JPEE

Hello Mark,

Hey and a very Happy Father's Day to you too!

What could be better than a dad with his son out flying RC right? Forgive me for being so brief but I just wanted to drop in for a moment and say once again happy fathers day and I will write tomorrow about your zero.

PART II

Sorry to hear the Zero went in again. Your starting to scare me when I think of my first flight on the 51 whether I can land the puppy? When I landed the Bixler three time now I had a bit of a hard time due to it being light and as I came in. I slowed it down so much that it too wanted to stall or rise up and down with the breeze. So on my last go round I took and flew her in under throttle and got her down with power and elevator and when she touched the ground I shut down the motor and that worked for me. Looks like your getting tons of use of that HD touch up paint. Did you get a set of extra props on your Zero box? I did. You know you might be right , if you have tall June grass to land in if a landing gear won't come down or you have other issues that can make a great alternative to come in at. I can't wait to get going again the build. Sadly we had another passing......... of Judys brother yesterday and this make family loss #3 since February! We wind up with 8-12 sleeping here when everyone flies in to attend. We borrow those blow up beds from the friends and this place looks like a army barracks lol. So that again will slow down the household for another week until we lay him to rest.

As harsh as this must sound with all of that sadness for the most part behind us and the rent house now being occupied my time is my own and I can start doing the thing I want to do. Heck man my house needs work too and now I can do it when I have a mind too.

I hope your Fathers Days was a good one too. Being a chocolate-holic I got two huge jugs of Hersey's syrup for my milk, two boxes of something new... Hersey's chocolate pudding you make out of the box, and slippers I desperately needed.

Take care Guys

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Well, the weekend went well, and after some flights on the 130X, it was an easy decision...my 450 Pro is up on eBay[X(]

Yeah, it flies that well! I could not believe how well it hovered on the first shot...basically hands off! And yeah, they are right, it flies much larger than it's size...in fact, it flies better than my 450 Pro did!

Had a little wind on Sunday night, and it handled it quite well, for it's size and weight. Not as well as a larger heli, of course, but the AS3X really keeps it on track!

I'll even go out on a limb, and say that this helicopter in flight, inspires more confidence than I can remember in any past helicopter I've flown. I'm really rusty, yet this thing goes and does exactly what I want it to, every time.

Had a close one though...I was flying against a tree line, kind of at dusk, and lost orientation against the dark trees...but my instincts came back, and I did the 2 things I knew to do; remember my last inputs, and give it a little cyclic, to see if the response was as expected (i.e. my bearings were correct), and I came out of it OK. Whew. I'm trying not to crash, as that seems to be where most of the guys seem to have issues, after the crash/rebuild.

I flew Sunday at the now abandoned Moose Lodge field. Works out great, as there is never anyone there, and it's a big enough field to really fly the 130X, it was a bit tight for a 450 to stretch it's wings. I even have a little bare spot
in the field, not far from the driveway, that I can use for take off/landings. Don't even need a mat, or cardboard (as a lot of guys use with the fragile tail gears).

I ordered the nearly mandatory metal "A" gear, I'm told that will strip even with normal flight, and a set of bright green tail blades, for some better visibility.

Still undecided on the metal tail gears, Blade (not E-flite anymore, I guess) makes a set. There are 2 theories, one is it is much stronger, and you won't break parts, the other is, you would be better off to leave something plastic in the gear train to add some "give" in a crash...so I don't know yet on that one. I have a couple of sets of spare plastic gears on hand, so I think I'll go with those first.

I also listed my large collection of spare 450 Pro parts on eBay, as well as a little collection of stuff left over from the nitro, starter, glow plug ignitor, etc. And, some JR DS 285 MG's from the B400 that I forgot I had. Between all that stuff, hoping to get a little "heli budget" cash flow.

So far, only 4 packs through it, but as I said, the new "laid back" approach...I'll fly it when I get time, and not because I feel like I need to practice, or have to fly...just when I WANT TO...

JPEE,

Sorry to hear of your latest loss...hope things aren't too rough when all the family and friends show up.

Mark,

Sorry on the hard landing/minor damage...I have never flown a plane, ever. I can imagine that landing is a bit tricky...only done it on the sim...and it's hard on that! Practice make perfect, I guess...at least it wasn't too bad.

My yard is not big enough for the 130X, but the Moose is literally right around the corner, about .3 miles, I can easily walk there, although probably not with my flying gear...so as long as they don't start building on it anytime soon, I should have a place to fly most of the time!

Take care,

Glenn

JPEE

WOW Glenn, that is all great news. A good flying heli and a place to fly it, in the words of Al Bundy................ Peg, it don't get no better than that! Good luck on the EBAY stuff too.
And thanks for the kind wishes.

JP OUT

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

First off,

JPEE, hope you and family are doing fine during this ordeal...this sounds to be a rough year. At least with all the family together you all gather strength from each other.

You mentioned Motion RC awhile back and after my first parts order with them they have been my main supplier...just made an order for new props and backplate assembly and is due tomorrow. They are super fast with the shipping, nothing but good things to say about them.

With my heli background I am hesitant to do any flying on a prop hub that has been involved in a noseover, just b/c of the RPM's the prop is spinning and the fact that the assembly is all plastic on the Zero...would rather ground her and wait for replacements then to have a prop assembly come apart in flight and tear up the whole cowling while it self-destructed. [X(]

I did take apart my one retract that was giving me problems and found that part of the plastic inside had broken a tab. So I just removed the broken plastic pieces and repositioned the slider and the retract stays in its locked open position so I can fly with the wheels down while waiting on a replacement.

Glenn,

I am very interested in your 130X flight reports...thanks for the updates. Glad you got a chance to get some packs through and seems to be issue free. Since you also have flown the mcpx what are your thoughts on the differences between the two? Totally different flying birds? I would imagine with the brushless and TT driven tail it would be.

Nice save on the close call...little inputs rather then large ones are the key when things get confusing. Definitely a show of skill and experience as I remember those days when I would do large inputs trying to save a heli (and most of the time result in a dirt nap ). It takes time to be comfortable with little inputs being key. Did the green canopy have any bearing on it or just the time of day and dark tree line being the main culprit?

I also am finding myself losing my usual flying spots again as the housing market is once again booming...all the 'abandoned' subdivisions are busy with bull dozers and surveyors so I'm having to go out further just to fly the zero and 500. I did get my lipo's from HK and tried out my mcpx this morning for the first time, must have been months since I last spooled her up. While it was nice I remembered the twitchiness and squirrliness that I always had to combat while flying. Guess over time I just got used to it. One other thing was the size as it did disappear a few times in the distance, so maybe a change is needed. I did discover a nice field across the street from the hospital that I did my morning mcpx flight that is perfect, but much too small for the 500. Still considering options...

Glad you were able to recoup some of your heli funds with the 450 and parts sale.

Mark

JPEE

Hello Mark,

I think you are 100% right on. That prop is spinning mucho fasto and as you said like a heli you don't want the puppy coming apart and hurting you or others at where ever your flying. I consider it like changing the main shaft and top bearing on the heli after a mild crash or hard landing, right? Even on a plane we don't want "un-necessary vibrations". Man kudos to you on making a fix on that landing gear, that was brilliant! Hey man whatever works. There is keeping you grounded mister.

As you said Motion are good people. I don't know if your read their "Mission Statement" but if you haven't........... go back and check it out, these are my kind of people.

Thanks for the warm wishes....... no lying here, it has been a tough road, I worry about the little woman having to bear all of this, as it is her kin folk. Support support and more support is all a guy can do.

Smiles

evdreamer

Glenn,

That is cool you got a new heli. I didn't even know Amazon sold RC Helis. That is cool your 130X flys really good.

Mark,

That is good you are enjoying the new plane. An easy way to learn to do funnels and the way I did it was to start parallel to the ground. Then point the nose or tail towards the center of the circle and just stay parallel to the ground while creating a circle. Then when you are comfortable with that slowly start to tilt the heli up while going in the circle. That is good your plane survived the crash landing.

John,

Sorry to hear you had another loss in the family.


It sounds like everyone had a good father's day. I went to see the new superman movie with my parents and went out to eat.

The summer heat is here, so I haven't been out to fly lately.

I have stayed busy working on my portfolio program. I finally figured out how to edit cells in my tables for color/font and placement in the cell. It was a really hard concept to learn, since there were no good comprehensive documents online. So I had to piece together lots of little pieces from the internet. I also added a feature to show the performance of any number of accounts instead of only showing the performance of one account at a time. I added two more charts, so three stock indicators can be viewed at the same time. I also figured out how to show the dates on the x-axis separated by 1-10 months instead of showing all the dates at once. Then last night I added a feature to show a popup when the mouse moves over one of the graph points and shows the price and date of that point. I can't think of anything else to add, so now I just need to maintain the database.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE,

Hope you and the little lady are coping OK with all the losses lately, as you said, support for her is probably the best thing you can do, we sure can't do much about the loss of loved ones, unfortunately. Hang in there!

Nick,

Yeah, it's been awhile since I've gotten a new heli, that's for sure. It's turning out pretty well so far.

I hear you on the heat, and I'm sure it's headed this way...we've been lucky so far here, no real heat waves YET...

Amazon sells not only helis, but I got my other 2 batteries, and the metal gear, and the tail blades from Amazon too! They don't have every part, but it is amazing what they do carry. Prices are good too, that gear was like $10.88 on Amazon all the heli places wanted full list, @ 14.99.

Mark,

There is really no comparison between the MCPX, and the 130X...as you put it well, there is NONE of that squrrelliness, or twtchiness at all...it more or less flies like a miniature 450...not quite the same of course, it doesn't feel as heavy in the air as a 450 would, less momentum, etc. but the control is so far superior to the MCPX, it's not even in the same class. I have not yet done any flipping/inverted yet, I'll be able to comment more on that in the future, hopefully. In a nutshell, I was shocked at how well it flies, and how fast it can be, it's certainly not underpowered, like the MCPX. They say the MCPX BL has more power to weight than this even....I would imagine that would be quite a handful !!

The visibility issue was more the tree line, and the time of day, I do believe. The canopy, while not super bright colors, isn't too bad to see. It could be brighter, of course, but it's not bad. I am hoping the florescent green tail blades might help a bit too. That was one advantage the plane field had over anywhere else I've flown, it is totally void of any trees in the backround, only sky, and flat land, with tall grass, no dark tree lines. Everywhere else I have ever flown, always has trees in the backround.

The 130X, also has a size advantage, it's still pretty visible even at a good distance, although nothing even like a 450, it still gets small pretty quickly, but nothing like the MPCX. I am REALLY glad I went with this (so far!) over the MPCX BL...I may eat those words after awhile, but so far, I'm loving this thing...

I can now see where the saying on Helifreak comes from..." the WORST thing about the 130X is how well it flies when it's working right"....I could see myself going to a lot of trouble to get this little heli flying like it does if it ever broke...that's for sure, that's how impressive it really is!

I don't have the issue of finding a place to fly anymore either, that was one huge hassle from before that's now past....the other great thing to mention about micro helis in general. I honestly have as much, or more fun flying these...especially now, with the 130X...it's so much like flying the bigger ones, just on a much smaller scale....smaller heli...smaller fields...smaller bills coming out of my (now much reduced!) wallet....

My ebay auctions are still going, they end on Sunday. Still got a ways to go...but the results are promising, the 450 and the parts both have great hits, 65+ views each, and about 15~20 watchers on each...not bad.

Well, I'll chat with you guys later on...not sure if I'll get any flights in this week, probably the weekend though...

Glenn

Aframomum

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Hi guys,

Had the chance to get out this morning before it got too hot to get some flights in with the Zero and the 500 (and the mcpx ) and have to report had a nice landing with the zero. I think my nose-overs were due to the CG being too far forward (noseheavy) as I moved the batt back a bit and what a difference...she not only floated in but really eased in on the gear and rolled to a beautiful stop, no prop damage.

I didn't want to chance the retract for a second flight (I already ordered a replacement from Motion) as I know it is borrowed time so packed up the zero and took the 500 for a flight. Like usual the 500 performed flawlessly. I was able to start some inverted forward flight (been practicing on the mcpx) and just took it easy ending with some loops (with a couple piroettes at the top) and cuban 8's, then for some really dumb reason, out of the blue, while hovering over the tall grass/weed branches...dumb thumbed her and landed her right in the thick of it. [X(]All I heard was my mains crunching through those tough branches. Really scraped up the mains so will need to replace them, the rest of the heli seems fine though. I must have gotten a touch of heat exhaustion to do that...

As a plus, today I became the proud owner of a Blade 130x! Even went so far as to order a bearing replacement kit and TT bearing tail boom from Helidirect for it...I don't even have it and I'm ordering parts. Geez. Got it used from an older HF member in TX so anxiously waiting for my package. Poor guy says its too darn small for him to see anything, let alone work on it. Even got 6 batteries in the deal so that should keep me a happily busy guy.

JPEE,

Hope all is well with you.

Mark

JPEE

Good morning Mark,

Thank you for the kind wishes. The family drives and flies in on Monday for the Tuesday affair so I have round up the the air beds again and get to Costco to get grub for 10 souls for three days $$$$$$$. After this hotel JPEE will be closed.

Well well well.......... it looks like the 130 Club is getting bigger here lol. Congratulations on the new bird! I think you and Glenn are gonna do very well with those and getting the upgrades is the smart thing to do. As I explained to Glenn, my buddy has (2) and has made the upgrades on both and to confirm what you said parts and repairs are next to nil if you have an "incursion" lol. Great news on the CG for the Zero. You must have been smiling when she came in so sweetly I kinda the did the same with the Bixler. I have only put like three packs through it so I have have had to slide the elevator trim on each flight to compensate. This time I set the battery in a different position and she flew like grease on a hot rock! So I grabbed my Marks-alot (felt pen) and made a dot in the fuse right where little sweetie of a pack goes.

I had a mess of batteries all charged for the GS and I to fly on Fathers Day but with the stuff that happened we never flew of course. So yesterday I took the 550 (the battery sucker) and the Bixler to the field and flew the 550 Hexacopter like a jet plane just to burn off the packs. The wind was so strong that when I got up high and in full forward the wind brought it backwards to me by several hundred yards! Once it got back close to me I dropped altitude and then had full control. The Bixler could nose into the wind......... but again once I got real high the updrafts would have it nose up and over into the loop like condition so I would have to roll out. Man I remember the days of wind would keep me home for weeks at a time, now I fear no evil as they say. If the wind is really bad even the 500 can cut through let alone the 700e eats and spits out the strongest winds, the problems is landing and not getting blown over on touch down and tipping the main blades OUCH!

Long live "us" four Musketeers here on our Forum

Aframomum

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Nick,

Thanks for your tips on funnels...I will try to put it to use in the morning after work. Right now I just have to work on keeping my circles level as I notice they tend to drift up as the heli moves away from me. After I get that sorted out then I can work on moving the nose inward.

Since discovering the field across from my job its nice to get some flying time in before I go home in the mornings. A huge plus is the sun isn't quite up at that hour so the weathers still nice and the winds calm, terrific for the micro heli's.

Sorry to hear about the heat, one huge reason I am trying to fly early in the mornings again. Glad you got out to see a movie, I'm still wanting to watch Iron Man III.

JPEE,

I hope all goes well enough for you this week. At least you got some flying time in with the Bixler, I'm sure it was needed therapy. Surprising how a little shift of the battery goes a long way. I too did the sharpie mark in the bay to make sure I place the battery in the same position each time. No more nose-overs and damaged prop blades for me anymore! [:'(]

Waiting on my new heli and many parts (130X, 500 blades, Zero retracts ).

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Haven't gotten much of a chance to fly this past weekend, as I have been busy finalizing and finishing the eBay sales. All went well, and got pretty good prices for everything, now just hope it all gets there in one piece, and people are happy

In fact, I didn't fly at all. But I have been buying some parts, the LHS actually impressed me, and they got the metal 130X tail gears in stock, they had a set, so I grabbed them (apparently they've been on backorder for some time). They are kind of expensive, for 2 tiny gears, ($20), but I would imagine they are hard to machine, being that small.

JPEE,

Hope all is well at Hotel JPEE.. Nah, seriously, hope things go well, and you and the little lady are coping well under the circumstances.

Glad you got a chance to fly, even if it was sort of rushed...sounds like you've got those high wind days down now...cool stuff.

Mark,

CONGRATS on the "new" 130X...hopefully, it's in great shape, and will fly well for ya...it's kind of a toss-up, it seems, even new out of the box...

But, as you know, plenty of set up, and tips on HF...there are like 10 stickies at the top of the 130X forum, full of great info.

I hope to get some flights I this weekend, or before....the weather here is brutally hot, humid, and thunderstorms in the afternoon/evening...maybe by the weekend, it'll settle down a bit.

Let us know how the 130X is when ya get it!

Let me know what you think of the bearing kit, and the TT bearing tail boom...be interested to hear on that stuff.

I think I'm more or less OK for parts at the moment, I have all the stuff for a full metal gear train for the tail....whether that's good or bad...not sure yet

Talk to you guys soon...

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi all,

JPEE,

Hope things are slowing down for you and the house hold numbers are shrinking...I know its nice to have your space to you again.

Glenn,

Got the 130x just this afternoon and have already dug into her! I knew this was going to be a near complete tear-down and rebuild as I have to split the frame just to get to the main bearings, not to mention the elevator servo. I just did a little this evening but compared to working on the mcpx this is huge.

I know she was involved in a few crashes but the spindle shaft is true as can be and the CF main shaft is not splintered or cracked. The main grip bearings, though are notchy as can be. And considering one side is open I can see why. They also are a royal PITA to remove w/o them completely coming apart leaving the outer ring embedded in the grip. Glad the guy included replacement grips.

The Lynx 3rd bearing boom came in today as well and I gave it a quick looking over...it does seem nice and appears they inserted a bearing in the middle of a cut boom and put a sleeve over the whole thing. I did see some current reports of guys who are Beta testing this first run (myself included ) that there have been some issues with the 2 boom sections rotating when some pressure is applied. A bit of CA seems to be helping this problem so I'll be checking that when I get to installing it.

One thing I read on the metal gear train...best to do metal A and C gears and leave the D gear plastic. Gives you a 'fuse' of sorts in a crash as the plastic gear will strip and everyone agrees the D gear is the easiest to replace.

I have to work the rest of this week (weekend included) so I probably wont get the chance to maiden until after the 4th of July...family festivites before heli flying you know? But considering this is much more closer to our 'real' heli's then the mcpx's were, I want to make sure everything is running smoothly before taking her out.

Hope you have some free time this weekend to get a flight or two in...but I know what you mean with the heat already in full swing. Maybe a storm will swing past and cool things down this weekend.

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey Mark,

Sounds like you are going to be experienced in 130X repairs before I will !

I'm not going to dig into mine until I have to! I'll keep tuned in to see how the rest of yours goes along.

I agree on leaving the D gear plastic as a give point in the gear train...and it seems as though it would be the easiest to replace.

I know you probably already know this, but watch your clearance on the A gear to control board area, the clearance is TINY there, and you can eat up that MOSFET on the board pretty quickly. I checked mine with a sticky note folded in half, which is probably about .008 of an inch, and it was rather tight!

I got a case/toolbox for my 130X, but it's too big, can't fit it in my heli tote with the rest of my stuff....so I looked into my MCPX little case I got for it from Harbor Freight, and if I take the canopy off, it fits in that like a glove, and both of those fit nicely in the tote...so I'm all set for carrying to/from the field now.

I'm hoping to get some flights out of both of them, the MCPX was flying great last time out, with new batteries, and the new long tailboom/motor combo...

After flying the 130X...I am SO glad I did not get a brushless MCPX! (I was split about 50/50)...

Good luck with your new project, and keep us posted!

Glenn

JPEE

Hey Guys,

Well everyone that came for the funerals pulled out Thursday. One car drove out and back to Dallas Texas in 27 hours non stop (exception 2.5 hr nap) straight! The other car drove back to Loveland Colorado and they made it non stop other than gas 17 hours straight. I could never dream of that kind of driving anymore. With the loss of three souls in the last 4-5 months the airplane tickets have hit them hard and that's why they all drove this time out.
Man I can tell ya, 7 extra souls in the house for three days and the others that come by join the family here ate and drank us out of our SS# benifits dang near lol.

Moving on to happy things like certain un-named guys with new 130's lol............... how is going boys? I see your all getting in the metal replacement parts and making tote cases "which by the way you cannot beat HF for stuff like that" are doing well. Only my Glenn would catch that close proximity of the MOSFET and the "A" gear, a good catch for sure.
Mark, congrats on the arrival of your "pre owned 130" too. Now a little bench work and a good going over and you will be golden.

Been watching your weather and you guys have really had the storms and what goes along with them. Here we are hot, today is set for 104 and tomorrow they say a possible 110 and it stays in the high 90s until next Thursday and then drops under the 90 mark. Our A/C has run non stop and through the night for a week. Clearly there is no flying AT ALL. Last night I thought I would get the GS and take him out like 7:00 pm. but it was still so hot outside you couldn't breath it seemed like. So everything is stored. I had cleared the garage of all of the stuff I brought home from house 2 a couple of weeks ago that I set in the middle of the back half of the garage until I could take some time and stack it after checking each box. I did that Friday and go it placed on each side of the garage so now my Diesel and Judy's car and the RZR 4x4 all fit but there is no room for a build table right now. If it were cooler at night I could pull the truck out and build and then pull it back in the am. but it is just to hot for even that at this point.

Hey Nick, enjoy your summer

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

JPEE,

Hope everything is returning to normal and after a week or so of living off beenie-weenies your SS checks should replace your losses. Glad its over for you and your misses so now you can move on.

Is summer over yet??? [] I agree with the heat assesment...although our temps havent been as hot as yours its still no fun trying to do anything in it.

Speaking of heat...the storms weren't all that bad - cooler weather and cloud cover was a nice welcome. Got the chance to take the Zero out for a flight this weekend and enjoy the break from the heat. Had a nice time and just cannot get over the looks of this plane in the air. So dang gorgeous! Then got the 500 out with the replacement blades and had a nice easy flight just puttering around. A good Saturday for flying.

Last night I got the chance to really get into the 130x...had to sand down the metal A gear (a drill and some sandpaper did the trick) to get it to clear the ele servo. Also installed the 3rd bearing boom and setup all the TT gears. The B gear was lots of fun...found the best way to go about it was to remove the entire main shaft assembly (A gear, shaft, and main gear) so I had all that room to maneuver a pair of pliers to hold the tiny B gear in place and slide the TT indent into it. Took a few tries but finally got it and also applied some loctite while I had it apart. Lots of back and forth with this heli as still trying to find the best way of getting things done with the limited amount of space.

Did a quick run-up and everything seems ok but need to get a replacement tail slider before I can hover so off to the hobbyshop on Friday for that. Not going too crazy with the metal stuff on this one as it has been out long enough and there are a few things that people say are an absolute necessity to replace and other stuff are just bling. The metal A gear is almost a given as is a few other things, but for now I'll just get it flying with stock parts and go from there.

Hope everyone has fun plans for the 4th and if weather permits maybe a flight or two also.

Take care and be safe!

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Rain, rain, rain....like every afternoon and evening for the past week...but, as Mark noted, it's welcome in a way, as it does cool things off a bit, and the cloud cover helps with the A/C bills..

JPEE,

Glad your ordeal is finally over...and you can get things back to normal!

Some of those road trips are quite long, not sure I could handle being in a car that long.

Hope things cool down for ya, at least there is some relief in sight soon for most of the SW, so I hear, hoping you get some too!

Mark,

Sounds like your 130X is coming along nicely...I have not yet had the opportunity (although I have read plenty about it) to tear into the 130X just yet...figure I'll get some more flights in bone stock, as many as I can...

I understand that B gear and setting up the boom length/depth and Loctite on the B and C gears is a bit of a challenge, read about some different methods guys are using, and they seem to have it down to a science after some experience, reminds me of my B400 rebuilds, could almost do them in my sleep!

I'm going to try to keep mine as stock as possible...have read many guys that got all the bling, metal, etc, and ended up going back to bone stock, some even on the metal gears for the tail...going back to plastic! I figure if it flies really well out of the box, it is at least capable of flying that well again , with all stock parts...I remember very well, spending $200 in the Eflite bling/metal, etc, on the Blade 400, and it flew no better, in fact the metal stuff actually caused more issues than it fixed.

Hope you guys have a happy and safe 4th of July!

I'm going to try to finally get some flights in, the forecast is for a small chance of storms tomorrow evening...20%...so maybe...

Glenn

JPEE

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to wish you all a pre happy Forth of July!

Glad to read about everyone's good luck with their 130s. And a little rain on your parades? lol. Well out here high temps are finally falling. Last night for the first time in two weeks I was able to sleep with the windows open, yea howdy that was sweet! Today I need to carry a light jacket with me because the temps are dropping to a cool 95 during the day time lol.
I tried to get in the some flying yesterday late with my grandson. We got three 10 min flights on the 450 Quad and then the wind was just to much and it wasn't fun. But........I did get him to take off several times and that was a first for him, now that brought him a smile! I did near lose the Quad myself. I flipped the "return to home" to tell the GPS to bring it back and land it all on auto, hands off for me. Well........ as she was supposed to she climbed the pre set 20 feet and got her bearings, then she started coming back and to land herself from where she took off. There was a pretty hefty wind then and as she came down she was taken into it over an old 100 year protected oak tree and out of my eyesight and....... There were high tension elec. lines on the other side of that tree to boot. I had to react fast and turn off the auto land and take over manually and bring her back into sight and the day was saved.....but that to date was the worst "near miss" with my Quad to Hexa's. For example, we fly the Quad way out and then let go and the wind would carry it back to us on an even plan, it was like watching her just slide along the skies.

Ya all be careful with those fire works and don't eat to much BBQ and drink to much fire water.....lol

PS: Mark, you should be proud of me, like a big-boy I went to Lowe's all by myself and got my (2) colors matched on the P-51B elevator?

Aframomum

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Hi guys,

Hope everyone's 4th was terrific! Ours was great and the little guy got to play with sparklers and pick out which fireworks he wanted daddy to shoot off next. It was a great time - plus BBQ on the grill, what more could you ask for?

Have to get back later to finish up about the rest of the weekend...

Mark

JPEE

Hello Mark and crew,

My 4th was low key as I just hung around the house. I flew my night-lighted quadcopter around the had cars follow it off of the main drag as I was coming during my three flights. The bugger's would pull up in front of my house... watch for a moment then pull off.

I took my GS out to fly the quad about a 4-5 days ago and the wind was tough for him and he was getting a bit disheartened. So today we went out at 8:00 a.m. before it got to 100 degrees and I only took his Bixler. We did the buddy box thing and it worked purrrrfect! He was having the time of his life, now he was flying not just learning the fundamentals with the quad. kids today......... they want it all to come fast. Well as "we' know that cant happen with flying. On his third pack I had him pulling snap loops and then longer-taller and slower ones. That he flew was one thing, to have flown his plane for the first time and DID STUNTS he was stoked. But I was albe to show him that is was the quad that gave him his fundamentals and "that's" he flew his plane so well. But with that said I see that the Bixler is a bit to big for the area we are flying in and it moves a bit to fast for him. I am gonna look for a Cub which is what the guys here all learn with, they fly slow, they are of course a wing-over, almost un-stall-able and they glide in pretty easy. One of those with a set of bush tires/wheels for this dirt area we fly in by his house and he'd be set. I mean come on, once he gets a several more flights in the next task is to teach him to land!!! so the Cub would be the ticket I think.

Like Mark I too hope everyone had a great 4th

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Hope everyone had a great 4th...

JPEE,

Sounds like you have the grandson having a great time! That must be rewarding to teach him and be able to see the results...congrats on that!

Glad your heat wave cooled down for you, I know my dad in AZ was hating life there for a bit, @117 degrees...[X(]



Well guys, I've been flying helis for some time now....but never quite had an event like this past Friday evening...crazy stuff!

I got started late, as I had a hard time finding anywhere to fly (even a small area). Finally settled in on the Moose lodge, which I have never actually flown in the evenings...the first thing I found out, and part of why I waited to fly is it faces WEST. So, come sundown...well, you get it...

Anyways, about 8:15, still fairly light outside, I set up the 130X...and went for a spin. The field was quiet prior to this event.

I got it in the air, and after a couple of laps, getting warmed up, I kinda noticed what I thought were big bugs, like the dragonflies we get around here in the summer.

After a short while, there were more of them, then more...then I realized that they seemed awful big for dragonflies...then, I heard the little squeals....OMG, not dragonflies, but BATS!!! And quite a few at that!!

It was just about time to wind it down, as the timer had gone off...so I landed, uneventfully, and watched, as they more or less just dissipated, and all was calm again...

Still had some time, and wanted to see how the MCPX was doing, so I took it up...and no sooner than I got it in the air, as they all (and more, I think) returned, but this time, on a much more personal level, since I was flying the MCPX much closer in....

Well, they got a little too close for comfort, one went zingin' by about a foot or two away from me, and it was moving! I landed the MCPX, and called it a night!!

Very bizarre, as I can only assume that the noise from the helis is what attracts them, (as they have very poor eyesight)...not to mention it was a bit freaky!!

I don't think they are dangerous to humans, except for occasionally spreading rabies, they might not be so heli friendly, although I had no collisions...surprisingly, as many as there were (had to be at least 10-12 or so)....

I guess the Moose Lodge will be limited to daylight flying only!

Anyways, both helis flew VERY WELL, the MCPX is doing very nicely, as the extra power and long tailboom allows for "in place" flipping, no more "coin tossing" to get it to flip (Mark will know about this..)

That's my heli story of the year....lol...

Take care till next time guys....

Glenn

JPEE

Glenn,

That is quite the story. You covered, heli dangerous, weird, strange, and the WOW factor with that post.

My little Judy is in Colorado caring for her sister and her daughter, yes more terrible sickness again. But the up side is.........while there at her nieces bedside at the hospital on the fifth floor she saw two different model WWII Bombers go by! She later found that there was an Air Show close. So she and another family member drove over there to check it out. Well low and behold they had a B-52 and a B-17 there you could FLY IN! Guys, I am talking getting on this perfectly restored WWII Bomber. She asked what was the charge for the flight. The flight would be 30 minutes airborne and they only take 6 souls beyond the crew......... $400.00 per seat! She left and came back to her hotel and called and said the price scared her. Lets take a step back for a moment, she had to fly there on the Red Eye for $300. one way. She is eating hospital food and her hotel cost are mounting. So gain, she said that was a lot of money. I told her to get her "tookis" down there and buy the ticket for the B-17 and it would be my treat for anniversary gift! (31 yrs today). She did and the next day she flew. She still cannot stop texting me about it. She was so engrossed in the plane and all of it machines guns and other rigging she could hardly take a photo as she did not want to miss the experience monkeying around with the camera. But here are 5 shots.

The plane in the sky is the B-52 not her B-17

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

O - M - G JPEE!!!!! Is all I can say!!!

What an experience of a lifetime...to actually fly in one of those timekeeps of history. A definite 'one for the history books' so to speak. I know she had a terrific time. Hope her sister is doing fine.

Glenn,

Attack of the bats at the Moose Lodge...may see a SciFy movie about that in the coming years. Glad they didn't get your mcpx. When I was growing up in SC we used to stand under the street lights at dusk and watch them go after the moths, it was amazing the speed and accuracy they have with their sonar/radar (however they 'see' in the dark?).

Glad your 130x and the mcpx are flying tip top shape. Its nice when you can just load up the car and go fly and not worry about tinkering with anything.

Speaking of tinkering, I got out of the habit of taking apart my mcpx servo's and just squirt a bit of deoxit into them when they get jittery and seems to do the trick. How's that for laziness? Just about ready for a maiden with my 130x, will try a driveway hover this weekend and see how things go.

Forgot to update on this past weekend...last Sunday I had one of those amazing flying days where that feeling just lasts all day. I actually haven't had one of those days in a long time, where everything just works out. In the morning after work I took the mcpx out and did my very first inverted somewhat-circular circuit. Hooray!

Then later that morning took my son out and flew just one battery through the 500, and what a flight that turned out to be. Just mixed up everything that I was comfortable with and included piroettes in all of them. I think the best was doing continuous big air loops and throwing in piroettes in the up-leg part and then holding it at the inverted leg and doing 4 or 5 pirottes at the top before continuing the down-leg of the loop. Just electrifying, and ending with a nice mini-auto that didn't bounce nor slightly tip at all. I think I actually let out a nice "yeah-shout" afterwards!

A great start to the week for sure!

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE,

Glad to hear that good news that she was able to get out and enjoy those classic planes, looks like a great history lesson there!

Hope all is well with the sister, and a quick recovery.

Mark,

Congrats on your "One of those special days"....I remember those well, and you have to enjoy them to the fullest, before you get "One of those bad days"...we all know how this hobby can be a roller coaster ride at times...

Good luck on the 130X maiden, if you haven't already gotten it in yet!

It's just too darn HOT to fly here, and I guess everyone is having a bit of it. Been in the mid 90's with humidity that makes it feel like 105+... I think I'll wait out the heat wave until next week....although they say we might break it this weekend, with some storms on Saturday.

Hope everyone is well!

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Glenn,

No-go on the 130x maiden...after finishing up with her I did a spool up and found the swash tilts full right aerilon in normal mode and a slight bit in idle 1.

I tested this first with blades off and with blades on and got the same results. Even went so far as to remove the boom and head block (leaving just the main shaft) to eliminate any chance of vibrations that might be causing it and same results. Going to call Horizon tomorrow and see if they have any ideas or let me know the 3N1 may be messed up. I'm hoping its some setting I can go into and adjust in the 3N1.

I did have a good flight with my Zero this morning. Installed my new HK retracts earlier this week and dug out some of the foam in the wheel well so no binding when I retracted the wheels and everything worked like a charm. They went up just fine after take-off and cycled perfectly for the few approaches I did before finally landing. Of course on rollout it did swerve and caught the grass at the edge of the road and did a noseover. Blah! I need some kind of brakes for it. But it was a nice flight.

There is some kind of tropical mess in the gulf and so lots of cloudy weather has been covering us for the past week. Temps somehow still get to the 90's in the afternoon but at least in the mornings its not full sun so I can deal with the humidity for a couple flights.

When is summer going to be over?

Mark

JPEE

Hello Mark,

Sorry to hear about your 3-1 problems, grrrrr................ it must be frustrating................ and as you know we have all been there to more than once. I am sure that your diligence and with the assistance of HH you'll nail down your problem. Great news on your Zero! Nothing like a good and uneventful fly day for sure. I do have a question for you?

Why did you change out your landing gear to HK?

Failures?

Landing damage?

Better equipment?

My P-51 is done! I finished it last week. Oh man were you ever telling the truth on the landing gear being "twitchen". I have never had retracts and this is a real treat for me. She almost takes my breath away with her size, my goodness, this sucker is huge! My only hold up now is I ordered two (2) 4S 4,000 mAh 40C batteries for her last week Friday from USA HK. They should arrive by Wednesday or sooner this week! That's cool too be cause we are HOT and Humid here with little showers form time to time, gadds-zooks, you'd think I was there in Florida lol. by mid week we just get real hot and dry, so that will be my fight weather.

Question: Did your instructions tell you to add the rubberized glue to the bottom of the rudder?

I took my grandson to my private field last week near sundown as it was a hot day. We got in two flights on his Bixler and he was all smiles. He liked flying there rather than the old field near his home with tall 100 year old oak Trees. Between his two flight I took up the 700 and none of my daughters or grand kids have ever seen me fly a helicopter. I told my GS that if I said "drop" he was to drop to the ground and lay fly just in case I lost her because I told him he cannot run fast enough to beat a loose 700 main blade. Well as I spooled up I saw him from the corner of my eye slipping back behind me he he he, the high head speed made him kinda "Christian" if you will. I took off in Idle-Up so I was cranking some R's. Once I got her up I told him to come stand by me. He was totally aware of the shear power that heli has and I did some slow fly by's where he could see the heli in kind of a scale situation. Then I pulled a few loops and rolls, the A-Typical stuff, he really enjoyed it.


Nick, where are you? Enjoying summer vacation I'll bet.

Glenn, I hope your weather has improved and your close field will allow you have some fun soon.