Friday - Microsoft Flight Sim

Hello everyone, welcome to the last and final post...    of 2010. Today we are going to talk about something important to the aviation world, Simulators. Microsoft Flight Simulator is a great program for those who may be interested in aviation (as long as you have a joystick.) At the your local staples they may have a copy of Microsoft Flight Sim 2002 (FS 2002.) This is a great program considering how old it is and the price. You can fly at just about any airport in the world. One problem is the lack of airplane models, here I demonstrate how to add third party airplane models to your flight sim.

Wednesday - iPhone 4 FPV camera

  Hello and welcome to swashblade RC. I have some bad news today, due to severe wether conditions it was impossible to fly. It was really windy, there is a slight hop for snow tomorrow, which means snow flying!

  Well, today im going to talk about fpv systems, just about any small camera can be tapped to an RC car and be used as an FPV recording system. Here I used Duct tape to mount an iPhone on my Tamiya ta02. Whats great about the iPhone 4 being used as a FPV recording systems is it has both forward and backwards facing cameras.

  The setup is quite simple, just take off the body and mount the iPhone on the rear end hook, tape the bottom with double sided duct tape and run a piece from the part to another piece of the car.

   Observe the results:

Tuesday - Simulators

   Hello and welcome to the second day of the full week marathon! Yesterday I had a lot of fun launching rockets, that was actually my first rocket. Today was very rainy and windy so all my aircraft are grounded for now. When weather does not permit for flying a good way to keep your skills sharp are simulators.
 
  I have a few programs my self: Real Flight G2, Real Flight G5 Demo, Trainz 2004, Microsoft Flight Sim 2002, and Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3. For the best simulations I highly recommend you get the proper controller for that simulation. For a cheap flying sim pick up FS 2002 for only $10 at your local staples store. For a free RC simulator you can try out the Real Flight G5 Demo for free.
 
   Google Earth serves as a Flight Simulator as well,



   Well Tomorrow, who knows what to expect. If the weather cooperates maybe we will have some flight footage!

  -SwashBlade RC

Monday - Rockets

Welcome to the first day of the full week marathon. Today the weather was nice so we decided to launch some rockets. Wal-mart no longer sells rockets so we had to resurrect the old ones in the closet. They ran great, we started off with the mini engine powered skydart, but we could only find one engine. Second we launched the Estes Farside which was complete with broken fins and no parachute but flew fine. Just watch the launches for yourself.


Tomorrow we be another blog and video,

                                                      -SwashBlade RC

Week Marathon!

Hello and welcome to the last week of the 2010 year, I started this blog in November and there was a lack of posts in December. Well to make up for it, this week I am going to have a full week marathon of blog posts and videos. The Agenda includes plane reviews, computer programs, model rocketry, video games and RC plane builds. Enjoy the rest of 2010!

                               -Swashblade RC

                

Winter Break

            Finally the winter break is here, and since the weather will generally be rainy that means it's time to start building airplanes. I have a few on the assembly line right now, such as the FW-190 but others are scheduled for repair, such as the P-51D. It is quite possible that I will begin another balsa model, most likely a high wing bird dog.

            In other news I recently paid a visit to the Fantasy of Flight museum in Polk City, Florida. Surprisingly the famed Kermit Weeks demonstrated his P-51C Mustang, one of two left in a flyable condition. Enjoy the high speed fly by's Mr. Weeks performs,

               

            I recently bought Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, so I may post tutorials in the future.

                     -SwashBlade RC

The AR. Drone!

Today I was in Florida and walked into a Brookstone, they gave me a demonstration of the Parrot AR Drone. To me the AR Drone is AMAZING!!!! A four rotor helicopter controlled by an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad! And it all runs on wifi to about 150 feet. The range is okay but unlike most RC vehicles that don’t come from a hobby shop this AR. Drone is equipped with a real LiPo battery with a real amps rating. Replacement parts are also available from online or Brookstone unlike most helicopters sold in stores today.

For me I might get the drone and the apple iPad, I noticed that the camera did not have the best frame rate but the camera is obviously not for navigation purposes. The app store sells different games that you can play by yourself or with friends, such as AR. Drone pursuit which is essentially a dog fight.

The apple store was right across the street from Brookstone (the store that sells the tx.) I went over there and I thought the iPad is the perfect tx module for this quadrucopter. I decided that the iPad has better response than the iPod touch and a bigger screen for viewing the fpv (First Person View) camera.

Hopefully the AR. Drone is something that I will get in a couple months, weather I get during or after the indoor flying season I will make an awesome review that features both flying conditions. Just watch this video from Parrot Co.

For those who haven’t read my blog in the past, welcome. Feel free to check out my about page and click the subscribe button on the side. Also have fun answering the polls located on the side bar. Each poll will be open for answers for five days and the results will be displayed for two.

Later this week I have planned a trip to the Fantasy of Flight Museum. I will post plenty of pictures and most likely a youtube video.

                                                                            -SwashBladeRC

           

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