave? I’ve got a couple that I’ve actually had to wrap around the fuselage. So I was looking around in my box looking for the battery straps for those blue foe that I haven’t even built yet, but I was trying to get my whole lot of parts together, yeah, and I’ve got a ziploc bag of battery straps I keep in my flight box and I was digging around in there and realized they’re all garbage. They’re either the really cheap ones that are heat sealed together and or they’re just way too.

[00:28:42] Why do I have so many long ones? I got like some footers. I was like, why do I have a foot long battery strap? Yeah, you don’t find anything. That’s huge, huge battery. No, I don’t. It’s like: how did I get these things? They’re nice, yeah, they’re even a little stretchy, but I just realized I didn’t have the proper battery strap. So I was needing to get some replacement parts for my vacuum cleaner- don’t ask. And so I got on the amazon and started digging around and I asked for a battery strap assortment for rc airplanes and not much was coming up. But then I found this:

[00:29:18] Thing. It’s hook and loop strap with buckles. This is from a company I cannot pronounce: uonika u, u-o-n-I-k-a. Let’s just say most of the stuff on there you’re not going to be able to pronounce. This is two rolls of velcro, two 20 foot rolls. So I got 40 foot of strapping material and it came with 60 plastic buckles. I have never seen velcro with the sticky and the fuzzy on the

[00:29:56] Same side together. Yeah, I know that’s weird, I like it, though when I first got it’s like: where’s the back side? Then I realized there is no back side, it’s just smooth. So you take and put one end through the buckle and fold it back on itself, and so that’s the anchoring end, and then you cut it to whatever length you need and that’s your working free end, and then it just rolls back and sticks on itself. It is looks to be an absolutely fabulous product and the kicker is I got 40 foot and 60.

[00:30:24] Buckles for 9.99. You can’t beat it. I mean, that’s the cost, honestly, of like three or four of these when you buy them. Yeah, just a couple straps is 10 bucks. Yeah, and those are the wrong size most of the time.

[00:30:36] And the plastic buckles look to be fairly decent quality. I mean, you’re not going to strap a load on a tractor, trailer, truck with these things, but there should be more than adequate for rc.

[00:30:45] Airplane use yeah I’ve got to say I’m a little intrigued so we’ll see how that goes yep so I’m.

[00:30:55] Looking forward to that, having exactly size, the right size, battery straps, and, who knows, I might be strapping a lot more stuff down than I normally do. Actually, I lied, I just went ahead and ordered it.

[00:31:05] You went and ordered it. Yeah, well, you sent me the, the link, and when you’re looking at, I wanted to pull them up and look. So, yeah, I mean, there’s absolutely no reason for that price. Ten dollars, 40 feet hook and loop straps, 60 buckles, adjustable, reusable cable straps arbitrarily cut, fixing nylon cinch strap arbitrarily, arbitrarily, arbitrarily. You can cut this wherever you want. And I’ll be honest: when you before I actually touched them and you told me that the hook and loop were both on,

[00:31:39] The same side of the strap. I was a little concerned, but they actually hold it. I gave it a good yank and it, yeah, seems to be holding just fine. I mean, like I said, you’re not gonna strap something to a truck, but well no, but it’s gonna hold a battery in an airplane, no problem, especially with the little bigger ones.

[00:31:53] You’re gonna have two of them and I find it’s coming apart well I can just I got a sewing machine.

[00:31:58] Yeah, I can run a stitch through it real quick. Yeah, no, I like that. That’s a good find, dave, good find, and I couldn’t believe the price. Me neither, there’s as long as you’re actually on the lookout for what you want, and then you just go down the rabbit hole of maybe you like this, maybe you like this, maybe you like this. There’s a lot of times you can get to stuff like that you would never even have thought to google, or I never or never knew this existed. Right, but yeah.

[00:32:27] It’s like no more way too long or short battery straps yeah so that’s cool we will now between the.

[00:32:33] Two of us have 80 feet and 120, which, yeah, that’s a lot of battery straps. Wasn’t thinking we probably should just split one, but that’s okay. Yeah, for 10 bucks I’m gonna own it all.

[00:32:46] That’s true, you use a lot more than I will. Maybe I’ll get one 20 foot section. You can have 60 feet. Oh, I run through so much velcro. It’s amazing how much velcro I run through. Well, I have. So the velcro I have is in those big rolls, like I don’t know if you’ve seen them before, but they’re the rolls I know. The giant industrial ones exist. Yeah, I’ve never owned one, but yeah, that’s what I have and they’re probably 18 inch rolls or something. So I think I’m I’m set for a long time on that. But for this stick to yourself kind of stuff- I mean, that’s the adhesive on the adhesive back stuff-

[00:33:20] This is perfect for that whole thing, and now I can get rid of all the other ones that I have back there in my stash and just have one small. Yeah, all the generic, no wrong size ones. They’re gonna go.

[00:33:29] Away. Yeah, I got some that are like the, the old-fashioned ones that you just gotta slit in them and you pull it back. Yeah, I have. Those are always a pain in the butt, or the one end is a little bit thinner.

[00:33:38] To get it through a little bit easier. But then as you’re trying to tighten it up, it always kind of sticks to itself. Then you’re trying: yeah no, yeah no, those are all gone. And then you’re paranoid that it’s going to rip that slot little thing when you’re trying to try to cinch it down, and it’s right through.

[00:33:51] That yeah no good one day yeah good very good we haven’t had two of the week for a while and I just.

[00:33:57] Ran across that. Yes, I’m I’m glad you ordered it, I’m glad we ordered it now and if I think about, I’ll put the link below on the episode note so people can look at that too.

[00:34:10] Okay, so something else: we did one of the we get a lot of- not as much recently because we haven’t pushed it- but we get a lot of feedback through the website with the, the surveys. When we do those, one of the main, one of the biggest things we get is questions about getting started into the hobby. What we suggest, what we do, what we’ve done, what we tell people to.

[00:34:36] Do just and we can’t cover it every week because people get tired of hearing use.

[00:34:40] Rubber bands. Right, exactly. So we’ve spent a lot of time and a lot of effort and we have put together the beginners lounge as an offshoot of the RC Plane Lab podcast. So we have it’s beginners loungercplanelab.com and it is a site that we kind of structured it into: 12 courses, 12 pages, whatever you want to say, yeah, and our goal was to make it structured so people could get to each.

[00:35:16] Page, each lesson, whatever, and focus on what that is about and then move on to the next one without getting completely overwhelmed, right? I? We didn’t want it to be too in depth, we didn’t want it to be. If you start jumping around you might get confused because you don’t- you don’t know what we’re talking about in the second part, right? So we tried to put it in order. That made sense and it like I said, it’s just step-by-step basics of what you need to get in the hobby.

[00:35:46] It talks a little bit about the, the trust exam, the ama, insurance, the faa, what you have to do for all that stuff, with links to all the stuff you need. I think it’s pretty clear explanations and we tried to keep it as beginner friendly as possible, so go check it out. Yeah, beginnersloungercplanelab.com, I think there’s an ask question section. Yeah, there’s a frequently asked questions. There’s the.

[00:36:18] Ask the instructor or something like that. Just kind of going over some of the more common questions, we have seen something pops up that you don’t, we’re not covered. Yeah, send us a line. Yeah, and if it’s something that isn’t on there, we will add that to the website also. So yeah, that’s kind of an organic thing, just kind of grow as it goes, exactly. So, yeah, check it out. And by we saying we- it’s Ron, it’s Ron wrote this, it’s the collective, we- I’ll even throw tommy in there, it was all three of us.

[00:36:49] So you did all the work it was something that I think is needed just to help new people get in the.

[00:36:59] Hobby. I’ve got a new guy I’m helping in the club. He didn’t even know the ama existed. He had joined the club and didn’t know anything about the ama. It’s like, well, you need to join the ama, or they’re going to run your number and it’s going to come back that, yeah, yeah, so, yeah, you need to join the ama. So he didn’t even know about that. So, yeah, there’s a lot of stuff out there that, even though people are picking up on a majority of it, some of those things slip through the cracks. Well, it’s.

[00:37:23] Things that we are in this hobby deep. I mean, let’s be honest, we’re probably in it more than the average person. So we take things that we know that we deal with all the time for granted and don’t really think of people that are just starting will not know what they don’t know and it’s things, like I said, we take for granted because we deal with it so often. So hopefully this is this is something that will just cover a lot of the basics and help a new

[00:37:56] Person in the hobby, so check it out, let us know how it goes. Yeah, give us feedback and we will take it to heart. Okay, well, I honestly, I think I have only one other thing to talk about. Do you have?

[00:38:12] Anything else you want to get into it? No, I’ve been pretty keeping myself pretty busy between the little airplane projects and restoring that second rc10, so, oh yeah, I forgot about the other one. You got, yeah, the parts bucket. Yeah, so it looked nice and straight. And now I’m. I just keep ordering parts and ordering parts. So, oh okay, this is your new obsession, not necessarily, I just want one to play with and I worry about scratching up a historic item now, is it? Obviously it’s not just.

[00:38:45] A car to play with it’s an rc10 you want to play with right I want to play with an rc10 I never owned.

[00:38:50] One as long as I’ve been doing this I’ve never owned an rc10 yeah now I own two of them there you go.

[00:38:55] So see, it’s funny because, like to me, like when I got into the hobby, rc10s were old, like it’s. It’s pre my, pre your thing. Right, like where I am at with rc cars and stuff is like the, the tracks of slash, the rustler, those that era, which I don’t even know if you can still buy them new. Oh yeah, they’re out there. I’m sure they’re updated from when I was in it, but so that’s kind.

[00:39:26] Of the era that I’m stuck in, when, when they came out with the vxl, brushless motors and all that kind of stuff, so I mean I get it, I still have a bunch of them because I was wanting to get rid of everything because it takes up room, I had- I mean, honestly, I had enough probably to put together 10 cars and at any time five cars running, just with the track we had here and all that kind of stuff. And I had toyed with getting rid of them and I thought what I will regret? That

[00:39:55] Yeah, so I’m glad I didn’t. Yeah, the other day I was in the room where I got them stored. I just did a quick count and I came up with 25 cars and it’s like, and this isn’t even all of them.

[00:40:06] What am I doing yeah you got it worse than I do yeah but you did more racing and that kind of stuff.

[00:40:11] Yeah, so most of those that are in my shelves are race cars of some sort. Yeah, they’re some sort of class they were running in, and that didn’t even count the minis, and so I’ve probably got 35- 40 cars with no problem, and I probably got more than that if I start digging. It’s stupid, but I bought the new fox, so it’s nice to run the fox again. Interestingly enough, associated just recently released a special version of the rc10 that plays tribute to the tamaya fox. It’s got the monoshock.

[00:40:44] On it and I can’t. I can’t remember what they’re calling it, but it’s even got fox in the name and it’s like almost a direct ripoff of the fox and they put the rc10 name off of it. It’s weird. It’s like what are you doing? Associated, but well, who made the rc10, associated electrics and who made

[00:41:01] The fox tamaya. So that’s a completely different company. That’s what I’m trying to wrap my head around because I don’t follow that, but I thought that’s what I heard. Yeah, they’re two completely different companies from two different countries. So they’re japan and us. They’re air quotes paying homage to, but just trying to say it, or steal sales from, it’s a. It’s a direct money grab. In my book.

[00:41:22] But I mean that’s funny and I still might have to have one just because of the fox connection but.

[00:41:29] See they got you yeah it’s an ugly car though the it’s weird but anyway beauty is in the eye of.

[00:41:35] The beholder anyways I’ve been keeping myself busy with that so what’s your last thing the last thing.

[00:41:41] I was going to talk about is so my trailer. I’ve been working on some upgrades on that. I find it took me so long to build up the courage to cut a ceiling and cut a hole in my ceiling. It’s rough. Cut a hole in a roof, oh it’s, it’s terrible. But I finally got up the gumption and did that. So I installed my. I bought a 12 volt air conditioner like an actual low profile rv type air conditioner for it, because I have that big battery in there, so it’ll run off of that.

[00:42:14] Does it use a standard 14 inch hole? It does, okay, so good. If it doesn’t work out, you can just go conventional, just a conventional exhaust fan or something. But I don’t plan on doing that because, well, I like cold, so it’ll be nice to have somewhere to kind of go and cool down a little bit on those hot days while we’re flying. And then I also ran into so

[00:42:40] The spectrum came out with a new charger, the s450. I don’t know if you’ve seen that advertised or anything but multi. Yeah, so it’s a four port, four port charger, ac or dc, which is kind of what drew me to it. And the other thing I really liked is it has- so each port has all three different sizes of their connectors. So there I see what is it: two, three and five, whereas before with the chargers,

[00:43:14] I had. If I was charging a smaller battery, I’d have an adapter to go from the three to two, which I know sounds like not a big deal. But I’ve gotten really happy with my squids. I don’t know if anybody’s ever see a squid, but the only thing that kind of concerns me about those- and well, tell me what?

[00:43:30] It is first a squid. It’s got two leads that plug into your charger- just your normal, your banana, banana jacks, and then it’s got every imaginable connector connected to the end of it. I think the current one I have has got 18, and I’ve added, I’ve spliced on a few more, so there’s like 22, I think, connectors on the end of this thing so I can connect pretty much any battery to my charger.

[00:43:54] Yeah, that’s a lot. That’s a lot. First off, that’s a huge bundle of wires to deal with. I like the idea of it, but I’m going to be honest: the thought of having that many positive and negative ends just flopping around out there. Now I know they’re covered, but the covers can still come off. Shorting them out is something that I would have a lot of concern about. Using the only one, I’ve had problems.

[00:44:21] With was my deans and it’s shorted on the radiator core support, yeah, truck, because I mean, obviously the deans are just sticking right out there, yeah, and they’ve got a little. One of them has a rubber sleeve that slides down over it and protects it. That’s the one that got me. The other one has got like a plastic cap that you’re just need to put back over it when you’re not using it, yeah, which I would thought that would be the one that would have got me, but it was actually one in the.

[00:44:48] Rubber sleeve. Well, I can see that because the sleeve could just move- I mean, just by handling it and moving the ends around, you could knock it down a little bit. I guess the way I’ve gone about things is a little bit different than because I used to use the xt60s and that family, I used to have deans and all that depending on the battery, depending on the plane. I have literally switched everything I have over though to use the ic connectors, just because

[00:45:16] Well, I like the smart batteries, I like the chargers. I don’t like the pricing. I’ll be honest with you: they are expensive. But having one charger I can take with me and charge any airplane and even rc car stuff at this point that I have, I to me, that’s just simplicity that I like. So, anyway, this four port charger, the only the other thing that drew me to it- not only can I charge all the batteries I have, because of the three different sizes of plugs, without using a adapters. It’s ac or dc, and that’s what’s something you’ve really needed, that we’ve been at the

[00:45:50] Field and you’ve you have to run the generator to get ac power for your chargers right and so.

[00:45:54] That was a big, a big draw to me. So we’ll see how it goes. It’s not nearly as powerful for the bigger batteries as the two port chargers that I have, but I’ll still carry one of the big ones with me, one of the two part two port bigger chargers, and then carry this one with me also. How many watts do so? It is on dc power. Well, let’s start with ac. On ac power it’s 50 watts per channel and on dc power it’s up to 100 watts per channel. So that’s plenty big, not really.

[00:46:31] My other charger was 200 watts per channel because mine are only 80 watts and I charge 6l 5000s with.

[00:46:40] Zero issues. Well, I can charge it with zero issues, but it’s going to be slower. So that’s the thing with the, the smart batteries is you can charge at. I forgot you charge it like 20 c or something stupid like that. No, I think the, the, I think the one of the, oh, what is it? The 6s, 5000s? I want to say I charge it 20, 20 or 25 amps, I don’t remember, and that just scares the bejesus out of me. Well, I mean that’s, I knock on wood, not had a problem with that yet, although I’m gonna need to check some of those.

[00:47:15] Bigger batteries this year, because I’ve had them. This will be going on. I think my third year for some of them, so I’m gonna have to do some check. I’ll be getting a little tired. Yeah, they might be good for bigger, for like flying the cub or something like that, but they might be aging out for edfs. Yeah, the edfs really suck on them hard. Yes, they do. Yeah, so that’s what I’ve been up to. I’ve got, like said, the air conditioner is installed. Next thing you gotta do is make a bench for the front of it and

[00:47:45] Do some more electrical wiring. I ended up buying a bunch of fuses and more, more wiring and all that kind of stuff to hook this charger up in the in the trailer so that way I can just run off the battery that’s in there, and I bought like a 20 foot cable so I can take it outside and charge next to the trailer and all that kind of stuff. So it should work out pretty good. That’s where.

[00:48:10] I’m at with my truck now. I’m looking at some sort of 12 volt port into the back. I don’t necessarily want to use a cigarette lighter, but then again I don’t want to have just two studs sticking out right. I’m not sure what I want to use as a 12 volt charging point in the back of the truck.

[00:48:27] I mean you might be best off using the cigarette lighter port kind of thing, because those usually have the covers and stuff that at least keep debris out, and I’m trying to find one that’s higher.

[00:48:38] Amperage, because I can pull upwards of 10 amps, yeah, especially when you first start something, yeah, and a lot of those are only rated for a lot less than that, yeah, so I’m just kind of scared of melting ones. I need to find like a heavy duty cigarette lighter, yeah, port, and I mean that’s kind of.

[00:49:00] What like where. My issue is right now, too, is trying to figure exactly how I want to hook up the charger because, like I said, I want to be long enough to where I can charge outside and all that. But due to the, the amps that’s going to pull, because I think that’ll pull worst case scenario like 34 amps or so- so I’m gonna have the honking wire to make sure that it doesn’t overheat or anything like that. But my, my only concern that I haven’t figured out yet is what?

[00:49:33] I’m going to do on the end of that to make sure nothing gets shorted out, right. So, and that’s where I’m at, kind of the back of the truck, because, yeah, most everything I use uses alligator clips on it, or banana jack, and you can get the banana, but you still have, like the female banana jack, whatever those are called, but you still have open, open electronics. Yeah, and then being able to, even though

[00:49:54] It’s under the cap and all that it’s I still want to be able to have a cap on it of some sort to.

[00:49:58] Keep water out of the system. Yeah, I mean, I even thought about just making or not making, but plugging a, like the battery end into the extension and just having it, taking the electronic or taking the metal part out of it, so that all it is just a cap that I can close up, but I don’t know. Yeah, you gotta find something. Yeah, that’s for another day, but anyway, yeah, so that’s that’s where I am right now. There’s a lot of wiring I have to start doing on that trailer, because I got it to a spot where it was usable, but now I want to get it to a spot where it’s comfortable.

[00:50:34] And actually fitting of my needs. You’re getting closer every day, every, yeah, yeah, every month or so. It’s amazing, like- and maybe it’s just because everything is up now- but I am shocked at how expensive like wires and fuses and that kind of stuff is at this point. Yeah, it’s ridiculous. But I mean, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? We’re, we’re this deep end. Yeah, can’t quit now. I will not. I guess I won’t worry about the money after it’s gone. But when you click, buy on a 25 foot.

[00:51:11] Roll of size 8 wire. Oh, wire’s ridiculous. That was 50 some odd dollars. It’s like: oh my god, yeah, that’s a lot, but it’ll be okay, it’ll be worth it in the end. When it’s finished and I can actually use it- and hopefully saturday we’ll get to make use of it- I can enjoy some time. Oh, you got a full trailer saturday? Yeah, probably will cool, that’s the only way I can charge batteries if I’m going to fly more than a couple times and I would like spend some time actually flying, because it’s been a while since january anyway, okay, well, is there anything else you want to talk about? Are we good? I’m out of.

[00:51:46] Ideas. Well, if you think of something, save it till next time anyway. Well, everybody, thank you for listening. Until next time. I am Ron and I’m dave, good night. Good night, we hope you enjoyed this episode.

[00:51:59] Of the r to give anything back. Connect with us at rtplanelabcom or email us direct at either Ron at rtplanelabcom or Tom at rtplanelabcom. 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.