Chopper Chuck

Another great installment of The Rat Club Chronicles! Always enjoy it and Id say given everything you had to deal with that you were really in command! Way to go Mack!
The Chop

dooleyje

We also had high winds today and I had to test fly a B400. We installed all Align servos. 410's on cyclic and 420 on tail and also installed a nice Futaba 520. Replaced the ESC with an Align 35G.
It was a completely different heli. The customer was pleased. This is one of the guys I taught on setup and installation. His blades tracked on the money and the tail was locked and no drift. It was so windy that I really couldn't tell if anything was out of trim other than a bit forward. It was bouncing so hard and balooning really bad. Now the customer knows why I insist on 3-5 degrees neg pitch in normal mode. The big EVO handles the wind very nicely,,, nothing like a big heli.

I am off tomorrow and hope I can get a little flying in. The Evo and Vibe are charging as we speak.

Later,

Jim

flyachopper1

Hello all,
Oh no, we don't feel that we would be "forsaking" our little helis. Just adopting them out to new parents that would give them love and attention. Our collection is growing so fast we are at the point of needing to limit what we haul around on the road. I see it as evolution. We are moving up and on in the hobby. We both like the bigger birds more and will be getting more of those. Donica is convinced now that she needs a 700 soon. So rather than just 'warehouse' the smaller birds we want to see them go somewhere that will keep them flying. Choppy, perhaps you could use a good condition 'used' bird of some kind. They will be in like new condition and guaranteed not to rot, run down your leg or smell in hot weather.

We had a good day blowing dust off the grass of Henrys field today. Once again, my Cajun beauty is falling in love with my newest heli and as a result I must share it with her. She did spend some time with her 600 today and burned nearly three tanks through it. She has gotten real familiar with how that one handles and is getting real good at the refueling, restarting, etc. required to fly a nitro. I put my 500 up for quite awhile today and it did well until one of the control rods came apart and I landed it on its side. On my, more repairing. Not a bad crash though. It was only three feet or so up and I was decelerating for landing. Lots of the usual parts damaged. All of the tail and boom were spared though so that will help. Got a lot of use out of my 600 too due to my partner having the 700 already off the ground and out of my reach. It is still great fun to fly together though and to watch her while she flies. Cannot get enough of the giggles, beaming smiles and, of course, the 'happy dance'. Henry got a bit tired of sitting and watching us fly so I turned him loose with the Ford again to make a run to town for some beers and a capon to cook for dinner. By the time we finished flying most of the day was gone and we headed for the house to kick back for awhile. Then Donica worked some Cajun magic on the capon and some blackeyed pea salad. Mmmmmmm, goes real well with MGDs.

Ok, what is in the Ford 302??? I will try to summarize the important stuff so as not to go on at length here. This motor build was a real adventure that lasted nearly three months. I wanted to end up with a reasonably strong motor without going overly radical as I wanted it to be a mangeable daily driver. I and Ames took on the build ourselves and were learning along the way.

We started by stripping down the 72 vintage engine to the bare bones block. Decided to stay with the stock crankshaft fitted with TRW flattop pistons and matching rods. Had the crankshaft balanced and laser checked for straightness. Went to Summit Racing for a set of Twisted Wedge heads and a Trick Flow Track Heat intake manifold. On top of the manifold is an Edlebrock 650 cfm four barrel fed by twin electric fuel pumps. The Twisted Wedge heads have a unique twisted combustion chamber design with 2.02 inch intake ports and 1.60 inch valves. Went back to Summit Racing for an Isky Super Cam with a .050 duration of 218 and a set of AFM Hi Rev valve springs. To allow the Isky cam and AFM spring set to work together we installed a set of Comp Cams Pro Magnum 1.6:1 ratio roller rockers, roller lifters and HI Tec push rods. Sent the heads to AFM for a Stage III port job to help support the combination of the cam and the hi rev springs. The Isky cam is designed to give more power through midrange rpms but with the rocker, lifter and springs we used it will pull all the way to the 7,000 rpm range without falling off.

Now, to keep things reasonable for high way rpms and mileage we buttoned it all up using a Ford top loader four speed and a Dana 60 rear pumpkin with 3.55 gears. That gives 2700 rpms at 65 mph and keeps the revs high enough so there is plenty of power for pulling trailers, etc. without having to downshift for most hills and such. Could have gone with 3.00 gears and 2200 rpms at 65 mph but the power curve would have been troublesome towing. The difference in mpg is about 2 1/2.

The truck only weighs in at 2600 pounds now and has more than enough power. The way I drive it Donica is convinced maybe a bit too many horses. Like the little sign on the dash says "Get in, strap down, hang on and try not to scream".

This has gotten very lengthy here so I best save some cyberspace for the rest of you. hope I didn't wear on anyone.

Later me friends.

Mack66

Back when I was a teenager in 1776 I recall guys taking a Ford 292 and reboring it to a 302. Looks like you found an easier way to do that, eh? Sounds sweet, Jay. I remember wishing i had the money to pour into my '59 Meteor Rideau 500 convertable with a 361 (Edsel) in it. No this was not custom. It was a stock Canadian car. Ford was "dumping" Edsel parts any way they could, so the Mercury Meteor became an export depository. Turns out the 361 had more power than the 390, and pretty much had all 390 parts on it. I had purchased a full race cam for it on the secondary market, but couldn't afford all the rest of the mods required to evolve that car. Boy it sure was a cool cruiser with dual Thrush mufflers on it. Cruisin' Dundas in Toronto. Yeah.

Sweet dreams!

Mack

dooleyje

1776??? That would make you ???? . [X(] One of the fathers of our Country.

Donica happy Valentines. Jay give her a hug from us!!!

Deb and I just came in from dinner. I had an early reservation set.

I had some disappointing news on the new Futaba750 unit. It is reported that it will only work with Futaba receivers.... No firm announcement yet but hey shoot yourself in the foot FUTABA!

Spektrum has the DMsX system out and is suppose to be for those who fly at large event such as the Ircha and Joe Nall where there are hundred of pilots airborne at the same time.. It helps to further eliminate interference.

I have come to the same conclusion as Jay and Donica. The larger helis, at least for me, are really fun and the little ones are getting hard to see. The 200 Gaui has to be flown close or I loose it visually. It is broken for now. I tried to fly it today and during pre flight it had a broken motor lead. My Sceadu flew great and I am still nursing the Vibe motor. I have it up to 200 degrees. I replaced the glow plug becaause a realy rich setting will ruin the plug. I rather spend 7 bucks on an OS no.8 than have to worry about a flame out.

Well,,, my new heli ise finished and I feel lost with no parts all over the bench nothin to do. I guess I will start on the Bell 222. I have not flown my 450pro on the DX8 since transfering the program from my DX7 and when you stuff a heli in a scale fuselage you want to insure the airfram is in trim. I have install the retract landing gear first and get it adjusted and install all the nav lights. Then slide the 450Pro into the body. A trick of the trade is to use hot melt glue to tack the wires doen and out of the place and also to help hold the leds in. This should be a fun project.

Later,

Jim

Mack66

Well it was another great day at the Rat Club. Greg and Jim were out there with me. I continued to pursue the cause of my engine leaning out.

The other day I spotted a Curtis Youngblood MP-5 muffler for sale at a local mail order place for $49.95 so grabbed it. I guess they aren't making the MP-5 any more and just selling the MP-5 SB (Stick-Banger) version for MSRP $79.95. The SB apparently is better tuned to take advantage of heli's with governors. Some claim to prefer the older version. Another pilot at our field, Ronnie, has the SB version on his SDX and he's happy with his.

For me this is a huge upgrade over the Thunder Tiger R50 muffler that my Sceadu came with (I bought it used 1-1/2 yrs ago).

Sooo Greg urged me to install it regardless of whether the TT muffler was the cause of the problem or not. So I did. The bolts provided were just a tad too long for the lower flange...just barely touching the frame on the inside. So added a couple washers under the cap of the bolt and cured that issue. CY uses nuts and bolts rather than attempting to thread the soft aluminum like TT, which end up stripping pretty quickly anyway. The pressure tap is on the front side of the exhaust port, so had to use a longer segment of tubing to get to it from the fuel tank. Also had to trim back the canopy a bit to make room for the muffler not a problem, had that done in a flash.

Hooked up my fuel transfer pump to the carburetor feed line and purged the jets. Gave it a good puff of air to make sure there wasn't any major obstruction and all seemed fine.

Fueled up and ran her up. Problem is gone! In fact it was running a bit richer, probably because of different muffler characteristics. And my my my did she ever run smooth. You'd never think something as simple as a muffler upgrade could make such a difference but it did!

Was just as windy today as it was yesterday, so spent the first tank feeling out the winds and building confidence. On my second flight I went ahead and cut loose in FFF and was delighted with the way she handled. Today marks the day when my Sceadu flew more beautifully than ever before. I get more confident every time I fly in different windy conditions. Bigger is definitely better when it comes to flying in less than optimal conditions!

We did have a bit of a downer. Jim, a 25+ year veteran RC pilot with both planks and helicopters, augured in at the end of a brilliant flight. He was hovering after running a few autos at the end and just plain lost orientation. Down his SDX went, and then he fumbled a bit and it started the chicken dance. Greg and I looked on helpless until he could kill the engine. Finally got it shut down, only after he managed to tear up his main blades and bend the tail boom 45 degrees down. No frame damage that we could find. NiMH battery pack relocated itself, but no servo tray damage. Notable damage in the head, but we'll find out tomorrow about that after he strips it down tonight.

As usual. Pilot error. Sure can happen fast, eh? Jim is in his high 60's I think, so I'm sure his eyesight ain't what she used to be. Come to think of it neither is mine! I sure know what it's like to be where he ended up today. In a flash you can have what appears to be an optical illusion. My tactic is to do something. Anything that will give me a visual cue as to the aircraft's orientation. This is usually a strong move in the UP direction. I'll betcha Jim tried to guess which way to roll rather than pulsing...but hey what do I know? Damage not too bad though. She'll be rebuilt and up again in no time.

All in all another exciting day at the Rat Club. And it was in the 70's even if it was breezy. Life is good.

Mack

Chopper Chuck

HAPPY v-DAY EVERYONE!

CHOPPY

one thumb

Hi mack,
it has been years since i had a glow engine, but had many years of 2 cycle engine work. Road Raced a 2 stroke bike built 2 cycle car (SAAB) race engines and know that you can totaly change an engine power curve with a symple exhaust change. My road racer, a 125cc works Tohatsu had 3 sets of pipes. The power curve was on strong diferently with each exhaust. You did not change the timing or jetting and had power between, 5 to 9.k on one, 6 to 11k on the second and from 9 to 14k on the set I used at Daytona. The wild thing is it's mostly a matter of trial and error. You hit a better combo.
karl

dooleyje

Hello everyone. Theren is not a lot to report. I had a very slow day at the store. I finished a 450 repair that I was waiting for bearings to finish. Other than that nothing kicking. We had a nice day weather wise and I had to work. I think now is the time to keep the car loaded and batteries charged so I can go to the field after work. Mack has seen my herd and I pretty much have a SUV full at all times.

I plan on taking some pictures soon. I will take them to the store so the light is good.

For those of you who fly planks, Venom had some super nice ARF jets at around 89 bucks. You can get the Mig15, Saber, F16,F18 and others. Super powerful and fast and all the tronics are installed just add your receiver and battery. Those who have purchased them have reported OOOHS and AAAAHS,, good enough for me. I like the Saber and Mig.

Jim

Mack66

OK another day of fun for me. This morning I joined the old fogies down at the Jitterbug Cafe for coffee, then followed them down for some target practice at the local shooting range. Ran back home and took my Valentine out to lunch at the local Mongolian BBQ, then back home to find that Ronnie was wanting me to come out to the Rat Club.

Sooo packed up the Sceadu and headed out. When I got there I soon learned that Greg had augured his SDX in. A very peculiar event it was very windy today, and the wind pushed his hat down over his eyes and stuck there. Unfortunately this happened when he was making a low level left to right pass at about 65mph ground speed (15-20mph tail wind) so decided to stick it in the dirt rather than fly it in to God knows what. Discretion is the better part of valor, eh? Anyway, tail boom looked like a pretzel, knick in the belt, head pretty much a rebuild and the locating pin on the frame sheared (= frame replacement). Greg said he wanted to build a kit anyway so took this opportunity to total the aircraft and build a new kit (SDX).

My my my the stuff that happens at Read Field! Ronnie and I flew a couple times but it was hard work. The winds became stronger as the afternoon wore on and eventually neither of us wanted to fly anymore. Sure we could, but it got to be more like work rather than fun. And the risk of sticking it in the dirt was getting pretty high.

Still, a fun day for me. Certainly didn't let any grass grow under these retired feet!

Oh yeah, I did lean out my engine just a tad more and still some to go to fully develop WOT at the appropriate mix. Still very rich mixture so good to go. The Phoenix sure is flying nice!

By the way it was 73 degF out there today, but still wanted my jacket on because of wind chill! I am such a wimp.

Mack

PS - Jim, if your stable gets any bigger you're gonna have to put in a second story in the back of your SUV!

PPS - Thumb, yes I agree. It's amazing how exhaust tuning affects engines. I had know this from the past but forgot how dramatic it could be!

flyachopper1

Hello all,
Nice day here with more to come. No flying today. Going fishing and riding. Repairs to the 500 will have to wait until we move on to Baton Rouge where I can purchase some parts. Not much to offer for hobby shops in Albany. Mostly arts & crafts stuff here. The stores that do sell rc aircraft don't stock parts and mostly handle low end models. Two more weeks here and then it's on to Baton Rouge.

Later me friends.

dooleyje

As promised, pictures

dooleyje

more,

dooleyje

More,
Jim

dooleyje

And my 500. I will sent pics of the big Gaui tomorrow

Jim

Mack66

Jim,
When I met you not long ago, the only one that was built was the Sceadu! That 500 sure came out pretty. You can tell that Vibe was put together by an expert! Say, why not a push-pull on the throttle? Interference for the lower rod?

All of them look like they've never seen outdoors! They're beautiful. Um...by the way, that Vibe might need some rotor blades. Heh.

Mack

dooleyje

Thank you. The Vibe did not come with a blade holder so I take them off. I clean mine up almost after every flight. I have always kept my models in pristine condition just like my Dad taught me.
The electric are easy to keep clean but I can not stand fuel left in my tank and greasy heli. The oil will draw dirt. The Vibe has 4 tanks through it so far. The Evo has many gallons through it
and 3 gallons since last rebuild.

The 500 met with a mishap this evening. I was ready to fly it and set it out on the run way and decided to recheck my throttle curve. And POOF the ESC blew up and took out the 6cell flight battery. All I could do was clip the red wire to kill the power. Lucky if was still on the ground. That was a new Align 60 amp esc. I am pissed. Took out a $125 battery. I only had 4 flights on the Trex500. It was not damaged and I hope the receiver was not damaged. It came on so probably OK.

Jim

dooleyje

I forgot to say that a pull pull or push pull is not needed for throttle and there is not enough pressure on the arm to worry about it.

Jim

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

I LOVE that canopy!

Agreed on the p/p on throttle.

matty_p80

Jimbo, that is a suitably gorgeous collection! yes, that Vibe canopy is stunning!! i could relieve you of the 500 for a discounted price now that it's damaged??????? been meaning to ask: am i right in thinking there is a separate programmer available for the Spartan gyro i got off you??

to all, hope the week is ending in a pleasurable manner and if i don't get on here before Monday, Happy Presidents Day for then!!!

enjoy and happy flying!

Matty )

Mack66

Jim, that is a total bummer! I guess the next questions are: Who manufactured the ESC and has there been any other reports of similar incidents? This is really a safety issue. If it had popped while it was in your hands you might have gotten injured. It also could have caused the pack to burst into flames and totaled your 500.

One of our foamie ducted fan jet pilots lost his aircraft due to a burning pack while in flight. He landed it, but it subsequently burned to the ground.

Glad the rest of your aircraft survived.

Mack

PS - My Sceadu came with p/p on the throttle. My guess is that the TT RL53 doesn't line up with the servo, and as we've already discussed, the engine's throttle can be a bit sticky. I've asked our pilots why, but I've forgotten their reason(s). Not important as long as my helicopter flies good I'm happy!

dooleyje

Thanks Cuda,, Cost me 30 bucks shipped. It was blimished on the left side but I hide it with the DX8 Decal.

Matty, yep the Spartan has a seperate controller that you can fine tune the gyro. Sorry Matty the 500 is just fine and all the servos are fine and the receiver is fine. The gyro is fine. I just happened to had some side cutters in my back pocket from work. i heard this crack and simply reached down to cut one of the power cables. I have no ideaa why I reached in my back pocket for the cutters. The ESC was a 60amp Align. I will stick with Castle from now on for anything larger than a 450. I plan on a call to Horizon. That is three we have seen since Thanksgiving that have blown up.

Mack my Evo is a single arm on the zoom zoom servo.

Wow what a fantastic afternoon of flying. My Big Gaui with the 3G flew flawless, The 450Pro was fun. Hey even my Gaui200 was great. I finally got the tail to lock down with out wag.

On the DX7 you dial in 50% or greater for HH for your Gyro. On the DX8 you use anything above 0. The sense range is -100 to +100 This way you are able to dial the tail in a bit finer and the Futaba 520 with JR290G servo makes a grand combo. That is why the Gaui200 is working now.

Tomorrow I plan on workingthe VIBE. I finally installed a remote glow for it so hooking up the igniter is not such a finger scraper.

I will load my Flybarless Gaui pictures in a few minute when I can get on the big computer. She who must be obeyed in on it now.

JiM

dooleyje

Here is my Gaui with 3G flybarless

Mack66

Jim,

That's a Gaui 550, right? I almost ended up going with that as my first big helicopter! Sweet. It wouldn't have been such a bad choice, now would it?

Mack

Mack66

All,

Without making this a huge long story, I've managed to convince a regional newspaper to publish a little article on our RC Club, and in general pitch the hobby. We're meeting with the reporter on Monday. One of the questions she's asked is kind of interesting, so I thought I'd throw it out to our little club here to see what you all think. I will faithfully report your responses to the reporter!

The question is, "What are some interesting facts about RC clubs and/or the activity in general that people who are not involved might not know?"

For those of you who don't belong to a club, please note the "or the activity in general" part.

Cuda, you might have especially inciteful thoughts here given your unique perspective.

I'm just a dumb rookie heli pilot that don't know much but do know I like flying these cantankerous little mechanical marvels.

Mack