The Bad, The Good, and the Awesome

The Bad

Maidened the Hacker MX2 today (see Good, below). First landing, the right wheel pant came right off. These things are hard enough to keep on planes, but the foam ones never survive grass.

Screw them, tore off the left one by hand. No Capes and No Wheel Pants!

The DLE 30cc on the Breitling was idling a bit low but didn't quit on start-up, thought it would come up as it warmed up, gave it a few notches of subtrim and took off. Few moments later as I idled out of  tumble she quit. Dead stick: remember up elevator is never good. I could and should have turned right in and landed her awkwardly even, but she was going from left to right and right in front of me at altitude, so I thought I would just keep going. This unexpectedly put me in a tail wind on final (learned after the crash; winds shift on Mt Hudson and there really wasn't one, so...). I tried to keep her nose up in the turn which was a mistake, and that was all it took, she dropped nose first, I let her to gain airspeed, then at the last moment as she disappeared over the edge of the hill I pretended I was landing her normally but with full up elevator. That worked! This is how I found her.

From engine quit to hard landing was less than 10 seconds

She pulled her landing gear back, very little apparent damage anywhere else, as designed.

Gear is somehow still attached aft... Will get around to this repair next week. Another pilot was there and he likes to really reinforce these. I prefer they be strong but able to break away and it works every time to save the fuse from severe damage.

She just looks so sad sitting there like that...

Well, I guess its time to reset the Crash Clock.

The Good

Maidened the Hacker MX2. The light breeze surprised me at how much it blew her around, making the trim out a bit challenging. She is a touch nose heavy (up-line, inverted, tended to drop). The Battery Cover came off in flight, seems I didn't close it right. Took me 15 min to find it. She flew wonderfully though, snappy and responsive. A few more familiarization flights and I will be able to fly her anywhere!

The Awesome!

Flew the HK 500 FBL "Drone" with the canopy mod allowing the 5S 4500 mAh battery to fit underneath (damn, I am clever!).  I took a moment to clean up the blade tracking, then I flew the entire pack for 5 min, with two landings, one tail in, one nose in, flew her in hover, in circuits, back-and-forths and figure-8's with total control! I had her going where I wanted her to go when I wanted her to go. My hands were shaking so bad at the end I decided to take the win and walk away. Now I need to fly one every time I go out so that the shakes stop. I am super excited, love these helis so incredibly much! Sim time pays!