Aprilamille's (Mike's) VPModels' Cubic build

[Wayne]

I'm being told via an email that the blade is now compromised and should be thrown away for fear of it throwing a blade and possibly hurting someone.

I'd like to my story of throwing a blade. A blade flies off and you now have a very unbalanced situation that will rip parts off the model instantly. In my case my motor mount and about 1" of nose was instantly ripped from the plane with the motor still attached it ripped out the ESC, but luckily the battery and my receiver stayed put. The ripped out parts all came crashing down with the mass of the motor, it was a nice little missile, luckily didn't hit anything but the lawn. The plane still had radio power as I was lucky that I had redundant power. But the fun continues as the plane is now very tail heavy and out of control. I got very lucky and put it into steep dive mostly to avoid hitting anyone or a nearby house, at the last minute I pulled in some up elevator and managed to level the plane out, then pushed its nose into the lawn as I was fast approaching a tree. I was lucky and she flew again after some major nose surgery. All of this happened very fast. I had been using a cheap folding prop from China. I think it was the third flight for the prop and the plane.

 

[apriliamille]

well.... gosh... we maidened it this morning before seeing this post and now new blades ordered and ill file on the spinner to make the clearance needed when the new set arrives. sucks to be me not knowing what was the best method to do on this. it went up and came back down twice in one piece luckily

 

[apriliamille]

Well i do not want my lack of understanding on props and what not to ruin what was a perfect birthday with the maiden flight. Lesson learned and new blades ordered and the glider had 2 initial flights and came home in one piece. The plane is just out right silly. i dont know how to explain it but it can take off. We did some initial run and tosses to gauge the trims and it was trying to lift on its own and we probably could have just started circling right where the wing got lift and sent it into space. The prop motor combo is in my opinion "ludicrous" and it sure beat the tar out of my 1000 3s battery and a rather old 1300 3s battery. I got lost a few times flying it as my eyes and brain are not "tuned" for this yet. There is just too much same color on top and bottom that i got lost up high. I was heart pounding pretty much the whole time and gave quite a bit of transmitter time to my glider friend. (please remember this is my attempt to learn about the lift and thermal aspect of the radio control hobby so ive never really taken a serious attempt at it)

I do not own any video editing software and all we had was cell phones to record the momentous day so the video is a hodge podge of cell phone shorts compacted into a freeware mandatory capped at 1 minute video with a water mark that i uploaded to youtube. the free video maker was not kind in quality i am sorry

 

[Wayne]

Woohoo! Wow she looks great!

Happy Birthday! You notice I cleaned up all the pesky snow for your special day.

Trying to film a thermal glider doing work is not easy. They end up being little specs in the video.

If you are having some issues with orientation, fly her lower while to get to understand her ways. I personally tend to fly thermal gliders lower, my old eyeballs don't enjoy tracking a spec in the sky.

Sure looks great! Glad you didn't have any issues on the first flights.

 

[apriliamille]

Ty Wayne,

I did stop at the LHS on the way home and got some of that white striping to put on one of the wing bottoms to help. (im thinking left only so i know that is the bottom and left wing)

the snow was crazy, still 4 ish inches at my home but where we went had nothing on the ground. the nuts thing was as i was exiting the highway i annoyed everyone behind me due to at the stop light the entire roof melted to the point of sliding down onto my windshield and i had to run out and clear it off

 

[apriliamille]

I have not put the white on the wing yet as now im pondering some kind of odd ball color fluorescent film to put on the wing. I wonder if white will not help if im staring at it at ahem "399" feet and a cloud behind it.. would it affect my perspective of the plane?

I am also in another payday or so since the first half of month is painfull with mortgage, car payment and insurance payments due, to get some kind of GoPro or budget knock off of a GoPro and look like an idiot noob glider pilot with an action camera on my head to document my learning experiences.... (i had always wished i had videos of my Quique Yak and PAU edge to reminisce on years after their flight life)

 

[Wayne]

If you have a graphics shop in town, might want to check to see if they have some scraps of vinyl, that will be perfect for your stripes you want to add.

DO NOT attempt to iron on any covering to this model. You risk damaging the wings foam.

 

[apriliamille]

i acknowledge the post and have not put striping on it yet

 

[apriliamille]

sorry no more posts. not really any more flights . i got the white vinyl on the wings. when the new prop blades come i noticed my firewall had broken loose from those initial flights. i had used 30 min epoxy with fiberglass shards in there. i did put the firewall back in and did jb weld but i dont like it. I dont remember if i shared but when i first mounted it in and i put the spinner on, i filed the firewall flush to the front of the fuse. so as i was getting it ready to jb weld, if i line it up just right i can slide it right out the front so i have no a"carbon barrier" to keep it from flinging off if the jb weld brakes. its a 32 mm firewall. i couldnt find a "33mm or 34mm firewall" now it sits in the closet. i have not powered it up or anything. for me and my life.. soooo much work and effort and so much money spent. im freaking terrified to do anything with it. im literally at the point id rather have it be a closet queen then watch it obliterate. soooo undecided

ive also acquired a few 3d printers and experimenting with them to print rc planes. with the current political tariff b.s. well that can flipping pound rocks i aint buying crap now and polymaker is in Texas

I was lucky and was able to get a Bambu A1 combo on a Wednesday (cant remember which Wednesday) from Best Buy and that next morning on Thursday Best Buy jacked the prices to match Bambu's stabbing of consumers on in country inventory. I also got a Qidi plus4 last week and they yet have opted to stab consumers as im staring at one right now for the same price i paid. I traded the Bambu ams light off for 5 rolls of unused Polymaker LWPLA as I could care less about muli color printing