July/August
When I wrote my last post in June my opening line was “We finally had a club day!” Clearly that excitement was a little premature. Since then we have had rain, rain and then more rain. In fact June & July this year was double that of the same period last year. No doubt we were probably spoilt last year where it was a very dry winter but we then suffered in the spring and summer where there was no subsoil moisture and the grass coverage seemed to recede as a result. Whilst the inability to go flying has been frustrating, it should have been an opportunity for the workshop to flourish. Spare a thought for those flyers in other areas who can’t fly in the winter every year because of adverse conditions, therefore we don’t have it too bad.
Greg’s Workshop
Talking about the workshop, I finally managed to coax Greg Robertson to supply a few photos of the activity in his workshop. The first are of his “Mercury” scratch built from Merv Cameron’s plans and Greg advises the following details –
- Wingspan 96″
- Weight 10.25lb
- (Greg mentioned that I had apparently bought the power train some years ago so I checked my records and found them in 2009!).
- Motor: Hyperion ZS4025 14-Turn 370-Kv
- ESC: Hyperion HP-TITAN-80-PSW316 – 6 VOLT SBEC VERSION of Hyperion TITAN 80A with TITAN WARNING LED System
- Battery Hyperion HP-LG325-5000-6S CX G3 25C/45C 22.2V
- Rx Battery 2s 2200mAh LiFe
- Prop 16×8
- Covering from Hobbyking
- Build Time – about 2.5 months
Just to give you an idea of how the price of electric components has fallen in the last 7 years (before Hobbyking), the costs were –
- Motor – $145
- ESC – $170
- Battery – $232
All up about $550 and if you think that was expensive, spare a thought for when we were buying motors, ESC’s, batteries and chargers from Europe and the USA. The benefit is they are all still running as though brand new and the airframes have no signs of oil anywhere!!
Here a few photos that Greg supplied of the Mercury.
Part 2 of Greg’s workshop to follow next month.