Back in the day I use to fly larger nitro and 2-stroke RC planes. My last large plane was a Funtana X100 with a DLE-20 shoehorned into it. Even that would have struggled in the gusty 18-20 knot wind I had today. I sold all of those though once I started flying GA. I'm getting back into RC a bit now on the smaller electrics so I don't have to drive all the way out to the AMA field and pay club dues. Keeping it just to things I can fly out at the local park for now.

@loddude5706 Thanks. I'll hopefully get some more flights in by late winter / early spring. The cold weather is really starting to set in now coming into January.

@@iflycentral Same in Sherwood - even the squirrels are moonwalking to stay warm : )

@13aceofspades13 It is a nice plane so far. Despite the wind; I could still feel how it was flying, and it needed no trim! That's a real rarity. I just need to add a negative elevator mix for the crow setting.

@JG300Stoopy Hi Stoopy! I don't know if they are connected, to be honest. The sim is free. The developer just asks for small donations. The sim hasn't been updated in a few years. What you see here is the latest version from 2019. I'll probably put out one more video on it just to bring some awareness to it.

@@iflycentral Ahhh, OK thanks. It looks pretty good for being dang near vintage, and they picked a good name for it... Pica had a ton of great R/C kits back in the day. Hope you're doing well, Happy New Year and I always dig your aviation content these days!

@@sceadu498 I actually put a screw through the one on the rudder because it was trying to come apart when I was cycling the controls. A drop of glue on the rest will hopefully be enough. Haven't had the opertuity to maiden this one yet. Too cold, windy, and rainy as of late.

@@pikewerfer what remains of my sim content can be found here: playeur.com/c/IFlyCentral/videos I don't know if that particular film exists anymore.

@ why did u remove it from yt??

@pikewerfer I lost interest in combat fight simming. Seems my audience did as well since viewership dropped off dramatically a few years ago. There were also problems within the community. I started getting falsely accused of having radical political views, which, as I'm sure you can imagine, ticked me off quite a bit. The YT algorithm wasn't helping either, and I was also concerned about my health at the time, and I wanted to focus on that. There wasn't any single thing that made me remove them. It was more of a combination of multiple issues. In hindsight; perhaps I shouldn't have removed them entirely like I did, but it felt like the right move at the time.

@ hey, your life, your choice. Though I daresay you deleted some of my favorite funny content. But I guess I will live with that. Thanks for explaining, I appreciate it. All the best!

@@13aceofspades13 it's crazy how strong they are. They can handle some ridiculous G-forces. They are just slow and apparently have difficult ground handling.

@13aceofspades13 I'd honestly thought about it before I ever got the kit. I could tell once I had my hands on it, however, that this would have been a bad idea. Thanks man.

@@loddude5706 stay tuned for tomorrow's video. ; )

Just take the battery out before they weigh it lmao

@@thewrightstuff7971 don't underestimate the governments willingness to hassle you. :P

@topmenace I might do that now. The ground clearance was obviously an issue with the landing gear. As you will see when I fly it; that will no longer be an issue.

Agreed; meaty enough motor, so 'Drop the revs, boost the boost & get your bird back home to roost'. Avoid pixie-roasting 'ye olde' ESC by demanding excess neddies for too long & you should be fine : )

@13aceofspades13 yep. Bit of a spoiler: I did get the weight down and flew it (a matter of minutes ago actually) and that will be in the next video. Still stupid the hoops you have to go through to comply, whether it's doing ridiculous weight shaving or using RID.

@@13aceofspades13 I think part 4 will be surprising.

@13aceofspades13 Theoretically; an iron is an iron. You can control the temps a bit better with a small one like this, however, one could use a clothing iron if they were carful.

@@13aceofspades13 yep. Well. It's also corporate interests. The Amazon's and Wal-Mart's of the world trying to control the 400' agl to ground airspace for "drone delivery" services.

The gear is not just aesthetic. It is positioned ahead of the center of lift, so removing it will push the CG aft beyond the center of lift. I will focus any weight reduction to behind the center of lift. There isn't much room in the battery compartment as it is. I had to order some small 400 mAh batteries in order to power it. The "original" supper glue is very thin. It seems to have worked well enough, at least with the brand I used. One of the things I want to do with this build is point out how stupid RID is. To show the lengths one has to go to fly without the red tape.

Yeah. RID really stinks. I say we start bugging Elon on X about it. He seems to have some sway with the new administration coming in. He should know how inefficient and wasteful it is. : P

@13aceofspades13 you will. With the career path you have gone down; the opertunity will present itself.

@jpatty5473 Thanks. It was a supper smooth day.

You can still access much of my old content: playeur.com/c/IFlyCentral/videos

@@iflycentral what!?!?! where was this for the past couple of years lol, glad to see it back I enjoyed your content!

@TBrownProductions it's always been there. Even since before, I took it off YT.

​@@iflycentral Don't really understand why you deleted them all from KZbin. Like fine if you want to stop flight simming, no hate for that. Also understand if you feel like you "wasted your time" or whatever. But that's *you*, and you shouldn't try to apply your own life lessons to other people. You weren't hawking cigarettes with your videos, it was just entertainment. I'd have them on background while I worked sometimes.

@asdfaljkshfalrsgha I understand now very well that I upset a lot of people when I did that (more than I anticipated being honest). I didn't think my content was that popular or impactful based on the declining viewership back then. It was the right thing for me at the time, and that's all I can really say about it. At least I didn't delete any of the Utreon backups, so people who really want to see the old content still can.

@@loddude5706 I avoid mushrooms.

@@iflycentral I fry them in butter : )

@SMcda manifold pressure is an option. I didn't have the sensor included as my sundowner is fitted with a fixed pitch prop. If I had a plane with a variable or constant speed prop, I would have added it.

@@iflycentral gotcha, thx for your response

@@13aceofspades13 I haven't heard them called that, but I wouldn't doubt it. There are often multiple names for such things.

@@13aceofspades13 I'd say so. : )

@PappaBear_yt I'm doing well. Have the same job still. I've been wanting to get some a2a footage of the fireworks for years now. This was my first opportunity where I wasn't working and the weather was good.

@@iflycentral Looks awesome! Just wondering if there weren't bigger fireworks in your area? On your video this one seems to be a smaller one. Is 7/4 being not big thing in US anymore or...? Almost none of yt content creators from US that I follow even mentioned it. 🤷🏼🤔 If you don't mind me asking.

@PappaBear_yt there were some bigger ones, however, they were in restricted airspace. Could see them in the distance but couldn't get close enough to film them. This one was close by and easy to film.

@@iflycentral Oh, yes - that makes sense, I forgot about restricted airspace. Thanks, bye!

They have been archived to my Utreon / Playeur channel. The link is in the description if you are interested.

@@iflycentral Ah I see. Cheers

I fly downwind at 2300 rpm or less and pull the throttle to idle before the base to final turn.

​​@@iflycentralso on your base and final you have the throttle at idle all the way to touchdown? I was always taught to set throttle to 1800 once I beam the numbers.

@AaronB1979 I was trained to pull the power to idle. It's one of the reasons why I fly such a tight pattern. If you fly a wider pattern, you will need the power to make the runway.

We don't really do that here. We typically use flight following if flying CC and use the altimeter setting provided by atc for their sector. Otherwise, we use the nearest AWOS setting. Breaking 10k isn't something we do regularly with the Sundowner. I've only done it twice. Once for this video and once crossing the Appalachians.

Thanks for the information. Didn't know that. We usually stick to ground QNH when flying through mountains. Can you remember the highest density altitude you managed with the Sundowner?

@@archer494 Not off the top of my head. I think it was over 2000 feet this day. It gets hot here in the summer. It's not unusually for my airfield at 216' MSL to experience a DA OF 2,000' or more in the summer.

Older video of my landing at a grass runway: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmqap5trl82mercsi=9TqwoKuxuaG8Rw4p I do indeed make that approach at around 60kts.