DJI F450 Speed Runs and More (+playlist)

Pilot RC Sbach 342

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Support My Local Hobby Shop...Why?

I have been at this RC thing for about a year now and absolutely love it.  One thing that I always hear is how it is good to support your local hobby shops.  At the same time, I always hear things like "every time I go into my local hobby shop, they treat me like crap and blame me for things that go wrong."

Now I understand that there are a fair amount of people that will go into a hobby shop and make it seem as though it is all the airplane's fault.  That must be frustrating to hear that over and over as a worker/owner of a shop.  Also, I am by no means taking sides on this topic.

What I think should happen is that people need to do a little more research on their own before they go and blame it on the equipment, etc.  What also needs to happen is that some of these LHS owner/operators need to focus on customer service.  There needs to be an equal effort on both sides.

I have been in many LHS that treat me like a king and others that simply blow me off because I cannot or will not afford the most expensive name brand stuff.  Maybe it is because they just don't know how to handle people.  Maybe it is because they don't care and have a monopoly on the local area.  Either way, I know that LHS have perks and drawbacks.  It is up to you to decide.  Personally, I like shopping online because of how easy it is to get stuff.  I also don't have a LHS that I can drive to either. 

Parkzone T-28 Repair

As you may have seen on the Wade's RC Hangar Facebook page, John and I were shooting photos the other day of the Parkzone T-28.  During the process of this, the plane got smashed in a pretty good crash.  Here is what it looked like:

This is exactly why we love to fly the foamies.  They can be totally trashed and still be easily repaired.  We decided to order the new parts and repair it.  The whole process took about 2 hours and that was with taking breaks and goofing off.  I documented the whole process.  In the following photos, you will see the process of taking it apart and restoring it to factory condition.  Also, all of the parts where bought through Hobby Zone online.  We frequently use this website due to the excellent service and superb shipping times.

First, we stripped all of the components out of the old fuselage.  Since we didn't need the old one, no care was taken and the fuselage was broken even more.  Here are some shots of what we stripped.  

These photos are where the front of the fuse ripped off.  Simply unplug the ESC from the motor and remove.  Next remove propeller, cowl, front landing gear and the motor mount (with the motor still attached) from the fire wall.  There will be four screws for this part. 

All of the following pics are of what we stripped out of the fuse and kept for later.  It is always nice to have these little odds and ends laying around.

Parkflyers Philips Mini Philips Head Screw Driver (Google Affiliate Ad)

During this process, the servos will be in there pretty good.  We just simply split the fuselage to get them out easier.  Then we cleaned them with a hobby knife to get all of the excess glue off.

Now that we had everything stripped from the old fuselage, we had to transfer it into the new fuse.  First we glued the servos back into the proper position inside the fuselage.  We used Gorilla glue because when you wet it with a small drop of water, it expands and sets very nice.

First, place the gorilla glue into the spot where the servo goes.













Next dip your finger into the water and rub a little bit onto the outside case of the servo.













Place the servo into the slot and hold until the glue starts setting.

 

Once the servos are dried or set good enough, hook the control rods into the servo horns and screw back on to the servos.

Airtronics AIR94322Z Precision Hd Bb Standard Servo (Google Affiliate Ad)

After this, we move on to the ESC.  We use the same method as the servos to glue in the ESC.  You can use a stick or something to spread the glue out in the proper area for better adhesion.  Here are some pics of what it looks like.

 

We had to let that dry pretty well because next we put the motor back on, the cowl, the landing gear and the prop.  While doing this, you will have to mess with the wires and you do not want to loosen the ESC.

 

Next, we put on the horizontal stabilizer and hooked up the control horns and rods.  Don't forget the tape on the horizontal stab either.  That is key or it could come loose and cause a crash.

 

 

Now that the rods and horns are all hooked up.  Put the receiver back into the fuselage and hook up all of the servo leads to the appropriate spot.  We did not do the main wing because it was undamaged in the wreck.  

Plug a battery in and bind the receiver to the transmitter.  Make sure all of the digital trim settings are neutral and then visually check the control surfaces.  They should be flush and not look like this:

Once all of the surfaces are flush and everything looks correct, the only thing that we had to do was connect the wing and aileron servos, do our control surface checks and take her out to fly.

We also did not replace the decals due to a potential paint job that will be blogged at a later date.

I hope you enjoyed the repair of this beautiful T-28.  Please leave me your comments and if you have any questions ask away.  There will be a much more detailed video here soon on my YouTube channel so stay tuned and subscribe.  Here is the link:

Wade's RC Hangar

Fly happy and fly fast,

Wade

                                            

Introduction

Well...this is my first post ever on the blog.  First of all, I would like to say thanks to everybody that views and posts on this blog.  I am hoping that this blog will help people, who are new and old at the hobby, to grow.

I love this hobby and will do pretty much anything in my power to help others out.  That is half the fun.  When you see the look in somebody's eyes when they fly for the first time, it is really cool.

I will have some topics of discussion coming up and hope that we can entertain and educate people in the hobby.

As always, please check out my YouTube channel and subscribe for more videos.

-Wade

Wade's RC Hangar YouTube Channel