Graduation Day

[kb1846]

Finally got everything together on the Mini Protos Stretch 3S that I bought secondhand after running into a few problems on initial tests and having to get extra parts before even having a proper fly ... and got the setup right, with a bit of help from some Helifreak friends ... and worked out a combo of settings that best suit me on the DX6i.

Today was The Day. The rain stopped, the grass on the oval almost dried out, the wind faded.

And it was amazing. So quiet, so steady, so great to handle. Hovered, moved it around a bit, some side orientation, bit of gentle forward flight, but taking it easy. Landings had been a problem during the test phase -- kept letting it hit the ground with a bump and ended up each time breaking the bolt that holds the main pulley, and a tail-in/sideways landing did some damage to main and tail rotors, tail boom and boom supports.

But today ... couple of batteries running for around 5:30 mins. and they came back just short of 11.4V and required around 1150mAh to recharge. And smooth landings -- hit TH just before touchdown and added a touch of uplift.

The setup: stock 2580KV motor, Castle Lite 50 ESC [Gov. at 2600 & 2750 for the DX6i], Spektrum H3020 cyclics, MKS DS95i tail, AR72909BX, Radix 350mm main rotors, stock Gorilla Gear tail rotors [far better suited for mine than, for example, the Revolution CF tail rotors that I shredded in the tail-in crash], and CNC tail pulley.

Scorpion provided me with some lock straps -- see pics, used one to tie down the front of the battery and it doubles to hold the balance lead out of the way, and like this I can connect the battery with the canopy on. Another lock strap is holding wiring around the ESC that I have fitted in the bottom tray. And they gave me some narrow lock tape, which is great for tying down the servo wiring -- e.g. I put two small patches of hook tape on the side of the frame at the back and strung lock tape from one to the other to keep all the surplus wiring tucked away under the mount for the tail boom. I used two small pieces of double-sided tape to hold down the long antenna, the outer one with the plastic covering left on [that's the red square on the side].

And it seemed the most sensible thing to put the BX on top of the tail boom mount.

In the process, I think I have gained pretty good confidence in the way this smooth bird flies, and in how I can handle it -- and enough parts for an emergency, including a 325mm set of Revolutions that I will try some day as an alternative.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way. From now on, we really get into the fun part.

[FoamAddict]

Glad you got it running man. I'm surprised you broke the main pulley bolt. I never have and I have done plenty of crashing.

Be careful how long you fly when you start flying it harder as it will drain the batteries much faster. You could end up with low voltage cutoff kicking in at a bad time. I know I can hover mine for probably 6 minutes but if I open it up I have to back down to 4:15.

[dr dremel]

Congrats man, nothing like the first succesful flights