RC Airplane World Blog

Rough Rider on order!

2009-07-10T15:35:00.004+01:00

Well, I've done it... I've just put my order in for the upcoming rerelease Tamiya Rough Rider, apparently due out within the next fortnight. Can't wait, I've got some fond memories of having this car back in the 80s :-)

Who'd have thought it would ever make a come back in all its glory?? I wonder how it will effect the prices of original Rough Riders on eBay? And are Tamiya going to follow suit with the Sand Scorcher?!

Well, when the time comes the build will appear on the website, but that's not going to be for a while, what with a new baby just round the corner - yikes! Are there any new parent RC'ers out there?? Have your models been assigned to the top shelf?!

Other news... none really, other than another new page added to the site, just an overview of rc powered gliders. On that note, a Multiplex Merlin is going to be my next pre-order. And I'm still waiting on the ParkZone Sukhoi - ordered in April!
Pre-orders seem to be the way to go, this year!

New page added

2009-07-06T14:29:00.002+01:00

Another new page just written and added to RC Airplane World is rc warbirds - it's just a general overview of these popular planes, with examples mostly from the ParkZone range of RTF warbirds.

I've also just worked out how to get rid of the underline that Google Chrome and Firefox put under a linked image. Another CSS trick learned :-)

On a heli note, I'm putting in plenty of sim time (RealFlight G4.5) on a downloaded Blade 400, from the Knife Edge swap pages. I'm not doing too bad with it, but how I'll fare with the real thing remains to be seen. If anyone's got any CP flying tips for me, leave a comment!

Cheers.

Let's start this thing again...

2009-07-05T11:32:00.007+01:00

OK, so my last post was a year ago - oops. As you can probably guess, I've never really got into blogging, but I'll try and resurrect this blog :-)

What's new for 2009? How about a baby, for starters! Yes, due to pop into this world on July 19th, it will be my mission to get little Carla holding a tx before she can talk.... only kidding (!)

Web updates: The website, RC Airplane World still continues to pull in good traffic. The forum (http://forum.rc-airplane-world.com) plods steadily along, approaching 400 members now. If you're looking for a friendly rc forum, particularly one that's aimed at the newbs, then feel free to join, you'll be very welcome :-)

What else? Ah yes, the whole site has had a recent makeover, with a new template and updated coding (updated to XHTML 1.0 Strict) - hope you like it!
Actually that was a big job, taking just over two months to convert the whole site.

A few new pages to check out:
http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/parkzone-sukhoi-su-26m.html
http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/hobbyzone-super-cub-lp.html
http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/parkzone-p51-mustang-bl.html
http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/rc-float-planes.html

And finally, some shopping updates! On the way to me in the near future is an E-flite Blade 400, a ParkZone Sukhoi 26m and a new balance charger! And in the slightly further future will be a Multiplex Merlin and a re-released Tamiya Rough Rider - can't wait!!

But I guess it's the baby I'll be playing with the most ;-)

Upload a video!

2008-07-25T16:05:00.002+01:00

Well, after what seems like ages, the upload-a-video feature is now up and running - you can check it out here.
All vids are reviewed prior to publication, as are any comments. By doing this, I can keep a tight check on things and make sure all vids and comments are OK, and don't resemble some of the crap on YT :-)

Give it a go!

Getting interactive

2008-07-17T17:53:00.002+01:00

Gosh, my last post was in March, that's a bit embarrassing.... where does the time go?
Well, RC Airplane World's forum is steadily growing - register here!
I've also recently added an 'Ask an RC question' feature to the site, for those who aren't fussed about joining the forum. That page can be accessed here.

And, with any luck, the site will soon have a video upload feature! I have to admit to having doubts about this one, but I'm going to give it a go anyway.
If you're interested, enter your details in the newsletter sign-up form in the main nav bar of the site, and I'll send out an e-mail when it's up and running.

So, the site is steadily growing and becoming a bit more interactive. I might try launching some kind of community in the future, but not just yet ;-)

Forum now live!

2008-03-19T18:01:00.002+01:00

The RC Airplane World forum is now live and awaiting your registration!

Thanks to all those who voted in favour of a forum, in the previous visitor poll.

Access to the forum can be found in the main nav bar of RC Airplane World, or at the top of the homepage, or right here.

Registration is of course free and gives you immediate access to the forum, so please sign up!

Cheers,
Pete

Tamiya Sand Scorcher rebuild!

2008-01-18T15:53:00.000+01:00

Well, I may be more of an rc flyer than a driver, but I've recently and enthusiastically got into the Tamiya SRB (Special Racing Buggy) series - well, the Rough Rider and Sand Scorcher to be precise.
This is all because I owned a Rough Rider way back in the early 80s, and seeing how collectible they've become, I wanted to get in on the action once again!

I managed to get a complete, and good condition, Rough Rider from eBay, and also a Sand Scorcher bodyshell and all the necessary bits to make up a complete buggy.

You can follow the progress of the rebuild from here -- great fun!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-11T10:02:00.000+01:00

Oops, I'm not doing a good job of keeping this blog up to date, am I?!
2008 already, can someone tell me where 2007 went to??

RC Airplane World had a great December, so thanks to all the visitors who helped bump traffic up to around the 100,000 mark!
Obviously things have tailed off now, but it's good to know that the site probably got a few more people into RC over the festive period ;-)

Santa brought me a TamTech-Gear Buggy Champ - although I'm more of an rc flyer than driver, I wanted one of these cars because of having owned the original Tamiya Rough Rider back in the early 80s. Talking of which, I have now purchased a Rough Rider and Sand Scorcher (eBay, of course...) to restore, so those projects will be posted on the site in time. Can't wait to get stuck in to that!

Don't forget you can show off YOUR models, just take a couple of minutes to create your own page here, and let everyone see what you've got!

All for now, Happy RC'ing ;-)

Take the poll!

2007-10-09T10:38:00.000+01:00

I've just added a small poll to the RC Airplane World homepage, you'll find it at http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/ on the right hand side.

Have a go, it's free! It's just an 'out of interest' poll to see what proportion of my visitors are plane/heli/other flyers.

RC Classified Ads

2007-10-06T12:32:00.000+01:00

You can now post your RC classified ads on RC Airplane World, at http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/rc-classified-ads.html.

The service is free, so please use it!

Add your own content to RC Airplane World!

2007-08-20T09:20:00.000+01:00

Yep, that's right! You can now add rc related content to RC Airplane World.
The main index page for submission forms can be found at:
http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/add-content.html

What can you add? Well, some ideas...
Talk about your favourite rc airplane, helicopter, car, truck, boat or whatever.
Share an amusing story from the flying field, track or pond.
Share a horror story of a nasty crash.
Give us some building and flying tips.
Tell us about upgrades that you've done.
Share with us how you learned to fly rc, and when you first went solo.

Anything rc related can be contributed - all submissions are reviewed by me prior to approval, and can be rated and commented on by other visitors.

So come on down and be part of RC Airplane World!
http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/add-content.html

Enjoy!

Pete

Back to reality

2007-07-31T11:37:00.000+01:00

Phew! Well, our 7 week trip to western Canada & the northern USA is behind us :-(
What a trip though, and what scenery! Anyone living in the Alberta/B.C regions...I'm very jealous!

Getting to the National Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C was a great thing, so many original display pieces in that place; we were 3 hours in there and barely scratched the surface.

Meeting up with Matt & Tara from Red Rocket Hobbies was a great experience - thanks again guys for all your generosity & hospitality! :-) It was a great few days spent together.

Needless to say that during the trip, RC Airplane World got a bit neglected, but I've been busy trying to get on top of things since our return.
No news on the upcoming possibility of the RC community section yet; the module is still in Beta but it's looking good for a fairly close release - the sign up form is at the top of the main nav bar of RC Airplane World.
I'll keep you posted on any updates....

Well, that's it for now - back to work! Cheers.

Infrared helicopters

2007-05-02T10:40:00.000+01:00

What a marvellous invention. These things are great fun and fairly maintenance free, and the particular one I have is a semi-scale version so it looks good flying.
There's a vid at http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/infrared-micro-helicopters.html - I can highly recommend them for some low cost fun! ;-)

Well, this time next week we'll be in Canada - yikes! Can't wait, and meeting up with Matt from Red Rocket Hobbies and Roger from RC Discounts will be good fun.

So there won't be much happening with website updates while I'm away, but I'm about to put up a page with info about an upcoming possible change to the site - just follow the 'Community' link in the main nav bar.

All for now!

And now April?

2007-04-15T13:34:00.000+01:00

Where's this year going??

I've just had a month back in Ol' Blighty (that's the UK) and web/blog updates have been a bit patchy to say the least. Non-existent in fact.
The trip back was work related but I did pick up a micro helicopter, one of the Picoo Z style ones but a semi-scale version. Great fun and not at all frustrating, like the DF4 can be sometimes...

Our upcoming trip to Canada/USA is only a few weeks away, yikes. There's certainly not much flying going to be done this year, after that trip it's back to Spain and then the UK in the new campervan! Maybe I can fly the micro heli inside the van, now there's an idea...

March already??

2007-03-03T14:51:00.000+01:00

So that's Jan & Feb out the way - although here in southern Spain there isn't much cause to complain about bad winter weather!

I've had a few trips up into our local hills with my 'Eraser' combat glider - vids are viewable on YouTube (user: rcairplaneworld). I found a great new location, but the wind has been doing odd things so flights weren't as good as they could have been.

The Dragonfly 4 is also airborne again! It's got a sexy new look with the Xtreme Skids:

Only problem now is the weight has increased somewhat, or my battery packs have lost a bit of life. Maybe a LiPo pack is on the cards...

Cheers,
Pete

Airborne again!

2007-02-23T12:41:00.000+01:00

Hoorah!

The replacement rx arrived yesterday. 12 days from the 'item has been shipped' notification that I got, that's not bad as the website states 7-14 days.
Amazingly, the parcel didn't get lost in our local post office, which was what I was fully expecting to happen.
I now see that eTamiya.com has put a "We won't ship to Italy" notice on the homepage, I guess the Italian postal service is as questionable as the Spanish one in certain areas!

So the heli had its test flight this morning, and all seems well. The gyro setting wasn't right on the new rx, but a quarter of a turn sorted that out.

Yesterday I managed to get a few flights with the glider too, and some video, so I'll prepare that for YouTube later today.

All for now!

Good grief...

2007-02-06T22:35:00.000+01:00

Electric helicopters, who'd have one??...

I'm grounded again, just as I was getting a bit good. This time the problem is that the rx antenna pulled out of the rx - which certainly would explain the 'brown trouser' moment I had while hovering above head-height in the living room and suddenly having the heli spin wildly out of control!
I just killed the power and let it fall gracefully back to earth - fortunately no harm done, but it could have been nasty.

Anyway, an attempt to repair the rx resulted in a complete bugger-up, my fault entirely.
I was quite shocked to see that the cost of a new rx was nearly half that of the heli!

Being located in southern Spain, my options were to get one in from a guy down the coast, a guy in France or a shop in the UK.
Option A was out because the guy down the coast never has the important parts in stock. Options B & C (France and UK) were out because of the cost of the rx (I'm only prepared to pay so much!) plus shipping, so I opted for the one thing I thought I'd never do and get one from Hong Kong.
The rx was half the price of anywhere else, and the shipping only $6! The downside is the time factor, they say 7-14 days. Taking our local postal service into account, that roughly translates into 6 weeks.

Ah well, it'll give me some time to do some housework...

In the meantime I've just been looking at the impressive little Walkera #52 Palm-size heli. I think that might be my next project, it looks good :-)

Website news - none to speak of really, there's been no major updates recently.
I've uploaded some more vids of my hovering efforts onto YouTube, and received a few positive comments, even the odd cry for help.

I hope you're all getting more flying in than I am right now! ;-)

Cheers,
Pete

More spare part frustration...

2007-01-24T22:30:00.000+01:00

Just as I was getting the hang of my heli, I discovered that the main frame had cracked at the tail boom point of entry. So that's what the bad wobble was...

A week and a half after ordering the parts, they arrived! Well, some of them at least. Apart from the main frame. Aaaargh!!!
There must be a way of magicking helicopter spare parts out of thin air, surely? ;-)

Ah well, another lesson learned. Get them from a reliable source, even if it does cost a few pence more...

I reckon I'll be airborne in about a weeks time, with the heli.
Now, where's my glider....

Cheers,
Pete

Something new learned

2007-01-14T21:04:00.000+01:00

I've been playing around with embedding video into a webpage - apparently it's the way to go;-)

Well, thanks to an 'embedding code generator', I've successfully managed to put up 3 vids of my Dragonfly 4 helicopter in a "what to expect" kind of page.

The page is at http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/dragonfly-4-training-tips.html, and its intention is to illustrate what to expect from a 4-channel FP (Fixed Pitch) electric rc helicopter, such as the Walkera Dragonfly 4.

I'm really pleased with the result, and the final vid has been posted on YouTube.

As for my progress with my DF4 heli, I can now hover without having to move the furniture away!
I've just received the tx-pc cable for use with the FMS simulator, so with any luck I can soon write a page about FMS, in a further bid to help us newbies get better control of our helis!

Cheers,
Pete

Flying again - hoorah!

2007-01-09T15:59:00.000+01:00

One batch of spares arrived yesterday - at last! Everything that needed replacing on my heli was in the parcel; main blades, flybar & landing gear, plus a spare tail motor and rotor head bearings.

So I spent a while getting the heli up together and it turned into a completely different model than I had got used to!
I think the blades are mostly to blame, they seem very light and plasticy compared to the originals.
I felt like I was starting over with my hovering, but I've got used to the differences now and have it well trimmed.

I've put up a few more pages on the site all relating to my Walkera Dragonfly 4 experiences - the index page for them is at http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/walkera-dragonfly-4.html.

Ah, it's good to be airborne again - until the next bout of breakages....

Cheers,
Pete

Frustrating...

2007-01-06T10:29:00.000+01:00

Not much flying being done at the moment!

Our local postal service is pretty crap - I'm waiting on spares for my Dragonfly 4. A few days ago I snapped my last main blade while practicing more accurate landings - sadly I misjudged the rotor - table leg distance somewhat....

So until the spares arrive, I'm pretty much grounded :-( Just as I was getting the hang of it, too!

Meanwhile, my brother has started a small website after getting fired up by his Syma Dragonfly and Silverlit PicooZ micro helicopter - quite an amazing piece of technology indeed!
He's going to concentrate on personal reviews & tips for his model. The site is at www.ele-copter.co.uk.

That's all for the moment folks!

Cheers,
Pete

Dragonfly at the beach

2007-01-04T12:04:00.000+01:00

My Walkera Dragonfly 4 got a trip out to one of our local beaches this week (see the vid).

Hovering progress is coming along nicely but the session was cut short when a horrible vibration appeared after a particularly heavy landing. Not being able to source the problem there, we came home and I discovered that one of the rotor head bearings was missing.
I had also splintered the flybar and one of the landing skid supports - spares are on the way!

Having discovered the cause of vibration, I returned to the beach after analysing the videos to locate the crash site as precisely as possible, and amazingly found the bearing!

The heli is now back to flying status after some insulating tape/heat-shrink tubing repairs to the flybar and landing skid - obviously when the spare parts arrive I shall replace the broken parts.
I'll also be able to change the whole landing skid assembly at last, and do away with the heavier, repaired version that is on there now.

As for my method of repair, I wrap insulating tape around the splintered part and then cover that in heat-shrink tubing. It's crude but it holds things together until the replacements arrive!
It also adds unwanted weight, so these repairs really are just to get the heli flyable again temporarily.

A tiny drop of cyno on the bearing 'shafts' will hopefully help keep the bearings where they should be, and I've ordered plenty of extra bearings just in case!

Cheers,
Pete

Welcome to the RC Airplane World blog!

2007-01-03T13:02:00.000+01:00

Hello!

The New Year sees a new addition to my website RC Airplane World- this blog!

The general idea is to keep you up to date with my flying days with the new Walkera Dragonfly 4 Fixed Pitch electric helicopter, and my trusty 'Eraser' EPP combat slope soarer throughout the year.
Living in the south of Spain means lots of sunny days - but I'm afraid I'm very guilty of not making the most of them. Hopefully that'll change in 2007!

Also, this blog will keep you up to date with any major changes on the site.
RC Airplane World has come a long way in its 3 years online, and I'd like to say a big thank you to all the loyal and fresh visitors - long may you continue to enjoy the site!

December 2006 saw a record level of traffic - around 4000 visitors a day finding my site!
I know that Christmas does over-inflate anything hobby-related, but that aside, the traffic is showing a steady climb.

A serious goal that I would like to see achieved in 2007 is for those daily levels to reach 5000.

It's ambituous, but hopefully by adding fresh content on a regular basis I can make it happen. And with any luck, this blog will help in one way or another.

So Happy New Year to You All, and please continue to enjoy RC Airplane World, and now this blog!

Best Wishes,
Pete