Hangar Shuffle

PT-19 is "done", and I want to hang it next to the Stearman, so I shuffled the a/c around a bit, and moved the Alpha Sport 450 over the TV in the media room.  My wife sighs and shakes her head whenever she walks by...

PT-19 Build Day #4

I got a little further than I thought I would tonight and am now held up by 4 missing screws...

Motor and ESC were easy to install, especially now that I am familiar with the "backwards" motor concept. 890kv 450 size motor, and a 40A ESC with 3A BEC. Bound the receiver and checked the ailerons, elevator, rudder and motor. Had to reverse the rudder servo, but the others were fine. Re-centered one of the ailerons and the elevator. Easy, peasey. Realize now I didn't program the ESC. I'll do that tomorrow.

Had to break out the sealing iron for the first time. I guessed that each number on my hangar 9 sealing iron represented 100 degrees F, set it at 250 degrees (220 deg + 10% for the sock). Worked wonderfully after smoke stopped coming out of it... I applied the center blue strip (there were two blue Ultracote strips in the kit, no instructions. I suspected they intended for me to cover the middle joint between the wings on both sides. Fit perfectly suggesting this was in fact their intention.

Here's why I had to learn how to iron Ultracote. The wing walk strip (that black band along the fuse where the pilots can step) peeled back on the port wing. It went back into place easily and looks great. 

The center strip and the repaired walk strip.

I loose fit the cowl in place. E-flite did not include the 4 screws that I need to secure the cowl to the fuse. I have 4 similar screws, but two are the same size, and the other two are shorter, and one of those is shorter than the other. Since I have time here, I am going to ask Horizon to send me the screws. She is beautiful!

So, I may tape the cowl on and hang her up until they send me the screws. This is one spectacular model... wow!

MCRCC My First Day Gettin' Skooled!

Today was my first day flying with other people and at a club field...

IT WAS A BLAST!!!! This was THE best day in my RC history. I knew it was something I needed to do, but now I really understand the importance of belonging to a good club. I am very glad I joined and cannot more highly recommend it! I happened to come on a day with a wonderful group of people to start with.

MCRCC has this incredible field, supported by Harrison County. We have a nice clubhouse, with a bathroom, and covered benches with AC power. The grounds are immaculate, well groomed and clean. The field looks great, but apparently Harrison County is coming out to level it and help improve the runway!  This is a great, great club!

Special thanks to Jim, who spent hours with me getting my rotor head cleaned up and tuned. We got it sweet and snug, no tracking issues for the first time ever. But, the GY48V gyro is just not any good and I will need to replace it before I can fly it. Jim even tried and the tail kicked out in a simple turn. I will be replacing it, first with the 250 mini-MEMS, and if they aren't any good, a Spartan Quark.  Its amazing between the slop in the head, the fact I didn't know I needed to set the swash not just in pitch, but in aileron and elevator, that she flew controllably at all. We replaced the feathering shaft and that brought everything into final alignment. I always thought something was weird in that I set the blade pitch, but never the aileron and elevator; I just didn't know how. I never thought my rotor head would get so cleanly set up! Now she is setup sweet, and I know what I need to do to the ERazor and CopterX. No wonder I had problems with them. My EXI's CCPM is so tight, I never thought I would have such a balanced head with no tracking problems!

Dick and CJ (who drives over from Slidell) were also incredibly generous with their time! Thanks to CJ for the Align links that helped tighten up my EXI's CCPM, and the great pics, and Dick for letting me fly his 600!

Unpacking for the first day of school at MCRCC! I brought the EXI 450 helicopter, the Cubby (which stayed in the car), and the Alpha Sport 450.

Jim taking a look at my CCPM setup. Dick (left) and Dickie (right, President of MCRCC) in the background. The 600 is Dick's. He let me fly it with Jim on the trainer box. It was incredible flying a large stable heli. Jim was generous with his time and knowledge. A man with a lot of energy, he spent a lot of time with me between flying his own 450 (his 600 was in the hurt locker). What I learned from him in this one afternoon has put me leagues ahead of where I was when I walked in.  Jim will continue to be a great heli mentor.

Here is another MCRCC gem, Mr. Ron, a true Southern Gentleman. A seasoned pilot he is one of the three designated Instructor Pilots at MCRCC. I walked up, introduced myself to him, and asked him to help me. Without hesitating, he took me under his wing. We checked out my Alpha Sport 450, fixed a couple of things, and took her out to the flightline. He connected our transmitters with a Trainer cord, took off and handed her off to me.

We flew "3 mistakes high" for my first flight. The winds were brisk (I measured sustained winds at 7 mph, 12 mph gusts). The first flight I kept hearing the Trainer tone go off when I would lose control of the airplane and Ron would take control. Ron was cool and calm, straightened her out and hand her back to me. I was very nervous on the first flight, a bit less so on the second.  I flew the second with one or two hand-offs, and he let me get down to "1 mistake high"!

CJ Bordelon's Pics

Me, Dick and Dickie, and the crowed Heli Bench. We all just sort of precipitated together. Dickie is the current club president, and is a heli driver.

Me flying Dicks Trex 600, Jim on my left  on the master box.

This amazing pic CJ took in panorama. Runway on the left (with me in a bit of leakover from another pic), the flightline and the work area. We do have a remarkable field!

I can't wait to get back there with my 500!

PT-19 Build Day #3

The PT-19 build continues slowly.  Last night landing gear, and the elevator and rudder servos.

The landing gear was pretty straightforward, but I found the wheel got in the way of a clean shot for the screwdriver. Removing it solved that minor annoyance. 

Tower Pro SG 90's don't fit by a few molecules. A little work with a file and they fit great!

Not much work, but it was a late night. Don't know that I will get anything done today, kinda spent.

My "New" HDX 3D-500SE

Luke and I drove out to just north of Bogalusa, Louisiana, for me to meet Dave, who connected with me via HeliFreak. He wanted to sell his HDX 3D-500SE, and his Dx6i. It made for a long day (started around 11, got lost going there a couple times, blew past his house and went about 10 miles off in the wrong direction. It didn't help that his house address doesn't match the street he actually lives on, but that's his address and his house is really where it is, not in the middle of a Wildlife Management Area over 10 miles away like Mr. GPS said it was). This is a beautiful heli. Its the first CCPM machine I have bought RTF, so I need to go over her and get a feel for her build. She is a clean machine!  Here's a pic of her hanging in my hangar with her new peeps. I'll post more pics when I "deconstruct" her.  Very nice, very excited to see her fly!

(Which one's the HDX 500? Hint: Its the ginormous one)

Key Chain Cam! Too cool!

This is way cool!I got it to film my RC flights as a hat cam, but I could also attach it to an aircraft as a FPV cam! $16 shipping included from novapcs on eBay. You will need a microSD card for it as it does not come with one.

The key chain camera I will be using as a "blind" hat cam arrived today!

I used Dual Lock Velcro to secure it to a large plastic clip (it also has a magnet).

Clipped on! It aims pretty well, level, for down range. It does not obstruct my field of vision, in fact after a moment I forget its there.

Close up.

Easy to remove from the clip. Dual Lock literally locks it in place.

First run of the key chain cam, low light conditions.  Pretty darn good!

PT-19 Build Day #2 Wings

Slow day... I epoxied the wings together with 30 min Epoxy, went per the instructions, no excitement.  the broken spar came together nicely! Sanded down the glue build up and it remained strong, fit perfectly. Pretty pooped, busy day, so that's it for the night!