T-Rex600 Rebuild....

[Tomstoy2]

Vid's dude, vids!

[copterboy]

WIll do if I get back there!!

Just been upto the club, a few of the guys were there. Arrived just in time to watch Gaz maiden his Gaui X7 and did a quick pack on the 450 myself. Went to unpack the 600 and realised I forgot to take my fuel

It started raining next, so I came back home to get the fuel and I'm hoping if it stops I can get back up there before sundown. Not sure that it will, so I will nip back in the week if not. Weather forecast at the club looks much better than it does over here. Even though its only about 15 miles east of my home, it much nearer the coast so I'm sure that has some effect on it.

Ps. Managed to get my tent back at least Thanks to the guys at the club for keeping it safe!!

[copterboy]

Still can't beleive I forgot the fuel

Remembered the flight pack, but forgot this one doesn't just run on batteries alone

Don't think it will happen now 7pm and still raining, infact maybe just stopping?

I did go back to the club for a 2nd time (with fuel), but the gates were locked and I didn't know if I should bother the farm owner or not. As it was still raining and looked set to stay for a while, I just turned round and headed back home again

Blowing 19mph tomorrow, so don't think I'll venture out at all, and get on with some chores. Tuesday however, is currently forecast sunshine and 6mph, so looks like I'll have to re-schedule for then

[Tomstoy2]

Ahh Denis, what to do with you? I mean, how much coal does that damn thing burn anyway! Just keep a rock in your pocket.

[jperkosk]

Or a small flask of moonshine...

[Luke Warmwater]

Or update it...sorry, I mean convert it, to electric....have I mentioned that before...?

[copterboy]

When you said do an E conversion, I thought you meant Ethanol

Anyways, it is done, has been done, did it Wasn't without a few more hick-ups, but I did manage a good fly around with it at the end. Felt pretty damn good. Sooo much more stable than the 450, I know that as my confidence grows with it, I'll grow to love it even more.

I'm really sorry, but today's forgotten item was the memory card in my chestcam So managed to remember everything, other than my memory I'll just have to try and tell a good story like our Sutty.

When I arrived, fortunately Tim (the chairman) and Gaz (who we know) were both just setting up. Didn't know Gaz was going today, but glad he was there. I did 5 packs on the 450, and they went well. Tim actually made a comment on the last one being a nice flight, as I was doing fwds and bckwds inverted circuits/8's, changing orientations half way round, with piroing transitions to inverted and back again. Just like I can on the sim. Even managed a slow piro circuit, and tried my first RL AIL rolling circuit, and got about half way round. Also managed two 4 point tic-toks, the second one I actually went round twice, but it made me hit the LVC Getting out this morning and then doing some much needed maintenance on it, gave me the confidence to push it a little later in the day, and I was happy that I felt like I did. Still hit the LVC's and headspeed sounded a little higher when inverted, but I decided to just get on and fly it at the club, and I'll come back to those concerns later.

So next, I change the TX over to my 600 and power her up. Check over things myself not spotting the throttle is reversed Almost had a hot start, but Gaz noticed the engine sound and saw the blades jump as I tried to start it, and he jumped in got me to sort it out, and then went to try again.

Took a bit to start, and then get the revs right for spooling up, as it kept stalling. Needed some more help again to tune the mixture screw. I could only assume it's due to the different atmospheric conditions since I last tried to start it in October, but Gaz sorted it for me in the end, and I go upto the flightline. Due to the stalling, I almost took off again, without my canopy clips secured, but I spotted that as I was spooling up, hit TH, stopped blades and corrected it.

Second spoolup, I get to lift her off the ground and take her up a little bit. Remembered idel up at this stage, so flipped the switch. Needed a little trim, then I was able to start going left to right and back again, with some small stall turns. Feeling it was going well, I took her up high to do a fwd flip, and that actually felt ok. In terms of both the roll rate and the gyro holding.

Now I can't remember why, but I landed after a few mins. Maybe to tweak the TX gain or just have a break I hit TH and did a little 4ft auto, and landed her gently back on the ground. Must have been at this point I knocked idel up off So, I spool up again and take he up high (about 70ft), pulled the stick down to give negative, and I hear the engine cut-out (I'm in normal mode so it had just gone back to ideling). So at 40ft, I'm thinking emergency auto required, and I start to do just that. Slow the decent rate, and go to about -3 degrees pitch, so it's coming down nice and slow. Gaz shouted 'Are you in idel up', and it twigged immediately. I didn't flip the switch back!! So, now I'm about 15-20ft up, and I push the stick back up, the revs pick up, and she starts to climb back to safety. Flicked the switch again, then continued to fly around a little shaken.

So, as I'm coming to the end of the first tank and keeping it close to the landing spot, all of a sudden the heli starts shaking violently for about 2 seconds. Looked like it was the ELEV servo having a seizure!! So about 20ft up, I have to hit TH quick and auto her down to safety. After a quick look over, I noticed I could see part of the gold connector on the ELEV servo signal wire sticking out of the plastic connector. I gave it a pull to check, and sure enough all 3 wires came out, with ease. They will not clip into place inside the plastic connector. Seems either the plastic tab on the connector, and/or the little retaining clip on the gold pin have persihed. I know I repoerted a problem with it at the time I installed the servo's, so my lack of experience didn't make me address it at the time, other than buying some secure clips to keep the connectors together. So buying them is what probably prevented it from causing a crash. Even worse I think, is if sent it back to Sutty, he put it on something, crashed and then it looked like I sent it back damaged! Sooooo glad I found it!! So Sutty, I was told to CA or hot glue the wires into to plastic connector for now. Then I can go back this weekend When I get back to work, I will get a new connector on it so it's fixed for when I send it back to you, and then start saving up to replace my busted JR servo.

I managed to do a good enough repair at the field, that I wanted to give it another try to confirm that the problem was fixed. So just as the sun was hitting the horizon, I filled up another half tank, and took her up again. No twitching at all this time, and I flew the rest of the tank, till I hit clunk level. Started doing some faster circuits on that tank too.

So, I think I can say I sort of know where I'm upto with it now. Will be back at the club again Thursday evening if time permits, and definately Sunday. I still think the engine needs tuning a little more, and the tail will need some tweaks to the stops. But other than that, she flies great.

I am still temted to give the govenor a try, but I think it needs a new sensor. So that will be something I get to in time.For now, I will stick to flying it on V curves, and hope I can start to throw it round soon

Sorry again about the vid Promise y'all I'll have one up before the weekend is out.

[Tomstoy2]

[sutty]

Very nicely told Denis. I too was on the edge of my seat as you were coming down on the forced auto. Good call from Gaz, and good reactions to follow his suggestions and get it back up.

Don't worry about the servos Denis. They were loaned to you to be used. If shit happens, shit happens, and if you need to CA it or hot glue it up to keep the pins in, then do so. I don't recall it being iffy, so sorry about that, but don't worry about replacing the lead, or the connector, or plug, or whatever it is that is needed. Just make it work as required to keep flying. If and when you want to send them back I'm just as happy with CA'd wires as those held in place by little plastic clips. Why wouldn't I be, I don't want to take them out anyway.

Sounds like a good day. I'm very jealous.

It was windy and a little too cold for me all weekend, and I only have FPV on my mind right now anyway, so I think almost no flying. Come away for work, and what do we have, a lovely summers day, at least over here in Leeds. Sods law!

Oh well, you did say it was set to hold, so maybe when I get back on Thursday night. I hope so.

No catching you now anyway.

Cheers

Sutty

[copterboy]

I just came back on to check the weather for tomorrow, as I got a call about a job. Unforetunately, it's due to change Friday, so try and get home for a flight Thursday night, or you might have to wait till Saturday evening or Sunday earliest!!

Going to bed feeling very content tonight. After all the sh*t that happened, I feel on top of the 450 and 600 now, and I can start to think about the future and making more plans

And don't worry Luke, they include finishing the charging staion to accomodate a PL6. Once I get to that stage, FBL conversion of the current fleet, then a bigger electric heli will follow. I talked once before about 500/600 or 550/700, well as much as I'd like the 550 and 700, I think a man of my means would be better plannning on 500/600 formula, unless I win the lottery of course.

Looking at the list of furniture I would like for my newly refurbished abode, and thinking about finances for this year - think I'll only get as far as 1xPL6 and get the 450 FBL, unfortunately got other things cooking. About this time next year, I'll convert the 600N. Once I'm at that point I'll look what's on the market. Currently, I like the Logo400SE and Gaui X4 II, and of course there is the Goblin 500 too, if I wanted to stray away from the familiarity of the T-Rex. There might even be other new contenders on the market by the time I get to make a choice. The roll of the 500 of course is to become my new beater, simply because of the bigger presence in the sky.

Then that will leave me to get the big 600E heli, but sounds like it could be 2 yrs in the making, if things continue to go well. So for the ret of this year, I have banned myself from crashing. It's not allowed. That will mean spending hard earnt money on crash repairs instead of this new fangled technology I so badly desire. And when I've had my fun with all that of course, I will probably convert to the dark side

[Luke Warmwater]

Hehe....don't do E conversions too soon, or I'll nothing to yank your chain about!


Seriously, glad to hear you got it out and had a good evening with it. For me there is always something satisfying about getting to the field, having a couple of squeeky moments when you realised you missed something , but putting it right and being able to carry on.

I always work on the basis that there is something I missed....so once that one thing makes itself know, I find I can relax after that and enjoy it a lot more.

[copterboy]

Well guys, after all the excitement of getting to fly this, there was something I meant to ask.

When the heli is coming down, after giving negative pitch, and I change back to positive, to either go back to a hover or back up again, the heli does seem really slow to respond.

I've got +/-12 pitch diallled in, and the headspeed/engine sounds normal. I did check the links on the head and one of the smaller pitch links seemed tight, so I have got to address that before the next outing. But could one tight link be the cause of it, or can anyone suggest any other ideas?

Was thinking of looking at my pitch curves again, to acheive a higher more constant HS? The current idel1 V curve is 100-90-80-90-100, and I have 100-95-90-95-100 for idel2. I thought those curves were probably high enough? Or if I am thinking about aerobatics and 3D with it, should I be trying a flat 95 or 100 curve, or give the govenor a try?

Any ideas welcome

[sutty]

Well I can't add much, all this nitro rubbish is a black art to me, but I can say one servo link tight, and as a result being potentially a little slower on that one servo, in a none FBL environment, would lead to it tilting over in the other direction. In FBL, it can make it slow, because the stabalisation automatically compensates and keeps it level, which means all the servos become slow by default. In other words the other servos slow down to match the other slower ones, but this would not happen in your set-up. If it was really that, just one being slow, then it would tilt, one way or another, in my drunken opinion. Hic.

That's all I can add. Sorry.

Cheers

Sutty

[copterboy]

Not ignoring the advice Sutty, was just holding back till I actually did some more tests, and I managed another flight today. It's definately not tilting when I apply +ve pitch.

Sadly, no vid again. If all went well, I was planning to wait till the weather cooled off a bit and put my jacket on to mount the chest cam. I tried to get through my first 4 packs on the 450 quickly, so I could move onto the 600 and get the 450 packs back on charge for when it cooled down later, but other things started to happen as usual

By the 4th pack, I put the 450 in again for the second time today, except this time entirely my fault, forgetting idel up again Rushed my pre-flight checks, as Gaz was waiting to take his Gaui X7 up. He let me go ahead so I could get the packs back on charge, and during the rush to get up to the flightline, I only hit TH, and not the idel up switch aswell. Luckily I just took off and gone inverted, so I just hit TH and landed upside down in some long grass, with almost all the headspeed momentum gone. On first inspection, I had just bent a long pitch link, so bent it back checked it over more thoroughly and tried again. Tracking was a mile out, and the rotor head was wobbling on spool up. So, I landed immediately. Have definetaly damaged the main shaft and probably the feathering shaft too. Hoping that is the only damage, main gears, blades and umbrella gears look ok with a quick visual inspection. Feeling lucky and I got off lightly!! Didn't have spares with me, so had to put the 450 back in the van. Was just practicing the stuff I showed you guys already, so nothing new really. Just trying to get things smoother, faster, lower etc

Just wanted to add how nice it was to be flying in a pair of shades and t-shirt, in the sunshine again. Felt like a nice summers day, FINALLY!!

So, moving on to the 600. Started first time, but stalled on first spool up, so gave a few more clicks of trim before re-starting. Next time was ok, got it up and started giving it pitch pumps again, to get a feel for this slow positive pitch response, then moved onto some CW and CCW 8's. I was just getting used to compensating for it, but the down-wind turns were getting a bit low, and I was having to give it almost full positive, to stop it from descending. Then the heli would jump up, and I'd have to compensate again. Was getting frustrating, so I landed and asked another club member to have a look.

So, up steps Tony Stevens a very experienced and good 3D pilot. I told him to take it up, go full negative and check the response, when going back to postive. He had one go and didn't like it at all, had to hit TH and auto it down. He too just couldn't get it to settle to land it. We had a look over the head setup, and how the servo's moved, and how they moved the swashplate up and down, with a little resistive force applied to the swash by hand. Everything checked out, other than the guys telling me the push pull arms are not quite 90 degree's, and maybe try to get the servo horns closer to 90. Now I know that I tried all positions on those servo horns, and chose the closest to 90, so I only had t use minimal subtrim (something like 9,12 and 15). Tony agreed these small issues would not account for such a big delayed reaction, not to that extent it was sooo bad. So we're both scratching our heads about it. Gaz had a look and he is baffled to. Don't think the tight link is the problem. The warmer weather seemed to loosen it a little, but I will get myself a ball reamer now, and correct it. The heli doesn't tilt at all when pumping the pitch, so that would indicate the link is functioning normally even if a little stiff.

The only thing Gaz and Tony cme up with is the thrust bearings maybe the wrong way round inside the blade grips, so when the head is spinning and the centrifugal forces are applied, something in the grips starts to bind. Sounds plausible, but yet to be tested. Kasama blade grips need the oven treatment to remove the outer bearing, so I'll hopefully get onto it tomorrow and see what I can see.

Oh, I also noticed that the ball/link on the 450 tail pitch slider is very stiff. I tried swapping it out before I went to the club, but was running out of time and could only marginally improve it by swapping a ball. Will get that ball reamer asap, and plan to go over both heli's. Hopefully, maybe another small step to a twitch free tail on the 450.

So, for now I've grounded the 600 again till I can get the thrust bearings inspected, and confirm proper assembly. I could have risked it to get a vid, and gone up again, but decided not to incase that or another bearing is about to seize up. Just could take the risk on crashing the 600 for the glory of a 2 min vid. Will just have to wait a little longer, as frustrating as it is!!

[Tomstoy2]

Hey Denis, what I use as a ball reamer, and it works excellent, is to take a ball and score it 2 or 3 times with a razor blade. I then clamp it into a set of vise grips and insert it into a link. About 2 or 3 twists at a time, then check and re-do again if necessary until the link is just right.

[jperkosk]

You've got ball links on the hexa???
Or are you just having memory flashbacks?

[Tomstoy2]

As a matter of fact, you nasty old man, I have a total of 4 of them on my gimbal!

[copterboy]

Originally Posted by Tomstoy2

Hey Denis, what I use as a ball reamer, and it works excellent, is to take a ball and score it 2 or 3 times with a razor blade. I then clamp it into a set of vise grips and insert it into a link. About 2 or 3 twists at a time, then check and re-do again if necessary until the link is just right.

Top Tip Tom....I like it, mainly because it's free and I don't have to wait for the postman

I'm thinking I have a spare mixing arm for both the 450 and 600. I'll threadlock a scored ball onto one end, then it should make a nice portable tool I can keep in my tool box

Forgot to mention the servo connector fix. I run some CA on a screwdriver across the servo connector pins. Once cured, I put a blob of hot glue on the wires, to hold them to the plastic connector. No glitches at all, and still looks secure after the flight. Another good quick fix, it seems

Anyway, going to do some paperwork and see if I can squeeze in some time to fly the 450 today. Last day of good weather for a while, so hoping to get another trip in.

[Luke Warmwater]

Originally Posted by Tomstoy2

you nasty old man, I have a total of 4 of them on my gimbal!

On soooo many forums, that could get you censored and / or banned!

[copterboy]

Finally getting some time to work on the 600 again today, but I probably won't get chance to fly it for a while. Work is slow to pick up, and my van is currently off the road.

After having a break to sort my house and heli's out, my bank account is empty, as is my workload until beggining of July. The monthly bills are mounting up again, and I need to get some more maintenance work done on the van, not to mention renewing insurance, MOT and Road Tax this month

So this week, if I can't get an emergency loan I will probably sell the van and cancel the only job I have booked. Otherwise, I will keep going until the job is finished at beggining of August and then start looking for a normal job with more regular hours again. One thing I never realised becoming a tradesman, is that you often find yourself juggling about 4 quotes at once, and on average you only win one of the jobs. I find I can spend all my evenings working on quotes, only to find you win the smallest job and the big jobs go elsewhere. So I do not earn enough to make a comfortable living.

As my boy is getting older, I want to spend more time with him. I feel the only way to gurantee that is by changing jobs. So if I am not forced to do it this week. Then I will be working towards it around August. Shame, as I really enjoy the variety and creativity of the work, it's just not paying enough.

Anyway, at least the 450 is re-built again, and I am taking some time to look at the pitch problem with the 600. Just hoping the weather permits some flying this week, but the outlook is unsettled. I will just have to walk down to the local park and bash the 450 though!!