Big Dave’s Blog
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Magnetars and Fast Radio Bursts
My daughter sent me this great article: Fast radio bursts: Are these mysterious signals from deep space getting even stranger? The gist of the article is where do Fast Radio Bursts (FSB) come from? The theories range from “cataclysmic black hole collisions to aliens (even astronomers accidentally detecting meals cooking in their microwaves).” The main…
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Time for Some Upgrades
We’re coming up to flying season again, so that means finishing up off-season upgrades on the planes. Every plane gets a full annual checkup, but the Kam Aero got some upgrades, and the Ultimate biplane needs a repair. At the end of last season, I figured out a way to remove some weight from the…
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That’s Not Supposed To Happen
Got out early on Friday, and since the family was all off doing something, I decided to hit the field and get some practice in before the heat came in this weekend (forecast was for 95+ for the next several days). I’m finally starting get a more comfortable with the plane, so my sequences are…
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Kam Aero First Practice Flights
After several trim flights, I started working on practicing the IMAC Advanced Sequence. I have a long way to go — more trimming, more tweaking, more getting used to. This plane snaps a lot differently than previous planes I’ve had. Then again, it also flies smoother than any plane I’ve ever had. Loving it! Skip…
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Kam Aero IMAC Finally Flies
Back in My IMAC Airplane Odyssey and then again in Rookie Mistake Painting, I described my multi-year odyssey getting my Kam Aero IMAC plane finally in the air. Well, it finally happened, but it wasn’t without some drama. As I explained in Rookie Mistake Painting, I didn’t get the colors to match, so Kevin at…
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Rookie Mistake Painting
Weather finally started to cooperate for painting the big plane in the garage. Until this past weekend, it’s been surprisingly cool here in northern Virginia. Finally had two days of 75+ and low humidity when my schedule allowed. Time to paint the red parts of my plane. Everything was already primed a while back, so…
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Scientists Drop Absolutely Stunning New View of the Milky Way Galaxy
Saw this article during my morning reading. Scientists drop absolutely stunning new view of the Milky Way galaxy The above article references the main one. Billions of Celestial Objects Revealed in Gargantuan Survey of the Milky Way Space is so humbling. Here we are in what is generally considered a below averaged sized galaxy, but…
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My IMAC Airplane Odyssey
I know. I haven’t posted in a long while. Been a lot going on. I’m still fly IMAC, but I’ve changed jobs, moved, and crashed my main contest plane. It’s the crash that started the odyssey to a new contest plane. I’m writing this post to force me to ensure my new plane is ready…
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Adding the Motor
Time to install this baby: That’s four cylinders and 200cc of awesomeness. This will turn a 3-blade, 29 inch prop, and produce about 19 hp. It should be more than enough for a 40+ lb plane. First order of business is to wire up all the necessary electronics: Time for some more extensions… Next up,…
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Adding the Brain
I need to equip the new plane with a brain and servos. This plane will require nine servos. All servos come from ProModeler. Rather than use some of the more name brand servos, I decided to go with this small business that specializes in servos for military drones. It’s a great, local business where the…