tandem4

............ Well....... I lie when I say takes to the air again, but I am back to those nervous little hops. The Blade is working again, albeit with the tamer settings. It was a long and tedious learning curve after my last prang. At least I took the throttle stick by the horns and she is spooling up and getting light on the skids again. I really learnt a lot and my confidence will start returning. I will put in a lot of time on the Phoenix Flight sim and progress is now up to myself.

Drumheller Dave

Yes we all know what you are going through......but hey...its fun....we crash....we re-build.....we try............at least I have a hobby shop close.......ok........130 km's...........have fun ....there are some smart hobbyists on this thread...I'm not one of them....but I have learned a lot

Dave

tandem4

You are soooo lucky...... only 130km. Mine is 900km as the crow (or should I say as the heli!!!!) flies and 1540km by road, traversing 450km of the worst roads you can find, with the odd landmine or two. Then you have to cross the worst African borderpost you can find with arrogant officials trying to fleece as many $$$ from you as they can. I normally buy my spares in bulk in South AFrica on home visits. We fly out every three months for a home visit. cannot wait for the coming one. We became grandparents for the first time last week Wednesday. Have seen the young man on Skype Video and photos but the need to touch him is getting verrrry big. Go well!!!!

Drumheller Dave

Congratulations....I have two granddaughters...one is 14 and one is 4 ...love them both.........they come out when they can.........I spoil them...................may I ask....when you bought your helicopter.....what price did you pay..........just interested thats all......exchange rate etc..........nice to meet you....Dave

jon6565

Hey Dave ~

Sad news this morning... Yup my baby hit the deck... again! Usual parts required but this time I minced my new canopy as well! I am down to my last set of blades now too!! It was a beautiful morning too. I was doing nice big high figure 8's, real smooth and some low, close fast passes which is a real rush. But the crash was stupid. I was just sliding in from the right to land as my timer was about to beep and for some reason I just lost orientation and it went down - from about 15 feet. I was in idle up still so head speed was high and that did the damage. I still need to do a full strip and inspect but for the main part my check this morning was pretty thorough. [][]

I am away all next week in melbourne and Adelaide... looks like I might be visiting hobby shops!

Keep up the good work.

I don't have Grand kids yet but I have two daughters aged 20 and 22. The younger one is just looking to by a V8 Holden Monaro - a Pontiac GTO in the US! I tried to talk her out of it! kids eh!

Jon

tandem4

Hi Dave, Nice to meet you as well. the Web is fast taking away barriers. As an "oldie" who started out with slipsticks and 7 fig log books I still stand in awe!!!!! My Blade is a RTF version and I paid about ZAR 5200-00 for it at an exchange rate of ZAR 7.80 to the US$ it was US$ 666-00. How does that equate to prices in your part of the world?

Same happened here yesterday Jon. During lunchtime I converted my heli to the Helifix version of velcro quick release canopy mounts and could not wait to get her flying after work. We live on a site camp in Angola. There is a concrete surfaced basketball court about 20m from my house that I use to fly from and so far the afternoons have been windstill and beautifull. I took off very industriously, panicked, shut the throttle and she connected with the blades striking....... feathering shaft bent and the tip of the one blade lost its shrink wrap. I have already fixed this with CA and will whip in a new feathering shaft. Also broke of a part of a tail blade. The shaft seems to be ok though. Luckily I have spares for that aswell.

Funny thing is that the construction bypass of our new road is gravel with a lot of red dust around. The chopper stays fairly clean but the tail rotor accumulates a heck of a lot of dust. I hose down the basketball court often to reduce the dust.

Well the sun is about to rise here and I have to go to the saltmine...... go well. Been great talking.

jon6565

A saltmine in Angola eh! I am a corporate OHS Manager... they worry me out there!

After the exchange rate - your heli sounds dear but then it has gone a long way I guess... I paid about $445 US for mine. yeah these crashes are a bugger eh!

Oh well - back on the horse.

Edit:

I just realised that "Salt Mine" could well be a euphemism! I looked at your location in Kuvango... can't see an open cut mine!

My Flying location: Lat -31 53 47.2338 Long 116 2 50.1894

tandem4

Mmmmm..... thats a cricket pitch. fortunately not rugga with the tri nations coming up!!!!! I hope we win the All Blacks tomorrow!!!!! Your area looks like very established rural area. Very much like Pretoria where I have property. Are there a lot of South Africans in your area. "Salt mine" was old citizens band slang for work.... teee heeee, myself havent used that in quite a while!!!!!! I work for Consulting Engineers as is the Senior Assistant Resident Engineer..... shortly put I am a road builder. We are rebuilding the road from Matala to Menongue. I spent most of my career in South Africa but since my children left home we have travelled/worked Africa. We have been in Namibia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Nigeria and now Angola.

The co-ordinates given is the town of Cuvango. Looks quite peaceful and serene from the air. It must have been an astounding little town before the devastating revolution and civil war here. The town is now just a broken ruin of its former self. no shops, or any other infrastructure. The river you see to the left is the Cuvango river, hence the name. This river becomes the Kavango River when it reaches Namibia and later becomes the Okavango River of Okavango Delta fame when it crosses into Botswana.

We have to travel 140 km really bad dirt road and then another 180km decent tar to get to Lubango. A bustling but extremely expensive town. We paid US $ 25 for a 10kg bag of potatoes and steak (like shoe soles) costsUS$ 20-00/kg. We survive as there is a mess in our camp but we take supplies from the mess and make our own food. My co-pilot is a good cook and a wizard as she turn mediocre to bad quality food into cuisine dishes!!!!! She is also the best Tandem stoker in the world. We have three tandems, one road tandem in RSA, a Road and MTB tandem here. We currently use the MTB tandem for training.

At least we have the fresh air, quiet and the most amazing sunrises and sunsets. On full moon night you do not need a torch outside and on dark moon nights the stars are abosultely amazing. In times like this you feel and get verrry close to your creator and realise God is there enjoying it with you!!!!!!

Well let me get back to my sim training!!!!!! All this talk will not make a better pilot of me!!!!! Go well.

tandem4

Hi Jon.... we thrashed the All Black, next weekend it is the Wallabies in Cape town. Hope it is not the end of a fledgling heli friendship!!!!!!!

Drumheller Dave

Hey Jon and Tandem..............almost ready to fly again....rebuilt the puppy today except the feathering shaft...do that in the morning with a coffee........TD...my blade was also a rtf..the kit was 599 canadian.........probably about 630 American...so we are very close...........kind of sad when you look at the prices on the American Hobby sites...oh well.....hey...I find it interesting on both you and Jon's occupations......makes me feel kind of of oh well...Jon and I may be close , but you....hey...different world than I am accustomed to.........my wife does not like salt........I do..haha........iao......talk soon......hey Tan....you may have said so already...but what is your name...........Dave...ciao

Drumheller Dave

Sorry to hear the bad news Jon...hey two daughters...my youngest son is single...maybe I should send him down there...haha

tandem4

Hi Dave the name is Hendrik..... a good old Dutch/Afrikaans name I inherited from my Grandfather.

Drumheller Dave

Hey ...I'm a Jacobsen on my mothers side...bit of danish......must be why I love liverwurst....fixed the blade today....kind of wondering about it........don't know yet.......guess I'll know tomorrow after I hit the grass....something funny..thats all..can't explain

J-MICHAEL

Tandem ~

It's always interesting reading the forums here about our heli's, but also I also love learning about other areas of the world and where everyone fly's at. The way you describe the area there really sounds appealing ! Sorry to hear about the last crash..... It gets much better, and easier so hang in there. It won't be to much longer, until you maybe bump up the headspeed like you were inquiring not long ago. There then will be a time, where all of a sudden everything will just click for you as you progress through the stages. It has for me, and I've seen it over, and over for others.

Did you ever find out about those o-rings for the B-400 by chance in that previous post awhile ago...? In the B-400 Bible, I had seen that some would use some o-rings from home-Depot that would work. And I know also the Trex 450 V1 head o-rings will also fit, in case you were still wondering perhaps... I'am pretty certain there's no Home-Depot where your at () but still have to throw that out there in case there may be someplace similiar there ? Dunno....

Here is one qoute from the "Bible" :


There's much more info in that B-400 Bible that could also help you for the future if you have probs locating certain parts for the 400 in the future. Good stuff there....



http://www.slyster.com/heli/b400bible.html#feath



Cheers,

~ Jeff

tandem4

Thanx Jeff.... in RSA we have a company called Bearing Man. I have contacted them regarding the scourcing of bearings as well as the O-rings. If not I will import some bearings as well as head retaining bolts from RCsrcewz in the US...... and them maybe buy a few packs of the "expensive " E-Flight O-rings. Has anybody ever found out about what the small piece of tubing they include is for?????

Drumheller Dave

Good afternoon guys.........today is a holiday....so went outside and flew three batteries......about 18 minutes worth of up and down up and down...damn....not seeming to get any better......but maybe I am......didn't crash in four batteries this weekend.....but I do hear a funny crackling noise, when I pull the right stick back during check up without the rotors running...any ideas out there......thanks

Drumheller Dave

I should explain better...sounds electrical....almost like funny zapping noise....does it occasionally...not all the time, almost like a short or something......

J-MICHAEL

Tandem ~

I've heard this by chance....!



http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=72439&page=2


Hope this helps ? Makes kinda sense, that the o-ring kit can be used for a few of there heli's, as I don't have a B-400, I just envy all of you guys who do until I do for my collection, but I do have 2 stock CPP's I'll fly from time to time and there o-rings fit for my Trex 450. My Trex 450 is the "SA" version and so it uses the V1 head which Is uses the same size spindle according to the B-400 Bible... I've also heard your windshield wash tubing for your car would work cut up in the right sizes... Crazy there, and I've never tried that... Lol...


~ Jeff

J-MICHAEL

Oh boy Dave ! You know how hard it is to try and troubleshoot using yor imagination and going by a few details...?! Darn if ya couldn't post a quick little video to show ? That could help us, and others to help maybe make a guess at what the noise could be.... I thought a servo going bad perhaps, but really I'am lost and dunno. Its nothing that sounds familiar, as I've snooped these forums to help curb our addiction to these things !

I hope someone that may have a B-400 might recognize your problem.



Cheers,

~ Jeff