Anyone remember any of that airplane stuff?

[Onepoint]

I decided to un mothball a couple planes and went out and flopped around vigorously in the sky with profound death defying aerobatics, and then finally it  slowly came back how to maybe get under control again through some vaguely recalled muscle memory.   


Anyway, Did anyone ever have a JR 8103 radio, and know how to actually program it? I never learned it well and have forgotten most of even that and am trying to just get the dam flap switch to be a simple 2 position flap for a new Durafly Tundra

[stetto]

I had an 8103......once. One of those things I foolishly traded away.

All I remember is that you start with programming a "new aircraft", from there? Ask me 20 years ago....

Have you started putting that 10/22 barrel delivery system together yet?

[Onepoint]

That's on the one of these days list,  I keep finding things to procrastinate over it.

[balsum fractus]

Had one and would have to poke around the menu to figure it out again...I know the switches are not assignable.....

[Onepoint]

I never really did any of the custom mixing on mine, but there is the ability to mix flap and flap on the same channel in mix 3 and 4.  I guess I am just have to going to do some trial and error.  I dislike the trim knob being the only way to get full flaps.

Man did technology change while I wasn't paying attention.  Talk about a learning curve to get up to speed.

JR has actually went of out business, or at least stopped making RC radios.  As a result  they are found pretty reasonable,  I have seen 8103s under 50 bucks and I picked up a  2.4ghz JR 9503 for $135 bucks shipped the other day on RC groups.  It may have some limitations when it comes to telemetry,  but will do more than I will require of it.  Of course I see the spectrum receivers are not cheap as they once were,  but from what I can tell some of the aftermarket ones are fine for the smaller models and are under $10, so I may start converting everything.

[stetto]

Shouldn't there be a database out there where you can download a pdf of the destructions?

I've got a '64 Toro 12h lawn tractor that took me a while, but I found it.

[Onepoint]

Yeah, but the manual is useless whe it comes to actual programming, and all the programming guides I have ran across are for setting up sail planes.  There was one that was set up for the ultra stick, but it has you go to a function that I don't even see on my menu when I call it up like they say to.   

[jetmex]

Now there's something I haven't done in years now.  I've never used JR equipment, I always had Futaba stuff and my 2.4 radio is a Spektrum DX-7.  They're all the way up to  a DX-21 or something like that now that will mow your grass, flush your toilets and contact UFO's if you program them correctly.

I am still building airplanes, though mostly for other people.  Current RC project is a 96 inch Spitfire IX in an all black Israeli color scheme, and I think there's a 110 inch C-47 somewhere in my future.  There's an electric F4 Phantom hanging on the wall that's never flown, though one of these days I might actually work up enough motivation to fly it.  Its sister is still in the box waiting to be built...Any attempts by me to fly something something now might be death inducing rather than death defying!

[Onepoint]

 "...Any attempts by me to fly something something now might be death inducing rather than death defying!"

I was thinking when was on the ground again after that 1st flight, its probably not good for an older guy to get his heart rate up that far.

I don't remember this being that hard to do. 

I see they basically have auto pilot for them with the safe mode on some of the newer receivers, I guess that's fine to preserve the plane when dumb thumbs are costly, but I kind of like the stick rudder part of it.

[jetmex]

I was thinking when was on the ground again after that 1st flight, its probably not good for an older guy to get his heart rate up that far.

Amen to that!   

The guy I build for has all the latest and greatest, and the latest and greatest is onboard gyros.  Couple that with an autopilot and the radio will damn near fly the airplane for you, which is how all the old guys manage to get away with flying jets and squirrelly warbirds.  With as much money as is tied up in some of those airplanes, it's a worthwhile investment.

The flying part of the hobby just sort of became not fun after a while.  I really enjoyed the cross country flying I did, but those were few and far between, and standing in the summer heat flying in circles just didn't do it for me anymore.  The electrics are  little better and I don't have to invest in a bunch of money to belong to club, as there are open fields all around where I live.

[Onepoint]

Well that only took a couple hours of head scratching.  The way they have you do that, with no context of what the numbers mean in some cases make it way too cryptic for someone trying to relax doing this.   Its like sitting down and deciphering the Rosetta stone for fun.   I imagine the new radios are way simpler, from what I see of the 9503 so far it is,  all the flap setting on one page and in percentages.

And then of course as I'm dinking with it I spin up the prop...which I note is running backwards.   I guess thats great if I want to back around the place.    

Actually looking into it further it has a reversing ESC, but I didn't mess with it, I just swapped the leads which apparently its designed for tiny little hands of a 5 year old to get to, but I managed. I think its air worthy, just have to wait for the rare nice calm day to try it.

Yeah,  I got bored with flying circles too and just stopped getting out as much.  But that's the upside of laying off, I get relearn it all again.  Hopefully without all the crashing and stuff.

[jetmex]

One of the nice things about electric foamies is that they're not horribly expensive, can be repaired with CA or hot glue and tend to cushion the fragile bits if you do happen to augur one in.  Add that to a low emotional loss factor if you crash one.  I have a couple of prop type profile jets that are a blast to fly, can be operated out of a baseball field if needed, and look pretty cool in flight.  All the motors, speed controls and batteries are identical, so I'm not hauling a bunch of extra stuff around.  All I have to do now is get motivated to go out and do it!

Part of me wants to get into slope soaring, but since there are no slopes here, that might not be such a great idea.... 

My DX-7 is not too complicated to program, but the DX-21 my friend has requires an engineering degree to figure out.  There are probably a bunch of youtube videos on how to program RC radios...

[balsum fractus]

You need to be careful with that after market stuff.....yes, it is cheap, but there is very little quality control, and I personally have seen a lot of failures...

I also build planes for other people, but I still enjoy flying my own stuff. I've got other stuff on my plate, but when I can get out for a few flights, I really enjoy it!

[Onepoint]

Yeah, I have been reading up on what is OK and not for receivers,  I figure the cheap electrics can be gambled with and ones I want to hang onto will get the more expensive ones.   I miss the days a receiver was a receiver and good for anything, now they have some just made for drones and park flyers, some OK for 90 size and some OK for giants scale. 

I have a 2.4 module on one of my 8103s, but its extreme link and not Spectrum compatible, receivers are not too bad, about 30 bucks for a 6 channel a, that again for a 10 channel expander if you want more, but having a spectrum compatible radio now I kind of want to consolidate eventually.

Kind of looking forward to the bush plane since I am not fanatical about keeping the runway up these days, and those little wheels on the other electrics don't appreciate that.

[jetmex]

You know, Nony, so far haven't had any trouble with poor quality in an electric model, but then I bought a lot of kits and built them myself.  My profile prop jets are from an outfit called Yardbird RC, and the Phantom, which is full fuselage, came from a company called 6mmFlyRc.  They're all depron foam kits and have to be built, but they are a ball to fly.

Last big airplane I owned was an 85 inch Zero I did a few years ago.  G26 on electronic ignition, retracts, 2.4 radio, the whole bit.  I flew it twice and realized I couldn't afford to replace it, so I sold it.  The Spitfire I'm doing for a friend cost $650, the engine was another $600 (big inline twin gasser), the digital metal gear servos are $40 apiece and I'm not sure what other electronics are going into it yet.  I think I'll stick with building for other and plastic models for myself for a while....