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Big Plans!

Rebuilding my Durafly Tundra took longer than expected, and the result was not good enough. So my plan was to do things right, this time around, and get new parts wherever needed.
That ended up in me buying a new Tundra all over again...




Because the area I fly in is pretty rough terrain, the Tundra is about the only RC plane that can handle taxiing, taking off, and especially landing there, because of it's big size Tundra Tires. My " old" Tundra was beaten up pretty bad by sitting in a tree for a couple of weeks, and all the things we threw at it to get it free. Things were so crooked, that it was unflyable, mainly because the motor mount was broken, and had detached from the fuselage. Normally, I would try to repair with glue, but this part was cast into the frame, and broken in pretty much unreachable places. So I decided I would buy myself a new fuselage. Unfortunately, Durafly had since replaced the electrical connector between the wings and the fuselage with new ones, so I also opted for new wings. And, you guessed it, from there it was only a small step to buy myself a completely new Tundra. And so I did!


I am now in the process of assembling it, and I have big plans, for as far as controlling it. I want to step away from my trusty FlySky FS-I6 transmitter, and FS-IA6B receiver I had in the first setup. Not that I don't like the cheap TX/RX combo - on the contrary! It does it's job beautifully, and has a good range, judging from the fact that I have never had any issues with the connection (only control issues, but that is more my own wrongful input 😁). Instead, I now want to move to my FrSky Taranis Q-X7S,  because of its more elaborate programmability. I also want to add stabilization modes, and maybe even GPS assisted flight modes, such as RTH. For that, I would need a flightcontroller, next to my receiver. Or at least a receiver, combined with a stabilization device, like the Eagle A3 series stabilizers. Or, and that is one of the reasons for switching to my Taranis, use an FrSky SxR receiver with built in stabilisation. Options, options, ...
I'll try the FrSky S8R option first, I think. And I am contemplating the Matek Systems F405 WING flight controller. That last one could then also be fitted back with my FS-I6 / FS-iA6B transmitter / receiver combo, because then most intelligence and stabilization would be in the flight controller. Or maybe 6 channels would not be enough ... Let's see where this takes me.






While waiting for my S8R to arrive, I got my second Tundra finished with the FlySky setup inside, just so that I could adjust all servos and connecting rods to be neutral at 1500 𝜇s PWM pulse length. Very tempting to go fly straight away with that setup! But as I want to add at least stabilization, I decided not to crash it (😏) until I had that receiver mounted, and properly configured. So that's where I sit today.
As you can see from the S8R binding issues post, the receiver has arrived while I was still writing this post. I still need to fix the ESC, receiver, and battery in a way that they cannot slide around in the fuselage, before I can go fly it. But a maiden is in the near future!


So stay tuned!

(and check out my facebook page for special discounts from Chinese webshops: NoHurries)

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