Video progress report!

[Heli Yea!]

Smart plan! I should do that too. Too many platforms + systems + bells/whistles + dials/and switches = confusion/panic. Ive been there a time or 2...

[Tomstoy2]

Got off work, came home and grabbed the MSH for her maiden and headed over to the soccer fields.

The Penguin motor really does the trick! Now she leaps out of my hand.

My God, is this thing ever sensitive to controls! Managed to get her leveled out and under control, about 400 feet out, 150 feet up. Decide to turn right, she rolls over, won't correct. I kill throttle and watch her pile in nose first about 25 mph.

Well, f**k me!

Retrieving her, I'm amazed at what little damage is done.
A broken clevis, pod crushed but not as bad as I would have thought thanks to the laminate. Battery is still in the pod, but loose. Not because the velcro gave, but because it pulled itself out of the clear shrink wrap they wrap the battery in.

This pretty much confirms it, my uhf receiver is bad. This is the same receiver I had in the Penguin, and she augers in just the same.

Just got done with the repairs. A heat gun took out most of the crush in the pod. 5 minute epoxy did the rest. Just need a clevis and a receiver now.

Don't know if this bird will make the trip, or not. She bent my 3s 5300mah GensAce battery. Think it will be ok. Makes me leerie. I had an 850mah 3s just like this. Lasted a year, then one day I plug her in and watched her burn.
Don't want to spend the money on more battery's right now. Plus, GensAce is out. Just bought me an instant tent to replace my old bastard. My right hand is so bad right now I don't want the hassle of erecting that old thing.

Anyway, beer thirty right now. Think I'll mosey over to the local watering hole.

[Tomstoy2]

Didn't want to do it,,, you know how it goes.
I've spent too much money lately. But, damn man, the meet is next week!
Yep, ordered up another receiver.
ImmerisonRC now has a repair facility in the USA, so I'll send the old one out. It's under a year old, ( I think ).

[sutty]

My turn.

For no other reason than I haven't for a while.



Cheers

Sutty

[copterboy]

Fine piro work their Sutty

Looking forward to this week. Hoping I'll get some more footage up later on this week.

[sutty]

Cheers Denis. Looks like at least one good week coming up. I hope you can find the time to get a good few packs in.

I've treated myself to a new canopy on the 550. It was looking a little tired, but worse it had come apart on one of my many repairs. Might repair it again and keep as a spare, but right now it's looking very sorry for itself. The new one is much easier for me to see thankfully.

That was the old one in the video, the new one seems to just stand out better.

Packs are charging as we speak, and I have the next two weeks off work. So I'm hoping to get a lot of practice in.

Oh, I also bought 4 new Optipower packs. 50C, 5300mAh, best part of £500, . Nitro's looking pretty good eh now pal.

One of my current 5000 packs is dying, and if previous experience is anything to go by, then when one goes, the others are sure to follow, and in rather short order.

I gambled on the bigger size, as I thought I could then be easier on them, and I have a slight tail heavy situation with the 550. Hopefully I can find a nice position for them that gets my CoG spot on. Not that it matters that much, as you could see, it piroed okay anyway, but right's right I suppose.

We shall see. Thought they'd be here today, but no sign yet.

Cheers

Sutty

[Tjomp]

Hi guys.
I have only gotten in the occasional flight lately but thought i'd check in with this video that Ragge1 filmed with his phone without me knowing. LOL.
We had a good day at the field and both our sons came along and played with their RC cars. So here goes. Me having some fun with my MSH Protos 500

MSH Protos 500 - Zooming around. (3 min 0 sec)

[sutty]

Nice one Tomas. Some good big air stuff going on there. I didn't know what to expect since I couldn't recall the last time you posted in the progess report, if ever with a heli. I remember the quad video at your fishing spot, but I remembered that for different reasons. I was imagining what it would be like to be standing there, thigh deep, letting a sinking tip come around, with a tripple leader, just after dark, and the excitement of that thud, and then bang as you strike home on a solid 5lb sea trout, or similar. Sends shivers of excitement down my spine just thinking about it.

You were so busy last time we spoke it sounded like helis were going to be on a back burner for the foreseeable future. Glad to see you out there doing your thing.

I've seen that flight spot a few times though, but maybe that was from Ragge1's videos.

Did you follow through with the quad, or was that just a short experiment, just to see if it could be done, which you've now proved. I haven't run my quad yet this year. I just can't seem to summon up the enthusiasm. It's somehow like quad time would be wasted heli time.

[ragge1]

Yes it was a good day Tomas and the kids had a nice day too

[Tjomp]

You are correct, Andrew. I haven't posted any heli flights before. Never did bother to create a hatcam or similar to get it on film. Besides, as you say I haven't been flying much lately at all. This time was different as Roger filmed it without me knowing.

But I do enjoy my helis, though. And I plan to spend more time on them. What you can't see in the video is that I botched the landing. There is a small pallet laying around at our field and Roger commented that it was quite hard to use it as a landing pad. Guess who just had to try ? I did manage to land on it but the tail hit the edge of the pallet. Breaking the boom, tailcase, tail bellcrank, tailgrip and tailbelt. Had most but not all parts in spare so the Protos is grounded for a little while until Fastlads sends of the rest. I am quite impressed by how cheap the Protos is to keep in the air. The total sum of all the needed parts for this repair is only £25 at Fastlad.

With the Protos down I'll take the opportunity to work on my Gaui X5 instead. I never got around to complete the build but is making up for that wrong as we speak. I got all needed parts right here so hope to give you guys a maiden report in the foreseeable future.

The quad does not tickle my fancy. I still have it laying around and probably will do some more work on it and take it for a spin. But helis must come first

[ragge1]

a small vid testing the vbar NEO rescue mode with DX9 ,works very nice

vbar NEO rescue test with DX9 (0 min 51 sec)

[Tjomp]

That rescuemode looks both scary and efficient.Quite impressive indeed.
That button might just save you from an expensive repairbill some day.

[sutty]

Got 8 decent packs in today. 4 mid afternoon, and 4 just now. Getting a little on the dark side now, but got them in just in time, with no dramas.

Had the hatcam on for this afternoon's 4, and made a little selection of clips from the 4 packs, totalling around 5 minutes. Could have uploaded them all, but didn't want to bore the pants off you. Dreadful video editing, I just went, oh that was okay, clip, that wasn't terrible, clip, etc, etc.

Might bore the pants off you anyway, but I got sick of waiting for everyone else to post, so I decided to record something, anything.



Oh, and there is a new trick I am working on. Nose down funnel. Semi controlled. I've been at it all season, and I'm finally starting to get somewhere. Just got to start thinking about the other 7 orientations now, lol.

Cheers

Sutty

[Tomstoy2]

Pretty nice, Sutty! Nose down funnels look so cool.

Not much on my end.
Still waiting for some parts to finish the qav250.

Got an invite last Thursday to fly at a private school/church near Boulder.
My buddy Greg showed up after my first flight with the Hexa.
As he's getting his first quad I had him fly my Hexa, get him used to the controls. Unfortunately, one of my battery's had a bad connection so we ended up flying one battery down to just 23mah's left in it after recharging!
She took a heavy bounce on landing, blew out the landing gear, broke a motor shaft on the gimbal and destroyed my vtx. Not much in damage, but expensive.
I'll change out that one connector. The battery I charged survived just fine. Love GensAce.

So, while waiting for parts, greg received his first quad. I went over there to help out.
He picked up a Taranis d9x radio. Drove me crazy learning another damn system, but we got her all configured.
I took her up for the maiden with no drama. I have her set up pretty mild for him to learn on.
He only has one battery right now so after recharging he went up, no issues.
This gave me a chance to test out the fpv system. Took a bit, but got it all dialed in. He picked up FatShark's Attitude goggles. Not bad, but I think my AIO's are better.

I've been out of work for a week with a bad back, so no flying for me. It feels better, but it could just be the Oxy blocking out the pain. Tomorrow, I'll go off and find out, I guess.

[Tomstoy2]

Here's a short vid with the qav250.
the broken feed is due to a damaged antenna on my vrx. This vrx is just for the recorder. My goggles were fine.

On take off you can see my buddy Greg's quad's shadow go by.

qav fun 9 20 15 (2 min 17 sec)

[sutty]

lol, I thought that was going to be close. Looks like a lot of fun Tom. I'd like to be as adveturous with the trees with mine, but it doesn't do damage very well.

[Tomstoy2]

Bet it doesn't!

Yeah, all I had was 4 broken props.

Since I was under the goggles I only had a general idea which tree I hit. The tree was easily identifiable by all the leaves and minor branches on the ground.
The quad was 10 feet from the tree. Must of had some speed going on when I hit.

This little thing is by far the most fun and defiantly the most thrilling thing I have done in rc!

[sutty]

How's the Gaui X5 Tomas. All finished and everything you'd hope for?

I Haven't had a new heli in a good while. I guess until I can out fly my Align helis there's no need, and I'm a long way short of that.

Here's an effort from today. Lovely day, and all was well. I did different things on different packs today. Just picked this because it was more of a mix. Pack one for example, mainly inverted piro practice, so would have bored the pants off everyone. Hopefully this one is a tad more interesting.



Cheers

Sutty

[Tomstoy2]

Sweet!
I do enjoy your flights with the big one, Andrew. Much easier on my eyes.

Went out and did 4 packs on the qav.
Sun was to my back, so I was standing in the shade for the second flight. Got moving fast thru the trees, zig-zag, video breaking up behind the trees, spun her around quickly and damn near fell over!

I find myself following the qav with my head, leaning into banked turns and such, even though it don't make a bit of difference. Think most everybody does.
After that I sat under the tree, get my ass down before I fall down!

[Tomstoy2]

Been busy. Working on the house, yard, stuff like that. Nice having the energy to do all that stuff now.
Greg and I did go out and do 8 flights today.
Getting more comfortable with the qav250 now.
Vid breaks up pretty bad due to a broken shield cable on the antenna for the ground station. Goggles are a lot cleaner.

061617 (6 min 27 sec)