Progress Report

[copterboy]

I just spoke to the LHS about main blades, as I'm not happy going back to the woodies, not even for a few weeks. They just don't give enough pop for my liking. They have some cosmetic seconds for £10, and the align blades I like on special offer for £13 I think you can see where this is going. Would pay FL's £20 to be delivered, and have to wait and miss the club tomorrow. Think I feel a little road trip coming on

Have managed to improve the tail again. Turns out the new output shaft required shimming again. I also took the time to ream the stiff ball on the tail control push rod. Made a scored ball, as recommended by Tom, and fixed it to an old V2 metal tail blade grip. Makes it easy for spinning once inserted into the plastic link. Works a treat

I also took the time to look at the lower main gear, as I was convinced there was a heap of vibration from a warped lower main gear. Removed the old one to put it on my flat workbench surface. Now it is hard to check exactly, as the surface of the lower gear is not totally flat. It has an embossed ALIGN logo and part number, but it was good enough to eyeball it and confirm the existing one was indeed warped. I found 2 old one's in my V2 spares box, so I checked them, and found one to still be good. So I have swapped that and it is much improved, although not perfect.

Inspecting the old gears, I noticed the warp seems to appear in exactly the same section of the gear. That is, between the 2 spokes that go either side of the housing for the jesus bolt. Not the screw entry side of the gear, but the other side that has the moulding for the nut. Is it me or is it conicidence? I suspect I may have tightened the jesus bolt to much, which is pinching the centre hub, and in turn, deforming the spokes in that section of gear. So I have just been very careful to tighten it this time. Hopefully to the point it is tight enough, but not overtightened a warping. And made sure it gets some locktite too!

Time for a look at the 600 head!!

Edit : Alomost for got to mention, swapping the main shaft yesterday, I noticed the shims supplied with the new one's. I checked the manual, and it appears there should be one installed, with an option for a second one. I didn't have any installed!! Hoping this might be the problem that is causing my headspeed to sound higher when inverted. Or, why something may have been binding when right way round. Can't wait to get back to the field for another go!!

[sutty]

HI Denis, I always go for the 3G slight seconds from Fast-Lad. Work a treat, and the worst thing I have ever had with these is that on one set, due to the paint, or whatever they cover them with being too thick at the blade root, they were tight in my grips. After a bit of wiggling backards and forwards though a good few times, they freed up enough, so no big deal and at £11.99 a set they often cease to be the most expensive part of any crash, especially as I often only break one. I have a whole bunch that I could balance up with a little tape if I could be bothered.

As for the broken link, aborted trip, subsequent test flight smash up, damn it, that has to be frustrating. If you're short of a set of your blades for the trip to the field, whatever blades you put on, just take it a little easier on them, do things higher, and be less aggressive with them and I expect they'll be fine.

Cheers

Sutty

[copterboy]

Well I managed to get myself a couple of pairs of the cosmetic seconds for £20. One pair didn't balance too well and needs 2 pieces of electrical tape to balance them. Plus both pairs are very tight in the grips, so I too had to do a bit of waggling to get them in. Still worried they maybe too tight, but I should be able to get that checked by someone at the club later.

I decided to mask and paint the other pair, and I will come back and do a better on the other pair. 1. So it looks more purdy in the air, and 2. Will help me spotting the rotor disk during transitions.

As too how well they pop, I'm off to the field for a quick test before going to the club. Will not be taking it easy on them, I want to find out how good they are!! Maybe just stay a bit higher a double check idel up.

[ragge1]

nice
got to get rid off those FB thingy , its so 2010

[copterboy]

Cheers Ragge,

I just done a quick test flight in the garden to check the tracking. I needed to adjust 1 long link 2 half turns, and it's spot on now. The tail seems ok again, still has the occasional twitch, but I can live with that.

I tried a few pitch pumps, and these blades seem stiffer than a gigolo on viagra Plenty of pop, infact first impressions seems like they have more pop than the aligns Hoping that will have a positive effect on the tic-toks.

A final glitch, I think not cutting the servo horn and flying with it binding, has damaged the elevator servo gears again. It's not noticable flying, but I will pull the servo and inspect it after today club trip. Hope I'm not tempting fate for another crash ignoring it now!!

[copterboy]

Was in a rush earlier, and I am in even more of a rush now If your going to crash, at least do it whilst your pushing it and making progress. Doesn't seem so bad!!



I liked my new blades, that's all I can say. Was hoping to get the other pair sprayed up, but I managed to block the nozzle on the spray can. That will have to wait.

Ploughed it again, but was doing a nice steady piro'ing circuit until the incident occurred. Just completed the first lap, felt comfortable going into the 2nd, but just lagged on stirring the cyclic and it went on an odd angle going away from me. I couldn't make it out, so I lost orientation, hit TH and had to let it go in, almost full speed into the ground. Damage report is about the same as as when it bounced off the roof, new boom, TT, probably all shafts again, and it needs a good clean as it's covered in muck.


Had a quick look at the vid so could analyse what happened, and I'll share later. But I need to try and get it re-built before heading to the club!! Just hope the 600 is better, or would have nothing to fly

Decided if the 600 doesn't work this time (because of the pitch problem), I will pull the Kasama head off it and try the spare Align head.

[sutty]

Damn it Denis, you're having a real bad spell. I did that for a while, and just backed off a tad, but I did learn a lot whilst pushing. I backed off because it was just getting too expensive at an average of about £30 per week.

I've nearly suggested getting rid of that Kasama head a few times before as it seems to just add unecessary complexity. At least you'll be completely familiar with the Align design, right from the get go.

I have some 600 FB head stuff from the 550 conversion if it helps any.

Cheers

Sutty

[copterboy]

Cheers Andy, I'll let you know on that. I pulled the spare head out and had a look earlier. Think some of the bearings are notchy, so some will need replacing to make it work well. I'm almost at the point where I can't be bothered and should just concentrate on converting both to FBL, even if it means not flying in the meantime. So I can sell the old heads first to fund the new FBL ones & controllers.

Well, I'm not going to have the 450 finished. If I'm gonna go to the club and try the 600 again, I need to go now.

I've been looking at the finless bob setup vid again for the kasama head. My blade grips do seem tighter than what he has his like in the vid, so hoping someone at the club can take a look and maybe we can improve it.

I dis-assembled the thrust bearings and confirmed everything is present and in the correct order comparing to my exploded view diagram, and the finless vid. The blade grips spin nice and loose, when I simply insert the feathering shaft. The stiffness only appears once the feathering shaft bolts are tightened, so maybe there is some trick to this I'm not aware of? Maybe I'll have one more go at doing that, and I'll make it for the last couple of hours.

[sutty]

If you haven't already, get gone, and have some fun. Inspired by the fact that I thought you were going I've just been out and done 4 packs with the 550, so thanks for the unwitting encouragekment. Hopefully by the time you get there all the guys with experience of the Kasama won't have gone. If they have you can just fly it around and get comfortable with the 600. I should think it doesn't matter if it is a little sluggish on collective to just fly around for a tank or two and get at ease with it.

Cheers

Sutty

[copterboy]

Well, I decided to give Gaz a quick call and check. Seems he is coming home early after an incident on the 2nd flight of his Gaui X4II. Seems he had a ball link failure on the swashplate, and the heli tipped itself into the ground. Tony Stevens also gone home, so I decided to leave it. My head wouldn't have been in the right frame of mind, as I was just thinking don't rush it if it's not ready. Weather looks ok for the next couple of days with light winds anyway. Will save the diesel in my van for another day.

I'lll crack on with the 450 re-build again now, and take the time to have it ready for tomorrow. You can hear me humming about something in the vid, and I'm sure it was the elevator servo during tic-toks that was giving me greif, so I need to pull that servo and inspect the gears again. Hopefully I'll be back on it tomorrow and have both back in the air and hopefully working!!

Forgot to mention, the 450 headspeed issue did sound better after installing the shim on the main shaft. Just ashame I put it in, as I had just confirmed all the issue's were resolved, and the blades do seem to be stiffer than the old align one's so I was getting much more pop, which you should see in the vid later

[jperkosk]

JHC, Denis, you think you could fly the poor 450 for a day without crashing it? It begins to look like a psychotic case of heli-abuse

I know you learn much faster when you push the boundaries a bit, but why the heck do you feel a need to learn so damn quick?

My strategy is to jump out of my comfort zone for the quickest moments only when the heli is in position where I can quickly pull it back into my comfort zone, using bailout if necessary.

It makes my learning painfully slow, but most my rebuilds these days are wear-related rather than crash related, and I'm still having fun, so who cares how quickly I advance, it's not a job, it's a hobby

[copterboy]

I know, I know, I know I didn't mean to start piro-circuiting, it just happened coming out of the flip, so I went with it. The RADDS tuition in me says, I should have stopped it if I didn't plan to do it.

I've crashed that way on the sim many times, I have actually practiced how to get out of it, and I can. It's just the 450 is so small at that distance, and it all happened so fast, I easily lost orientation. I've complained about it before and now I am again, so I've decided the only thing to do long term is get a 500 instead, and have that as my beater

I've had to hold back on ordering the 450 spares, but I can get on with that tomorrow. Hoping I can get back to the club with both heli's on Saturday for another go.