DID YOU FLY TODAY???

[Slyster]

Awesome Heli Yeah! You look like you got very nice control.. and great landings.. you are ready! Go side in! Go nose it! Get the foundations solid.

[Rob43]

Thanks Slyster. I really benefitted from your B400 info when I got started last fall. Thanks for that.

I flew my new 500ESP Friday morning. Was first spool up and hover. I was shaking like a dog crapping peach pits! Was my first kit heli build, so I took it slowly and carefully throughout the build. I was frankly amazed how simple it was compared to working on my B400. I took the time to level the swash, make the radius arm pivots colinear, and line up the mixers at zero pitch, and then recheck for level swash at full pos and full neg. I've not wringed out the 500 yet by any means, but the first couple of flights were so positive and smooth. Even my tracking was dead on with no additional tweaking. Only adjustments needed were to the Align GP750. I wound up running at about 62% with the DS520 on the tail. I used a FP Evolite 2500 mah/6S with the 13t pinion. I didn't tach the head, but will next time.

Sorry for the length - Sly is running a 3300 mah pack...is that 6S? I didn't fly my new Evolites very long so I'd properly break them in, but seems like I should expect maybe 5 mins on them. Aren't the 3300's pretty heavy?

[Slyster]

I fly the 6s Zippy-H lipos.. they weigh 530g.. and give PERFECT cg right in the middle of the battery tray. Not too heavy at all... at least for my flight style.. consisting of FFF, rolls, loops, upright funnels etc.

Now.. a hard cord 'stick banger' I believe wants more like <400g... but that aint me thats for sure. Maybe in 10 years but my Zippy's will be LOOONG gone before that day.

I am getting 8 minutes at 96% idle up! Unreal flight times.. and the power is phenomenal. I usually fly hard for 6 minutes.. and then switch to the much mellower NORM mode and do lots of close up work.. working on orientations, steep stall turns etc.

Can't get over how amazing this machine is.. no kidding. 71 flights now. No a glitch.

[outhouse]

3 flights this weekend with the 500. 1 today. love it every time i fly it.

working on my inverted flight

[Penguin]

I flew 15 flights today with 8 on the 500. I'm at 92% max throttle and I totally opened it up for the first time today ripping through sky and did my first full speed big power loops. They are really a blast and the 500 is really fast! The 500 has become my go to heli and is passing up my 450 in # flights. I still like to try new stuff on the 450 first.

[Heli Yea!]

Originally Posted by Slyster

Awesome Heli Yeah! You look like you got very nice control.. and great landings.. you are ready! Go side in! Go nose it! Get the foundations solid.

Thanks Sly! I'm just flying in tight spaces. That park is sooooo small there is no room to do anything. I usually fly circuits and do some piros and a stall turn here and there. Been working on my nose in some with my Belt but I'm also trying to keep my 500 out of the dirt since I've only flew about 18-20 packs through it. It's my new baby so i'm taking it easy for now. When I go to the big park I'll be sure to get some footage!

[lizard]

Rainin' and blowin' a gale today But flew yesterday I've put some pics in my album.

https://www.helifreak.com/attachment...1&d=1240835084

[lizard]

Doh... thought that link would go to the album

[Slyster]

Only 1 pack today... but at 100% idle up. First time. It was dark and cloudy and 10MPH winds so I didn't feel like flying any more. I have to say I didn't really notice much difference between 94% and 100% idle up.. but apparently there was.. since my Zippy came back at 3.7V/cell and before it was 3.9V/cell or so. (8 mins of flight time)... I also turned my expo up to 15% from 10%... and I didn't like it actually. So went down to 10% again.

Also.. found that over 96% throttle I heard a 'new buzz' must be from the tail.. like a new deeper note appears.. I am worried something is unbalanced.. but fins don't blur.. might have to put on the CF tail blades.. I've been using the Align yellow plastic blades that came with my yellow skids.

I think I'll drop back down to 90% idle1 and 96% idle2 until I get better. 100% just didn't seem worthwhile and made that sound a little louder.

Then I flew my 450 3 flights.. that things is so fun! So much more confident on it.. and not because it's any easier.. I just have SO many spare parts for it.

[BennyTRD]

4 packs in the 500, 4 in the Beam, and 5 tanks in the 600. Started to snow a little so I called it quits.

Recorded all of my 500 flights with the FCO2 but get home to find theres nothing on the SD card. Kindda wierd. Had some good flights there.

[ola.c]

2 packs today at lunch. Clear blue sky a soccerfield and the 500.... nice

[Slyster]

Flew 3 packs tonight at a new field.. a very exposed and flat field.. and the winds were howling! Well.. at least 10-15 with gusts to 20mph. Towards us. I normally would have said no way.. but Paul (friend with a 500) told me it would just eat it up! It did! You had to be careful.. but the winds themselves were NOT an issue! Tried my 450 and landed in about 2 minutes.

[lizard]

First battery was adjusting the tail, I think I've got it right now (how finnicky is it?). By the second battery the sun had gone behind trees and the wind was picking up. Judging the angle of the heli was a bit tricky (especially in front of the trees) and the video suffered from the lighting, but here it is anyway

[glen09]

2 tanks on the 600n after a hell of a job setting it up with new dx7, bloody gyro!

[Jaguar_5]

I went flying yesterday, first flight I decided to warm up with my 450, halfway through the pack I decided to push it, I tried my first loop, way too low, forgot to reduce collective at the inverted stage and nosed in full speed into the grass

Haven't taken it apart yet but damage appears to be:
Blades
Canopy
Flybar
2 Links
Stripped the 4 underframe holes out when the skids ripped off
And assuming mainshaft and feathering shaft as well

After a short break, I flew the Atom!
Finally felt like I got my tail pretty locked in, and did a bit of circuits and quite a few flips, and they looked nice! This bird really does fly alot like the sim I was getting confident with the flips, and on my last pack of the day (of course) I decided to do just one more flip, and the lowest one I've ever tried, and it would've been fine except I forgot I WAS IN NORMAL MODE!!! Only 16 flights on this new bird and I already give it a dirt nap!

Damage:
Blades
Flybar

Hardly any damage, and it went in pretty hard, a little chip on the canopy paint, but let me tell you, one of my carbon blades can be unfolded now

Hope you guys don't mind me sharing my story in the T-Rex 500 section

[Slyster]

If I were you... do what I've gotten used to doing and that is click straight to idle2 from a standstill. I never use norm until the END of the flight when I want do some calmer and close in practicing.

If you have soft start enabled.. even flipping idle up on.. it still does the nice slow spool up... perhaps 10 seconds before full RPMs.

[mapas]

I don't have a normal mode any more... i just use slow start and have 2 v-curves and one flat.

[Slyster]

Thats a good idea.. can't go wrong there. Maybe I should try that.. but for my close in precision practice I could have a flat 80 instead of 00-60-70-80-90... I enjoy flying in norm.. its so much quieter and easy/relaxed/lazy type flying

[Jaguar_5]

Originally Posted by Slyster

If I were you... do what I've gotten used to doing and that is click straight to idle2 from a standstill. I never use norm until the END of the flight when I want do some calmer and close in practicing.

If you have soft start enabled.. even flipping idle up on.. it still does the nice slow spool up... perhaps 10 seconds before full RPMs.

Not good enough For me at least...
That is exactly what I was doing, last flight, going to do some calmer flying, forgot, decided to do a flip, end of flight

Originally Posted by mapas

I don't have a normal mode any more... i just use slow start and have 2 v-curves and one flat.

This is going to have to be the solution, I'm probably going to set normal mode to a flat -2* pitch curve

[mapas]

yeap,

my curves are
*normal 100-85-70-85-100
idle-up 1 100-95-85-95-100
idle-up 2 100-100-100-100-100