Post by rod on May 2, 2009 12:42:31 GMT 1
Funny thing happened down at the pond...
I took my favourite R/C boat (1/72 Flower Class corvette) out of its display case today to give it a run down at the pond. The pond is a good 45 mins drive from my house, so I made sure everything was ready earlier in the week.
I haven't run an R/C boat for a while so the batteries needed charging. I charged up two NiCad's, got some energizer AA rechargeables out for the Transmitter did a test run in the backyard pool and made sure everything was in working order. Was working as well as it ever did.
When I finally got down there, I put it in the pond, ran it for about 10 seconds and then it just stopped. I could hear the motor going flat out but it just wasn't going forward. It had gone about 30m out into the pond too. First thought was, oh dear, the propellor's sheared off. Anyway, lucky there was a bit of wind and I waited about 10 minutes for it to finally blow it back to shore.
Not sure if anyone has ever been in that situation with onlookers eagerly waiting to see a boat go round the pond only to watch the owner sitting there like a goose waiting for it to come back in.
Anyway, took it out, opened her up and the little locking screw that joins the universal joint to the propellor shaft had come lose.
Now I usually bring a myriad of tools with me but there was one thing I didn't bring - the hex key to fit the uni joint screw. Nothing else I had was that small to fit.
So the day ended right there. Not a thing I could do. Packed her up, got back in the car and drove home. Spent 30 seconds finding the right size hex key, 5 seconds tightening her up and now as good as gold.
Moral of the story.... its the tiniest little unexpected things that will screw your day up...
Picture of my little friend here: She's quite a few years old now, but still holding up well
and the internals - not quite the spotless engine room. Sometime in the past I ran her at fullspeed for about the life of the battery and she got really hot. It ended up melting the engine mounts a bit.
Just thought I'd share my day with someone..
Rod
I took my favourite R/C boat (1/72 Flower Class corvette) out of its display case today to give it a run down at the pond. The pond is a good 45 mins drive from my house, so I made sure everything was ready earlier in the week.
I haven't run an R/C boat for a while so the batteries needed charging. I charged up two NiCad's, got some energizer AA rechargeables out for the Transmitter did a test run in the backyard pool and made sure everything was in working order. Was working as well as it ever did.
When I finally got down there, I put it in the pond, ran it for about 10 seconds and then it just stopped. I could hear the motor going flat out but it just wasn't going forward. It had gone about 30m out into the pond too. First thought was, oh dear, the propellor's sheared off. Anyway, lucky there was a bit of wind and I waited about 10 minutes for it to finally blow it back to shore.
Not sure if anyone has ever been in that situation with onlookers eagerly waiting to see a boat go round the pond only to watch the owner sitting there like a goose waiting for it to come back in.
Anyway, took it out, opened her up and the little locking screw that joins the universal joint to the propellor shaft had come lose.
Now I usually bring a myriad of tools with me but there was one thing I didn't bring - the hex key to fit the uni joint screw. Nothing else I had was that small to fit.
So the day ended right there. Not a thing I could do. Packed her up, got back in the car and drove home. Spent 30 seconds finding the right size hex key, 5 seconds tightening her up and now as good as gold.
Moral of the story.... its the tiniest little unexpected things that will screw your day up...
Picture of my little friend here: She's quite a few years old now, but still holding up well
and the internals - not quite the spotless engine room. Sometime in the past I ran her at fullspeed for about the life of the battery and she got really hot. It ended up melting the engine mounts a bit.
Just thought I'd share my day with someone..
Rod