Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

The Goat Rope

As most who read my blog probably know, I'm a Radio Control, model airplane enthusiast.

In the past few years there've been developments that are revolutionizing the hobby. One of these is called "Stabilization" which makes it easier to fly a model in windy, gusty, and turbulent conditions. I hadn't realized how amazing this development was until I bought a Cessna 150 airplane (model) from Horizon Hobby. Learning to fly has not been an easy process for me and my record with a model airplane was dismal standing at twenty flights. With the Cessna I have gotten over one hundred eighty flights and the aircraft is still going strong.

Imagine trying to fly when the model is being buffeted around and threatens to crash at any instant. Imagine being a seventy-two year old man (who carries around a magnifying glass) trying to stay in the air and return the model to earth one piece. Imagine being able to flip a switch and having the plane stop pitching, bobbing and weaving and settle suddenly into a steady, predictable flight attitude as it settles in for a landing... instead of being jerked all over the place.

So how does this amazing technology work? Quite simply there is a small boxlike receiver that has gyros inside that correct for Yaw, Pitch and Roll. If the nose dips the elevator corrects instantly, if the wing takes a gust the other wing compensates. If the wind blows the nose off course the rudder makes an adjustment.

In Old School Flying, where I'm standing on the edge of the flying field, when I see a deviation I have to make a manual correction. This takes time and it's easy to over compensate. With AS3X Stabilization corrections are made automatically and many times more frequently than I am able to manage with my fading reflexes and eyesight. So it is not hard to understand why I like this new technology.

Recently I purchased at a Swap meet two large models. One was a Telemaster and the other was a Stinger. It embarrasses me to tell you how cheaply I acquired them. It's a buyer's market in the RC airplane hobby. However, flying them kept me on the ragged edge between landing smoothly and slamming down onto the field. So I went on line and searched, "RC model airplane ASX3 Spectrum." I thought I would buy a couple of these fandango new receivers and watching a U-Tube video would show me how to install them. Was I ever in for a surprise.

What I saw was a series of sixteen Videos, made by the the head tech guru at Horizon Hobby showing how the installation and programming must be accomplished. It was mind boggling and I initially concluded...."Forget this... I'll just buy another foamy model with this stabilization technology already installed... like I had with the Cessna 150. Anyway I decided, for purposes of "Professional Development," to follow along as one video led to the next and learn how to install one of these Stabilization Receivers.

The first thing that became apparent was that I needed a computer or smart phone to do the programming. "No problemo" I thought, my wife bought me a new Apple Smeart phone last year and I'll use that. So I ordered an ASX3 unprogrammed receiver and the chord that connects it from the receiver to my cell phone. Not so fast! This high speed phone of mine didn't have a hole to plug the audio jack into. DRAT! I had to go to Wall Mart to buy an adapter that plugs into the charging port of my IOS device...That's right an IOS device.... don't ask me what that stands for but it means a computer, phone or some other means of getting a video screen that will read the APP that needed to first be downloaded.

OMG! I thought as I opened the receiver box and looked at the "Quick and Easy" Fast Start up Sheet. In one corner was this "Square" that I was supposed to scan with my camera. It looked like the transmission digram for a piece of alien technology. You've got to be kidding me!

Stay tuned for installment two. This is turning into a huge goat rope.