Radikal Gasser flyers in Los Angeles Area?

[finalcutbro]

I've been looking at my poor G20 build in the "almost there" category for about 6 months now. I've meticulously wired it, thread locked everything, wired it again... Problem is, this is my first gasser and I can't get myself to put a drop of fuel in it until I can get someone to "bless" my set up. I put a ton of money into this and I want to make sure I don't cheat myself out of months of enjoyment if I miss something in the set up and break in.

Anyone fly gassers in the Los Angeles area specifically the S.F. Valley area? I've called a few LHS and they are willing to help with set up until I tell them it's the Radikal G20.

Lot's of guys from Carey, James and Dennis have been very helpful and generous with their support online and over e-mail. Now I'm looking for the final set of eyes and ears before I start up that engine.

Even if no one is willing to look over my set up, I'd still like to know where people fly liquid fuel helis. I started with nitro, moved to electric and realized that (to me) from 300 down electric is great for the fly anywhere convenience, but for .30 and above I just require the sound of an engine and an open field.

Thank you!

[Digger1973]

I feel for you. I am just finishing up my G20 as well and I am the only person close to where I live with a radikal. I did fuel mine and get it going. I managed to beat mine up knocking off the work bench though. With a little luck one of the 2 flybarred 50 size heads a friend has will fit so I can maiden it this week.

If you followed the instructions and tuned your motor as per the zenoah PDF download on their site I would say go fly it. You will notice it sets up and flies like all other helies with the difference being feel in the air and of course being gas over nitro or electric.

Let's see the excited face and the vid of your maiden flight now.



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[finalcutbro]

Thank you for the words of encouragement. I wish I had the confidence to just go fly this thing. I'll end up doing just that eventually, but it'd be nice to know there's a larger support group out there. I hope the maiden video is good, but my luck, it can end up like the poor fellow that forgot the Jesus bolt.

Sorry to hear about your spill. I did something similar and needed new blade grips. Takes a lot more room to work on this size heli.

One question for you since you're already flying yours. One life or lipo batter with bec and splitter for ignition and electronics, or two? it's getting heavy.

I'll have to look in my tool box. I switched to fbl and may still have the entire assembled fbl head. I'm going to start selling off my unused stuff including 450's to fund the finish of this model, as well as an NX4 I'm eyeing.

[Digger1973]

I put savox servo's in mine and got brownouts with a bec. Dennis suggested a life pack for the rx and a nimh for the ignition. So far so good. I plan on just using two life packs 1800-2100mah for both since they are small and light. I plan on going fbl in the spring I just want to get a few flights on mine with a flybar first so I can get it flying the way I want before dealing with a fbl unit on an unfamiliar heli. I went with the 640mm blades for mine. I do think I am going to move my rx up front, not sure if I will move the gyro yet. After replacing the cord in the removable pull start it works nice for starting it. It looked like it had a bad fray in it, and broke on the first pull.

With my 450 being set up being very agile this should feel like a gentle giant. On my mini titan I run +/-12 pitch and 10 deg of cyclic. Makes for a very entertaining if not nerve racking flight. To make it roll faster I even put the green 3D paddles on it. Starting off with +/-10 pitch and 8 deg cyclic on the radikal. Any better suggestions anyone?

Hmmmm, wonder if I can find a set of light weight paddles for the radikal now lol.

Just start her up, tune a bit on the rich side for break in (just to be safe) and enjoy. If you ever feel like flying in some snow feel free to come up here north of the border . Winter is just getting started here and the snow makes for softer crash landings.

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[strat1960s]

Hey guys.

I'm in the military. I was stationed on an island 3/4 between New York and mainland Portugal. I was the only one flying anything RC. I was there, where you are now. Not sure if I did it right and not sure if I missed something.
After I tightened the last screw it took me a month of attempts to finally get the motor running. I've got a little over a year of flying on it until I put in some stale fuel and changed my throttle curve and pitch settings trying to chase it down. Now I've got fresh fuel, but I'm still working on getting the throttle and pitch curves where they need to be.

You built it. Go through and check to be sure evereything is tight, wires won't get sucked into, chewed up or chaffed by anything. It is a good idea to have some knowledgeable look it over, but if there isn't someone knowedgeable in the area how long do you wait before putting fuel in the tank??

Digger,
I have the Beast X on my G20 with a AR7600. The Beast X is mounted above the tail mount and the AR7600 is mounted below it. I am in the process of convereting my old Trex 600E to a DFC flybarless heli. For that I'm using the AR7200BX. Having the FBL controler and RX in one unit makes it a lot easier to set up and figure out where to put things.

Ted

[strat1960s]

Here are a couple of pictures of my set up. The Beast X is a piece of cake to setup!

Ted

[finalcutbro]

strat1960s thank you for posting and for your service to our country!

I'm using the feedback from you guys to take the radikal off the shelf give it another try. thank you also for posting the pictures. I mounted my ar7200bx up front and my futuba governor in the back. Based on what I've read I may need to re-wire yet again. I never even tightened down the zip ties from attempt 3 just in case...

two things that made me shelf the heli was that I couldn't get the spark plug wire from the rcexcl seated properly on the plug (still can't) and I wasn't certain how to power the ar7200bx and ignition. Based on Digger's reply, I'm going with life un-regulated into the 7200bx and hobbico nimh for the ignition.

I've already gone through the campfuel I bought for it making hot dogs instead of flying!

Thank you guys for the encouragement. Best thing about being in southern California (like Texas) is that our flying seasons last a bit longer.

Not sure how to post pics, but once I figure it out I'll post some.

[strat1960s]

Finalcutbro,

Did you get your name from the Pink Floyd album the Final Cut?

I wired my G20 several times. Each time I'd finish I'd find something I didn't like and do it differently. Finally, I ran out of servo extensions and solder and decided to give it a try. I modified the top front tray and have my packs on that and the RCXcel on the lower front tray. I really had to push to get the spark plug boot to click onto the spark plug.

I've got my Arizona regulator on the tray just behind the fuel tank. I'm running a 2s lipo for the RX, Beast X and servos to the regulator and a 5 cell nicad to the RCXcel.

Some folks run a single Life pack for both RX and spark control.

Ted

[finalcutbro]

I'm an editor that started using apple's final cut pro back in 1999. I became one of the evangelist for the software so the name sort of stuck. I like your version better, more can relate to that.

I like the vent that you're running. Are you using a filter as a check valve to avoid the big coil? I also see you have a filter in line to the engine. I was told not to use one to avoid air and bubbles. I'm going to redo my set up to match yours. That looks very clean.

I modified my front canopy mount to the g30's so I can get rid of the two screws that wouldn't let me mount the ignition flush. I can probably get a nicad under that since the packs are so slim.

Thanks again!
Robert

[Digger1973]

The plug cap is very tight to snap on the first few times. It seats down over the nut section so it takes some wiggling and pushing ay the same time to seat it. After a couple of times it did start to go on easier for me. I was going to run a be off a 3 cell Lipo for both ignition and rx but was getting brown outs on my rx. Dennis suggested the life and nimh pack combo and it worked great. Planning on moving some stuff up front on mine aswell. I want to keep the batteries in the back for easy access without removing the canopy all the time.

Does anyone know the best tape for attaching a quark? Currently using one piece of the thin Spartan gyro pads I have.

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[finalcutbro]

let's see if these pictures stick. This shows most of what I've dealt with on the wiring before the modified canopy mount.

I have wires running underneath as well since I don't use the pull start and frankly couldn't figure out where else to run them.

[strat1960s]

Finalcutbro,

I haven't noticed any air bubbles from the inline filter to the motor. The filter on the vent line was to trap dust. I figured without it would suck in whatever dust the blades kicked up. I clean it out after a day of flying.

I just put my foam tape over the screws. You could probably find some flat headed/flush mount screws to mount under the spark controller.

As far as my fuel lines, they seem to work..........so far.
I've run wires along the bottom of the frame as well. I'm also running the pull start. Like I said before, I used a lot of servo extensions and soldered a lot.
Digger, I went with as high capacity as I could. I can fly 4 tanks on these packs before the voltage starts to drop on my Lipo. I dont let the voltage get too low on the lipo because it's a pain in the butt to get the pack ballanced and the voltage drops quickly after it falls below a certain point. Do you have a way to check your pack voltage without removing the pack? I have a Volt Watch connected to my regulator to give me a heads up. That could be why you had the brownouts. Pack got so low it could either power the rx or the spark controller, but not both. I've been using the super thin 3M foam tape for all my electronics, gyro FBL controllers. No issues yet.
As I mentioned before, I got some bad gas (pun intended) and I made a lot of adjustments trying to track down why the motor wasn't running the way it had before. My RCXcel had a digital tach option so I mounted that right next to the voltwatch.

[strat1960s]

Digger,

Are you still looking for a flybared head? I've got one thats not being used. Let me know.

Ted

[Digger1973]

I am picking up two heads for 50 size heli's from a friend tomorrow. Hoping one will fit. One is off a rotor 50 and the other is off his x50. Being in Canada it will probably cost more to send yours then the 15 bucks for a new one. Thanks though. Planning on going fbl in the new year so I am being cheap on on parts I am going to replace.

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[strat1960s]

Fair enough. I've been trying to find a home for this head for a few months now. I really like the Beast X.
Let me know if you change your mind.

Ted

[FRGY28]

FinalCutbro.... PM Sent.

Strat.....
which RPM monitor are you using ?
It looks nice ... and simplifies things.

[Digger1973]

I am planning on the tm1000 myself. Have the telemetry option with my tx makes it easy for 56 bucks to have the rpms on my display.

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[strat1960s]

That does sound nice.

[finalcutbro]

I've started wiring for the 4th time. I picked up so many great ideas on where to place the ignition and batteries based on pics from you guys in the forum. I'm mainly moving the AR7200BX to the rear and governor to the side frame.

I should be done wiring and ready to start her up before the weekend's up. I realized I don't know how to start up a gasser? Nitro, I get, there's no ignition system though. Do I just turn on all the electronics, open up the butterfly on the engine (how wide) and then just crank on the top starter till she turns over?

Any videos you guys care to share?

I'm going to be running coleman fuel with yamalube at 32:1 for the break in. Good idea? I don't have access to any lawnboy in my area that I can find.

One last thing, do you guys use an on/off switch for the ignition power?

Thanks again for getting me back on track folks and happy holidays!

[strat1960s]

On/off switches are a very good idea.. i have one for the rx but need to get one for the ignition module.
As for starting the motor, I close the choke to help draw fuel from the tank into the carb. Using the throttle sub-trim I give about 3/4 to start the motor. The amount of sub-trim will vary based on your carb set up. Too little will not start. Too much will either flood the motor or give you a hot start. Both are bad. Maybe start at half and increase a click or two until it fires up. First few starts are a pain. Once the motor has been run a few times it gets much easier. Do you have a pull start?
Ted