2015 Flight-Log!

[rcnut]

Mark and I ventured out in our snow storm to do some indoor flying at my church. It started snowing around 7:00 pm Saturday night, and was in full swing Sunday morning! Winds were, at times, in excess of 30 mph. Facing into the wind felt like your face getting sand-blasted. I parked my truck facing into the wind (normally a bad thing for you battery) and didn't get any snow accumulation on my truck! It looked like my truck was in a wind tunnel with the snow flowing around it. Visibility was down to 20% with all the blowing. My driveway was buried fairly well, 3 feet deep at the garage door with a slow taper to 2 feet at the road. I had to snowblow this much snow twice, once early morning, and again late afternoon...before the game.

Anyway...Mark fixed both of his Blade 130's and I brought out a Lynx 130. This heli was built using as many Lynx upgrade parts possible...so now it's time to test fly this monster! This little heli is wild (in a good way) and a lot of fun! The power the motor produced alone made a big difference. I was able to perform many forward and back flips, stationary rolls, tic toc's, etc. with ease. The stock Blade 130 is only good for 2-3 consecutive flips before losing altitude and some head speed.

After the first flight, I noticed the motor seemed rough to turn by the main gear? After the second flight, it was harder yet?? So I need to look into wants going on with the motor.

Mark on the other hand was having a bad day, really bad! He broke both of his 130's in the first flight on each. This made him frustrated and commented he should have bought the metal tail gear box upgrade like I did with my Lynx heli. Then his work started sending him text messages and slowly demanded his full attention, to the point of needing a laptop to work from. So he packed up and left!

I decided to do the same. I need to find the source of the motor "drag" on my Lynx heli and start dissecting my Team Whiplash for the arrival of a new heli!

[rcnut]

Well, I am deep into a new heli build…the Synergy N7. I was looking forward to spending most of the day today (Saturday) wrenching on my new heli, but Mark had other ideas. He wanted to go out flying! Well, ok. I had to set my N7 aside and wrench on my Rave some. I needed to replace the main gear as somehow a tooth was broken off…can't have that!

So we headed to our practice field and yep, lots of snow there! We took turns stomping out a walk path for us and our helis. Our workbenches are the tailgates on our trucks. I put up the first flight on my Rave to verify everything was working great. Boy it felt good to fly that heli! I've been noticing a whining noise coming from the mainshaft area. Sure enough, one of the bearings in the clutch stack is going bad. I did manage 3 flights before finding and hearing it complaining really loud! More parts!!!

Mark transferred his G4 over to his new radio, DX9, and freaked out a little at the beginning of the first flight. 2 minutes later, he handed my the radio and asked me to get it right. Ok, a few laps around the field, land, make some small adjustments, test fly. By the half tank mark, I pretty much had it dialed in and started having a blast with it. I managed to get his heli into extremely fast forward flight, which was blowing Mark's mind with the speed it now posses. About the 5th time around, the motor did something I've only seen a couple of times in my heli flying life. It started running backwards!

All of a sudden, the motor was running backwards and the rpm's were climbing fast, as if I lost the main gear of spun the sprag like on the Whippy's. I switched into throttle hold, pulled the nose vertical, as the heli just passed us in a big hurry, pumped the collective to stop the heli and land. Once we got to his heli, sure enough, it was running backwards!

Mark went to fill the tank and found jet another problem with his tank. So he pulled it apart while I went back into the air with my Rave. Once fixed, it was time to wring it out. I richened the low end some and leaned out the high end a couple of clicks. That made all the difference in the world! I could do gradual full throttle climb outs without a hint of motor bog! Well that was all I needed to see!!! I started fly Mark's G4 as if it was my Rave…still keeping with smooth transitions, but really loading the motor more.

I did a few autos at the end of the tank. I spooled the heli up and then hit the throttle fast! That G4 left the ground so fast I almost thought lightening hit it! Wow, it jumped off the ground in a flash. It scared Mark as I saw him jump out of the corner of my eye, and then he was amazed at the power his heli has. Mark made the comment that I am doing more things with his heli then he's ever seen me do. Like where did you learn that? Oh, that? I've done that many times before, I kind of forgot about it.

All in all, it was a good day to fly. 41 degrees, 6-10 mph winds, with scattered clouds.

Rave = 3
Mark's G4 = 2

Total = 24

[rbort]

Well finally after 3 days of hard work I was able to get through the deep snow and into the field to clean it up last night again, the previous time was after the blizzard of 2015.

I brought the Whiplash and Spectra, along with a shovel for security and my tire chains that I got just the other day as without them getting in the field isn't happening with all this deep snow cover that we have around here.

Attached below are a couple of pictures, you can see the chains on my Ranger. Those things are so much nicer than without, thanks to Don for suggesting them to me after two difficult days of trying to get in with no success. I tried to shoot a video on the way in but I got stuck 1/2 way through the dirt road and had to stop recording to maneuver out. I was able to back out with the chains and go forward and back a few times before finally managing to continue onwards and up heartbreak hill into the field.

It was overcast and snowing, 1 to 2 inches fell I spent the first 15 minutes cleaning up my spot with the shovel to give chance for the snow to slow down a bit. Winds were around 5mph, late in the day I got a couple of gusts to 10mph but most of the time it was fairly calm which was great, temp peaked at 32F and dropped back down to 30, not cold compared to what we've been used to. The day before was a high of 20F and I was at the field with the snowblower and shovel I got so hot I took the jacket off and worked in just the sweatshirt.

I flew the whippy after moving the demon back to the front and the tail shake is gone, finally. On the 2nd flight I was enjoying it to the max when the radio station stated playing commercials and I didn't want to fly to commercials. So I landed and went back to the cab, adjusted the radio and came back to the tailgate to take off again. All this less than a minute of sitting on the ground idling and the ball for the link to the blade grip came unscrewed from the swash and my blade was knife edge! Wow, that's crazy! I shot this video for you guys:

IMG 15441 (0 min 32 sec)

Man was I LUCKY today, the Heli Gods were definitely on my side thankfully after all the work I did on this heli to fix the tail shake issue. I grabbed the allen driver and screwed the ball back on while the engine was still idling. It was wore flat on the face of it from rubbing while in flight as it was coming loose. I flew again and landed every couple of minutes to recheck the balls and after about a 1/2 dozen checks they never came loose I was good to go.

I ended up putting 5 flights on the whippy, more than doubling its flight count for the year (was at 4) due to the issues with the tail shake. I put 1 flight on the Spectra to get it to 2750 flights exactly.

Satisfied with a great day, I was thankful to Go Home Happy once again

Hey Ray, is the access road to your field plowed?

-=>Raja.

[kev20009]

Got to say you guys damm lucky to fly in snow, all we have had here in Wales is frost, 2 years now and nothing, Raja you were lucky to spot that link,

Hope you all had a good day in the snow, kev

[jharkin]

I love snow as much as anyone, but at this point Kev I think you can have it.... Id put it on a boat and ship it over to the UK if I could right now.

We are expecting another 1-2 feet by Tuesday (its going to snow for 48 hours non stop) on top of the 3-4 feet already on the ground from the last 2 weeks. Traffic getting to work has been utter chaos. Kids have missed almost a week of school in the last 3. My shoulder is on fire.


I fear that Raja's outing yesterday may be the last time any of us get in there for weeks, short of somebody hiring a plow truck.

[rcnut]

Hey Ray, is the access road to your field plowed?

Yes, you could say that. The field Mark and I fly at is at a school. We use the road that leads to the school. There is a walk path along side of the road, that's where we park. Then we fight our way through the snow bank, down into a ditch and onto the field.

I'll take some pic's the next time we are out there.

[rbort]

Sounds good, I've love to see your place, setup, what you have to do to get in, etc.

Jeremy, I didn't put in days of effort to let it all end in no reward, yesterday was awesome, I think I'll go out again today and take the snow blower to get what we got in the last 24 hours out of the way and stomp down the snow on the path to the field. If I get stuck I'll download the snow blower and clear where I need to to get through. The key is to keep going in there after more snow comes in so it doesn't pile up deep, waiting to get in after its all said and done would be much harder.

-=>Raja.

[rbort]

Before reading this, go grab a bag of popcorn and a drink, you're going to need it - its like a movie

So I head out to the field again, armed with the snow blower after clearing my driveway of about 3 to 4 inches of new snow so far. The idea is that if I keep going in and out, it will be easier for my truck to push through less amounts of snow and not get stuck.

Overcast and snowing the whole time, temps were in the 20's but by the time I got home (read = late) it was 12 degrees out. What an amazing day, this story is for the books and worth the time to write this report.

So let me start out by saying something, about the field road, its very hard to navigate in there with all this deep snow. I thought today in the shower I should put a sign outside the entrance, "Don't come in, its a trap!" Kids just want to drive down just because, maybe a little 4x4 action or whatever, just like the two kids in the jeep just a few days back.

Anyway, I mounted my gear on my tires and got ready to go in, shot this video for you guys to see and feel the situation around the field access road:

IMG 15501 (3 min 47 sec)

I got off the track about 2/3rd way down the road and had to back up. I thought I was going to get out and shovel so I cut the video, but I tried to go forward again and back a couple of times slowly and I was able to cut back into my tracks and make it to the top of the hill. Once I got there I stopped and restarted the video, here is part two of getting in:

IMG 15511 (2 min 34 sec)

After I got in I cleaned up the snow off my flying area and fired up the 1005 for flight number three thousand eight hundred, Yup, 3800, only 200 more to 4000!

I decided to shoot a video to show you guys a little bit of what its like to fly in the snow. This video is my 3rd attempt, the wind blew down the cellphone on the first two tries. Sorry its a little low, but at least it captured some cool stuff. I was doing some dusting of the top later of snow off and in some places it was more pronounced than others as I had already flown over it before and blew alot of the snow off. Its a good thing I stopped flying inverted when I did, I lost track of time and was almost on fumes before shooting those last two autos. Would not have been good to run out inverted inches off the deep snow, though I fully expect an inverted landing will yield no damage in this soft cushion, but, NOT willing to try!

IMG 15541 (3 min 39 sec)

After this I flew the whiplash for 2 more flights before deciding to quit as the wind was getting stronger and so was the snow as the storm was building. I decided to make a pass with the snow blower up and down heartbreak hill (the hardest part of the trip in or out) to make life easier especially with more snow coming.

I fire up the snowblower and spend a good 15 minutes working my way there, as I'm over the hill and coming back down, I see someone shoveling in a distance... what?? Oh no! I decided to turn back around and head back to the truck and save my snowblower gas, I might need it to get out.

So I load up and head out, get to the gate and see not one but two vehicles stuck! The kids (I believe they are the Dick Bandits by the way) in their SUV with FAT useless tires, and a landscaping guy with a truck also stuck, both of them fallen into the ditch. WTF? How am I going to get out? I walk over there and ask "What are you think or why are you coming in?" There is nothing here its a flying field. What's the answer? "Ah yeah we wanted to go in turn around and come back out." Are you kidding me, in all this DEEP snow? I got stuck several times trying to get in here 3 days in a row. That's just stupid, but it is what it is. So they called their buddy, and he came down with a plow truck to rescue them but both of them found out its not possible to back up that hill without sliding sideways. The truck you'll see in the pictures later on was much worse over the barrier of the road and into the ditch. I tried to tell the guy but he kept on spinning his tires and going sideways until his truck was "listing to the starboard side" by a good 20 degrees.

Here is a little short video of them attempting to "dig out"...

IMG 15581 (0 min 25 sec)

I thought this is going to be a while maybe I can backup all the way to the field, snowblow a path to the chain gate in the woods and up to the railroad tracks. If I could get my truck on the tracks I could drive on that all the way to freedom on Hospital road, there are no trains running on Sundays. So I get in and try backing up, but I get not even 1/2 way down the dirt road before the hill and my tires start new tracks and my back end hits a snow wall. Can't do it. I tried a couple of times but its not working, so I drove back to the gate and got out. to see what's up.

They were trying to call another "buddy" to help them but I said let's call the police they got better connections on who to bring to pull them out. They really needed a bucket loader, and they were hesitant to call "afraid of tickets" I said no tickets they are going to come and HELP for a change (instead of tickets).

So I called up and eventually a cruiser stopped by, asked if everyone was out of the vehicles and we said yes, then, he asked if we had "shelter". Ummm, yeah, we're standing in the street in the snow, we're good

Eventually the guy's son of the guy who mows the field came down with a plow truck and he recognized me as the heli pilot. I said you need more than this, and he said let me push the snow out of the way which he did, and then off he went to get the bucket loader. You can see it coming to the rescue in the pictures below.

It took alot of tugging and yanking, and he even used the bucket to lift the ass end of the truck up in the air to pull it back, and eventually after about a 1/2 hour it was out. The kid's truck took maybe 10 minutes no more, and then he came through to the gate and smoothed out the snow for me so I could get out. I had to dismount my chains in the dark, wish I did them before while waiting but I didn't know he was going to clean up for me to exit also.

Oh yeah, it was a whole operation, annoying to be stuck but entertaining to say the least. Almost worth the admission price today, I'm sure you guys will get a kick out of this hence why I spend that last hour making this post!!

The big landscaping truck was buried deep. It took a good 1/2 hour to get him out. Here is a short video of the 2nd attempt which was better than the first. He was out by the 3rd attempt after scraping the snow off the road for more traction:

IMG 15701 (1 min 5 sec)

Well, after all this, NOTE TO SELF, close the gate behind me so no-one gets stuck on the dirt road in...



-=>Raja.

[edin508]

I knew I should have stopped by today!
Should have has that guy with the loader plow the whole road.

[rbort]

You're certainly welcome to stop by anytime, if you did today hopefully you would not have been pissed to be trapped inside!!

Maybe next weekend if you like, I know you're busy during the week, though it might be WAY too cold for you, they do promise record breaking lows...

-=>Raja.

[jharkin]

Wow what a story!

This is why I'm hesitant to try going down there. the fact that you where getting stuck even with chains, and something like this happening..... With Kids and work I just cant afford to risk having my truck stranded there overnight or something.

I'll keep living vicariously through your reports. maybe get back to flying in april

[rcnut]

Wow! Raja! Now that was a read, almost like one of my blog pages. I made it through while eating my breakfast! Thanks for the read.

[rbort]

After two and a half hours work yesterday, I finally got in after another round of deep snow. Today I was able to drive in no problem and just had to spend time to clean up the flying area as I was too tired to do it yesterday with all the struggle to make it in. I DO have to say though, all the work yesterday was WELL WORTH the admission price, today was definitely a , calm and snowing lightly then heavier later in the day. You'll see videos below.

I started out by snowblowing my parking area/takeoff space, then I put my truck in there and cleared under the truck in the turnaround area. After that I gassed up the 1005 and let her rip, 4 flights in a row, 100k times around in the rotors and has an absolute blast flying in the snow.

Then I got the whippy out for the finale of the day, two more flights with that to round things off to 870 flights even on that machine. Both machines flying awesome I enjoyed today to the max. Did alot of fresh snow dusting with the whippy even inverted a foot off the snow deck, gutsy...!

Drove out with the tire chains to the gate, took them off there and drove out 4x4 to the street where I got out and unlocked the hubs and switched back to 2WD before turning 90 degrees on the pavement, that is always hard on the tires in 4x4.

Here is the video when I was getting ready to take off:

IMG 15761 (1 min 0 sec)

And here is the video take just before the 6th flight of the day with the snow coming down. I think I'll post this in Jeremy's thread for Mike to see, he wants to see some snow

IMG 15821 (1 min 17 sec)

Also below are some pictures that I took today, enjoy!

Notice in the 2nd picture, there are airplane tables that are COMPLETELY buried!! This is after 6 feet of snow fell on Boston in the last 3 weeks or so. You would think it would be 6 feet high as there wasn't much melting at all, but I think the snow just settles after some time and gets more dense.

In the third picture, notice my fence, that's a 3 post fence, the frontmost post closest to the runway is completely under the snow.

In the last picture you can see how much snow collected in 20 minutes, compare in the video before takeoff of flight #870 of the whippy to after landing.

I just want to say this is the best part of the winter. Right now things are just PERFECT. If it gets warm too quick, all this snow will turn everything into mud and maybe even flood the road coming into the field, so much better now frozen than later in the spring in my opinion. And for the record, cold? What cold? I'm seasoned I never felt it at all today - over time you get used to it, actually it was "hot" I had to take my jacket off while working on the snow.

-=>Raja.

[jharkin]

Guys, stay safe and be careful for this next storm coming up...


From the latest NWS storm watch notice:
* IMPACTS...PERIODS OF HEAVY SNOW WILL MAKE TRAVEL CONDITIONS SLIPPERY AND LEAD TO LOW VISIBILITIES. GUSTY WINDS AND BLOWING SNOW COULD LEAD TO ROOF COLLAPSES ON AREA ROOFS NOT CLEARED FROM PREVIOUS SNOWS.

I have a lot of work to do the next two days securing my roof. I have drifts close to 6ft deep in spots.

[jharkin]

Snowblowing the patio and cutting new paths so I can rake the roof some more before the next storm.

The snow in the front yard is up to my waist even in areas its not drifting. This is crazy.

Kids are having a blast sledding. I would be loving it too if not for the roof and the fact my shoulder is on fire.

[rbort]

Would you like me to come over and help? I'm be more than glad to, really.

-=>Raja.

[edin508]

Yup, I feel your pain. I was on my roof the other day and shoveled the whole thing off. The gutters are still full of ice even though I put pounds of ice melt all over the ice that is in them.

[jharkin]

Thanks Raja... I appreciate the offer but I should be able to manage. Ibuprofen is helping... I'll be up and get the rest of the roof done early tomorrow... only a couple more hours work I hope. its just getting tiring having to do it all over and over. and over.. venting


Ed... Best thing to do with the salt is the stockings trick... Fill some stockings with calcium chloride and place it to run across the dam... This will burn a channel through the ice giving the melting water somewhere to run off and then the whole mess will losen up and fall off. If you just salt it all it might melt and refreeze in place.

[edin508]

I need to make a couple of those in the am and put them up there. I did bring a masonry hammer up there with me and chipped quite a bit of it away as well as chipping in some channels for the water to flow out of.

[jharkin]

-8f right now. Last night might be the coldest ive ever seen here. They say a blizzard today will set an all time record, never before two in one season.

Gonna give it an hour to warm up some, then load up on coffee and ibuprofen and back at it.