You know it!!!!

New Years day was not my day for flying anything, however. Out of about 5 "flights", I really only had 2 good ones.

My first flight of the day was on my Blade 400. That was good flight #1.

Second flight was with the Shuttle. Still a bit shaken from Saturday's experience, I took her up, this turned into good flight #2, despite some hard starting (cold weather here that day, spinning the motor for a few minutes warmed it up enough to start), no tail control, finding the problem (tail rotor set screw missing, robbed another one from a Traxxas T-Maxx 2.5 monster truck's throttle rod ), fixing it, and getting airborne once more. I just wish I didn't have those problems when I did, as there were spectators that have never flown eagerly waiting to watch my Shuttle's flight. They left after it died before I could get her out to the runway (other pilots were flying fixed wing at the time, so I was waiting for them to land since we don't have a "hovering area" for helicopters and I try to give the fixed wing guys the right of way since they are the majority at the field. Helicopters are the redheaded stepchild at my field, tolerated, but not enjoyed by many other than the pilot and other heli pilots . Heck, helis scare the crap out of most of the pilots at the field. I'm trying to remedy those situations at my field in the most tactful ways that I can, however. That is, getting more heli pilots interested in our club, flying my helis more, being respectful of fixed wing planes flying at the time, and keeping my flying as safe as possible by not advancing to far to fast.) and they never got to see her hover.

3rd flight was with my TWM Nemesis Reno Racer. this started my "bad" flights. Well, this flight could have been much, much worse, as the flight was good, but on taxiing back to the pits, I noticed the rudder was sticking. After inspection, looks like a bad servo (only $10 for a replacement and it'll be ready to fly again).

4th flight was with the Blade 400. This was where my day hit rock bottom. The tail was wagging a bit, so I turned the remote gyro gain down by 5%. On takeoff, she was flying merely OK. Almost like flying with the gyro in rate mode. I was able to control the tail OK for a minute or so, but she let loose and started to roll. No wild ride like what happened before with the Shuttle (thankfully), but this one didn't end as well. She rolled over and landed main rotor first on the runway. Damage was limited to shafts, canopy, and skids. No damage was done to the blades. After analyzing the problem, it started at the charge after the last flight when I had grounded out the charge lead (connected to the battery, but not the charger. My stupidity for not being more careful when handling a LiPO battery). Problems continued when I mounted the battery too close to the motor, causing it to rub. That possibly caused some interference, thus the lack of control. She'll be back in the air repaired and with a new battery soon enough. This one was totally my fault for lack of awareness while charging and installing the battery.

5th flight was with the Shuttle. Before starting, I checked the Voltwatch to ensure proper battery voltage before the flight. A little low, but still in the green. Turn on the TX, then the RX, waited for the "bind" process to take place, and checked the swash. It seemed to be moving a bit slower than usual, but I chose to go ahead and fire her up anyway. On takeoff, I noticed the engine was "surging" a bit, but not getting the full power that it should. It would get the power to lift a few feet off of the runway, the seem to fall off on power. I would add more collective, and the engine would slowly make it's way back into power. Then she would want to start climbing higher than I wanted due to the collective being nearly full just to get her up (full positive pitch, almost), so I'd bring the collective back to hover pitch. The engine would begin to loose power again. After doing this a couple of times, I decided to call it quits before I risked an even bigger problem. The battery has been holding a decent charge for a while, so it hadn't been charged in about a week. I think my problems were due to lower than anticipated voltage. I'll be sure to give it a good charge before I take her out again. This should confirm or bust my theory of the problem. BTW, this was also going to be a filmed flight.

I'll blame my overall lack of attention to detail on my New Year's Day flights to my late night/early morning while ringing in the new year right [sm=bananahead.gif] .

I'll be going back for more punishment tomorrow, weather permitting.

I hope your trip to Dallas went well (if you're back home now, if not, I hope it's going well).

Happy new year to you and yours.

Happy flying.