So I started on the assembly of the Omega. I started with the soldering tasks, as there are quite a few. I didn't have much time so I figured I'd take care of the included battery pack, plus the ESC/BEC first. Armed with a new soldering iron tip, and a couple pointers from a few YouTube videos, I started in on it. Installed the new tip, and set the iron to 700° and went to it.

It ended up ... actually ... being ... kind of ... fun. Heh. I usually hate soldering. Most people do; it's just a necessary evil. But it turns out, if you have a proper tip (slightly chisel-shaped) and keep it ultra-shiny-clean, it goes really, really well. I didn't even need any flux. Usually wiring up an ESC and BEC is a pain in the ass. You've got a huge 12 or 14 gauge wire (from the ESC) attaching to the terminal of the Dean's connector, then you also have to attach a much smaller wire (from the BEC) to the same terminal. Of course, one of them always wants to melt off and slide away on you but with this setup I was able to do it pretty easily and in record time! The battery was a non-event.

Speaking of the battery though, I was pretty impressed. It was included with the power combo, and I thought nothing of it when I ordered it. I figured I'd just set it aside and use my normal batteries, which are Zippy Flightmax 30c 3s 2200 packs. They're about 184g. The pack I got with the power combo for the Omega is 172g with Dean's attached! Yes 12g matters on a sailplane. ;)

That's all I had time for, but it's done and it's something that's usually a pain. Attaching the bullet connectors for the motor <---> ESC connection should be simple. Then I've got to make extensions for the 4 wing servos, and solder the tail control links, and I'm all done with soldering for this plane.

The bird is still several days away from flight but at least it's starting to seem manageable.

I got the setup file for my transmitter for this plane emailed to me by Sal from NES. Very interesting. Most full-house sailplane setups on the 9303 are like I'd described in a previous post: in "Launch" the left stick up/down axis controls the motor, and in "Land" that stick controls flaps/CROW. According to Sal "everyone else does it wrong, I do it right." Hehe. The setup I got from him is simpler. One of the side-panel sliders (can't remember of it's left or right) controls the motor in all flight modes. The left stick up/down axis controls flaps/CROW in all flight modes. The other side-panel slider controls full-spam camber, in all flight modes. Much, much easier to understand and keep straight in your head.