rotarydoc

Hey guys,

All is OK here...what a crazy thing though! I have never experienced an earthquake, and neither had anyone else at work....we mostly just looked at each other dumbfounded right after it happened!

It hit about 1:50, I was standing in the shop, over in the new guy's bay, and at first it was kind of a faint rumble...I mistook it for possibly thunder or a high gust of wind...although the weather perfectly clear today...

It was really weird, in the shop, it was more of a sound event than an earthshaking experience...a huge, deep rumble that started at the rear door of the shop and seemed to move forward to the front, like a wave...then the last thing to happen was the front garage door shook like a huge wind was hitting it from outside...

We didn't have any cars on the lifts at the time...the guys in the adjacent Hyundai shop said the cars on the lifts were moving around a bit...kinda scary there!

The whole thing lasted maybe 20 seconds, seemed much longer I think...

Came home to find no real damage, just some of my collectible transistor radios toppled over, and fell...and one terrified, disoriented Tiger! She was fine after a few minutes in my arms...

They say it was the worse East coast earthquake in over 100 years....I have never experienced anything quite like it!

For JPEE, it's probably a yearly event....lol...

It was kinda cool, to be able to experience one, without any major damage or injury to anyone....I'll probably never experience one like that again...

Yeah, now IRENE....I think it's going to impact you as well a bit there, Mark? It looks like you'll get skirted by it, but I would imagine still some wind and rain...

It's hard to predict where it will go, looksl like it's likey to hit the NC Outer Banks...but from there, hard to say. They rarely come up the Chesapeake bay, but have before....Agnes, in 1972 did....so I'll probably just get some wind and rain...

Thanks for all the concern guys...

Hell week is going about as expected, 11 hour days Monday and Tuesday, the new guy has been working out real well though, so no huge catastrophe....just long hours and kinda tired...not used to this pace...we were so slow for so long, this is compeletly the oppsite...but, making a bit more money at the same time...

I wish I had more time to respond/post to your heli posts....but it's kinda hectic here...hope everyone has a great week...

Mark,

Cool on the flights, and the new found place to fly, sounds like a good find!

JPEE,

I'll be checking in on the 700 news front...and thanks for the text, I didn't check my iPhone till later on....

Nick,

Cool on the Pb voltmeter circuit.....and your calculus class sounds brutal....not going to be easy going....but hang in there, you'll do fine...

Not sure what imaginary numbers are...but good luck with it....lol...


Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

That is good the earthquake didn't turn out to be more than a loud noise in your area.

That is good the new guy is working out.

Imaginary numbers are the result of the square root of a negative number.

Nick

JPEE

Hi Guys

Just a quck update from my iPhone.

I spoke with the HobbyShop guy that ordered my 700e from again today after seeing the HH new posting. They are now accepting PREORDERS for the 700e. They stated their release date will be OCTOBER! ! !

Are you kidding me ¥€#%€¥¥+*%%!

I guess the winter snows will be here before I get that puppy []

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Oh heck JPEE, that just plain stinks. They totally skipped September as a possibility. I can understand when a product is first released and they postpone it for addtional R&D touchups but for something that has already been released and their production line can't keep up...

Any 700 class from other manufacturers maybe being an option, what about nitro? Guess with the money being put out I would be a bit impatient. []

Glenn,

Great news on everything being okay, and poor Tiger having to deal with it all by himself. I bet he was happy to see you!

I'll be keeping an eye on Irene for you...maybe it'll just be a TS by the time it gets up there and you'll just get a lot of wind and rain. They are forecasting it to be a CAT 3 on Friday but seems to be staying off our coast so maybe we'll just get the outer bands. Definitely no flying this weekend.

Nick,

Sorry to hear your calculus class is starting off with a vengence. I'm sure once you get in the routine again you'll have no problem keeping pace. Good luck in Physics and I'm sure it'll be sad to see 1/3 of the class slowly diminish...I remember my Physics class was hard as heck and I was relieved when it was over. Just spend an hour or so each night going over the problem sinario's and you'll do fine. Sounds like your electronics class will be the highlight for you.

I did get to take my 550 out this morning to my new flying area to try it out. The space is definitely small!! It caught me by surprise when I was just doing some figure 8's and it was already on the outer edge of the field, so will take some getting used to and changing my flying style.

I did get to work on my inverted hovering some and that was spectacular...its nice to get the 550 in that orientation to get the blood flowing. Of course with Glenn's luck...the lawnmower guy was there and I had to cut my flying day short. I should have the 450 repair done soon and I feel that will be much better suited to this smaller area.

Mark

JPEE

Daggon-it Glenn! Their sending the US Fleet out to sea before the Huricane hits your area! Holy Cow, if that doesn't tell you take a few days vacation and get the hell out of Dodge nothing will!

Be safe over there!

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Got a little breather here at work...I think everyone is getting ready for IRENE to come up the coast here...we're pretty slow right now.

Yeah, an earthquake, and now a hurricane, all in the same week! [X(]

Mark, looks like you'll just be getting the outer bands...I think I'm far enough inland to avoid most of the high winds and flooding, but this is a low lying area, and is flood prone to begin with...I'm sure there will be at least some flooding here.

Nick,

Good luck in your Calculus class.

Thanks for the definition of an imaginary number...not that I really needed to know, I always had a hard time with math, nearly didn't pass high school because of it...thank goodness for calculators...

JPEE,

That is a huge bummer for sure....sorry to hear about the delay...is it more R&D maybe on the 3GX system, or the heli itself, Iwonder? Or is it just parts availability?

Mark,

I am very familiar with the small field scenario....I have never actually flown in a very large field, I can imagine it would be pretty cool....

Congrats on the inverted hovering with the big one....I remember the first couple of times with the SDX...pretty cool feeling for sure...

Glenn

JPEE

Hey Guys,

We met at 7:00 a.m. to fly before it got to like now it is 100 and climbing. I tried a new heli camera mount which worked ok, but that's all. Bob was working on trying to make his first horizontal circle out and back and lost a

450 to a pretty much a total from a crash. I took his Turnigy 600 motor out of my 600-1 and returned it............. I was sad to see it go. The 600 flies good enough for the time being, it would just be better with that motor. I

am curbing my RC spending with the 700 coming and the extras it will need.


Glenn,

I am glad you did not have a cars up on the lift when the earth moved at your work place, that would have been sooooo scary. Poor old Tiger, he/she must have been looking for his Litter Box in a real bad way.... with house

ah shaking and the rumbling to boot. Sorry that the storm is coming your way, man that has to be downer and especially after the recent quake.


Mark,

I was disappointed on the 700 being held until October I won't lie. But that is one of the positives of being the Yoda (old one) here, I can wait, heck everyday is Saturday for me and what more could a guy ask for right. The master

knows I have tons of heli's to fly in the meantime. An alternate heli, hell yes. I'd take a Mikado in a heartbeat, but even for me lol, that's a bit pricy and to only have (1) parts house, Ready Heli to buy from just doesn't make sense

to me. No nitro's please! ! I sure hope that you don't get anything more than some hard rain from Irean, I hope! Oh BTW I wrote you a note and sent it to your email via your box here, perhaps you never got it? Do you have an

email box registered here? I will resend in a PM. I am glad you got to stretch your 550 out in your new fly zone but someday, in fact for all of you, I hope you get the opportunity to either stand in the desert or out in farm country like

I experienced where you can fly 360 degrees over open land. I am telling you, it is like swimming in the creek with no trunks on, sheer FREEDOM!


Nick,

Imaginary numbers???? Are those the numbers I see on the slot machines in Las Vegas where they say WIN MILLIONS!!!!! Back in the day when I was in school (the stone age) I only had regular math classes until graduation. They

were offering Algebra as an elective, and as I was struggling in school with a tough home life, a terminal brother and parents that divorced "twice" school was not easy for me. I wished with hindsight I would have taken it as it wound

up I could have used it in my "construction life" for my livelihood. All water under the bridge now. If that's the worst I look back on, I am doing ok.

JPEE

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hey guys,

JPEE,

Sorry to hear that Bob crashed his 450...one good thing (if there is such a thing in a crash) is that 450 parts have so many clone options that repair costs are a lot better then they used to be.

Funny on the Yoda reference...ahhh, everyday is Saturday...that I like. Gotcha on the heli alternatives...and the no-go for nitro. Electric all the way.

I checked my email...did you send me a Howd-E-dode teleflorist ecard? [&:] I hope not but I do think my email is a bit messed up b/c the email from you links to the teleflorist email below it. Go figure...yahoo glitch.

Yes, it was nice getting my 550 out again but I did find that my flying space runs out very fast with that sucker. It is good for hover practice...upright and inverted. And as Glenn was having issues with...I too am having issues with stick inputs transitioning between upright and inverted. Nick was right about it getting interesting now.

On Irene...we did get a bit of crazy rain today and it's been windy all day...mostly the really outer bands are making their way here. But still something to stand outside in awe.

Glenn,

I do hope you don't have to work this Saturday b/c this is going to be potentially a big mess for you guys. I hope you got your supplies, and don't forget to fill up your bathtubs and sinks (for water to flush the toilets, and for water to wash your face/brush teeth, etc. ). Might want to get out the ole duck tape and do the X on the windows if your not boarding them up with plywood. Don't forget to take in anything that isn't bolted down, I had to chase down our large garbage can as it blew across the street today...that got quickly closed up in the garage. And don't forget bags of ice and put them in coolers if your freezer doesn't have the space. Down here they automatically shut down the electricity when a hurricane gets close just in case of downed powerlines...don't know what your electric company will do. I know all of us will be watching closely what happens the next 2 days and wishing the best this thing turns more eastward or loses intensity.

Mark

evdreamer

John,

Sorry you have to wait longer for your 700.

That is good you got to fly yesterday morning.

Mark,

That is cool you got your 550 inverted.

Glenn,

That is good you had a little break at work.

I am going to help out a new guy with his small Nitro heli tomorrow. He has never flown before, so I thought it would be a good idea for him to try a sim out first. I installed G4 on my laptop and it runs soooo much better on that than my desktop. The graphics look better and the movements aren't blocky anymore.

I got invited to fly at an event to raise money for Make A Wish foundation on Memorial Day. There will be a lot of good pilots from East Nebraska flying planes and helis. They have done this in the past and have raised a lot of money for them. They said they had up to 1800 spectators in the past. I have never flown in front of that many people before, so that should be interesting.

Nick

JPEE

Hi Nick,

What a blessing you can apply your skills from something you love to do and that can help those really in need. My neighbor has a blind child from birth who is now 9 who has been the recipient of the Make A Wish Foundation.

They really take care of the children I can assure you.

I think you hit the nail right on the head when you loaded the G4 into your laptop so as to ascertain the lads skill level, that will give you a base as where to start with him.






MARK, I looked through my sent PM's and mail box but I cannot find a copy of the note I wrote and sent to you via email. All it said was in short was, I wished you and the family safety during the impending storm. No I did not send a

Howd-E-dode teleflorist ecard


JPEE

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Mark,

I do indeed have to work tomorrow....I should get an umbrella I suppose, although in 50 MPH winds, that might not last long...

Thanks for all the hurricane prep tips...I'll be doing some of them for sure...never really thought about saving clean water.

I"m pretty sure I'll have a power outage, they say to actually expect it...so I need to stock up on batteries. They are saying power could be out for hours, or even days...

I'm glad I'm not the only one that is getting mixed up on inverted and upright flying collective stick movements....Rob said it's a pretty normal phase, and to try to do about 20% inverted flight to 80% upright.

I may still just keep on flying the MCPX inverted until I feel like I've really got the hang of it, then re-learn upright all over again..

Nick,

That is cool on helping out the new guy, hopefully it will turn out well.

Glad your sim runs better on the laptop, nice and smooth now...cool stuff....

Very good on your invite on Memorial Day..congrats.....better you flying in front of that many people than me....lol...[X(]

Hang in there on your calculus classes!

JPEE,

Glad to hear you got some nice flights in the AM....

Hang in there on the 700!

Hey, at least you didn't have an earthquake and a hurricane in the same week...

Glenn

JPEE

Hey Guys,

WOW my RC Heli mag has really paid off this month. I just read this latest issue dated August/September and there was gobs of good information on several subjects but for me that caught my eyes was about the 700

and the proper gyro tape for flybarless unites. Also about the J-screw to hold on the heads and how they now clamp as well to stop the head from rocking on the main shaft. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the cool

info on the pricy FPV set up too. My day will come there too, you just wait and see. I know you guys get the mag too but I was just impressed with this issue. I enjoyed the profile on the 600 Pro, it looks like a shrunken

700 LOL. They seem to like it, but a guy has to be subjective on his own as well.

Overall the most imformitive article was about the how loose your tail blade grips can be and.... are supposed to be. While you can feel their "slop" sitting there in the bench, in the air they slide out a bit and are tight and

work as by design. Screw them know it all's, I put shims in mine and they are glassy but yet have no slop, I say "no slop"............... humm sounds like a credo or something


Gonna be about 105 degrees tomorrow, oh boy I cant wait

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

IRENE update....starting to get the outer bands here....so far, a little wind, and some light rain, nothing much else.

Supposed to get gradually worse as the day goes on, then pretty bad overnight, most of the worst will be between 10PM and 4AM they say...and they say to expect a long storm, this thing is huge, and it will be out of here by tomorrow afternoon.

So far, so good, I'll post a bit later when it gets more interesting...

JPEE,

Glad you are enjoying RC Heli....usually pretty good/interesting stuff in there. I let my subscription run out, so I just read the interesting articles at the newstand...lol...

Sorry about your heat tomorrow....wanna trade weather? [X(]

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Glenn,

Was I a bit relieved when I saw Irene was a CAT 1 after making landfall this morning, but you guys will have some night to go through this evening when it reaches your area. I don't think the umbrella this morning would be of much good.

Yeah, I think you guys have had your fill this week with the earthquake and now a hurricane.

JPEE,

Thanks for the well wishes, I do believe Glenn needs them more than I as it seems we kinda dodged that bullet so to speak.

My fingers are still crossed for your 700 purchase...are you discovering yourself spending more time on the 700 forum at HF lately?

Nick,

It wouldn't surprise me if in the future your not approached by a heli recruiter for a company...I do believe that's what happened with Mitch Pricer and Synergy...major congrats on your invitation to the Make A Wish foundation event...I know the crowd will be entertained!! Are you flying your Velocity and/or 600 at the event?

How'd things go with the new guy and the nitro?

Mark

JPEE

Hey Guys,


Mark,

I did go over there a few times and looked around at what works and what doesn't. But honestly, it is a bit to soon as I will not recall what I have read in two months. There is plenty of time as I snail through the build when she arrives.



Glenn,

Keep your powder dry son! On a good note, that's pretty good this will all take place over the weekend where you can deal with it, be up all night and then not have to get up for work the next morning and being all drug out. Please keep

up to date.

Iryna

<p class="MsoNormal">Hi guys, <o></o></p><p class="MsoNormal">I need your help. I am writing a research paper for my marketing class at school about people who fly RC helicopters.<o></o></p><p class="MsoNormal">Please take this brief survey, it will take less than 5 min http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DYTHBPL<o></o></p><p class="MsoNormal">I will highly appreciate it! Thank you!<o></o></p>

Iryna

<p class="MsoNormal">Thanks again!</p>

JPEE

Hey Guys,

The latest thing in RC for indoors. Watch the whole video.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIJINiK9azc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

evdreamer

John,

That is good you are enjoying this month's RCHeli mag.

Glenn,

That is good Irene isn't too bad so far. Hope it doesn't get too bad tonight.

Mark,

That is good Irene wasn't too much of a problem for you.

I think it would be kind of cool to work on the electronics side of a Heli company. I don't have the time to practice and compete with the younger pros who have plenty of time and don't have jobs. It is cool Bobby Watts can use his Mechanical Engineering degree to design helicopters.

I only have time to fly once at the event before I have to leave for work. I will be flying my 600. Awhile back I replaced the pushrod links and balls on the Velocity. I had a problem removing the links on two tiny pushrods and it has been down since. It is a good excuse not to fly it for the mean time. It is expensive for me to fly it with the cost of fuel and glow plugs. I was curious on how much I spent on all my fuel and it was over $500. I have been having fun with Tic Tocs and the 600 has the power to do them better. If it is windy my 600 can pull through the wind better. I also don't have to worry about tuning before the event with my 600.

It took awhile to get the engine to idle good and not die when adding power. It is a little .15 engine. It is probably like the tuning Glenn talked about with the tiny car engines. He had a bad glow plug, so I gave him one of mine and that really helped. There was only one mixture needle, so it had a high idle. Then it had a tracking problem. Once all those things were fixed I brought it up in a hover and the tail didn't hold. I took the gain all the way up to 100% and the tail still didn't hold. I also tried flying with a 100% flat line throttle curve to see if that would help. It was like flying in rate mode or with no gyro. It came with a cheap gyro, so I recommended he get a better gyro. The way it was flying I told him he would crash it. Then I setup the sim for him. I think he enjoyed flying something today. He used the reset button a lot. I think he got a taste of how hard it is to fly a heli and he is looking into getting a sim.

Then I got a flight in with the 600 and Furion. I was trying some ideas for a routine during my event. The weather was perfect. It wasn't too hot and there was hardly any wind. One of my plane friends was there, so I was watching him fly. He brought an E-Flite Taylorcraft and was doing some cool aerobatics with it on a 2cell. He is a really good aerobatic pilot, so he can make anything look good.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Irene update;

I'm still here, everything is in one piece, and the sun was out today...

Yeah, it lost a lot of it's strength when it hit North Carolina...although, it wasn't without some excitement here still...a TON of rain, and quite a bit of wind...about 6 very short power outages, but came back on every time...thank goodness...lots of people are still out...got lucky this time...

Just when I thought the worst was over at about midnight, that's when the REAL wind gusts came....they were scary....every bit of the forecast 60 MPH gusts, I'd say...I have one of those Rubbermaid vinyl sheds....and I was thinking that was gonna go anytime....good thing when we installed it, we nailed it down with huge 6 inch nails into the asphalt it is sitting on...plus it has buildings on 3 sides....if it were standing out in the middle of a field or something, I doubt it would have survived that wind...

I think one thing that helped with the power was that, after last winter's debacle over it taking over a week to get some people's power back after storms, this past spring and summer, there has been a huge tree trimming project...cutting big branches away from power lines...I think that helped a lot...

I actually heard a transfomer explode at about 2AM....I guess it wasn't one supplying me, because I didn't lose power....but somebody did...

It was quite a storm, glad it wasn't as powerful as it could have been, or I might be typing a different story....

Yeah, between my week at work, a hurricane, an earthquake....it was quite a week....I'm hoping for a nice, normal week coming up...then a nice 3 DAY WEEKEND...

Hope you all are doing well....

Glenn

JPEE

Well Glenn that is all good news! We are watching at home here in Cali and are seeing the damages and destruction that took place. We have friends in town from Manhattan NY and they said they had no intentions of

going home during this storm. On the other hand they are getting fried in our 105 heat today and that comes with some humidity to boot. [X(] I have to share that this is first time in years it has been this hot and for so many

days and I have NEVER been stuck inside like this for a long time. This just sitting around has really given me a severe case of cabin fever let me tell you. By nature I am a doer and being shut in like this is horrible at best.

I have rebuilt the 450 and I have played on the Sim until I am board with heli stuff. We jumped in the Diesel and drove clear across town, a 25 mile round trip just to eat lunch out to break the boredom. After words we were

a few mile from the field I had to just drive by and see if anyone was foolish enough to be flying out there in 150 + heat. YEP, there were three guys I could see that I knew (we are up on the road above) and they all flying

Nitro heli's, I can kind-ah understand that, they are not a sensitive to the heat as my electrics. But still to just stand out there or breath the frigging hot air under the shelters.............. WHY.........[X(]



I just completed replacing the servo arms on the 450 Pro. Over time they all split out just past the ball link. They didn't come apart but one day while sitting in the Sun, Bob could see the hair line crack in the plastic with the light

coming through it. You know well what that job in tails, I had to pull out and the metal carrier that carries all three servos and bearing to have enough room to get to them. She is ready for a test flight at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow. Just

board, this has been benched for at least three months. Now I am at the magic number.............. all 100% of my heli's fly.


GLAD you got off lucky
John

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Glenn,

After this week you will definitely be needing a 3-day weekend!

Glad to hear things turned out much better then they were forecasting.

Now sit back and relax a bit.

Mark

JPEE

Hello Boys,


TODAYS FUNNY PAPERS

I told you guys in the post above I had worked on the 450 and replaced the servo arms right! I get to the field this morning and I pull that puppy into a hover and see the blades a tiny bit out of track. Once that is completed I fly the pack

with no issues and it is a fun "in normal" flight. Later, I come back for a second flight and find after the ESC mates up that I have no throttle or pitch. It seems like my left stick is dead in that regard but I do have rudder control. Hummm

says me. So I reboot the ESC three times and still no motor nor the three servos going up for pitch, so I had to put her back in the truck. How can this be? how can you fly a pack, land and then everything go wacky? Next I go with

two flights on my old trusty 500 and all goes well. Again both flights were in normal as I just wasn't feeling "idle-up" today. Then it started reaching again for the 100 degree mark so I said to Bob, one more flight and I'll

take out the 600-1 since I took out his motor and put back in my NEU motor. I set her up on the table, plug in everything and check my servos and all looks well. I walk her out to the field and press the throttle and there is no motor

again! Now this one I think I can figure out. Even though the NEU motors wire colors match the Align ESC perhaps they need to be moved around? That is possible so I'll start there, and by the way, the 600 servos all moved as they

should so it was kind of a weird morning to say the least.



Nick,

Glad you had some good flights with both helis and your noob! I hope school is going well for too.

OOPS, I see just as I am ready to hit the post key Mark just posted a ahead of me. I wonder what he has been up to???

JPEE

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Shazaam JPEE...my keystroke kungfu...faster then yours.

You've got some very strange things going on with your 450...I wonder if the heat has anything to do with it. Did you get a chance to bench test the 450 in AC conditions?

I've been up to finishing repairs on the 450...have some pitch issues to work out as just eyeballing it seems to only have negative pitch and very little positive...so have to work on adjusting some links. Not to much in a hurry though as I've got other things (honey do list stuff) to work on first. May get some flights in Thursday morning.

Sorry your still having triple digit heat...I can't see flying in that and having much enjoyment, hope your cabin fever stretch comes to an end soon.

Were did you guys wind up for lunch the other day...the one clear across town? BTW, any advice on how to handle a rambunctious 2 and 1/2 year old in a restaurant...or just don't try it until he's older? We've made several attempts but he usually only lasts for 15 minutes...[]

Nick,

I think I would have fallen out of my chair after totalling that amout you spent on fuel last year. Wow! I know nitro's are special (I do reminisce of my nitro plane days ) but that fuel cost just kills.

Good luck with the event and I'm sure your 600 in your hands will do some serious wowing of the crowd. BTW, sounds like it has begun to cool down for you out there, lucky dog you.

Mark

evdreamer

Glenn,

It sounds like you were lucky with the earthquake and the hurricane. It could have been much worse.

John,

Sorry about your heat and the 450.

Moving the motor wires around wouldn't do anything more than reverse the direction. It is probably something in the ESC code not letting it start.

I was bad this weekend and blew off my Calculus HW. It was due today, so I worked on it at work yesterday and after work. I only got 5 hours of sleep, so I am dragging today.

Mark,

Good luck with your 450 repairs.

It was in the 80's this weekend and 70 and raining this morning.

Nick