Merlin bash flies...

[t-turley]

I made the maiden voyage on my bashed Merlin yesterday afternoon. As usual, it was calm at my house, and quite windy at the field, on top of being just plain hot!! I still got in a 10 minute flight of just cruising around, with lots of reserve left after landing. Other than needing to put in more down thrust back in the workshop, the plane flew very well. Takeoff was in less than 10' on 1/3 power! Here are some details:

- Left off battery boxes and gondola, and made a profile fuselage from Sturdyboard, edged with medium balsa, and covered with light glass cloth and Polycrylic.

- All flying surfaces except top of wing covered with light glass cloth and polycrylic. Top of wing covered with medium silkspan and Polycrylic.

- Replaced stock wheels with 3" Williams Brothers wheels.

- Glued CF rods to LE and TE of wing, instead of just taping them in place as per instructions.

- Sagami 280BB, MPJ 5:1 gearbox, APC 10 x 7 prop, and 7 x 600AE, which I'll probably replace with 8 x 1600 AA size NiMH.

- Famous WWI Flying Ace pilot was cut from the same foam used to make the fuselage. All of the graphics were printed on an inkjet.

Tony Turley

[CalmAir]

Hey Tony,

You sure modified that Merilin! Nice job.

I have 2 questions for you. Are you still using the radio equipment and speed controller that came with it? What is the flying weight now with the 600mah battery.

Regards,
Dale

[2NG]

Hurry!!!!:)

Nice Job. I agree:D

[t-turley]

Originally posted by CalmAir
Hey Tony,

You sure modified that Merilin! Nice job.

I have 2 questions for you. Are you still using the radio equipment and speed controller that came with it? What is the flying weight now with the 600mah battery.

Regards,
Dale

Dale,

I'm not using any of the stock electronics. I got a good deal on a stripped down kit at a LHS, and went from there with my equipment:

Hitech HAS-03MB receiver
two CS-11 micro servos
Jomar Micromax ESC
23 oz flying weight

Tony Turley

[t-turley]

I decided to try my hand at photographing my own flights. Sheeeesh!! It gives me newfound appreciation of the photos taken by Gary. I was at the field by 0730, and put in 15 and 10 minute flights on the Merlin. I took 22 shots, and never got a single close-up. The first flight I was just too darned chicken to try to get the model very close while I was shooting. The second flight I had the zoom on, and none of those pix were any good. Here are three half decent ones.

Tony Turley

[flyinhigh]

Hello t-turly
man those look like some of the hills in northern va.how close are you to northern Va..?????Im in the front royal area right now I need to take some picks of my area jeeeesh its like I could tell you where near me just by the mountain ranges hmmmmmm ;)
MIKE

[Sr71fan]

Hey Tony!

Way COOL. Great job on the graphics, too.

As for the pictures.... I'd say they're really good for your first attempt. It takes about FIFTY shots for ME to get a good one. :D :D :D

Gary

[t-turley]

Mike:

I'm in west central WV, about 5 hours from you, but still in the foothills of the Appalachians. I used to live in Charlottesville, and I'm quite familiar with the scenery over there. Some of your landscape, like some of ours, is breathtaking!

Gary:

Thanks for the compliments. I think this airplane will be a good one on which to learn self-photography :D , since it is slow and stable, but both times I've had it out so far it's been quite breezy - even at 0730 last Saturday. :rolleyes:

Tony

[Sr71fan]

Tony,

Yeah, that calm air will make you look like a pro. Nice job on the Merlin.

Gary