Totally Off Topic:

Here's the lastest that our govenment wants to do. CONTROL your heating and air-conditioning from a central point/computer stuff.
And you wouldn't have any control over it's setting.

I worked in the telephone industry for 30 years, and that's how we controlled the temperature of the switching offices, REMOTE CONTROL. Hmmm, BIG BROTHER!

Well BIG BROTHER, I already know how to by-pass that stuff.

Dave

So do I.....eliminate outside sources (eg...generator/fireplace). The stupidity is overwhelming. Can you say COMMUNISIM. Sounds like something a socialist (democrat) would come up with.

Vic,

Another Civil War in the upcoming.

Dave

Back on topic:

Being bored, with no heli to fly. Thought I'd touch up the canopy.

Nothing great, just some added lines.

Dave

That automotive pin stripe works wonders and blunders.....it's what I use.

Vic,

Believe it or not, the black isn't from any type of pin stripping.(Spelling?, don't know, don't care)
It's from a black permanent MAGIC MARKER.

Also, they do make paint sticks/markers that are just great. A tad expensive, for what you get, but works very well.

Dave

I figured since you got access to all that NEAT car stuff (doublesided foam tape, and such), you'd make use of it (LOL).

The annoying slight tail bob problem. Changed the rotor head, it was still there. Made up a new batch of spindles (very good tolerences to the bearings) and installed one...still there. Took a dremmel with a carbide needle point grinder and opened up the rubber "o' ring enough that the spindle passes through it with little resistance (while in the rotor head), and adjusted the spindle nuts out 1.5 turns. The slight tail bob is GONE. Improved performance is like 100% better. I didn't want to ship a heli to a buyer that had problems, I'm not like that. Both HBKII's have been test flown and are good to go to their new owners. C'mon MX-400...get here.

great PICS guys!

a picture sure is worth a thousand words, keep them coming.

Jeff - with those great HUEY pics I expect to see a nice scale model soon....

Crash - I like the kids custom canopy on the LAMA V4... wonder where he got that instinct from?

Arrow - Glad to see you stopped by with some vids. it takes a little trial and error to find the best compression settings for uploading vid to stream on the net.... so many variables!

I was able to get a lot of stick time this weekend, even with the wind. I finally got comfortable with idle up and negative pitch programming. Talk about some serious head speed, running the TREX 450 at constant 90% throttle with -10 to 10 degrees pitch on left stick.

Only had ONE crash this weekend: I lost a CX2 in the wind (yes, that my NEW excuse!)

I also found a great new transmitter pack at my LHS. The LIGHTNING POWER 2650 mAh 3s 11.1v pack with BALANCED LEAD CONNECTION, POWER SERVO LEAD, and SPEKTRUM/JR TRANSMITTER CONNECTION.

this pack is great! PLUG AND PLAY FOR the DX7 and the charge lasts over a month even if you forget and leave your transmitter on..... okay well maybe not that long.

I hope to get a couple more flights between games, and I'll try to post some pics of the new pack.

LOL....the kid's Lama fuse. I kinda told him what I thought, that it was hidious (I dont hold noth'in back). Before I'd fly it, I made him put the stock fuselage back on it. I'm gonna buy him a comanche or apache fuse for it. I'd even buy a Lama v3 body if he wants...but not put that "thing" back on it. In his defense though....it fit like a glove, balance was good, a little heavy, and was for the most part, good engineering (except cosmetically). It was his first ever shot at design, and he did a good job where it counted....it actually worked and was flyable. Kids...what ya gonna do?

For what it's worth - I learned on a Blade CX2 inside infront of the tv... Parts are a lot less expensive and it hurts less when you get hit...ha The thing is so dosile that it builds your skills up quick. I guess it's that or a G4 Sim... Or more trips to the hobby shop. At 15 bucks for a set of blades, it's not hard to have a empty wallet.

Hey All, been busy... but I have kept up lurking from time to time

A lot of progress has been made with my scratch build plank. I had to do the rudder twice... the first one looked way too small
It has been a lot of fun though and kept me busy. I hope it will fly well with a E-flite 400 outrunner and TP 1320's. I've covertly name the plane in it's "X" state... the " Betterfly". I call it this now because of all of the work I've put into it, it better fly Side note: I think tP is going to warranty my balancer.I got an email from them that was kind of confusing but I believe they're send a new one.? I'll let ya'll know.

Here are some pics, still working on her and not the final product. More to come

Sweet......keep pics comming as you progress.

Hi again guys..... a couple more vids for all to see have been posted on youtube. One of bills HBK2 and one of mine and of course we have Jackis latest attempt with the CPP. Was pretty interesting end to that one, Maybe the gurus have an idea why the throttle went to full on and no TX input available. Weird thing is the idle up switch worked but nothing else.
Jackis cpp vid : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfENr5lIziw
Bills HBK2 vid : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78LOpJOlT7s&feature=user
And more of me hovering vid : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE4DkVqwaYI&feature=user

These were all taken saturday, I have about 25 minutes of vid from sunday at a different schoolyard with flights of my HBK2, a Raptor converted to electric and mine and bills maiden flights on our new planks! Will try to get that done tonite.


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Of all the things I ever lost....................................... I miss my mind the most!

Arrow....yes, your blades are too loose. Also noticed all heli's were tail heavy (CG off). Running the 400 canopies, extend the battery tray and lengthen the battery wires fior the CG, it'll fly a lot better without the tail hanging. Vid wasn't clear enough to get the vibration nailed down though but something's going there.
I watched the vids like a hawk, other than CG problem and not nailing down the vibration...not too bad. ALSO....Arrow, spend the $40 and get the HHG by Esky for it #0704A, they're a LOT better than the rate gyro (seen you fighting that too). Just my observations/recommendations.

arrow -

great vids! looks like I better get out my camera and put up some more vids.... my star rating is dropping fast. lol

with regards to the loss of input, I had the samething happen when the batteries are too low (either heli pack or tx pack).

on Bills HBK2, is that a TREX 450 Head? nice looking canopy too

It is a clone of the TREX head Jer. He got it for like 70 bucks shipped I think. Smooth and very stable. He is fighting a host of other flight issues with his, in that video the frame was cracked and was causing the pinion to pull away from the main gear. I actually thought it was his training gear smacking the ground at first, but as it progressed and he lost lift we moved on to belt and finally he pinpointed it to the frame. Its all fixed so now he can work on hovering skills and soon FF.
crash...I agree his Cg is toward the rear of his heli but I think alot of his flight issues also stem from the training gear. Until he gets proficient at soft landings it is a must for keeping his from flipping and wiping out those fancy CF blades. The CG on mine is actually a little forward, I have to add rearward ELE in the digital trim to settle it down. It actually likes to fight its way forward but I want to keep it that way to help ease me into slow FF. If I let go fo the cyclic and let it center it will slowly move forward and forces me to "fly" the heli and not just hands off hovering. I am working my way past just holding a heli in place on the sim and am finding with the planks flying I am getting much better at reading the rotors on the helis. Now to pass that brain food on to my starved yet sometimes overflowing nuerons and hope that something finally sparks.
As far a a HH gryo I may take the one off the TREX and install it on the King, As that will force me to buy the Logitech 2100T I been drooling over. That will go on the REX and possibly the new heli i am buying next weekend. Lets just say its a big one! If I end up purchasing it that will be my last Rc purchase for quite some time. I will keep you all in the dark until I have my hands on it. He he!
What is the verdict on the Blade CP Jacki was flying? The last hover was with zero stick input and I was hoping the crystal had popped out but I just checked it.......seated firmly in both TX and Rx and battery level on the CP TX was full green leds. I am playing hookey today so will be fiddling with it in between editing vids and posting them of all of yesterdays flights. The guy with the yellow Raptor is very experienced and I will be hooking up with him next weekend to get some more pointers and also he is going to help me with FF progression!
Ok so much for writing a book, I will post another link to vids later today.......wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee................. ........ Blade CP!!!
BTW, choppers.........Jacki says Hi!


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Of all the things I ever lost....................................... I miss my mind the most!

LOL...biggest post you've had in a while. I don't see WHY you couldn't run the HHG off the T-Rex on the HBKII. I plan on throwing my #0704A on the 400. You'll see a heck of a difference in the way the HBKII handles...it's a LOT easier to control. I kinda think the telebee and the 0704A are about in the same leauge (low priced), and will perform equally as well. If that was Jacki flying the Blade.....doing pretty well till it screwed up. Looks like she's well on her way to getting better. I agree about having some forward trimmed in to force you into FF. I did that on my first few FF, it worked well. Now, If I let go of the sticks, it will just hover by it's self because I took the forward trim back out. Having forward trim forced me to do forward flight and banked turns and I learned quickly how to fly it when doing that so "you're all over it". I actually learned the FF trim on the CP-Pro, and it's how I figured out how to fly pattern around myself. The biggest problem I've had is what I call a "slideoff". I'll be flying and all sudden out of nowhere, it'll slide in a turn gaining momentum and I'll loose it (some of my worst crashes). Planks that are high wing are self correcting in nature....not these heli's. Not forgiving at all (LOL). I don't know if I'll just stick to the 400 or get another HBKII also...haven't decided yet. I'll know when the 400 gets here (actually seeing the physical size). I know it runs 290 something to 325mm main blades which is alot bigger than the 275mm's...not basement friendly hovering there.

Arrow,

Watched your videos, all look great. And everyone did a great job. On Bills noise problem and finding the main frame crack and the pinion pulling away from the main gear. I had that happen twice on my HBK2, forturnately, they're only 6 bucks. Usually, the frame will crack after several hard landings. When that happens, the motor pinion, has a tendency to grind down the teeth on the main gear, and wear the pinion on the motor too. Have Bill, eyeball the main gear for wear, even a missing tooth. Been down the same road a couple times, and had to replace main gear. I enjoyed the ending of Jacki's video. As a matter of fact, I'm waiting on a main gear now, for the same reason, go figure. I would have gotten it today, but it's Martin Luther King day. Crap!

Jacki,

I watched your video, and you are doing a great job. I surely didn't do that well, for quite sometime. At the end with the motor running and not responding to your Transmitter input. NOT YOUR FAULT, those crazy electronic qizzmos did it.

Take care Kiddo,

Chopper

Arrow,

Forgot, you can run the gyro from the Trex, on the HBK2 with no problems. You'll see some improvement, but not 100% better. Reason, no digital servo. I put my GY401 on the HBK2 for a test, it did help. With a digital servo, it would scream.

Jay,

Great pictures, lots of progress there. I remember my first scratch build, lots of time and effort. It's still in the shed on the rafters. Hmm, think I'll get er' down and post a pic or two. That was in the early and mid 90's.

Sounds like you'll be getting a new balancer, they should stand behind there product(s).

God Bless

Vic,

Forgot about all the things I have access to in the Body Shop at work. Duh!!! The double sided sticky tape and foam tape, are all industrial stuff. Once you get it in place, it's there and hard to remove. You'd be surprised at all the things on a car that are stuck on with that tape, too.

The 0704A and the Telebee are both good gyros for the HBK2 or any 300 size heli, I'm running a Telebee and works great.

Great Vids Arrow! Jacki looked looks like she getting it really well, I hope you can get her BCP Pro going again soon, if not spring for another HBKII I love the part, " Flip it over........ O.K."

God Bless Ya'll,

Jay

I bought a roll of 3M double sided 1/16th...man, that's a SOB to take off (LOL), but I LIKE it! On the 0704A and the telebee....I figure since the telebee used to come stock on the T-Rex, I should be able to use the 0704A on the MX-400 with no problems. The more I read on the MX-400, the better I like it. They did away with the MX-400pro, but I think it priced it's self out of the market. The ARX-400 and the MX-400 are the same bird, and it looks like it'll be around a while at $60 per unit (fixes not withstanding). I checked the demensions...it's REAL close to the T-Rex 450 and many parts will interchange, and there's no lack of parts for the MX-400...I think I did "OK". Wheeeeeee........crashing a 400 sized heli!!!!!

One last pic of the boys before they go. They are flying better than they ever have right now (figures). I'll miss them but on to the next step.

CrashCrash, I wish you would have had those birds for sale last month. I recently bought HBBK 2. After months on the Sim and flying the CX2 I decided to plunge in there and go for it. I bought and assembled a T-Rex 450SE V2. I have only hovered it at this point. On a whim I thought that perhaps I should have started off with something less, so I bought the HBK2. I am asking for your advise on flying the HBK2. I have installed the ESky BL motor and a Castle C. 25A Spd. controller. It didn't want to lift of like it should with this rig. After a good spool up it suddenly jumps wild like to , I believe the left. I than correct with the cyclic to the opposite and then crash. Following this experience I changed out the pinion from a 9T to a 10T. and tried again. Now with more head speed it lifted off sooner but wanted to rotate on the floor and is not really interested in flying. When I did finally get it to lift off........crash again.

Whilst waiting for parts now, I have checked the blade pitch and corrected a 3deg minus at mid throttle. I have also adjusted the tail rotor for more pitch (and have ordered T-Rex blades). I have set the tail rotor to neutral at full left rudder and 25 deg. at full right rudder. I have reduced the blade pitch at 100% from +9 down to +7 deg. in hopes that this will allow more tail authority. After a lot of thought it is my conclusion that I had no tail action to offset the torque at lift off.

My guess (and it is only that) is that my problem is in the tail/gyro area. I haven't messed with the stock gyro yet. On power up the gyro sets up like it should. But what about the setting?

As of this writing I have only had these two described attempts at flight with this. My T-Rex doesn't have these problems so I am at a loss here, to figure out where I am going wrong with this HBK2. Can you help me with the limited info given above? I would be in your debt. Thank you.........Rich

Rich...I'll PM you a little later, and of course I'll have deeper questions. I got a lot of doctor appts today and a lot of running but I'll get back to you tonight when things slow down a bit.