Just isn't my week!

[mcortez]

So finally, after staring at my Belt CP box for 2 months, I get to open it on Christmas -- only to be rained in...

Ok, ok... I can hold off and spend a bit of extra time in the sim {where I don't seem to have any problems with basic hovering, if a bit unsteady...}

Then on the 26th, I get my first chance to spin her up in a local park. It's a tad windy, but I'm going to concentrate on RADD and stick mostly to "staying in the box" -- and get a good feel for throttle/pitch and cyclic control. But you know... After a battery or two, you just _have_ to try to take off.

So after a few hops, one short flight, and what I thought was a few harmless flopps onto the heli's side -- I notice a pronounced additional vibe and call it a day.

Charge up the batteries and head out to a local field chock-full of helpful heli flyers {predominatly T-Rex pilots} and ask for help with setup. At which point, we find out that my fly on the 26th has bent the feathering shaft, flybar and possibly the main shaft... No problem -- I'd bought a CNC head and copter-x linkages, so we proceeded to do a full in-the-field head upgrade. By the time we finish though, the wind has picked up so there isn't really a chance of flying my lil 450 class machine. I head out from the field, stop at the local shop where I druelled over their 2.4ghz transmitters for a bit then headed home...

When I got to the park near my place, I notice the wind has died down and figure -- what the heck, there's still a bit of light. So I proceed to run through some more ground practice for about 4 minutes, then get adventurous and hop up for a short flight -- oh 5 seconds or so, but it felt like a hell of a lot more. I ponder for a second to call it a day, but hey I've got at least another 3 to 5 minutes of battery. So I spin her back up again and as I'm playing with the collective, not even trying to take off, she suddenly jumps up about 6 feet in the air and decies it's a good time to learn forward flight.

Well...

That didn't last long, and she came down with a thump. Didn't look bad, until I walked up. Obviously bent the feathering shaft <sigh>

Tis okay, got a spare at home... So I pull out the bent one, put in the spare, and power it up so that I can go through setup and make sure that pitch and everything is still balanced -- and the front servo goes "crunch crunch screeeeetch" -- letting me know in no uncertain terms that I'm going to have more to fix before I can get in the air...

<sigh>

On the bright side, I flew... for a little while... And I was able to walk away from the landing, so that makes it a good landing right?

[testpilot58d]

Yep....sounds like the same story every one of here could tell...lol.

Sounds like you are making progress and sticking with it though! It's painful at first, and there will come a time when your wallet yells at you to stop. Ignore it and push through...

[necrophielia]

hehe, yea sounds a bit like my first day a month or so ago. found out soft snow up here actually helps to preserve parts tho

[CraigM]

ahh, the expensive road towards FF. I found that i had replaced most of my electronics before i could do decent circuits. my rx would glitch awful bad and would result in some unexpected collective inputs. the DX7 has made all that go away.

[Ian 777]

that doesn't sound too bad mate dont try FF untill you can hover tail in and side on
( on the heli not just the sim) though.

You may as well swap all the servo's for sg90's or similar though as the stock ones will keep breaking and cost much more in the long run.

[mcortez]

Originally Posted by Ian 777

that doesn't sound too bad mate dont try FF untill you can hover tail in and side on
( on the heli not just the sim) though.

You may as well swap all the servo's for sg90's or similar though as the stock ones will keep breaking and cost much more in the long run.

Right. Wasn't actually trying to do FF. Wasn't trying to even hover. Was just trying to get a feel for the CCPM movement, when suddenly it took off. I happened to be a good quarter stick or more forward on the collective when it launched. I'm guessing I must have changed the position of my thumb on the throttle without even thinking about it, or slipped slightly -- because it was very comely sitting there as I played with the CCPM, then BANG it was in the air. And two seconds later back on the ground...

And yeah, I'm swaping them out for HXT-900s {SG90 equiv I believe} right now, just took a break because the right/rear replacement servo doesn't fit the slot the esky one was in.

[Ian 777]

Ok yeah you do have to file it out a bit.

Do you have the training gear on? If not then get some. How good is the set up on your head I notice you did a field conversion to the new head, Just make sure every thing is spot on from the servo arms up.

Finally take is really steady at this hopping stage you will be flying round in no time.
I managed to get as far as figure 8's with no more than a chipped blade,

All the best with it mate it really is a rewarding hobby

Ian

[mcortez]

At the field right after the CNC upgrade, we had it set for -1 to +8 pitch in normal.

I just finished the servo install, and started in on the CCPM setup and I'm getting about -2 to about 5. So now I'm only getting 7 degrees of range instead of 9.

I'm thinking I may not be getting as much throw out of the new servos and need to mount the balls all the way out at the end of the servo arms. I'll review finless bob's CCPM setup videos in the morning to see if I'm missing something simple.