Thumbs, Pinch, or Hybrid?

What was you flying when you changed I tried to change but I found flying RC Helicopters my reactions were to slow , if you crash one you can be looking at £150 to £550 for repairs so I stayed with thumbs

holtneil said:

I tried to change but I found flying RC Helicopters my reactions were to slow

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... Same here, copters are far less forgiving than quads .
Actually got good enough to fly them without gyros too !
Never got to the point of sustained inverted flight then landing rotor down on nail heads and such ... lol ... but could definitely hold my own.

Well done i fly scale a lot as I have a 500 size AH1 cobra

... HOLY COW that is one Badass bird ! .... LOVE IT !! ...

My best was a Jet Ranger with an Enya 60 in it.
Was working on a Dauphine that was going to be modded to mimic Airwolf (remember that TV show?)
but life happened ... lol ... and that project got shelved and eventually parted out.

I HAVE developed air to air missiles that launch from rocket pods and I've put them on many planes (ripping off their wings mid-flight
in prototypes) ... lmao ... and was planning on having secondary bay doors (behind the landing retracts) that would've been pretty awesome
for a Heli, but I eventually just got rid of pretty much ALL of my RC stuff for several years, until I jumped back into it with quads.

Since, of course, something like actual rocket launchers on any RPV are illegal I'll only hint at what I'd discovered:
ESTES model rocket engines. Get the "first stage" types with no time delay before the retrofire. This range limits them to self destruct
if they miss impacting a target before thrust is spent.

"Poppers", those little bags you throw on the ground that make a small bang on impact make for great warheads.

Slip-fitting the engines into open ended tubes so the launch energy doesn't rip wings off or destabilize the launch vehicle helps.

Those (old) flash bars for cameras that would "pop" camera flash bulbs in sequence each time a voltage was fed to them made
great igniters, with the benefit of "salvo fire" if the fire button was held down.

Disclaimer: I in no way recommend anyone attempting to experiment with explosives in any way shape or form and any information
herein divulged is strictly for amusement purposes and does not constitute advise to follow, or instruction for the experimentation in
any activities which are strictly forbidden.

Love that chopper, @holtneil !

That's cool stuff, Doc. The Estes rockets brings back the memories of doing that as a boy scout.

Lately, I've been working on some IoT devices (work related) and when I integrated the last one with Alexa (Amazon Echo), it gave me the idea to build a smallish autonomous quad for indoor use with a nerf gun attached. Obvious targets are the cat when he tries to climb the drapes and my lazy son when he sleeps in. This sort of project would give me a lot of fun things to learn about and so much enjoyment when I can one day say "Alexa, wake up the lazy bum" or "Alexa, perform cat patrol".

My wife thinks I'm crazy. She's probably right. But one more comment and I'll be adding her to the targeting system, LOL.

I have "Alexa" and think it's one of the coolest gadgets to come along in quite some time.
Anything you can devise that would incorporate her with autonomy in robotics would make for (imho) a fascinating conversation !
My first serious computer programming began with being taught COBOL in college.
THAT should give you some idea how long this old goat has been tinkering with such things.

Gyro Doctor said:

I have "Alexa" and think it's one of the coolest gadgets to come along in quite some time.
Anything you can devise that would incorporate her with autonomy in robotics would make for (imho) a fascinating conversation !
My first serious computer programming began with being taught COBOL in college.
THAT should give you some idea how long this old goat has been tinkering with such things.

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You've been at for longer than me for sure. I taught myself to program in BASIC when I was 12 and it's ended up being quite useful for paying the bills so far (well the programming part - not the BASIC part). I did a lot of work with optimization and artificial intelligence 20+ years ago. Getting back into it now for work - although they like to call it machine learning these days.

My current Alexa gadget is pretty simple. Just an RPI board with different color LEDs, a buzzer, and temp/hum sensor. All of the sensor and device state goes to the cloud - either on state change or every 15 seconds otherwise. Alexa can control the lights/buzzer individually (with no hub) as well as get the current indoor temp/hum data by voice. Just a learning project really. I've got a long way to go with quad building before I start on the autonomous one. Baby steps!

I wish you guys had been around when I needed to set my digital watch.

KentA said:

I wish you guys had been around when I needed to set my digital watch.

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... ROFLMAO ...

How about this one

.... Yep, that's the ticket !
I love when they use real turbines too.... that unique smell and sound they make adds to the coolness factor .
My rockets were almost exactly like his, relatively short ranged then exploded, but mine went a lot further, flew more straight and packed a lot more power.
I turned a PT19 trainer (mine) into a cloud of flaming plastic splinters with a shot once ... lol ... and punched a hole right through the wing on a P40 (some guy's) and was surprised it didn't set off the warhead (was just balsa and doped tissue) but he went down none the less.
We were dogfighting (streamers) and he about freaked out when I started launching real air to air rockets at him ... rofl ... ahh, good times.

Holy cow! The part of me that became semi-unfazed by 4 digit price tag cameras and lenses wants to know how much bank he's got in a model like that, but the part of me that knows how quickly that can crash and burn kind of doesn't.

Spork said:

wants to know how much bank he's got in a model like that

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Dunno, but my guess would be approaching ten grand or so, at least several thousands of bucks minimum, considering you can shell out about four thousand just for a turbine !
Like anything, you can "go cheap" , "middle of the road" or "high quality" and double or even triple the cost depending on the gear.

In 2008 this was £5999 then £2500 for the jet cat turbine which is not bad seeing the wren is the smallest jet turbine that will fit in a 700 class and is also £2500

https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=133s&v=n9w2V5a-3m8

Sweet mother of God.... I don't think that's a "hobby" any more!

When I was flying R/C helicopters, gyro was an EXPENSIVE option. We thought a tail rotor compensator was high tech. I flew an "American R/C Helicopters Revolution" and their later "Super Mantis." These things are a dream to fly.

... 8, 500 for the bird and engine THEN there's the servos, gyros, RX, and other misc stuff ... like I said approaching ten grand
(good guess, heh?) ... I remember when you almost had to take out a second mortgage to get good radio gear (Futaba was the sh*t
back then) .... I got a broken 8 ch for a song then fixed it ... humongous metal thing that weighed a ton .... REALLY needed a neck
strap back then ! .... And there was no such thing as FPV

That's some crazy big bank! Thanks for the info, everyone. Like any other addiction, I mean hobby, it starts small and grows from there.

I can only imagine the conversations that go on when the Mr. says to the Mrs. "So I need 4 grand for a new turbine".

I bought my first R/C helicopter wrecked in a box in about 1981. Was an experienced airplane flier and thought helicopters looked interesting. It wasn't that hard to put back together and a friend helped me learn to fly it. Only had one accident with it and the guy at the local music store took the dent out of the tail boom tube for me. The super mantis with collective was easier to fly, but much harder to keep working.