Home Improvement Tool and Toy Reviews

I thought that I would share my quick fix for my battery box that had come out of my Super Cub on my last crash.

The HobbyZone Super Cub is notorious for having the battery box ripped out of it because the landing gear are attached to it. My fix is more of a hack and isn’t very pretty but it is cheap, quick, and it works.

All I used was some tie wire that I had lying around and tied it around the fuselage make sure that it could not come undone. This should hold it just fine.

Today was my best, and worst, day of flying.

I had not had an opportunity to fly in almost 2 weeks due to the weather but had spent some pretty good time in the simulator getting my skills up to par.

Well this morning it was the first time in a long time that the weather was just right to fly so I head to my regular spot. I decided this time around that I was not going to practice approaches and landings but have some fun.

I had a lot of fun!

I turned the ACT off and started doing loops and rudder rolls galore! The only thing was that to do these tricks I had to keep the throttle at full speed so the battery did not last as long.

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The weather has not been so good here is Texas the last week or so and so I have been jonesing for some flight time.

I started searching online for RC flight simulators online and had found one that had a trial so I download it to try it. It was OK but you had to use keyboard controls (in the trial) and I wanted something that I could get used to the feel of the controller. The full version included a controller but was about $200 which is more then I paid for my plane.

I did another quick search and came up with another sim by the name of RC Plane Master. The site for the sim made mention of different controllers and the full version was only $40 which includes a cable for you existing controller (it wouldn’t work with the Super Cub controller though).

Anyway, I had a game $10 game controller (pictured) that I got at Walmart a while back for my PC sitting in my closet and decided to try it. Sure enough the controller work after configuring it.

 I setup the configuration on my controller to be the same as the Super Cub controller with the right stick for rudder and elevator and the left for throttle. I have almost an hour playing with the demo and it is really giving me a good feel for how to control the plane and saw a difference in my flying this morning with my Super Cub.

I really suggest the sim especially if you are new to RC Airplanes like I am as it will save you a lot of frustration and heart ache when you crash. Right now I am working on my approaches for landings.

I plan to purchase to full version for when I what to go 4 channel.

As previously mentioned I have not been having very much luck with my Harbor Freight Yellow Bee. As of right now I have 2 Yellow Bees in pieces in my garage. The main reason for that is that it is really difficult to get the thing adjusted right so that it will fly. If you do not have it adjusted right it crashes and when it crashes it breaks .

So I had been pleading my case to my wife the whole time and told her about the Super Cub. I had told here how I had talked with several different people about it and also did a lot of research about it online. I also told her that the biggest thing that sold me on the Super Cub were all the videos that I saw on YouTube. A lot of the videos were done by people that had just gotten them and they were up and flying in now time.

After a day or so of thinking my wife was ok with my getting one when I got the extra money. I figured that I could come up with the $160 within a month or two. (more…)

Quik Brite LED Lights - I just saw these cool little LED Lights on TV and thought that they were really cool.

See the thing is that I am really big on LED Lights. I have replaced the flashlights in my car with LED Lights. I have also replaced the night lights for my kids with LED Lights. I have seen that they have even come out with an LED light bulb. The reason that LED lights are so popular is that they are really bright and use just a little electricity.

That is what makes the Quick Brite LED Lights so cool.

See the Quick Bright LED Lights are little LED lights that run off of batteries. The Quick Bright LED Lights also have a little switch on them that you can setup to turn the light on when you open a drawer or a cabinet door. Since the bright little LED light doesn’t use that much electricity the lights last a long time.

Well I have done my research and have found the Quik Brite LED Lights (Sometime referred to as Quick Bright LED Lights) for a good price at Amazon.com. At Amazon you can get a set of 8 Quik Brite LED Lights with Bonus Swivel Spots for $14.99. Click here to buy them.

Technorati Tags: Quik Brite LED Lights, Quick Bright LED Lights, LED Lights, Drawer Lights

As cool as the yellow be is the wings just have a design flaw built into them. This flaw is the cutout for the motors at the back of the wings. This causes the wing to beak when crashing even if the wing itself does not hit the ground. I have tried taping and gluing the wings but they never hold up.

I had seen a post on a forum where another person used a wing from a different plane and it actually worked alright. I may try this in the future but I already have my eyes on a different plane - the HobbyZone Super Cub. I have read a lot of reviews on it, talked with the guys at 2 different hobby shops about it, and have seen a whole bunch of videos of it on YouTube.

Now if I could only talk the wife into it…

Well I decided to wake up early this morning and head over to the park to see if I could get some flight time in. There was a slight breeze with a couple of gusts of wind but I decided to give it a try anyway.

Actual Flight Time

After a few adjustments to the plane I go about 5 minutes of total flight time in without ant major crashes. I even was able to have a couple of smooth landings - cool.

Near the end the wind was picking up more and more and the on one gust it caused the plane to nose dive into the ground which caused the plastic nose to crack. I snapped the it back together and it looks like it will not affect the plane.

The other thing is that my tape job on the wing started to falter so that was starting to affect the performance. I decided to call it day and head to work. A storm is blowing in so it looks like it might be the weekend before I can give it another try.

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After the destruction of the electrical components by crashing into the electrical poll I went and purchased a second Yellow Bee from Harbor Freight yesterday. So basically for the same price as the one plane that I had received from Radio Shack I got 2 Yellow Bees - nice.

Plane # 2 - Flight # 1

I found a church that is building a High School that has 2 football fields next to each other near my work so after work I went to try out the new plane. After talking the 10 or so minutes it takes to get the plane assembled I headed down to the field despite the steady breeze that was blowing.

As you may have guessed the first flight did not last long since the breeze turned into a gust that caused the plane to crash. This crash caused the wing to break in the exact same place as the the first plane’s wing. The reason for the breakage was not because it landed on the wing put because of the whiplash effect that the downward pressure of the crash had on the weak spot of the wing.

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Harbor Freight Yellow Bee - where do I begin talking about this RC airplane other then to say that it is awesome. It is sturdy, strong, versatile, and cheap. The normal price for it is $40 at Harbor Freight but you can usually get it for $30. Just about every part is replaceable by calling Harbor Freight but you can usually get wing assemblies (front and rear come in the package) for $10.

 I had been eyeing this baby for a while and for Christmas this year my dream of having one came true thanks to my lovely wife.

My wife had originally gotten me a Horizon Hobby Night Flyer from Radio Shack and took one look at it and knew that once I crashed it that it would never fly again. I took it back to RS and took the money to Harbor Freight to get a Yellow Bee.

My First Flight

At first when I tried to get it to fly it would barely climb (more…)

Wow, I was looking to get a cell phone for my mother and father-in-law and found a Free Motorola C139 Cingular Go Phone that does not require a contract.

I found this at dealking.com.

This is great because they are not going to use the phone very often so I do not need to pay a monthly fee.

Technorati Tags: Motorola C139, Cingular, Go Phone