Xplorer MK3 Build

By | |
49 Comments

I recently purchased a NAN Xplorer Mark3. After looking and marveling at the craftsmanship I knew it was time to put it together. I’m very lucky to live in an area with some amazing sailplane pilots. Jody Miller, Jeff Duval, and Dillon Graves are all local pilots that have a great track record for building great flying models. Jeff and Dillon are current USA F3J Team pilots and Jody was on the 2014 team. I’ll be enlisting each of them for help building my model. Starting Xplorer MK3 Build The first thing I decided to do was to cut the pushrod exits for the flaps. Even … Continue reading →

Purchasing an Xplorer Mark 3

By | | ,
4 Comments
Mike and His Xplorer

I finally did it! Six months of saving and a bonus from work allowed me to pull the trigger on an Xplorer Mark 3! This model is out of this world in terms of quality. Everything seams are sealed. There is no molding marks. The tail group! Oh, the tail group! When I picked up the rudder I thought there was something wrong. It was so light! For a 4 meter (154 inches) glider I am amazed at how light it feels. The size really makes this impressive. Here are the weights: Center Panel 591g Right Tip 234g Left Tip 225g … Continue reading →

DLG Flight Tuning

By | |
1 Comment

Having a perfectly tuned DLG is paramount to utilizing all aspects of its advanced construction. Doing basic flight tuning is necessary after you get your glider built. It should also be performed over time as your technique improves and if any changes or repairs have been made. Recently, I was greeted with an abnormal break in the weather which is typical in northern Florida in the early part of the year. I took this opportunity to get out and make sure that all my gliders were flying in tip-top shape. I headed out to this area in my neighborhood that is essentially … Continue reading →

Another Reason I Hate My Job

By | | , ,
Leave a comment

I’m on the “innovations” team at my work. I’m supposed to come up with innovative new solutions so that our products don’t linger in the past. All too often my team gets disbanded for a while to work on other items due to the nature of other teams. Our solutions are often held hostage by legacy implementations which no one will update or migrate to support the type of cutting edge internet applications my team is tasked with creating. Here’s a gem I found recently. We wanted task data from one of our systems. We were told that the manner … Continue reading →

2015 FSS Wrap-up

By | |
Leave a comment

2015 was my first year doing soaring events. I really enjoyed flying with the Florida Soaring Society! Now that 2015 has come and gone I thought I would post a quick 2015 FSS wrap-up. 2015 FSS Wrap-up In 2015 I participated in four Florida Soaring Society contests. Each contest consisted of two events held on a Saturday and Sunday. I actually completed seven total events. On the eighth event I lost my Gracia Maxi and didn’t finish. Basically, I really enjoyed 7 days of competitive soaring with a great group of people and had one stinker of day. For the … Continue reading →

HobbyKing NTM Prop Drive

By | | ,
Leave a comment

For my Sbach 342 I decided to use a NTM Prop Drive 50-60 series motor. The NTM Prop Drive motors from HobbyKing tend to be pretty good motors. HobbyKing doesn’t tend to market them as their top end motor so when compare it to their “nice” motors it’s a good deal. When compared to even nicer motors like Scorpions or Hackers it’s a steal! The NTM Prop Drive 50-60 360kv motor can swing a pretty big prop. According to HobbyKing’s numbers a 17×8 prop will pull 1900 watts. A 17×10 will pull over 2100 watts, 86 amps. This seemed pretty impressive. … Continue reading →

Update on FAA’s 400ft Guideline

By | | ,
Leave a comment

This is an update to my last post about the FAA’s 400ft guideline. Ever since the proposed registration was announced RCGroups’ Sailplane Talk forum had a discussion on the 400ft rule. I was catching up on some of the discussion there when I saw a post that mentioned that the AMA met with the FAA over some of the major concerns that members had with the wording placed on their site and in the safety material that was being used. A link to an article titled FAA Advocacy Meeting January 15 and 16 was in the post. Several important things were mentioned regarding … Continue reading →

FAA’s Ridiculous Drone Registration

By | | , ,
1 Comment

Recently, the FAA has mandated the registration of all sUAS which are greater than 250 grams. This was done because of the reckless use of “drones” or multi-rotors by people in highly populated areas and near airports. According to the Special Rule for Model Aircraft, HR 658, a community based organization, or CBO, can oversee model aircraft so long as the aircraft operate within the guidelines of the rules outlined. A gross simplification of this means that in the special rule a set of guidelines were prescribed and a CBO would make sure that its members followed those rules. The Aeronautical Model Association, or … Continue reading →

Gracia Maxi Obituary, Xplorers Are Expensive!

By | | ,
14 Comments

The Xplorer Mark III by Nan Models is the pinnacle of thermal duration gliders. It’s light, weighing only 1700g for the 4 meter version. The Xplorer line has a number of championships and wins to its name. I consider it the defacto standard for F3J gliders. Here’s a picture from the last Florida Soaring Society event in 2015 in which I participated: Of the eleven people which participated, eight of them flew some version of the Xplorer. This glider is so popular that I often ask other RC pilots who are not flying it why they chose something different. The reason … Continue reading →

System-less Root on Nexus 6 – Marshmallow 6.0.1

By | |
Leave a comment

Quick notice. I’m not taking any responsibility if you break your phone attempting this system-less root method (or any other thing I may mention). These steps work for me and have worked for many others. Double check what you type into the console. I suggest you read through these instructions once or twice before attempting them on your Nexus. This is going to be a quick guide to get to a system-less root on a Nexus 6 on Marshmallow 6.0.1 (build MMB29S). I’m writing this up here because I have a buddy that wants to get rooted now that he’s … Continue reading →