Joe Nall Live coverage
Last week, Gerry Yarrish traveled down to Woodruff, SC to Joe Nall in order to bring us live coverage from one of the biggest events around. His coverage began on Wednesday, May 11 and continued through Saturday the 14th. He was on the flightline with video and camera in hand shooting some outstanding coverage from the event. When he got a chance to fly someone else’s plane, Gerry was even able to check off another one from his RC Bucket List. Click here to see all the details on Joe Nall 2011.
New Demo Team makes first appearance at Joe Nall
Horizon Hobby’s “The New Beastie Boys” Show Team at Joe Nall
Wow! One of the best parts of the Joe Nall Halftime Show was the formation airshow team “The Beastie Boys” from Horizon Hobby. This quad of 100cc Beast biplanes was flown to perfection and the presentation was awesome. Good going to Quique Somenzini, Seth Arnold, Mike McConville and David Payne. Smoke on, man! Click here
Kyosho Macchi M33
The summer is just starting to heat up, so what better time to head out to the water with a floatplane? This Macchi from Kyosho makes it easy with this scale 1925 racer. Intended for a .40 to .46 2-stroke or .52 to .56 4-stroke, this full-house model has a 57-inch wingspan and a watertight fuselage. It’s easy to access the servos and linkages via the hatch on top of the nose section, and a submersible rudder makes water taxiing easy. See you at the lake! kyoshoamerica.com
TECH TIP
Soldering Tip
By John Reid
You can puff the battery by getting the wire too hot from soldering, but if you set it on fire, you might be better off never touching a soldering iron again. Consider buying packs with the plug you need already installed; however, most modelers are very adept at building skills and should have no trouble learning the proper soldering technique for battery packs. The first thing you have to be aware of is that heat is the enemy of your battery, so be sure not to let it get hot.
To prevent heat buildup, you must develop good soldering skills. I stick to a regimented soldering technique when installing plugs at the end of the wire leads from a pack. I prefer to use the same plug for all of my electrical connections just to make life easier. On smaller backyard flyers with packs 1500mAh or smaller, I use Deans Micro Plugs. On larger planes, I use Deans Ultra Plugs. Because they have a very small space between the soldering tabs, I install only one wire at a time to prevent the pack from shorting. I always begin by securing the plug in a third-hand-type of device so that it doesn’t move. Before I strip off a little wire covering from the ends of the leads, I slide shrink tubing over both lead wires all the way down to the pack. Starting with the red wire, I strip off about 1/4 inch of covering. Then I secure that in the other alligator clip on my third-hand device.
To start the soldering process, first apply a little solder to the tip of the soldering iron and then place the tip at the end of the wire lead. Working quickly, apply the solder from the tip onto the end of the lead and then back over the bare wire. By starting with the melted solder on the tip, you can cover the entire area of bare wire with solder within a matter of seconds. This keeps the temperature from traveling down the wire leads to the battery pack. Next, move the iron tip to the plug lead and add enough solder to form a small bead of solder on the plug’s metal tab. Using a pair of needle-nose pliers, grab the wire-lead covering near the bare wire and push the lead onto the plug tap with the bead of solder on it. Press the tip of the soldering iron onto the wire lead, and keep it there just long enough for the solder to melt on the wire lead and the plug’s metal tab so that a good solder joint forms. This should take only one to two seconds. Hold the wire lead in place with the needle-nose pliers until the solder solidifies. Give it a slight tug just to make sure that you have a good solid joint.
I think that these are all great ideas and mini reviews
Keep up the good work