DAY .. 18.october 2006 - Diablo from RC-flight.com
Got to fly the Diablo in kind of rainy weather today and got two flights in. It flies as expected very easy and can be slowed down pretty much even with its 2,2kg. I installed a higher landing gear (17inch prop) and flies with a seperate Rx battery so could have saved almost 200g there. But as I see now the weight does not matter since it has a big wing. I could have wanted a bigger rudder for hovering and stall turns but no problems just me I guess...  Overall this set was of high quality and a very fast build and is ARF for both electro and fuel (and you know what I prefer..).
So why do I have this model that falls in between everything I have? Well exactly that. I wanted something that fits in the car complete, can be rocked around as an indoor model, does not need more space than a football field, is ready charged at any time and last I needed something to put my unused AXI motor and old 10 cell pack in ;-) Here is the cold facts: AXI 4130/16, APC E 17x10, 5 cell Kokam 3200, 4 standard JR servos, 4 cell 1100Nimh Rx pack.

Newspaper about the H M Cup

Yes I need to do some cosmetic work here... ;-)

Diablo just before first flight.

Flying my indoor heli

Autumn and cool water

First snow came and I helped clear the football field

DAY .. 18.october 2006 - Airphotos
My first airphoto in the newspaper ;-)
The article is about a local football club and their progress for a bigger club for the area

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The H M The King's pokal for 2006 goes to Jo Grini, Valdres
JIHAAAAAAAA! listen to interview on local radio (nor). .mp4 (3mb) and .wma (5mb)
From the National website and more info HERE:
Kongepokalkomitéen i NLF har besluttet at H.M. Kongens pokal for 2006 skal gå til Jo Grini, Valdres FK/Modell som vinner av NM i F3J. Det ble i år kåret hele 29 norgesmestre innenfor de 7 luftsportsgrenene, og blant disse innstilte seksjonene fem kandidater, som etter komiteens vurdering alle kunne vært verdige vinnere. Komiteen kom også frem til at de mesterskapene som kandidatene hadde vunnet var av en slik kvalitet og kvantitet (antallet deltakere) at de tilfredsstilte retningslinjene for tildeling av kongepokalen.
Vi gratulerer Jo Grini som er verdig vinner av H.M. Kongens pokal 2006!
Bilde: Seierspallen i NM F3J, Jo Grini i midten.

DAY .. 14.october 2006 - heliwork..
Today I took a few heliphotos after I had finished a sign I had been working on for the local football field (I have a big cutter/printer that can take 55cmxendless). I have been curious too the bigger SAB blades I have had laying around. They are 710mm instead of the stock 695mm blades and heavier but I still tested them on. Now I have changed both paddlers, tail rotor and now main blades. The paddlers and tail rotor did minor changed but changing the blades did a huge step forward. I now have not only a more stable model but also more response and even more power available. Wow.. And there are even better blades out there they say! Photos of me and heli by Andre. Cool rattling sound of the leaves in the rotor being cut
So what about sailplanes? Yes, yes I know I need some practice... But I am working on some stuff. I need a new DS model for next year and almost ordered a SRTL (great service from this guy on email) but then I found something that can do the trick or be better! Wait and see! It is kind of new thinking and I think nobody have used this for DS. It will be produced very soon I hope... The moulds are being worked on right now to make it DS ready. After I have tested it will probably be available as a commercial DS model.

DAY .. 11.october 2006 - Diablo from RC-flight.com
Working on a new medium sized electro model for the winter. I had a AXI 4130/16 that needed a home and my old heli cells can be reworked to fit here I think. The model name is Diablo and all up weight seems to be 1800-2100g deppending on battery I will use. With this motor setup it will be over powered probably and the landing gear was a bit low for my huge 17" prop so I made a new one. The set is very finished and looks good. It is even a slightly better quality than the Adrenaline but also here they had done some minor faults. Most important was the front pin for the wing that was a bit offset. But a Dremal fixes everything ;-) I equipped it with standard servos from JR. The model is ready for both electro and fuel and even the engine mount for a typical electro B40 motor is in the set. The throttle servo servo board comes in a separate bag.. Now thats what we like ;-)
I helped finishing Arild's new Pitts shockflyer and it flew great. Without battery it was 144g (6,2g servos). It had a bit short fuse but other than that it was a charm to fly. I got a flight with it and I think I need a double decker for the winter..

DAY .. 10.october 2006 - heliwork..
Got a few missions today. First I wanted to test DV video so I borrowed a Panasonic DVC-30 from the National television (NRK) since they wanted me to do some work for them when needed. The camera is apx 1,2kg but I did not feel it much. I felt I had to work the throttle a tiny bit higher but other than that it was ok. I mounted it on the side and that was ok but needs some tweaking. I have a undercarriage coming but are not sure what to use. I took 18min of video with various settings and ended with some manual settings. But low rpm on the rotor did the main trick. I also got some photos of the local football field from a new angle (early morning sunshine) a local guesthouse and later in the day I did a job for a local camping place. Very nice place but they needed to upgrade their website with new pictures and maybe also layout. Lots of extra pictures HERE. All heliphotos HERE

Got a bunch of good ones here

White balance was off sadly... But nice pictures anyhow

DV cam and football field.

DAY .. 8.october 2006 - DS
Heavy winds today so I loaded up the Crossfire and the  Micro Swift from Mibo modeli. The wind was heavier than expected with 25m/s+ so the Micro Swift had to stay in the car but the Crossfire wanted action no matter what ;-) My Tx jumped around like a cat in water but I finally managed to get the Crossfire out myself and flew 30min frontside and DS in the backside. The DS was violent but working good so after just 3 laps the speed was at the limit of the Crossfire airframe. Quite annoying not to be able to work the DS groove but when you can do 12+ rolls straight up and in front after 3 circles one cant stop laughing. After 30min I just had to take more than 3 laps and offcourse the wing fluttered ripping the elevator off. I had beefed up the elevator joiner but it was snapped straight off! Full brake and the model landed smoothly with no other carnage than my old elevators (I have lighter and bigger ones for F3B). The Crossfire is extreme in picking up energy on the backside. If you want a model to fly up to 150+ mph (250km/h) the Crossfire is the best choice I have seen out there (extreme version). But I think it is time to look for something else for heavy DS'ing... Called Espen Torp and he says the Opus now is beefed up with wider and thicker spar to make it "bullet proof". Maybe I have to get one of those or something. What I really would like is something around 2,3-3m that is just made extremely strong in every way..
In the evening I took some test photos of the local football field that I am making some posters for. Hoping for good photo weather tomorrow and will also take some different views. So good to have an electric chopper of this size. Testhotos costs nothing and heavy winds like today was no match for the Joker 2 ;-)

DAY .. 6.october 2006 - Indoor
Indoor season has started and we have the possibillity to fly indoor every Friday evening. Me and Arild was there. Arild flew his newly built Shockflyer while I flew my old 3DX mini, Joker2 (just checking settings) and my micro heli..
Earlier in the day I took some photos of my workplace (daily manager of a pub).

DAY .. 4.october 2006 - Adrenaline 2
Flew the Adrenaline 2 today and it flies well. A touch of rudder in the knifeedge, good control in hover by only small inputs and elevator gave no sign of wing rocking. Definitively a step forward from the Katana. Slightly faster in the landing as expected. I took the chance and changed the prop to a 22x12 and this pulls initial 85A dropping to 75-80 stable on full throttle. My regulator the Hacker 77 is not even hand warm after 10min of flying and the battery is just started to feel warm. Now I have plenty of power out of hover and the rpm is above 6000 on the ground. Found a small problem with the slots for the hinges being tiny offset. This can be seen when you try to get the two elevators perfectly matched. I could not see any problems with this in the air though. Only had one flight in a tight space at the local football stadium so could not do the full test of all aerobatics. Good to have something left I guess ;-) I need to adjust the motor angles slightly closer to the original setup. Other than that it flew well out of the box. Arild helped me with the photos
Missing sailplanes? Here are a cool F3B video from France and here are a larger version

DAY .. 4.october 2006 - Adrenaline 2
Got the chance to replace my Katana 2M with the new Adrenaline 2 from RC-flight.com. So I started working on it yesterday and today it is almost finsihed. The only thing left is some styling and fixing the batteries. The total weight is 6210g. I could have saved 200g taking of the spinner and wheel covers but I want them. My old 3200mah pack would also have saved me 450g compared to the new 5000mah flightpower (1350g). But again I like the new pack so well that it will stay. Might also have saved 200g if I took out the Emcotec BIC and double battery (total 310g 2packs 5x1000mah and regulator/logger).  I also think 6200g is a nice weight for a 3D/pattern plane of this size. All the equipment came over from the Katana and the weight of the Adrenaline is slightly lower. I did not stumble across any big problems with the building. The set is well prepared and is very ARF. A few minor issues with a holes ready for hinges were slightly offset, a bit more glue some places and links in plastic that could have been better (though I have used them on the Katana 2M with no issues). The styling of the set is cool and film used seems as good thick quality. They have stepped up a notch since my Katana 2M. Cant wait for maiden. The engine is the Hacker C50 14XL equipped with Hacker master 77 running a 20x10 APC-E and the cells are 10x5000mah that can take 100A continuous (I am only pulling apx 50A).

DAY .. 3.october 2006
Lots of rainy days now at this time of year but it cleared up so I packed the car and went to Klanten airport. I wanted to get the settings right on the X21 or atleast establish if it was the settings or the model. It was sluggish on the elevator and flickery on normal flight. So I started with half ballast and flew some speed to get the neutral CG. I then removed the ballast and adjusted the CG sligtly behind that. This was actually 10mm forward of the initial setting. And with some extra elevator, less expo and some kickflap the model started to fly nice. What I want to do to test the CG is a few things. First I trim the model in normal flying with speed setting in. Then I flip it upside down and want to see it fly with just a touch of down stick. I also want to see it do hard slow turns with lots of input without dropping a wing (tail). I also flew the Crossfire a flightjust to compare the conditions. Arild flew his 2m Extra a couple of flights and needed to adjust the needle a bit in since we are so high (800m). BTW on the photo with the heli Arild flies my new home toy... A two rotor indoor chopper.

DAY .. 1.october 2006
Ekeberg airshow.. Well not that big this year since someone forgot to inform the public I guess. But we that were there had a bunch of fun (atleast me). We flew two rounds of LSF (locally called Cirrus'21) and I brought out a X21 I bought cheap last weekend. I had not flown it at all but me and Rune Nessen shared it in the competition. It was way off settings so good landings was impossible but I made the times. The airshow bit was cool since I flew Katana 2M two times, the electro Joker2 heli with camera and my Nemo DLG. So I got a lot of flying during those two hours it lasted. More info and pictures HERE