RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Hey, ts me again. I flew out 5 more Evos, Hahah! Sweet. Met a guy at the park i stopped at that was flying a TREX SA. Its the second time I've run into him. He is a pretty good pilot, better than me. He was pleased to see how far I had progressed sporting an ear to ear grin. He also saw David fly yesterday and was very impressed with his flying, I guess untill the crash. He never mentioned the crash. He didnt come over because he was watching his kids at the nearby playground. Long in short, we exchanged numbers, and he wants to come fly. He is a long time member of the Hoods up burnaby flyers, but flew mostly planes till now. Helis are popping up everywhere it seems.

Im really starting to suspect a pooched bearing as the culpret of my clicking belt. Im gonna replace the ones that hold the shaft that drives the belt.

Hope you all had a good weekend, and someone over at RE-Raptor needs help setting up a DX6I.

Fly more later

BUG

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Hey balancing buddies,
It was an absolutely perfect flying day here during the morning hours. 0 wind and lots of sun. The T Rex worked better than ever after about a half hour of tweaking the radio. Man am I happy with that new Futaba 2.4. I'll never go back to FM. The heli responded faster than ever and I especially noticed a lot more smoothness in forward to reverse flight transition. It just would set up on the tail a little and reverse with almost no hesitation. Tick tocks were perfect and climb outs were amazing. I started with the 430L motor for two batteries and switched to the 430XL. Whoa, a real noticeable difference in the head speed and power. No tail wag on lift off either. It gets the head speed up so fast it's smooth a s silk by the time it lifts off. I need to fly with the XL more and get used to it. I was a little too quick doing rolls and overshot inverted a few times until I learned the feel of that motor. I used the Align 325 pro woodies today and they worked fine. I'll put the CF blades back on later. Needless to say, I'm grinnin' and feel good about being in the air again. Now I'm inspired to finish the Copt. X and get it flying too. JD, the more I look at that scale body of the Squirrel the more I want to put that on the CX. I can't leave that bird on the shelf too long. It's too nice to gather dust.

Ordered one Cellpro 4 amp charger today. I'm looking forward to using that. Later I'll get a second one. I'm eventually going to have three helis flying and will need to charge a lot of packs.

I'm hoping my G4 sim will be here tomorrow or the next day. I can run it on this old computer but barely. When the new 'puter arrives I plan to go nuts with the sim for awhile. Toys, toys, toys. I want more toys!!!!!

Ames' T Rex arrived at his shop yesterday and is waiting for him to get back and build it. I'm not sure what all he ordered to go with it but there is the T Rex box and two other boxes of stuff waiting there. I'm betting he got all the goodies at once. He's like that.

One more week and I head out to Oklahoma City and start the mapping for the highway project. It'll be great to be back to work and flying the black beauty over all that beautiful countryside. I'll be there for one week the first trip and will have a week at home and then back there for another week. The second trip my older brother is going with me and on the off time we're gonna try to catch a few of those legendary Oklahoma walleye. Not sure after that. Depends on how much gets done and decided by the bureaucrats in charge. I'm hoping a third trip is needed. That's another paycheck. The railroad has some work coming up for me again soon too. Ooh-yah, just keep throwing money at me!!! All in all, it should be a good summer business wise. I should be able to pay off the black beauty (oh yesss, all mine) and lay a chunk in the bank too. I sure won't miss those $1800 bi monthly paymments.

Just so you all know, Got a call from Donica today and she is safely at her parents home in Louisiana. We chatted for about an hour and have decided that we will continue to talk and not completely drop the idea of possibly working things out. She is doing some soul searching and said she is going to tell everything to her mother soon (that's going to be very tough for her to do). I think her mom will be a big influence and help her decide which way she really wants to go. She realizes that serious mistakes were made. Says she misses all of us and thinks about us a lot. She goes back to work tomorrow. She'll be in Baton Rouge for two weeks and her mom is going to visit her there this coming weekend. I told her we all miss her and you all said "hello". I told her we are all just remembering her as the beautiful, smart, funny lady she really is.

Got a twelve pack and two movies sittin' here and am going to get in some 'potato' time tonight.

Heli up and beat that air.

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

That's funny that he wanted to come over but couldn't, he knew better than to bring the kids over, he knows how dangerous it can be! Most people have no clue and walk right on by, or UNDER! That's like walking through the field while a rugby game is going on, you're just asking for it.
Was he watching when I crashed? Or was he watching 3 hours after when I was flying the woodies? It took me 3 hours to repair because I spent 2.5 hours looking in the grass for thrust bearing parts. Amazingly, Mark came along after I was searching for an hour and found the bearing in 2 mins, then I lost it again and he found it again! Hahah. He's the human metal detector.
I look forward to flying with him, with the weather picking up, a lot of heli pilots are coming out!

I couldn't find any local sources for the Cell Pro charger, and I didn't want to wait for international shipping, so I've ordered the Thunder Power TP-610C locally, it should be here within 1 or 2 days. I've read up on it, and it sounds like a no BS charger/balancer, no complaints of imbalances, sounds like it reads accurately, I would hope that something from Thunder Power would be of good quality.

The V-power balancer would be good, but I'd still be using the Imax B6, which provides incorrect voltages and currents, what a piece of junk. So I figure I'd get sponsored by VISA and get a powerful charger/balancer. I'm hoping to make use of the 10A charge for my A123 cells.

Sounds like you had some great flying Jay!
I can't wait for Ames to get his Trex up, that'll be some good times at the field.
Good to hear that you and Donica are talking, I hope the best for you guys.
Let us know how G4 works on ur new lappy.


Happy flyin all!

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

hey all,


man am i a happy heli boy today! after returning from Pa. [ my nephews h.s. graduation ], i found a bunch of pkgs. w/ all my parts to start work on my raptor. also got the DVD's from Ray's Heliteck. so, after i mow the lawn i'll start watching them. then i'll tear into the G2. i'm positive i 'll have tons of questions for you guys, so this is fair warning to all, haha. should i post those questions here or on the RE- Raptor page? i ask cuz this seems to be where everybody's at lately.


OK... off to mow the "weeds".


later, chris

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

David: the 610 is a very fine charger and you will like it bunches. No more ruining your batteries. Flyerbug the metal detector!!!. I need him here in my shop. I usually find parts months later if the light is is just right. I tell you. You young guys with the great eyes and reflexes make me jealous.[:-] Its bad to be old and slow, My walker is getting in the way now. :eek: I know , I will build a top for it and set my transmitter on it and maybe put a cup holder for my drink and a hook to hang another heli on the side. HA HA LOL.:D

Jay hang in there and use your heart. It will never let you down. At any rate we all have grown to love you both and share your sadness. Soo ,,,, lets go flying. I am in the PO-Tel got a show tonight and I saw a nice field up the street to drain some batteries.

See YA

Jim

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Hey Chris!

Great to hear! You'll enjoy the DVD's and fixing the Raptor for sure!!
It's probably good if you post the Raptor related stuff in the Raptor forum, so that other people looking into the Raptor can read and learn. This forum is good for heli stuff in general.

Enjoy the DVD's and new Raptor parts! Ask lots of questions if you got them, better to ask than make a mistake.


Dave.

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Hey ya'all how's everything in our lil flightline?

I wish I had enough cash for a CopterX unit, or even a sweet used gas job, heck I have yet ta hover with my HBK2, however I did install the esky 3900 Kv motor with matching esc, hh-gyro unit has well. my problem is makeing certain I have the plugs in the correct pins I used a diagram from a member with a DX-6 receiver but it was six channel and sounded pertty close to what the esky receiver is all blk wires on bottom l-r looking fm. rear, hh gyro brown in no.4, single orange 5 same has blk i put esc in slot 2 my batt is crap since after receiving the chopper, the stock esc. burned out so i received the parts free. [8D] My next goal is finishing the canopy paint job, get the Walkera 290mm 60 main blades I heard they're an exact fit! and t-rex 450 1280 rotor blades. other than that I am turning the big 50 this year and would love a donated gas heli will except any workin condition since I can't afford ta buy one, just wanna get closer to my dream of building a scale model. anyway until I get a new Battery kinda stuck, right now it's gas for the Van which I ca'nt give away right now lol :) or get heli parts etc.
Van is a sweet low Mi. conversion but i still own Eight g's who woulda thout the gas prices were going through the roof, I am glad I no longer own a semi tractor unit whew, I feel for my brothers n sisters out there on the big road, i am glad ta be a city driver in a union job, but shoot even with senority i have ta now get out the dang truck n help shovel stinkn asphalt again, moved up jus ta move down. gettin to old for this crap! but Praise God He's given me a wonderful wife, and faith ta hang in there shoulda become a car salesman![8D]lol[img]

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

I like the Old Military terminology for a rotor wing aircraft CHOPP[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]ER!

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Hey bigricksharpe!

My flightline is non-existent, after my IMAX B6 destroyed every lipo I own, my aircraft are just nice lawn ornaments. A charger is something I've learned, the hard way, not to cheap out on. I saved a couple bucks, but it's not worth the $300+ of batteries that it destroyed. People say that a balance charger is essential to lipos, that's very true, but even more so, "A QUALITY balance charger is essential to lipos". I think it should also be mandatory to use a volt meter and read every cell voltage to ensure things are working properly. I saw someone check pack voltages before flights, make sure it's 12.60V or close, I started doing that now too, it's good practice, because some ESC's drop to a % of the initial voltage. Anyways, enough battery talk.

The CopterX unit is great, you save some money, but I'm having some bad luck with mine, probably self induced, my swash plate and bearings are loose, but keep in mind I've also crashed pretty hard 3 times now. Jim's is in minty condition, and has never crashed at full throttle like mine has. You should be like me, and make VISA sponsor you, they'll sponsor you for a month, but then you've gotta pay them back, don't worry about that though, you can worry about it when the bill comes. They sponsored me for my CopterX, LIPOS, and charger!! No questions asked. They haven't even billed me yet, then again, I've been too scared to check the mail.

Your HBK2 should be a good flyer, I've seen some of those fly, not bad. Got any pictures of it? Let's see you paint job.

Alright, hope you get your HBK2 up in the air soon!


Jim, I just ordered those orange belts you told us about. I don't need it yet, I'm still using the original CopterX belt, amazing, it has survived 3 crashes!!! Believe it or not.. haha.

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Would have been a nice day for flying if not for the drizzle. Rain and more rain. So far this spring has been nothing but wet. Kinda unfriendly to electric motors and electronics. So, I just lazed around today.

My G4 sim arrived today but I can't use it until I get the new computer. My old one has just the basic guts to run it but it's already so full of stuff it's not worth it. Should be just a few days and the new one will be in my hands.

Did a bunch of shopping around for chargers today. Lots of different ones out there. I think I'll stick with buying the cellpro. Seems like everyone that has one likes it. That new Thunder Power 610 looks like a great piece of equipment. Pricey ($129) compared to the Cell Pro ($75).

Yah David, it's tough to lose all your batts at once. Is it possible to remove the bad cells and incorporate the good ones into a couple of good batteries? Some build their own from individual cells. By international shipping do you mean from the US to Canada?

Shopped around for scale bodies again today too. Lots of neat stuff out there. I'm still leaning towards an airwolf style.

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Too bad for the rain, sounds like the weather we get up here on the West Coast, it's amazing how much rain the ocean can bring in. I wish we could easily seal all the electronics and fly in the rain.

Ya, the Thunder Power 610 is pricey, but I like the 10A it can pump out, it's good for my A123's. And that price is a small price to pay compared to killing all my lipos. I think thunder power is a big brand in lipos, and their charger/balancers seem to have a good reputation.

By international I do mean US to Canada, the customs hold it up for a long time, could be 2 weeks before I get the cellpro. A local dealer sells it here for $129US, $131CND, so I just ordered it here, $6.50 shipping, and I could receive it tomorrow, or the next day.

Ya, it's possible, but it's very dangerous, while operating on them, you can easily short them out, causing them to blow! I treat is as though I'm working on live household wiring, minus the electrocution part.
I've rebuilt a bunch of packs, 1 cell of the pack was always puffing, the one that was being overcharged all the time. I had 2 x 3E packs, I removed 1 cell each, and made one 3S pack, with 1 cell to spare. I did the same with my align batteries. I've got a 2 cell air thunder, and a 3 cell air thunder(which I suspect has 1 bad pack), they don't puff, so I can't tell that the 1 cell is damaged, but the low voltage cutoff hits really quick, so I think the cell is toast, I'll combine the 2S and 3S to make a good 3S pack, with 1 cell to spare. I'll probably do the same with the EVO25's, maybe make a 4S or a 3S and save 1 cell for the next crash. Not all is lost, I've got some spare cells and some packs left.
But I would NOT recommend rebuilding packs yourself unless you know how dangerous these things are, and know how to work with them. I'd hate to see someone short a cell and have it flare up in their face.
I work with them like they're lipos, the most dangerous battery on the face of this earth!

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Bigricksharp. Your a Teamster, that right? Haha! I worked with a lot of teamsters here in movies. We no longer have seniority in place here, with either the teamsters union or IATSE. Many people here are very choked about that. Me, I dont care so much. Ive never depended on the union to negotiate for me, but a lot of the older guys really got burned.

Ive been trying to order more spare parts. Mostly things I can see will need replacing down the road. Things like thrust bearings and tail drive gear assembly. Bummer is that everyone is flying right now. Flying and crashing. That means our guy is out of stock on just about everything. If he dosent stock up soon, I may have to take the drive to go to the only other hobby store here that carries what I want. Guess it could be worse though.

Sweet choice of charger David. I may have to upgrade my Triton Jr soon for a two pack charger. Its working for now, but its slow going the more batteries I add. Im gonna sit on the fence on that one for a bit and re visit the idea of getting a 500. Crazy, I pais as much for my SE V2 as the 500 sells for. Boy did they see me coming. hahahah!

More Later Heliheads.

Flyer

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

I tell you guys there are some really great chrgrs out there and all in all to me the Cell pro is the easiest/best and gives you a lot of info. Price wise you have all you need built in the units. I just could not see buying a TT610. TT1010, Triton for 100 and up and then spend 49-59 bucks for the balancer. So thats why I choose the the Cell pro products. I wanted some way to safely charge my batteries without having to dial in the proper settings as you will have to do on other products. Yes I can change the settings if I want and charge 123 pack at a safe rate. The proof is in the pudding with over 100 cycles on my all batteries and no puffing, balanced at 4.20v spot on on every cell on every pack all for 79 bucks.

Jay: Man that 2.4 is different ain't it. I was surprised by the quickness. Glade you have the Trex flying. The 325 pros are really good blades and some folks around here do not bother to get the carbons. I have several sets and I say fly them. David you need some good carbons easpecialy with the new motor. I am afraid that power and blistering 3D comes with a price. I would suggest the Hyperion 325's only 39 bucks and very thin and stiff. The V-blades are going to be 50 bucks and Radex you can call the factory and get blimished blades for about 25 bucks. The blimish is just visual and not structure related.

Brickricksharp welcome to the tread. Wow, I am not sure of all you were saying. Did you say that the union was so good to you that you would like to donate a nitro heli to us? Or did I read that wrong?LOL

Going on 50? Your just a young whipper snapper. Happy Birthday!

I would not guess on the connectors for you helicopter. The King 2 is a really good heli and a lot of folks really like them. I would suggest that you call www.ushobbysupply.com or www.ka-planes.com to get specific answers to the Esky products. Keep in mind that not all radios are built the same and the channels positions can be different.

David: did we get the motor??????

Bug: wassup?

Chris welcome back. Have fun on the build. Hollar if you need help.

Jim

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Hey Jim,

Maybe I was impatient in getting the 610, but it seemed like a good idea at the time, I'm hoping to try charging 2 x 3S packs as 6S, and A123's at 10A, it also tells me how many mAh it puts back in the battery, so those features, plus being in my hands in 2 days had me sold for $129. The $6.50 shipping also helped. I don't think $129 is too pricey, not after I've destroyed so many batteries. It's a charger/built in balancer too, I won't need to spend more for an external balancer. I still haven't gotten the scorpion motor, that's why I don't like international shipping, it can take up to 45 days, if I were to order the cellpro chargers, I'd be grounded for a while, that's one main reason i didn't order 2 cellpro chargers, and instead got a 6S charger. I'm hoping the thunder power charger works well, it's an American company, so quality control and design will be top notch. I'm sure if I have any problems I can call them up and they'll resolve it. I'm done with the cheap products, no support, and they cost you more in the long run. If it's too good to be true, it's probably a ripoff.

I was looking at the hyperion blades, they say they're thin/stiff, I wasn't sure if that was just a selling point, I didn't order them, but they were only $40, I should have. I should have learned by now, spending that little more is worthwhile. I have 1 more pair of cheap CF from China to destroy. I'm glad I broke them by hitting my carry case, better than having them explode in the air.

Here's a picture showing the damage caused by the CF blades against the Align carry case, which was my landing pad. It's not the greatest idea I've ever had.

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Hey creatures of the air,
Finally a perfect day in good ol' Nebraska. Not a cloud in sight, no wind, 80 deg. F (C?). I have nine batteries all freshly charged and am gonna use them all. I'm going to put the T Rex through it's paces with the new 430XL motor and 35 amp GX esc today. There's gonna be some amazed humans and some very scared pets at the park today. Watch CNN for the headlines. :D"LONG EXTINCT T REX SUDDENLY REAPPEARS IN RURAL NEBRASKA AND TERRORIZES RESIDENTS AND SMALL ANIMALS AT LOCAL RECREATION AREA. THREE CHIHOWAHOWAS AND TWO LABRADOODLES STILL MISSING AND BELIEVED EATEN":). Kiddin' JD, I'll play safe, I promise. If the bird flies like it did the other day I'm gonna turn it loose today and see what it's capable of.

Well, I pulled the Copt. X off the shelf last night and organized the pile of new parts for it. I'm going to get started finishing that nice little bird. If I can get it flying as well as the T Rex I'll be a happy earthling. I'm making a list of what I'll need to turn it into a nice scale later but for now I'll get it flying and tweaked in right. JD, I think you have convinced me to make it look like the black beauty. I really like that scale body of the Squirrel. I'm giving serious thought to detailing out the inside of the cabin to look like the real thing. I did that years ago with my old Hirobro Cricket and it's cool. After all, I have a good model to go by for the realistic look.

I need to find a good camera buddy to take pics. I think I'll be able to get Ames to do that when he gets back. I'll do my best to get some pics up asap.

Naw David, you're not being any more impatient than the rest of us. You are getting a good charger and that's what counts. It'll pay for itself in the long run. I really don't have much room to talk. I'm spending $75 each for two cellpros and even more for some accessories to go with them. I figure I have well over $600 invested in LiPos and a couple hundred to keep them isn't unreasonable. I wasn't aware that customs between Canada and the US was so slow. I guess it's slowing down everywhere due to all the national security stuff these days. Look out now, they may be hiding nerve gas in battery chargers with timers set to go off on the eve Ramadamn Holiday:eek:. They're disguising dirty bombs to look like LiPos. We gotta be careful. Wouldn't wanna take out the whole province in the middle of some radical 3D:eek:. Joking here (said that for the men in black. Don't want them knocking down my door.), It's a shame the world has gotten like it is and we seriously do all have to make some sacrifices to insure safety. Hey, now your carrying case has some character and a good story to go with it. "Yes son, she hit it at durn near the speed of sound. Pieces were flyin' everyehere whistlin' off and out of sight. One of 'em grazed my ear and took out the whole top of that tree over there. It's growed back now, but it sure was a mess for about a year. Two amublances and twelve Mounties showed up and the tried to get me for possession of explosives. Took two lawyers and a month to get me outta that one. You go practice on your sim, get good and fly safe now".

Big Rick, glad to see you found us here. This thread is for fun and helis. I feel for ya on the gas prices. My brother in law has a sweet conversion van with a huge V8 too. It's parked most of the time. He has had it for sale for over a year and no takers. he has threatened to turn it into a trailer, tow it to a campground, put it on a foundation and call it a cabin. I have a sweet 64 Ford truck I've turned into a hot rod with monster horsepower and it's expensive to just get it out for a weekend. Sucks that we can't play with our big ol' V8's like we used to. If you get where you can seriously shop for a nitro the RCU classifieds are a good place to shop. If I see a bargain on one somewhere I'll PM you about it. I've been real close to selling a couple of my nitros more than once, but, everytime I take one out I decide to keep them. Too much fun to let 'em go. Stay on the forums though and you will eventually find something to play with.

Hey, this has gone on longer than i planned. I'm outta here to beat some air into submission.

Later dust devils.

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

David. The TT products are top shelf all the way. I was not faulting you for buying it. I was responding to Jays note about what he had read about the cell pro and was agreeing with him.

All of us forget that you are in Canada and have to pay duties and wait for inspections. We in USA take a lot for granted. I would have done what you did and got the 610 locally. Yes 129 buck is a lot cheaper than Lipo's. Was that Canadian bucks or US bucks. Yep 6S is a good thing to try and should work fine if you can match the balance plug. I think the 123 batteries are a different voltage per cell. I am note sure what it is. Some of our club members are buying electric drill batteries and pulling the cells out and making packs. The cells are a little heavy but I bet that we will see the cells produced lighter in weight. At any rate you have a great piece of kit.

The Hyperion blades work great and I like them very much. You will find that they are quiet compared to other blades and the head speed will come on faster in transition. I havn't order any lately because I have to watch my pennies because of the fuel prices. I am under contract for a lot of shows and I have to insure I can get there and pay for the hotel. So I will have to use what I have.

Went flying today and drained 3 packs and then the black clouds came. Had fun anyway. I love the electric helis and I can take them on the rode with me.

Gotta go do lunch with a client,

Jim

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Jay: I am going to use a Squirrel scale body on my Trex SA. The head and tail are black/ gray and the frame is gray and will make a great scale platform. I hate to ask but if you can send me some pictures of your fullscale Heli I would be thankful.

Thanks Jim

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Ya, I guess we get what we pay for. I was reading up on that cellpro charger, wow it's good, it even monitors the ambient temp, if it's cold, it'll reduce the charge voltage so it won't damage the cells, now that's a smart charger! But ya, I should be happy with the 601, it wasn't made to make money and screw the customer, like a lot of products I've purchased. Lesson learned!

It was 129US, exchange rate of 1 to 1.01, so it was only about 131 CND. I don't know how he imported it and still sold it at the same price as US sites, must be making less of a profit. But I feel that it was a good deal for me.

Ya, here in Canada, we don't have a lot of stuff, very few suppliers. I used to ship things to WA, and pick it up over the border and pay taxes at customs on the way back, it's not worth it to do that anymore because the gas prices are so high. I wonder if shipping costs are going to go up just as much since gas is a big part of their costs.

Oh man, ur making me want those CF blades, but like you, I probably should use what I got for now.

Squirrel scale, that'll be cool!

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

hey drobin,

i got to Brennens today on my way ouy of Vernon. i was surprised at the amount of stuff he has in there. can't remember if you've been, but he has lots more heli stuff than i expected. all kinds of parts, ect. guess i thought they leaned more toward the cars & planes. only thing, it's SOOO small and there were six others before me and i didn't want to wait that long. did get a good look around tho and saw the G4 sim l'd like. have to go again in the AM instead. i'd like to meet and talk with the guy [Brennen?] and maybe get some prices.

chris

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

chris,
you should call for his hours before you run over there.i don't think he opens till noon.great hours.i've only been there there a couple of times but he made it worth my while to drive there from syracuse.

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Good news! The scorpion came! All I can say is WOW, the packaging alone must be worth $30. I don't know how they can sell a motor like this for so cheap, the bearings and quality of the motor seems top notch as well.
But I did find some burrs in the machine work. Gotta put a vacuum to it and carefully get those off.

I also received the charger today, it has 3 decimal places of accuracy, not sure how accurate it is compared to a fluke meter, but I'll test it when I can borrow a fluke.

And of course, it was Christmas! As soon as I picked it up, I opened it all up in the car. Haha, I took some pictures, as this is a turn of a new era in my RC history!!

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

ALLLLLLLL right PARTY TIME!!!!

Jim

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Sweet David. If you ask me its money well spent. Im sure you will be satisfied with your new charger. The motor sould be ok. Knowing you it wont have enough power before too long . Hhahaha! Just kidding. Cant wait too see it in action. Speaking of action, or B grade action here is a video of me flying last weekend if you want to see [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLh7LtD-uxA]click here[/link].

Good night kids

Mark

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Whoa,
My fingers and thumbs are so tired I can hardly type. Found a nice shade tree to stand under at the park and flew the dickens out of the T Rex. Thought I was going to have some gyro issues at the start but found I didn't have it plugged in tight enough. Wiggled that little plug in good and off she went. Didn't quite use all nine batteries as the motor and esc got hot enough to quit for awhile. Used five packs. By then it was starting to look like storms off to the Southwest again. The ones that come in from that direction here are the bad boys. So, I packed up and came home. The heli performed great. I thought I was going to eat some dirt on one very low inverted hover but that new 430XL had more than enough power to pull it up and away. I have noticed too that using that motor I don't have nearly as much tail wag on take off. Seems like the head speed runs up real quick. Even more quickly with the CF blades. I kinda like the sound of that motor. Has a strong whine like a turbo. I did find a crack in one of the Align Pro woodie blades after the third flight. It cracked out from the screw hole about three inches along the length of the blade. That was the original set that came with the heli and have been shocked a couple of times. Caught it before it wrecked me and changed to the new CF blades. I was happy to see that those tracked perfectly without any tweaking and they carried the bird real well. Sure enough, just after I got home it started raining again. Not much though. About enough to mess up a 6 dollar car wash.

Felt so good about the flying today I contacted FMA Direct and doubled my order. I have two cellpros coming instead of one. I looked at those five batts that need recharging and thought I better get ready and have the equipment to do this right. I have one recharged now, a second on the charger and will be charging for hours tomorrow too. The little align charger isn't keeping up and I don't trust it to balance right.

The railroad called today and want me to do some more work for them. Last week just 90 miles east of here at Kearney, Nebr. six tornados touched down. One of them tore up Kearney some and knocked a coal train off the tracks. They want me to do some aerial photos of the derailed train and the damage to Kearney. The Union Pacific owns Mutual of Omaha Insurance Co. and some of the property claims will be theirs. That'll be a good paycheck. If they allow me to keep some of the pics I'll post some. Sometimes insurance work is "top secret". So, tomorrow I'll be rotortating that direction in the full scale. "Bout time I earned my keep anyway. I've had a lot of time off lately. Gotta get in to the courthouse in the morning and re-register the black beauty. That's always painful. Paying all those fees to the dang gooberment for permission to fly free. Seems redundant. It'll run about $1231 by the time I get away from them. I was looking the black beauty over yesterday and I'm thinking it's time for a fresh paint job. Black of course, but I may go fancier with the graphics. Have to think about that. Some flames maybe.

Yahoo David, ya got your pet Scorpion. Now your running some serious motor. The colors are cool too. You need to put a little harley sticker on it. That box looks like a real handy parts container for the field kit too. Looks like a nice charger. Keep us posted. You may convert some of us to those. I can identify with the Christmas feeling. When my G4 sim came I was just leaving for the coffee shop and I took it with me, sat in the car outside the coffee shop and opened it up. Couldn't wait.

JD, good to hear you're working and playing the music. I'm mailing a copy of your cd to Donica tomorrow as a little surprise to keep her spirits up. I'll send it to her mom and she'll take it to her this weekend.

Ames called today to brag about all the fish they are catching off the coast of Oregon. Sounds like he's having a lot of fun up there next to Canada. His wife's parents live in Astoria. When I told him about flying the T Rex he got all excited about getting his built. He said he can't wait for it to show up. I didn't tell him it's sittin on the bench in his shop along with boxes of other parts. Didn't want to ruin the surprise. He's not expecting it to be here yet.

Donica called today. Says "hideeho y'all" and hopes you're all doing well. Sounded like she's in a good frame of mind and staying busy at work. Gotta be honest, I miss her a lot.

Gotta go. Shirts are dry and need hung up.

Fly 'em high and true.

RE: Heli stuff and fellowship
 

Hey Jay, great to hear you got so many flights in! You're lucky! It's good to hear Donica's cheerful too. Let her know we say hi too!

I just installed the motor, too me a while, had to solder the ESC and make new bolts, repair my tail fin. The screws that came with it were rediculous, I had to use the main blade bolts from my 450X and dremel them to length, but that's perfect for a motor, hex!

I started up the scorpion, and WOW, it's enough power to make you wet yourself! The first test, I gave it 100% right away, soft start wasn't enough to keep the pinion from slipping off, I had to tighten that back up REALLY tight, and try again, it must be the echo, but it sounds like it's going REALLY fast. 13T at 100% throttle. Not sure how much RPM that is, but I know it's dangerous, so stand back! Even Jim's son had blades explode at 2800RPM, so anything above that is just asking for trouble. I think only hyperion or better, can handle this.

I didn't know if the scorpion was going to sting or what, so I recorded the 10 second hover, if you wanta listen and see the scorpion roar, [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXvfKknhEtw]click here.[/link]

I'll have to wait until the weekend to really test it out, it was raining here.

Have a good week everyone!