The Tao of Walking Ridge

This panel has 11 links and 4 hidden gems - click on the airplane.

A posterized photo served as the launch point for this painting. Detail in the red - yellow range was then added by feel. It was a fun creative process. The blue was added last to provide some added interest.

Shopping - Brian Kelly, 2012 acrylic on canvas board, 9″ x 12″

Sometimes the simplest things can be the most baffling. I had an iPod and picked up an iPad. I wanted to see my calender on the iPad. Simple, right? But no. Coming from the Windows dark side and Linux I figured there would be a file to copy or an option to share button. Nope. All I read on discussion groups was use a “sharing service”. That didn’t sound like what I wanted.

Amazingly enough I never have found how to share old calender entries between the devices (what is the issue here Apple? You MUST know many of us want to do it.). But I finally discovered if you go into your Gmail account (others must be similar) and create a new calender you can then go to the settings menu on both the iPod and iPad and get them to see that new calender. But unlike the notes application, where you could do it all in device settings, you must enable the calender and add one via the internet to Gmail.

So, technically, “just use a calender sharing service like Gmail” is a correct answer. But until I learned that you have to go into the Gmail account to set it up it seemed unnecessarily difficult. Actually, it still seems that way. But at least I now have the same calender on both devices.

Biplanes are cool. As a first year pilot, this plane was something for me to work toward. I found its construction to be excellent and it does fly well, but I learned a bit along the way.

There were two options for power, a low power and a high power. The low power option was an EFlite Power 25 motor with a 3S 3300 battery pack. The high power was an EFlite Power 32 motor with a 4S battery pack. After watching videos of how fast it flew with the 32 motor, I opted for the 25 sized motor. While there was plenty of power, it came out a bit tail heavy. After some time trying to get the CG right, I still missed and the first flight was a bit more challenging as I realized that I had the CG too far back. Also, the stock prop recommendation of 12 x 8 resulted in some torque roll during take off and when throttling up after a slow pass.

So, rather than add an ounce and a half of lead to balance the plane out, I put in a 4S battery pack and tried a couple of different props with the Power 25 motor still installed. It flew well with an 11 x 5.5 APC prop, but really seemed happier with an 11 x 7 APC prop. Flight times are now 7 minutes without working hard to conserve power. Plenty of power for loops and good ground handling for a biplane. With a little heavier wing loading than other planes I fly (around 19 oz/sq ft) it likes to have just a bit of power still on during landing. Most other planes I fly land well dead stick, which helps prevent flying off the end of the runway. However, with the Rhapsody a bit of throttle, perhaps 20% or 25% throttle really allowed me to grease the landing.

The kit is well engineered, and the spare parts availability came in handy (I replaced the lower wings after a poor power off landing in a cross wind). I now find it a pleasure to fly and brings some style to the flying field. I highly recommend the 4S battery option, as the CG of the kit is expecting it. The motor and prop choice is personal preference. I prefer a little less pitch than their 12 x 8, and found the 11 x 7 worked well with their Power 25 motor for great flight times and good handling.

My most recent Ubuntu installation is Lucid. It has some powerful programs, but I was looking for a 2D cad program that could calculate areas and be easy to use. After trying SAGcad, freecad, and a couple others I tried QCad. It had the easiest interface that let me poke and learn. It saved in Autocad compatible formats. And it had a polygon area measurement. However, I was not able to find the icon to run the program after installing with the Synaptic Package Manager.

After some research I disovered an easy way to add the icon. First, open the terminal (the BASH terminal in Ubuntu rules) and type whereis qcad. Then open up the main menu manager and add a menu item. For the command line copy and paste the path from the terminal. Cntl C will not work in the terminal, but edit>copy does.

With the icon installed in the menu, QCad worked great. It is a great 2D cad package that can create professional drawings and also enable study of dimensions, angles, and areas.

Electric power technology for RC airplanes is really becoming advanced. In the last few years batteries have become more reliable and motors are now available in many flavors. Brushless motors can get near 90% efficiency. A complication is the range of choices. Various combinations of batteries, motors, and propellers can provide effective power. Some more speed, some more acceleration or low end pull. So many choices are out there that a tool is needed to sort through alternatives for any project. This free (for personal use, donations accepted) calculator let’s you look at choices. I sent a donation in because I have found it very useful and it has saved me money in burned up and underperforming bits. ECalc

Mark Freeland of Retro RC designed an original retro looking RC plane with wide wings called an e’Moth. Designed to be a fun flyer capable of staying up in the air for 15 minutes or more, it was my first build in more than a decade. The interlocking lasercut parts were fun to assemble. Marking the part numbers on the parts before removing them from the sheets was a good idea and helped greatly keeping track of the bits.

I personalized my ‘Moth in a couple of ways. The checker design is functional (helps tell top from bottom) and looks cool. Since the Clark Y builds flat I was able to tack the aileron bits to the wing with tape and line them up very well so control surfaces and wing checkers line up. Ultracote was very forgiving and easy to work with after that.

I also dropped in a Hacker A20-34S motor. This was clearly more than the plane needed but the results are impressive climb out with a 7×4 inch prop. The kv rating for the motor is 1500 which tries to spin the recommended 7×5 just a bit too fast resulting in high current draw. The plane flies will with the 7×5, but the additional torque at take off makes ground handling more difficult. The 7×4 does not stall, so it pulls as soon as you throttle up with little torque. It is airborne in 5 or 10 feet with any headwind at all. The 7×4 also provides longer flight times with this motor. I can fly 12 to 14 minute flight times with just a 1300 mah 3S pack. Yet there is plenty of power to penetrate a bit of wind if needed.

I also widened the landing gear a bit to make it handle like my other tail draggers. I made the track 6 inches wide and it doesn’t roll at all on takeoff. One hard landing shows the foam of the wheels just barely touched the wing with no harm done. Most landings are nice and smooth. I considered beefing the landing gear up with some carbon fiber, but that would have required opening up the slots in the fuselage and I wanted to retain the option to go back to Mark’s narrow Moth landing gear.

It is a handy little plane that flies big (rolls well off of grass runways) but can also maneuver in small quarters. Compact to carry, balsa, retro design, and big wheels to fly off grass. What’s not to love? Mark also answers emails quickly so if you have any issues during the build he can help (I didn’t need help with the build, but did ask some questions about the alternate motor and got a quick response).

And it is a taildragger.

Combine an initial “B” and a love for taildraggers, and I knew what the mascot for my planes needed to be. Inspired by the Sea Bee emblem, I revised it to be a bit happier, dragging its tail, and concentrating hard on the landing (as evidenced by the tongue hanging out).