Whats happenin' with your Atom right now??

[SamCassidy]

Lets get some recent pics / vids / builds going on in here. Its springtime, for those of us living in reasonable areas (). I have just got the atom out in the past few weeks and blown the dust off.

I did 6 flights at the start of Spring. Then maybe 10 more since. Stripped the heli to the bones the other week to put a new pulley gear in and put a new tail hub on. I have it all put back together and flying except for the tail now. There was an issue with my hub so got another one in the mail to try. Some weird anomaly that made my grips bind. I spooled it up on the bench first and all looked fine, tail still felt stiff, so I took it out and stood WAY back to spool up just to confirm my suspicion. Tail wagged very violently on spool up so landed immediately and took it back to the bench.

I just got around to getting VStabi to work on my mac, and got my mini v-bar to 5.3 Pro. Might go back through mechanical again, specifically swash leveling. Just since I took it all down. It works, and everything is close, but I'm sure it could use some fine tuning. Something had to change during rebuild.

Made myself a mental heli to-do list to get ready for spring,

1. New dampeners (mine were TWO years strong!) √
2. Update vbar and get vstabi back on my mac book pro √
3. Get heli back together 1/2√
4. Get Cyclones √
5. Check ESC settings for timing w/ 4020-1100
6. Replace M2.5x16 shanked jesus bolt with something like M2.5x20-24mm
7. Fix tail grips / hub
8. Replace tail servo push-rod with CF rod and bracket (uggh)
9. Size links... again. (Them DuBro links are strong and have lasted forever)(they tend to get 'worn in' and tighten down again after a while for some reason)
10. Set up GOV on Talon 90

Damn.. 3.5 out of 10. I better get going.

Whats up?

[Ah Clem]

I recently upgraded My Atom 500 to JR DMSS, programmed, and test flew/tuned in the 28X. The 500 has a V-Bar, so it also got X-Bus (and I finally re-did my six and a half year old "spaghetti bowl" wiring job-I excel at ugly wiring).

The Stretched Atom was already set up with DMSS and Robird, so it just had to be setup and tested in the new radio.

Both are ready to go and grounded just waiting for the San Diego Fun Fly next month:

[SamCassidy]

Both are ready to go and grounded

This does not compute Those things look phenomenal, id get out and fly those suckers!

[Ah Clem]

Naw...

I will end up being "that guy," who is trying to figure out how to repair his helicopter right before (or worse still, at) the Fun Fly.

This one is too important as Compass is a main sponsor.

So they sit (literally "bagged and tagged"), waiting (along with both Warps, the 6HV, the 6HV-U, the 7HV-U, and the Chronos).

The one that is really killing me is not flying the Chronos-that one flies spectacularly well (but is staying in its bag, too).

[SamCassidy]

Originally Posted by Ah Clem

Naw...

I will end up being "that guy," who is trying to figure out how to repair his helicopter right before (or worse still, at) the Fun Fly.

This one is too important as Compass is a main sponsor.

So they sit (literally "bagged and tagged"), waiting (along with both Warps, the 6HV, the 6HV-U, the 7HV-U, and the Chronos).

The one that is really killing me is not flying the Chronos-that one flies spectacularly well (but is staying in its bag, too).

Hahah. I have been that guy way too many times myself. Or tired as all get out the first day of an event because I was wrenching till 5am. That is some serious restraint though, it would be way too much for me to handle.

[cyclo]

My Atoms have been great... I have been flying my stretched more frequently this year as I find it easier to perform tic tocs and rainbows with it than the stock 500. The 500 comes out when it gets windy.

One thing that needs replacing on my stretched Atom are the dampeners. The stock ones are only good for 50 flights or so. Too bad they don't sell the KBDD anymore. Should have gotten more of those when they were available.

Here is a pic I took last weekend... Stretched Atom is in the middle:

[JWeber]

Waiting on parts from my dumb thumb a few weeks ago.

[SamCassidy]

Man, its about 75 sunny with no wind today, and I'm waiting on parts
I want to fly so damn bad. My cyclones should be here maybe Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Ill be out of town fishing Sunday-Tuesday though so that will be okay. Im hoping I'll get my hub before the end of the day tomorrow so I can put the tail back together and "do a little testing".

[aburkhardt]

Slowly rebuilding after a minor crash on my stretch. Going through the bearings and the tail. Should be good to go by tomorrow.
I need new bullet connectors so I can install by 4020-1100, I'm downsizing from a 4025 for the moment. Looking for longer flight times.
Not atom related but a had a rekit on my 700n Friday. Still don't know what happened. Sent my AR7200BX to Horizon today. Coming in for a landing and it went full negative into the ground from 30 feet.

[SamCassidy]

Originally Posted by aburkhardt

Slowly rebuilding after a minor crash on my stretch. Going through the bearings and the tail. Should be good to go by tomorrow.
I need new bullet connectors so I can install by 4020-1100, I'm downsizing from a 4025 for the moment. Looking for longer flight times.
Not atom related but a had a rekit on my 700n Friday. Still don't know what happened. Sent my AR7200BX to Horizon today. Coming in for a landing and it went full negative into the ground from 30 feet.

Man, I am sorry to hear that. I am in love with my 4020-1100, its a sweet motor. Running maybe 2700 rpm (not gov'd or tach'd) (motor flat at 87%) on a glacier 4000mAh I get about 4.5 min.


That realllllllllllly sucks about the 700n, thats absolutely devastating. ****.

[SamCassidy]

Cyclones came today (thanks to Dave K). Aburkhardt hooked it up big time with the brass inserts. Thats a stand up guy right there if I have ever seen one. Great to see there are still people of that kindness in the hobby (not that any of you aren't). Brass inserts fitted the Cyclone 505mm's to the Atom grips beautifully. I must say, it looks absolutely wicked.

Still chasing down a tail problem. Still zero luck after fighting it a week. Its really starting to get to me, this one has me stumped hard! I have talked to Tony W, Dave K, Mike J, and Lincoln E and still no dice.

I spent ALL DAY (literally 7hr straight) rebuilding the tail about 50 times on Sunday, spooling up, landing, spooling up, landing, getting pissed, spooling up, landing, and on and on like that with some beers injected later in the night. I have no idea what is wrong with it; t-totally stumped.

Along with that I put new dampeners in the other week, went over all the loctite. Did general spring cleaning on the Atom. All the times I spooled it up, it was SOOOO buttery smooth. Smooth as a silk bag full of puppy ears. Haven't seen it spool up that nice in months. Looks like the dampners helped a lot. I can't wait to see how it flies when I get this tail issue sorted out. Especially with the Cyclones.

[aburkhardt]

Took a little longer to rebuild my stretch, but it was worth it! Replaced nearly all the bearings in the tail, guide pulleys and main shaft. I don't remember my Atom being this smoooooth! My fleet went from 2 to 4 yesterday by getting my 180 and Atom back up.

Sam, it does suck BUT my electronics seemed to have survive. When I bought my 700 I got a complete spare airframe with it. I'm crossing my fingers that this will be a no-cost crash. The most unfortunate thing is that the Cincy Smackdown is next weekend and I wanted to take my nitro.
If I get my AR7200 back it might be possible to get it get it back in the air.

[JWeber]

Still waiting on parts. I thought that some of them actually had arrived yesterday, but I ended up getting someone else's order in a box addressed to me. Doesn't look like I'll get it up in the air before this weekend.

[ARM_Coder]

Did 4 flights today with my 5.5 (and two with my 6HVU). And lots of autos!

[cyclo]

Was able to get just one pack on the Atom 5.5 today. Flew very well but while landing it encountered the dreaded ground resonance issue on spool down. First time this happened on the stretch Atom. Luckily the only damage was the pitch servo horn that got stripped.

Still figuring out what caused the issue... I hovered it after re-programming the FBL controller and it landed fine.

[skunkworx]

What gyro are you using Cyclo? I noticed with the Ikon/Brain/TracX gyros they tend to be really jumpy on the ground on landings and they tip over really easy, almost on their own when you have it set to high agility. Not that resonance is the same thing, but some of it could be the gyro over-driving the cyclic loop.

[skunkworx]

What gyro are you using Cyclo? I noticed with the Ikon/Brain/TracX gyros they tend to be really jumpy on the ground on landings and they tip over really easy, almost on their own when you have it set to high agility. Not that resonance is the same thing, but some of it could be the gyro over-driving the cyclic loop.

[cyclo]

FBL controller is AR7200BX... Funny thing is I tweaked the settings on my Chronos, 7HVU, and X3 to add pitch boost and tail precomp, but not the stretched Atom.

First time it happened in more than two hundred flights on this heli. I might replace the landing gear with the CF spare that I have and maybe also tighten the main blades a little more.

[skunkworx]

Hmmm...I've always flown mine on an AR7200BX. I don't have it stretched, but I noticed a similar thing on my original 6HV. It appeared one day and was gone the next. Weirdest thing ever!

[ARM_Coder]

Originally Posted by cyclo

Was able to get just one pack on the Atom 5.5 today. Flew very well but while landing it encountered the dreaded ground resonance issue on spool down. First time this happened on the stretch Atom. Luckily the only damage was the pitch servo horn that got stripped.

Still figuring out what caused the issue... I hovered it after re-programming the FBL controller and it landed fine.

I have had ground resonance issues with my 5.5 since it was new and the controller was an AR7200BX (the current is an Ikon). I think GR is a stretched Atom thing, regardless of the controller.

Some of my GR occurrences really caused damages like broken links, a bent swash ball link screw, and a blade/boom strike.

In general, Ground Resonance has some contributing factors that can be more or less important at any time:

- Unbalanced main blades.

- Slight negative pitch during spool down (I'm not really sure, but it seems to reinforce the oscillations when they show up).

- Hard landings with low RPM (i.e. hitting TH and bleeding RPM before touchdown). In this case the hard landing may induce one blade to lead/lag around the bolt, shifting the combined blades' CoG away from the mast.

- Main blades' bolts not tight enough - making easier to the blade lead or lag, as said in the previous case.

I use to land my 5.5 giving a lot of positive pitch, so the RPM bleeds quite fast and the light weight on the skids seems to help avoiding the GR.