Heli up, heli down, heli up!

I brushed off the Align Trex 600 EFL Pro, and programmed it into the iX12, an easy process on an FBL system that is already set up and programmed, as is the case with this heli's Spektrum AR7200BX (since discontinued, an AR 7200 receiver with a BeastX FBL system). Create the model in the transmitter, make a reversal here and there, the usual model programming and she was all ready.

I fly her 10 to 12S, Sport. So much tech!

Once I set her up took her out and flew her, tuned the tracking one turn, perfect. She flies wonderfully. I was pretty nervous, and brought her nose in to land. She came down sweetly but the tail landed first and the tail blades caught in clumped grass. The tail blades delaminated and the front torque tube gears stripped. One tooth on the auto-rotation gear split. There is no other damage. Pictured above is after I removed the tail assembly, so it does look like devastation! I have to replace the front toque tube gears set, the auto-rotation gear, and the tail blades. Since this is one of my two pure Align helis I searched for all Align parts. Medusa Heli on eBay had everything I needed, ordered and parts are in their way, $50 later!

UPDATE:  Turns out I have the Front Torque Tube gear set for a 600 heli, so I went and installed that. Now waiting on the replacement auto-rotation gear and the new blades.

I turned my attention to the Align Trex 600e PRO with its beautiful flybar cage! Programmed it into the iX12, and reset up the entire cage from servo control arms to the blades, all 90-square now! I increased the pitch from 11ish to 13ish, and aileron/elevator to about 7.5ish.  Oiled the bearings, re-balanced the blades and ran her up on the bench at low speed to make sure everything stays put and runs balanced and smooth, sans main blades.

Bench run up.

Heli day in the lab.

Align Trex 600e Pro, Quark gyro, Castle 80A ESC, Align servos all around, Spektrum AR8000 receiver. Very nice machine.

All the electronics and wires tucked in.

Ready to fly! My favorite size of heli, the 600.

Heli magic, Pulse XT60 Noise

Gnarly skies, but no wind to speak of!

Brought out the HK500 FBL and flew two wondrous packs! 

She flew wonderfully. I gained confidence and felt in control. A couple of errors were quickly recovered from, flew nose in and landed, took off again, never out of control. I really enjoyed it! Was ready to fly some more, but some others showed up and I don't really feel comfortable with others watching. I am going to get the other helis set up on the iX12 and focused on flying them,  and more sim time!

The Pulse started fine, but for a couple of times would slow and quit at WOT after a minute. This stopped. On the ground she is pretty smooth, a little 4-cycling. Up in the air she flies well, but gets really noisy with sputtering and the occasional backfire at WOT. I don't know why this happens. It's weird, but she otherwise works great. I have taken to flying 40:1 because of the oil spitting, mostly in the 10cc's. I don't think it will make a diff, but I am going back to 30:1. I thought it might be rich, but the needle is cleaned out as much as is good, and I read 4-cycling isn't from being rich, and that a little is normal. I don't know how to fix it. I worry only because I don't want the engine to be damaged, especially the occasional backfire pops which scare me. Have to wait to test it.

Oh, this pic. Not a crash. Landed fine, taxing in, made a turn, and all the sudden she dropped on her knees. The hardpoint delaminated, and just came off. 

It was in one solid piece, it didn't break. No damage to the plane. The front tabs were stuck in the fuse, the back one's came out clean. 30 min epoxy, tapped into place snug, then clamped.

For good measure I counter-sunk a couple screws forward, one aft. 

Should be good and sound! 

Sbach Evolution 10cc running and flyable

The Evolution 10cc on the Sbach has been a challenge. Recent over haul damaged an O-ring on the low needle which has two of them, none to be found anywhere, but Horizon Hobby found a carb set and sent them to me! I replaced the damaged O-ring, and set about tuning the needles. Idle is best achievable, pretty much at stock settings, Low 4-1/4 and Hi at 2 (stock 2-1/4).

Idles good, nice acceleration, good high RPM. The pull back to idle is slow. This usually indicates a rich Hi needle, but leaning it doesn't improve it. 

She still spits a LOT of oil... at 40:1.

Looking forward to taking her to the field so it can go wonky again. I'll put the cowl on guaranteeing it will.

I like the look of wheel pants, but at grass fields they take a beating. I have 3 planes with them still. I removed  repaired, repainted and reinstalled the Sbachs pants.

HK500 FBL is ready!

Got the HK500 FBL programmed into the iX12, made a few adjustments and took her out for  hover test. Ready to go! Time to head out and crash her!

Stik long running aileron spasm problem solved!

I have written a couple of times about my long running issue with the ailerons on the Stik going rogue and spasming at WOT. They would move like crazy and sometimes lock up in a hard roll. A few weeks back an intense uncommanded high speed snap roll resulted. Last time I took her out to the field she did it, and I grounded her. 

I had read on an RC crash site on Facebook that a plane had uncommanded aileron roll to the site of the crash that was fixed by balancing the prop and padding the receiver against vibration. Since I have tried everything, changing leads, torrid, changed servos, changed the ignition, and eventually the receiver. Nothing worked, so I decided to try the balance and protect. The prop did need balancing, and I padded the receiver with a gel pad and foam around the receiver. Today I took her out:

Problem solved! Wow... 

Working out the bugs

And there have been bugs...

Having gotten the settings on the RCGF-USA 26cc where they seem to want to be, she still runs a bit 4-cycling at WOT, but there is power aplenty and she runs o/w smooth, with a reliable and usable idle. Since I am going to check the balance on the Stik's prop I went ahead and checked this one, and lo, she needed some balancing. I suspect the painted tips have worn a bit. Not sure what difference is made, but I do think it is important.

As illustrated, possibly, here. I had read in an FB post about a plane lost due to vibrations in an unbalanced prop creating a signal that caused an un-commanded fixed roll to the site of the crash. I have had this problem with the Stik where at WOT her ailerons would become possessed and endure paroxysms of movement, then locking in a hard roll, and once in flight one helluva snap roll had resulted. It only happens at WOT. I have put torrids on everything, changed the ignition, changed the servos, changed the servo leads from the receiver, and recently changed the receiver, but the problem remains. Having read this, I balanced the prop, and she did need a couple of micrograms of balancing. The prop is clean and properly balanced. Next time I take her out I will let you know how this works out.

They also mentioned heavily padding the receiver from vibrations, so I took my last piece of gel padding (I used to use this on heli gyros, not sure it helped), and placed it between the fuse and the receiver.

Suspended there.

Surrounded by a foam cover-all. This is about as isolated from vibration as I am going to be able to make it. All I need now is some cooperative weather.

Waste of Time: Take 2

Brisk winds. Brought out the Stik with its RCGF-USA 10cc, and the Pulse XT60 with its RCGF-USA 26cc. Both worked fine last week. Neither worked fine today. It took some tuning the 10cc, but that wicked un-commanded aileron movement occurred and was pretty constant at high RPM. I just read a story about a plane crash where the prop was out of balance and generated a vibration freq that caused this to happen. Hmm.... will be checking the balance of the props.

I even had my son Luke with me to video... but alas, nothing flying today. The Pulse was not running right since getting her muffler tightened, and part of it was the fuel lines kinking. I knew this might be a problem at some point and it was today. And to boot, the screw that secures the spinner stripped. Grounded.

Got her home, fixed the fuel system redoing all the lines and making it a 3 tube system so that the engine gets its fuel directly. A new spinner screw was all it took to solve that problem. This all took about an hour or so. I was not in the mood for further foolishness so called it a day. Tomorrow will be too windy to fly, so I will once again tune the engine and get the cowl back on.

Same as yesterday, another waste of time.

UPDATE (5/28/2020):  I took the plane out to the backyard bench and ran it up. Took about an hour to find decent settings. Still 4-cycles a bit at WOT, but now it has great RPM and Idle. I'll put the cowl back on, and next time I go out taker her with me to be disappointed again. There has to be something I have lost in tuning my engines for this to keep happening.