Well I finally got my parts after 9 days! I called Tower after it had gone past their outside estimated delivery date and they told me I had to wait 10 business days before they would call it lost. Thankfully it arrived the next day. So now I have the parts but I haven't installed them yet. While waiting for the heli parts to arrive, I pulled the trigger on the LiPo solution. Got the TP1320, GP Triton2 charger & Equinox balancer (originally backordered but on its way now). Also got all the necessary adapters and connectors to switch everything to ultra deans, as well as the required adapter to plug the TP into the Equinox. I also picked up the thermal probe to use on the battery with the T2. I couldn't have pulled all of this together without the help of my new helipals here. Much appreciated.

Tonight I finally got some time to start getting it all ready. Put the UD connectors on the LiPo (female) and Axe (male). Been awhile since I did any soldering; yup, still don't like it all that much, and now that I'm older the eyes aren't what they used to be. Could they have made the wires on the Axe any smaller?! Well at least I ordered a ready-made adapter to go from banana plugs to ultra deans for the charger to battery connection so I don't have to fuss with that. Here's the catch. I didn't buy a power supply. Thought I'd have a go at one of those home made PC power supply conversions. Not sure if it'll be worth the hassle, but I'll try it.

Possibly stupid question: Does the new LiPo arrive without a full charge? The instruction sheet has specifics about the first charge but it doesn't specify whether it's shipped charged or not. I'm getting 11.73v on the pack with my VOM, which is what the sheet tells me I should get. If I read the sheet properly, it appears I need to charge it to 12.x volts. I'm guessing it needs to be charged before first use. Until I get the P/S built I guess I'll have to run the charger off my car battery. Pain in the Axe.

The good news is I'm on vacation for the next couple of weeks, but the wife only has 1 week, so the second week is all for heli-training. I'm getting this thing off the ground even if it costs me parts! Got a few extra parts with that last order, including a different color canopy. After buying the red one, I decided I liked the yellow one better.

Oh, I also cut the slots in the main motor's heatsink as some of you suggested. Does it matter what kind of conductant I used on it? I had some that was for connecting a heatsink to a computer CPU. It was a royal PITA working with it as it's thicker than the stuff that was on the heatsink originally, but I assume it'll work just as well. I also need to get the LiPo mounting situated. I think it was Markind that had the velcro tape wrapping around it; sounds like the way to go.