Tom Chalfant - Bronco Type XXIII

[MFR1964]

Excellent Tom, i will follow the same drill as you mentioned before, what happened exactly with your rudder?, did it become sloppy?, if so i'll add some bearings in the future, right now charging the batteries, at the end of this day we will now if i have succeeded like you.

Manfred.

[greenman407]

Good Night Run. Kinda exciten aint it. Yeah.....back when I had my pool.................yep ....those were the days. The Albacore has plowed into the side many a time. Thats where I learned what happens when you dont have enough weight in the bottom of the sub and you hit full throttle and your sub becomes a drill bit in the water. Yep.....those were the days!

[trout]

Took it to the pool last night.


It went well for the most part - i love how these conditional statements pop up - until the rudder issue that Mark mentioned pulled up. More later.
Mentioned to Manfred about how the sub sits on the surface with the aft lower.

Sorry about the quality, the video was particularly shaky. Who knew shots of espresso would effect him so (joking). So, once it accelerates a bit, not much, the aft will rise.

Then the bubbles start being released.

Then it runs nice.


Now the rudder got looser as the night went on until it could not make the turn within the pool. Time to stop.

[trout]

Thanks guys!
David, we will see how it goes at the pond. I need to build in the failsafes with the WFly receiver.

Manfred, I am guessing a little over 14oz or about 400g Thank you - I blame you for the detailing. I still need to do the snorkel!

Mark, went larger for kiddie pool! And yes on the batteries, the rechargeable used to hold out longer, but maybe LiPo is the way to go.

[greenman407]

If your radio takes AA batterys and you are using rechargeables, then maybe thats part of the problem. Alkaline AAs are 1.5 volts. So 8 of them make twelve volts. If your using rechargeables that are 1.2 volts, 8 of them is 9.6 volts. The alarm on my "Polk" radio starts going off at 9.2 volts. If its not that then swap a RX with another boat.

[greenman407]

I see that you got a kiddie pool too! I just got one from "Wallymart". $19.97....all day long. Its inflatable, so I can pack it away for future use. Its 100" overall so I should be able to get the Oscar in it.

[MFR1964]

Looking good Tom, i'm watching over your shoulders, still have to wait some weeks, but looking at your boat i know it will turn out good, how much lead did you use allready?, just curious, want to compare it with my boat.

Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Man! You got that beast dialed in perfect, Tom.

M

[trout]

I went ahead and replaced the receiver with another Wfly one, one the antenna is not cut and using the external antenna.
The sub is a little heavy in the aft and would not empty that last bubble in the bow.

Here is is submerged after I got the bubble out. It was still a little bow light. Just a smidgin.

I like the height of the tower out of the water.

There was a list to port side. Placing the weight on the starboard side, the hll was level. The tower was still tilted. I need to redo the mounting block.

A little tug and the block came away cleanly. Butting it back on was not as easy and I opened a hole to apply CA to affix the mount.

Once everything dried, I set it in to test it. The tower is upright and the hull is level.

However, the weight now made the sub settle a bit deeper than before. Why? Who knows.But here is how it sits.

Sitting this low it is one bubble from sinking of going negative buoyancy. So a slice of foam is added to bring up the tower a bit.


There is a little room. Not sure if it is enough, but for now I will test it and see.

On the surface, it sits were I like it.

Once the foam is set. Another test and then the pond.

[trout]

Thank you Alec! I was looking up LiPo batteries last night. I might make the move.
I was going to tackle the radio distance and trim last night, but Tina had other ideas for me. Tonight is another night!

[alad61]

Sorry to hear of your troubles Tom.

Have you thought of swapping out the TX batteries for LiPos I did in mine and to date have had great tx run time.

[trout]

Dan,
That is a good thought, my batteries got low, what seemed quickly, when I was testing the Skipjack after the first run. Tina went out and bought a package of alkaline ones to use. Which they lasted the rest of the day, so maybe the rechargeables are going bad or cannot handle the TX draw. Hmmmmm. The Type XXIII was run with really new batteries and the Gato ran after the XXIII.

[roedj]

Weak transmitter battery?

Dan

[trout]

Finger crossing not necessary, but thanks for the sentiment. It was my own fault for not doing a proper pre-check and not getting the sub(s) in the water beforehand. If it was not for the excellent design of the Sub-Driver, I might have been short a sub. So all blame goes to me. Especially since I have had great runs with each of these subs. Any change that is made, you have gotta test.
Given all the setbacks, it was still worth the trip. I met guys that I have heard about, guys I have emailed with, and guys that I got a chance to catch up with. Not to mention to see what others are doing! I would do it again given a chance.
You are right the next outing will be different. I (hopefully) will not make that mistake again.
Peace,
tom

[crazygary]

Gees, Tom!! I'm hurtin' for ya, buddy!!

Talk about a "Bad Day at Blackrock"!!

Next outing will make up for this one, eh!!?

Fingers crossed that all fixes go well!!!

CG