Getting Back into R/C Helicopters

[SlowWhite]

Well I bought a Heli tonight. And as soon as I got it home I went to town on changing it the looks. Oh and for X-mas I got one of those $50 heli's from my brother it's great with cats they go nuts however you can really only make right hand turns with it. They don't fly anything like in the commercials but are still fun.

I bought the Red one that is pictured above However - after spending almost 2hrs chit chatting with the guy. (how things are down here if you start a conversation expect it to at least last 30 minutes) He was getting out of Gas and going Electric, And he was showing me his massive boat collection, etc and found some parts he had from his crash 3 years ago with it. (and yes I had him test fly it for me) He found an extra canopy ($85 unpainted but this one is painted with sweet flames), and extra Skids. And he gave me a Gallon of 30% fuel (retails for $27). Also got invited to a Heli Fly in in Georgia this weekend where I'll get to meet the current world champion Heli pilot. who just happens to live 2hrs from me and flys at the local field in Columbia (40 mile drive, vs the 7 miles my local field is but for that kind of experience/help I'm going to make the trip a few times)

Anyways I have pictures of the finished product on my myspace page. started off with red/yellow canopy, red Landing Gear, and red/yellow tail fins.. But is now White/black Tail Fins (off my old heli), White/silver Landing Gear, and White/Silver/Black Canopy. Hope you guys like it.

I already priced out the parts $2200 worth of equimpment for $850.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=139880583&albumID=1337368&imageID=15648145

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=139880583&albumID=1337368&imageID=15648435

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=139880583&albumID=1337368&imageID=15648673

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=139880583&albumID=1337368&imageID=15648934

If those don't work hopefully this will:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=139880583&albumId=1337368

or

http://www.myspace.com/brianrbarton

[SlowWhite]

I also have White/Black Carbon Fiber Tail Blades that I'm going to put on (if they are the same size, etc) if not then I'll just order a set when I get a new set of White/Black Main blades for it. They are much easier to see in the air and help to figure out the positioning of the heli during 3D aerobatics

[SlowWhite]

Well after alot of work last night and tonight I finally found the answer's to all my set up questions, and seems like everything is now working perfectly. Had issues with the CCPM programing with my old Heli radio but got lucky Futaba had instructions on there website to manually program the radio to do CCPM contol mixing.
So tomorrow being the nicest day this week mid 50's with 5mph winds. I'm thinking I'm going to head to the field and see about putting the first flights on it.

[Swifty1638]

good luck! I know that was the most hair raising moments..liftoff.

-A. Swift

[SlowWhite]

Well no go today after driving nearly 250 miles around S.C. to find a Hex Starting system..a $16 item....I couldn't get the Hex adaptor off, so I could put my Pegi system on whichforced me to have to find a Hex drive starting shaft for my Engine Starter.. And I have a $70 glow plug starting unit, but wasn't long enough to reach the damn glow plug. So I had to get a remote Glow Plug adaptor. ($8)

I went to 2 different Hobby stores 1 being 66miles each way, and the next one was 47 miles from my house each way.

I finally found everything finished up the install and went to start the damn thing and the cone to my starter (ie: airplane propeller cone that I put the hex shaft into) kept unscrewing.... I didn't have a nut on the end of it like I was supposed to and of coarse I didn't have the right size nut around the house.
So found some JB Weld and am now waiting for it to cure. 4hrs to go. OH and wouldn't you know forcast for tonight is SNOW!!!! yes here in S.C. we are supposed to get SNOW!!! TONIGHT.. wonder if this is an OMEN? Like I shouldn't try to fly it till this weekend?
But tomorrow it is supposed to get back up into the mid 50's in the afternoon so who knows. I'd still like to at least fire up the engine and at least hover it.

[Kevin 1G Drummer]

Heaven forbid a little snow falls... :P haha

[SlowWhite]

Yep pretty much if it does snow tonight I'm sure nothing will be open tomorrow.
A guy I fly with used to work at the Dubro plant here in camden and he said one year they called for snow, and they shut the plant down except for 5 people . He said you could go out and wipe your window's off with your fingers it was so light.

[JET]

Did you just say you JB welded the starting cone on? Tsk, tsk :D Good luck with the first flight!

[SlowWhite]

I JB welded the starting cone to the starter not the heli section.

Let me tell you I'm off to a Terrific start with this helicopter. haahah So today I finally got it started only to realize my throttle servo was reversed. So instead of being closed it was WOT (damn fan shroud hides the carberator) it sounded like it was closed and for the longest time I couldn't get it started so I figured it was closed. Nope wrecked my starter (thing was so hot you could hardly hold it, so off to the hobby store tomorrow to get a new one)

And I'm praying I didn't wreck the clutch in the heli, I definetly smoked it, I found clutch dust on the bottom of the heli and it smelled pretty good afterwards. still turns freely but I'm hoping that I didn't take off to much so it can't engage the motor. The clutch is less then 2 weeks old and only has 6 flights on it.

Goods news is that the stupid Hex starting system that I couldn't get off to save my life and spent all day yesterday driving around to find the Hex starting shaft came off when I wrecked my starter, so now I can use my pegi (sp) starting system. Which I like way better then the HEX style. would have saved my starter as it allows it to free spin once the motor starts where as a hex system doesn't. Bad news is I wasted all that time driving around yesterday for nothing now.

Oh I hope this is the begining of something horrible. I know I'll work out all the bugs but I'm hoping it happens sooner vs later. It's what I get for being impatient

[SlowWhite]

Well First flight is finally overwith. - And man do I hate wasting my time drove down to get a new starter only to get home to find it doesn't have enough torque to turn over the motor.
So broke out the old trusty power drill riged up an adaptor (drill bit) to fit my Pegi start system. And she fired right up.

Not used to the 90 motor I had to slow the head way down by lowering the Throttle to 15,20,25,50 % (going up in incriments of 1/4 stick, 1/2 stick etc)
And increased the pitch by 6degrees (can electronically do it from my radio via knobs)
And after about 5 minutes she went threw the 1/4 tank of gas I had in it. Forgot how much these heli's suck down fuel. And you thought your DSM's were bad, try $25-$27/per gallon, and a full tank would probably net me about 15-20minutes of flying, and is about an 1/8 of a gallon worth of fuel.

One thing I did notice is I now have a vibration someplace in the heli the Gyro is way to sensitive and the tail just keeps wagging, and the faster the head spead the worse it gets (Another reason I slowed the head down)

Anyrate I can think of 3 things this might be from, the clutch, the Pegi start system, or the Gyro sensitivity might be up to much, there is a bolt that almost touchs the pegi so the adaptor might not be on there 100% straight (looks good via eyeballing it but you never know) or if the clutch material is down to much that the clutch is rubbing on metal that'll cause vibration (but sounds good, no metal on metal, however to be safe I'm going to see if I can buy either a new clutch, or at least by the clutch material and replace it)

Anyways again she hovered just fine and a little bit of moving around however I have way to many trees/bushes in my yard to move more then 6 feet in any direction.

So Although it's supposed to be in the 30's tomorrow I'm still going to head to statesboro GA for the fun fly and see about having a pro look at it and see about figuring out the tail wagging.