Quad-Zilla update

As the weather has been terrible for proper glider flying, thought i would bore you all with an update on Quadzilla... Testing is going very well, failsafe works a treat, you turn the transmitter off, or flick a switch on the tranny and the damn thing zooms up to 20 meters in height... flies directly back to where it took off... hangs about a bit... then descends to what is a better landing than what Martin can ever do, within feet of take off point its amazing! The GPS lock is superb (Wookong by DJI)and holds in position even in wind.

For power we are carrying 2 x 8000 mah 5 cell batteries, linked in parallel this will last 13 mins with a 3 kg payload!! Thankfully we have a superb duel Hyperion charger which provides a modest 600wats of power, charges 2 batts in an hour!








We have a 5.8ghz video transmitter with a CP antenna, also with a dedicated power source (no interference probs) this thing is great considering the amount of electrical components and carbon there is on the beast, no probs with video transmission yet!










Iphone takes weird pics... Landing gear retracted, ive had the Octo up to around 450ft in height.. not bad for something which ways 8.5KG's dry weight! The video below is a test vid. Was windy, up to 20mph, but as you can see so stable. Would love to get it on a slope, or better still at an F3F comp to film a run windward side.... not sure its allowed unfortunately, but imagine the footage!



Rob

Last Sunday

Follow up from last Sunday... "behind the scenes" As usual turn volume up to MAX!!!! Rob

The greatest prize give away ever!!!!

To celebrate the 5000th visit to the SlopeJunkie site (i know were not quite there yet) and a big thanks for reading Martins rubbish, we are giving away a state of the art glider... see pics! This is all carbon fibre (made to look like balsa and wrinkled solafilm) Middle Phase 2!!!

 Check it out...  my old telephone number from 15 years ago! Servos not included, nor elastic bands... which apparently are used somehow? we have left/lost the canopy too!

Red tape holding nose together included. Incidentally i learnt to fly on this!

Beautifully fitting components.....



So, what do you need to do to win this fantastic piece of carbon fibre (made to look like wrinkled solafilm and balsa) all moulded glider? Look at the picture below and mail me the best caption to the photograph! There is a lot going on in this photo, so should not be hard to think of a cracker! I am going to let Martin judge the competition, which will close on the 4th of May! If Martin has not found a suitable caption, we will fit some crappy radio gear, soak the wingtips in diesel, fit Martins gopro to the nose and fly the yellow peril to its doom in a blaze of glory........

Send to rob@willisonline.co.uk

Cant believe were GIVING this away..... Prize giving Sunday week, up what ever hill is facing the wind!

Next comp will be for Martins Tanga.

Rob

The Wigwams Willow!

 Check this  out... Mark took delivery of a brand new Willow F3F from SlopeRacer.

This model is a revelation in design and pricing and is winning competitions, also goes like the proverbial... fit and finish is good (better than my Acacia) and the wings are super stiff.  It looks right too. My granny said to me once "If it looks right, it will fly right" well she did not quite say that.. but you get my meaning! Mark has promised a maiden in early May.

 

Rob

Sunday 22nd April.... NO DISASTER....Just a superb video

You will be glad to know that the contraption bolted to the front of the scorpion together with slugs of ballast on the tail did not end in disaster thanks to my sepreme flying ability. Unfortunately the lift was marginal and the scorpion weighed a tonne which resulted in a fairly sedate flight. Next time camera will be further in front and up higher to give a better angle and unless its blowing a gale I won't bother

There is some moneys worth there. Rob is trying to wrestle Nick to the ground, my moneys on Nick. You will also see Robs Viking 2 in the bag. This did fly as the ''gimmicky'' magnetic switch in the RotMilan packed up during inverted flight at some speed. Rob was very lucky to get the Rotty back from iminent disaster with a switch that was turning itself on and off on its own. My advice stick with something you hear clunk when you move it

The is M.C  R.C Geoff's tranny. Amazingly by night this doubles up for M.C   R.C Geoffs mobile Disco as a mixing Desk, by day apparently if flies model gliders but I am not convinced. He did offer to show me it with the cover off, I politely declined!

Geoffs new ASW something, 1/4 scale that did maiden and did infact fly very well from the off. These do look the part in the air cruising about. Next to the ASW something is a green banana, apparently the only one in existence, can't think why?

Now for the video from the Scorpion . I have inserted various clips from the day. Watch on full volume, full screen and put the settings on ( small cog like icon , bottom right of vid) to 1080 HD . Watch every second, I have inserted a clip (5 seconds) of the Tanga F3B rolling over on landing... Enjoy

Martin

Disaster!

Oh My God... the below can only end in disaster.... I shall be filming the whole event, and trying not to snigger at Martins stupidity.

Rob

Martin + Brain = Twat

Saturday 21st April

What do you get when you add......

TO

Here is the answer. It is a Scorpion with a rear facing camera. Tomorrow at Roundway 11.30 I am going to see if it flies ( potential disaster possible)  as I think the angle of the camera looking rearwards should make for something quite good

This is view from GO PRO 2

I think it looks good, hopefully I will get some decent footage on soon

Advice if you don't want to be bored senseless ignore the post below unless you are having trouble sleeping. It is not Robs best work

Martin

I'm bored... what shall i do?

I was given an EasyStar 2 to build for a friend, You see i like building shit, unlike Martin who hates building shit, however unlike all the latest mouldie gliders i normally put together this came with INSTRUCTIONS!!!! WTF!




As you can see this needs careful preparation, not to be attempted without Spitfire beer (3 for £4 in Lidl) and a bowl of crisps. I set aside 3 bottles of beer for the build... lets see how it goes!

 Now, the Easystar i quickly found is a revelation in building... as long as you have that super glue that don't melt foam your sorted. So i crack on. you glue a few bits here and there for strength, The servos push  into pre cut slots that snap the servos in place. Then you glue the fuz together...

The aileron/tail horns glue in a treat, and are clamped in place with grub screws (Allan key provided) By this point I'm 2 bottles down... That glue is amazing, multiplex own foam glue, not only will it stick your fingers together no time at all, it sticks foam together with the tenaciousness of Martin chasing fellow flyer's WAGS. Prob cost a fortune, but i did not buy it!

Servos glued in Z bends pre Zedded! If you can be arsed sand of the boggles on the wings, not sure it will make a difference.. but there you go




All done bar the motor.... couple of screws later, the bastards in! Elastic band keeps the spinner on (those Germans keep it simple)

Check it out.. all in nice and simple! join the ESC up, get the battery in and c of g is achieved with no additional weight. Finished... in under 3 bottles of beer, perfect. Took me 10 mins to program his JR tranny, bought from ebay for 40 squid and its there.

We test flew this today, amongst the thunderstorms, flew very well... a little underpowered with the 400 motor, recommend upgrade to 600 size. But perfect learning platform or FPV vehicle. The battery lasts for ages (2200 3 cell) and can be bought cheaply too. This was bought from electricwingman Paul at EW is great for advice and very helpful, i bought all quadzillas motors from him, and also very cheap. The instructions are fantastic, and the build was floorless.

So if you want a funfly electric, and a 3 hour build time, buy it. If you want 3 bottles of Spitfire on the cheap then Lidl's your answer.Spafftastic!

Rob

Sunday Slapper Movie!

What do you do when you have one Slapper hanging around..... you chase it! A little fun on the Sunday, the most hilarious aspect to this film is watching Martin run. However he plucked that Slapper out the air like a man possessed!

The Rumster's Slapper Game from Rob on Vimeo.

The Slapper is an awesome foamie... it motors around like a Zaggi on cocaine, we don't usually agree on much, however Both Martin and myself definitely agree that this is one spaff-tastic model, and we want one! Nice one the Rumpster! Rob

Sunday 15th April

What an amazing day

Turned up at the North Slope Westbury at high noon Sunday. Martin ( the other one ) and Ocelot Graham were just leaving.

I walked to the edge with the mighty Gilbert and set up for the day.

The Legendary Gilbert firmly parked himself in his fold up camping chair. He got up occasionally to either make a fresh brew , or to take to the air like a Top Gun ace and show the young'uns how to combat properly - Deadly!

Pete and his Strega. Pete is giving the Slopejunkies salute and for what its worth I am awarding him best landing of the day.See it for real in the video below.  It was understated, smooth,accurate,soft and all managed without arms flapping and large amounts of self congratulating. The diametric opposite of a Rob Coles Landing.

Nicks Luna and his zaggi ( if its made of foam and is the same shape as a ''dairylea slice'' its a zaggi). Nick came a close second in the landing stakes with the Luna, again in the vid

Dave 'The Rumpster' Rumble turned up slope edge directly from a Fancy dress party where he attended as a member of a S.W.A.T team. Robert on his hands and knees again trying to get the magnetic switch work.

This is Rumpsters ARIS disguised as an ALLIAJ. Everything about this glider is wrong the colour,the wing shape,the build quality and the price. BUT fully ballasted it weighs more than Michelle Macmanus and screams about the sky faster than Rob running through the gates of the local 'car bootie' on a Sunday morning. A lot of the competition pilots use these and the reason is they are a superb glider. I love it!

Now for my first video, unfortunately the camera settings were wrong ( not enough mega pixels and frames per secondso very grainy) and I am a ''movie maker'' virgin but I tried to get a bit of everybody in. Stick with it and watch it as there are some moments of genius . Don't go full screen but expand is ok.

Martin

Sunday... what a day!

After watching Martins failed attempt at video editing (and taking it off after a day in embarrassment) thought I'd pull my socks up and get to it...

This needs to be watched full screen, with the music turned RIGHT UP! Listen out for commentary too....

Untitled from Rob on Vimeo.

This was the culmination of a great day.. We have more to come!
Rob

Stuff to get on!

Bare with us chaps and chapesses... we have a lot of material to get on but will take a day to do! with Martins video editing it may take a few weeks... especially as the only thing hes ever filmed is him abusing himself.

Rob

Easter Monday, No Flying, The tedium of Setting up

Easter Monday

There was no flying to be had due to the typical British Bank Holiday weather so it was an afternoon of chores for me. The Tanga has not been flying particularly well lately ( not going round corners like its on rails essentially)  so I decided I would ''go back to basics'' . I would revert all settings back to the manufacturers settings and with the help of the Futaba 10CHG manual try and do some clever stuff

I had to pick up a CofG jig from Robert along with a micrometre ( god only knows what he has been measuring with this)

The C of G Rig. Mounted on top of a camera tripod a couple of rubber balancers and steel rulers. All looks a bit gay in the gentle shade  ''soft moss''  green but actually does a very good Job. Thanks Rob

I put the Tanga on the JIG, The C of G was at 110 mm, Breta models suggest 105mm . I put some more ballast in the nose and then got to the business of putting all the manufacturers throws in. Very helpfully these were in degrees so I had to use some old school trigonometry to turn this into millimetres of movement at the end point of each control surface ....

A screen of numbers on the breta models website. Took some thinking about but I now have all these dialled in. With the help of the 10CHG manual I have now got more settings than Rob's got brain cells. I have a launch control setting, thermal flap, speed setting, distance setting and normal setting. These are all on a switch but I have also retained a camber flap / aileron / elevator mix on a variable knob. I have a funny feeling I have moved into the realms of doing things for the sake of doing it. What I would say though is the FUTABA 10CHG is a fantastic piece of 21st century radio equipment and is ripe for playing with.

Martin

EASTER.... @ Roundway

 Someone died for us, got reborn or something today... What i know is that a WNW can only mean one thing, Roundway Hill. As the highly detailed map above (annotated in such a way that even Martin can understand) shows, we stand on an outcrop of chalk at some 650ft above sea level with supreme views of the Wiltshire countryside. Although does not provide the lift of Westbury, does give us some very dynamic forms of flying over some very interesting landscapes.
 


Mark turns up carrying the mighty Ash. This glider was designed for this hill, open cross country flying with a big span easily viewed from over a km away. Beautiful flying with this, i love flying this and hang around Mark like flies around shite, until he gives up his Tranny to me!

Fly you bastard!

Bionic Geoff, recently released from Hospital/Prison gets his Trinity F3B prepared, we spent a bit of time on this today playing with C of G. I like this glider, has serious potential, feels solid... like a Volvo!

Geoff still trimming after 4 years of ownership

Bionic Geoff setting up my chair..

Malcolm strolls in (very very ill) with his Salto, pretty little glider, i hoofed it off and the canopy ejected itself, needless to say it all survived. Not to be outdone he went back and got his Blade.

 Look at these two very different transmitters.. The MC24 is a number of years old, however is still at the top of the tree as far as reliability and functionality (like my 3030 Martin) Below is Nicks Royal Evo, on the screen is models current height in meters, battery power left and time flying... amazing. The MC when new was over a grand, the Evo you can get for £400. Love technology....

Well a fantastic day God.. thanks. A pity Martin could not join us, as i would of liked to see how his Tanga performed against my Rotmilan today, as the Rotty ROCKED! Still i expect that chick-flick was really good wasn't it Martin?

Rob

Easter Sunday...

Time to start making excuses chaps! Roundway Hill tomorrow i have cast my expert eye on the weather and there is a perfect slot between 11 and 2! Get up there, get the flying in, get back for Sunday lunch... PERFECT!! Don't take no shit from the misses... and slink out!

Rob

Good Friday ..... NO, EFF'ing Great Friday (cont)

Untitled from Rob on Vimeo.

Good Friday ..... NO F'ing Great Friday

Steady Northerly, a little overcast but no rain and 12 degrees of centigrades. Only one place to be, Westbury.

I rocked up at midday, fortunately I knew Rob wouldn't be out until 3pm so the plan was get out , have some good flying and some laughs with some good guys and then get off home before he turned up.

As I arrived and dumped the gliders down this was the scene

Chris was getting his hand in, Colin watching before the pair go off to the car. They both return with brand spankers to maiden. Chris had a new X models Whisper and Colin had a X Models Sword.

Mark the Wig Wam is casting his eyes over the models to make sure they are all parked correctly.

This is Martins ( not me obviously ) F3J Highlight. This model is 12 years old, in mint condition and I imagine in the year 2000 it must have been state of the art. Still looks bang up to date now. I think it took all of Martins skill to get it down, he over shot a good 6 or 7 times. In the end I had to go over and and talk him down!

We didn't have the slopes to ourselves today but we did do a good job of keeping them herded up one end of the slope. There was a certain amount of satisfaction when the sink came through watching them clambering back to the slope and a couple even went down to the bottom. Ha flaming Ha!!

Colin's Sword.. Cover off, electric on and pre flights in progress. This glider flew very well from the outset of the maiden. Its got a good high wing, easy for launching and landing

Marks 4 metre Multiplex Ash 26. We reckon this glider design is a good 20 years old , similar to Roberto's hair style. But , unlike Roberto's hairstyle this Glider still looks good. This landing turned out to be a peach

Nick and Graham came up with a pair of Luna's, Flew the Luna's and then went home with the Luna's. Graham is new to the sport but by heck he's picked it up quick



Rumbey and His Needle doing the Official Slope Junkie Thumbs up

Rumbey Tinkering again and below giving it one last adoring look before he chucks it off

And Finally. Robert, his RotMilan and the new Magnetic switch... see BLOG below. Unfortunately I didn't get away in time and had to listen to him while he bored everybody with the details of his new magnetic switch, this was going to save him time by eliminating the need to remove the canopy to flick the a std on/off switch. This is the same guy that has called the AA to the white horse twice because he has locked his keys in his car. Any way I watched him fumble around in his bag looking for the magnet, he then rubbed it up and down the side of the fuz for 10 minutes before it powered up, I am not convinced its quicker. Once it did get going he launched and it was clear to see he loves his new RotMilan and probably rightly so. Its ''SPAFF TASTIC''

Robert, a strange style of dress and the Launch of The Rotmilan. Not Good Friday, Great Friday



Martin