Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

JPEE, JPEE, JPEE - I'm trying to have some restraint over here.

You are not helping!

Now I have 13 hours to make a decision...

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

I didn't fly today, but went up to Justin's place, and watched him fly his new Trex 700e...what a machine that thing is!

There was also a couple of other guys there, Justin was helping a friend setup his flybarless Trex 700n...another great flying heli..and a guy with a Trex 600e that was practicing, he was doing some autos from up a pretty good ways, another flybarless heli...my helis look and feel so outdated when I left, lol...4 helis total, not a flybar in sight!

I got some pics and vids too...I'll post the pics, the vids are still working.

Justin's 700e somehow stripped a main gear in flight, I have in on video....if it weren't for bad luck lately, he wouldn't have any at all! There is NO motor/backlash adjustment possible on the 700e, so we are still scratching our heads...he was expereimenting with some larger blades, but don't know if that had anything to do with it or not...

Hope everyone had fun today.

JPEE, try not to drool over the pics...lol..

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Glenn,

There is a thread on Helifreak, [link=http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=212214]Here,[/link] where a guy has his 700E go in b/c of a elevator servo arm come off in flight. Seems the amount of loctite wasnt' enough.

The guy was doing some real nice flying before the crash. Sorry to see something like that. []

Something you may want to pass on to Justin so he can double check that.

Mark

evdreamer

Glenn,

That is a nice looking heli. Those 700e motors have a lot of torque. I wonder if they will eventually have to go to metal gears or maybe a belt like Kyosho uses.

I hooked a Voltmeter up to my battery today and it dropped down to 10V when I tried to start my engine. It was also around 12.2V after sitting over night from a full charge. I got my engine to start, but I had to add about half throttle and let the starter motor spin for 5-10 seconds. I am doing a slow charge right now and will see if that helps or not.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Nick,

What type of battery are you using in your field box - its used to power everything right (starter, glow starter, and fuel pump)? I wonder if your going to have to replace it - sounds like its not being very reliable lately. []

Glenn,

Those are some good pictures, like the looks of it in the sun rather than in a photo-room. I heard about the motor mount not being adjustable - that looks to be a problem Align is going to have to deal with in the near future, esp. when people start putting different motors in it.

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Mark,

Thanks for the link to the servo wheel/loctite issue, I will pass it on to Justin for sure....one can't be too careful !!!

Thanks for the compliments on the pics.. A great looking heli, no doubt!

Nick,

Yeah, the 700e has alot of power, as you'll see in the vids...

From what we could tell, there was no obvious reason for the main gear to strip. I was also wondering about metal gears and such...belts are also very strong. The only thing he changed was the blades to a slightly longer blade, which could add more load to the motor/gearing system.

Interesting on your battery/starter issue. 10v should be OK, I would think. When we load test automobile batteries, we load them at 1/2 of their CCA (cold cranking amps) rating, and anything above 9.6 is OK. Not sure if your battery has a CCA rating or not...prob not I am guessing..[&o]

Hope it does better on the slow charge.

The main vid is taking forever as usual on You Tube, but I have a short one on the main gear in the meantime...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0t1dDFt79w

Glenn

evdreamer

Mark,

It is a Hobbico 12V 7Ah battery.

Glenn,

Thanks for the info. The battery doesn't have a CCA or any Amp rating.

That was some impressive flying. I like the sound of the 700e.

Nick

rotarydoc

Nick,

You are welcome, sorry it didn't help much.

Yeah, the 700e sounds impressive...no doubt.

I was impressed with Justin's flying the first time I saw him at the open house last Saturday....he lives, breathes, and sleeps RC Helis and it shows!

Still waiting on You Tube for the main vid.

Glenn

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

You Tube is finally done....

Enjoy!

Watch in HD for the best pic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMfm7ztCxY

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Glenn,

Sorry your having Youtube issues - will probably have to wait 'till morning before I'll get to watch it.

Are you guys heading back to the field tomorrow or is it back to the beginning of the work week?

I know it gets dark around 8 down here, don't know how it is for your area - however the bugs do come out so bugspray becomes a must around here!

Did get some flying in this morning. Dabbled a bit with large loops...and by golly had the field to myself for a change!

Mark

evdreamer

Glenn,

He sure likes to do tic tocs. I liked the moving tic toc. The 700 also seemed to float for awhile near the ground after the auto. Do you know what the typical flight time of that heli is?

It looks like my 12V battery liked the slow charge. It was on the charger for 4-5 hours last night and put in 1600mAh. I checked the Voltage and it is at 12.8V this morning.

Nick

jroo

No maiden this weekend on the 450. Got caught up in mothers day and all. My home computer power supply blew after a thunderstorm, so I have been busy purchasing and getting a new laptop set up.

I got an amazing deal at Fry's electronics on my new laptop.
Intel i5 430M, 4GB ram, 500GB 7200 RPM SATA HD, 17.3" screen @ 1900x1200 resolution.

They were running Mothers Day special. Got it for $499. That's $200 off retail.

Just picked up Phoenix Simulator + a 12' HDMI cable. I'll be flying on my 50" tonight....

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Nick,

Yeah, he seems to love tic tocs of all kinds...and the moving one is kinda original..

I have not flown a flybarless heli, (except for hovering his Logo once) but they say that it's a different experience landing a flybarless if you are used to a flybar heli, so that might have something to do with the landing on the auto, not sure.. but the 700's do seem to have a tremendous amout of blade energy, I saw him spool it up and hover at a low altitude, needed to make an adjustment, and just hit throttle hold, and it just kinda hung there in a mini auto for a few seconds..

Justin is getting 4 1/2 minutes per flight, he says he should be able to get 5 mins, that seems like about the limit for the size batteries you can fit in it...and they are a very tight fit! He's still dialing things in, we used the iPhone heli tach, and it worked like a champ, he was initially at 2116, and bumped it up to 2155 or so, and he wants to get 2200...he says the Align guys say he should be able to get 5 min flights, with 2200 HS.

Cool on the slow charge, hope it lasts...12.8 volts is great...


jreue,

Sounds like a great deal on the laptop, for sure. Hopefully it has a dedicated graphics card, all the better for Phoenix. Phoenix is not a resource hog at all, but it does benefit from the best processor and video card you can get (it's all adjustable in the setup menu) for graphic levels, details, etc.

I have mine where I can hook it up to the 52" LCD, but I find it's almost as enjoyable on the 24 inch monitor up close. Really doesn't make much difference, one you are further away from a large screen, the other you are closer to a smaller screen...but in your case if you are going to use the 17" display on the laptop, the bigger display would be a big bonus...

Let me know when you want to fly on Phoenix, and we can set it up...

Glenn

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Well, off to a bad start at the plane club already, and it's my first time there this year...lol...

Went up there with a couple of tired B400 packs (got a Hobby City order coming soon, batteries, and blades!), and I was hovering around, and then did some actual flying, keeping the heli over to the field side of the heli area, I figured I was being pretty safe, wasn't close to anyone or anything...

On my way back to the bench, a guy said "hi, I don't think we've met"...even though I had seen him at the heli club open house....anyways, he said, "that area is more or less for hovering practice, if you want to do any forward flight, you need to go to the far left stand on the main field"

Hmmm. Didn't have that rule or whatever last year...

There was a guy there flying a nitro plane, back to back, all the time I was there, in the far left stand....so I asked him how I"m going to fly when this guy is here the entire time? He said "oh, just ask him to move down a slot.."

Yeah, right....he's really going to want to move over so a HELI guy can fly...and get right in his flight path..

Anyways, I think it was because there was a "big wig" guy there, and he saw me. The guy that actually talked to me flies helis and planes, and says he's trying to get a secondary area for helis, in "maybe a year" ....and I countered with, "I doubt you'll have enough demand, there aren't enough heli pilots out there looking for a place to fly" ....so we''ll see...

I'll see what happens next time...I sure am glad I belong to a HELI ONLY club now... And they wonder why plane and heli pilots don't get along??

OK, I vented, feel better now!!!

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

Sorry about your day at the plane club. That is kind of selfish for them to not let helis do more than hover. That is good you also belong to a heli club where you can actually fly a heli.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Let the mayham begin...[]

Glenn,

Sorry to hear of your issues (and at the start no doubt) with your club. You may want to try and find out when are the days there are the least amount of people there, that way you can have the field to yourself for a bit. Maybe there is a day where no 'big wigs' are there, just the common guys - can make the day much nicer.

Also, it's going to take some time for you to get a 'feel' for the club, people, and flying habits of everyone there. That way you'll know when you arrive if your going to have a chance to fly or not.

Hope things work out for you and today was just bad timing.

Mark

jroo

Mornin'

Got Phoenix installed on the new laptop last night. I'm running at the 'highest' detail level and it runs like a champ. Really nice simulator...well worth the money considering the amount of crashes I had.

Got a question though to anyone with Phoenix and a DX6i

I can't get the Idle-Up and Throttle-Hold switches to work. Having to press a key on the keyboard is a little lame. Any of you guys have any luck?

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Thanks....maybe it will be better next time up there, we'll see...I kinda had a feeling about joining there again...

It will still be a good place to go to practice slow speed stuff, slow piros, hovering, etc.

And they said no FORWARD flight...maybe I'll get some much needed BACKWARDS flight practice in...lol..!!

Cold and rainy here, feels like I'm back in March again!

jreue,

Idle up and throttle cut definitely should work fine on Phoenix, they do for me with my DX6i...

Try to go back to SYSTEM/YOUR TRANSMITTER and see what that does...

If not, go back and try SYSTEM/SETUP NEW TRANSMITTER...

If I remember correctly, it can take a couple of tries sometimes, for some reason, but I have always been able to get it to work, and once it's set, you are good to go....give it a shot and see...


Glenn

JPEE

Nick, I am glad your battery charged up on a slow charge. Do you think that 700E is stronger than you Velocity?

Mark, when the stress of the move starts getting to you, stop and have a big glass of milk with Hostess Cupcakes, works for me! Seriously, it will all work out.

Glenn, well it looks like you have been through it I'd say. At my club field (I may have said this before) Tues and Thurs is old timers day so to speak so everything flies. All of the guys are older than me at 62. I am one of two heli people there and we both fly planes two on those days. The problem is that this is a catch-can situation. After a guy goes out to fly planes like I said, other guys are all over the place as to who goes next. Me...... being the weenie I am, if I see a guy fly and all of the other guys are chatting and goofing I carry my heli or plane out to the tarmack and wait out of the present pilots view. Sometimes you'll see a guy rigging on the table and you will ask, hay joe blow are you going, yes or no lets you know your next. But on Saturday and Sunday's it's all DIFFERENT. You fly by the table you are at. It just simple and just goes down the line of tables. I like that, it's fair. Everyone gets the same amount of flights. Also I may have mentioned on the weekends the Heli's all fly in the mornings and there are no planes, there is kind of an understanding. Glenn, overall you'll have a good time there once you meet everyone and weed out the winnies.

I stopped at the LHS and bought some parts for the 450. Remember the back flip that went sour on me? Well I needed the TT head crown gears. Then I thought..............heck as long as I am the counter I bought a new main and lower gear with one-way bearing, the clone stuff is poopoo. Then I got 3 more main gears in bag, 2 lower tail drive gears in a bag, and the 2 bags with two each front TT gears, they aout of tail crown gears (see thats why I buy by the bunch lol). I figure I will come down hard again in the future so why not be prepared LOL. While I cant fly right now because I am working on the house all week, I brought ALL of my heli stuff here to house II so I can do bench work at night. I also bought and brought some 400 parts and my 2 crashed 400s to re-build and make one of heli out of them. So boys thats it from the West Coast.


Jreue, I hope you enjoy that new Sport 450 man!
JPEE

jroo

Got idle up and throttle hold working. I'm online now as 'whipviper' now if anyone wants to join

evdreamer

Glenn,

Did they say anything about inverted flight?

JPEE,

What do you mean by "stronger"? It has more power than my Velocity.

Jreue,

That is great you are enjoying your new sim.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

jreue,

Glad you got those functions working, they are pretty important!

I was on the phone for awhile, must have missed you online, maybe we can arrange a time next time in advance...

Nick,

I wish I had that capability, (to fly inverted) I would use it! I think they'll settle down, and I will not fly quite as high or fast, maybe things will be OK....and if not, I do need the practice on the other slower things...I think sometimes flying slowly, like slow piros almost require more practice than FF does...

Justin and I are trying to find a place halfway to each other's houses to fly on the weeknights, so if we do, I may not need the plane club...we live about 8 miles apart. He ordered main gears for the 700E, and got parts for his Logo 600 as well, and should have the 600 nitro ready as well...

Glenn

jroo

Plugged my laptop into my 50" tv via an 12' HDMI cable. Just about life size! I flew for about 3 hours, the last 1.5 hour online. I spent a majority of the time practicing side and nose in hovering and some lazy-8's. The biggest improvement I saw was went I flew with others online. Although I was not even chatting with the guys, just having the other helis there seemed to make me fly better. I do the same with golf. I will play much better in a tournament or with other guys who are much better than me. It makes you step up your game.

After the 3 hours, I feel I am definitely getting better at the side-in hover; nose-in is still difficult for me. A majority of the time I practiced to where the left side was facing me. It seems much easier than right-side, so I will concentrate on right-side tonight.

I have a few observations that I want to make sure they indeed happen in real-life...

- A counter-clockwise piro seems to push the heli down, so I needed more collective
- A clockwise piro seemed to push the heli up, so I needed to reduce collective.
- When I was practicing left-side-in hovering, I would turn counter-clockwise 90 degrees, and the bird would go down and come at me. I would need to give more collective and right aileron to keep her level.

Is all this normal behavior?

jroo

All,

Ran across this site. It's a wishlist site. You just create an account and drag their supplied link onto your browser toolbar. Then when you come across some some item to buy, say a new swashplate leveler from HobbyDirect, you just click the link on your toolbar. It automatically grabs the item picture, price, url, etc and adds it to your wishlist. Now you have one place to go for all the deals you find.

[link=http://www.wishlist.com]www.wishlist.com[/link]

evdreamer

Jreue,

When doing a piro the helicopter shouldn't go up or down. It sounds like your thumb is going down when doing a CCW piro and it is going up when doing a CW piro. The weather might also be affecting it.

Nick