The Cost of My Education

Paul Verger once lost a beautiful giant sized plane that disintegrated in flight when a wing folded on him. It came down as confetti for several minutes. I was new to the hobby, and to me this was one of the most spectacular ends to a flight I had ever seen. I was speaking with him later as to me he seemed entirely non-plussed. He said something that has stuck with me throughout the high cost of my education in RC flight. He told me,"If you don't want to crash, don't fly."

 
Anyone in the sport will tell you that there comes a point where you just have to let go and fly. You have to let go of the fear of a crash, any thought to the hours that will be spent putting the aircraft back into flying condition, and that a once pristine, unblemished aircraft is no longer virginal. A corollary to this is, "Don't fall in love with an airplane, it will break your heart." And it does, not just for damaging something you've worked hard on, but to know that a split second decision was often the mistake that changed it all.
 
Flying RC is incredibly rewarding. Like in golf there are those moments you are about to give it up and you make that one sweet, perfect swing that brings you back to the fold. RC flight has its challenges. When you get them right, they make you fall in love with the hobby all over again. For me, the biggest challenge has been learning to fly helis, and recently I had that crossing over event when I just decided to start flying, and it all came together. Since then I have had several excellent flights, but every now and then, I shank one. I have learned not to let those mistakes spoil it for me, and chalk it up as the cost of my education. I bet this has been true for most of us. This is why I strongly recommend learning to fly with a flight sim, and putting these skills out in the field using a good quality clone. You will fly. You will crash. You will get very good at repairs. And you will fly again! And in time, you will crash less, and for more complicated reasons. And it is all worth it!
 

Today I took Frankenheli up, and flew a couple of packs. That vibration came back; I think its the cheap FBL head I have, that I couldn't get apart and grease. I know I shouldn't fly it this way, but what the hell... I already have a good Tarot head coming to replace it, but I wanted to do some light flying. Got into a low nose in hover and the vibration kicked up, and she dipped in roll and struck a blade. Saw it coming, hit hold. Only damage was the tail boom bent. No big deal.
 
I noticed in preflight that the Erazor's tail servo stopped working, and I didn't want to field fix it. Got it back to the hotel, and it was just a loose connection to the gyro. A little nervous about flying with the wood blades, the only ones the local hobby shop had, especially since I had to remove the lower plastic hub fairing to get them to fit. But for my pattern flight it should be fine. Looking forward to flying her tomorrow!
 
Up here in Meridian for a couple more days. When I get back I should have received all the parts to complete the FBL on the HK500cmt, and to move the parts on the Erazor over to a new EXI 450 Sport from xheli.com. Ant the Tarot FBL head will go on Franky whan I rebuild his tail. Psych!
 

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Mobile Hangar in Meridian, MS

Working up in Meridian, staying in a very nice hotel for the week. I brought up the Eflite Ultimate, the Frankenheli Tarot FBL, and the Erazor 450. I found a dirt field behind my hotel, and I went out to fly the Ultimate and the Erazor there today. It was very dusty, and my aircraft got a lot dirty. Not sure this is going to work, won't likely fly there again... I had planned to use the abutting road as a runway, but despite being off the main roads there were too many cars, more public than I expected. So I flew off the dirt... Very smooth, but unforgiving. Broke the wheel pant off the Ultimate on one side. I flew the Erazor, and for some stupid reason kept putting the nose down in nose in hover when I wanted to bring it back. I knew I was doing it but kept making the same mistake, and on the third time I over reacted and pushed the nose even further forward, and she dropped. Hit hold, leveled her out but suffered a blade strike. I think part of it was being very uncomfortable flying in this field because its not home... my focus was off. Another part was flying with my head up my ass: always on edge flying the helis. Dropped the Erazor, delaminated one main blade but that was it. The feathering shaft looks good, surprisingly. I am not so sure the main shaft is unaffected, but I spun it without the blades and it spun pretty damn true, no vibration. I didn't bring any extra stuff up, forgot the heli boxes at home. If I can find some in town she'll be flight ready again. I need to find a better flying field, one with more privacy. Trying to find the local field, Meridian Aeromodelers don't have a website. My boss thinks the local club flies out of Topton Air Estates where a closed runway exists, not far from where I am staying. I may try to run out there tomorrow and see what's up.
 

 

In the meantime, doing repairs in the hotel room! Wonder what the maid will think?

 

 

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HK500cmt Build Day #3: Idiot and the BeastX

Today I wanted to get the servos centered, install the Emax DS9257 tail servo and set the tail up mechanically. Some Trex 500 bling I had ordered from A Main Hobbies also arrived, wicked fast shipping! In addition, much to my surprise as it usually takes days to even get a shipping notice, the HobbyWing FunFly 80Amp ESC OPTO arrived today! Honestly they have been shipping pretty quick lately. I noted earlier, I also decided to make this heli FBL by taking the BeastX off the EXI 450 and put it on this heli today, so I also would be setting that up... which is the idiot and the BeastX part...

 
So, I soldered a JST connector I stole from one of my old 2S batteries for my Walkera CB180 onto the battery leads of the FunFly ESC, soldered on the EC5 and stole the female pins from the HURC 60A I had originally installed on the HK500 and soldered them on the other end of the ESC. Programmed the ESC with my HobbyWing card in 10 sec, and installed it. Uninstalled the exisiting tail and boom fins and put the Trex 500 ones on, sweet. Installed the tail servo, set up the center and tightened everything down. I prefer boom mounted servos, and use Finless Bob's tail set up marking the limits on the control rod and centering the servo, then centering the marks (I don't bother with the tail geometry he uses by changing the blades to leading edge control (or is it the other way around?)). I have that on one heli and honestly see no difference. Tested the servo with a servo tester. All set.
 
And then the adventure began, as the idiot fought to slay the BeastX...
 
Normally this whole process would have taken less than 5-10 minutes... It would take 3 hours including a dinner break and a good dump. Then it took 5 minutes... So here's how it went. It took a couple of seconds to remove the BeastX from the EXI 450. I brought the three BeastX leads, cut some anti-vibration gel, and installed the BeastX on the HK500, behind the elevator servo on the gyro platform. Sweet. I connected the BeastX to the reciever, powered it up, and put it in programming mode and reset it to factory settings. I then went back and did the primary setup, exited, and went back to the main flight paramenter set up. Now, this usually takes a couple of minutes, but when I got to the centering Step G I couldn't get the servos to allow me to center them, they moved odd, would not accept inputs, some wouldn't move at all. This was wierd... I tried the best I could but decided to move on. I didn't like this... Step I, I could not get the swash to move correctly. This is the step where you use standard combos to get all tihe servos moving in the right direction. In fact, the servo movements made no sense... the elevator moved in roll, some of the servos didn't move at all, if they moved they would barely or overdrive. I went through every combo, I reversed this, that and the other servo, I checked everything five times, I swapped wires and channels, I went back to the beginning and re-did everything, checked my setup selections, checked channels and plugs, checked servos on the tester, reset evrything and did it again, and it was insane! What was it? The servos? Does the BeastX not work with analog swash servos? Did I pick the wrong freq? I looked online... I re-installed the latest firmware. Finally I had to take a break. I was sure the BeastX was fine, I was surely doing something fundamentally wrong... My eldest and I went to the local Chinese buffet and I stopped thinking about this BeastX issue for a while. Drove home thinking I really didn't want to call Horizon Hobby and work this out, and I didn't want to send it in for service... I grabbed Model Airplane News and headed to the head. In the middle of my dump it struck me, as my best ideas often do: I had never reset my DX8 from 120 Mix to Single Servo... What an idiot... this is the very first thing they tell you to do. After my constitutional I went upstairs, reprogrammed the DX8 to Single Servo and in 5 minutes had the whole thing done. It works perfectly. For the love of Pete... its always something.
 
I used 65 Hz for the analog Hitecs, having looked on line and finding nothing about what freq they operated at, but knowing 55 Hz would work. I saw a Helifreak post where I saw most people using these servos had no issues and were recommending 65 Hz. Works fine, now that my frickin' transmitter is set up properly. I used the Futaba DS9257 settings since the Emax is a clone, and that works fine too.
 

 
I set her up 6S and spun the motor up, checked swash movement, vibration, tail response, all jolly! I estimated the pitch setup, but used my BeastX bevel box to set up the 6 degree roll in programming. Since I had the battery pack in place I went ahead and fitted the canopy. To get over the batteries she sits a bit up, but looks sweet! I moved the canopy pins from aft over the elevator servo, up to where the rubber bumpers were just above the battery. Worked great! Looks awesome!
 

Now, just waiting for the Tarot 500 FBL head to come in, install it and set up the swash pitch, and she is then done and done! Unfortunately I think the head won't get here until after the holiday, and I will be away travelling for work...
 

 

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HK500cmt Build Day #2

Servo day yesterday, after a long day flying (a damn good day, see previour post). Installed the swash servos, Hitec HS-225mg analog servos on the HK500, and that was about it. Snug fit.
 
Incidentally, I also installed the Emax DS9257 tail servo on the HDX500 and set it up with the Align GP780 gyro. That was it!
 

In order to get the pitch and aileron servos to fit as they abut (see below) I had to use the rubber grommets, which I like to use anyway.

 

Pitch servo set up.

 

Aileron and pitch servos in place, snugly abutting but not jammed in.

 

Install complete. Time for a Jameson's...

 

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Projects

The stock canopy for the HK500 is coke bottle plastic, so I set it aside and took out a cracked 500 size canopy that had come with my HDX when I bought it used a couple of years ago to use instead. I epoxied, Bondo'd and sanded it down, then using rattle cans painted it with primer then the below paintjob. I hadn't panned on this as I was going to paint it all green, but then I saw how the overspray looked on the cheeks of the canopy and decided to go with it. The paint of the yellow canopy of the HDX was also cracking along stress lines, so I sanded it down, epoxied a few weak points, then did the same thing. They came out pretty nice! I coated them with clear lacquer. Sweet!
 

 
I like using the foam heli landing pads to keep the tail rotor out of the dirt and grass. I had several and have given them all away. So I am painting up one for myself. I will stake it down, but I have never had one flip up. They take a lot of masking and time but are pretty easy! Yeah, this one is pretty busy... got a little carried away... Primer white, gloss yellow and Magnum black marker on floor foam pad, about 2' x 2'. Duct tape underneath holding the edge foam down. Took about 3 hours counting letting the paint dry: Masked the white, sprayed it, dried, masked the yellow, sprayed it, dried, then marked out the black edges for contrast and to cover overruns. Bad overruns cleaned up carelfully with acetone, minor ones left.
 

 

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Going FBL on the HK500!

I decided to mix a few things up. I am getting another Tarot ZYX 3-axis stabilization system, and a Tarot 500 FBL head from cnchelicopter.com for the HK500cmt. I am thinking I will take the BeastX off the EXI 450 and put it on the HK500, and put the Tarot on the EXI. But, really, it may be easier just to put the Tarot on the 500.. it would save me half the work and the Tarot ZYX has been pretty good, other than not being sure about programming the tail limits which wasn't a problem in actual flight. This gives me the HDX500 as a a flybarred heli, and the HK500 as a FBL. Sweet!
 

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Yes, I am a Pirate! Thanks Kenny!

From my buddy, Kenny Chandler!
 

 
 

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