Lee.org

The bike for Burning Man is sweet. It’s in my back seat right now. From the ad:

MOUNTAIN BIKE, 7 spd Trek, Antelope 820, used 3 times $99.

(It’s actually a 21 speed, but that’s ok) And it was exactly as advertised.

I went into the city to pick up the final artistic results of a modeling session I did with PPG a few months ago. The show is going to open in Buenos Aries in August. It’s quite a stunning piece. I’m happy and honored to be a part of it.

EL Wire

(eeearly morning edition)

Hmm. I need a lot of electroluminescent wire for the plane! I’m starting the measurements and it looks like it’s going to take 11″ per loop/feather. I’m planning on 48 loops on the bottom of the plane, plus some outlining…. that’s at least 44 feet of wire just for the bottom! Hmm. What does 44 feet of wire weigh???

I have a sample coolneon kit with about 77 inches of the stuff. It weighs 1 oz +- 5%. So that’s 7 oz of wire for the underside… another 4 for the topside, 1.4 oz for a 9v battery. Hmmm 13 oz of payload on a 28 oz plane. Maybe not. I’ll work it out.

PPG gave me the really good idea to look for Egyptian figurines as a model. (yes, I saw her. I think our friendship will survive) I found Ma’at, the Egyptian goddess and embodiment of truth. You’ll likely be seeing an aerial Ma’at over the skies of Black Rock City in a month!

That’s Ma’at on the left and Isis on the right in the picture.

EL Wire redux

I took the Zagi out to do some sample flying

Zagi 400, 26 oz (including motor & battery but not payload) 292 sq in wing surface, Mega 16/15/4 motor, 6×4 prop, Zagi 8 cell 1700 Mah battery, + 10.5 oz of my grampa’s old tools

It flies just great… It flies a little erratic (probably because the weight is on the top of the wing, pushing the center of gravity up) and it’s a little harder to turn (likely inertia) but the big thing I was worried about was that it would sink like a rock and that isn’t an issue, and I needed to lay hard on the throttle (mostly due to me flying in 20mph slightly gusty winds just before a storm (I want to make this project happen NOW!)), and I had to jump a fence to fetch the plane once (When I took off, I lost a 1 oz weight that I had placed mid-wing, that started a leftward spiral that, in order to save from a really hard crash, I ended up hitting a fence and the Zagi tumbled over the fence… hence the climbing. I’m confident that I can put a 13 oz. lighting payload on a plane

Static thrust motor output: NiMH1: 16 oz, Nicad1: 16oz, LiPoly: 23 oz!

That’s a 36oz plane with 16-23 oz of thrust… very respectable for an electric. I had previously gotten used to getting 9oz of static thrust out of brushed speed 400s. Represented as fractions:

After crunching the numbers, I am resolved: just do it.

I’m buying a used mountain bike for Burning Man through the Want Ad Press. So much for the miracle of eBay. Actually, the problem with eBay here is: 1 – It’s hard to examine the merchandise online. 2 – shipping for a bike is like $50… 1/2 the selling price of the bike!

Out for a little spin

Phew. I’m getting used to it. The darn thing scares me it’s so fast! I took the Projeti and both batteries (I didn’t forget them this time) out to the Allamuchy park. I’m surprised to say that, even though it’s only got a 32 inch wingspan to the Zagi’s 36″, that field is only barely large enough. I would zip from one end of the 3 little league fields to the other in no time flat. It was also kind of funny… I’m used to launching while standing at my car and then walking over to a good spot while gaining elevation. There was no need for that any more since she gains altitude so quickly! In just a few seconds, she will fly nearly out of site. I had to try banking left, right, up and down just to tell her attitude!

But I like that I was able to pop it in the car, drive over, pop the battery in and fly. Electric is nice.

I’m a bit concerned that I’m burning out NiMH1. When I took it out of the plane on 7-11-04, it was like 300 degrees hot. The EPS had slightly wilted underneath where it had touched inside the fuselage. On 7-23, I only got about 5 minutes out of it while I got about 20 minutes (Yes, 20 minutes!) out of LiPoly1

Zagi Surprises

I took the brushless off the Projeti and put it on the Zagi. It’s too fast! I can cause dreaded Zagi Flap in level flight! Of course, this also means that I can run it at 1/2 throttle with lots of speed for a very long time. I frown a little at the Zagi for not handling high speeds well, but hey, it’s good at other things like crashing. Which leads me to my next topic…

I was showing off a little for some kids that moved in to a house on Alphano Road, the middle house. Actually, when I crashed, I wasn’t hot dogging or anything, I was just making a sweeping turn near a tall kite-catching tree. And who could blame the tree for not knowing the difference between a kite and a flying wing? I’m just glad it didn’t get tangled up in the branches but fell to earth. I think it might be time to put those coroplast elevons on. The balsa elevons are more CA than wood!

The second surprise was with the batteries. I attached the 8 cell Zagi battery and flew the Zagi. I was surprised to find no difference at all in performance. But shouldn’t an 8 cell pack turn the motor slower than a 10 cell pack?? I didn’t listen too closely but I didn’t notice any difference in prop noise either. Hm! The Zagi battery doesn’t physically fit inside the Projeti so that test isn’t going to happen.

—————–

Battery use estimates:

• NiMH1 is a 10 cell amalgam of the two old 1100 mah 8 cell packs. Those old packs had lost 1 battery apiece.
• LiPoly1 is a 2100 Thunderpower 6C battery
• NiCad1 is my original Zagi battery

.

First flight was with the help of a new friend, Dan, who lives just down the street from me. I guess I’ve been having some bad days and it’s surfaced…. My car’s battery is dead. It’s a bit stressful that I can’t drive where and when I want. So I went to the field in my dad’s car. When I was getting ready to fly, I realized I had left the LiPoly at home. Bummer. Then I reached over to the transmitter and turned it off. But wait, shouldn’t I have turned it ON?! Grrr! I left it on for 2 days: dead transmitter battery! Dan was kind enough to give me a hand seating my NiMH pack and he lent me his transmitter, very nice.If flies fast and high! It likes to go up! It’s got –almost– full vertical performance… With a little speed, I can run straight up for like 75 feet, which is PLENTY. It’ll go up at a 45 degree angle until it’s out of sight. It goes about 90-100 MPH in level flight!

The entire first flight, I flew it as gently as I could, trying to get used to it and reminding myself that this wasn’t a crashproof plane! things got a little hairy with the sun getting in my eyes.

The second flight didn’t go so good. I launched it, it flew about 30 feet and then….   well… large pieces started flying off it! I cut the power and it fell to the ground. It seems that the spinner had gotten loose and the prop vibration tore at the plane. The motor tore out of it’s mount, a not-so-important piece of the tail was chopped off by the prop and a crack in the EPS formed almost all the way across the fuselage about 4 inches back from the nose. :-(

Break out the crazy glue and tape! After a little while, I was ready to go again but Dan had to go (taking his transmitter with him. Jason showed up as Dan was leaving. He wanted to see it fly. I remembered that I had a home-made quick-charger plug for the battery and plugged it in. Surprisingly, I got a near-full peak charge after only 10 minutes on 1.5 Amps (the transmitter batteries are 600Mah AA batteries). I stuck the NiMH’s on and was ready to go in 20 minutes with a 75% charge. I prepped her for flight and let her fly! She went along straight as an arrow out of my hand, I pulled back on the stick and she dove into the ground like a lawn dart! AACK!

I had forgotten that Dan fiddled with my receiver, reversing a wire! I should have done a better flight test! I recall a quote from Cliff Whitney, “When flying inverted, down is up and up is expensive”. The motor mount had held up but the foam holding the motor mount, about 1 inch into the plane gave way, tearing about as large a chunk as possible from the top rear of the plane. When the tail came loose, it chopped through part of rear of the wing, leaving a gash.

Well, after about 30 minutes of gluing and taping, she was ready to go back in the air. I had tried to collect all of the yellow foam from the crash site but I was missing a couple bits. The gash in the wing remains even still. I got her up and she was great. Smooth and fast flying. She rolls like… she rolls quick. I was getting ready to try inverted flight but as it unsteadily came out of the 1/2 flip and nosed toward the ground a bit more than expected, I recalled that I needed more experience with the plane before doing to much with it. Suffice to say, she flies very well.

I don’t think it’s appropriate for the task I was going to put it to at Burning Man. She’s too small, too fast, too unstable. I need something big that can cruise around showing itself off. The Zagi is just about big enough but not stable enough. I’ve got my work cut out for me here!

I’d have taken pictures of all this but my aunt borrowed my camera. I’ll have it back soon.

Here is the Kavan web site (the maker of Projeti)

Caution: This Sign Has Sharp Edges

This sign and more here. Many of the others gave me a big smile too.

My reservation is booked, flying Continental Airlines
(all times local)
CO5653 leaving Newark at 6:05am, Aug 28th for Detroit (DTW)
CO6639 leaving Detroit at 9:00am
arriving Reno 10:32am

CO6510 leaving Reno (RNO) at 12:10pm, Sept 8th for Minneapolis (MSP)
CO5208 leaving Minneapolis at 6:53pm
arriving Newark 10:33pm

See my flying journal

The Burning Man…….. burning. From Steve’s Fotografik Rephlux – Burning Man 2003