Mack66

Jim,
I like your thought process re bolting on the muffler. Next time I take mine off I'm putting it back on like yours. I like the idea of capping off with a lock nut behind the nut. Around our field the concern is always that the lock nut fries from the heat. Looks like that little nut/washer is enough to shed enough heat to protect the lock nut.

By the way, the instructions that come with the Curtis Youngblood MP5 muffler recommend sealing the thing to the engine exhaust flange with "high temperature silicone RTV". I asked our master pilot Greg about this and he said he'd tried it in the past and it didn't seem to do anything useful over just using nothing. So that's what I did! Nothing. And it works just fine. Besides, who wants to deal with scraping and cleaning and reapplying gooey stuff on a component every time you have to pull the engine? Not me.

Mack

dooleyje

Hey Mack I just saw that www.rcdumbthumbs.com has MP5 mufflers for $49 while they last...
Great deal.

Jim

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

RTV, if used in excess, can flake off and get sucked into the engine on the down stroke, if that happens it will snuff the glow plug instantly. Its ok in a VERY THIN smear to fill in imperfections.

Truth of the matter is, if the muffler is new and the engine exhuast manifold in good shape, just bolt it on, warm it up, and snug the bolts a little while its warm and that will be the end of it.

Gaskets etc usually just introduces something into the mix that expands at a different rate and you get mufflers falling off.

BTW, 5 minute epoxy, used in a very thin smear, will fill any gaps, be easy to get off, and not break away and snuff your glow plug.

Chopper Chuck

Hello all:
Here's a quick update from out Choppy's way:
Flew the SR and B400 outdoors last Saturday. 6 pacs thru the SR and 1 thru the B400. I'm getting quite comfortable with both and can bring em back alive reliably. Nothing fancy, but fun.
Also picked up a Trex 450 with lots of extras and upgrades and 2 batteries for a great price. It's a very nice bird and hovers like a statue!
Went indoor flying at a big golf driving range dome last week too. Over 20 folks flying everything imaginable! Took the SR & MSR and had a blast! Hope everyone is well.
Chopster

Mack66

Yes! That's where I got mine. And they're right here in Houston! Mercy me.

Thanks for the alert.

Mack

Mack66

Ooooh Choppy you are now hooked so bad, you'll never escape. Welcome to the Dark Side!

Mack

Chopper Chuck

Yo Mack! Yeah man, I'm totally gone on the heli thing! I'm buying blade balancers, pitch meters, micro scales, tech books, anything REMOTELY relevant is on my radar! It's such a beautiful sickness and I'm terminal!!!

Choppy

dooleyje

Choppy glad to see your having fun and thats the point.

I had a great day at work today and we upgraded a B400 to align410 servos on the cyclic and an Align420 on the tail. We installed a Futaba 401 gyro, all metal head upgrade. It was a totaly different heli. Rock solid, no slop and no drift. The cyclic servos in the back were a challenge to install with a bit of sanding with a dremal involved but well worth the trouble. The customer was surprised.

There is a new B450 on it's way to the martket so keep an eye out.

Mack no flying today?. It is rainy here and I have tomorrow off from work. I was notified that Horizon has completed my transmitter upgrade and it is on the way back.. Not bad I have to say,
dropped off to UPS Monday. They sent a received notice yesterday and I was notified today of the return. Thats service. The esc that blew up in my Trex500 was out of warranty and has been discontinued. Not surprised.

Later Floks,

Jim

Mack66

Today is a no-fly day for me. Nasty weather supposed to be approaching and high winds. The other pilots are also busy anyway. Tomorrow my daughter's place is getting rugs replaced by tile and I have been volunteered by they who must be obeyed to supervise and deliver kolaches.

Saturday is supposed to be nicer, and that's the day we have a swap meet at the field plus a fly-in. $5/carload and bring your stuff to swap. Might slip in a few flights later in the afternoon after most of them leave. Usually eases off after about 2pm. I'm thinking of selling my modified CX2, but don't know if I have the energy for it. Don't really know what I should ask for it. I know what I've got into it! I replaced the stock tail with a BoomTown boom, replaced stabilizer with a more responsive one, aluminum upper and lower rotor heads, and Xtreme 180 (brushed) motors. Also replaced skids with indestructible skids (smartest thing to do with these). MSRP for the stock unit was $179. I have two 800mAh LiPos for it as well. It flies pretty perky for a coaxial, but I just don't see keeping it around any more. I'll probably start my grandson on something smaller anyway, then move him on to the real deal when he's proven himself on the sim.

Anyone have any idea as to what I should ask for it?

By the way, I ignored the LiPo's for my CX2 for about 16 months and just got them out and checked their voltage. I expected them to be flat, but lo and behold they were both at about 7.8 Volts! I was amazed. Magic. Guess I should run them through the CX2 and recharge them, huh?

Sorry to hear your ESC was out of warranty, Jim. But then it looks like it discontinued itself and not sure you'd want another of its kind in any of your aircraft!

Mack

Chopper Chuck

Hey Jim! Thanks for the word!

Cool about you're B400! I think it's a fundamentally sound heli and with those upgrades it's gotta be a rock. Here's a couple of neat things: My Trex has a Castle Phoenix ICE 50 ESC. Programmable with data logging! This is a real new thing for me and very exciting. Also, today I received an email from Horizon about the arrival of the Ultra Micro Mosquito Mk V twin engine plank, (forgive me !!!) which I've been waiting impatiently for. I ordered one and within 45 minutes I received shipping confirmation! Impressive. Just watched the video on that 450 Jim. Looks pretty serious!

Something I've been wondering about: Is there any sensibility in making a change in the tail rotor blade on my SR to something perhaps just a touch bigger and stiffer? It's seems awfully flexible and it seems feasible that a little tweak back there might improve the over-all holding power. I've looked for a direct replacement to no avail.

Well, I'm off to work on some battery charging cables.

Have a great night Jim and everyone.

Choppy

dooleyje

The 400 I updated was not mine. I have not seen a stifferr blade offered for the SR yet but that's not the problem. The gyro simply can't handle it. It drifts on all helicopters SR and B400.

Later everyone,

Jim

Chopper Chuck

Thanks Jim: Guess I'll just have to keep workin' with it the way it is, but that's not a bad thing.

Choppy

cajungirl

Hi hello y'all,
Got off work early today and we went flyin' for a couple of hours. Jay took his monster 700 and I had my 500. The weather here is dreamy and warm so we had a good time of it. We finally tried a head to head speed run with a 500 and a 700. I'm proud to say my 500 ran right along with the 700. Top speed seems to be about the same. It was real fun to see and hear both those helis runnin' by at full goose. Sounded like two turbo charged race cars. At the end of the run we found out that the 700 will climb out faster than the 500. Seems like it doesn't lose power under a hard climb quite as much as the 500. Looked cool to see both helis head almost straight up though. We turned out of the climb at the same time and where mine was a bit lower than Jays we could turn the same way. It was so closely coordinated it almost looked like we planned it that way. Brought them into a kinda steep dive comin' back down and the 700 does that faster than the 500. Jay was outrunnin' me at that point so I cheated a little. I faked him back into a climb, dropped down and turned into a perfect landin' right in front of us. He had to nearly flip over the 700 to even get back close to when I did. I got poked and tickled for that one. Lotsa fun and laughs. I gotta tell ya, if any of you get the time and chance to get a flyin' partner you can spend a lot of time with and get to know each others techinques so you can do some close quarter flyin' do it. Makes things so much more fun. So far we've been lucky and had no collisions. We started out allowin' plenty of room between the helis and gradually are getting closer together. Makes for some real different flyin' and real fun to see and do.

Well, I have a long weekend this week (Monday off too) 'cause of a scheduled break for the students and we're takin' off with Henry on the bikes to let him show us some of the Georgia sites and history in this area. He has a plan all figgered out and we'll let him guide us. My stay in Albany has been extended one week and I don't mind at all. Love it here.

Gotta go y'all. Them "bikers" are a waitin' for me to get on the back of a real purty Harley and git ta gittin'.

Please be safe, healthy and happy.

Really glad 'bout knowin' y'all,

Donica

dooleyje

Hey Donica, I am glad you got a long break to relax a bit. Did Jay complete the trailer mods? I have not been able to fly this week. I sent my Transmitter to Horizon to upgrade the software. My DX8 was an early first version and one of two that hit this area.We have sent both back and it was a 1 day turn around and should be delivered Monday. The upgrade will change the transmission portion from DMS2 to Dmx. The DMX supposedly allows you to fly with a hundred other folks all at the same time?????? Duh I can't get off work to fly alone HA[&o] Well at least the days are longer and I can go flying after work weather permitting.

A little good news after the ESC blow up. I managed to save one of my batteries. The other one has a dead cell. I ordered a couple of new 6 cell 45c packs.. actually cheaper than running 2 3 cells.
I ordered a Castle ice75amp esc to replace the Align I had.

I really enjoy flying my 500 size helis but the big nitros are the best by far. I love that smell and the wump of the blades. The 500s are a great size though, you know, small but fly big.

I have a long day tomorrow so I will bid you g-night.... Tell Jay hey.

Jim

rcmiket

Jim since you seem to have the 500 thing down. Whats the deal with the tail wag on theses? Seems like if the head speed isn't up there it wags. I've had a few that just drive me nuts. Any thoughts?
Mike

Mack66

Donica,
Some day I hope to see you and Jay flyin' together. Sounds like it looks really cool! I keep telling our better pilots to fly together but so far everyone is chicken. Hope you all have a great weekend touring GA. Hope the weather keeps good for ya.

Speaking of weather, Friday was terrific. Went out in the afternoon. Winds were calm to 5mph. Warm and sunny just a beeootyful day. I did notice that the bugs have hatched so now have to deal with getting bugs flying round your eyes and sometimes in your ears. Yuk. Hard to fly when a gnat is buzzing around your eyes.

A rejoining new member Bill, who used to be a member of this club showed up Friday as well. He was working with his son on a .90 Cub. Only his son's second flight and did real well using the buddy box of course. Bill has an old .30 Shuttle and flew it with his 72MHz rig. Flew smooth as silk. Was really fun watching the pre-Sceadu perform. I can see how they progressed the design over time not from Shuttle to Sceadu to SDX. I can also see why people always speak highly of the Shuttle. I think the pilot had a lot to do with it but he claimed otherwise. Said he hadn't flown for 10 years but you'd never have guessed it.

Anyway, yet another heli pilot joins our growing ranks! Yeehaw.

Today was our club's swap meet. I brought my heli but ended up not flying. Just too much going on distracting me. Since I'm now our club's Vice President, I found a lot of my day taken up talking to people etc etc, so was already distracted. Plus with all the people poking around and various fixed wing aircraft comin' and goin' I was concerned that I wouldn't remain focussed. So why risk my baby for that? Besides, almost out of fuel anyway, and winds were kind of unpredictable but that is just an excuse. Was overcast all day and sometime spitting tiny drops of rain. Not really a great day to fly.

Tomorrow I'm hoping the weather will improve. Most of us plan to be out there, and Greg will be bringing me a case of fuel so keeping my fingers crossed that I can get some more practice in. On Friday I was finally getting my right turns sorted out thanks to Alex so my lazy 8's were starting to look nicer. Got back to running in Idle Up 1, although I didn't see any difference in performance, so suspect my "Normal" is set at higher RPM than I though. Plan to get someone to check my rotor speed to see what's up. Maybe just need to move up the center throttle a bit more...

Hope everyone is getting a chance to fly these days! We're starting to see Spring popping up here so can only get better and better down here!

And remember, any flight that doesn't involve dirt is a great flight!

Mack

dooleyje

Mike a wagging tail shows that the gain is too high for the length of your control horn. Gor a 500 size heli I use about a 10-11mm length so The gain can be turned up to keep it in heading hold. I would need to know what componets that you are using so give you a better answer. A low head speed tends to make the head bob up and down. It could be the way it has been set up. Depending on the gyro you may have the wrong type of heli set for it.The 750 and 780 gyros have settings for 500-700 helis.

Jim

Mack66

I love the smell of nitro in the afternoon!

And yes the sounds of those 600mm blades digging in on a hard "pylon turn" just gets me heart racing!

Mack

rcmiket

The gyros are set right and I've tried adjusting the balls distance. The servos are good quality so that rules that out. I just keep fooling with them and eventually hit it right just a PITA. Seems like the higher head speed seems to lessen the problem. Funny my Apache is based on a 500 and it's rock solid. Go figure.
Thanks
Mike

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

A little fun from yesterday ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNjIG5G4Dio

dooleyje

Mike, Yes headspeed can have everything to do but if you are having tail shaking then somthing is just not correct. My Gaui 425 and trex500 are solid with no blowout and no shake. The 500 has a Futaba520 and a Futaba9254 servo and the Big Gaui has a 3G system with a 9257 servo. Even at low head speeds mine are solid. If you would tell me what stuff you are using then I can possibly help trim it in. The electric like high head speed to keep everything cool. If you are using Gov mode then possibly a little tweaking is in order for that. You may not have enough head room for the Gov and it is pulsing waging the tail. If it is more of a shake rather than a wag then something is bent such as output tail shaft or torque tube/tube bearing giving up or spinning on the tube or the belt has an extra twist or too tight or gear lash is too tight.

Andy,, Great crash and one to be proud of. If you gotta then nice that someone video it. What struck me is that everyone is in T-shirts and shorts. At one time we could do that here before the ice age.

Gotta go to work,

Jim

rcmiket

No Governor set on the Align ESC, Align 780 /DS 520 servo. The Settings on the gyro are as should be. I've dropped the gain down to 27and the tail holds just fine, which is the lowest I've ever seen. All the bearings are in excellent condition. No vibrations what so ever. I've moved the ball several times and it's not as pronounced of a wag as it was. The set up between the servo and tail are silky smooth. Can't think of much more to check on this one. I even replaced the main shaft to be sure. TT not belt drive. I've never had a issue this hard to track down. Fun to investigate but frustrating when you find nothing.
Mike

matty_p80

Andy, excellent crash! as the video showed those involved were rightly proud of the devastation!!

Jimbo, from what i've seen from the UK web sites, E-Flite are also going to be chucking out a tiny collective pitch heli about the same size as the bsr120!! looks the mutt's danglies but i have been strong and not put a reservation fee down on one!! and on that note, Align are putting out a t-wreck 100!! lots of lovely new things to play with, yippee!

well, no flying for me this weekend, although yesterday was glorious! no, i've been stuck in the hangar busting my buns for a very unappreciative audience! by trade i'm an aircraft electrician but i have been a general mechanic for the last 9 months and doing it, although i am blowing my own trumpet, to a very capable degree! in a lot of cases the Americans are saying that we're better than most of their brethren!! so, to sum up, i'm doing a job that i haven't been officially trained to do and getting stuff done and working and all they can do is say "well why isn't this done?", etc. AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!

sorry, rant over! choppy yes i also clocked the Mosquito, it being my most favourite of Prop aircraft, and once more had my finger hovering over the "BUY NOW" button! sadly though, i have to be extra careful as i'm going to have to move house in a couple of weeks as our landlord who sub-lets it to us is going back to UK and giving up all the properties he rents!

guys and gal (we need more females here i think!) sorry it's short but as i've just done another 14hour day, it's time to hit the hay!

loves you all with big hugs

Matty )

dooleyje

Mike, what transmitter are u using?.. In my DX8 27-35 is normal. Dx7 as an example would be at least over 50 for a scale of 0-100. The DX8 uses a scale of -100 to +100 where below 0 would put it in Rate mode.

Matty yep I plan to get one. A bind and fly

Jim

rcmiket

DX7 even below 50 it still stays in HH. Setup on the gear channel.
Mike