RealFlight EF1 Courses and Planes

[DonStegall]

RealFlight EF1 Courses and Planes

My RC airplane flying isn't worth a crap right now. My FPV quad flying is getting better though. Because I have actually been doing that some.

I've been so busy working on plugs and molds (mostly EF1, but some F1, and old FAI) that I have not gotten to the local club in over a year. I've been flying little foamies on my field some, but haven't even done that in the past month. And I have a full set of nails on both hands right now because I haven't even touched a guitar in over two months and I haven't been trimming my nails.

I don't have an excuse for not getting at least a little time on the simulator though. I have planes and courses I have created on RealFlight for EF1, Club 40, 424 and 426, Q40, Warbird Racing and Giant Scale Warbird Racing. The problem with publishing them is that I have a lot of RealFlight expansion and Add-On packs, and the course and planes don't tell you where their components came from. So before I publish them I have to test them on a plain vanilla version of RealFlight.

I will get busy on working on sharing my simulator toys so others can experience them.

I went to Old Julian Airport on Saturday and my 3 pole flying needs a LOT of work. I have the 3 pole EF1 course set up on my field behind my house. But being busy and with the weather the way it has been, my field is way over grown right now. I'm going to have two day events of Club 40 Electric, Club Wingman, NMPRA EF1, and electric Quickie once a month on the EF1 course this fall from the end of July through the first of November. I will publish the rules for Club 40 Electric and Electric Quickie 25 soon.

This evening I worked on getting the EF1 planes and course online so others can play with them.

After I practice a little I will make a YouTube video of me flying the planes on the courses so you can see what fun you can have.

If you download this stuff and get it working, let me know. Let me know what you like and what you don't. I intend to add more scenery to the courses when I get time.

Get the EF1 planes and courses here: http://www.rcpro.org/content/nmpra/ef1/ ... fault.aspx

[DonStegall]

Last night after I published the EF1 RealFlight stuff, I set up my computer so I can do video captures of my screen using the gaming video card capture features.

I was flying on RealFlight 7.5 and the sun glare on the V1-1-0 course was bothering me. So I edited the course and put the sun at Twelve O'Clock High so that only if I fly over myself do I get a sun glare. On a three pole course, one should not be flying over themselves anyway. So between last night and today I prepared a V1-1-1 course and put it at http://www.rcpro.org/content/nmpra/ef1/ ... fault.aspx ... I did not make this edit for RealFlight 6 yet.

I will be making demonstration videos of the EF1 courses and planes and putting it on YouTube. Give me a few days to practice. Last night I forgot I could throttle back. I will do the videos at less than full throttle, then at full throttle.

The screen capture worked out great and I have already processed the video I did last night. It is smooth as silk at1920x1080p (HDTV). So I'm ready to make some demo videos that people can use to see if they want the add-on's and RealFlight.

If someone can test the RealFlight 7 courses and planes on RealFlight 8, and report their findings that would be great. I don't have time to get RealFlight 8 and do the testing right now.

As I further my designs for the Stegall Minnow EF1 and AR-6 Endeavor EF1, I will post them so people can try them.

The Little Toni V1-0-6 is my favorite of the EF1 planes.

I've got to get the updated Club 40 stuff online. There is some older stuff here http://www.rcpro.org/content/rcpro/club ... fault.aspx ... But I have updated some of it for RF 6 and RF 7, and I have some Club 40 Electric planes. The files on the Club 40 page were inaccessible, but are working now.

I've got to get the RCPRO Warbird and RCPRO Warbird 80 stuff online soon. Then I will get the 424, 426, and Q40 stuff online.

[DonStegall]

EF1 Planes and Courses For RealFlight

Installation in RealFlight from http://RFEF1.com and Adjusting Settings

This video is best viewed in full screen mode on YouTube at 1920x1080. Use the little box in the lower right corner to maximize to full screen. Press Esc to return back to a window.

https://youtu.be/apCAbC3ByyM



RealFlight Add-On Software by Don Stegall

Video and Flying by Don Stegall

Musical Arrangement by Don Stegall

Music created using Maschine by Native Instruments

A StegallHobbies.com Production

Don Stegall
email: don.f.stegall@gmail.com
704-968-2881

Links in this video

http://RFEF1.com
http://DonStegall.com
http://RCPylon.TV
http://RCFieldBox.com
http://RCPRO.org
http://NMPRA.net
http://StegallHobbies.com
http://StegallHobbies.Store
http://EpoxyFillers.Store
http://RCCalculators.com
http://RCCalculatorsPro.com
http://DrillBitCharts.com
http://DrillBitChartsPro.com

[ronin4740]

Thanks Don. I've gotten pretty good at nailing pylon 2 with the Endeavor on your course! In actual racing I fly higher than the pylon so this isn't going to happen - hopefully!

RealFlight complains about the Little Toni. Says it's based on a model I don't have... Which model did you base it on?

The Endeavor flies pretty good. Tracks about as well as a real EF1. The ProudBird not so much - the real one flies much better but won't turn as hard as the one you've tweaked reliably...

Chris

[DonStegall]

Chris,

What version of RealFlight are you using?

I built the AR-6 Endeavor from the ground up. Same with the Little Toni. Both are literally based on my plans.

The Little Toni is based on the .90 size Little Toni that Great Planes used to sell. It may be from the Airplane Mega-Pack Expansion. I will find out and put a note on the page. I did not check these out on plain vanilla RealFlight because I thought I knew the origins of the planes. I will fix that.

There are 5 Add-On packs that RealFlight had on their site, I cannot find them now on the site. I have them, so I will put them on my pages. I use the Viper from one of them (Add-On Volume 5). I think the Shoestring may be in one of them as well.

Try the new V1-1-1 course so you don't get sun in your eyes.

I work on this stuff so I have it. If other people benefit from it, I will publish more.

I'm bad about hitting 2 and 3 when I'm flying well. As you can see from the video, my flying needs much more work than my building skills. I clipped aa tree with the right wing tip of my Club 40 plane in the trees on the 1-2 side of the course at OJA while lazing around the course. I've got to get serious about my flying again if I'm going to hit my goal of racing Q40 in 2020 and beyond.

[DonStegall]

I have added some RealFlight Add-On packs that were free at http://www.rcpro.org/content/nmpra/ef1/ ... fault.aspx

Close RealFlight if you have it open

You will need to download them and copy them to your RealFlight data directory. Mine is at C:\Program Files (x86)\RealFlight7\Data

Open RealFlight and you should see Volumes 1 through 5 at the minimum. Look for the Viper in Volume 5.

Let me know if this fixes the Little Toni problem.

There is a possibility that the MegaPack DCK file will not load properly.

I will get instructions on the web page over the next few days. I have the original ZIP files and will add them to the page.

[DonStegall]

Thanks Don. I've gotten pretty good at nailing pylon 2 with the Endeavor on your course! In actual racing I fly higher than the pylon so this isn't going to happen - hopefully!

RealFlight complains about the Little Toni. Says it's based on a model I don't have... Which model did you base it on?

The Endeavor flies pretty good. Tracks about as well as a real EF1. The ProudBird not so much - the real one flies much better but won't turn as hard as the one you've tweaked reliably...

Chris

Chris,

I looked it up and the Little Toni is in the MegaPack. That one may or may not load. I will do some testing this weekend if you have problems with it.

At the minimum you will get the Viper and Shoestring in RealFlight Add-Ons Volume 5.

I have 422, 424, and 426 planes and courses coming as soon as I can get time to get the stuff tested on RealFlight 6. I don't want to do double work on the web site. Plus Warbirds regular and Giant Scale.

Have Fun

[DonStegall]

Thanks Don. I've gotten pretty good at nailing pylon 2 with the Endeavor on your course! In actual racing I fly higher than the pylon so this isn't going to happen - hopefully!

RealFlight complains about the Little Toni. Says it's based on a model I don't have... Which model did you base it on?

The Endeavor flies pretty good. Tracks about as well as a real EF1. The ProudBird not so much - the real one flies much better but won't turn as hard as the one you've tweaked reliably...

Chris

Chris,

Even though I had two Proud Bird EF1 planes in the box, I did not measure the planes and adjust the model in RealFlight. Main thing I did was change the thrust angle. The tweaks were minor to try to get it to fly better. I was hoping the real planes fly better.

Once you learn how to build planes in RealFlight, you can come very close to the way the real R/C plane will fly. Usually involves making adjustments to the size of the control surfaces, and drag components.

Glad you are flying them. Makes me feel it is worthwhile. I know it helps me.

Don

[DonStegall]

Has anyone tried the EF1 add-on software on RealFlight 8 yet?

I've been sick for about the past 5-6 weeks and haven't had time to try it. May have another colonoscopy in my near future as I seem to have active Crohn's lesions. I'm now on 40mg of Prednisone a day to not be in agony. It has slowed me down bigtime on a number of projects but I'm still pushing to get the Estrellita parts ready by next week.

I know some people are waiting to get RF8 until they know they can use my add-on software. So if you have tried and it worked or didn't please let me know here or email don.f.stegall@gmail.com

[DonStegall]

They say you can't please all the people all the time, but you can please some of the people some of the time.

Here's the title part right up front. I bought the RealFlight 8 Download from Tower this afternoon. I installed it, set up the controller with calibration, did no customization of other settings. It ran fine on my computer.

Then I downloaded the files from the page at http://www.rcpro.org/content/nmpra/ef1/ ... fault.aspx just like a regular user would so I would see any complications, and started up Reaflight. The Airplane MegaPack showed up, Then I imported all of the EF1 RFX files I had downloaded. Magically all of my add-on stuff was there.

I picked the 3 pole EF1 course and flew the SBach around them to watch for glitches or other problems. There were none. So I selected the modified Proud Bird EF1 with 2 degrees of right thrust and it flew just like it does in RF 7.5, so I selected the Little Toni EF1 that uses the visual model from the MegaPack and it looked fine. I flew it and it flew very well. Then I tried my AR-6 Endeavor that uses the visual model of the stock one in RF. It flew great. Still not my favorite like the Little Toni, but more realistic and therefore harder for me to fly well.

So all of the stuff for RF7 works on RF8. I started updating the page and all was going well. Then I tried to hit the page at http://www.rcpro.org/content/nmpra/ef1/ ... fault.aspx and I got an error. This page has a link to my http://fb.me/EF1PylonRacing page. I worked through that and everything is working now.

I then called Jerry Small who had contacted me about getting his RealFlight G4 or G5 updated so he could try what he had seen in my video. Jerry has great stories to tell and he reminds me that while I have done some cool things, other people did some of the same cool things a little earlier. We have very nice chats. I learn from him, because he says that some incidences in the past made him decide if he is going to tell someone how to do something, he is going to tell them all the details and tricks, and tricky parts. He might even learn a few things from me because we sometimes wander way beyond R/C and pylon racing. He is a great guy. I was able to tell him about the article that came out in print yesterday and online today. We talked about some other stuff until his wife made him go to dinner.

The past two days have mostly been great. I started getting emails from people praising the article that I worked on with a number of people. And that there was a pylon photo on the cover. I couldn't wait to see the article and how it turned out in editing and the pylon photo on the cover of the June 2018 issue of Model Aviation. So I emailed Jay Smith, the Model Aviation Editor while I was at the doctor's office with and for my wife's back problems, and asked about the article and when it would be online. He said it was online, but I could not find it. So I emailed him and he said the web site was being updated and to check in an hour or two. We got home and I ran upstairs to my office and checked the site. Amazing how I felt seeing a pylon photo on the cover. Then I found my article. No gaffs in editing and only a few pictures not used, plus nice editing of the photo titles. You can see it online if you go to viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5966 for my announcement of it being online.

This article was not just my work. I started on one Friday when I was having a Remicade IV Infusion. I get these every 4 weeks and they take 4-5 hours. I cannot usually be idle for that long, even though for the last one I slept through much of it. So I take my MacBook Air, my Android tablet, my iPad Air 2, and my headphones. The hospital has WiFi and I can use it well enough in the Chemo department that I can use Gmail, which is where I usually compose a lot of stuff because it almost never loses an edit and the spell checking is better with everything safely saved away in Drafts. And I can access the drafts from any tablet, computer, phone, etc to make changes from just about anywhere.

I actually wrote two articles that weekend. The other is called "Getting Into R/C the Easy Way" and I have a web site for it at http://GettingIntoRC.com, but it has not been and will not likely be published as the magazines did their own "lighter" versions than mine. So I will probably self publish it on that web site link mentioned. I actually shopped it to some full scale magazines and they are interested in a more full scale pilot revised edition. But I have just a few projects in the stove, and just putting it out there for free will be reward enough.

After the weekend, I started getting people to proof the "Sport Pylon Racing at the 2018 AMA Pylon NATS" draft. I got great input and even some edits from the group that worked on this. It was pure joy working on something with a great group of people including my wife. I hope it does not disappoint many people. I felt best when I brought the NMPRA part to the top and got very favorable response to that change.

I'm not asking for praise. Seeing it in the magazine and seeing pylon on the cover of Model Aviation is more than enough reward for me.

I hope you enjoy it, and use it to interest people who might be wanting to try pylon to give it a go.

I work for pylon racing. I work for RCPRO. I work to promote the NMPRA. And I work for fun. I typically work at something 10-12 hours a day 7 days a week. Producing things makes me happy. Enjoying life while I have it makes me happy. Even my detractors make me happy. So I thank you all for the inspiration, comments good or bad, and just reading or watching some of what I produce.

One more thing. Over the past week, I have created Team Stegall. I got the go ahead from the attorney today. Some of you may have received invitations with the agreement. If you did not and you are interested in being part of the team, email me and we will chat on the phone and see if it is a fit.

Enjoy,

Don