Hobby People Warehouse Sale

Hobby People is having a BIG warehouse sale again this weekend. Starts Saturday Morning at 7am. If you want the “good stuff” get there early.

Russ and the guys from service are going to have some tables setup with product on display. We’ll be showing the prototype of an 84″ Kwik Fli (Phil Kraft homebuilt fullscale plane, blown up from Model Airplane News Plans). We haven’t flown it yet but we’re going to show it off a little, get pics and then go fly it next week after the sale. It’s an unusual and very nice looking plane. I thought some of you might want to check it out.

We’ll have some UltraFly, XTM, and other stuff on display too and we’ll be there to answer questions and what not.

Anyway, I know a lot of people are going to the sale, but I thought you’ll might like to know we’ll have some displays set up too.

Looking through the sale items, we’ve got a lot of one-off prototypes, some of them completely setup, on sale too. So there’s scratch-n-dent, incomplete, discontinued, and refurbs as well as new items that are on sale.

For those of you who haven’t come before, know that the line is long in the morning and the whole thing is usually over by 2, so if you want stuff, get there early.

I hope to see you there.

 

Mike

Taking the Hobby to the “Next Generation”

Jet Hangar Hobbies has been busy! They’re not just out having a good time flying R/C jets, they’re out showing the world our hobby!

Larry and Cyndy Wolfe along with Vic Solotoff (fellow modeler and life-long educator/teacher/administrator) have been showing the world of model aviation to elementary school children.

Larry sent me a GREAT overview so I’ll just reprint it here. Hats off to them!

Hi, Mike,

I want to thank you for your donation of 24 Guillow’s Starfire gliders for a  summer school demonstration and flight contest.

Our traveling field trip entourage consisting of Vic Solotoff, my wife Cyndy, and myself. Recently we went to Aloha Elementary School in Lakewood, CA, to introduce 27 3rd-4th grade students to the basics of aviation.  Our static display included a 16-1/2″ (electric R/C) Hellcat and a JHH FJ-2 Fury (50-1/2″ span).  Our flight demonstration was an Air Hog indoor electric helicopter.

After a short introduction, the students were divided into 4 groups; colored arm bands were given out to identify each group.  With an adult assistant assigned to each table, the children were taken through the steps of folding the same paper airplane; they colored and personalized their own.  Once finished, each group was called up to make a couple of practice tosses.  The objective for the paper airplanes was to fly the longest distance.  Following the practice, on the count of three, each group tossed their airplanes in the semi-finals with their friends and teammates cheering them on.  The winner from each group toss competed in the finals.

Ready for the semi-finals

Next the balsa gliders were handed out.  The kids assembled them and added their own “color and markings.”  Again they went through the process of having a fly-off; this time the objective was endurance.  A tie-breaker flyoff was held to determine a winner between two that hit the wall at the same time!

Getting ready for the final toss.                         Yellow group getting instruction

The activity was very well suited to the age group (9-10 years old); the interest level was high, and the kids actually learned something in the process!  The airplanes were theirs to take home and break–or enjoy as “trophies” (if they last!).

A great time was had by all–and the experience/participation is always the most important factor.

Thank you again for your contribution to aviation education.

Best regards,
Larry Wolfe
Jet hangar Hobbies, Inc.
P.O. Box 1607
Hawaiian Gardens, CA 90716
562-467-0260

Tyler’s EF Helicopter Cypher

This is a video one of our Airtronics pilots took. The heli is an EF Helicopter Cypher stock except for carbon 325 carbon blades. It’s owned by Tyler Lovell and being flown by Eric Brandenburg.

The Heli is awesome (obviously it is being truly rung out in the hands of an amazing pilot like Eric).

Tyler is a sponsored pilot. Eric is not sponsored by EF or Airtronics, but is simply flying this as a favor to Tyler.

Anyway, I think it’s AWESOME. Check out the cyclic response.

http://www.youtube.com/v/lTVkC_z2Wpc

Mike

2.4GHz Antenna placement

The Airtronics RDS8000 has the receiver antennas placed at the end of extensions. Many people initially asked me why that was done. It was done to make it easier for the user to get proper antenna placement. Every installation is different and with the extensive use of carbon fiber in planes today, antenna placement and flexibility in that placement is important.

Today I ran across a post from RCUniverse that explained the antenna placement, why it’s important, and why the extensions on the antennas are a nice feature. It’s explained perfectly:

Interesting range tests with my new Airtronics 2.4 in a 2 meter pattern plane with lots of carbon fiber parts – Since I love this radio and have had good results in my 120 size balsa test plane I figured it was time to put it in my backup 2 meter pattern plane for testing. This plane has a fiberglass/carbon mat sandwich fuse with a full carbon fiber belly pan which houses the alum pipe. So we have a lot of carbon issues to deal with here and a good test of the 2.4 receiver installation procedures. I installed the receiver antennas as follows for test #1 – one antenna run vertical into the canopy area and one 90 degrees longitudinal along the fuse side. Stepped off 35 paces and in range check mode, plane sitting on the ground, we have solid results while rotated 360 degrees. Next I did a vertical test with the plane resting on the nose and rotated 360 in the vertical plane, everything was solid at 35 paces until the bottom of the plane faced me. At that point everything went gittery and had loss of most control. This was expected since the bottom of the plane is carbon and houses an alum tuned pipe. Next, I reoriented the antenna which was running along the fuse side to a position out horizontal into the foam wing. So now we have one vertical into the canopy and one running out 90 degrees into the foam wing panel. Retested range at 35 paces and could not find a dead spot in the setup !! Everything was solid in all aspects of orientation with the installation.
Conclusion – 2.4 requires more planning and testing before flying. Any plane with carbon fiber or large metal objects like tuned pipes need some close attention to installation and above all test your setup before flying. These are not official tests sanctioned by anyone, just my personal test to see what the actual limitations of antenna orientation are on a 2.4 setup in and around large carbon fiber material objects. Will hopefully test fly this weekend.
maustin

This post is Post 792 from this thread at RCU

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_6259443/anchors_7712999/mpage_32/key_/anchor/tm.htm#7712999
I hope this helps everyone understand how to easily test for proper antenna placement and why it’s important, especially when the antenna is in a plane that uses carbon and metal in the airframe!

Mike