Pretty is for girls...

You gotta love EPO foamies. After a little foamie repair magic she's back! Yesterday Cubby 2 was in 5 large foam pieces after her suicide attempt. Today, after some epoxy on the plastic canopy, Beacon 3-in-1 Craft Glue, some toothpick spars along the major breaks, some packing tape and strategically placed Econo-cote, she is flight ready! I decided that I won't cote the whole fuse, but will just put a patch over the fractures as they are repaired. I will keep the wing coted however. I also threw another washer under the lower motor mounts to raise the thrust vector of the motor a little more. Now there are 3 nylon washersunder both lower attachements.

So far the lines remain clean. I did place a large piece of structural styrofoam in the electronics compartment to act as a fore-aft spar to help straighten out the sagging flex the fuse was developing from the serial repairs. This lined up the empennage better. I also epoxied a Velcro strap in the battery compartment. Between the Dual Lock Velcro and latch, if the battery escapes that and the addition of the Velcro strap, then it was meant to be.

The molded plastic cylinder heads were broken off. I decided not to try to epoxy them back in place on the right side.  This replacement Alpha 370 motor is remarkably durable! Since installing it I have had a number of crashes, each of which would have resulted in replacing a taco'd stock motor. Clean the dirt out of the spinner and this one is ready to go!

Pretty is for girls...

The selection of Cubbies in the less than 1.5 m wingspan range is limited for the ply/balsa-cote versions. I have decided I will eventually get the Eflite J3 Cub from Horizon Hobby, but want to wait before I undertake another big purchase and build.

Tomorrow I'll take Cubby out to BMF, bring her back in 5 pieces, and start all over again... it's what we do, my Cubby and I.

Memorial Day at BMF

It was a small crowd at BMF today that found calm to gentle winds with unpredictable very brisk gusts to add some excitement!

It was a beautiful clear day, quiet and just a great day of flying. It was calm one minute, blustery the next. As usual the winds were from the south, right down the runway. The challenge was the wind's unpredictability, blasting along at about 15 mph one minute so that the Alpha 450 was harriering in on low power on landing, fighting to make way, then suddenly be gone so she was dropping with no airspeed. I learned to make the approach with power, but I could maintain nothing that looked like a regular glide path. Sometimes she'd hit a wind shear and rise or fall suddenly straight up or down, often both, 1-2 feet vertically! That was especially cool to see when I had her humming along in cruise about 50 feet up over the runway and she would  bob and weave while I did nothing on the controls. It was a great day of flying, learning how to handle winds! I did put her down hard once after some of that harriering and I snapped off the landing gear. Some epoxy and an hour later she was back in the air doing the bobbing and weaving! I also solo'd the Cornell. With Arnie's help we tuned up the rates and expo and I practiced flying and landing her in the winds. I still need to work around the fact that her nose drops with pulling back power, so I need to come in with power on a clean glide path, or use a steeper approach and flare late. Otherwise she would land nice but immediately tip forward on touchdown. Landing without style or grace...

Cubby flew magically! I had a little problem with the split elevator not operating together like it is suppose to (the side with the control horn would move, but if there was any resistance the other side would not move out of the airstream as the connector rod between them was slipping). I tried CA, to no avail, but fixed the problem when I epoxied it. I accidentally broke the spring control horn for the tail wheel that linked the rudder to the tail wheel, so had to remove both springs. Turned out she ground handled 100% better without it, just castering about! I also learned I needed to apply power slow on takeoff, and as the tail came up, blast the throttle and she would takeoff nicely but with a very short rollout. Otherwise trying to roll it out scale like she would tip over her nose. I had her cruising, flying sweet, though she was a manageable challenge to handle in the wind. There something awesome about watching a Cubby go by just above eye level. I enjoyed flying her for several packs though it was a lot of work. It was going so well that she committed suicide. Coming out of a shallow dive her nose did not come up and she slammed into the ground, even though she had more than enough room to come out. I thought it was the elevator issue again... but the battery was no where to be found at the crash site. She had thrown her battery coming out of that dive! So, she cracked her wing, broke her fuse in the usual two places (fore and aft of the cockpit), cracked the canopy wide open, and I am down a battery I could not find. I already have the repairs underway, but I am beginning to think I don't want to buy anymore parts... I need a Cubby, always will have one, but maybe the time has come to upgrade to a ply/balsa cote one?

Frankenheli had issues... Never came out of spin up. She wanted to rotate hard right. I noticed later the tail rotor shaft is bent, but I don't think that was the issue. Is it the mini-MEMS gyro? I don't think so. She just didn't seem right and is grounded until I fix that tail rotor shaft and can sort it out. So, no flyable heli's. I am thinking of putting the new spare 450 pro head I bought on the EXI and returning her to flight status as a 2 blade fly barred heli. I haven't started the repairs on the ERazor either. I decided I am not going to let my helis become a time sink... I watch my fellow HeliFreaks spend so much time working out the kinks and not flying (though Cool Hand CJ seems to never have to repair anything and flies his 450 all the time), and as I blogged yesterday, I lost a whole day of flying because of that time pit. I will fly, fix easy things, and if I can't fly a heli due to major work, I will gladly put her back in the car and enjoy my planks!

Here are some pics from today at BMF!

Jim and his Trex 450. Can you see the heli right in front of him?

The front of Jim, smiling like a kid!

The boys in the pit. Look at that flag go!

Dick playing with a 450.

Arnie flying his rather agile "Cow". Our clubhouse in the background.

I'm taking a day off from flying tomorrow. Winds are supposed to remain brisk and blustery. Wed and later in the week things are supposed to become summery: Africa hot, dry and breezeless...

Now I need to fly the Stearman! I also want to fly the MX2 myself once Jerry thinks I am ready. Great flying day! Missed seeing the guys who weren't there today... hopefully later this week.

Blah-dee-dah kinda day...

Today was a flying bust, and a heli nightmare, but getting to see CJ and David Latil's family at least made it a good day at the field. Too windy for the Alpha and the Cornell.

The ERazor, which flew so well a couple of days ago, was simply possessed by demons. From shearing off her top Jesus bolt on first flight, to being weirdly responsive to controls, to spinning herself up on the bench (transmitter on, throttle hold on, transmitter on the table getting ready to test fly her, chatting with Jim (Devin's Grandfather) when she went unglued like the reciever released but kept running. I picked up the TX and it was on, throttle hold still on. She kept going until Jim reached under and unplugged her while I moved the other helis. Usually when the receiver releases like that the heli will shut down after a moment...), to getting a mind of her own flying off so that CJ finally had to give her a smackdown. She had demons. We finally crashed her to save her from going off the res. Sheared her solid mainshaft clean in half! She is getting a strip down, different servos, having her ESC reprogrammed, and getting a bath in Holy water before fly her again. Just plain wacky... That ate up a couple of hours.

Started tuning up the HDX500, learning she has some issues that ate up time and more time. Solving one problem lead to the discovery of anther, until we got to a point I just need to buy some parts and replace a servo. That ate up another couple of hours...

Tried Frankenheli only to discover her tail boom rotated  under flight pressure (darn thing is sliding depsite being very tight), and her ESC lost the throttle limits, so we benched her for the day without her skids leaving the ground. Jim noticed that the tail rotor had also come loose on its spindle which was making the tail bind, and not giving full tail rotor power.

So, after about 6 hours of standing over a bench and not flying anything, I was getting kinda cranky and decided to go home and squish the Lukey (world's best hugger!).

I decided to finish the refab work on the Cubby, so she is now ready to fly. She looks pretty good. I worked on Franky and she is flight ready. Tomorrow I plan on bringing the Alpha, the Cornell, Cubby and Franky to BMF and spend time flying. I only hope the wind allows.

Cubby Nose Lift

I forgot to mention yesterday that after watching me flail trying to get Cubby off the ground Arnie made a suggestion that fixed the problem rather directly. Like Phoenixcubby, Cubby2 has the new motor, which may a bit more heavy and hrave a different thrust vector. Both of them, as seen in my Last Flight of the Phoenix video, have a tendency to tip forward when power is applied. He suggested putting a couple of washers under the lower mounts, moving the thrust vector up. Darn if this didn't make that problem go away... My next flights all had nice clean take-offs!  Thanks, Arnie!

By the way, bring on the comments, but those wire ties work great for securing this small motor! 

Totally Awesome Very Cool BMF Day!

What a great day of flying! Got off to an early start and enjoyed the best flying weather this spring. The crosswind breeze picked up in the late afternoon, but they really were light gusts. And very importantly, we took the shiny off the MX2 and the Cornell! I also got to have second lunches taking down a very tasty red meat sauce spaghetti ala Ron Johnson after my Subway Italian a few hours earlier.  Having some issues with my Spektrum Dx6i right gimbal being sticky and not coming back to center detente and doesn't move cleanly (sticky like). Took it apart, oiled the "bearings", improved but still bugs me now that Jerry Gollot brought it to my attention. I may need to get it serviced.

I LOVE my Dynam ERazor! She flew wonderfully in hover, sweetly and tightly tracking, handling awesomely with full rates and low expo. I was very excited and proud as I had her totally in control. After 5 minutes in the first flight I had to land to take a breath and get a grip I was so waiting for something bad to happen. The second pack also went great! Then I broke the deal with myself... I was going to stick to tail in hover. I fly the sim in all angles well, but I am very anxious about doing it for real. So as I turned the heli nose in, then tried to bring it from my left to right, it came forward a bit. I panicked, even though it was quite a bit aways, and instead of recovering a self fulfilling prophecy was fulfilled and as she dropped towards me I hit throttle hold and cognitively stopped flying, so she  drilled. But only a bent feathering shaft, main shaft, snapped off the tail fin and stripped pitch servo. Blades were fine!  I have already field repaired everything except the feathering shaft. I do hate trying to get the middle Jesus bolt aligned on the ERazor... it has one just above the tail power takeoff gear and one below the main gear. The middle one has to align the gear, and painfully, the one way bearing shaft, and the main shaft. Hard to get them all aligned just right.

My bench at BMF!

Flags up for Memorial Day Weekend. Busy flightline today!  Had about 15 pilots and a couple of drive up visitors. The visitor was talked into flying on a Buddy Box with Ron, and had about 3 flights! I am sure he's on the hook now!

Jim Williams and Jerry Gollot preparing a club trainer for flight.

Devon flying his brand spanking new Seagull Extra 540. He won't admit it, but he's a great kid and a very good pilot! I had the pleasure of meeting his grandfather, Jim.

We maidened my Eflite PT-19 Cornell today! Jerry took her up and trimmed her out, flew her for a bit and brought her in for a landing. On the second flight I took the controls. She is as stable, if not more so, than my Alpha. She does need a late clean flare on landing. Tomorrow I plan to solo her!

We also maidened the BlitzRXWorks MX2. Jerry and Arnie flew her for me (I prefer to have skilled pilots maiden my planes. I want to know that if something is wrong with the plane, a skilled pilot has a better chance of bringing her home. Good thing too... She had some serious issues right after takeoff). On takeoff all hell broke loose as soon as her wheels left the ground. She acted tail heavy, and nearly flipped on her back as she waffled wildly even though her CG was spot on, but Jerry, who was flying her, managed to land her right side up before the end of the runway. If I had been flying her she would be in with the Ents who live down there or coming home in a trash bag... The landing gear are way too soft, and bent back very easily (both in the crash and the repair). The wheel pants I pulled off after the first flight; they were rubbing the wheels as you may recall from the MX2 build, but they cracked off on the first flight/crash landing. I didn't like them anyway. Once we solved the balance/trim problems, she was easier to takeoff, but she is a squirrelly plane near the ground and with low power or high power, even in Arnie's very skilled hands. Once we got her up and trimmed she flew wonderfully with attention to power. Large control surfaces make for sharp and intense control. Arnie popped some moves and she controlled cleanly and sharply. She has great power, and she is way fast. On landing, time and again she would touch down and immediately fold over her landing gear. We got very good at removing them and re-bending them back into position. Her  nose likes to drop when the power comes off, and the three blade 12x9 prop has some serious breaking power, so coming in with power and flying her all the way to the ground (she wants to fly forever), with a very careful and late flare is the ticket. I think it will be a while until I fly her solo... I don't quite have the skills. She is NOT a beginner's plane, but when I do get schooled, she will be an amazing plane to fly! That being said, I would rather have gone with a ply/balsa and cote plane instead of the MX2. Can't recommend this one, but maybe time will improve my opinion.

This is going to be a busy flying weekend! I will be flying the Cornell, and the Alpha 450, which I also flew the cote off today. It looks like my 51mm feathering shafts are here, so I will also be maidening Franky! Oh, almost forgot, its so commonplace... Cubby flew fine, until she took a sudden rolling dive when her rudder fell off... oops.  Broke in the usual places. My wife (and my flying buddies) ask why bother, but its now a game and a challenge. I promise to fly her, and not bring her home in one piece, and she promises to break cleanly in the usual places. Works for us...  I have a feeling it will not be long before her wing is hanging near Phoenixcubby's on my wall.

Thanks for another great flying day, MCRCC Guys!

Happy flying, keep the lifties under the wings!

Hey, My Blog Rocks!

I started my blog on Friday, October 29, 2010. Since then my readers have viewed my blog 10,016 times! Don't beleive me? Scroll down and check out the non-adjustable page view counter down below. That scale thingy is dymnamic and shows how daily page hits vary. That's great! My site has been visited from all around the world and I enjoy recieving emails and comments from my readers.

Today I added a large banner to the end of my blog site that will take you to our MCRCC website. I have only been to a couple of clubs, but I have no doubt our people make ours one of the best on the planet!

A special thanks to all of my readers! Keep coing back and enjoy!

Four Blade Bad Boy!

I needed to replace the feathering shaft on the EXI 450, but a dearth of 51mm 450 Pro feathering shafts in my parts bin lead me to go ahead and pull out the CopterX 450 4 blade rigid rotor head. I have been putting this off as I will need to put a microBeastX Flight Stabilization System on it to fly it beyond a garage hover. If I had bought the more expensive floating head, I could probably fly it without the BeastX, but I would like to have a stabilized heli anyway. I have the Dynam ERazor 450 and Frankenheli 450 Stretch, so I figured its about time to go ahead and set up the 4 blade!

The CopterX 450 4 blade rigid rotor head I purchased was supposed to come with the links, but I realized as I inspected it that, well, it didn't. I noticed as well that the lower Jesus bolt hole is in the wrong place... I am not aware of any 450 that has the bolt there. So Job #1 was to replace the main shaft, Job #2 was to build links for the servo to swash and swash to grips.

Shaft replaced. I have no idea where exactly the swash stabilizer bar goes, so I put it where it was on the orignal set up, about 6 mm below the rotor head. I would later move it down a bit to get a nice 90 with good ROM on the grips.

Its a beautiful head. Here in place with the linkages I made. Had no idea what the lengths are supposed to be, so I figured out 90 with good ROM again. The Grip links are about 45 on center. The servo to swash links are about 47 mm on center.  I leveled the swash at center stick, and set the swash stabilizer arm to 90 level, and the balls 90 forward off set their grip. I haven't set the swash mixes yet, so I suspect the linkages with change a little.

View from the front.

Sweet! 450 standard 325 mm fiberglass blades. Opposite blades are balanced with each other (1-3 and 2-4).  Only one blade required taping to add weight.

Awesome looking heli!  I will set the swash up and hover her in the garage, but I won't try to fly her until I get the microBeastX on her!

UPDATE: I ordered these blades. They are a few mm shorter and narrower than the standard blades (322x21.5 vs 325x32mm).