Volare Products

Imagine a world where you’ve been flying Free Flight for years and years and, while you have had the occasional lost model, your efforts and skills do not require you to be overly concerned with flights over two minutes or fly-aways.  Such was my life until about 4 or 5 years ago.

Then something happened – I started losing models with much more regularity.  My planes were flying better and longer and were catching more thermals.  I decided to try my hand at the Dark Art of Dethermalization.  I’ve tried pop-up tails, pop-up wings, pop-off wings, and even swinging weight DTs.  And while building the DT mechanism requires planning and careful adjustment to ensure there is so little friction that the mechanism works, a bigger challenge (for me) has been “How to Activate the DT”.

In my own personal trek, I am comfortable with burning fuse DTs.  And when I say “comfortable”, I mean they are pretty easy to install, they are light-weight, and they work reliably (say 85% of the time?)  If they don’t work, it is usually because the fuse was not fully lit or that it was damp and would not hold the burn.  One problem for me has been an understanding of how long to make the fuse.  Hence, most of my flying buddies will know that when I set a DT for a 2-minute flight, it might be 3 minutes or more before the DT pops.  But I use them most often.

I have tried and tried (bench-tested) viscous DTs.  I even make and sell one.  But – and take this for what you will, even as a potential customer – I don’t trust them.  I have never felt that 85% comfort that a burning fuse gives me.  Try as I might, I cannot figure out how to set them to run for 2 minutes AND release the line.  They always either go too fast to start (but still have power to release at the end) or they do run for two minutes (but have no remaining power to trip the release at the end.  So, I do not use viscous DTs.

I have tried mechanical clock-work DTs (Tomy Timers), both homemade and commercial products.  They do work and I think they are reliable.  But again, – for me – it is a guess as to how long the countdown to release is.  While the mechanics are governed and the shaft rotates at a set rate, I am often left wondering if I have twisted in 3 revolutions or 4 – or how many.  In addition, they are heavier – 3-5 grams or more.

Now I have decided to try something new (to me) and very repeatable – an electronic timer with a band burner.

This is a small, single-action electronic DT, developed by Liav Hershkoviz and licensed to Bernard Guest of Hummingbird Model Products.  With the connectors provided (they could be smaller) and the 3D-printed mounting shell, these come in at just under 3 grams all-up weight.  (link at the bottom of the article)

I’ve decided to try these on my endurance models (where I am likely to encounter flights over 2 minutes.  However, before I mounted this in a model, I knew that I needed to come up with a charger for the tiny, single-cell LiPo 40mAh battery.  Bernard helped me find one that would not pump out too much power and ruin my little cells.  I found the AdaFruit 1904 mini-charger (link at the bottom of the article).

It comes as shown above, the small wire is the output.  You will need to hook up a plug to match the pins on the battery.  The connectors you choose are really up to you, but if you buy the batteries from Bernard, they come with a “standard Futaba servo plug”.

One of the nice things about this charger is that it runs on USB power and the power input is from a USB-Micro plug.  This matches my plans exactly – because I wanted USB power so that I can just use a phone-charger-battery at the flying field, if I need to recharge these tiny batteries.

But, this tiny board is open to the elements.  While I don’t plan on using this in the rain, I want something that will protect the board from abuse and short circuits.  I found that someone has designed a 3D-printed case on Thingiverse (link at the bottom of the article).  I downloaded the files and printed out a case.  I bought some “clear” filament, too, so that the charger LEDs can be seen through the case.

I decided to do my first install as a retro-fit into my Jimmie Allen Sky Raider (I had a home-made clockwork timer in there).  I removed the old timer and installed this one.  I built up a support for the board and then a cover for inside so that the board and battery were protected from the rubber beating on them.

After programming the timer (video link at the bottom of the article), I confirmed the operation.  I even made a video so that you could see how this operates.  Here I have it set for 15 seconds, but will probably go with 2:15 for my flights.  Once the time is programmed in, you just need to turn on the timer and activate it.  It will always kick at that time.  Here is the demo video:

Hummingbird Model Product Band Burner DT: https://hummingbirdmodelproducts.com/timers-for-free-flight/tiny-band-burner-timer

Liav’s Timer Programming Instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlEIlWheRuk&t=1

AdaFruit 1904 Charger:  https://www.adafruit.com/product/1904

Thingiverse AdaFruit Case:  https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2758551

It been just jam-packed around here.  Spring has finally come, although we are still trying to shake loose old man Winter (snow last Sunday).  I’ve been feverishly packing orders for all of you (all that have ordered).  I took a trip over the weekend to the Prop Factory and talked to my parents – and brothers.  I am heading south again this weekend.  It just seems I cannot catch up!

Spring is definitely here.  Daffodils have popped out locally.  Wildlife is appearing – turkeys, deer, and Sandhill Cranes have been seen in the back yard, not to mention all sorts of songbirds, chipmunks, and squirrels.  I love watching Mother Nature, especially those big birds.

Today, I took a little time and repaired three indoor planes before out last local indoor contest of the season coming up this Thursday.  I replaced a missing strut and patched a tissue hole on the BAT Monoplane.  I replaced a missing strut on the Stout 2-AT, but more importantly, replaced a section of broken leading edge and patched the tissue on that bay.  And my Turbo Cessna 195 suffered several LE and TE cracks – I hope it still flies.

After that, I took a flying break.  It is warm and calm enough outside that I took out some old Jet Cats.  I had built a super light (for me) T-37 Tweet that never flew up to expectations – well, never flew well at all.  It won’t fly ever again after today as I snapped off the tail – again – on a nose-in landing.

I took that back inside and grabbed another that had been relegated to shelf-sitting – my Fieseler Fi-103.  I built this a year and a half ago as an indoor model.  It has always been tricky, but it managed to win its first contest back in 2017 and I have always believed the design has potential (if not this model).

The fuselage was warped with severe bend right at the leading edge – the result of a few too many hard nose landings.  In case you don’t know, there is a tremendous amount of snapping force to the side on some of these landings.  As I said, the Tweet’s tail snapped off and this one had a big crack in the front.  I squirted some thin CA on it and held it straight and went outside.

right after building in Oct 2017

Jet Cats are a mystery to me.  But I persist.  This one – as all of mine usually do – required a bit of tweaking.  But by removing a touch of clay off the nose and adjusting my launch, I was starting to get some really good flights in my tight back yard.  Unfortunately, the launch would be a nice right-handed climb into a transition to….straight away, with little turn.  All this is on one loop of 1/8″ – half the rubber I would use in a larger space.

I took of about half the clay on the right wing tip, hoping to allow a left turn and walked upwind (up-breeze?) and launched.  The thing did its very pretty arcing power flight and settled into cruise about 50 feet up.  There was a little left turn, but not much.  But it did come around and headed for the row of arbor vitae that lines the back yard on the north side.  I know it was about 50 feet because that is the estimated height of these trees – and it flew over them.  I saw and heard it hit the huge old maple tree between the arbor vitae and the house.

I walked around and found my plane – parked as pretty as you please way up in that maple.  I looked at it for quite awhile as it is up higher than I can do much about.  I even got out my 35′ pole and lifted it as high as I could and was at least 8 feet short.  It is resting on two small branches at the nose and tail and pointing into what little breeze there is.

I am sure it will fall out sooner or later – but will that be before or after the rain comes?

I guess it is time to build a better one.