Electric Airplanes
Yes – I’m Still Alive & Well
Jun 1st
It’s been a busy few months and I’ve gotten way behind on updating the blog and the website has been dormant for ages.
I’ve got three electric ducted fan projects to get posted that have been done for Model Airplane News. Each is from Hobby Lobby and I have to say they seem to get better all the time.
I’ve also done some traveling and got to visit my newest grandson in Denver, CO. That’s always a great trip in the motorhome, but it’s a long way from NC to CO. We had everything from snow to 75 mph gusts while there.
A real biggie for me was visiting Estes Park, CO where The Stanley Hotel is. That’s the hotel where “The Shining” was filmed and I swear I could hear Jack Nicholson saying “here’s Johnny” while I walked the haunted halls 
I’m still on the road as I write this and will get busy updating things when I get home. Stay tuned, I promise I’ll do better…..no honest, I mean it…..you believe that don’t you?
Update/Correction for Evo 12 Module from Spektrum
Jan 26th
It turns out that the Spektrum 2.4 module to convert the Multiplex Royal Evo 12 Radio needs a little modification before the radio will actually work. You must put a jumper on the main connector (white in the photo) between terminal #2 and #5
Once this jumper is installed, everything works perfectly. I talked to Horizon today and they didn’t know about it or that there was a problem. Now it’s solved.
[Update 1/27/10] This is only a problem if you have the Royal Evo Pro version of the radio and you will still need to ensure the software version is 2.62 or below. Multiplex has taken steps to block the PPM signal to disable 3rd party modules requiring direct PPM input.
FMA Direct’s FunJet with Co-Pilot II
Dec 24th
I’ve just finished up a project that will be in my April 2010 column in Model Aviation Magazine. This one features one of the new offerings from FMA Direct’s Model Shop. They offer a Cessna 182 or this FunJet that I bought.
The real feature of this plane is the new Co-Pilot II system that comes already installed. When I do a post about flying the plane, I’ll go into that more.
Here’s a look at what comes in the box.
3D Joe Nall Jet
Dec 12th
There were two of these from Europe at Joe Nall this year and it was something to see. I’ve got more clips, but need to find them and edit them into a video. Here’s a teaser though and listen to that turbine engine!
Hobby Lobby Su-34 "Fullback"
Dec 11th
I recently did a review of the new Su-34 from Hobby Lobby that features 180 degree thrust vectoring. Since I did this, there has been an upgrade kit released to allow 360 degree vectoring so you can have rudder thrust for extreme flat spins.
This is an all foam ARF that arrives with everything installed except your receiver. The twin motors, ESC’s, ten servos and retracts are already installed when it comes out of the box. The kit even includes the 4S LIPO pack although it’s just barely capable of handling the 60 amp current of the twin motors. You’ll do well to upgrade this battery.
The flight characteristics of this plane are remarkable when you turn the vectoring on. This is selectable from your transmitter and you can choose to use only elevator thrust, aileron thrust, or both. It had no trouble flying from our grass field as you can see in the second video.
This airplane will be featured in the March 2010 issue of Model Airplane News and is on the cover.
Here is a little video of the test flight.
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