This year i am birnging a friend to the races, he is showing interest for sailing for the past few years.
This year when he was offered to sail bluelife #88 in the national championship series he jumped on it.
He allready knows how to sail, but competition sailing is something else, so the goal for the first race on bled, which is on the 19th in Bled, is that he finishes every race.
Here are some pictures of sailing together, starting with the rabbit method.
Both boats are as fast as they were last year.
Fila is faster, but blulife is a great boat to start with, and is in an elemnt of its own in very light winds.
Lookingforward to the next weekend, i will sail Fila, the goal is definately to win. :D
Finally, the car is set to chase down some CS/4wd drifters on local parking lots, and show them what is real rc drifting! :P
The goal is to keep the setup between carpet/slippery surface/ asphalt as similar as possible, because i run all "terrains" almost one after another.
The current setup is all about the tires and rear spring stiffness.
Front are ansmann touge tires, which are super hard, alowing the fron end to slide also, preventing the twichiness that rwd cars experience when there is no gyro. Rear are Hpi t-drift radials, which are not good drift tyres at all since they are grippy, and not very predictable. But with the backpack(battery behind the back axle) they work good, providing the much needed grip.
Front shocks are still vertical, with hard springs(equivalent to 3racing orange), rideheight is not limited or set, droop is as much as the shock allows=geat response from fron wheels even on uneven surfaces.
Rear shocks are tilted abit, the same as they are for some months now. Springs are 3racing orange, and the amount of preload on the rear springs is responsible for all the cars handling. No droop at the rear, rideheight is 8mm.
Asphalt is considered as the primary surface, because asphalt is everywhere and all drift meets/competitions here are on asphalt.
The focus is speed and agressive transitions(besides fun offcourse). I will have to work on tandem skills when i find someone who drifts near me.
Below are some clips of dialing in rear preload on some ruff ground.
Some MST tires are on the way, maybe those tires can make the car more balanced in terms of compound(front/rear)
So far so good, i am happy with the setup, feels good and is fun tho it is sort of intense to drive.
To sum up, i only have to change three things when going from surface to surface.
1.Tires: -carpet=hard allround(sakura stock/ansmann touge)
-slippery surface=t drift radials allround
-asphalt=touge front, t drift rear
2.Ackermann -at full lock i like some ackermann on all surfaces, more on asphalt and carpet to make the hard tires grip.
-less on slippery surface, because t drifts are to grippy anyway.
-the number is between 2-8deg, and is set by eye(but was also measured, once on every surface)
3.Rear preload
-very little on carpet, about 3mm
-more on slippery s. 5-10mm
-maxed out or some mm less than maxed out on asphalt
Additional mods to the car are:
-Lowered final drive ratio(using front axle pulley on the rear), better throttle response and less strain on the torqueless motor
-cooling fan to keep the brushed motor cool(can't wait to see the, so they tell me, outdated silver-can kick some brushless ass)
Preparations for F5g sailing seasons are ongoing, more on that soon.
That's it.
Yesterday the printer was printing some simple parts, one got separated from the build plate.
The sucker stuck to the nozzle, the filament path was blocked, pressure build up, and the filament burst from the back of the nozzle(where the filament goes into the nozzle).
Ok my mistake, i was not at home, my father did not see what happened, and some material got wasted.
Luckily nothing got damaged.
I removed the head, boiled it in water and broke the material of.
Then i cleaned the nozzle with a drill bit so it won't get clugged.
Lately i've been busy at school, so there is no real time to put into rc stuff.
But there is no good from a +2000€ machine sitting in the corner. So the printer is put to use, for the last month or so it printed some prototypes for other people.
This is a main frame for some computer device
This is the cover
Both big prints, but good detail was achieved on both, using the proper custom settings
Some guy is building his own cnc mill for wood, above are the prototype parts
Pulleys that will drive the machine, easily printed, light and very strong!
These are blinker holders or something like that
a two piece grip
here the support material is clearly seen, when removed the surface below has to be sanded to finish the part
Ambithious prototype keychain for a local custom car shop, pushing detail limits
Prototype of a candle shell
The first race of the F5g season is nearing, so training begins this weekend.
That's it for now.
Today i took some time to check and update Fila for 2014 F5g season. No major changes, just a wash, polish and cosmetics
The old rudder had a gap and a steel shaft
leaving rust behind
This was the prototype rudder, but it stayed with the boat for the whole season.
The 3d printed rudder(which has a refined shape) will be used on fila
The paint match is not good at all, but makes me think about doing a blue-white boat one day
The kicker
3mm thick 3d printed tensioners are used on all lines a new hook design holds them in place
the hooks are 2mm aluminum bicycle spokes
new jib weight, 20g lighter, hopefully i won't catch something on it
The super simple telescopic boom is making adjustments easy
The rudder looks bigger, and does not fit in the red-white-black color scheme, but it's functional.
I am not sure what boat i will sail this year. Maybe Fila or evolution. But hopefully a canting keel boat. The goal for this year is to experiment with different boats, incorporating movable ballasts. Offcourse the competition spirit remains and winning another national championship would be nice.
The past week a guy hit me up, via our national forum saying that he would like to have a F5g sailboat i was selling one from a friend, he also said that he has a fila hull, in original condition.
For about a year i've been trying to find such a hull/mould, so i could copy and build another fila, as good as it could be.
This was the boat from the friend, a competitive narrow design(hull same as #93, second in championship) I have sailed this boat before, it sailed well
It was sitting for about 3 years, so i gave it a clean and brought the rigg up to specs(new lines if damaged, seams checked/corrected etc.) It went with a b-rigg and another big jib, servos included
i got the fila hull, as it came out of the mould about 10-11 years ago
it's weight is 429g, battleship kind of weight
If it's designer agrees i will do a copy, the goal for glassfibre version is 300g(hull and deck) and 250 for carbon version(both nonvacumed)
It is not perfect
some original defects
The gelcoat was brushed into the mould and is uneven
I can imagne that this was really the best possible boat to start your model sailing career, it had lots of volume, easy to sail, plenty of material not to sand through and relatively easy to build.
The plan now is to finish the evolution project. Then make a light 2piece mould(so this hull does not get damaged) and go from there.
