Better than before! I have had my helis for a long time, last one I bought was the Trex 600 EFL Pro about 6 years ago. When I was building those 450s, the 500s, and the 600s, I was still learning. I did a pretty good job, but have learned a bit since. One of the most important things I have learned is to respect the lack of tolerance the helis have for out of tolerance building and flying. On my 450s I allowed imprecision in the builds that I have since been building out of them. The rebuild of the 450 Sport is no exception. The last rebuild was tight. As I rebuild this time, I am sticking to that.
We started with a pretzel.
I decided to step up to a quality tail servo, moving away from the Emax one I had. It had a little twitch that made me think about it, and since I am now committed to precision and better affordable parts, especially on a 450, time to toss the Emax. This is the KST DS215. This thing is tiny.
All that is left is installing and programming the new Spektrum AR620 reciever, then rebuilding the flybar cage, which is going to be a project. I decided to go with the glass-fiber reinforced plastic tail assembly because it is tight and well made. It is well up to the stresses, and has a new belt. If I didn't use it I would have had to take it apart to pull the tail shaft as I don't have another one. The plastic head performed so well, up to the damage it sustained at the crash.
Next the reciever. Will allow me to test the entire mechanical systems without the blades.
Today was a first! I flew 4 packs on a 450 sized heli and enjoyed all of it, even the crash at the end! I have never flown a full 450 flight set, and have never liked them, until today. As a novice heli pilot, even after 10 years of flying them infrequently until recently, I have been flying sport really well, confidently and with error free precision. I am making it a point to fly a heli everytime I am out, and a lot of sim time. Its paying off.
I brought out the MX-Bach to try once again to land her without breaking a prop, the Trex 600e FBL which I fly 10S. I will be doing more 12S though flying sport I don't need those headspeeds, I only have 5 of the 5S batteries, I think 4 of th 6S. I use the 5S batteries for the Trex 500e, though I can also fly it 6S, the latter getting a little tight under the canopy.
Winds were wierd. There was no base wind to speak of, but brisk gusts of 30 seconds to a few minutes would come from all different directions mostly cross winds, so I landed from the south in left and right hand patterns, and from the north.
The 35cc RCGF-USA engine happily swinging a 20x8 scimitar prop. With the taller tail wheel setup and that big prop, its clearing the ground on all three wheels by about 1 inch at best. I have to land her perfectly. Even even keel mains first and she will strike the prop. I am toying with changing to a taller set of mains I have, but today I landed time and again without any problems. We liked each other today! No broken prop!
She can be a nice flier, but needs really low rates and high expos for a sport flier.
Twitchy if there is any wind or speed. Challenging to fly, but still fun.
Beautiful wierd plane. MX-2 fuse, Sbach wing.
Flew all told about 30 minutes, until I noticed in a preflight that the muffler was loose again. I haven't use JB Weld on this one, but will be. Removed the muffler, cleaned it, painted it with BBQ Grill paint (heat resistent), and will reinstall it tomorrow.
Trex 600e FBL. What a great flier! See her smaller sis behind her.
Nice bits on the 600e.
The EXI/Trex 450 Sport with its beautiful flybar! This plastic head was sweet. Tight and responsive, perfect disk, and flew great. I did find her better on her low to mid rates. On high rates her collective was really touchy and over reactive. I think I need to use 14 degrees instead of 11 to give it better resolution.
Everything is so small!
At the end of the fourth pack I lost her. Now, I know what you are going to say, but this really was a signal loss. She was starting to become a bit slow to respond, and I was bringing her left to right to land, high to lower when she topped responding to all inputs and just continued right down to the ground as her disk was slowing. The main head is toast, many of he plastic parts great for sport flight, didn't survive the crash. I think I have enough parts to build a nice flybar head. The servos at first glance survived. All three shafts are bent, the featuring shaft is almost 45 degrees off at both ends. The tail shaft is also bent. There is a dent and a barely perceptible bend in the boom. The gears are okay so far. This is going to take a bit of work.
UPDATE: I suspect I flew the pack too low. It was an old one, and signs were the sketchy behavior just before the crash. Need to check the pack. It was a bit puffy.
Last beats of her dying heart...
When I got there the reciever was disconnected from the ESC , likely from the crash itself, so I wasn't able to tell if there was signal loss, but I am pretty sure. I wasn't doing anything but a slow descent in straight line. I haven't ever had problems with Orange recievers. This one is several years old. When I rebuild this I will use a new Spektrum AR620 I have NIB.
I so enjoyed flying the 450 that I think after rebuilding the Sport here, I will rebuild the waiting 450 FBL with its Tarot XYZ flybarless system and have two of these. I have so many spare 450 parts. I think I am really going to enjoy these!
Got out to the field today! Blustery cross winds over calm. It took a few landings this time before I stalled her a foot off the ground and broke another prop. No other damange.
The RCGF-USA 35cc runs so frickin' sweet with this 20x8 scimitar prop! She hummed, reacted perfectly, had good vertical, idled perfectly. This is the prop of this engine, no doubt! Reset the crash clock.
Flew two packs on the Trex 500! First pack was all nerves, hands shaking, sometimes over controlling, but no mistakes! Approached and landed nose in!
Me after that first pack. Thousand mile stare. Took a 15 minute break before the second pack, and it made a great difference! Flew calmly and confidently, put the heli where I wanted it, and enjoyed it. I need to keep flying my helis so it becomes as common to me as flying my planks.
Flew the Twinstar with the heavily fortified bulkhead, first time since making the repair. The nose gear stood up to the stresses, the main gear still took a beating. I should probably put stronger gear wire on them. Eventually.
The back securing screw was along as the front one and the backwards flexion pushed it into the wing cote. Repaired that after this pic, but had already trimmed the screw. Did this on both sides.
When I got home I took another look at the bearings in the new red swash arm. The installed ones are new design, using 2.5mm bolt, the old was 3mm. I decided that they weren't helping sitting there with the tight bearings that are too small. So I took a mallet and Phillips screw driver and punched one bearing out, the one already damaged by my previous attempts. I had to work the other one out and that took some doing, but I finally got it out without damaging the arm. So I installed it and now have two matching swash followers! So this will be a problem. Heli Direct confirmed that Align changed the part, and the part number, but discontinued the other part. So when I bend one I will have to pound out the smaller bearinings. All the more reason not to damage them.
A few weeks ago another crappy approach and landing lead to breaking the prop on the MX-Bach. I ordered a couple of Turnigy Scimitar blades from Hobby King, in most part for the price, but also because I like that shape. For safety and looks I like to paint the tips, re-balance and then install.
Tips painted fluorescent green with white center stripe over white primer.
Props are very nice quality.
Installed. I went up from 19x8 to 20x8 as the smaller prop was the lower recommended prop for the RCGF-USA 35cc engine. See what diff, if any an inch makes (easy, killer...).
I had given up trying to get the Align 500 4-Blade Head to work. Coulda, but didn't wanna... was just becoming a debacle. So I went back to 2 blade. This meant returning to the 2-Blade head and replacing its swash follower arms. I ordered the same one's I always had, these. They are the same ones I have ordered for this same head in the past. Look at the fine print. The screws that secure it to the head are M2.5. Bothe the 4-Blade and this Tarot 2-Blade head have always used M3. I tried installing them and the screws wouldn't bite... that's when I discovered a problem. I am confident the part did not change specs! I verified that the previous ones were M3, and they are. I had to pull them off the 4-Blade head and install them mismatched ones on the 2-Blade head. I could not get the 2.5mm ID bearings out of the new ones. Jeez...
The free bearing is from installed swash arm. The one I am holding is the new 2.5mm ID bearing.
This is the existing non-damaged swash arm with the 3mm ID bearing. I pulled it off the 4-Blade head along with its mismatched opposite arm. The plan had to have two matching red arms.
The mismatched swash arms with the M3 bolts securing them in place. I cannot find swash arms for 500 sized helis with M3 bearings. I could and tried to change the M2.5 bearings but I can't get the bearings out of the new arms. This sucks... but it works.
I then found that there is a bad vibration that wanted to shake the aircraft apart. Turns out there is a subtle bend in the main shaft. I then replaced that. She is now balanced, tracking well, and ready to fly again, with her mismatched swash arms. If I bend these I am screwed. Literally.
I was in a bad mood when I started. Imagine how pissy I am now!
Hot, Mississippi HOT!, But virtually windless. I wasn't entirely feeling it, but once I got everything in the car, I was pretty game! Took the Hacker MX-2, flying 3S. Its the first time on the iX12, had to program it at the field, made a few adjustments. Before leaving I decided to put slightly bigger wheels on the mains and tail, which helped, but she still would trip over the mains if ai wasn't careful. She has really super flexible mains, almost like paper... but I can land her super light, she's such a great flier, that its not much of a problem.
Fun flier!
First flight of the day with the MX--Bach. I was really distracted, not focusing well on the tasks at hand. I wasn't even there while flying my plane. Unstable approach, unstable landing, tipped a little and prop strike...that was the end of the day. No other damage, so I'm not calling it a crash, though I guess technically it is... okay, fine, resetting the crash clock. I was flying a 19x8on this 35cc, the smallest recommended. I am 9ut of props for this one, so ordered two Turnigy 20 x 8 props, scimitar shaped. They'll be here in a week. Can't eat the price, $14 a piece.
Anthony was there with his 350, on the left, the 250 on the right benched for a split in the tail belt. He be humble, but the boy got skilz and it was fun to watch him enjoy himself. He prefers the smaller helis, something unique among pilots.
Well, the heat is something else, but that wasn't my excuse for anything. I wasn't feeling it today, though I flew the MX-2 well, but I was absent flying the MX-Bach. I just haven't felt much like flying lately, mostly because of the cost of the risk of a crash repair,and partly because I have been blue with all the crap going on. Today took me away from all of that, and reminded me why I fly! Need to get the MXS-R and the Waco in the air, and get back to the 600's while I wait for parts for the 500.
Pre-flight checks after changing the prop. Sweet engine.
Gotta love RCGF-USA for excellent pricing, quality engines and great personal service!
This is a good video of her sound, power and nice transitions. There are 3 idles, Flight, Approach and Landing, to prevent stalling out at lowest idle. I do this on my engines that run for about 30-60 secs and may quit at low idle. This guarantees a safe flight idle, and an effective approach and landing idle. Each are heard distinctly here. I also have a 2 sec up throttle speed, and a 1 second back throttle speed, both give a smooth transition over the throttle range when sudden changes are made with no noticeable effect.
