Sunday, August 12, 2012
Will it work?
Rudder straightening. I tried to get the twist out of the rudder during the repair, but it still has a wave. Between setting the frame and shrinking the cote, I got most of it straight. I set this up. Popsicle sticks and clamps overnite. Will it work? Better ideas?
Posted with Blogsy
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Oh, the humanity!
I realized that I haven't yet shared the outcome of my move on my aircraft. The helis survived without any issues because I packed them. My airplanes were suposed to be individually wrapped and packed, and the ginormous 60 sized Hanger 9 Sopwith was to be crated. I should have watched the packing. Every plane took a hit.
The mover's truck would not start the morning after they crammed everything in, so he rented a U-Haul trailer and put what wouldn't fit into the back of a pickup...This is how my stuff came up. In the truck from Biloxi to Jackson, Mississippi. Like this from Jackson to Dayton, Ohio.
Nearly every plane had damage. I repaired all of them, and they are all in flying condition, but the Hanger 9 Sopwith was badly damaged, more than shown, and the wing is torqued. It is flyable, but not in a funway, si right now its hanging on the wall in my office at work. The most damage was to the Ultimate, which I repaired tonight. Still trying to get that twisted rudder straightned out. I still need to fix the tail on the Skytrain. Bad, bad, bad.
But I packed the helis...
Arrived in perfect shape, every single one.
I charged the mover a couple hundred for the damage. The rest of my stuff got here in perfect condition, and he was already losing money on the move. I chose not to dicker with his insurance and we trimmed the bill. All fair.
The mover's truck would not start the morning after they crammed everything in, so he rented a U-Haul trailer and put what wouldn't fit into the back of a pickup...This is how my stuff came up. In the truck from Biloxi to Jackson, Mississippi. Like this from Jackson to Dayton, Ohio.
Yup, that's really how they packed them.
The rudder is wacked, and the left elevator is fractured.
Nearly every plane had damage. I repaired all of them, and they are all in flying condition, but the Hanger 9 Sopwith was badly damaged, more than shown, and the wing is torqued. It is flyable, but not in a funway, si right now its hanging on the wall in my office at work. The most damage was to the Ultimate, which I repaired tonight. Still trying to get that twisted rudder straightned out. I still need to fix the tail on the Skytrain. Bad, bad, bad.
But I packed the helis...
Arrived in perfect shape, every single one.
I charged the mover a couple hundred for the damage. The rest of my stuff got here in perfect condition, and he was already losing money on the move. I chose not to dicker with his insurance and we trimmed the bill. All fair.
Welcome to Wingmasters, Dayton, Ohio!
What I could see of the field was impressive. The grass is green and cut, the strip is dark and lined with white paint, and the building structures are clean and well kept. I don't recall seeing a closed in walled structure, but that's okay. I am not sure if there are bathrooms either.
I am really looking forward to flying tomorrow! Its been a couple of weeks, so I will take it easy. I am most nervous about bending a heli... but I really want to take one up. I hope to meet someone there!
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Day Before...
Took the planes down and with the ones I could removed the wings, repaired the Stearman, and flight tested the repaired HDX500, and dismantled the flight lab. Packed the helis wrapped in bubble wrap. Busy day in preparation for the movers coming tomrrow for my move to Dayton. Kinda sad...
Friday, July 27, 2012
Good nite, you Princes of Gulfport!
Last day at BMF, cloudy, gusty. Stearman put down by a microburst (wicked cool, caught as I come out over the tree tops, blew her sideways, down, up, took several trys to get her down, another gust threw her 20 feet SIDEWAYS a foot off the groung, tearing off her landing gear, again, and breaking the wing tabs. It was something else! Storm front continued to move in as I was flying the HDX 500 and she had a similar flight as the Stearman when the gusts carried her away, threw her down after carrying her away, and she ended up a pretzel. Two years with this heli, never crashed, so she was due... After the thunder storms moved off and the rains passed, things cooled down, settled down and the boys flew in fine conditions. Alas, I had broken my two aircraft, and my EXI 450 Sport had a technical issue, so I had nothing to fly... So Kenny broke out cigars and we ended the day as gentlemen! Said my goodbyes, packed up, and drove away.
HDX500se before...
and pretzeled... (Already fixed, pics tomorrow).
Yeah, sexy and we know it...
Kenny and Ken
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
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?
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...
Monday, July 23, 2012
Another Heli of a Day!
Took to BMF today with my eFlite Ultimate, and my darlings, the EXI siblings, as well as my new HK500cmt. It was one heli of a day! Kenny Chandler, Jerry Gollott, Ron Johnson, and I flew, Greg Reed showed up and visited with us. It was oppressively hot and humid...
I took the EXI 450 Sport out to play. Set her on my heli pad, spun her up, and she threw a tail blade within seconds. Darn... I need to start bringing things like that... Changed out to the EXI 450 FBL with the Tarot ZYX on it, and flew her like crazy. On the third pack I brought her in nose first, hovered her, she got a little close (the wind was blowing down on me), so I flew her back away, and gained some altitude. But when I came in again she got too close, I gave her full up pitch, she cleared well, but got over my head off to my right, and I had no idea what she was doing so close above me, so I dumped her and hit throttle hold. Bent the main and feathering shaft, no other damage. I decided to take her tail blades and put them on the EXI Sport, and took her up. On her second pack she threw her gyro! Total loss of tail control, brought her down to ten feet spinning like a crazy top, and finally just had to hit throttle hold and try to set her down in autorotation. She landed gear down, a bit hard with a lot of yaw rate. Broke the gear, bent the main shaft, and likely the feathering shaft. Everything else looks good! Orientation mishap with the FBL aside, I had such a blast mastering the helis. I am truly getting comfortable with them!
The HK500cmt with the BeastX FBL system flew just sweet! I had only hovered her briefly over a week ago, and she did great. Flying 6S (two 3S 2650mAh packs in series) with a lot of power, getting about 6 minutes of circuits, figure eights. etc. A couple of little tweaks on gyro gain, and I flew her for three packs. So much easier to control her than the 450s, so much more stable and less twitchy. A real joy to fly!
It is so exciting having finally moved to fast forward flight with the helis! I ordered some parts (all out of landing gear, skid tubes for the 450s). The Jesus bolt on the Sport stripped its hex head... so I had to cut the bold out damaging the autorotation one-way gear. I had one to replace it, but when I installed it I held it in a pair of pliers to rotate it and I crushed it! I did not realize it was so soft! So I had to order replacements. Put in orders for one set of landing gear, and the one-way gear from AMainHobbies.com, which should arrive before the end of the week. The movers come on Sunday, so I want to have everything repaired before then!
Planning on trying to get some more time in tomorrow at BMF with both 500s and the Frankenheli 450 FBL, but have some work stuff to get done first. Oh, I found that the holes I placed for the canopy grommets on the HK500cmt were a bit close with the larger 2650mAh packs, so I had to really pull to get the canopy latched on. I decided to do two things. I ordered a wicked cool Align canopy for $25 on eBay, and I Bondo'ed the holes to redrill tomorrow. I will sand it, and repaint it, then redrill. Come to think of it, the canopy will not be ready to fly tomorrow, so I may only take the HDX500...
I am pretty sure that I will be concentrating on my helis from now on: once you go heli, you never go back... not really. Only flew the Ultimate twice. Once to warm up, and later because I felt sorry for her...
Jerry Gollot, and Ron Johnson
Looking over my bench at lunchtime.
Kenny out behind his truck brokering a deal for a new motor for his Edge from a guy on the West Coast.
I took the EXI 450 Sport out to play. Set her on my heli pad, spun her up, and she threw a tail blade within seconds. Darn... I need to start bringing things like that... Changed out to the EXI 450 FBL with the Tarot ZYX on it, and flew her like crazy. On the third pack I brought her in nose first, hovered her, she got a little close (the wind was blowing down on me), so I flew her back away, and gained some altitude. But when I came in again she got too close, I gave her full up pitch, she cleared well, but got over my head off to my right, and I had no idea what she was doing so close above me, so I dumped her and hit throttle hold. Bent the main and feathering shaft, no other damage. I decided to take her tail blades and put them on the EXI Sport, and took her up. On her second pack she threw her gyro! Total loss of tail control, brought her down to ten feet spinning like a crazy top, and finally just had to hit throttle hold and try to set her down in autorotation. She landed gear down, a bit hard with a lot of yaw rate. Broke the gear, bent the main shaft, and likely the feathering shaft. Everything else looks good! Orientation mishap with the FBL aside, I had such a blast mastering the helis. I am truly getting comfortable with them!
The bad girls in time out... after their crashes.
The HK500cmt with the BeastX FBL system flew just sweet! I had only hovered her briefly over a week ago, and she did great. Flying 6S (two 3S 2650mAh packs in series) with a lot of power, getting about 6 minutes of circuits, figure eights. etc. A couple of little tweaks on gyro gain, and I flew her for three packs. So much easier to control her than the 450s, so much more stable and less twitchy. A real joy to fly!
It is so exciting having finally moved to fast forward flight with the helis! I ordered some parts (all out of landing gear, skid tubes for the 450s). The Jesus bolt on the Sport stripped its hex head... so I had to cut the bold out damaging the autorotation one-way gear. I had one to replace it, but when I installed it I held it in a pair of pliers to rotate it and I crushed it! I did not realize it was so soft! So I had to order replacements. Put in orders for one set of landing gear, and the one-way gear from AMainHobbies.com, which should arrive before the end of the week. The movers come on Sunday, so I want to have everything repaired before then!
Planning on trying to get some more time in tomorrow at BMF with both 500s and the Frankenheli 450 FBL, but have some work stuff to get done first. Oh, I found that the holes I placed for the canopy grommets on the HK500cmt were a bit close with the larger 2650mAh packs, so I had to really pull to get the canopy latched on. I decided to do two things. I ordered a wicked cool Align canopy for $25 on eBay, and I Bondo'ed the holes to redrill tomorrow. I will sand it, and repaint it, then redrill. Come to think of it, the canopy will not be ready to fly tomorrow, so I may only take the HDX500...
I am pretty sure that I will be concentrating on my helis from now on: once you go heli, you never go back... not really. Only flew the Ultimate twice. Once to warm up, and later because I felt sorry for her...
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