MA Stratus 'Bobby Watts Special' build videos

[Mercuriell]

First skids up brush with terra firma tonight - after 8 great initial flights heli slid on some oil while I was fiddling around with the canopy bolts and fell off the FF table - after some suitable Anglo-Saxon expletives to the heli gods I check the damage and was dismayed to notice not only the flybar bent but also the flybar see-saw. Anyway teardown tonight revealed the flybar spindle carried in a flanged bearing 10x6x3 (MF106-ZZ) and the OD of the bearing had simply come out of the central part of the seesaw - easy job to Loctite this back in place. Incidentally the flybar exactly same size (and similar temper) as the Logo600 (450x4mm). Shot a quick video on the broken down flybar FYI and intend to film future maintenance or repair jobs on this great heli

[EASYKILL]

Hi John ,
Well at least you didn't plug 12 volts into your cyclic servos!!! I received my new 8717s on Saturday and was able to maiden on Sunday. A couple of tanks with out canopy in the backyard, and then off to the field. OS 91 took alot of adjustment as it is a pumped motor and I am running exhaust pressure (not sure if thats right). Blades tracked perfect off the bench, had to make correction for left/aft tendency. After that it was a pure joy! What people say about it feeling locked in is very accurate. Did some figure 8s to start with then on the last flight some flips and rolls, wheee!!! Thanks again for your hard work on the videos, they were extremely helpful. Now fly it like you stoll it!!!!
Tony

[Mercuriell]

Starting to have a bit of fun with the Stratus now the OS is running in - hope you enjoy the pics and thanks to Ben for the camera work

[CatchmyCorsair]

Originally Posted by Mercuriell

Starting to have a bit of fun with the Stratus now the OS is running in - hope you enjoy the pics and thanks to Ben for the camera work

Cool pics John! For not being an artist your canopy sure looks nice! Stands out well. So how does the Stratus compare to the Logos?

And are you running the OS plug? The manual doesn't mention much about what fuel the plug likes. Will it work OK with 30%?

One more thing, did you find any need to seal the ports on the fuel tank? (I'll be running same engine, nonpump)

[Mercuriell]

Stratus feels like a 90 - more grace and inertia going through movements - can't compare with the Logos - the Logo 600 is blinding performance and the 500 great fun and like butter on a hot plate. I didn't seal anything on the tank just used supplied plugs. I am running the OS8 plug on 20% nitro fuel and that's fine for me - my mate runs 30% nitro and 22% red Coolpower oil but he's a better pilot than me and can burn the extra Joules

[gr8t1dini]

After looking at the video again I noticed that you didn't put a 3mm screw to secure the tailboom. I hope you did this before you got crazy doing piro moves.

[Mercuriell]

That was a mod I believe that came with the BW version- extra PEM nut - no I haven't and have been happy with the boom security so far though can't say I do "crazy" piros - have you had experience of losing the boom ?

Did have the mother of all boom strikes this pm - have just fitted the SAB 710s and though they look nice blades they do seem more flexible than the Radix 710 SBs I used before !

[gr8t1dini]

Not on a MA machine. I have SAB's 710's on my heli now. How are/were your dampeners?

[Mercuriell]

Dampers fine - only had about 30 flights on it - been plagued with bad luck - cylic 8° and collectibe +/- 10 - went to back flip after a moderately hard stop and BANG - mid air explosion - the angle of the boom strike suggests there wasn't a linkage failure - I like the SABs but they are light foam cored and quite flexible - can't think of any other explanation

[Laurens]

Flexability doesn't have a lot to do with it, but I think they consume more power.

[gr8t1dini]

John
Try V-blades once they become available again. Super stiff.

[bcm]

John,

I noticed in your head assembly video that the first time the grips are shown on the head assembly they were in a leading edge control configuration. That is correct to the design. The next time they are shown as a trailing edge control ? I looked at the completed picture of your machine, and it appears you are flying with trailing edge control? A friend of mine, Easykill, built his the same as yours, we just noticed tonight that it was different than all my other MA heads. He's changing his as we speak for a test flight tomorrow. Just thought I should point this out. Is yours still in the trailing edge control configuration?

[gr8t1dini]

You'll also need to change the swash direction in the swash menu.

[Mercuriell]

Originally Posted by bcm

John,

I noticed in your head assembly video that the first time the grips are shown on the head assembly they were in a leading edge control configuration. That is correct to the design. The next time they are shown as a trailing edge control ? I looked at the completed picture of your machine, and it appears you are flying with trailing edge control? A friend of mine, Easykill, built his the same as yours, we just noticed tonight that it was different than all my other MA heads. He's changing his as we speak for a test flight tomorrow. Just thought I should point this out. Is yours still in the trailing edge control configuration?

Well spotted Tony As the main grips don't have moulded hex shapes for the nuts it's easy to set them either way up (just need to change the swash afr as noted) - this affects whether the swash goes up or down with increased collective. At various time my buddy and I and set up our Strats with leading or trailing edge control and I honestly don't think it makes ANY difference - I guess for conformity with other helis like the T700 a raising swash with increased collective is worth doing - nothing more shocking than spooling up and NOTHING happening then the heli shooting up in the air as you pull down stick to spool her down

[kanok1]

Thank you for posting this thread. I've had my MA Stratus for over 2 years now and have been afraid of stepping up into a 90 size heli. With the video series it's helped me understand my machine a bit better. I'm sure I will take it out next season. Just have to save up for some parts incase of repairs.