In this episode
Join us for the main discussion, practical takeaways, and stories from this episode of RC Plane Lab.
Have you ever tried to remember what parts and pieces you need to fly one of your planes, but couldn’t? Ron has. And he wants to know how to keep everything separate and organized. Tune in to hear some of the things Tom does to keep everything straight.
But before they get to that, the guys talk about flying with SAFE, Ron’s new airplane, and control horns. Tom also talks about an expensive mistake he made while trying to run his 3 cylinder Saito.
Episode 73 Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for readability. Timestamps are retained.
Read the full transcript
[0:00] Hello everyone, welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I'm Ron. And I'm Tom. So I made it out to the field again last week. You did, and I really meant to, but I didn't. You had all the intentions to. I did, I really did, but, biking, once again, got in the way of my flying. Doggone it. Well, what I, once again, got in the way of my flying. Doggone it. Well, what I say to that. I know, I know. Hang up the pedals and get out the airplanes.
[0:39] Yeah, and I plan on doing that soon. Not hanging up the pedals, I mean, but going flying. Yeah. But anyway, let's talk about your trip to the Philippines. I'll believe it when I see it. Yeah. But anyway, let's talk about your trip. I'll believe it when I see it. Well, no, so, I mean, it's kind of nice. Like, right now we're, by we, I mean my wife is on a little break from her school stuff. So things have calmed down just a little bit. A little bit.
[0:53] So there's been time to kind of catch up on things that we want to do. Well, not necessarily we, that I want to do. I mean, let's be honest. I mean, she's got her own stuff she's working on. It's all about you so thank you i mean i've been trying to tell her that for years and she won't listen maybe when we're done with this you can go up and i'll tell her tell her that yeah i'm sure that'll
[1:15] be met with a very positive response over like a lead balloon but anyway so with stuff slowing down a little bit i've been able to make it out to the field more and i've enjoyed it right so it's yeah it's fun i mean it's really been a long time since i've had the time to go out and do what i want to do without being on a time crunch yeah and without i have to hurry home to do other things right And without, I have to hurry home to do other things.
[1:47] So, yeah, I took the eFlight air tractor out again. It's so okay. So here's the thing. There's a but coming. It's nice, but. Well, I flew it last weekend. Right. And it just, it was okay. Like it just kind of felt twitchy. It just felt, it wasn't quite as smooth as i would expect so for our listeners who may not be familiar the e-flight air tractor is foam yes and electric which the electric part i'm cool with but the foam yeah i mean let's be honest it's a good looking
[2:20] airplane so but it looks like a foam airplane. Not. Okay, so they did some things right with it. Okay, I'll say that first off. So there's panel lines on the wings. Molded in. Molded in panel lines. And the cool thing is that first panel line that goes all the way down the wing, that's the CG mark. Handy. I mean, that's perfect. Yeah, handy. I think that's awesome. What they didn't do right so
[2:56] it's easy to transport because when you unplug the wings literally you're unplugging the wing you're unplugging the connectors are built into the yeah to the connection points of the wing like the the servo connectors and all that they're built into that yeah so when you unplug that you don't have extra wires you have to do and undo and all that which is which is nice however the tiny tiny screws that hold the wing on yeah are a pain to
[3:18] get in and out n's not bad but are a pain to get out yeah so much so you have like even when you have it completely unscrewed to where the screw is technically loose it's still holding on and you have to dig it out with something a magnet maybe or something i've not tried a magnet i mean it's pretty tight like i have to get underneath of it with a little pick kind of thing that's angled to where you can kind of get underneath and pull it up. No, it's not,
[3:48] because it's actually kind of messing up the foam around where those go in. Yeah, that's not good. Well, that and it's so small that I've dropped two of them and lost them. So I need to go buy like a hundred pack of them and just throw them in my flight box. But so it works well for my transportation purposes at the moment it's easy it's nice that it breaks down yeah it's easy to get into the car and that kind of stuff but so
[4:10] flying it when i flew it for the first time actually in quite a while out of the field it just it wasn't as smooth as i expected it to be i mean it flew it flew okay but not great it's being an e-flight it probably has as3x and all that stuff built in right and it has safe oh which we'll get to that so here's here's the thing well anyway this is my first airplane was safe right like i learned to fly without it i learned to fly normal airplanes i shouldn't say normal
[4:44] like i learned to fly without it i learned to fly normal airplanes i shouldn't say normal there you go i learned to fly by myself without any kind of assistance electronic assistance and now so okay so after the first weekend when i flew it i brought it home actually read the manual figured out how it's supposed to set up the expo that's supposed to be on, the rates that are supposed to be on, I made sure that was right. Oh, the programming for your transmitter.
[5:08] The programming for the transmitter, yeah. So I also saw in the manual where it tells you with safe, like how to program it with safe and how to bind it, not program, how to bind it with safe enabled or how to bind it without safe enabled. Okay. I thought, let's try it with safe just or how to bind it without safe enabled okay i thought let's try it with safe just so i can see what it's like because there's a way in there to turn it off you
[5:30] can program a switch oh and i was like cool we're going to try it with it just kind of see how it is i've never flown with it before so i want to see how simple flip of the switch you can turn it off in theory oh okay so i i go flying, and stuff. With SAFE? With SAFE On. Okay. Because at that point I thought SAFE was on. Now, SAFE, that limits you on like how much you can bank and how much you can, all that sort of stuff, right?
[5:57] Because that was my experience with SAFE on that Mustang that I had. Yeah. Okay. And I don't like that. Yeah, not a fan. But so anyway, as I was flying with safe on, hold on. I want to make sure I could say this correctly. So when I was looking at the directions, it told me how to enable safe switch to turn it on and off. Does that make sense? So you have a switch where you can turn it on and turn it off. AS3X is always on. You can't turn that off, but safe can be disabled.
[6:31] So I was reading it. I thought I did it right. And the way you do it is you take your left stick down to the right and your right stick down to the left. Okay, so they're all the way down and close to each other. Bring your thumbs together. And then as those are, you hold those and then you flip whatever switch you want to be your on-off switch for safe five times. You just toggle it five times on and off. Okay. So I use the gear switch. And then it said something about you're supposed
[6:59] to hear something move and that's how it's on or off. So I was like, cool. i did it and i figured i was done so when i got out to the field i took off was safe enabled and i did not like the way it flew i mean like i said you you can't you can't go to a full bank it limits you like i think 45 degrees or something like that so i was really getting thrown off because i didn't have control you didn't have full that i thought i should have yeah like high rates
[7:31] doesn't matter what it was set to you could bank 45 degrees and you could i mean like i don't know what the climb or the or the down elevator was but it would not let you go at too steep an angle either way on that either. So I didn't like it. So I was like, cool, I'm gonna flip my switch. I'm gonna turn it off. Didn't turn it off. Like I couldn't figure out what was going on. So I flew it around a few times, got a few flights on it and stuff,
[7:56] and still just did not like the way it was flying. So I took it apart, came home, and was reading the directions again. Apparently, when I was reading the directions again apparently when i was doing the the little switch thing if you do that twice like if you put your your thumbs together and down again and flip that switch twice it disables that switch to where you can't turn
[8:18] safe off so i must have done it twice or it was already on well i see what you're saying when i try to program it i turned it off however it worked okay so now i have it set to where i can turn no i know i now i know because the way you check it is when you have the airplane turned on you can just literally lift it up oh okay and then it will see if it will or not move when you're holding a control surface. So I have it set now. So now you think. So now next time I go out.
[8:50] You have full control now. I should be able to fly it like a regular airplane. Well, you can fly it like the crop duster it's meant to be. Yeah. Like I saw out here when I was going home last Saturday. There are so many of them around. I know, they're awesome. I mean, like real full-size crop testers flying around right now when we were out of the field one flew over just catty cornered to the field right over us and it was so low you couldn't hear it coming
[9:15] really until it was too late and it's like whoa sorry about that we're here here we are we're trying to get out of your way but you didn't give us any warning yeah we didn't get any but that was kind of neat too though to see yeah but yeah so not a big fan of the way it flies we'll try it again hopefully this weekend safe i've we've had this discussion before we have safe has its place
[9:35] it really does i mean hold on safe by the way this is another one of those pet peeves of mine okay sensor hold on what is it sensor assisted sensor assisted flight envelope i know yeah that's a reach if you ask me but but it's marketing yes it's marketing it sells airplanes probably but like maybe i feel like and i will reiterate we've had this conversation and i hate to beat a dead horse but safe has its place just like AS3X has its place. I'll just leave it at that.
[10:11] I am not a fan personally of SAFE or AS3X, to be honest. The AS3X really does a great job at what they designed it to do. And it will make a mediocre pilot like myself look really, really great when it's on. I feel like a great pilot should be a great pilot. Do what I'm saying, though? Yeah. If you use it for what it's made for,
[10:42] safe is a good way to get up in the air if you don't know exactly what you're doing with a little bit of a parachute, a proverbial parachute above you to kind of give you less control than you might think you want. Did I say that right? I think, yeah. Less control. It makes sense to me. Yeah. So you can't really get into the problem. Too much of a trouble.
[11:05] I remember when I first started flying and stuff and graduated to the next step of airplanes, especially since I learned on one without ailerons. Right. When you start using ailerons on a low-wing trainer or a mid-wing acrobatic airplane, you don't get any kind of self-correction on that whatsoever so what you put that at is where it stays whereas with safe if you don't know how to do it and you're not sure how to
[11:32] fly yes you let go and it just evens out straight level flight so i get that yeah i do too. And like I said, I'm not going to poo-poo anybody that likes SAFE for what they designed it for. It does a fine job. But me personally, I don't like flying with SAFE on. Yeah. And I think most pilots who have graduated beyond needing it feel the same way, I bet. And I think where I got jerky with it. I mean, I don't want to speak for anyone out there but yeah no I get it but I think where I got
[12:07] jerky though is I expected it to do more when I thought it was off so I just kept like flicking that switch to see if I could just get it to move the way I wanted to so that thing was just up and yeah it just wouldn't do what I wanted to do which I mean I don't want to say it's dangerous because i was not in any danger of losing the airplane or flying farther away it never got out of control but it just got out of fun yeah i guess my experience with it was with that that
[12:38] the mustang hangar nine yeah it was a hangar nine mustang with a little six cc i think that's what we said eight 8cc. 8cc. Yeah, the 8cc gas, which was really neat, actually. Which actually Regime has now. Yeah. But anyway, what I didn't like about that was the exact opposite, I think, of the intent of it was I did not feel like I was in control.
[13:00] I couldn't, if it gets too far away from you and you need to make a quick turn or whatever to get it back to you, it just, it wouldn't do it with safe on. Like I, it would not, I think that Mustang, I think it limited the bank angle to like 20 degrees on one of the settings or whatever. Oh, wow. And yeah, if you're, if you're in a downwind and you need to turn to base and then turn upwind, well, that thing's just going to keep going.
[13:23] And if you can't bank it more than 15 degrees, you may never get it back heading upwind well that thing's just gonna keep going and if you can't bank it more than 15 degrees you may never get it back heading upwind yeah so yeah for that reason I wasn't I wasn't a big fan but like I said safe's not designed for me it's designed for getting people in the air for the first time it may be if they
[13:40] don't have help from from another pilot this probably makes it more successful yeah it should calm your your nerves the first few flights but certainly give you less to worry about as we've said before the goals that get away from that and now having flown one with it yeah don't need it don't want it yeah i just want the airplane to do what i tell it to do and on your on the on the the not timber the air tractor that you have
[14:09] that as3x will come in handy because that airplane is really really light and it will get very short coupled too yeah and yeah exactly i was just getting ready to go there and it'll get tossed around pretty good in in even just light wind conditions so the the AS3X will help make it look more fun. Not a lot of control throw, though. I mean, I was very surprised at the low amount of elevator that you get up or down on it.
[14:37] Because of the mechanical limits or the limits of the electronics? Well, it's how it's set up. Okay. I mean, it's not like i have it on 70 throw or anything like that but on 100 throw there's like hardly anything on there and it just i would like a little bit more so i'll probably change the setup on a little bit too yeah okay but we'll see that was yeah that's that plane though and i think it's going to be one that's fun
[15:02] once i get used to it yeah well i'm glad you got to i'm glad you got to make it to the field and fly yeah i am i wish i had made it well one of these days you will and actually it was kind of funny when i was out there one of the guys that was there had a you get talking to people and stuff and he had an airplane sitting out there that i thought was a nice looking airplane it was a what was it a seagull extra 300
[15:28] l i think a little two-seater yeah that low wing extra yeah a cool color scheme on it it's one they made i think back in 2014 from what i started to look up but anyway he was talking about how it flies great all this kind of stuff and then he's like i really need to get rid of some of these airplanes so i ended up buying it from him nice ironically enough the engine that's on that it's a sedo 72 golden knight yep so which i want
[15:59] by the way which that means i'm back to nitro which i'm not too thrilled about but anyway Which, that means I'm back to Nitro, which I'm not too thrilled about.
[16:13] But anyway, that Sado 72 Golden Knight is the one that I sold him on a Piper Cub, a hangar line Piper Cub. Oh, gosh, five years ago, maybe something like that. That's been a while ago, yeah. Is that the one that we brought back on the top of my Suburban? No. Okay. No, that was… That's a different one. I don't remember what one that was. That was the same kind of Piper Cub, but that was a two-stroke that he had. Oh, that's right. That might have been a Seagull. Was that?
[16:28] I think it was, yeah. I think you're right. Yeah, but the Hangar 9, which I thought looked a lot better, was one that I ended up getting back from him, and then he kept the engine off of it. So now the engine has made it back home. Nice. And that was when I bought new. And soon it will be in my hangar. I don't know about that. Why do you, I mean, what, so what's the, why do you want it as opposed to. I'm a nitro guy. I love model engines. Well, but the cowl's already cut out.
[16:56] So I need, it's cut for that. I have something to trade. I'm not going to just take your engine. But I have a Sato 72 that's a non-golden knight so it's the same engine same cutout same size and everything it's just not a gold just not pretty that's not pretty well it's pretty i mean i think all sedos are pretty but the golden knights just have a special little something that the standard issues don't and seeing you don't care that
[17:25] much about it. So what do you care if it's not a golden knight,? Well, I don't necessarily care that it's not a golden knight, but that's the first and I think probably only Nitro engine I ever bought brand new. Oh, well, then you should probably hang on to that. Maybe I will end up keeping that one. We'll see. I mean, give me time. I might end up flying that a few times and not like Nitro anymore because now i've got to go through and like re-up my nitro game yeah so
[17:49] now i have to go buy fuel i feel now i have to i still have a nice starter update your nice starter you need to update it why well i mean give it the times get one of those nice handy small ones like what i like to use what's the matter with the one i have it doesn't lock onto the glow plug very well it flops around whenever you put it on there and then okay yeah you're gonna have to up your nitro game now yeah that part i'm not looking forward to yeah
[18:17] but i do so i'll i'm i'm gonna pat you on the back here a little bit before when i flew nitro i will admit i was always one that used the electric starter i always and that was that was another thing you had to bring that was another battery you had to have charged that was another thing to worry about after watching you and after learning from you a little bit i think i'm done with that i think i'm good enough to just start it by hand. Yeah. I'm not perfect, okay?
[18:46] I mean, no one's perfect. Yeah. I do still have the occasional need to start up a nitro engine with a starter. I have a couple of them that are cantankerous that just refuse to be started by hand. But it before you go out to the field exactly when it would be and if i know and if i know that bob's not going to be there to rescue me with his electric starter i just won't take that airplane and then of course he has a nicer
[19:14] one now like the one i had was what was it had the 12 volt lead acid battery that you had to carry out and then he would put the little alligator clips on and then the what was that sullivan is that human yeah yeah a lot of companies made them just a regular old 12 volt starters and then he would put the little alligator clips on and then the what was that sullivan is that yeah yeah a lot of companies made them just a regular old 12 volt starters
[19:28] and then of course the one he has is lipo and yeah yeah i think i'm gonna single-handed and yeah battery built in i may eventually i may upgrade to something like that to keep in my in my arsenal because it's a pain to drag a 12 volt battery to the field and then the cables and the and the yeah having that battery attached to the starter that you can just grab and you don't have to worry about cables getting safer too yeah exactly so
[19:57] yeah bob if you're listening thanks for always being there for me for for an electric start when i need one i need to upgrade and i will eventually one of these days yeah but anyway so with this airplane as i was looking over it he had he'd just taken it out there and hadn't flown it yet that day and stuff and before i bought it we were talking about it and i was looking things over and i was kind of just
[20:20] moving control surfaces just to kind of see how much play was in them and stuff and see how tight things were. Well, when I touched the elevator, there was no resistance whatsoever. So I was like, hey, what's going on with this? He's like, well, it should be okay. I don't know. What do you mean? And so I looked underneath. I, I tilted the plane up. The control horn was no longer attached to the aileron not the aileron i'm sorry the elevator so
[20:49] that's not good i okay so i built a couple seagull models before some arson stuff and i have always used i don't even know what they're called but the control horns were the ones where you had either two or four screws that went through into a little plastic backer plate. Right. And it was a nice, good connection. Yep. Nice nylon control horns. Yep. The ones that were on this or that are on this almost look like Kevlar or FRP or something.
[21:18] It's just a flat, like laser cut almost looking piece that is very shiny. So, it's very slippery and just slides down into the the balsa and gets epoxied in have you had problems with those because i am thinking about pulling those completely out and redoing all the control horns before i fly it that actually seeing as how there's one failure i i don't think that's a bad plan. I'm familiar with the control horns you're talking about, and they are.
[21:49] They're basically a flat piece of FRP, fiberglass reinforced plastic. Some folks call it G10. I've heard some people call it Kydex incorrectly because it's not Kydex. But anyway, it is exactly, as you said, it's a flatdex but anyway it is not it is exactly as you said it's a flat piece that's either milled or a cnc cut or laser cut or whatever out of a flat sheet of this g10 material and then yeah and then it gets glued into a slot that is built into the
[22:17] control surface designed to accept that me personally i've i've got a fair amount of experience with those types of control horns and i've never had a failure because there are things you should do when you install those and it's it's always covered in the instructions on how to well i shouldn't say always because we as we all know some of the instructions that come with with these ARFs have a little to be desired. Yeah, yeah.
[22:46] They're somebody's best interpretation of our language into theirs or vice versa. So sometimes details get missed. So basically, how you should install these things, they get epoxied in place right so don't see any of them don't my favorite glue the yellow glue don't use that on these things they need to be epoxied and they need to not be shiny at least where the glue is going to go they can be shiny
[23:17] on the outside that's fine in fact you probably want it shiny because it looks nice but i don't know these are kind of ugly they're like a yellowish i just i don't like them okay but anyway the gluing surface needs to be dull like it needs to be rough give that epoxy something to grab onto and most importantly there needs to be holes drilled through it there was no holes drilled through this right and that more than likely is
[23:42] the reason for the failure okay so the hole when you when you insert this thing into the slot with epoxy when that epoxy cures that that epoxy it's gonna it's gonna kind of flow if you want to think of it that way into all the little nooks and crannies and if you have a hole drilled through there that epoxy is going to bond from one side of that to control surface on the on the balsa through that hole, creating kind of a column, if you will, almost like a pin.
[24:09] Like kind of what you were talking about when you were doing the hinges. Like how those epoxied-in hinges have the holes in them. Yeah, exactly. It gives that epoxy some place to go to create a good bond and create almost like a pin because it's going to bond, all the way through there. And that'll help prevent that from pulling out as you Well, that, okay, so that makes sense then because after I got home, I was looking online
[24:37] and I did find some of those, like that style of control horn horn but all the ones i was seeing they had like serrated edges and then had holes in it yeah which that would make more sense to me then it would be more of a place to grab exactly this one though completely straight completely straight yeah it's a square cut yeah smooth and there's there's like sanded well and no, I mean, there's no like stopper. So you don't go too deep there. I mean, it was just weird.
[25:08] Like I actually like those types of control, control horns because they're clean. And by me and the installation is clean. Like whenever you look at the control surface, all you see is the horn poking out. There's no bolts. There's no flat plastic pieces. I like the way they look I really do and actually I like on airplanes that are built properly to accept them this one was not yeah I like I like how they how they fit and that interface between the horn and the control
[25:37] surface is usually usually very very solid but yeah in this particular case, yeah, it had not been sanded, so you did not have that rough finish, that rough texture for the glue to grab onto. And then, yeah, no holes. That's a big no-no. Well, and that should have been done at the factory, though. I agree. I mean, you shouldn't have to do that on your own before you install. Yep, 100%. But for those that don't know, like me, it's a good little tip to pick up on. Yeah.
[26:05] Because I just would have done what it said and not worried about it. FRP control horns make sure they, at a minimum, they have holes in them. And the serrated edges are nice also. And make sure that gluing surface is a rough texture. You don't want shiny. Shiny is bad. So, okay. So then, would it be worth trying to pull the other ones out or just cutting them off and then do you think using like nylon ones?
[26:31] If you can pull them out without damaging, the control surface itself, I think it would be worth pulling them out and prepping them properly and then gluing them back in. Okay. them properly and then gluing them back in. Okay. But if that, if you get all of them but one and the one is really, really stuck in there and you can't pull it out, you're kind of committed at that point. So I think I would, at that point, if you can't pull it out without damaging something,
[26:57] just cut it off and go nylon on the rest of the, on the whole airplane. That's what I would do. Okay. That's probably what I will end up doing then. I hope not. I mean, hopefully they all kind of, well, I mean, in this case, hopefully they all pull out really easy and you can prep them properly and glue them back in with the holes and all that, and then you'll be on your way. But knowing my luck, I don't think that's going to happen. Knowing your luck.
[27:19] So I'm going to have to go get some other control horns and cut them off and do it that way. Which, I mean mean what it is what it is it's it's fine but if you actually if you if you cut them off flush with the surface and then take a really sharp exacto down the the side of that control horn and break the glue joint i bet you can get them all out honestly i'll try it yeah if they don't if they
[27:41] don't pull out then cut them off kind of whatever, and then slip a blade in there in that joint. I bet you'll be able to pop them out. That'll be enough to kind of pop it loose. I think so. We'll see. But I'm excited to go fly that one whenever I have a chance. But like I said, I've got to go get more fuel and all that fun stuff first. Yeah, you've got to get your nitro game back up to speed. Which, yeah yeah it's
[28:05] a nice looking airplane we'll leave it at that but whoever put it together was a huge fan of way too much epoxy oh okay yeah i mean it's except on the control surfaces there are the control ones well there might be enough on it just done correctly who knows but yeah like on the back where the tails held on and stuff there's just like pools and puddles of epoxy that just and i mean it's it's well no judgment
[28:33] here okay yeah i'm not judging but epoxy except you are if you if you use 30 minute epoxy and you plan go through the steps of mounting whatever it is you're mounting and and plan ahead 30 minute epoxy 99 times out of 100 will give you enough time to position the part where you need it even tape it in place to hold it in place or wait it or whatever and still give you enough time to with a paper towel and some alcohol, wipe off the excess. To clean it up, yeah. Usually.
[29:07] I mean, 99 times out of 100, you'll have plenty of time to do all that. If I had to guess, this is probably five-minute epoxy. And just done quickly, I'm going to hold it here while it's done, and then go that way. What if I go to the next thing? Like I said, I'm not sure who put that one together. When I was younger, like college days and that that i i was not they had epoxy back then i would no shut up
[29:31] i was not a patient man so i i built my fair share of airplanes that probably looked just like that speaking of patience to move on a little bit my balsa order the one oh yeah my balsa order the one oh yeah yeah so i emailed or i'm sorry i i texted on july 6th and asked for an update and i have been ghosted so that so today the day we're recording is the today is 7 20. yeah so 14 two days or two weeks ago to the day. Yeah, 14 days ago. Yeah.
[30:07] No response, nothing. That's unfortunate. So I don't know what to do because I'm kind of at a point I need Balsa. Have you called? I have not called. I don't even know if there's an actual number. Well, there's a number on the other side. That's true. So I'm going to have to figure something out because this is getting to be ridiculous. Yeah. I mean, really, it's been months. Yeah, that's unfortunate. Yeah. So that's my update on Balsa. Not much of an update.
[30:37] I wish I could say no news is good news, but this no news is not good news. In this case, no news is not good news no news in this case no news is no news yeah that's just yeah well i mean yeah i i don't want to say too much because i have yet to place an order you should you really need to place your order we need to yeah i know what you need i mean the basics of it so i just need to sit down and do it yeah I mean it could
[31:05] be done tomorrow night probably and then you could have everything ordered and you could have it by I don't know July next year I'm thinking that's gonna be quick well that's true yeah I mean yeah time will tell whatever but I'm sorry I'm sorry that that has happened that's not nothing I mean I saw my father ever but I yeah that's that's unfortunate I just I's nothing. I mean, I know it's not my fault or whatever, but yeah, that's unfortunate. I just, I need wood.
[31:28] I mean, like we have projects we want to get going on that we're literally just peddling and not going anywhere. Treading water or whatever. I don't know what I was trying to say. I'm treading water. Or whatever. Yeah. We're making no progress because there's nothing. We're spinning our wheels and not going anywhere. How's that? Something like that, whatever. Well, that's unfortunate. Pretty soon we may have to name the company. Might. Shame them. Shame them into sending you your balsa.
[31:54] I just want what's rightfully mine, what I paid for months ago. But that's okay. Well, they ghosted you like a boss. -huh. So that's the update on that. So that's my balsa update. Sure. So, one of the other things I did, so I've, with this extra little bit of time that I have with Crystal being off, I've started going through airplanes. And like, okay, this is going to sound terrible. And I don't want to sound bad, but… But you're going to do i was in my hobby room
[32:27] the other day and i looked up in the rafters and i found an airplane that i haven't flown for a few years i'm like that was a great flying airplane like i want to fly that again okay and then i'm sitting there thinking what would you say that this is an airplane you forgot you had? Is that what you're trying to say? I'm not going to go that far. But anyway. So many airplanes. I forgot I had this one. Well, it's stored above my head and I don't often look up.
[32:56] But anyway, so it's a great flying airplane. It's ready to go. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it. You just got to put a battery in it. It's a super sportster. Oh, yeah. It is a good flying airplane. It's a great flying airplane. Oh, yeah. That red one. It is a good flying airplane. It's a great flying airplane. I was like, I should take that to the field next time. And then I'm sitting there thinking, what battery does that take? Like, I don't remember what battery it takes.
[33:15] And so then I'm kind of like trying to figure that out and trying to go through the batteries that I have. First off, I need to buy batteries. Like, I need to buy – i need to replace everything i have except for the batteries that i bought for the do list because those are the only those are the only batteries that i have that are newer than oh boy four years old probably because i don't think i
[33:37] bought anything other than that since piper's been born so it's been probably yeah it's been a while. A lot of the batteries that I'm still using are from 2013, 2014 timeframe. So it's to the point where they still work, but I don't necessarily trust them. what I mean? Yes, I know. There's just something that says it's not worth risking an airplane for the possibility of a battery not working or just cutting out or something just something silly happening with it
[34:12] because of its age that got me going through and it's like i don't know how to how do you keep all of your airplanes separate to where this airplane takes this battery this airplane takes this set of bolts to hold the wing on this airplane wingtube goes to this one how do you keep all that straight because I obviously do a terrible job of that because well and like
[34:38] we were downstairs here looking at the whatever this edge or not edge this red bull red bull airplane you're like where's the wing for it i'm like i don't remember like i don't know what room i have i don't know what wall it's hanging on i would have to go look for it so how do you keep everything together like yeah and not forget what you need well i wish i could say i had a perfect system. And I wish I could say that I
[35:05] haven't ever forgotten about an airplane wing or, what battery. I mean, I think generally speaking, that has probably happened to most hobbyists that have more than a few airplanes. But there's some things that I do that helps me. Maybe it'll help some other folks. So you mentioned wing tubes with wing panels. So all of the airplanes that I have that have wing panels that slide on a tube and bolt to bolt to the airframe i have those in wing bags now
[35:50] yes wing bags are expensive that i think the wing tote ones generally speaking are probably 70 60 70 dollars yeah maybe a pair average i guess maybe somewhere around that right so i'm not doing that. Right. But what I will say that I like about the wing bags is, number one, it protects the wings, obviously, so that I'm not, like, laying them on my table, trying to keep them out of the way.
[36:22] It's a nice place to keep them together, and they're padded normally. Why are you looking at me looking around when you say laying out and just on the table? Well, because, I because i mean there's stuff laying on tables and on what's floor and whatever i'm not judging but it doesn't sound like it but the wing bag is they're padded one panel slides in and then the other panel slides
[36:41] in next to it and there's usually a divider between them so they don't like the other panel slides in next to it and there's usually a divider between them so they don't like gouge each other with the control horns or whatever but usually they also have a pocket for the wing tube so all that stuff sort of gets stored together so that it doesn't get lost and then i go kind of a step further whenever you buy a like let's say a high
[37:03] tech servo like a standard size or whether it comes in these cool little plastic boxes those things are great for storing bits and pieces like wing bolts the little servo connector keeper things whenever you unplug your wing panel you got to do something with this keeper you can throw that and then that little box with the bowls and stuff you can throw that in the wing bag also and then that way all the stuff for that
[37:30] airplane is in the wing bag what i mean oh i got all the bolts the wings themselves the wing tube all that stuff so for airplanes that have the plug-in wings like that that's what i do i i make the investment and i buy the bags because it protects the wings number one but it's also a handy place to keep everything for that airplane so i'm not like scratching my head looking around for the wing bolts because i forgot to take them to the
[37:55] field or whatever so that's what i do for those airplanes now i don't have a lot of those airplanes so i only have a couple of sets of wing bags. And usually that's for larger airplanes anyway. Like the 40-size airplanes, I don't think I have any of those that have plug-in wing panels. So they're one-piece wing, right? Well, that little, so the little, or the shucks, I keep saying edge, because that's what I had before. That extra I just got, that's two-piece wing with a wing tube. Right.
[38:27] So that's small. Yeah. And you could get wing bags for that too. They make them small, right? But if you don't want to make the investment, then you'll have to find another way. But I like the wing bags because it's a place to keep that wing tube. wing bags because it's a place to keep that that wing tube so but if you if you don't want to do that you can slide the wing panels on the tube when it's not on the airplane
[38:50] and then thread the wing bolts into the into the nuts that are usually embedded into the root rib and then you can use some rubber bands to sort of hold them together and then you can set that on okay on your on your wing rack or whatever yeah that's one way to do it too but then you still have you still have this wing not protected well most of mine are not protected but i mean they're they're stored
[39:16] on the wall by far the majority of mine are not protected because the majority of my airplanes are one-piece wings that i don't invest in the super huge wing bags to put them in so on airplanes like that i use those once again i use those little servo plastic servo cases that the servos are sold in which if you don't buy servos like that i've seen those at the dollar store too yeah to where you can get them for like a buck for a
[39:41] and it's just a small yeah i mean i don't even know what size to say they're like maybe four inches by three inches by an inch and a half or something deep yeah but they're nice because they snap shut and if i drop it it's not going to open and dump all the stuff that's in it on the on the ground because at least the the ones i have they have a little snap that actually comes over and latches And then they're great because I'm a huge fan of Sharpies.
[40:07] Like, I use Sharpies on, like, everything. And I'll write on that particular box what airplane it's to. Oh, okay. Because they're so cheap. If I ever get rid of the airplane, I'll give that box to whoever the new owner is. And then they've got a handy place, to keep the stuff for that airplane. Well, if you think about it, if you're putting an airplane together, you're going to get four, five, six, maybe seven servos that are all going to have one of those. Probably, yeah.
[40:31] So you'll come out ahead with that anyway. Yeah, if you buy the high-techs and JRs and Spectrums, maybe the servos that you get off Amazon or whatever, maybe they won't come in those boxes. But those boxes are certainly cheap enough at Dollar General. Yeah. Or the dollar store or what have you. But anyway, I'm a huge fan of those and I'll write on the box with the Sharpie, what airplane it goes to. And then those boxes are usually small enough to where you can stick them in the fuselage
[40:56] upside down so that that's always with the airplane. That's a good idea too. Yeah. And then if you don't want to need to get some get some yeah and if you don't want to use the plastic boxes something else that's handy that i use a lot also is the ziploc bags especially the ones that have the white area on them printed on them so that you can write on them yeah what i'm talking about yeah i know what you mean and then i'll write in that white
[41:17] area again with the sharpie what airplane it is and i'll stuff all the whatever i need the wing bolts or those to keep servo keepers whatever and then i'll wad that up and stuff that in the fuselage that way it's always with the airplane that is a great idea like i have never done that yeah so that's how i keep the hardware straight with the airplanes like my wing bolts my i mean that i have tried to keep them all
[41:41] kind of like you're talking about separate but in my transmitter case i don't know why i never thought about keeping me on the airplane well that's not a bad idea either to keep it in the transmitter case it's so much easier because i'm not taking 20 airplanes with me every time i go out so i that's just more stuff i don't need to take that's true that i'm taking that's just in my way right huh i like that I like that. And then, like, so as far as batteries,
[42:06] so yeah, that can be a huge issue. And if you, so this is where I'm going to say, do as I say, not as I do, right? I'm a huge proponent of taking your airplanes, I'm sorry, taking your batteries out of your airplanes when you're charging them, when you're storing them, all that sort of stuff. Nickel metal hydrides, LiPos, Lifes, all of them. You should have them really, when you're storing them, they should not be in the airplane. Just stuff happens.
[42:37] batteries, I mean, they're like black magic to me. Like, you short them out, let all the smoke out, and then they're done, right? And they're no good. However, having said that, my airplanes that have standard, like, nickel metal hydride type receiver packs, things like that, during the season, I, generally speaking, I keep those in the airplane that I fly them in. I try to take them out when I charge them, but I mean, I'm not perfect.
[43:09] So sometimes I might actually charge the battery in the airplane. This is the as I say part. Right. I don't recommend doing that. But if you're very, very familiar with the hobby and you're very, very familiar with batteries and you're very, very familiar with all these charging techniques and stuff,
[43:30] okay, probably. See, the N nimh ones don't bother me like they don't scare me at all so i would have no problem yeah just storing them right in the airplane and keeping them there and charging them that way but in the off chance that i've actually taken my own advice and taken the batteries out of the airplane for storage or charging or whatever usually what i'll do is like i said i'm a huge fan of sharpies i'll actually write on the battery what airplane it
[43:50] goes in and then if i'm really feeling froggy sometimes i'll write like if i do a cycle especially on nimh batteries i'll do a maintenance cycle i try to do it every season i'll write what capacity it came up with right on the battery and then maybe a date so i can sort of keep track of the health of that battery over time yeah i i will admit when i buy like lipo batteries that most of my stuff is lipo i think i only have a
[44:15] couple of the nimh ones most of the time i will date yeah not with like month and day but the year at least the year yeah and that's how i know most of the ones I have now are from 13 and 14. Because they have that date on them. Yeah, I did get rid of some of them that were like from 2008. Oh, wow. Yeah, just like within the last six months that I had, got when I was flying in 13 and 14 from somebody when I bought a plane, that kind of stuff.
[44:41] They're just, I'm not even going to try it. Yeah. I have several that are, are yeah do replacement also and i'm not looking forward to that because i mean yeah it's it's money that i could be spending on something else other than if anybody wants to if anybody wants to send us batteries or sponsor us there you go that's a good idea send us free stuff send us
[45:02] free stuff and we'll talk about them on the show and talk about how great they are compared to our old tired batteries that i was afraid to use yeah but yeah i i'm not afraid of writing just right on the battery what airplane it goes to so how does that work because i was looking like 3s what 3s hold on i'm thinking 3s 3200 milliamp hour batteries will fit in like four of my airplanes okay which is good I mean because then I don't have to have when
[45:32] right two batteries for each airplane I can just have yeah a little bit more how do you do something like that though honestly so I don't have a lot of lipo powered stuff because I'm not really into electrics the way you are. So right now, in my refrigerator, because that's where I keep all my LiPos. Good idea. I got that idea from you, actually. I know. It's where all mine are. But right now, I only have, I think there are six batteries in my fridge. They're all fairly fresh.
[46:04] Yeah. And they only fit certain airplanes like now I take that back so I do have four of the three cell 18 to 2200 milliamp that kind of like what you mentioned talking about they fit in several different airplanes because I have so few electric airplanes, I know what batteries, just because the physical size of the airplane. Yes. what I'm saying? Yeah. So it's easy for me because like I said, they only fit in certain airplanes and I have so few of them
[46:36] that it's easy to kind of figure it out,. But like on that Kristen Eagle, the big electric one that I had to buy, I think that's got a four or six cells. Yeah, that's huge. It's a big battery. Yeah. And I only have one of those because they're kind of expensive. Very expensive. But that one I rode on it. Yeah, Kristen Eagle. See, that I would probably remember because it's so big. And I do.
[46:59] I have no problem remembering that that monster is for that airplane because I had to buy that to fly that airplane. And I realized, too, the batteries that I just bought, Force L5200, will work not only in the Duelist that I bought them for, but the eFlight Advance that I have, they will fit in that. And same with my electric Cavalier. Oh, yeah. So I'll be able to use the same battery for all that. So that's handy. And I remember that now.
[47:27] I would just make a note on the battery and just say, Advance, Dualist, and what was the other one? The Cavalier. Cavalier. I would just write it right on the battery. There's plenty of room, especially on a battery that big, with a Sharpie. I like the P-TESH labels thing, though. I think it looks nicer. It does. i don't do a lot with sharpies i'm not going to disagree but like
[47:51] me personally when the battery's in the airplane who's going to see it except me true so i don't care what it looks like no i guess you're right but see like yeah those are those are some of the things i do to to keep do to keep things with where they go. I'll tell you how my mind works because I like to make things way more difficult. Before I talk to you about this, because we haven't gone over this stuff before this.
[48:16] In my mind, and what I actually started to do, was a separate spreadsheet for each airplane with, ready like a packing list a picture of the airplane so i know what it was because when i forget what these dang things are called i can just be like oh that's that one because i'm terrible with names so a picture of the airplane and then the size battery it takes what i need tool wise to put it together oh yeah what i need like wing bolts wing tube all that
[48:46] kind of stuff and whatever other accessories i would need not only that but i took it so far on a couple of the ones that i did already like one of them was a nitro i don't know what it was it was a nitro something or another or no no it was for the the telemaster when that was still nitro before we changed it to to gas i started doing this for that one i have it listed on what all we need for that and like night before charge
[49:15] this battery charge that battery charge the the glow starter and get that all packed up for the next day and what fuel it, and all that kind of stuff. So that's how I completely complicate things. So what do you do? You print that out, and you just keep that on the next-year fly box? Well, in theory, yeah. I would have like a bound book of all the airplanes with everything that would go in my flight box. But I see that that's overkill and stupid, so I probably won't finish that.
[49:43] I don't think that's stupid. I don't think that's stupid. don't think that's stupid i think there's ways to streamline that yeah but yeah that's actually that's i don't think that's dumb at all especially especially for somebody who might have like a lot of airplanes like a lot of people we know have like a lot of airplanes yeah something like that would be really really handy for them i I think. But I don't have that many airplanes, so it's not hard for me to keep track.
[50:07] Well, I don't have that many either, but I'm so bad at remembering what things are called. Like, I can know what the plane is, but I can't name it. Yeah. That's why it's so hard when people ask, what kind of airplanes do you have? I don't know. I don't know what they are. I mean, they're flyable ones, but… Yeah, I turn it on, and I turn my my transmitter on and the other order, not my order. And then I move the sticks and it goes flying. I don't know. That's the point.
[50:34] That's the hope. But, yeah, I mean, like remembering who makes it and all that. Like you and your engines. I don't know how you remember all that stuff. I never can. Well, it's something I like,. Well, I like it too, but I can't remember it. well it's it's something i like like well i like it too but i can't remember it but it's my hobby right well it's my hobby too but i can't remember
[50:51] that's what i'm i guess that maybe that makes maybe i'm an enthusiast maybe that's the difference because you're an enthusiast about certain things like sometimes you go and you talk about the stuff like tesla's doing and stuff and it's just way over my head. Like, sometimes the stuff you talk about, it's like, that's neat, but I'm not going to remember any of this. But to you, you can, like, remember it in, like, excruciating detail, right?
[51:18] Just the same as I can do with the Nitro. I think it's just really what you're really, really into. Okay. nitro i think it's just yeah i guess i think it's just really what you're really really into okay and i mean yes you're into airplanes but you're not like really into them like i'm really into nitro engines yeah nitro isn't my but you see what you're saying i understand so like i was so
[51:38] proud of myself for remembering it was a sedo 72. however after saying that I don't actually know if that's true it looks like a 72 sure it's not an 82 it's well no I'm not sure but I mean looking at it of course now we can only see the just the covers poking out of the yeah but the size wise did well I mean it could be I don't remember you ever owning an 82 though I thought that's what was on that Cub, and that's the same engine. I thought it was a 72. Okay. Who knows?
[52:11] Maybe it is an 82. I don't know. I don't know. Physically, they're pretty close, though, in size, the 82 and the 72. So I'm no longer proud of myself because I guess I don't know what it is. Well, I'm not proud of myself either because I don't know what it is either. And you're the one that wants it now.
[52:24] I am the one that wants it. I want it just what it is. Well, I'm not proud of myself either, because I don't know what it is either. And you're the one that wants it now. And I am the one that wants it. I want it just because it's a Golden Knight. Even if I already have one, I still want that one, but that's okay. Yeah, whatever. If it was your first brand new Nightcare engine, I feel like you should probably keep it. I probably ought to. Just for… So it's mine now. Just for sentiment.
[52:42] It's good to have at home. So, yeah. So that's how I keep organized i use those yeah i use ziploc bags with the sharpie marking on it and i use those servo cases those little plastic boxes and wing bags a step ahead of me but i did with use a little sharpie because when i was when i brought that airplane home the that seagull went home obviously had to come apart to fit in the car and as i unloaded it i was like i'm not gonna
[53:13] remember what this tube goes to so i did i had a sharpie out i know i say i don't do it often but i had a sharpie out and i wrote on there seagull extra 300l nice or whatever it was and now you'll never forget with my luck i'll rub it off when i put the wing on off so many times and i will have no freaking idea if you've got a wing bag and long just stick it in with the panels you should buy me some then but then i got to find a place to store them although that might not be as bad
[53:40] because you can just do a single hook right yes i was just getting ready to say wing bags are actually quite easy to store and because they are smaller than the overall size of the wing when it's put together they don't actually take up a lot of room especially if you hang them like you're talking about a hook you can stack several of them on a long hook maybe it's worth looking into i don't know i really like that and you don't have to buy
[54:05] winged toad i mean there's other brands out there i think yeah so that yeah we'll see yeah and you do have a wing bag oh i know i do yeah you said how much room that takes up well yeah well it's a 42 percent yak i mean it's gonna take up some. Five and a half foot wing bag. Yeah, but imagine if that was hanging on an out-of-the-way wall somewhere, like in your shop, up against the wall, whatever, out of harm's way, you wouldn't be tripping over it. Like we are now.
[54:35] Like we are now. That's okay. All right. So anyway. Last thing let's talk about as we go on. Yeah. You made… Yeah. You made an oopsie. Oh, God. Do you want to tell a story or do you want me to? Well, now, hold on. I'm going to absolve you of a little bit of this, and we'll get into why. Okay. Bad design. Yeah. So you have a Sato. Oh, hold on. I'm trying. F-A FA90 three-cylinder. Is that right? Yeah. Oh, my God. No. Really? You were so close. Not an FA?
[55:14] It is three FAs, technically, but it is a Sato R90 three-cylinder radio. Oh, F or R for radio. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, F or R for radial. Yeah. So you have… It's a glow. It's not the big 90cc or whatever it is. This is a.90. This is the tiny one. So it's basically three 30s. Three Sato FA30s in a radial. Oh, okay. So that makes sense then, because they just add it all together. But anyway, you wanted to make a run video of that,
[55:43] or we wanted to make a run video of that to put on youtube if i could preface this if when we do the tool of the week that little sound bite of an engine running that that you dubbed in i think that is actually a sound bite that we took of this engine running to put into that i think i took that out towards just the jingle okay Okay, then. Never mind. If you go back to when we first started Tool of the Week, which we need to bring that back again. Yeah.
[56:09] I completely forgot about it. Yeah. We'll think about one for the next one, maybe. Because I'm bad like that. But anyway, so, yes, that's that one running, if you ever heard it. Yeah. But you wanted to make a run video for YouTuber. We did, whatever. And you were— Yeah. But you wanted to make a run video for YouTuber. We did, whatever. And I haven't ran that engine in a little while, so I thought, hey, this engine, it sounds really cool when it's running.
[56:32] And I thought, oh, this will be super easy because we just ran it. Yeah, a quick, quick thing, ran it a year ago, whatever it was. This shouldn't take long. You were not having a good day. Well, I tell you, it all started two weeks ago if you remember we were gonna do this this engine run video a couple weeks ago three weeks ago maybe even now oh yeah and so i brought everything out here to do it and for whatever reason we didn't
[56:59] end up doing it so i took all that stuff home and then, so it was in the back of my car. So I had the engine, all the stuff to run it, the fuel, my starter, my box, all that stuff, my flight box. The LiPo battery that I was using on the onboard glow system that we're going to talk in depth about. Had all that stuff, in a bag in the back of the car.
[57:30] And it was in the back of the car for two days, I think, because I got home that night, didn't have time to unload everything. So we're getting ready to use. Oh, my son was going to borrow the car to help somebody move. So I was like, OK, well, let me get my stuff out of there. So I got all the stuff out of there and I put it in my garage and I was going through the stuff. I was like well i need to take this inside because i don't want this my garage is not cool your garage gets hot
[57:49] it gets very hot like our garage is technically not cooled but it's attached and it somehow stays not as hot as your garage yeah my garage gets very very warm so i took everything inside i was going through the stuff okay i'm going to take the fuel inside. I'll take my flight box inside because it's got the nice starters and that would not be good for the batteries. I'll take the cans of fuel that I took.
[58:14] All the stuff that I thought would be damaged by heat in my garage, I took inside. So that was three weeks ago or whatever it was. So Saturday, put it all back in the car. Got all the stuff from the basement that I had taken inside, put it back in the car to come out here to do the run video. And one of the first things I noticed when I was setting everything up, it was going great. you had the cool craftsman workmate that I
[58:39] could mount my stand in. that was perfect. the stick the stick the engine mounted to the stand just like it always does no problem hooked up throttle perfect i was fiddling around making sure that all my connections were still tied on the on the onboard glow or the remote glow system for this three cylinder radial made sure all that was hooked up and tight. And then I went to grab the battery,
[59:10] the two-cell LiPo that I was going to run this glow system on. And I was like, oh, I forgot to pack the battery. Where did I put the battery? Well, then I started looking through the bag that had the engine, and there was the battery. From your garage. That came out of the garage. And it was no, okay, so this two-cell battery is a flat… It's a hard case battery. It was actually a battery I used back in my racing RC car days. Really? That goes back… Yeah, it's old. A long time.
[59:35] So it's a two-cell… Or it was a two-cell 3300 milliamp LiPo that was in a flat hard case that was no longer flat it was really more of a round well the cells were more of a round shape round profile and the case had actually popped open and so yeah the heat in my garage had had puffed this battery to the point of i was open amazed that it had not yeah caught my garage on fire it opened the
[1:00:07] case yeah pop that open yeah and i have never seen a lipo as puffy as that one was yeah i mean that was scary yeah it looked like if you took a we'll talk about ziploc bags again if you took a ziploc bag they come out of the box flat and you found some way to seal it and put a straw in it so that you can blow in it and blow it up that's what these cells look like found a way to seal it like zipped it up maybe we'll zip it up
[1:00:36] and then seal it so that you can blow into it and have it air not come back out of it what i'm talking about yeah okay you blow it up like a balloon like a pillow almost yeah that's what these look like sure did it was pretty scary it was not something i wanted to touch yeah so that was that was the first the first in a in a in a long line of unfortunate yeah a series of unfortunate events so okay i'm like okay ron i know you used to do cars too
[1:01:04] surely you have a two-cell LiPo laying around. Yep, sure do. Here, I'll put it on the chart real quick. And that one was actually a 5,000 mAh one that I used in the big yak. That's where I had that one from. Oh, okay, perfect. I always ran three cells with cars. Oh, okay, that's right. I didn't go for any of that slow two-cell stuff. So, at any rate, cool. You come to the rescue. You've got a battery I can use. Great. From the refrigerator. From the refrigerator. Yeah.
[1:01:31] Perfect place for them. So in the process of hooking everything up, I've got fuel in the tank now. I've double checked. All my connections are good. I'm ready. I'm ready to at least get everything primed and light the plugs. And that's where everything went wrong. Yeah. So I'm going to go ahead and call them out. So Sullivan Products. I've been using Sullivan Products for as long as i've been decades centuries they make great fuel
[1:02:07] tanks they make great hardware control hardware they make they've made so much great stuff over the years which is why i was confident when i bought this sado remote or i'm sorry this sullivan remote glow system i forget what they what they call it, Smart Glow or whatever it is. Designed for three-cylinder glow radials or engines. So when I bought this thing, I was super, super happy. Sullivan, they make great stuff, except for this thing. Hold on. It was still a great item.
[1:02:44] You used it several times. Yeah. However, there was a single design flaw. I mean, let's be honest. That was the only problem with it. Well, that's true. So, on the back of the control unit, we'll call it that. The module. The module. Yeah.
[1:03:19] On the back, there is a spot for you to plug a servo lead into, presumably your throttle servo, because this sort of plugs in line with your throttle channel and controls the on-off, basically, of your glow plugs via the throttle channel in line with your throttle servo. So the servo plugs into the back of this module, right? Mm-hmm. plugs into the back of this module, right? Very similar to a slot on a receiver, except a slot on a receiver,
[1:03:29] the pins that actually plug into the servo lead are recessed into the case, right? So they're not exposed. Like if you should happen to run something metal across it, they're not going to short out. Or if you should set it down on a metal engine run the stand yeah so yeah so the pins long story short the pins actually poke out the back of the case on this module and yeah while i was plugging everything in i had
[1:03:59] this thing resting on my really fancy welded aluminum stand that I made to run this engine and other engines on. So I had it resting, on the back of the case. Which I would have done too. I would have thought nothing wrong with doing that. And yeah, when I plugged the battery in, actually I had already primed the engine. I plugged the battery in and the engine like tried to start. Like it was obviously up
[1:04:25] against compression yeah and there was fuel in it and i plugged this battery in it lit the plug and the engine tried to start and i'm like oh gosh and then of course i heard arcing and all kinds of weird things and that and for the next minute i'm like what the heck just happened yeah and then when i turned the thing over then that's when i noticed that these three metal pins poking out of the back of the case that had made contact with my so in the process yeah of
[1:04:52] plugging that 7.2 or i'm sorry 7.4 volt right lipo battery and it had shorted the plugs and sent all of that volt voltage at probably fairly high amperage, I imagine, to all three of my glow plugs. So not only did it short out the control module, my onboard, my expensive onboard glow system, it also wiped out three OS number F plugs that were in the engine. It actually had melted the coil on one of them. Yeah. Which, I mean, it could not have gone worse that day.
[1:05:33] Because that was also the day that you ended up, and you did get it running. We tried to do something. We're not going to publish it because it is terrible. It's terrible. But you used three glow plug igniters or nice starters whatever you technically want to call them glow heaters and you had that you had it running fine except you didn't have the correct glow plugs to replace all three of them well you didn't have new ones they just weren't
[1:05:58] good ones yeah because you like to keep old ones because maybe i'll use these again which i don't understand i gotta get past that but so you had it running with these three nice starters just sticking out haphazardly in every angle and it looked just terrible but like here's the thing i didn't understand and like i didn't know this either with glow plugs you have to get the like i know you have to use the igniter to get it started
[1:06:32] but for some reason i just thought the rpm whatever would be enough to make enough heat in order to light that glow plug since they say when you take the igniter off it keeps it lit i didn't realize you had to actually start it over every time so i was surprised by how you would have one cylinder burn out or brown out or whatever you call it stop firing and then as soon as you touched
[1:06:58] it with that igniter it would just light back up and your rpms would jump away several hundred yeah so that just that floored me i didn't realize that was a thing so the onboard glow igniters for something like that seems like it would be a very good idea yeah and that's why i bought it because it was a good idea and it ran for six minutes and all the years you've had that thing you've probably got it probably has maybe 15 minutes of runtime maybe because i've ran it i've ran it at
[1:07:28] home a few times and every once in a while i'll get a wild hair to want to hear it run and i'll take it outside and put it on the stand and run it but yeah so now i'm in the market for another not a sullivan but i'm in the market for another three-cylinder or multi-cylinder remote onboard glow. And there's a few out there I can choose from. There are. But I'll be honest, looking at that one, it seemed complex for what you were getting and big. Yeah.
[1:07:59] I mean, it wasn't heavy, but it was big. It's a big panel. Faceplate. Faceplate, yeah. That you would have to mount somewhere i mean maybe it's a blessing in disguise because the ones i'm seeing online now are much more compact and easily hidden inside the airframe hideable yeah yeah the sullivan one probably looks really cool mounted on the side of an airplane with this cool little control panel with a set
[1:08:23] button and an on off button and all that but who wants to see that though well on a sop with camo which is what this is going to eventually go into right yeah sometime in the next decade yeah i don't i don't want that panel anywhere no because that's a pretty small airplane for what that panel size is yeah so i think one of these maybe it was a blessing in disguise i don't know maybe one of these
[1:08:43] other ones will be smaller and i can hide it better and actually the one i'm looking at i can power it with a with an life which i have several of those extra later on so yeah just retired retired batteries that would be perfect for a remote glow yeah just all in all a bit and not only that but it started raining on us yeah like i don't know rain cloud in the county like literally developed right over your house rained on us and then dissipated right over your house i could hear
[1:09:12] it far away on our neighbor's metal roof like we were talking i was like hold on yeah you shushed me i was like you did be quiet listen that's rain we need to clean up so by the time we got cleaned up it was raining. Yes. And, we got everything put in the garage and stuff. And so I got out my phone and I was looking. Gosh, you're going to go over this. Tiny, tiny little dot right over our house. And then what happened? What did I do next? I tore up one of our microphones.
[1:09:40] Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. It was just an expensive day all around for me. Oh, I forgot all that. Yeah. It was just an expensive day all around for me. Oh, I forgot all about that one. Yeah. So I had the lapel mic that I wear, when we do our YouTube videos. And, yeah, as I was trying to shimmy past the golf cart to come inside, out of the rain. Out of the rain. It wasn't supposed to rain. Yeah.
[1:10:00] The cord got caught on something, and it yanked the cord right out of the end of the microphone. Well, here's hoping next time goes better. Yeah. Right? Well, that's right. Yeah, we'll get all that out of the way now. Hopefully, our next few attempts at making YouTube videos will be all better. All green. And let's be honest. If that's the worst thing that happens, we're not in bad shape. For me especially especially because nothing happened
[1:10:26] this is out of your pocketbook yeah that's true yeah we'll see hope i'm hoping that brian up at dynamic balsa one of our one of our big big fans and supporters he's is he a fan he He says he is. Oh, okay. That's fine. I just don't want you to put words in his mouth or anything. He told me he likes the show. Yeah, you guys are okay. Hey, to me, that's a fan. If we're doing okay, then mission accomplished, right? I guess.
[1:11:01] But he's on the lookout for me for a remote glow and some new glow plugs. Yeah, that's the other thing. I get to go buy some more glow plugs now, too. Oh, yeah. This is baloney. You got to get back on your Nitro game. Okay. So OS number Fs, that's what you need. Just number F, huh? Well, that's how they're actually packaged. It's the hashtag, number, sign, and then F. Really? Yeah, that's how they're actually packaged. It's the hashtag, number, sign, and then F. Really?
[1:11:26] Yeah, it's weird. Oh, God. That's as bad as safe or trust or anything like that. Okay, it's a letter. But anyway. It's a letter. Anything else you want to talk about? No, I've aired my grievances, so. Do you feel better? I feel a little better. Hopefully, somebody out there will, write to us and give us some encouraging words or something. I don't know. Whatever. Pat yourself on the back and pour yourself a warm glass of milk.
[1:11:51] I promise. Eventually we will have a YouTube video of my Sato 93 cylinder running and me tuning it, hopefully soon. Well, don't say soon. God, in time. Well, and soon could mean months, right? Oh, okay. I guess guess it depends how quickly you order parts and get it here well i'm gonna order the i'm gonna order a glow onboard glow system this week sometime i'm gonna find one that i like and okay make a decision and order and then
[1:12:16] i have to order some plugs too all right so yeah i'll get the stuff ordered this week and maybe we'll get it here in the next couple weeks all right anything else no all right cool well until next time everybody thanks for listening to tom ramble about all his all his misgivings and things that have happened and all that hey maybe our next podcast will be upbeat as opposed to this me airing of grievances maybe next time i'll have balsa that That's a good one. I joke.
[1:12:45] That's a good one. It's not going to happen. pigs could fly. Could. Never know. All right. Until next time, I'm Ron. I'm Tom. Good night. Good night. 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.
[1:13:16] Please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, may your landings be gentle.
