Flite Log summary...

[heli-cuzz]

... Let's hear how well or not so well your flying session was?

This morning I burned two tanks in my C-50. The first tank was more precision type flying, nothing inverted. Working on smooth low and slow flying. The second tank, I switched on the revmax and idle3 and worked on FFF rolls and loops. I felt good at the sticks this morning, going back out in a couple of hours to train a friend on the buddycord system.

[heli-cuzz]

This afternoon, burned 4 tanks all in idle up. Feeling comfy in most flying orientations. Working on pitch management during consecutive rolls and flips. Had a few minor tuning issues with the hyper 50, quickly resolved. The weather has been tricky for engine tuning. Today's weather went from Sunny and 42 degrees during my 9:00 a.m. session to spitting rain and a grey sky at 1:30 p.m. I had to bring my heli in once due to rain starting while in flite. This pic was about two hours ago.

[heli-cuzz]

Guess I'm the only one that flies. :p

I flew all week, tonite everything came together quite well, it was 53 degrees with a light wind{around 4 to 7 mph} the hyper 50 on its 7th gallon seems to be getting stronger. Had a nice smoke trail, so it wasn't to lean. Consecutive flips every way possible,forwards, backwards, let&rightside, also forward right and left angled flips. I flew my heli without the tailboom stabilizer. I like it.

[Helifino]

Great idea for a thread, I enjoy reading it! Maybe one of these days I'll add to it (if I ever get this trex finished) :o

[heli-cuzz]

:cool: Looking forward to it, helifino. I like to keep track of how my heli and I are performing whether its good or bad. Lately I've been happy with my flite performance.

[heliry2]

great idea for a thread be with you saturday been to busy
today. now i,m changing a couple shafts and blades
right now. i guess you know how yesterday ended

[heli-cuzz]

Today was epic. I remember there was a day I hated any wind even a slight breeze when i was learning to hover and fly. It would make me tense up. My flying has progressed so much since this past august. Anyway, the wind was 20m.p.h today at my field. The 50 slices the wind with hardly any signs of being pushed around. Use the wind to your advantage, you can do rocket-like vertical tailboom pitch-pumps and lots of other fun manuevers. Needless to say, I don't cuss at the wind anymore. LoL

[heli-cuzz]

I just got back from the church parking lot. I love flying my 50 in public. I call it helihorrification. :D There was an 8 m.p.h. crosswind that made my forward and backward flips a little more difficult to keep stationary with no drift. My flips are getting smoother. Learning how to manage my pitch makes flying so much easier and less bogging of the motor. I burnt up two tanks of fuel in my heli{about twenty minutes flite-time} I remember when one tank seemed like an eternity, now its not enough. As usual, the last 5 minutes I tone it down and fly more relaxed so i don't get rusty in SFF{slow forward flite} and auto practice. Must go over every manuever to keep sharp on the controls.

[heli-cuzz]

Just got back from flying. I tried a new spot behind the highway dept. building near my home. Theres about a 75 yard clearing behind the building, then it's trees all the way up the mountain. I flew two tanks of fuel in my Caliber50. I went through every manuever I know so far. There are manuevers I do that I have no idea what, or, if there is a name for it. :D There's one manuever I was working on inparticular during the second tank. I start off by FFF in a long high circuit {clock or anti-clockwise} then start descending towards my side {left or right} but with full positive pitch to build up forward speed, about 15 feet off the deck by the time its in front of me with full speed ahead, I start applying up elevator, as the heli becomes vertical {boom pointing towards ground} I back off on the pitch to zero {mid-stick} and apply full aileron cyclic then full up elevator. The result is a vertical climb with a roll to a back flip to a tail drop. No idea if there's a name, I'm sure its been done before, but it looks cool. :cool: Finished out the day with 5 autos for good practice.
Time for dinner now. :D

Brian

p.s. I'll never fly that spot again. to dusty. :mad:

[blax1]

Gidday Cuzz
Dust!!! This joint is really drying up, the draught just goes on and on, and the bushfire season is here :( . Anyway you are obviously having great fun with your Cal- and you really have a handle on it!! Sounds great!! :) As you know my Rex is in the hanger (still waiting on servo mount) In the mean time I’ve been fanging around with the CX (as much as you can) and getting a lot of practice on the G3 sim I’m having great fun with that sportz dog/sun dog 60 chopper, :cool: that thing really motivates itself around the sod farm been doing flips, roll, inverted flying etc, Tonight I’m going to check out the tic toc and give that a go, I love the sim it has really helped me with flying and its cheap when you prang. :D
Cheers Ralph

[heli-cuzz]

That's awesome, ralph. :cool:

[helidad]

I tried to hover last friday and I inded up having a tailboom strike. I was about a foot in the air trying to steady it out when the nose started coming up. I tried to get the nose to come back down but it wouldn't respond to my inputs. It went pretty fast but it seemed like time stood still watching it crash. It got to the point where the nose was almost straight up in the air so i chopped the throttle and let it hit the ground. The damage was a tail boom, set of rotor blades, and a couple of linkages i can not find. I guess it could of been worse. Also i broke all four rods on my set of training gear. It was an expensive lesson but I think I know what caused the acident.

[heli-cuzz]

Sorry to hear helidad. Make sure you check the mainshaft and spindle for any bends. That's good if you know what the problem was. Correct it and fly again. :D
Goodluck

[blax1]

Hello Helidad
In the beginning it isn’t easy, time will sort it out for you, we have all been there. But two things to discuss they are --- Not being there its hard to see what actually happened but it sounds like the centre of gravity is way off!! Far too tail heavy, turn rotor head so fly bar is 90degrees to the fuselage, pick Heli- up by the fly bar, the nose should lean slightly forward this so it will fly away from you (much safer)it will also want to go left because of rotational torque effect you must counter this reaction by trim or by cyclic input, maybe the training gear is effecting the C of G, also never just shut down the throttle (yes I know its just instinct) but try to go for altitude---- Altitude is your friend (I‘m sure you have heard that before) you must have plenty of space around you to fly it, and try to get it between 4-5 feet in the air out of the rotor wake, once you achieve that height the chopper should become more stable and easier to control than at lower levels, this is all provided you have set her up properly--- I probably just told you a heap of stuff you already know,
But I hope it helps :)
Cheers Ralph

[heli-cuzz]

He has a Caliber30, there are no issues with the heli being tail heavy, if its slight, you can try moving the battery forward, or just a couple of clicks on forward elevator.

[heli-cuzz]

I flew @ the schoolyard around 6:00 p.m. earlier today. Everything just keeps coming together. No close calls, no quick heartpounding scares, my heli goes where I want it to. The hyper50 is on its 8th gallon of fuel and its seems to be getting better and better. I was messing around hovering about 80 to 100 feet off the deck, bring it to zero pitch while simultaneously pulling back on the elevator, end result, a quick descending vertical back flip, also i was autocrazy starting with nose-in descents while turning the heli on the approach to landing. I had a blast flying today.... That's all!

Brian

[heli-cuzz]

Tonite was the church parking lot. :D This guy that lives across the street came over and told me he was interested in helis. He said every hobbyshop that he's been to, they tell him don't buy a helicopter, its to difficult to learn. I gave him the real deal, and a heli-show.
I flew two tanks as usual and no problems. No practice even though its all practice. Flips, rolls, loops, 540 stall turns, nose down blade in funnels, hovering inverted 1 foot off the asphalt in every orientation{nose-in, out, left, right} and some tail down tic-toc action about fifteen feet up. needless to say, I think that guy is going to buy a heli. :D

[tdswan]

Haven't flown since my birthday. :(

[mkoutnik]

I wish I could add to this post, I really stink at flying... :o

But, I met a couple of guys at the local hobby shop that fly blade CP's once a week indoors in a gynasium. And they said they would help me get started...because I desparately need help to make sure my bird is set up properly. Hopefully Friday I'll have my first hover!! :D

[blax1]

Hey Hey!! great stuff GO for it :D
It aint easy on your own :)
Believe me I know, its been a tough road (so to speak)
but its coming together now, the same will happen for you too :)

[heli-cuzz]

Tic-toc practice, tail down, and tail in tic-tocs. Flips rolls, loops, and autos.
No crashes, Yay :cool: Only one tank full tonite. :(

[tdswan]

Finally got the T-Rex out of the mothballs and fired it up for the first time in a while. Put a new tail servo on it and got 'er all dialed in. Went to the local indoor fly at our junior high gym in town. First 3 flights went alright until......The heli started to need forward trim. It had never needed it before, so I adjusted it a few clicks and tried it. It still needed forward trim, a few more clicks and flew it some more.....All of a sudden the elevator servo pulled the cyclic all the way back. The blades struck the tail and she fell out of the air. Not good. Looks as though all of the electronics are salvagable. I haven't tallied up the parts yet. What a disappointment. :(

[blax1]

:( Sorry to hear that Td, sometimes it take months to get these things set up and only seconds to destroy them, I assume you will rebuild her or buy a bare bones kit and install what you have left.
Cheers

[heli-cuzz]

That happened to my rex a few months back. Now she's a pile of parts. On the other hand, my Caliber5 just finished its 8th gallon of fuel. Today was another great day. Was doing some type of tail slide or dives. Climb full up vertical, bring to zero pitch and see how far you can drop to the ground tail first before pulling out. I was about twenty feet at my lowest pull-out, that gets the adrenaline going. Autos, flips, rolls, consecutive, consecutive, times. My pitch management is getting much better.

Sorry to hear about the rex td. :(

[heli-cuzz]

I went over my Caliber last nite. Found one minor problem, the magnet sensor was lost in flite yesterday. No big deal though. :D I still can stunt fly it in idle 1 with throttle curves set accordingly. :cool:

[tdswan]

[QUOTE=blax1 I assume you will rebuild her or buy a bare bones kit and install what you have left.
Cheers[/QUOTE]
Already rebuilt. Went to the LHS the next day and rebuilt it last night.

[blax1]

You die-hard heli-person :) thats great news I thought you might shelve it for a while :D

[heli-cuzz]

You die-hard heli-person :) thats great news I thought you might shelve it for a while :D


Like me :eek:

BTW, there's two helis there... Caliber30 and Trex :( Time to fix em'

[blax1]

It certainly is a busy photo that!! :)
Oh well one day you will get motivated and sort them :D

[superflyer]

Well got the New CX. Let dad fly it and of corse he wreaks into the TV. So he broke the lower blades off and the stabiliazer bar. So we went to hobby town and he got the parts. So then i go over my uncles house. He has a huge house (He's a Doc) so i was fling it like 20 feet high and i catch a little brezze. Well heli goes out of controll smacks off of the wall and well it goes down of corse.So Look it it and it looks fine so i take it back 2 the middle of the floor and go to fly it. Goes good in a hover go to spin the tail around it totally goes out of controll and hits the wall really hard. Here why it happened. When it crashed into the wall the first time i dident notice the stablizer bar got slightly bent and the top set of main blades were ground off from the first crash. I am no 3d pilot i cant do any tricks and i jsut fly. Im oaky with that. But as you could guess for the 2nd day of having the CX it dident go so well!!! :p

Superflyer

[heli-cuzz]

On a much brighter note. :D I flew my C-5 today. I flew in idle1 due to my revmax magnet sensor is gone, the throttle curves are close. You can't beat electronic timing devices to control headspeeds and engine rpm such as the revmax. I'll be ordering the sensor before tonite ends. Went through about 3/4 of a gallon today. It was very windy with variable wind directions. It was a bit tricky flying today, but all went well. I was practicing angled flips and they're easier than I thought. I make sure I'm three manuevers high when practicing unfamiliar moves. I did alot of FFF into half loop, then rolling upright and continuing FFF.
Autos in the wind, hahaha so much fun :D I'm autoing very well in all directions. There were a few occasions of a crosswind, as I touched down the wind pushed the heli, tilting it on one skid as I apply aileron cyclic to bring it back to two skids. :eek: Very close to a blade strike. Something like that with a fifty size, you're lucky to not damage anything. Needless to say, I was lucky for acting in time before the blades hit.

~Brian~

[blax1]

Nice to hear you didn't total it!!! :cool: All the time that you actually practice in the field and on the SIM, has paid off, anyone else with less experience probably would have crashed :( Hey that Revmax gadget would have to be under warranty?? you only just brought it, didn't you??
Cheers Ralph :)

[heli-cuzz]

Nice to hear you didn't total it!!! :cool: All the time that you actually practice in the field and on the SIM, has paid off, anyone else with less experience probably would have crashed :( Hey that Revmax gadget would have to be under warranty?? you only just brought it, didn't you??
Cheers Ralph :)

Luck was on my side and not the heli laying on its side. In the past two months, I'd say I've done atleast 150 autos. :cool:

Thats a good question. I'll have to look into that. Yeah I just bought it about 6 gallons ago.

[heli-cuzz]

Finally, a clear blue sky. :cool: Flying was very fun today. Forgot to mention, I'm into my 9th gallon and I finally balanced the TR assembly. What a huge difference. :D
SMOOOOoooooOOOOOOOth. :cool:

[cbflys]

heli-cuzz,

Are you still using the stock T/R blades that came with the Caliber 5? If you are, try a pair of CF T/R blades. You won't believe the difference.

Chuck

[tdswan]

Todays flights....pretty boring stuff. Breaking in the new TT 50. Idled one tank through and then Hovered a tank through. Would have done more, but the little one said it was time to eat. More later.

[heli-cuzz]

heli-cuzz,

Are you still using the stock T/R blades that came with the Caliber 5? If you are, try a pair of CF T/R blades. You won't believe the difference.

Chuck

Yes, I'm still flying the stock blades.

Any brand recommendations for the TR blades?

[cbflys]

They're all around the same price (around 30 bucks). I'm using the V-Blades. You can see pictures on my RunRyder gallery. I couldn't belive the difference. My stock blades were extreamly flexible and the tail felt very soft. Much Much crisper with the CF blades.

[tdswan]

2 more tanks through the new TT50. All is well! Runs great especially from my former engine. I'm going to start leaning it out and tweaking throttle curves on my next time out.

Cbflys, that's a great avatar! If DaVinci could only see them now!

[cbflys]

Thanks td. It took me some time to settle on this avatar, but I think it's appropriate.

Regarding your engine leaning... I usually break them in real rich for about 3 - 4 tanks of fuel (about 30 minutes of run time). Heli engines for the most part run at a constant RPM, so you don't need to be too concerned with varying the RPM during break in. Once you get 30 minutes on the engine, I typically put the heli on a test stand, lean it out for max RPM at full throttle, then richen it up till you get a nice consistant plume of smoke. Also - some fuels smoke more than others. If you have a low smoke fuel lean it out, then richen it up 1 click at a time until you hear the RPM just start to drop, then richen it up a click or two. As you're probably aware, there's no hard fast rule. But this procedure gets it real close and a good starting point for final tweaking. Just make sure your max pitch head speed is close to what your shooting for.

Chuck

[tdswan]

I'm not switching fuels, so I've got a good eye for where I need to be. I'm a temp watcher. You guys seem worried about my tuning abilities after seeing that Hyper! :p Don't worry, that Hyper mishap has been like that since last summer. I just kept flying the rattley thing because it's never sounded any worse. It's been tuned well this summer, which is probably why it lasted so long.

[heli-cuzz]

I'm not worried about your tuning abilities. I watched those vids of you flying, :cool: I trust your abilities.

[cbflys]

I'm not worried either... It's not my engine :D Just kidding - I too watched your video, heli was flying pretty good with an engine that was about to crap out. Can't wait to see the video with another horsepower in the burner!

[tdswan]

I was thinking the same thing. With all the extra power I'm going to have, I'll probably improve just in that aspect. If anything, it taught me good collective management!

[heli-cuzz]

Flite log on the sim.... 3D crazy @ 3 inches to four feet off the deck with lots of free crashes.... WoooHoooo :D

[heli-cuzz]

I flew two more tanks in the C-5. The hyper runs but seems to be dogging it. I'm sending it back at the end of this week.

[heli-cuzz]

It still looks new. :)

[blax1]

Woo Hoo, I just recieved notification from the post office,there is a parcel for me, it'll be Readyheli- Now the upgrade can begin :D

[heli-cuzz]

I flew my C-5 today after work, and flew my friend's raptor with a brand new oshyper50.
Today was fun, fun, fun! Just flying around like a maniac. :D

[heli-cuzz]

I had a very relaxing flite today, a few rolls and loops, inverted hovering nose in and out, lots of slow{about 3 to 5m.p.h.} flying about 6 to 12 inches of the deck. I flew at the school near my house today. I don't like the early sunsets. :mad:

[heliry2]

don't see day light much now with the time change
pulled the cars out of the garage and hovered around
for 1 battery last night.

[heli-cuzz]

I flew this morning, it was sunny and 36 degrees with a slight breeze, the C-5 flew great.

[heliry2]

i've gone through 2 batteries today i am at
work but am in a 25,000 square foot building
got some hovering in.batteris are being charged
plan on doing some more when i get home.

[heli-cuzz]

I flew and flew some more.

[heli-cuzz]

Pictures are my flite log today. :D

[heli-cuzz]

:cool: It was a great day :cool:

[heli-cuzz]

My one-way bearing locked up and almost made a heli-pancake on the last auto of the day. I'll walk away with my heli in one piece. :D

[blax1]

Great photo's Cuzz.The only pancakes I want to hear about are one's with strawberry jam and cream :) YUM, It's amazing to think that you just spent a lot of time re-building and doing routine maintainence and that happens, mechanical failures can and do occur at any time, and you just have to deal with it!! Obviously you did and thats why its still in one piece :cool:
BTW are you on the new motor yet?

[tdswan]

More break-in time for me on the TT50. I even hovered it inverted and rolled it a time or two. It's still a little barbley but I have leaned it some. Around 7 tanks through it today which brings the GT up to 11. Getting close to the end of that gallon mark! ;)

[heli-cuzz]

More break-in time for me on the TT50. I even hovered it inverted and rolled it a time or two. It's still a little barbley but I have leaned it some. Around 7 tanks through it today which brings the GT up to 11. Getting close to the end of that gallon mark! ;)

Glad to hear its going well, td.


Great photo's Cuzz.The only pancakes I want to hear about are one's with strawberry jam and cream :) YUM, It's amazing to think that you just spent a lot of time re-building and doing routine maintainence and that happens, mechanical failures can and do occur at any time, and you just have to deal with it!! Obviously you did and thats why its still in one piece :cool:
BTW are you on the new motor yet?

No new motor yet, I'm still running the ol' hyper with the off centered sleeve. It still runs great. The one-way bearing is the one thing I didn't check. :eek:

The motor sounds ok here.

Click here to watch MOV00019-74 (http://media.putfile.com/MOV00019-74)

[blax1]

[QUOTE=heli-cuzz]
The motor sounds ok here.
QUOTE]

The motor sounds sweet to me, nice video :)

[heli-cuzz]

Thanks blax1 :cool:

Check this one out, good smoke trail out of the exhaust pipe.

Click here to watch MOV00007-23 (http://media.putfile.com/MOV00007-23)

[blax1]

Nice smoke, from most of the nitro's I've seen (and that is only on video) there is usually always plenty of smoke!! its a shame to get rid of that motor it sounds really STRONG!!!! :cool:

[heli-cuzz]

Nice smoke, from most of the nitro's I've seen (and that is only on video) there is usually always plenty of smoke!! its a shame to get rid of that motor it sounds really STRONG!!!! :cool:


Yeah, but it'll be that much stronger when the sleeve is in the right spot{centered}.

[cbflys]

Following my routine maintenance, I flew about a half gallon through my Caliber 5 yesterday. First flight was uneventfull. Second flight - In a tight bank about 50 feet off the ground; engine sounded like RPM shot up and then just stopped. Thank goodness for all the auto practicing. Anyway - glowplug was not in the hole. It was just dangling from the remote glow wire. Guess my routine maintence didn't include tightening the plug :confused:

[heli-cuzz]

Cool pic cb :cool:

Good thing for auto practice. :D

[heliry2]

got in some midnight garge hovering
last night.

[tdswan]

I put a few more tanks through the Raptor last night. I've passed the gallon mark and I've really noticed the engine opening up now. It's got a lot more power, but still doesn't seem as snappy as even my tired old hyper. I'm still tweaking the tuning on it and adjusting the throttle curves for the new engine. With the weather being so inconsistant, it's making it more difficult. :mad:

[heli-cuzz]

td, are you running a TT50?

Everybody I know who owns one says they're hard to tune. Low end lean-out issues.


Anyway, I just went through another two tanks of fuel on my off-centered sleeve hyper50. It's dogging it in tic-toc manuevers. :(
My one-way bearing lasted the first tank with no lock-up. At the end of the second tank I noticed the tail was getting weird. That's due to the one-way bearing being locked. It causes the TR's rpm to change with the engine's rpm and cause the tail to twitch. I still auto'd but with a little difficulty at the flare-up. Time to break down the one-way and check it out, maybe regrease it or replace it.

[tdswan]

Yes, it's the TT50 Pro.
I really haven't had a lot of trouble tuning it. You gotta start at like 3-1/2 turns out on the high and just kind of feel out the low needle. I'm running it around 3 turns right now on the high and it's still a bit barbley, but seems to lean out towards the end of the tank, but not enough to be too lean, it just seems to run a bit faster. It might just be my mind playing tricks on me, though. I'm listening so closely to it that I may be too critical. The only way to know for sure is to tach it in the beginning and the end. It just seems a bit faster in the end.

I've got the low needle real close to where I like it, but that could and will go leaner, too.

[heli-cuzz]

Yes, it's the TT50 Pro.
I really haven't had a lot of trouble tuning it. You gotta start at like 3-1/2 turns out on the high and just kind of feel out the low needle. I'm running it around 3 turns right now on the high and it's still a bit barbley, but seems to lean out towards the end of the tank, but not enough to be too lean, it just seems to run a bit faster. It might just be my mind playing tricks on me, though. I'm listening so closely to it that I may be too critical. The only way to know for sure is to tach it in the beginning and the end. It just seems a bit faster in the end.

I've got the low needle real close to where I like it, but that could and will go leaner, too.

I'll bet your passing air bubbles through your carb at the end of the tank. Motor vibration will cause this, and there is not a single nitro motor in this world that doesn't vibrate.
Sounds like she's running good for you. The temp change always affects the needle settings too. Just happy to hear you're up and flying. :cool:

[heli-cuzz]

Yesterday, I brought my mom&dad to the field. Horrified my mom with a few fast descending autos with a sweet flare-out landing the C-5 like the engine was still running. :D

[heliry2]

got in a little more garage hovering last night
don't see day light unless i run out for lunch.
plus weather has been crappy.

[heli-cuzz]

I dumped about 30 helis in today on the sim. :)

[heli-cuzz]

Today was great. I'm done breaking/running in the Hyper50. The wind was light with clear blue skies and around 50 degrees. Flips, rolls, loops, and lots of vertical climb to 540 stalls. Lots of autos{about 5 or 6}. The hyper is running sweet and rich. :D

[heli-cuzz]

Today, I did my best auto-rotation yet.. :)

[vapochilled]

Hit a milestone today, after all the sim time and garage hovering, plus the last two outings with bad endings,lol
I made my first flight today that did not end in a repair bill :D
Was a slight breeze, lifted off into the wind climbed out to about 30 feet and banked round for a clockwise circuit.
Cut the power and banked into the wind to maintain height without climbing, was so nice, I wish I could have filmed it.
About ten minutes of just bobbing up and down the field before heading upwind to a slightly bumby landing.
I'm not sure what it is, but the cp pro just does not seem to have much power to slow a fast decent!
Seems to always struggle to slow up, I've checked the full pitch, I have about 11 degrees? must just be the nature of the beast.
Anyway, a slight ding on one main blade, but ladies and gentlemen, we have lift off :p
Will hopefully get a couple more flights in on friday if the wind is calm, I wish my flying field was not so rough, I don't think I'll ever be able to lose the baby gear.
Does anyone have any training gear for a trex(450 size bird) they no longer need, or could lend/sell me?

[heli-cuzz]

Hit a milestone today, after all the sim time and garage hovering, plus the last two outings with bad endings,lol
I made my first flight today that did not end in a repair bill :D
Was a slight breeze, lifted off into the wind climbed out to about 30 feet and banked round for a clockwise circuit.
Cut the power and banked into the wind to maintain height without climbing, was so nice, I wish I could have filmed it.
?

Nice job, vapo. :cool:

[blax1]

Well vapo-
Its sounds like you have reached another chapter in heli flight----congratulations :)
I just purchased this training gear from Techmodel, I decided I needed a safety net
after all the DoRayMe ($$$) I spent on this thing, hopefully I will hang it up in the shed soon :D
Then maybe by the time you need it, I will just mail it to you. LOL
Here the link they are cheap as chips :) When you have finished with it, you can play shuttle cock :D LOL

http://www.techmodelproducts.com/trex_acc.php

Scroll 2/3rds of the way down.

Cheers Ralph

[CLM]

go to a sports supply shop and get 4 ping pong balls, then get 2 broken fishing poles and use two sections that are about the span of the rotor, assemble them in an x with the bing pong balls on each end, attach them to the skids :)

I used traning balls on the walkera 36 once.. But they caused me to crash so I took them off, haven't used balls on anything since. I have had a couple accidents, though none from landing or taking off.. I got those points figured out mostly :D

...Now if they only had mid air or inverted training balls :eek:

Chris

[heli-cuzz]

I learned forward flite with my bladecp in a parking-lot. After learning how to hover, I slid the ping-pong balls in towards the skids until they touched. I cut off the excess from the rods.... Now we have ping-pong wheels. I drove the blade around like a car and drifting when turning. It was a lot of fun learning this way and it saved me from crashing when learning FF and FFF. After awhile of doing that, I simply started applying more pitch to lift the heli in the air.

Hey CLM, that's one great idea. An old fishing rod. :cool:

[vapochilled]

two more full charges through today, even tried a loop, but it just not have enough lift!
I have reset the pitch arms to give about 2 degrees at neutral, we'll try again morrow :D
Feels almost natural now to turn using both sticks, after my plank flying days, that was the hardest to overcome.
I get the feeling the HDX will be a whole new beast, but this is so much fun it's crimminal :)

[CLM]

Hey CLM, that's one great idea. An old fishing rod. :cool:

No applause please..... Just throw money!(and heli parts!) :p :D

Chris

[heli-cuzz]

I've been flying very well my last few outings considering all the missed time during my move.. The C-5hyper is running/flying really well. The RevMax is working like it should.
The wife and I got a new sony handicam for x-mas. Now I can watch a full tank video instead of the 15 second clips. :D She came to the field with me today and did a great job following the heli with the cam.

[heli-cuzz]

Today was more fun. Badbrad came to fly at my field today with his hirobo.

[heli-cuzz]

I flew @ 4:20 p.m. until 4:50p.m. today. One tank in my C-5 and one tank in my friends Raptor50 with a brand new all metal head from the swash up to the head-button. My C-5 flew awesome, had to open the low-end mixture just a c-hair and two clicks opened on the high-end mixture as the temp was about ten degrees cooler from the previous flites.
Hey td, the Raptor flew fantastic. :cool: I really like the crisp feel of the all metal head.

[tdswan]

I'll have yo converted yet!

[vapochilled]

I love my new cellpro charger! flew 5 packs(I own two) this afternoon.
Training wheels off for all 5, when I was done, I just put the CPP back on the shelf, not a single thing to fix or adjust :D
I even flicked the switch and tried inverted, but I was so high up, there was no way to control it, she rolled onto her side, so I pushed the stick forward, let her build some speed and pulled out still with about 20 feet or so to go,lol
Did a couple of very, VERY ugly rolls, but the tail just would not hold.
Felt so good, to not have to repair anything.

[heli-cuzz]

Nice job, vapo.

I just finished flying my Trex from my backyard. Flew about a half of a battery pack before my eyes started watering from the wind and very :cool: cold :cool: temps.

Here's this mornings weather:
Temperature: 14°F -10°C
Conditions: Fair
Winds: N 5 MPH N 8 KPH
Relative Humidity: 68%
Barometer: 30.38 Rising
Visibility: 10.00 Miles 16.09 Kilometers
Feels Like: 6°F :eek:

Flying my C-5 this afternoon. :)

[theBZA]

[B]I'm not sure what it is, but the cp pro just does not seem to have much power to slow a fast decent!
Seems to always struggle to slow up, I've checked the full pitch, I have about 11 degrees? must just be the nature of the beast.



Sounds to me what will help you out is working on your collective management.
A lot of people think that by instantly applying full throttle/ collective will give them a full power climbout.

With a less than powerful engine/motor, less = more.

Go a little slower with your throttle stick. What is happening, is that when you abruptly apply throttle, the blade pitch is putting a sudden load on your motor, lowering your head speed.
by going slower, the motor will have time to speed up, and prepare itself for the load of the blade pitch.

[heli-cuzz]

Trex and C-5 fly great in 19 degeree weather. :cool: Flight characteristics change dramatically in colder temps. My hyper50 flew beautiful after opening{richening} up the low and high mixture settings.

[vapochilled]

Sounds to me what will help you out is working on your collective management.
A lot of people think that by instantly applying full throttle/ collective will give them a full power climbout.

With a less than powerful engine/motor, less = more.

Go a little slower with your throttle stick. What is happening, is that when you abruptly apply throttle, the blade pitch is putting a sudden load on your motor, lowering your head speed.
by going slower, the motor will have time to speed up, and prepare itself for the load of the blade pitch.

Sounds reasonable, I am a little hard on the sticks with the CPP

[heli-cuzz]

I flew the rex in my backyard today. It was windy, and again, only about a half of a fully charged 2100mah was flown. I need to get my snowboarding goggles out to keep my eyes from watering in the wind. :cool:
Anyway, I did a few loops, stationary flips, rolls, and FF tic-toc type flying, if that's what its called?
The rex is flying great, did a quick post-flite check and all looks good.

[heli-cuzz]

Just flew the rex from the backyard. I flew a few circuits around then came into hover. Its wanting to lean towards the left. I'm wondering if the aileron servo is ready to go as I just replaced a bad elevator servo. Should replace them all in the first place, anyway, I finished out the battery with nosedown blade in funnels. :)

[heli-cuzz]

The spankrex2007 from the backyard again.

3D over the oak tree. :D

Wait a minute....
......................Are tic-tocs with the boom pointing at the 12:00-3:00-6:00-9:00 positions considered a 3d manuever?

[blax1]

Wait a minute....
......................Are tic-tocs with the boom pointing at the 12:00-3:00-6:00-9:00 positions considered a 3d manuever?

YEP!!!!!!!!! :D
G'day cuzz

[blax1]

Its an UGLY UGLY day my 450"SE" went for an excursion in the garden!!! :eek: NOT GOOD!! :(
Photo's later :(

[Helifino]

Sorry to hear that ralph.

I might have to look for some place to fly indoors now that the rex is finally done.

[blax1]

Sorry to hear that ralph.

I might have to look for some place to fly indoors now that the rex is finally done.
Thanks Helifino
It was just a bad day in the office for me, I reed one of your posts saying you had a foot of snow in the yard Wow!! when I was a kid we lived in the alpine region of Victoria and it used to snow at home there, for a kid it was great fun and we used to go skying during the weekends, up at one of the resorts we loved it, however you guys probably have to live with it for quite a few months and I imagine that could be quite a drag, particularly if you like being outdoors but its a way of life to you, so I imagine you ramp up for the cold seasons and some are worse than others.Thanks for your support about my heli- I will fix it, I'm going through the parts inventory right now and will order tonight, A positive note is I can bring her up to V2 spec- now. and I'm going to delete the 20% expo- on my TX!!!!
Cheers Ralph

[Helifino]

lol..good luck ralph. Keep us posted! :)

[heli-cuzz]

Sorry to hear about the flower garden, ralph, I mean your heli. :(
How did it happen?

[blax1]

How did it happen?

How did it happen???? Well it was ME :o
What can I say I just dumb thumbed (as Td would say) but I don't think I will be using 20% expo again, I was doing figure 8's in the front yard, after doing tail in hover for one battery pack all was good, so i decided to do 8s got around two times and on the left hand inbound lap I went to far out and way to low, and the training gear snagged on a cycad plant and down she went!! :( (I have a photo will post) bent the main shaft, chewed up the main gear, boom strike (it was almost 90o) broke CF servo link, buggered T/R assy, shredded belt, thats about it, unbelievably the main rotors don't have a make on em and seem quite OK but I'm not sure I think I'll hang em on the wall LOL, Anyway I've checked all the electrics and all is OK, so I will order parts tonight, and hopefully wind her up next weekend.

I think I will ditch the training gear and the 20% expo :) to much drag and to little stick response when I needed it............But it was me in control so the buck stops there!!! :)

Cheers Ralph

[blax1]

Final shot :(

[heli-cuzz]

Damn, ralph, that boom is tweaked. Sorry bro, it happens to the best of us, so you're not alone. Definitely can the heli-diaper/trainer. I never used expo since day one. I like true stick to swash reaction.
You'll be ok, my rex smacked down in the 20 degree weather and all the linkage shattered. My boom is still straight.

[theBZA]

think I will ditch the training gear and the 20% expo to much drag and to little stick response when I needed it

Keep the expo.
Losing the training gear. You will get about 10 times more response just by doing that.

And when you want more action, and when you are ready, lose those flybar weights.

Keep the expo.

[blax1]

Keep the expo.
Losing the training gear. You will get about 10 times more response just by doing that.
And when you want more action, and when you are ready, lose those flybar weights.
Keep the expo.

Thanks for your help theBZA
It was really weird, I added all the training gear, bar weights & expo, to try and give me some assistance in flying her after all the upgrades that I have applied, (some insurance) until I got used to how she went and I ended up over doing it I guess!! however the cardinal rule I did break was flying her in such a confined space, I'm forever telling other people to get space, so what do I do, fly in the front yard which is full of gumtrees and garden beds, next time I'm off to the park, which is what I should have done in the first place:(

Cheers Ralph

[heli-cuzz]

Ralph, get rid of the expo and set up your dual-rates. I feel that will help you more in the long run.

[blax1]

Ralph, get rid of the expo and set up your dual-rates. I feel that will help you more in the long run.
Thank you Brian
I'm going to do a total review of set up and dual rates etc, I've been talking to Joe @ model tech, he is organizing all the gear I need to bring her to V2/3 spec, however it probably wont be here until mid next week, in the mean time she is all pulled down just waiting on parts,
Cheers Ralph

[heli-cuzz]

I flew from my backyard again. I had a heli of a time tuning the Hyper50, after a 1/4 of a tank, i hit it perfect. It was right around 20 degrees.

[heli-cuzz]

I've been flying my C-5 from the backyard daily. Woking on placement and holding it, fly to another spot, hold it for a quick hover, move again, all different orientations in the upright position.

[heli-cuzz]

Went to my club field today. Had to shovel snow at the gate to open it up. 4 wheel drive was a definite must to enter the field with no travel on the entry road since the last snowstorm. My F-250 sank an inch or two into the snow down to the frozen layer with about 8 inches under that. I was a little skeptical about continuing, but I stepped on it and blasted down the road. Pulled up to the flite tables looking out at the field, wow, what a magnificent site, the field covered with snow, not a foot print in site, just a few hoof prints. :) I unloaded my Caliber and yes, it was like unloading a gun into the sky, she flew beautiful. The sky was a crystal clear blue sky with a slight 5mph wind and a temp around 25 degrees. The 54 inch rotor platform stood out in the sun amazingly. I was so glad I ventured out to my field for a flite.

[vapochilled]

put the boots on and walked across the road to the swamp that is my flying field right now, so much water!
Found a dry spot and ran a couple of packs through the HDX and one through the CPP.
The HDX just inspires confidence, I was throwing it about quite a bit today, couple of loops and some deliberate but ugly inverted

[theBZA]

Today was a perfect day for flying. In fact, it is the first chance in a long, long time, that the weather has cooperated with me on my rare days off from work.

I set my alarm clock for EARLY.
I loaded up all my tools, field support box, and a heli.
Off to the field I go!!!!

I got there, and I forgot to pack fuel. Back in the van everything went, and I returned home to grab 2 gallons.

I made it back to the field. I replaced the clutch in my Raptor (that I had been needing to do for some time) charged up all my packs, fueld 'er up, and I was off.

Of course, my main thing I had to do there, was to break in a brand new engine. I let my first tank burn through, at about 1/4 throttle.

Fueled it up again, was going to hover out a tank for the next tank of break in.
I got to the point of lift off, and the heli started spinning like bonkers.

Throttle hold, and back to the van.
Stripped gears on the 9254? yep.
Fortunately, this little field has an RC shop next door (LITERALLY) so a set of 9254 gears shouldnt be a problem. Nope. Sure don't have 'em.

Defueled, loaded it back in the van, and that's a day.

My flight time? Less than 2 seconds.

Well, thats my whole weekend of flying.

[heli-cuzz]

I just got back from flying a tankfull in my C-5 and my friend's Lepton ex for a half of a battery. Great afternoon sky with no clouds. The white rotor blades stick out very nicely in the sun.
I must say, the C-5 just keeps on performing gallon after gallon. Auto-slides on the snow covered ground are really cool looking. :cool:

[team222badbrad]

Today I got my Hangar 9 Twist 40 PNP started for the first time.

Since the ground is snow covered I taxied up the road and back.

Let the snow MELT PLEASE!


I hope to get the Hirobo in the sky tomorrow if my starter coupling holds up.

[tdswan]

Time for some skis on that bad boy, Brad!

[vapochilled]

only garage flying tonight, both the CPP and HDX are repaired and ready for the weekend :D

[tdswan]

I love the smell of glow fuel in the morning!!!
It broke 50 deg here today! Break out the shorts and the sunscreen! :cool: I broke out the Raptor for some more engine break-in time. While smoking out the neighborhood and driving my neighbors crazy! :cool: It's starting to gain a tad more power now with a couple more tanks through it. By flying season, she should be ready!

I also flew a tank through the gasser to make sure all was well on that end. All was not great on that end, but it WAS the last drink of fuel in the can that sat all winter. It seemed to run a bit rich, almost blubbery rich. I kept leaning it out, but it only seemed to help a little bit. I'll sort that out later once I've got some new fuel flowing though it. I really just wanted to run it a bit to make sure it was going to hold together for me. It was the first full-tank through it since my Thanksgiving day crash. I went over it with the wrenches afterwards and nothing seemed amiss. :D

All in all, a good day. Only a little hovering, but it was all necessary. :D

[heli-cuzz]

I love the smell of glow fuel in the morning!!!


It's the best. :D

Nice to see your getting out of hibernation. :cool:

[tdswan]

Yes, we had another warm one today. Almost 60!!! I took the Raptor to the local tech school to get some more break-in time. After about the 4th total tank, I noticed myself bumping the throttle curves DOWN to compensate for the engine breaking in. That's a good feeling! I also did a couple of loops and rolls and a little inverted hovering. I have to get my bearings back from the winter. I ended last season with a crash, so I'm a bit gun-shy as of yet. I also got a couple of packs in on the Mini-Titan. I finally got to open it up a little more. I did about 3 loops with it and the rest was just some HARD figure 8's to get the feel for it. I started to notice some tail-kicking on it, so I called that quits early until I can inspect it here at home.
All-in-all, another good day! :cool:

[team222badbrad]

I did well today! VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-WAgbxoDM0) I got two flights in and ran until my transmitter was beeping at me!

I have pictures up HERE (http://photos.printo3d.com)

I'm getting better! One more tank and I will be through with gallon #2 and I have had my chopper flying since October! LOL

I can't wait for this cold weather to go away!

Charging back up for a flight or two tomorrow????

[heli-cuzz]

I can't wait for this cold weather to go away!



Ditto that. :)

[tdswan]

3 packs through the Mini-Titan. I've got the headspeed cranked up on that one now, still getting acclimatized to flying the real thing in real weather, so nothing noteworthy aside from it behaving like a perfect gentleman. Man, that little bugger sounds neat. The main and tail blades are almost louder than the motor itself. :cool:

3 More tanks through the Raptor as well. Getting the motor broke in right. :D Did a little inverted stuff with it tonight, again getting back in practice. I've still got it a bit rich, so only short bursts of high-speed runs with it. Mostly just casual flying with the occasional flip or roll on the passes. I will be checking into a strange noise that only seemed to surface after a quick burst (like a climbout), then letting it drop back to a hover. I guess you could call it pitch-pumping, only slower. I think it's just from the richer settings. Possibly a bit too much difference between the high and low needle. It sounds engine-related.

The new green paddles definately make it a bit snappier on the cyclic. :D

[heli-cuzz]

Glad to hear you're out and ripping it up, td. :cool:

I love those lime green paddles. I'm thinking to step up to a higher-end paddle this spring with a set of V-blades.

[tdswan]

I've got a brand new set of V-Blades that I got FREE from a certificate I got at Owatonna. I don't want to use them until I need them, though. They're sitting on the shelf for now. :D

[Helifino]

Not sure if I should post here or not.

Took the old trex out today. Put the training gear on or diaper as cuzz calls it.
Spooled her up, everything sounded good and looked good aside from some minor adjustments/trim. She got light on the skids and lifted a few inches off the ground(maybe I should have been the one wearing the diaper) and started rotating counter clockwise(anti clockwise for those downunder). I had the gain set at 50%. So I set the gain up to 75% and still the same thing :confused: . By then the wife came out, so as not to totally embarass myself by crashing,I figured I should quit while I'm ahead. Need to look at how the tail is setup again and check radio settings. The training gear although necessary for now is a pain because it seems to throw off everything even with the heli as balanced on it as possible.

[Rappy1]

Hey helifino in the reverse switch on the gyro the right way around. i have a couple of times had the tail swing around on mine when i lift up slightly for take off and it is normally after I have done some work on it and been playing around withthe gyro

[Helifino]

Your absolutely right rappy. Good call! I had forgotten when I had the plastic frame the gyro was mounted under the boom. Then I switched to the cf frame and the gyro is mounted on top of the boom. Stupid,stupid,stupid...forgot to switch it back to normal. :o

[heli-cuzz]

Hey helifino in the reverse switch on the gyro the right way around. i have a couple of times had the tail swing around on mine when i lift up slightly for take off and it is normally after I have done some work on it and been playing around withthe gyro

It sounds like that's all you need to do. Reverse the gyro setting.

Helifino, my heli once had to wear a diaper. :p

[blax1]

Gee its quite on this thing today!!! :)
The snow must have melted and everyone's out flying!!!! :cool:

[Rappy1]

Your absolutely right rappy. Good call! I had forgotten when I had the plastic frame the gyro was mounted under the boom. Then I switched to the cf frame and the gyro is mounted on top of the boom. Stupid,stupid,stupid...forgot to switch it back to normal. :o
Glad i could help helifino, it happend to me today when i took mine out flying after fitting new radio gear. To be honest i cant be bothered trying to check out which way it goes i just wait until i am at the field and see what happens. There is no real chance of damage if ya think it is going to do it and quik on the controls.
Saves all that time thinking only to find it is back to front anyway

[Helifino]

Ah rappy, you would have been proud! Took trex out to a field nearby,wide open space, nothing to slam into.

Spooled trex up,kept wanting to rear back and to the side, trimmed it out a tad. Then wanted to tip forward. The tail must have dug into the ground, snapped the vertical fin off, no biggie.
After several attempts at this I was getting a little irritated. I could see the training gear was throwing me off with the balance of the heli, so I decided to throw off the training gear.
At that point I said to myself, what the hell, GO FOR IT(General Custers last words at Little Big Horn)! Full throttle, 10-15 feet in the air, had control for, oh, 5 seconds(seemed longer), goes totally out of control, tail spinning, nose dive straight into the ground,did think fast enough to hit throttle hold(did something right). SLAM!!! Bent tail boom, cracked canopy, broken landing gear and the vertical fin. Found out afterwards the belt was way to loose. So no tail control.
At least the damage was minor and I have most of the spare parts. Finally got the first one out of the way.

Best orgasm I've had in awhile! :eek:

[heli-cuzz]

Helifino, its great to see you still have that positive attitude after a crash.
All helis are repairable. :)

Oh yeah, about those spare parts, guess you'll be needing them. :p

My rex is grounded for another month. :(
I'm working on getting my 50 back up and my Cal30 should be airborne the end of this week, also, my 1/4 scale fixed wing{ultra stick}should be hovering again :D , all that needs is a fuel line now. Another thing I'm working on besides the new babies room is my Team Associated 4x4 nitro BFT.

[blax1]

Sorry Helifino :(
Its interesting to see the boom strike dent, they all seem to do that, I wonder if running 315s would solve that (assuming you had 325s on)
Theres been a bit of carnage lately, at least you are having a go :cool:
It was pouring rain here all last weekend so the Rex got a reprieve LOL
Just fix it!!! :)
Cheers Ralph
BTW--- Im not sure about that training gear either it certainly stuffs the C of G

[Rappy1]

Good effort Helifino I am proud of you, at least seeing another crashed heli makes looking at mine just normal part of heli flying. I think it is the preice you pay for such a great hobby

[Helifino]

I'm running 315 carbons blax. The dented boom was well beyond the reach of the blades. Probably the perfect landing that I made while totally under control.:p

[Rappy1]

I'm running 315 carbons blax. The dented boom was well beyond the reach of the blades. Probably the perfect landing that I made while totally under control.:p
sounds like my crash i was about 100 feet in the air when i had issues. shows how much these helis can handle I hope that makes you feel better about what would happen if ya crashed ya 30

[blax1]

I'm running 315 carbons blax. The dented boom was well beyond the reach of the blades. Probably the perfect landing that I made while totally under control.:p
Are yes I see what you are saying, I had a better look at photo 2, yes its a long way from the rotor, I remember with mine it was blade strike that took out the boom, the indentation matched perfectly with the end of the carbon blade... :)
Cheers Ralph

[Helifino]

I hope that makes you feel better about what would happen if ya crashed ya 30

I know crashing the 30 is bound to happen. I am surprised how well they take it. I'll try to get most of the crashing out of the way on the trex. It's a hell of alot cheaper to repair.

[team222badbrad]

MY FIRST AUTO ROTATION was today! About 7 feet up in hover and the engine dies!

At first I slammed the stick up and then slammed it down, then I got control!

I've been burning up glow plugs and overheating which is why the engine died. I cant get the freakin thing to tune, my O.S. .37 that is.

Does anyone think I should shim the head with Cool Power 30% ???

It always seems to be smoking, lots, but it still over heats.

I dunno

[heli-cuzz]

It always seems to be smoking, lots, but it still over heats.

I dunno

It could be your engine burning up. Try opening up the high and low. Ya never know, you're engine may need a rebuild.

[tdswan]

If I notice I'm smoking too much, I always try chewing tobacco. :p

If richening it up doesn't get that temp down, I'd give it a tear-down.

[heli-cuzz]

I made some minor adjustments before flying and found a linkage screw a bit on the loose side. Snugged up all the screws within the head linkage. all checks out, RTF :)

I flew the Caliber30 earlier tonite. It's flying nice. The engine is running great. The newly modified 32sx-h definitely sounds smoother, more powerful. I havn't checked the compression after tonites session, hoping it hasn't dropped with the used piston-ring.
All my flying was upright and in normal mode. The C-30 is definitely flying with crisp responsiveness. Headspeed estimation 1600-1700rpm

This is my very first helicopter I started to learn with and it feels good to fly it again. :)

[Helifino]

Any updates on the engine for your 50 cuzz?

[heli-cuzz]

Any updates on the engine for your 50 cuzz?

Nothing yet. I decided to buy a brand new Caliber5/hyper50 combo from heliproz. Send the old one into hobbyservices with a very detailed explanation for a possible warranty, if they don't warranty the engine parts, I'll replace them and ask my friend to modify the hyper50 to make it more hyper than it already is.

I flew the Caliber30 today The modifiedOs32sx-h is running sweet. I will say, what a mileage difference on fuel consumption between the 30 and the 50. My 30 runs about a fifteen to twenty minute tank, my hyper50 gets about 8 to 10 minutes a tank.

I'd rather fly the hyper any day. :cool:

[heli-cuzz]

It was a depressing day. I watched my friends raptor50 do the smackdown earlier tonite. :(
That was the second time in less than two weeks I witnessed a heli go down hard.

[Rappy1]

So your the bast$$d who has been putting the curse on everybody :D. Everybody keep clear of cuzz he spreads crashes. By the way cuzz your picture next to your name looks good, did you crop it or is it just a grey sky

[heli-cuzz]

So your the bast$$d who has been putting the curse on everybody :D. Everybody keep clear of cuzz he spreads crashes. By the way cuzz your picture next to your name looks good, did you crop it or is it just a grey sky


LoL
no, not me. He flew a tank and no probs, I trimmed it out during the first tank for him. He filled it up a 2nd time and flew it for 2 minutes then asked me if I wanted to fly it again. I ripped it around for about four minutes, nothing inverted, just FFF and nosedown blade-in funnels, super tight ones. :D
Anyway, he asked me to bring it in to check the fuel level, I asked if he wanted to fly his heli, so I landed and handed him his TX back. 30 seconds into him bringing it up, it started doing its own thing, he yelled out, 'It's not doing anything' as he moved the cyclic around violently hoping for an input, it kicked back in after a couple of seconds that seemed like an eternity, that's when I told him to bring it down immediately.
He then got the heli down about ten feet off the lawn and it locked out again, it started drifting to the right, and at that time, I was thinking which way I need to dive out of the way. LoL
My buddy started running towards the heli moving the TX antenna through the air. It kicked back in and I think he had his collective stick down, all of the sudden, it shot to the ground faster than you can blink an eye. The rest is history. :(


Thanks for the compliment, Rappy. :cool:
On a bright note, my avi is the first pic in my This is fun thread, just sized it down, no crops. Look closely, you can see the big ball of fire blazing directly behind the heli.
Also, all my avis are pics of me flying my helis.

[tdswan]

It was a FANTASTIC day! In the 50's finally after Snow and Wednesday/Thursday. It quickly melted away. I went out the the flying site with a few friends. I got several flights in on the Raptor, Mini Titan and the Gasser. I'm finally getting a bit more into the rythm again. I did a couple of backwards banked turns, which is what I've been practicing on the sim lately. That was a rush!...
I finally got some more (useful) stick time on the Mini-T. Finally played with more inverted stuff. I can't say enough about how this bird flies. This bad boy is LOCKED!
The winds were no higher than 8 and were calm most of the time. What a great day!

[heli-cuzz]

That's awesome, td. :cool: Glad to hear you're flying well.

I was a backyard{neighbors too} flyer with my Caliber30. :)
piece of pie :)

[GMONEY]

Three flights today. All 6 minutes on my Mini Titan. Really working the basics keeping my hover within about a 6' circle and trying to be smooth on altitude. The last flight I was starting to turn the tail to practice hovering at different vantage points. two of four are going well. Also working out some minor bugs with the heli and making changes to the radio. I may be trying to do to much at one time. I will make more of an effort to keep things simple tmr..

GMONEY

[heli-cuzz]

I was breaking my OS32 in today. Figure 8's mostly about 1 to 40 feet up, nuttin' fancy. Its running nice. Three tanks today, that almost one hour flite time. :)

[GMONEY]

Three more flight today then time to make some serious changes. I need more pitch in normal mode and need to set ST1. During post flight inspection I found stock wood blade warped. All my parts will be in on Monday but until then I will hit the local HS and get some new blades. Other than the blade issue everything is holding up well. The Main gear is showing some wear mainly discoloring I think.

GMONEY

[heli-cuzz]

It was a laid back flying day Just about finished breaking-in the new ring.. My Caliber30 was in the air about 80 minutes today. All is operating well. The last flite, I installed my MS Composit nite blades and flew at dusk. :cool:

[blax1]

I installed my MS Composit nite blades and flew at dusk. :cool:
Photographs?? :cool:

[heli-cuzz]

No pics, I was flying solo. My photographer{wife}stayed at home.

[vapochilled]

got as far as hovering the HDX today, all rebuilt and waiting for me NOT to be working on the deck/patio/house, anything else that needs doing! :mad:

[heli-cuzz]

Nice to see ya hovering around, vapo. :cool:

My day was excellent. I burnt a half gallon of fuel through my Caliber30. And my friend gave me a foamie to keep. Here's me hovering my new foamie bipe. :D Planes are easy.

[GMONEY]

ONly one flight today! DAMN boss came by my site. Anyway basic forward flight with the same tail servo. Something is up with my ESC on the mini titan I have eratic speed control. I have a call into TT to get it fixed.

[heli-cuzz]

Yesterday,I ran a couple of tanks In my C-5. New piston and ring break-in.
Two more tanks early tonite, everything is great. Autos are easy. I feel like I havn't taken a day off from the 50.

[heli-cuzz]

My C-5 is flying like a rocketship! That's all! :D

[GMONEY]

Over this past weekend I put another six flights on the Mini Titian. I am starting to scare myself which I guess is good. I am slowly starting into and out of forward flight. I am taking very small steps with the helo this time around and it is really paying off. I also picked up my R30 and should have it back together in just a couple weeks. Also dappled in a little nose in hover. Yeah I'm still a way off from being comfortable there. Can you say full PUCKER!!!!

Good times

GMONEY

[heli-cuzz]

I flew 2 tanks in my Caliber5. Just ripping around, rolls, flips, inverted hovering, and a few long rainbow type tic-tocs. I flew my friend's Raptor50 too! Nothing inverted, just some nice nosedown blade-in funnels and FFF with hard banking turns.. His Rappy is flying Gohbee glass blades now, they fly well. :)

[heli-cuzz]

Last nite was my first nite-flite. It was completely dark @ 9:30p.m. It felt like it was my first time hovering. Flying at nite is very intense, my adrenaline was going all nite after 20 minutes of a nite flite. Got a few pics.

[blax1]

OMG :eek: It's on my desk top :cool:

[mongoose]

Cuzz..........you always got the greatest pics!!!

[kcgraves]

Flight 29 with the Raptor was not so good. :eek: First crash with it and everything above the swash is destroyed execpt the blade grips and the flybar paddles. Was too low and lost orientation on a sideways forward flight. Also need a new canopy. My brother was next to me and this was the first time he has seen my Raptor. He was more upset then me as I have crashed my Blade and MX lots of times. Parts should be here Wednesday.

Crashing is also a learning experience. :D

[heli-cuzz]

Sorry to hear, kc. Atleast you're positive about it and already ordered parts. :)

I've been flying a bit lately. Since wednesday until this afternoon, I burnt two gallons of fuel in My C-5 and Caliber30, mostly my C-5. I can't complain, my flying skills keep progressing and now I'm at the point of not having to think about any orientation corrections and such, its all coming natural. Today was windy but lots of fun. I've been working on pitch management and all is well, havn't been over-pitching my heli, headspeed remains consistent.

[GMONEY]

Friday evening went out to put some more flights on the Mini Titian. Things are going well I am way aout of my comfort zone (thanks SACKMAN) When the ESC finally lets me down. about ten feet off the ground she just shut down. I slowed the impact down pretty well with the resulting needed repairs being a set of FLYBAR CONTROL ARMS at the whooping cost of 6.99$. All is good I have the part and a new CC ESC with programer. I will be back up tmr.

GMONEY

[kcgraves]

Sorry to hear, kc. Atleast you're positive about it and already ordered parts. :)

Thanks cuzz.

Got to be positive. One of the guys at the field last week ask me if I now feel I should have started with a .50 instead of a CP and MX400. I still say no. I learned the basics with fairly cheap electrics. If this was my first heli and I did this I be freakin. Now it is oh well, it was going to happen sooner or later. At least it was flight 29 and not 2. Should have it back up by next weekend. Time to play with my new G3 SIM in the mean time.

[heli-cuzz]

Thanks cuzz.

Got to be positive. One of the guys at the field last week ask me if I now feel I should have started with a .50 instead of a CP and MX400. I still say no. I learned the basics with fairly cheap electrics. If this was my first heli and I did this I be freakin. Now it is oh well, it was going to happen sooner or later. At least it was flight 29 and not 2. Should have it back up by next weekend. Time to play with my new G3 SIM in the mean time.

Most people don't realize that if you learn to fly a micro or small electric, flying the big machines becomes very easy in comparison to the smaller ones. My first heli I learned on was and still flying, is the Caliber30, I then bought a cpblade, onto a Trex450, then the Caliber50. I just bought a 2nd Caliber50 with hyper. :)

[heli-cuzz]

I've been flying everyday and everything is great. I've been practicing low altitude{about 15 to 20 feet} tic-tocs a lot. The Caliber5 along with the hyper50 is flying/running beautifully.
I finally tach'd my headspeed and my RevMax is right on the money with the engine rpm specs. The limiter is set for a max rev, just a touch above 18,000 rpm to bring the headspeed at 1800. The Caliber5 flies fantastic at this headspeed.

[kcgraves]

Beautiful pic cuzz. Maybe your wife should get a job with the magazine. She takes great action shots. I have trouble taking pictures of a bowl of fruit. And I use to work for Kodak, my wife still does.

Got my Titan back together last night and burned a few tanks before dinner. The decals were backordered so I don't know if it really flys like it should, they do make a difference don't they? :D Suppose to be a nice weekend here in western NY so out to the field.

[heli-cuzz]

Thanks, kc. She has a great camera eye and knows how helis can change directions as fast as a blink of an eye.

LoL@ no decals.

Sweet, ya got the rappy back-up. :cool:

All systems good with the flying?

Don't ya love burning a few tanks before dinner?
I know I do almost everyday. :D

[kcgraves]

All systems good with the flying?


As Jodie Foster said in the movie Contact: "I'm OK to go!!"

A slight wind but nothing a rappy can't handle. Just glad to have it back flying. Suppose to be perfect weather for the next week. And yep, nothing like a few tanks before dinner, give everything that nitro smell.

PA should be good too.

[heli-cuzz]

As Jodie Foster said in the movie Contact: "I'm OK to go!!"

A slight wind but nothing a rappy can't handle. Just glad to have it back flying. Suppose to be perfect weather for the next week. And yep, nothing like a few tanks before dinner, give everything that nitro smell.

PA should be good too.

Anything above 25 degrees is good to me ;)

LoL

I love the smell of certain fuels, some better than others.
It does make a good bug repellent on those hot muggy days. LoL

Pa is gonna be great, it has been, besides the washout yesterday afternoon. My parents are visiting on there way home to Mass, so I guess I'll be taking them to the field for a few flites this weekend. :)

[heli-cuzz]

Today was not that great. A passing shower along with a ten degree temperature drop. I flew one tank and tuned the hyper to the colder air. Halfway through the second tank there was a bit of a problem. The two piece muffler came apart in flite, it made a horrible quack sound and shut-off.{the hex screw head broke off} I was in medium speed FF{about20m.p.h} when this happened and about 15 feet off the deck. As I watched the piece drop from the heli about 30 yards down the field, I auto'd my heli to a nice soft touchdown about ten feet past my flite station.
I can not stress enough of the great importance of learning autorotations. :cool:

[kcgraves]

That's too bad cuzz, but at least you had a soft landing. Yesterday here was gloomy and cold the only thing I flew was my MX (which has the CCPM upgrade). It has not been flying right since I took it out a month ago after sitting since Dec. So yesterday morning I pulled all the links off, checked the ball grips and replaced a couple, re-adjusted the servos, tweaked the mix on my radio, etc. Took it out and now it will hands off hover for a few seconds. No vibrations or blade tracking problems, cannot remember when it few that good.

Today looks beautiful so far. Suppose to be 60 later. Off to the field later and more buddy box training for me with my Rappy. If they let me fly without those decals.

37°F
Mostly Sunny
Real Feel: 34°F (1°C)
Relative Humidity: 72%
Barometer: 30.30"Hg (F)
Wind: NNW at 5 mph (8 kph)
Visibility: 10 miles (16 km)

[heli-cuzz]

What the heli is going on!
I put on a brand new muffler today and one of the hex screws broke again and dropped 1/2 the muffler to the ground. Had to auto down again. A member of my club had an extra screw. Fixed the muffler and took it up again only for the other screw to brake and drop 1/2 the muffler to the ground for a third time in two days. It was very wind and the final auto was a floppy landing, the wind pushed it enough to blade strike the ground. Only damage.... A broken grip. :mad: Video later tonite. :D

[kcgraves]

cuzz,

Like me, you should have stayed home today. Drove an hour to the field, no one there and the gate was locked. I seemed to remember someone telling me a number and after 5 minutes got it open. But the wind out there was 15+, the flag and wind sock were straight out. Not the 5 MPH earlier. So I burned three tanks basically in a 30 degree hover and left. At home not much wind. So I took it out to the field behind my house and on the third tank at home, after replacing another glow plug, the plastic on one of blades starts coming off. So I landed and come in the house to play with the sim.

Seems like I have been going through glow plugs every 8-10 flights. Is that normal. I am running 30% fuel and am at 2 clicks past 1.5 on my OS50 hyper.

[heli-cuzz]

kc, I usually change the glo plug when idling qualities start go to crap, about one every gallon. It's a good idea to check your glo plug every so often. Put the ignitor on and check the coil too.

LoL nah, never stay home. I love the wind, kc. I just watched the video of my bad auto landing , the heli spun out and never even tipped, but from the force of the spin, it cracked the grip on the arm for the ball. I'll post it up later if you're interested, along with a quickie tic-toc vid too. :) As many probs as I've had yesterday and today. This pic makes it all the worthwhile. I love my wife, she came out and took some pics even though she's in pain from being pregnant.

[vapochilled]

well after what seems a damn long time, I got back in the air today, a little windy, the CP Pro was all over the place :D
Two flights with the CPP then at last found time to rebuild the HDX head (bent shaft), quick hover in the garage to check it out and then outside for some re-learning.
:rolleyes:

[kcgraves]

Congrats on the future little heli pilot, cuzz. Another nice picture. Post away, I always like looking at what other people can do, keeps me inspired to learn more that I know now. Six tanks yesterday and still in one piece, except for that piece of plastic coming off the end of my blade, but I trimmed and glued around the edges. Looks like another beautiful day here in Western NY. Too bad I'm at work. :mad:

[vapochilled]

What a great afternoon, got home early, got two packs charged up while I made a sandwhich, then across the road to the field, got 4 packs in before I dumb thumbed it into a gentle crash or heavey landing as I call then, new main gear/spindle and up we went for another 4 packs :D
Each time it gets a little easier to fly, doing a lot of tail in hovering and right hand circuits. Starting to have control of side on hover a lot better, and even had it nose in hovering today, albeit by mistake...don't ask :o
All in all a great afternoons fun :cool:

[heli-cuzz]

Congrats on the future little heli pilot, cuzz. Another nice picture. Post away, I always like looking at what other people can do, keeps me inspired to learn more that I know now. Six tanks yesterday and still in one piece, except for that piece of plastic coming off the end of my blade, but I trimmed and glued around the edges. Looks like another beautiful day here in Western NY. Too bad I'm at work. :mad:

Thanks, kc. :) My lil' future pilot. I won't push it on him unless he wants to learn. I have an 8 year old, he loves helis but has no desire to learn to fly them at the moment. Glad to hear your burning some fuel in that badflyer. :cool:


Nice to see you back, vapo. Sounds like you're coming along with your piloting skills.

I fixed the broken grip and bought ten new bolts for my exhaust. I flew one tank and the C-5 is flying flatout balls to the wall awesome. :D

[vapochilled]

never left, just had a load of "honey do" jobs that had to come first :D
Wife shot some video today of me "weed whacking" with the HDX :p made a right mess of the new main blades

[Rappy1]

just took my new Belt cp out for a fly, down at the local sports field. It is still pretty windy here, so had a good chance to see how well it handles the wind. It seem to handle it alright just needed to add more neg pitch to pull it back down but apart from that it flew really well for its first outdoor flight. Was able to fly it nose in towards me without any fear of it getting out of control and it also has a good climb out. Still getting use to how fast a lipo dies when it gets low on grunt so also learnt to do a auto. Seeing as i don't have a sim I think this will do for my trainer heli as it really is a very gentle heli to fly

[heli-cuzz]

Isn't it weird when the li-po drops off. My Trex will start pulsating when the li-po gets low, time to land. :)

[vapochilled]

Another three packs of solid nose in hover training.
Was going great right up to the point the one way bearing let go! :mad: six feet off the deck, no rotor or tail drive, no auto experiance, was never going to end well was it!?
Feathering shaft, main blades, one way bearing of course, main gear and a full re-check and setup.
Parts are on order :rolleyes:
One thing I have to say, I've now crashed quite a few times :rolleyes: and the 65MGs are still going strong, no damage as yet to them, they are great servos. :)
Are well, onwards and hopefully upwards

[heli-cuzz]

Put the hyper back together and flew one last tank before sending it out.
1/2 tank in the back yard pitch pumping around, and a 1/2 tank at the field flying figure 8's @ medium speed{about twenty-five mph} 6 to 10 feet off the deck. The muffler bolt broke{scared the heli out of me} and 1/2 of the two piece dropped to the ground. Auto-ing from a low height and a good forward speed makes it fun to float-er-down. :D

[blax1]

I find it bizzare that the bolt actually break, as in snap in half??, If that what's happening?? :confused:
The shear strength of those bolts must be very high, I know the ones you are talking about, I just bolted my muffler on last week :)

[heli-cuzz]

I find it bizzare that the bolt actually break, as in snap in half??, If that what's happening?? :confused:
The shear strength of those bolts must be very high, I know the ones you are talking about, I just bolted my muffler on last week :)


It's not the two bolts that mount it to the engine. It's one bolt of the two that keeps breaking, the hex bolts that hold the 2 piece muffler together. It's a bad rear bearing. I took the crank out and spun the inner ring with my finger and as the bearings rolled, it felt like the bearings were rocks and not round balls. I would say vibration is what's snapping the hex bolts.

[Rappy1]

They are a pain in the back side those muffs that have the through bolt to hold both parts together. I have had the same problem on planes. What I do now is when iget a new muff i take it to people that weld alu and get them to weld around the join before any oil gets on there. This also removes the other issue that can happen with the muffler unscrewing

[rc heli crazy]

i had that proplem with my plane 3 weeks ago and the muffler fell of near 2 landing luck i found it but thwt is a great ina though rappy i might try wif me tt 46 :D pro

[TPCrowell]

A picture of my Raptor 30 when it was feeling good.

[Helifino]

TPCrowell, I like your training gear, !/2" pvc pipe? That's original, I haven't seen that before, great idea. What did you use in the center?

[TPCrowell]

The center is just a standard cross joint. I got a, 10 foot section of PVC, a cross, and four end caps from the H. Depot for less than five dollars. I cut the PVC into four 30" sections and just pushed the pieces together, no glue. I sat the Raptor on the assembly and marked where the skids rested on the pipe. I drille a horizontal hole through the pipe at each of the four marked point and use wire ties to hold the assembly the machine.

It works great, but a little on the heavy side. The training wheels weigh a little over a pound. I don't know if CPVC is any lighter, but it would be worth investigating.

[heli-cuzz]

TP, that's a cool looking diaper. Don't take that the wrong way, I also wore a diaper, but I bought mine already made.

[Helifino]

Made 5-6 lame attempts at hovering 1-4 feet above the ground with the Rex today. Getting a little more nerve and a little more control :rolleyes:. Was running smooth and quite until...... belt slipped off tail shaft. Probably because of running in high grass. Also think that it smoked my old esc(literally). Got to use my new futaba tx for the first time. Like it a lot! Still need to mess with setting up tail. Still glitching, but not as much or as bad.

[blax1]

Great to read Helifino, :)

[heli-cuzz]

Nice job, helifino. Any attempt is not lame, you gotta start somewhere. It's all part of the learning process.

Today, believe it or not, My brand new hyper is now broken in and is flying sweet. I ran it extra rich for a half gallon and started leaning a couple of clicks on the high end. I was flying close to the deck today, about 8 to 25 feet, flipping and rolling in every direction, no piros besides the 540 stall turns, and working on boom to ground and tail-in tic-tocs about 12 feet up. I've been really enjoying the view of my heli and the ground while in rolls and flips. There was a nice breeze today and the temp was around 75 but on the humid side. I did about twenty auto's today, the engine drops to idle instantly and purrs like a kitten. I have a new thread in mind, because yesterday was a different story.
All in all, today was smooth. :cool:

[vapochilled]

well the new tail gearing seems to have improved the heli no end! Ran about 7 packs through it today, it spins like crazy now with full rudder :D
The new Align 430L is kicking ass, reset the pitch and throttle curves and it climbs out like a rocket now.
Nose in is almost (I said almost) easy now, took it way off down the field a few times and had no issues bringing her back.
Orientation now seems to rely less on the eyes and more on the thumbs, I almost know where she's pointing without having to see it if that makes sense :confused:
Only thing I did do was drop off the back of the DX7 and stiffen the throttle stick, much easy to control now.
A great days flying :D :cool:

[blax1]

More power to you Vapo- great stuff :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:

[team222badbrad]

Ok so today...




My goal was to fly my plane.....




Even if it comes home in splinters....



The results are below....




I finally finished my repair on my Hangar 9 Twist PNP.

I previously snapped it in half messing around in my backyard.

So today I can finally say that I can fly an rc plane.

I took it over to my local airport and the guy that helped me was great. I don't even need an AMA, which is nice since I never really had the time to go to the rc fields.

I did the AMA trial membership several months ago and used it to go the the field with Heli-Cuzz once.

I took off and landed many times. I had one bad landing, but that was due to some crosswinds, I saved it at the last moment.

I even did a few loops!

My last landing consisted of the engine dying and landing in a plowed field.

It flipped over, but its still in one piece. WOOOOHOOO!

I'm not sure if I still like helis or not now!







JK just kidding. Helis are fun too. :D

Sorry, no video or pictures of me flying

The first picture is after my repairs and the second picture was the plane it its brand new unbroken state. LOL

I guess the only way to break in a plane the proper way is to actually "break" it into the ground once.

[heli-cuzz]

Vapo, good to see you're getting to fly your lil' rexy. :cool:



I'm not sure if I still like helis or not now!



:eek: Oh my heli-god, he's a fixed wing lover. The day I pick a fixed wing over a heli is the day I'm not flying and fixed wings are bar-b-q-ing on the grill. :D

Nice job Brad. Call me later this week and we'll hit up a non-AMA field. ;)

[TPCrowell]

Fixed wing is fine, but I'll take the thrill of a good hover any day.

Look Ma! No training wheels (diaper)!

Life is good!

[GMONEY]

Well lets see here. Long weekend doing water stuff but still took both helo's with me. I managed to get three flights in on the Mini Titian all 6 minutes in duration. The new tail servo and new speed control helped out big time. I am still having a hard time getting her to settle down. (More practice required). Then I moved on to my Raptor 30. I was very nervous about fling it cuz the last time I tried it she went back all twisted. Anyways my good friend SACK took it to work with him and got me all set up for vacation. (Thanks CHAD) the thing was great it started right up and I was able to put three of the longest flights of my life on her. The head speed is nice and low and the control was crisp considering the head speed. More flights tonight after I print the sequence for class 1.

This week I vow to burn one gallon of glow fuel and match the number of flights with the Mini.

GMONEY

[team222badbrad]

Nice job Brad. Call me later this week and we'll hit up a non-AMA field. ;)

Sounds like a plan Cuzz. Probably either friday night or saturday.

[heli-cuzz]

Fixed wing is fine, but I'll take the thrill of a good hover any day.

Look Ma! No training wheels (diaper)!

Life is good!

Nice job,TP. :cool: MoM will be very proud.

The rappy is looking sweet.

GMONEY, sounds like everything is flying nice for ya. Good deal. :cool:

[heli-cuzz]

:cool:

I'm working a 1/2 day saturday, brad.

[heli-cuzz]

Yesterday I flew three tanks in my C-5. I am so happy with my stick abilities lately. I'm doing things without thinking about it, my reaction time is ahead of the heli. I practiced inverted FF in a clockwise circuit. The muffler problem is gone. The exit hole of the exhaust must really play a part in the aid of cooling the muffler.

Lastnite I flew at 9:38p.m..... Yes it was pitchblack besides the full moon. I flew the Caliber30 Nite-Chopper after my RC club meeting. Everything was ready, then realised I forgot the 3 prong jumper to light the main blades up. I live about three miles away from my flying field, so I drove home to get them. That was good, it killed time while the light from dusk was still hanging around. Flying at nite is a lot of fun and a few club members hung around until I got back from my house. After flying, they thanked me for the fantastic light show. That was my 2nd time flying at nite. I was much more relaxed than the first time.
The Caliber30 nite chopper is flying great with 90 hours and 20 minutes flite time. :D

[vapochilled]

Flew both HDXs this afternoon, the 450 is getting so sweet, I love the Align 430L.
Nose in is almost second nature now, and I can care less where the tail is :D
Did some FR flight, only gentle turns but it looked cool for the wife :D
Not sure what to call the next thing I do, I'm sure it has a name:
I come in from about 50 feet up, as I drop I kill the collective and then as it comes in I open it up into a stable hover, I suppose if I hit the throttle hold I could practice Autoing :eek:
Also took the 300 out, and this was fun because the gyro is way off so there is little tail hold, but for some reason it did not slow me down, I just flew it!
Have to say despite the concerns, the 300 is going to be a great heli once it's all set up, need bigger Lipo's the Eflight ones are too weak.
3 mins of hovering and it was very hot!
Plenty of tail control, and the climb out seems strong enough for some inverted once I get that far.
Put 5 packs through the 450 and 2 on the 300, what a great day.
When you can put two heli's back on the wall and all you had to do was remove the grass stains from the blades ;) it must be good

[GMONEY]

Went out tonight and got two nice flights in on the R30. Pleasent surprise was the five other guys at the school killing it. What makes a evening at the park even better is having great flyers around to spur you on. SACKMAN was FEELING IT TONIGHT!! He gets much more comforatble with his R50 the county will not have to mow the grass at that school much longer. Good Times tonight guys.

Thanks
GMONEY

[Rappy1]

It seems like everybody is having luck with their helis at the moment, maybe that means the crashing virus has stopped spreading. Good to read positive flying

[heli-cuzz]

I've been flying everyday. I've been working on tic-tocs. Trying to work them about ten to twelve feet off the deck. Getting the hang of keeping the heli suspended at one altitude during tic-toc maneuvers. :cool:

[vapochilled]

another four packs through the 450, in between staining the deck stairs :)

Lost orientation a couple of times, but that panic reaction has gone, I just flick the tail about until I see which way is up and I'm off again.
that will teach me to fly as dusk approaches.
Did some stall turns, and a split S. May be time to upgrade blades, the woodies make a very strange noise when I pull hard on them.
All good though, back on the wall ready for Friday, and the lipo's are ready.

[TPCrowell]

Flight No. 31 (Raptor 30) - Learned the hard way that you must increase throttle when transitioning from forward flight to landing hover.

Will spend lunch at the hobby shop getting new blades (main and tail), boom, fly bar rod, etc. It could have been a lot worse. No broken frames or bent main shaft.

After spending hours learning to hover, forward flight is too cool!

[heli-cuzz]

Sounds like you're flying well, vapo, Sweet. :cool: We should have a Vapochilled/Team222BadBrad/Heli-Cuzz funfly one weekend, also, my RC club is having a fun-fly on June23rd.{will post a thread later}. Keep flying :cool:

Sorry to hear the news, TP. FF is a lot of fun, especially after the learning stages of hovering. You are now flying, and crashing, but hey, we all crash. :D You'll be up in no time.

[team222badbrad]

Yo Brian

That day would be a good day to have our fun fly also


I suppose I am required to have my AMA though?

Saturdays are best for me. This weekend and next weekend are booked for me.

[heli-cuzz]

Yo Brian

That day would be a good day to have our fun fly also


I suppose I am required to have my AMA though?

Saturdays are best for me. This weekend and next weekend are booked for me.

Yeah, Brad. You do need ama to fly at my field. Even if you can't make it, we still ought to get together and fly. We should ride to Allentown and fly one of those monster fields down that way and vapo could meet up with us. :D

[team222badbrad]

I might get my ama again I dunno

I just had the heli out for a tank of gas.

I messed with my pitch and throttle curves a bit.

The engine still seems hot though.

What throttle gov do you run cuzz and how much was it?

[vapochilled]

sounds good cuzz

Flew another 5 packs(waiting for charge now ) today, when I get to the top of the stall turn now, I'm holding full rudder and just spinning down and pulling out about 10 feet off the deck :) I know, I know, it's going to happen soon :)
Had a funny toady on flight five, no damage but it got me worried.
Where I fly has an area to the right of me with 4 foot grass and the area is about 7 foot lower than the area to the left.
So I scoot off to the right do my turn and I'm doing FF back towards me, low........very low!
So much so that as I get to the bank, I realize I'm going to hit it, give full power and watch as the HDX comes busting through this tall grass and dust flying everywhere,lol
Took the covering of the the blades but no other damage apart from grass stains on the nose and underside of the canopy :)
Still waiting on some new lipos for the 300, should be here by next weekend

[heli-cuzz]

I might get my ama again I dunno

I just had the heli out for a tank of gas.

I messed with my pitch and throttle curves a bit.

The engine still seems hot though.

What throttle gov do you run cuzz and how much was it?

That'd be cool if you did. There's gonna be a couple of fun-flys up at the Fox Crossing Airport by you towards the end of the summer early fall.

Have you had any glo-plug probs lately? Did you try a cooler plug yet? I think it's the A-5, not exactly sure though.

Your hirobo was flying great last time I saw. I don't understand why your backplate is scorching hot.

I use a TJ RevMax, its an RPM limiter, but I have it set to act like a governor... Nothing but sweetness. :cool:

sounds good cuzz



Flew another 5 packs(waiting for charge now ) today, when I get to the top of the stall turn now, I'm holding full rudder and just spinning down and pulling out about 10 feet off the deck I know, I know, it's going to happen soon


:cool:
Soon, we'll go fly.

Vapo, sounds like your having a blast flying. Gotta love when ya jump start the heart. LoL

My one tank @ dusk. Rock&Roll baby, rock&roll. Damn, I love flying helis!!

[GMONEY]

Saturday I got one pack on the Mini Titian and four 15+ minute flights on the R30. The hovering drills are paying off big time. My confidence is starting to scare me. I keep telling myself to be patient but forward flight is just right there.My month end goal for FF is on track. I cant wait for Tuesday night!! More glow fuel....

GMONEY

[team222badbrad]

Saturday I dead sticked my plane (Hangar 9 Twist 40 PNP) twice.

The first landing after the engine died was kinda rough but not the best.

The second landing after the engine died again was not so good.


I thought I went out far enough to get the landing strip, but didnt.

Once near the ground I started to turn the plane about 45 degrees from the rc runway so I would have room to land.

The plane ended up landing on the runway in which the real planes use.

Anyways the front landing gear snapped off plywood and all.

Time for some more epoxy.

Oh and btw I hate glow engines :D

[vapochilled]

still waiting for the postman to bring me parts for the 450, so I got in 3 flight with the 300 this evening, just too much fun, will try and get a video over the weekend, you won't believe it's a CP Pro in there!

[heli-cuzz]

Flew two tanks in my Caliber5 and one in a Raptor50 titan with kasama head an houtr ago. Electronically speaking, the rappy has much better servos and gyro than my C-5. My stock Caliber5 flies and autos better than the blinged out raptor. :D Was working on forward inverted flite at a lower level, about 30 feet. Getting very comfy at the sticks each time out. I'm just out flying having a good time, I really love this heli-hobby. :cool:

[heli-cuzz]

Brand new caliber5 virgin flite this morning...... SWEET!!!! :D

[blax1]

Brand new caliber5 virgin flite this morning...... SWEET!!!! :D

Wooooo Hooooo Go Cuzz GO!! :cool:

[heli-cuzz]

Ralph, just so you know, both my Caliber5's were/are tracking perfectly when brand new, no adjustments necessary. My Caliber5 with 55+hours on it never needed one tracking adjustment, until I smacked it but didn't crash it. The spindle and boom was bent from the blunt force trauma. Tough heli I'll say the Caliber5 is :D .

[vapochilled]

two packs through the 450, stiff breeze today and I have found a problem with the heli. Not sure what to do about it either:confused:

Seems that heading downwind, FFFF F#$$$#%$ fast forward flight:) I pull up, eeze of the throttle as I go verticle, then I hang on the rudder for 4-5 complete spins. Start heading down verticle, nose into the wind and she stalls!! Luckily I had a enough altitude and did not panic, I kept her as upright as possible while the head speed built up again.
Is this an issue any heli can get? Am I just now starting to get enough control to be finding the limits of my cyclic control(IE me being too harsh on the sticks)
I think I need to get together with Cuzz and let him have a feel of the HDX, perhaps it's my setup (throttle/pich curves) the motor damn near stalled when it happened, and it was only a minute into the flight so the lipo was still fresh.
Have to say, when I landed, there was a group of maybe 5-6 neighbours stood, smilling :D
I have groupies :p

[heli-cuzz]

Anytime on the weekends we can hook up, you come here, or I come there. It's about an hour away so that's not to bad. There's a funfly at my club field this saturday. :) Burgers, hotdogs, and other food, also helis, planes, and possibly a turbine jet or two. Bring the wife.

That sounds strange that you're stalling out in the position described. Glad to hear you saved it. It gets the heart going when the headspeed dies out.


I took my Caliber30 for a walk around the neighborhood. It was a 17 minute hover/walk with a couple of circuits through many backyards. :D

[GMONEY]

4 flights on the R30 tonight. I got my first PIRO.. Nice and slow and under control. I cant tell you guys how stoked I am right now.. The FF is really coming along to the point where I can and will say I have progressed to FORWARD FLIGHT!!! Thanks to everybody for your help and advice.. BIG thanks to my factory mechanic SACKMAN for keeping my junk in perfect running order and for the gentle nudge to SACK up and DO IT!!!

GMONEY

[heli-cuzz]

I flew my Caliber30 at 11:00 p.m on July 3rd. Night flying is a lot of fun. :cool:

[GMONEY]

Just three flights over the long weekend. Two of those flights though where HUGE! Took OFF and landed on the boat dock. The whole flights where over the river. Talk about having the shakes.. DAMN!! Good stuff. SACKMAN should post some pics in the next couple days. His GIRLFRIEND is way more interested in what he does than my wife of too many years is.....She got some great pics of him inches off the water inverted... I am looking forward to a weeks worth of practice.

GMONEY

[TPCrowell]

Flight number 51, crash number 2!

Why is a clockwise circle so much harder than a counter-clockwise circle. (With me in the middle.) I can fly all day while watching the left side of the Raptor 30, but when I turn it around, it seems to fly away.

I think it has something to do with the fact that the blade disc is not truely level at a hover. When it is on my right side, I am looking at the high side of the disc. When it is on my left, I am looking at the low side and my thumbs try to keep the disc level and away it goes.

Oh well. New boom, mains & fly bar rod and we are ready again. :(

[team222badbrad]

I had the hirobo up twice yesterday!

I could not figure out what was going on with my tail rotor since I set the idle up mode. :confused:

I was screwing with the gain settings on the first flight and nothing seemed to stop the drift.

So before the second flight I discovered i had my 401 in normal mode instead of AVCS.

Here is a short vid of my second flight yesterday.

Forward flight here I come!!!! :D

What do you guys think of my massive smoke trail?

Is that rich enough for CUZZ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBxv151oIuA

[blax1]

Hi Brad. :)
Very nice hover and left to right routine, she looks rich enough to me, you have obviously sorted the throttle problem, very nice flying :cool:
Cheers Ralph

[heli-cuzz]

I had the hirobo up twice yesterday!

I could not figure out what was going on with my tail rotor since I set the idle up mode. :confused:

I was screwing with the gain settings on the first flight and nothing seemed to stop the drift.

So before the second flight I discovered i had my 401 in normal mode instead of AVCS.

Here is a short vid of my second flight yesterday.

Forward flight here I come!!!! :D

What do you guys think of my massive smoke trail?

Is that rich enough for CUZZ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBxv151oIuA

LoL

It looks and sounds good. Brad, your old engine would have died out flying in that wind. Glad to see you're up and flying.

[heli-cuzz]

Flight number 51, crash number 2!

Why is a clockwise circle so much harder than a counter-clockwise circle. (With me in the middle.) I can fly all day while watching the left side of the Raptor 30, but when I turn it around, it seems to fly away.

I think it has something to do with the fact that the blade disc is not truely level at a hover. When it is on my right side, I am looking at the high side of the disc. When it is on my left, I am looking at the low side and my thumbs try to keep the disc level and away it goes.

Oh well. New boom, mains & fly bar rod and we are ready again. :(

Sorry to hear about the crash, TP.

Its all in the mind. Yes, the disc is never at a true level in a hover, but the heli turns the same both ways. I went through that for awhile. Practice figure 8's, good for learning to turn the heli both ways.

Here's a method I use for flying helis, don't watch the rotor disc, fly the nose and skids and that should help better with orientation.

[GMONEY]

Three more flights on Saturday. ON the third flight I got in a little over my head and BAM! I hit the ground. Tore the skids off then the skid flipped up and hit the main blade. Not bad really thanks to my flying bros that were yelling at me to hit HOLD. I got her under control and set her down nice and soft(first auto) right on her belly and held it there perfectly. Should be ready for Tuesday flying session. I really need to force myself to start hovering "NOSE IN". Tuesday nite starts the drills for perfect all around hovering.

G

[vapochilled]

woohoo, first flights in weeks!

Three packs through the 450, took a pack to get back into it, still messing with throttle and pitch, I may have to reduce the pitch as the motor still bogs a little even with the motor flat out.
tried a little high altitude inverted, stall turns, verticle rolls.
Thumb was ok, but I don't have full feeling in it yet:(

[heli-cuzz]

Flying the neighborhood with my backyard heli... The Caliber30 :D

[vapochilled]

Not a great day:mad:

About 4 minutes into my second pack of the day, been doing inverted hovering which is going well. Every now and then it gets alittle loose, so I go full neg and get altitude, flip it over and position myself again, ready to go inverted.
So I've climbed up, flipped the right way up, and as I start to position the heli again, it just goes in!
Was flying fast forward and had just started to turn into the wind, when the tail started to drop, followed by the rest of the heli. As it started, I gave full power/cyclic, but she just floated on down while going forward at a great rate of knots.
As it touched down tail first, I hit throttle hold, and released the sticks(try and save the servos)
Couple of cartwheels later, I've lost the tail boom, main blades, feathering shaft, fly bar.
They are the clear things, I put her on the wall, never fix straight after a crash, I'm usually too angry at myself,lol
But this time, I think it may be something else. I was flying with the wind when I started the turn, is it possible I stalled? I don't recall hearing the tell tale sound of stalled blades, but I could have just not heard it in the chaos.

[blax1]

Crickey's Vapo- :eek:
Sounds like that one is going to keep you occupied for sometime, :(
As for why?? :confused:
I think its a case of, if nothing mechanical has caused this crash then perhaps yes she may have stalled, thats if you are happy with the stick inputs etc, its hard to say without actually witnessing it.
Good to read your thumb is much better :cool:
Cheers Ralph

[team222badbrad]

I just purchased a blue Helimax Axe CP.

This is going to be my first electric heli!

I couldn't resist a $50 merchandise rebate.
I purchased RealFlight G3.5 when they offered a $30 merchandise rebate!

I didn't fly today so this is my non flight log summary. :D

[blax1]

Congrats- on first electric heli- you'll have fun with it..
I thought you had G3.5 :confused:
Didn't we go flying at the Moscow flying circus on the multi player a few months back, if not we should its great fun :cool:
Cheers Ralph

[team222badbrad]

yes I do have it.

I meant in my post that I purchased g3.5 because of the rebate they offered several months ago.

Here is a highly modified AXE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL1mjDXwT4M

want to go flying now blax?

[blax1]

OK Brad, I get it,
Nice vid- of the Axe, they go pretty well, hey, especially when you consider he's only running a 910mah bat- :)
Hmm, as for flying now, sorry I'm at work, we should try and schedule something in and around the weekend, If I see you logged in when I'm at home, and you have time, I try and hook up then, and give that Sports Dog 60, a run on one of the fields, the other day I had her hovering just off the runway and I got smacked out of the air by that Wright Brothers flyer LOL :D All good fun.. :)
Cheers Ralph

[team222badbrad]

I just took the AXE CP up for its maiden flight.

All I have to say is Freakin Awesome!

I think I will learn a lot on this machine because I'm not as worried about crashing $1,000 over crashing less than $200.

The only downside is that you can't add electricity to the tank as fast as you can add nitro to the tank. :D :D

She seems very stable, but I think she needs more power!

Oh well, I have to head to bed now, ugh I hate night shift!

Pictures to come sometime this weekend.