Dual switches on my 46 3D plane

I have been reading about HobbyKing receiver switches and the cheaper ones appear to be single throw switches so if the switch bec

omes dirty over time, you could have issues or even a crash. So I ordered some more cheap ones (!) and have wired 2 switches in parallel to build in some redundancy. I used a Y lead but the connectors are all round the wrong way! So I took the plugs off the wires and solders some and put other plugs on the others. Seen is the switch harness.

Resoldering a Lipo battery

I have a 4S lipo from Hobby King which had 2 of the charging wires break. I wasn't sure about resoldering it. Some would dump it but I prefer to get as much use out of things before I dump them. I noticed on a Hobby King forum that a guy had the same issue and did resolder the wires... so I decided to try. I carefully broke the cover for the battery. The positive and a white wire had broke (then the black broke too!). The positive was pretty obvious but the the other one I wasn't so sure about. Turns out it was one of the middle cells. The only real problem I had was the soldering iron to use. My 25W didn't really have enough power to get a good solder joint. However my 80W; the bit was too big to get near the area to solder so I had to use the 25W. Eventually I managed to get enough heat and the joints appear to be strong enough.

Just a warning though. This battery is a 4000mAH 4 cell. It packs a punch if you short circuit it. Be very careful if you do this. If you are unsure, get some help or dispose of the battery.

This is a great site for technical aspects of lipos Lipo technical details

3D 46 size rc model plane

Here is my 3D 46 size machine. Its a chinese RTF, not sure who made it but it was cheaper as there were some pieces missing and the covering had some issues. Actually she doesn't look too bad with her colour scheme. I modified the servo positions.

Its a honey at slow speeds although I have wound down the control movements until I get used to it. Up front is a GMS 46 II with a non GMS muffler.

Beware of cheap connectors

I used this connector in my Fascination 15 and after a slight 'incident', found that that it slipped over the thread on the pushrod. May well have contributed to the crash. Use good quality connectors even in fairly small models.

Fascination 15 meet the ground

Ground meet Fascination (ha ha) Well we had a little incident with this model; slight damage as it appeared to spin in.

Fascination 15

I "completed" (ok assembled) a new model called a Fascination 15 which apparently was designed around a .15 cu in IC motor. I decided to power it via AC electrickry. I had a Turnigy 3530 brushless engine so I put that in it. Had to include 1.5 oz of lead to get it to balance for first test flights. Test flew it yesterday and it flys well. It has a really good roll rate. I need some expo in roll. Used

a 2200mAh LiPo battery. Might need to put bigger wheels on for our field.

Hobbyking ASW28 EPP (2M) Foam wing servo replacement

Well my Hobbyking ASW28 has probably had about 40-50 flights and as the servos are 'no name', I have decided to replace the wing servos with 9g blue Hobbyking servos. I haven't had any problems with the existing servos but the 9g blue ones are pretty cheap and should be better than the existing ones so I decided to give it a go. They are glued in place so have to be cut out. The servos are inside the fuselage when the model is assembled so as long as they are security mounted the look doesn't matter too much (as long as they are mounted properly). I saw a Youtube video where someone moved the servo out on the wing but I won't get carried away like that. Anyway, its nice having no horn showing with the current installation.

Having cut out the servo...

The existing 'no name' servo.

New servo ready for mounting.


Well after the first flights I was a bit disappointed in the roll rate. I thought the HTX900 servos appeared more responsive than the no name servos and therefore expected slightly better control but no. I've decided to mix in some rudder to improve control a bit.