11 hours last night...

That's how much time I put into my CP2 to get it off the ground after getting a batch of upgrades from Helidirect. My project list for last night

- install super skids
- install dual tail rotor mount
- install boom supports
- balance and install a fresh pair of blades
- zero out the pitch

With the exception of the last item - all the upgrades were fairly straight forward and to much of an extent benign - but man...zero'ing out the blades good god - I never want to see another ball link and plastic connector ever again.


- First off, there seems to be about 3-4 degrees of play in the pitch of the blades which makes zeroing them out a bit of an art. I got to where it's maybe a few degrees positive at center throttle in idle up, and more or less +10 and -10. As a side note, before I got the pitch guage, they were *HORRIFICALLY out of pitch. I think I had one blade at +15/-8 and the other at +7/-13 (guesses)...

- First problem I had was fixing the tracking, I'd get them to as close as zero as I could, then track them visually by spooling her up and increasing the pitch of the low blade. So that kept me busy for nearly an hour and a half for something which should have taken 2 or 3 twists. I don't know what's wrong with it but the blades don't track consistently throughout the power band. Sometimes red blade is higher, sometimes it's lower, when I give the throttle a stiff jerk, it tracks for a second, then comes apart again. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, but I can't get them to consistently to track between spool attempts.

- I finally decided that they didn't need to be perfect (another mistake), so I thought I'd try to hover her.

heartache...

I must have smacked it into the ground about a dozen times due to excessive yo-yo'ing...On the throttle, it was like nothing nothing nothing -> ceiling followed by an uncomfortable smack into the carpet. All I have to say is thank god for the super skids.

- So I went to bladecprepair and noticed the post on the bent retaining pin. Pulled the head apart - and sure enough the pin was warping into the beginnings of a Z. When I installed the alum swashplate earlier this week, I couldn't get it past the drill hole because of the burrs, so I filed them down. Big mistake - that got the swashplate on, but it enlarged the hole increasing the play between the head assembly and main axis by a factor of 2. So off to find something I could use as a retaining pin. I sacrificed a Dremel drill bit that happened to be the exact diameter for a nice snug fit and got that installed.

Yo'yo- stopped for the most part, but NOW:
- Can't maintain altitude
- Slow gyroscopic wobble makes it almost impossible to hover
- Blades (wooden syms) STILL aren't tracking consistently


It's so disheartening to do everything I was supposed to do (carefully, methodically, and as accurately as I could), to the letter and have it actually end up flying WORSE than when I got it. After tearing it apart and rebuilding it twice following every step from cprepair and bdavisons's setup posts with little to no effect - well I'm having a hard time finding the fun in this.

Anyway, I have a main gear/axis/ss spindle on order from Helidirect, so we'll see if that doesn't help the situation any - but I'm getting a little frustrated at how much effort and cash it's taking just to get this damn thing flying reliably. I just don't want to find myself in the same boat as some other folks that discovered the joys of the TREX AFTER spending an equivalent amount just to get their CP's in the air.

I swear, if I have to spend $110 for a CNC head - I'll just pocket the cash and get this badboy...

[link=http://www.helidirect.com/product_info.php?products_id=1171]HUBBA HUBBA[/link]


anyhoo - done venting - done in the office in 15 minutes then I'll spend another night with that little soandso..