ERazor 450 and CopterX 250 Maiden Flights (Posted on HeliFreak)

I took the ERazor 450 and the CopterX 250 out today, both for their first flights. Spun up the 450, ran sweet and smooth, very little tracking issue. Hovered sweet, though I noticed it took about 75% throttle to rise into hover from normal mode (never flipped it into idle up). It was nicely controllable. I had a couple short hovers, and on the last one I ground rolled it a little and the rotor hit the grass. It was an unimpressive rotor crash and I am very good at hitting TH, but it ended exactly like the EXI 450 maiden flight with a bent main rotor and feathering shaft! I am surprised how little it takes to bend the shafts.

Incidentlly, both the Erazor and the CopterX motors ran backwards...I checked and the wires are all aligned properly. I reversed two of them and it then ran fine. Marked them with electrical tape... The 250 also yawed with torque, not gyro reversed yaw, but just couldn't compensate. Travel is good. The belt was a bit loose, so I ended for the day and pulled the tube back 1mm when i got back to my shop. I will likely fly it tomorrow.

When I got home I broke out the spares that Flying Fingers sent me, only to find that the Dynam ERazor is not a true Trex clone and none of the parts are compatible... so xheli WITH ITS NO LONGER FREE SHIPPING got $40 more of me money!

So both 450's in the hurt locker. Got the 250 and now have all the parts for my Frankenheli 450. Franky will be my last build until I master flying the ones I have.

CopterX 250 not entirely Trex Compatible

I replaced the faulty tail gear (first pic) and axle on the CopterX 250 today. I was having tail control problems that I had isolated to a lack of headspeed. Inspection revealed that the pulley gear spun freely on the axle. It slides freely as can be seen in this first pic. Apparently the cross hatch marks on the axle pressure fit the pulley to the axle. The middle pic is what its supposed to look like. I replaced it with an Align Trex 250SE tail rotor axle and pulley (the black one) but had a problem screwing in the rear screw. The tail case was spread about half a millimeter, just barely deforming the casing, as you can see in the bottom pic. The sides of the gear pulley have a small flange edge on them, and on the Trex part it is noticeably bigger than on the CopterX part as you can see in the middle pic. It worked just fine in spin up, and I have solved the loose gear pulley issue (the tail has some great headspeed and control is powerful now). I am not sure this is the way to go. I have CA'd the original pulley and may try it, but am not sure how it will respond to the, friction heat. I have found a US distributor (no long wait) for CopterX parts at Machinaria.com and ordered the proper part. I'll replace that when it comes. Of note, all the other parts have been Align compatible, such as the featherng shaft and main shaft.

I broke off the tip of the port skid pipe trying to get the screws on the tail assembly off. (They are those damn star ones and they roundoff the tool easily. Dremeled down the rounded off tip and got the screws off easier). I stuck some Goop and a toothpick in the pipe and put it back together, but eBay'd some replacement pipes from gogo.rc, one of my favorite Chinese sellers. Machinaria was NIS on the pipes.

Tomorrow I want to fly the EXI 450, though I am tired of crashing and breaking them every time I take them out. I also want to try to fly the 250 as well, having repaired it, but may wait until I can get the original tail axle back on.

In regards to the ERazor... Yesterday one of the small main grip bearings was crushed when the head spacer popped into the grip while screwing the feathering shaft back together. I have to wait for more parts from Heliporz. The Erazor is still down.

Frankenheli is delayed waiting for a few more part to come from Helidirect. May put the servos, ESC and motor in while I wait.

Baby gets a new pair of shoes

I have decided that now that I can actually fly my helis, and they are all up, I would revisit my CopterX 250Se. She was one of my first helis, back before I understood how challenging helis are to fly and that the smaller they are the harder they are to handle. Some of my first heli blog posts were about the CopterX 250. I remember somewhat her last flight, but a search of my blog reveals I may not have written about it. I don't think it was that crash on May 6, 2011, but it may well have been. It would be odd, because she has a new Align tail boom on her, and I wouldn't have stopped there; I would have finished her. At any rate, it has been scaveneged for its servos, including its tail gyro, its reciever, and its ESC, and the blade grips are missing.
 
So today I inspected her and have been ordering parts. I have Solar 11g digital metal gear servos for the swash, and ordered an Align DS420 for the tail. Found a good price, around $25, and it weighs less than the Hitec HS-5084 I used to have on it by half, at around 12g. Its good to save weight aft since the Tarot ZYX weighs a bit more than a standard gyro. I ordered a HURC 22a ESC. Since I will be flying all digital servos and installing a Tarot ZYX FBL system, I opted to cut out the 2A linear BEC, and purchased a 3A SBEC to replace it. And as I mentioned, I purchased a Tarot ZYX 3-axis stablization system with a Tarot 250 FBL rotor head, from cnchelicopter.com. In working on her I found that the tail servo mounts were missing (the blade grips are missing too, not sure what happened there. Its one of the reasons I decided to go FBL since I needed to buy head parts anyway), and that the tail boom support bracket doesn't fit well. This heli uses Torx screws, those star shaped ones everyone hates because they are guaranteed to strip. One did on the boom bracket, and then it snapped off when I had to use Vice Grips to remove it... so I had to order another boom bracket. I also ordered a couple of feathering shafts. I have the intact original CopterX fiberglass canopy, but I have a nice Tacon 250 canopy I will use. All of these parts have cost me about 4x the original cost of the flybarred heli!

 
These parts, other than some blades I ordered from China, should all be here when I get back from my trip next week to Meridian. I will have a couple of days before I leave for Dayton to finish her up and flight test her. I will have the swash servos in tomorrow so that will save some time. Hopefully I won't crash the helis I take to Meridian and won't have to spend time repairing them... Maybe I will just take two?
 
So in addition to my two 450 FBL helis, and one 450 FB heli, and my two 500's, on FB, one FBL, I will have this baby heli, the most challenging to fly in my fleet. I think she is a prime candidate for the FBL system which should make her much easier to fly as it will tame down the impressive twitchiness 250s a known for. I wanted something small to fly in the parking lot of my apartment in Dayton, and I just can't have a complete heli frame in my lab that I haven't built to flight readiness (that's how I ended up with Frankeheli. I had a complete 450 heli, just in various parts, so lf course I had to put one together)! Besides, the 250 nicely rounds out my heli hangar, and when I get the 600 blt, and step up to a 700 in a year or two, why then I will have a complete set!
 

Posted with Blogsy

Scare me...

A few years ago we were having dinner at one of those Hibachi places were the pseudo-Japanese cook (in this case he was really Japanese) tosses his knives around entertaining you with faux-danger. Except this guy's knife went flying, but he caught it, and demurely stated, "Scare me..."

I had been setting up Frankenheli's gyro when it became evident that the receiver was browning out and the servos were going nuts as a result*. I pulled the receiver from the CopterX 250 and bound her to Franky to see if that was the problem, and its not (I suspect the new ESC; of course I have no idea where I bought it from...). Anywho, I had to rebind the 250, and since I wasn't going to get to garage hover Franky, I thought I would tune up the 250 and give her a shot, now that I am using dual rates and understand expo better. (The last time I flew her did not go so well...). I also had put one of those Hobby King/Assan mini-MEMS 250 gyros on her and wanted to set that up and flight test her. So I rebound her, and set up her CCPM. I took her out to the garage, where I had to have the door closed due to the high winds outside. This gives me the heebie-jeebies 'cause there is no where to run if things get jiggy. I let her spin up on the ground, checked her tracking (sweetly tight) and then brought her up to a hover. She is a 250, which for heli people means she is exaggeratedly agile and quick in response to control inputs, whether the pilot is or not, and I am not, so that added to the tension. I had her in the center of the garage  in a low hover when I heard a loud POP! and immediately hit Throttle Hold as I saw the blades bouncing off the walls and heli going straight down (suggesting they went at the exact same time). These were brand new never flown fiberglass blades! SCARE ME!

She is undamaged. You can see the blades only damage came from striking the walls and stuff in the garage, and that the roots are cleanly snapped off. The fly-bar is slightly bent as the heli tipped a little when it hit the ground with the rotor momentum still spinning the rotor head.

A close up of the blade roots. I wonder what made them fail the same way at the same time... I was only hovering a little skittishly, though it did required a lot of positive pitch to do so.

Well, after I changed my shorts, I put new CF blades on her and reset up the CCPM, then took her back to the garage for an uneventful though brief proof-of-flight-ready hover. The battery was pretty wiped and I had no charged ones, so I called it a day for the 250. I am glad that once again the mini-MEMS seemed quite stable in controlling the tail (amazing how things work out after I read the manual). 

Man, that truly wigged me out, and my heart is still racing...

* UPDATE (5/3/11, 1545 CST): Turns out it was the tail servo. I bought a knock-off one, a DYS S9065 (a clone of the Futaba S9065). This was the first time it has had power, and I think it was shorted. It got hot and smelled, and responded to inputs variably. When I took it out of the circuit the ESC, receiver and servos work fine. When I put only it in the receiver, everything gets wacky. Bought it on eBay, so its a loss. Ordered a Hitec HSG-5084MG, my favorite tail servo, from Helidirect.

CopterX CX 250SE Project

I've planned, and now made initial purchases for the Trex 250 Clone project. I chose the CopterX as it has better reviews, and looks better, than the EXI 250 kit I was looking at. And it came in much cheaper. I think there may be some changes.The motor is a bit robust, but I like the Scorpion... I will need to consider getting a smaller motor, and think I may even use the Exceed Alpha 400 (3500kv) again, the same i am using in the 450 build.  I am using the 30A ESC only because I have it. For sport flying, the servos are more than adequate. I will only be building one kit at a time.

eHirobo
- CopterX CX 250 SE
http://www.ehirobo.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=8721

RaidenTech
- Exceed RC Volcano Series 30A Brushless ESC/BEC

Hobby Horizon
- Spektrum AR6100 Receiver (came with my Dx6i)
- Spektrum DSP75 servo (x2, with a third having come with the Dx6i)
- JR DS290G Ultra Speed Servo (tail)

HeliDirect
- Scorpion HK-2206-3900kv motor

HobbyPartz
- ESKY EK2-0704B Professional RC Helicopter Head Lock Gyro

I've ordered the CopterX since it will take about a couple of weeks to get here. I have the ESC/BEC, one of the servos, and the receiver. I may add an Infinity Kevlar belt for the tail rotor if the stock one fails.

So, this is the first draft of the CopterX project list!

CopterX 250 Tarot ZYX Redux

This evening I completed the build, and the programming of the Tarot ZYX stabilization system on my CopterX 250. She is tiny, and she is now flybarless... She was a lot to handle before, as I was just learning. I am hoping that with my developing flight skills and the stabilization system she will be much more settled down. Tomorrow I shall find out!
 
She seems heavy. Her CG is good, but I did have to move the ESC to the side, out from under the battery tray. The canopy doesn't come all the way back, so I used rubber bands to secure it. I chose to use a voltage regulator instead of the installed BEC on the RSC as I am driving digital servos and the Tarot ZYX, so I wanted more than 2 amps. I don't know if it is necessary, but it works for me.
 
Did I mention I hate Torx screws?
 

There were just so damn many wires...

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

4 Seconds of Flight, Maybe 5...

Maybe its the Pentacostal's because that's all I got today flying behind their church. 4 whole seconds to a spinning death. It was breezy again, but not a bad day. I set up the CopterX 250, and spun her up. The first clue was that she wanted to rotate left again while still on the ground, just like before. This time though the tail rotor headspeed was quite adequate. That's when I should have stopped. But I thought... (yeah, I was thinking...), "I can compensate for it", so I throttled up. She went up about 5 feet into a twisting hover with a determined yaw to the left, rolled to the left as she nosed down hard, and continued the 360 right into the dirt as I hit throttle hold. Parts flying everywhere, one blade flying about 15 yards in front of me arcing about 30 feet into the air, the other flew over my right shoulder at head height and winged deadly silent past me 10 yards behind. I just stood there. Yup... I... was... still... thinking...  I went over to the heli about 10 feet away and she was on her side rotor head all twisted, a servo screaming in pain becoming silent as I picked her up... All that excitement in 4 seconds! Booya, this is fun! So I collected the parts pieces, took a few memorial photos and a vid, and put her away quietly.

4 Seconds... A Day in the Life of CopterX 250
"Phoenix" I refer to is the Phoenix RC Flight Sim.
The video is of the after crash walk of shame, not the flight itself.
Its only worth watching if you want to laugh at me.

Being stupid I pulled out the newly airworthy EXI 450. Now it was quite breezy. I set her up, powered her up, stepped back with my finger on the throttle hold, and a voice spoke to me.

"Don't fly..."

I heard it, softly, again and again, quiet, undemanding, persistent. Scenarios of my past flight mis-adventures flashed slowly through my mind. Uncertain, I paused... I looked around at the sky, the beautiful unbroken heli, listening and feeling the wind die down encouraging me. The voice was still there. But now that it had my attention it said, "Its not worth it. Stop for today, we are tired of repairing helis based on your wicked bad flight skills and piss poor judgement. Use good judgement this time, spare us the whining and the gnashing of teeth. Just stop. Just stop this insanity..."

Another moment went by in silence.

Wait a minute... that's not in my head! My 450 is negotiating with me!

Chagrined that either the madness had returned, or that this is what common sense sounds like, I stepped forward, set down the transmitter, pulled off the canopy and disconnected the power. Enough for today. Enough.  Lets go home...

I went home, finished repairs on the ERazor and set up her CCPM, put a new prop on the Cubby (the only one I could get while I wait for the 8x6 slow flyer props to arrive from China. The ones from nitroplanes were $3 with $9 for shipping. To hell with that... so I checked out my LHS and he had one 8x6 prop, but its not a slow flyer... I may regret this).

Then I flew the Phoenix sim on the "true model" settings. I wasn't aware I was flying on "stable, 50% fake" until I read a post on Helifreak... Now the sim flys just like I do. 4 seconds, duck and cover, clean up my trash.

Tomorrow we're flying the Cubby!

"Trying is the first step towards failure!"  ~ Homer Simpson

Gyros

GilliganSC on Helifreak sent me an old school mechanical gyro. An interesting contrast to the new Assan Hobby King miniMEMS 250 gyro. The miniMEMS $10 gyro purports to contain $150 MEMS micro electronic gyro technology. I bought a couple and hope they work as well as users are saying they are. Hobby King cannot keep them in stock they are so popular.

The case says its a Quest Gyro Systems gyro.

Inside I found a solid brass wheel on one side, and what looks like a wheel on the other covered in metal. Other mechanical stabilization gyros I have seen have a pair of brass wheels, so I wonder if there is a wheel under the cover. The wheel and covered-wheel are on a pivot that can turn only a few degrees each way.

Assan Hobby King miniMEMS 250 gyro kit.

The miniMEMS on my CopterX 250. Foam tape, steel plate, foam tape, Zeal gel tape. This should solve my tail wag! It looks better than it, well, looks....

I will let you know how theses things work out. I have two, another on the way. One on my 250, another  is going on my EXI 450, and another on my Frankenheli 450.

CX 250 Project: Electrics in

The electrics are in the CopterX 250, and its nearly done! It went much easier after learning so much on the 450 build, especially the swash and CCPM setups. Its a nice clean install, and it looks great.

I have a problem with the Raidentech Exceed RC 30A brushless ESC. I'm not sure its programmable... I can't find this ESC anywhere on the web except on the Raidentech.com website, and I bought it assuming it was programmable. There is actually no information on the website...



Looking at this today I wouldn't have purchased it. I've written their support/sales people telling them I can't program it with my programming card, or with the transmitter.  I figured out its working as it sends power and signal to the servos and motor. Later it occurred to me that I am not sure its even programmable, and I don't now the implications. I've gone ahead and ordered a $14 Hobbywing 30A ESC from Hobbypartz that I know is programmable. I'm asking on helifreak.com about the programmability and if its not if that's a problem...

I had planned on using the GY48V gyro on the 250, but in its case its ginormous. I want to keep it in its case, so I traded the GY292 on the EXI450 out for the GY48V this morning. Everything checked out on the 450, looks good.

All I am waiting for now is the link set so I can replace the fixed length links from the washout see-saw to the grips, and to see if I need to change out the ESC.  I am also waiting on the new batteries (3S 1000mAh) that the heli can carry, and some more EC3 connectors.  I am going to start work on the canopy art. 

Next I will start preflight on the E-Razor 450. Should have all my helis flying by the end of the week. Weather has sucked these past few days, not getting any flying in...

UPDATE: Found the same ESC only in one place, on xheli. My posting on Helifreak learned me a couple of things. Seems Raidentech is Xheli, Exceed is Walkera... and the ESC is a replacement Walkera part which is probably NOT programmable. Doesn't say any of that on the Raidentech website, thought I was buying a decent 30A ESC. Guess I wasted $27... waiting for the $14 Hobbywing ESC to arrive. Wonder who they are under the rebadging... geez. I've written Raidentech via email and RCDiscuss, wonder if they will refund my money given I have changed the connectors.

FRICKFRACKINFRICKINPIECEOFFRICKFRACKFRICKENFRACK !!?$#@*!#!

(Deep cleansing breath...let it out slowly...)

The Wall of Shame

The Three canopy-less helis, my EXI 450, my ERazor 450, and today, my CopterX 250, all in the hurt locker for the same damn thing... Bent main rotor systems. Though the 250 got off light with just a bent feathering shaft...

I re-examined the gyro and tail setup on the bench this afternoon, then took the 250 to the driveway for a spin up having tightened up the tail rotor drive belt. The torque yaw was still there. Kids were getting off the bus, so I moved to the back yard not wanting to end up on the headlines for maiming them. I decided to reverse the gyro just to see if I was mistaken. Well, I wasn't until I reversed the gyro. The thing super spun to the left (tail right) so fast it ground looped, hit TH, but it was clear there was carnage. Inspection revealed a badly bent feathering shaft. Took the rotor grips off and checked the main shaft, and its okay, as is the rest of the cage. Helidirect gets more of my money. Good thing I like them...

I took another look at the tail assembly. I noticed that the belt gear spins freely on its shaft; there is no catch or anything, likes it free wheeling. Well, not like it is, it is. Both directions. That can't be right... I check my other helis and they are not. Could this be my problem? I added tail shaft rotor to my Helidirect order and will just replace it. It was this way when I got it... curious what I will find when I get it taken apart.

Well those who can't fly build. Time to start on Frankenheli 450!

To make me feel better I comforted my kitten by napping with her. She had her routine well check exam today, shots and a q-tip up her butt to check for parasites. Seems both of us got it up the ass today :-P

EXI 450 Project: Well... all done but the hanging of crepe...

I finished the 450 build early this evening. Then I took it apart and started over...

I didn't like the pain in the butt position of the receiver. It works well for an experienced builder/pilot. but for me, who expects to change out a few servos before all's said and done, and who will make significant trims in the programming, it was such a pain to access the plugs and nearly impossible to get the bind plug in to rebind.  So I pulled the receiver, and after looking online for alternative positions, decided to put it under the tail servo. The aileron and pitch servo leads barely made it back there. It looks good, is pretty clean, certainly ain't going anywhere and the middle of the heli isn't threatening to end up in the main gear.

Here's a "prototype" photo!  It lacks the grommets as I learned how to shear them in half with fishing line not quite getting how to use it to get the grommets on. I think I have that figured out. And I want to replace one of the ball links that I took from a Blade 400 kit  to allow me to set up the CCPM mixing (its too small by a smidge).

The hardest part of this build, which isn't really over until I fine tune it and hover it for the first time, was the CCPM mixing. It shouldn't have been... but my flybar cage has been sticky since I opened the box. I rebuilt the bearings etc, and it was still sticky. I redid it today as one of my complete start overs (the other being the receiver mod), and its much better. Under spin it won't be a problem. It was frustrating watching Bob's CCPM part 2 and seeing his bubble stay centered, and his flybar not move a hair, while mine tilted with swash movement (better now).   I do think I have the swash set up pretty darn clean though, and am proud of that. I think there is some fine tuning that will need to be done. Right now I have it set up -8 to +8 for pitch in Idle Up. Its -2 to +8 or so in Normal mode.

There as still some things I am still not too sure about. I am not sure the tail setup is spot on.  I have it centered well, but I couldn't figure out how to set the end limits of travel with the gyro, my MKS GY292. Its not one of Bob's gyro vids. So I did the best I could.  I did the tail mod changing to following edge control, and that seems to look good, but we'll see. The DSP75 servos make a lot of noise just sitting there. Its not a buried servo sort of sound, just a hi-pitched buzz, like it jogging in place just waiting to take off. Nothing is moving, and it sounds solid when the servos get input. Its just noisier than I expected.  I'm using metal gear EXI servos on my 250.  I wish I had more confidence in my build, but I know I barely knew what I was doing.

The proof of the heli is in the hover. If I had a good heli builder around here that I knew, I would really like to have them look it over before I fly it, but I am all alone, with you vicarious minions, whose hopes alone I bring with me for that first spin up!  for now, I am scared to plug in the motor leads!

Thanks for your help!  Stay tuned for maiden flight pics/video. I hope it does not end with the hanging of black crepe...

After the new Year I should have my Dynam E-Razor 450 flight ready, and then I will start on my CopterX 250 build.

EXI 450 Project: Electronics are in!

. 

I got the electrics in overnight with some adjustments this morning. I wanted to take pics as I went along, but my wife took the camera with her to Atlanta... I just got my hands on it this evening. The electronics look pretty good, but they are crammed in there.  I now wonder what Bob "Finless" White doesn't show us in between steps! I put the ESC under the battery (velcro) and the receiver is in the middle of the lower body (you can see the antenna sticking out. The receiver is up on a block of closed cell foam, the inserts from the blade holder actually, and held in place with velcro. Its difficult to get to the pins... I have to remove the main gear to make any changes, or to rebind the receiver. The satellite antenna is on the back near the tail boom. On this side you can see the butt of the elevator servo.

On this side you can see the gyro aft. I am a bit nervous as I am not sure I can find Finless' video where he describes centering the tail mechanism, and I don't really know how to set up my MKS GY292 gyro even after reading a lot about it.  I had to change the tail servo, moving it to hang from under the tray and adapter, as on top the ball ran into the frame of the heli.  I did get my new ESC programming card and programmed the ESC without any difficulty. I did fry the other card...  You can also see the blue EC5 male connector to the ESC I soldered having removed the red connector.  I have 10 pairs of connectors coming from China soon.

Here's the right side of the fuselage with the gyro in place. You can see the tail servo from here as well.

A close up of the receiver on the right side. the plastic tie is acting as a bulkhead to keep the ESC ferrite ring and the excess wires out of the motor.

I am not entirely sure which plug goes where on the receiver. The easy ones were the aileron, elevator, rudder (the gyro 3 plug), and I used gear for the single wire from the gyro. I plugged the ESC/BEC lead into the throttle, and the bind/battery plug is unconnected. I hope this is right. I initially had the BEC plug in the battery spot, but the motor didn't run and I realized that it was likely supposed to go into the throttle position.

Now I have to complete the swash setup and mixing, the curves, the tail setup with the gyro setup.  I am nervous as this is where my understanding is getting thin. More time with the Finless Bob videos!

I also purchased another heli today, a receiver ready Dynam E-Razor 450 and a Spectrum AR6100E to go in  it. I wanted at least one 450 heli I am sure can fly, and with which I will cry less when I crash it.  This was the 450 heli that first got my attention and made me want to build one. It was on sale at xheli, and now that I have the Dx6i I don't need a transmitter and receiver combo, so could get the less expensive one.

I plan to finish up the EXI 450 build and get a maiden flight this week!  This was a lot of work, and quite the learning experience. Soon I will start on the CopterX 250 build, as I have all the part in hand now.

ERazor Excorcism Begins

I started the process of excorcising whatever demons possessed the ERazor 450 by stripping out the servos, removing the tail boom support struts, replacing the horizontal fin and the vertical fin, restabilizing the tail boom, and taking apart the rotor head and removing the broken main shaft halves. I found one set of one of the main blade grip bearings to be damaged, and replaced those. I am replacing the stock swash servos (which seem to be a variant of the Tower Pro SG90). I will also be taking the Hitec HSG 5084MG tail servo off the CopterX 250 and using it instead of the stock tail servo, which I suspect is the same as the stock swash servos. I have a replacement rotor head block coming since I think the washout guide pins are bent and may have contributed to the last crash. Some of the ball links are a bit stiff, and I will be addressing that as well. The swash assembly doesn't move as smooth as it should. I am confident they will move smoothly after this work is completed.

I am pretty sure that she is going to come out of this refit a very fine 450!

Flew My First Full Pack, then...well, you know...

Yeah! I hovered a full pack without corkscrewing the heli at Bob Miller field today! I went on to hover a couple more packs. I never could really relax though, as I tend to over control and plant them, but it was going too well. I did have a problem with a low voltage brown out. It happened first on the ground after a couple of long hovers, when I heard the motor pitch of the sound change, and did not take off. I noticed the controls were no longer responding, hit throttle hold, and nothing happened. The blades kept going for another few seconds, then spun down. I checked the receiver and sure enough, one blink. I changed out the battery, hovered again, and after about 6 minutes I noticed the heli starting to act odd, not responding well, so I landed her just as she browned out again...

I decided to take a break from the ERazor 450 and wanted to take my CopterX 250 for a spin. I hovered a couple packs, and on the third one I put her down a little hard during a practice landing, and suffered a blade strike... Since she is sooo small and light, it tore her up pretty good.

Bummer, as I was doing a fair job of hovering her twitchy little self. This is going to take a lot of work... What happens in a blade strike in this situation is when I landed her hard, the blades momentum and pitch angle kept them moving down and they dipped, snapping the feathering shaft that secures them to the main rotor head while striking the tail boom (that's why the tail boom is so mangled). Looks like the main shaft is also bent. Will know more when I work on her in a week or so... gonna let her sit for nowas I am going to have to take her completely apart, inventory and order parts.

I wanted to fly my airplanes, having brought the MX2 and the PT-19 Cornell, but there were no Instructor Pilots to box with and I don't feel ready to fly them without an IP. My Cubby's are in the hurt locker. So... I took the ERazor for another spin. Flew wonderfully, but started to get away from me too far. I tried to bring her back but couldn't, and started to lose her orientation. I turned her a little, to the right (she had been tail in to me), and I think she was starting to return to me when I felt I was not in control; I felt she was starting to roll hard. I hit throttle hold and she dropped. I think if I had not lost my nerve and waited, I could have hovered her down or even brought her back, but I freaked out when she rolled. She smacked into the berry's on the far side of the field, and the walk of shame was made worse by my having to walk around in circles until I could find her. She wasn't in too bad of shape. The elevator servo, one that always goes, was stripped, the blades were toast (nice CF ones), the requisite feathering and main shaft bends are there and a few teeth are missing from one spot on the main gear. The landing gear are broken (one is missing). Not too bad, all in all. I am waiting on a bunch of 450 blades, and I don't have the landing gear (Xheli has been out of stock for a while on those, which could be a problem. When I bought her I wasn't aware she was not an Align clone, so I am dependent on Dynam ERazor parts).

Looks worse than it really is.  Good thing I had the animal crackers to make the owie go away...

After a couple of days of this, despite the good company, I was done and decided to pack up and head home. I didn't fly my airplanes, though I did run the MX2 motor (only got about 6 minutes at 3/4 to full throttle). I had let it sit in the sun for about 20 minutes, and when I went to pick her up to pack her, I noticed this:

You can see that the cockpit EPO got all cobblestony in the sun... Hmm....

UPDATE (5/7/11): Turns out it also melted the paint behind the canopy gluing the canopy magnets together... Also caused the elevator corners to droop.

Well, tomorrow is the KOAST Fly-In over in Ocean Springs at their field (their website is wrong, it IS on Saturday, May 7, starting at 8 am). Fly fee $5, Lunch of fried chicken and fixin's $5. I won't likely fly again for a week, unless I get lucky and some parts come before I leave for Meridian for a week, so I may not have much to post.

All in all, while I feel a bit bummed (just tired I think), it was a really good day!

The Last of the Eflite Cornell's

Eflite has discontinued their PT-19 Cornell, so when I crashed mine hard back in June, I was distraught... I have spent the last week putting it back together, and as soon as I can fine some HANU885 Midnight Blue Ultracote I can finish the repairs to the fuse and get her flight qual'ed! I had to engineer some fixes for which I may still pay a price (more forward weight), but we'll see. I had been flying her with a 10x6 prop, but may be stepping up to a 12x6 if there is adequate ground clearance. So, here's the pics so far. Once I finish everything I will post some final pics.

The Cornell in pieces...

The wing refabricated.

Close up of the ugly but functional repair.

Not unexpectedly the right wing was heavier than the left, so I ended up having to put a counter wieght in the other wing. I slid the washer along the wing until it balanced, cut a slit in the underside of the wing, put some cement on a washer in the location it balanced, and slipped it in.

A strip of cote over the slit, and voila,

balanced wing!

The cote job isn't perfect... but it came out pretty darn good. Right top. The red tape covers a bit of an imperfection in the rib structure.

Left wing. Replaced some panels...

Overall, not too shabby.

The forward part of the hatch took a bad hit. I placed a piece of styrofoam underneath it shaped to fit to provide some structure.

The styrofoam as seen underneath the hatch.

Used spackle to fill in the broken areas.

Sanded it smooth, sprayed it with some clear acrylic.

Masked out a template for the black Econocote to fit.

Installed the cote, and added a pilot! He's twin brother to the pilot of the Stearman.

So this is what the stock 3" x 2" x2" motor mount and battery box look like, that nose box sticking out in the front. Part of the battery fits in there, the motor on the front. Mine was toothpicks... So I made one.

Was able to replace the bottom shelf.

Using 4 - 3/8" square dowel perfectly matched, I CA'd and screwed them to a piece of 3x2 3/32 ply aft and the motor mount forward. The ply firewall is CA'd in place and I drilled airflow holes in it. Here it is being dry fit before I drilled the vent holes.

Side view.

Vent holes drilled, motor installed, CA'ing the mount in place. Later I dry fit the cowl, perfect alignment!

Now that the box is gone the firewall blocks the battery from entering behind the motor. So I had to remove part of the floor of the battery box, strengthen the lower part of the firewall and the floor, and pad the frames with fuel tubing...

Added an inclined piece of styrofoam protected with a piece of Dual Lock Velcro, glued to the floor...

So that the battery can incline in, saving some of the forward CG weight, and allowing the battery to fit in the fuse. Its a 3S 3000 mAh battery.

The incline pushes some of the weight forward to preserve some nose weight, and allows the battery to fit below the hatch.

Replaced the aft most servo, which is the rudder servo with an EXI d213f metal gear digital servo cannabilized from my CopterX 250. I had found the original SG90 rudder servo stipped.

The underside of the fuse below the cowl was crushed in, so I lifted it as much as I could then CA'd some salvage sheet balsa, and sanded it down to level.

\

The cowl screws were forced back along the fuse diggin 4 nice trenches. I filled them with scrap balsa and CA, and sanded it smooth. Those are the bald rectangles just aft of the firewall.

Some internal repairs required removing cote. I also replaced the black angled pieces on the top of the fuse aft of the firewall. As soon as I get some Midnight Blue cote, I will finish up the repairs, install the wings, check all the electronics and the motor, and then take her up for flight certification!