Erazor hovers

In the past couple of days I went through several packs on the Erazor 450. I can't hover her high enough in the garage to get the tracking set, so that will have to wait until I get out to the field. She hovers wonderfully. Not sure there's a big diff with the Align GP 780, but then I haven't flown her per se. I did manage to burn out the Hitec HSG 5084 mg tail servo today. I know the gyro is set for the right digital frame, so that wasn't it. Swapped it out from the one on Frankenheli, since I plan on concentraing on one heli at a time. Looking forward to flying her!

I'll be working on the HDX500 next. I have the replacement servos, and I think I can figure out a replacement for the missing anti-rotation pin. I have never powered her up, but she came with a 4S battery, and I wonder if she would do better with 6S? I can series together a couple 3S batteries... lookig forward to flying her too!

Hovering the Erazor in the garage reminded me how much I enjoy getting the engineering spot on, and seeing the control I have improve with each hover. Exciting stuff!

Erazor Reborn

I finished rebuilding and setting up the CCPM on my Erazor 450 this evening. I had to replace the canopy with a Tacon, but I think it looks much sleeker! New is the Align GP780 gyro, top of the line. A little fine tuning and she will be ready to fly! Need to spend a lot more time on the sim first since I have gotten very rusty!

UPDATE (11/16/11): Practiced hovers in the garage today, flew great! I need to work ln tracking a bit, but otherwise the CCPM setup and gyro functioned perfectly.

Keeping the baby, tossing the bath water.

Following my 60mph landing the other day, one of the JR MN48 aileron servo's (possible two, not sure yet) on my Eflite Pulse XT 25e went bad, partially stripped gear. Its a $25 servo, not too expensive, but seeing that replacement gears were available at Horizon Hobby for a bit less than $5, I decided had nothing to lose by trying a gear replacement, though I did buy a backup servo. It went pretty well!

The bad servo removed from the aircraft.

4 screws, one in each corner, easily removed.

The bottom comes loose... close it.. we want the top.

The top comes off easily.

Take a pic of the gear set. You will need it later.

Especially this view.

The gear set. Can you spot the bad gear? Hint: its the one to the right of the bearing.

I had to remove the gear with the bearing, which was well attached and came off suddenly, taking the second gear and third gears with it as they are interlaced. I replaced the bad gear, and reinstalled the other gears. The gear on the bench is the stripped one. A touch of white lithium grease. Compared with the side view pic taken earlier to make sure I had everyone in the right place. Put the top back on, and replaced the screws. Put the servo on my tester and she ran clear and smoothly, centered perfectly! Reinstalled the servo in the aircraft, and will test it in situ later. Very easy, and from now on a option I will take whenever replacement gears are available. Much better than throwing out an otherwise perfectly good servo. New skills rock!

Bad generic ESC from eBay

I have had a lot of luck purchasing parts on eBay. Sometimes they fail, but the sellers make up for it. Purchased this 30 amp generic ESC (unmarked, hope its a 30 amp), and it doesn't work. Bummer, was hoping to get her up with the extra power... Hope the seller replaces it. Will let you know.

Sopwith Motor Shafted

Yesterday I took the Hangar 9 Sopwith out to maiden, but was unable to fly due to a problem I thought I had solved. Now I have, definitively! The motor casing would pull forward under the thrust of the prop as the C-clamp holding the housing in place kept coming loose. I had pushed it back into its slot, or so I thought, but preflight inspection found the housing pulling again. I removed the motor this morning and reset the C-clamp, this time clearly in place. As a added safety I Dremeled a flat spot in the axle and put s 5mm wheel collar in place with a set screw. Note that this is actually the rear of the motor (it has a bolt on prop adapter forward and this shaft protrudes from the back. As the prop applies thrust it pulls the black can off the motor. The can is connected to the shaft. Just between the collar and the motor is the C-clamp).That sucker ain't goin' nowhere.

Art Tech Diamond 2500 Glider

Recently purchased this 2500mm EPO glider from Nitroplanes. This is one awesome aircraft! I maidened her today, and she flew sweetly for 20 minutes before my neck got tired and I landed. She took of from my hand, all I had to do was let go! I flew her first with a 3S 3300mAh 30C, but found she flew better and glided better with a 4S 3300 mAh 30C.

I had set her up with flaps (they say it comes with servos for the flaps, but it didn't. I set it up with TowerPro SG90MGs). I haven't figured out how to set up the spoilerons with the flaps for CROW landings, but I plan to call Horizon Hobby and have them walk me through it. I'm assuming I can do it with a DX8 and a 6 channel receiver. I did add 1/2 oz of weight to the tail and the CG still came out forward of the design 80-90mm. A lot of pilots have noted the CG comes out around 65-70mm. She is trimmed for gliding, and when under power I need to give her a bit of down elevator. She flies fine with the 3S, but she can get around really well with the 4S. Power on she can loop and roll easily, power off she has one heckuva glide ratio and sweet stall characteristics, but the balance between glide hover and stall is pretty thin. All in all, I am really pleased with her and she is quite a crowd pleaser! I can only fly her when I can steal my wife's SUV, she is so ginormous. I do transport her with the wings off, all 8 foot wingspan.

Cornell Cowl is FAB!

I described earlier how I lost control of the Cornell practicing spins, and crunched the front end. The motor/battery box turned into wood chips, literally, and the cowl was a shattered eggshell of its former self. today I completed the refurbishing of the cowl, installed it and now the Cornell is flight ready!

The eggshell...

CA and epoxied the unstable parts and breaks.

Bondo on...

Bondo off...

Sanded clean, ready for primer!

Primer gray.

First coat of dark blue, being warmed to fast dry in front of the fireplace.

Black top painted in, and a coat of clear acrylic enamel! I like shiny!

Installed, all done! She looks great again!