JPEE

Hey Guys,

Just a quick note, I started working on my 500#2 and found it over all to be in pretty good shape. I replaced both uppper and lower main bearings. I have checked every screw and removed and replaced them so I know its right and loctited as I went. I found three servo wires cut open to where they were bare from a frame rub! I found a servo arm that was split at the end of the hole where the ball was screwed in because I took them all off to look just for that and to loctite the little nuts. I replaced the top main gear and the other day and I had replaced two servos gears. I have found the main shaft and f shafts both in good shape!. I had to re-center all servos as they were waaaay off. I have to adjust the height of the swashplate as the arms are not perfectly horizontal when at 50% stick within the head.

So tomorrow I will finish the swash/head height, put on my blades, dial in my pitch, and then.............. I have to replace the motor bearings. After doing this my old 500 motor I know what to do there, and boys, it ain't easy either. Then a test hover. I figure I have about 3 hours to put in before she is ready lift off.

Now I am off for Pizza and a cold beer at my daughters house so I can install her Carbonite auto computer backup. It takes about one to two days to back up the entire system. It is a very slow process, however when that is done everything you do like, websites favorites, doc's, spreed sheets, pictures, videos, they all start downloading as soon as the computer sees them. Pretty neat.

JPEE OUT!

Aframomum

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Glenn,

Wow...that is some major committment you have there...sorry that in the end you didn't get what you wanted. [] At least you did get to physically hold it and inspect it and from the sound of it didn't miss much. But what a runaround town you did!

John,

You also are doing quite a bit with the 500 rebuild...but as you said at least now you know for sure it is all done right. You pointed out some areas that I never considered checking...esp. the servo arm ends where the ball link screws into...I'll have to add that to my going over list in the future. I've heard that replacing the bearings on the 500L is...well...not fun...what bearings are you going with? Good luck with the final steps to get her ready for a test hover.

Hope your daughter is springing for pizza with all the computer work your doing to help her out.

Nick,

That was super fast getting the Velocity done...did you do an all-nighter?? Hope the weather warms up for you to get in a test run soon.

I wanted to thank you all for the congrats on my test hover - strange as it sounds I was more nervous with my 500 then the 550. Forgot to mention that my camera battery died mid-video so that's why it ends with the heli still airborne. I've gone over the heli to make sure nothing came loose and hope to do a maiden either tonight (gets dark now at 8:30 - daylight saving is great ) or tomorrow morning. And my camera battery will be charged.

In other news I got to take my son to his first airshow this past Friday. It was great! A local airport/airmuseum sponsored it and they had a nice collection of aircraft and heli's - mostly from the WWII and Vietnam era. In addition they also had a lengthy aerial show with multiple Texan aircraft (T6 Texan) flying as well as a show that resembled something you'd see from the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds but were from a civilian group called the Heavy Metal Jet Team (see [link=http://www.heavymetaljetteam.com/]Link[/link]). Oh, for $50 you could get a helicopter ride on a Huey...had to pass this year but maybe next time. Overall, it was definitely a terrific time for both of us.

Mark

evdreamer

Glenn,

Sorry you went through all that and didn't get an iPad 2.

John,

That is good to hear you started working on your 500.

Mark,

I didn't have much left to do on the Velocity. Once I got the new A-arm shaft, I installed that, leveled the swash, put the wash out arms on, attached the head, and attached the main blades. I already had most of the major parts assembled.

That is cool you and your son went to an air show. I haven't been to one in a long time.

Nick

JPEE

BTW, this entire post was kicked when it would not upload, but.....I had done my traditional "copy" before I hit the post key. Just a reminder boys to do your back up before you hit the trigger.


Hello Boys,

I completed the assembly of the 500-2 with some minor issues. Before I go there I will say she hovers like a dream.

The heli went together rather well. The final cost to me was, top main gear, receiver of which for now is only a ar6100e, FGblades, used KDBB tail blades of which one is yellow and the other is orange. When they spin they become kind of a burnt orange lol. I also had to use the motor out of my 500-1 which I will explain later below.

I had to read up on the JR770 gyro and tail servo. They are not like our 401's but boy does it keep the ship trim and snappy! They suggest after you enter all of their standard settings to then put in 50% expo! Yes 50%, of course being know it all "LOL" I thought "BS" I can handle this. When I lifted the heli for the first time and gave her some rudder that dang thing nearly did a 180, scared the pee-waddle out of me[X(]. After I put in the 50% expo she handles nicely and yet is still very fast. A full on flight will be the test of the pudding though, and thats scheduled for Tuesday.

The motor, wellllllllllllllll we have a problem here Houston [&o]. I took great pains in making a tool to take the motor apart now after working on one before I now know the in's and out's of that motor. You leave the motor mount on the motor, stick the mount in a vice and spin the motors bottom off. My good fortune lol was "the" top of the motor and the motor mount came loose precluding me now from now having a way to hold the motor case to get the bottom off. They Loctited the motor together and bearings too which they speak to on YouTube on the HOW TO for this motor. So now what do I do? Ah ha says me. I had the BBQ on baking some potatoes when I thought, I'll put the motor case "only" in the BBQ at 350 for 10 minutes and soften the Locitite. SHEZAAAAM boys it worked like a charm I pulled it out with gloves and placed it quickly in the vise and set my jig back on it twisted and......................... she unscrewed! Now I have the motor case ends (one at a time) soaking in Acetone to disolve the old Locktite. Once I get this motor rebuilt I'll just put it in 500-1 and keep on trucking.

That's it from California, land of the highest prices for Gasoline and Diesel fuels in the USA.

John

UPDATE: After soaking the cases top, bottom and center I dremeled what Loctite did not desolve. I glued in both new bearings and screw it together. I plugged it into the ESC on 500-2 and ran it up a few times and it seems to be fine. Today Monday I will take it apart and double check everything and then glue the case together and mount.

evdreamer

John,

That is good your second 500 is flying good.

I have JR770's on my Velocity and 600. I really like them and the metal case. The insides of them look good too. I don't use expo on my rudder with them though.

Depending on the type of magnets Align used, 350 degrees might be too much and weaken them. Also depending on the type of wires they used 350 degrees might start to melt the insulation. I am going off of Scorpion specs, but their wires are only good to 356 degrees F and their magnets are good to 392 degrees F. They said most other motor companies have magnets good from 176 degrees F to 212 degrees F.

Nick

JPEE

Thanks Nick,

I did not put electrics in the BBQ, only the face (top) end that hooks to the motor mount that held a bearing and the cyclinder (empty) part of the case. All of the electrics are hooked to the bottom and that stayed on the bench.

John

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Aw, you mean I can't toss my motor in a pan besides my lemon-basil talapia in the oven...and here I was thinking I could multi-task heli work with dinner. lol.

Speaking of gas prices...saw $3.54 for regular unleaded on my way to work today. How's it look in your areas?

Congrats John on getting the motor apart and on your successful hover. Looks like we both may be doing maidens tomorrow.

Mark

Aframomum

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Figured I'd pass this along...saw a thread on HF of an online store in Wisconson that has free shipping on all orders over...$15 - that's really good. They also seem to have a good selection. Just FYI...

[link=http://highflyheli.com/]HighFlyHeli[/link]

Mark

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Mark,

Glad you and your son had a good time at the airshow. I don't think I've ever been to one, but I've been to the Air and Space Museum in DC a long time ago.

Gas prices here are in the same ballpark, $3.51~$3.54. I'll bet JPEE has us beat by a long shot....

Was that a misprint, or does it really stay light down there until 8:30 now?

JPEE,

Congrats on the sucessful first hover...and the motor sounds like it turned out good as well.

Hope you get a chance to maiden it soon.

I may need your advice some day on the motor, when mine needs a bearing refresh...

Nick,

I never knew there were heat specs for motor magnets. Makes sense, I just never really thought about it...


Not much new here, supposed to be pretty nice by Friday...so maybe some shorter flights on the 450's, should be OK if I keep them around 5 minutes...


Glenn

JPEE

Hey Guy's

Mark your son must have been struck by what he saw even as a wee one.


My 100ESC came in today YIPPEE!


I went to the LHS today and picked up my needed 500 TT front gears and a NIB BEC for my 600 YIPPEE again lol. So tonight I will start on my 500-1

and see how it goes. As you guys were speaking to gas prices and Glenn noted I had to stop and get some diesel today. Notice the price here at the corner.

I used to say Smiles.................. but it is getting harder every day with this economy.

John


EDITED:
Glenn, there is good news and some bad news. THANK YOU for the screw's which is the good news. The bad news......they don't fit.[&o] I can't tell the dia difference as metric is not my cup of tea like it is yours. But your screw is a just a smiggin larger in the dia. Here are the pic's of the mic and and what it says, you'll understand it better than I. This stuff is down to nanno mm. But again thanks for the college try

John

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

John, sorry the screws don't work for you. Does the Align manual have them listed?

But on the brighter side you got your 100A ESC, BEC, and TT gears.

I can't believe your gas prices...as Glenn said you do have us beat by a long shot. []

BTW, what bearings did you use in the 500L motor? Great job on the replacement!

My son did have a great time at the airshow...I've attached some pictures to share.

Mark

rotarydoc

Guys,

Mark,

The airshow pics are very cool....that one of the heli...it sure looks to be at an odd angle to the ground, especially for being so low?

Looks like you little one was having a blast!

JPEE,

Sorry the screws didn't work out...I did the math and the I don't think it's the actual size difference, since they are .04mm off, that translates to a little over one thousandth as you can see here;

http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/convert_.04mm_to_inch

A human hair is about 2 or 3 thousandths thick (.002~.003) as a comparision.

I am thinking the thread pitch is different, what happens if you try to mesh the threads of the 2 screws together, do the screw threads match up? (I know they are small, and this might not be easy to do...).

At any rate, maybe Mark has the right idea, are they listed as an Align part anywhere?

It may be very hard to find a screw that matches exactly if it's some strange thread pitch....

Oh well, we tried at least...let us know how it works out...

Glenn

Aframomum

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John,

Trying to lock down your missing screw:

mixing arm socket screw (M2X8)
socket button head collar screw (on the seesaw) (M2X5.5)
On the swash/washout base:
socket screw (holds arm to washout) (M2X8)
socket button head screw (2 tiny ones secures the radius arm) (0X4mm)

Also...HF has the Pro manual [link=http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=43239]Here[/link]

You could try Xheli for parts (even though you might pay more for a stinkin screw then you'd plan []): [link=http://www.xheli.com/exi450pro.html]Pro parts[/link]

Hope this helps,

Mark

Aframomum

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Guess who got a maiden in?!!

http://vimeo.com/21069746

evdreamer

John,

That is cool you got your 100A ESC. Good luck with the screws.

Mark,

Cool pics. Your flips looked good.

Guess who also got a maiden in. I went through a tank in my back yard with the Velocity. It didn't start out very good. The engine didn't turn over because there was too much fuel in it from the last time I had the engine running. I had to pull the back plate, pipe, and the cylinder head off. Once I did that the fuel just started coming out really fast. Once I installed the engine back in the frame the glow plug burned up. After that it started pretty good and was flying good. So far I am really liking the JR 8717's. They seem a lot more responsive. I am going to really have fun doing 3D with it.

Nick

JPEE

Mark,
A great flight indeed! You still scare me when you do those low swoops! You held your inverted pretty well I might add, adda boy! ! It was

the audio of you talking, your voice literally quivering that made me feel I was with you every second of the flight. By all means take the

chain saw with you next trip out. I submit that Glenn is the closest to you and will post your bail LOL.


The air show really looked great. Your son looked taken by the whole thing. That Huey coming in looked radical…


The screw for my 450 Pro HK. Mark, thanks for your postings and involvement in this matter I do appreciate your help and support,

however there is no help available, let me explain. The washout arms “are not� cloned after the TREX450 Pro to the T! So there is not Pro

part “screw� that I can use as a substitute period…….. end of story, to my knowledge.

Glenn, I read what you said about the threads being the issue but they are not “kinda� Your screw was larger in diameter by an un-measurable

amount as you saw on the calipers. It simply wont fit through the bearing. Then I laid them on each other and the thread count is different too

but again that is of no matter, it the diameter that was the killer. I do thank you too for all of you help on matter.

I looked up the heli on HK today to see if they sell a screw kit, they do not. But they do sell new washout arms for $9.00. The Align Pro washout

arms cost “like� $17.00. I cannot justify either for one tiny screw.


Nick, congrats to you! ! ! Pulling off your maiden today as well. Sorry it was not smooth in the beginning but you got through it. That was a real PITA

do have to tear down all of that stuff. Do you have any 600 size cyclic servos you want to sell?


Tomorrow or the next day I will button up my 500 motor, I did tape over the mounting holes today to American standard and found two screws so I

am set there. On 500-1 it is done with the exception of I need new main grip bearings. As I was checking the head I found one side very knotchy, so

they both get replaced. And as I did another low hover in the yard tonight I find that 500-2 wont hold it’s tracking so I will replace the dampers there

too. But overall I am ready for my 500-2 maiden tomorrow…YIPPEE!!!

John

evdreamer

John,

I have three JR 8317's from my Velocity. There is slop in 2 of the 3 servos. They are discontinued. Here are the specs http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ing#quickSpecs . It looks like the gears are about $22.50 for a set. As far as I can tell Horizon is the only place that sells the gears. Are you interested?

Hope you have good weather for the maiden tomorrow.

I finally set up my wireless router today to prevent other people from using it. People in my area probably had free internet for a few years. I now made it that my laptop is the only computer that can access it and that it is hidden from everyone with a wireless connection.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Nick,

I guess a congrats is in order for your maiden as well. I bet it was nice to have your Velocity flying again. Sorry for the issues with the engine...I know its an inconvience to remove an engine from a plane but a heli I'm sure is a pain. Persistance pays off.

Good for you cutting all those freeloading interenet users off. Pay for your stuff will ya.

Glenn,

To answer your question from earlier...it does get dark around 8 and not 8:30, oops. And that Huey with the freaked angle...it was actually taking off but that sharp angle was quite amazing...bet those riders were really getting their $50 worth. lol

You are very fortunate to be so close to the Air & Space Museum...my last visit there was in the middle 90's so its been awhile. I even hear they are definitely getting one of the remaining shuttles once they are retired. Another amazing place to visit is in Dayton, Ohio...the Wright Patterson Museum at the Air Force Base there. They have 4 hangers full of planes and take you from the beginnings to modern day. Have you looked to Edwards Air Force Base...most AF bases will host an airshow every 2 years and it is normally a free thing so not too bad.

Hope you get some decent weather on Saturday so you have a chance to fly...I think you should get your SDX out too.

John,

Think I'll leave the chainsaw at home...I do like my freedom and jail doesn't sound worth it. I'll just have to fly a bit higher over that spot.

Any 500 maidens today? And did you get a video also? Video's are always great and welcomed.

Did I mention that I love my new 550? I even like the canopy...I'm going to try and keep the stock paddles and tail blades for now...I didn't have too many orientation issues with them on so may not have to do the KBDD route...a few more flights and I'll know for sure. I was nervous doing the little inverted bit considering I never refreshed on the sim before the flight but thought what the heck, I'm high enough to bail out if needed...plus I really wanted to see how it felt.

Can you believe I found this in my closet still all boxed up just waiting to be built? [link=http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJTK0&P=7]Flatana[/link] Looks like something fun for the front yard.

Mark

JPEE

Hi Guys,

Well I had my maiden...... twice today! And there is good news and some bad news. [] The good news is, I took off and flew the first pack and she flew extreamly well with a very responsive rudder. After I

landed (the bad news) I found I had missed when I tried to turn on the camera on my helmet so there is no video[&o]. The good news is I waited a while and pretended to make my maiden for you guys, whodda

known right? I made sure I turned on the camera before I put on my helmet so all was good. I flew the pack and came in and checked the camera and noticed the lens was retracted and the camera was off,

(the bad news) the camera battery had died while I was up. I got home reviewed the disk and found there is some great footage of me taking off and just getting in to the air.... then BAM the camera shut down on low

battery []. Boys, it was not to be I guess. The 500-2 flew really well and reminded me of 500-1 when she was new, tight and responsive. The skies were semi blue and but there was that glare like Mark had and

everyone was flying in close and low.

We have rain coming in Sat Sun Mon then again like Fri and Sat so my flying time is in the barn for awhile. Meantime, and I can start on my 600 YIPPEE while it is wet and nasty outside.


Mark, I don't live that far from Edward Air Force Base, 87.4 miles. I have been there many a time to air shows, but I never went to see the Shuttle come in dang it.


Mark!!!! what camera are you using for your videos? Overall they look pretty good. Was that the keychain camera?

Nick, I get back you on the servos, thanks for repyling.


JPEE is a happy boy today overall

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Mark,

Your maiden looked awesome, you certainly should be proud of your first time out with the 550, you made it look easy!

So what do you think of the difference in size between the 500/550? Everything happens a bit slower, eh?

Wow, that is still late for the dark time, it gets dark here now about 7:20 or so, maybe a tad later...

When I said I went to the Air and Space museum a long time ago, I meant a LONG TIME ago...lol...I think it was in the early 80's...

The weather looks somewhat promising for Saturday, but I don't like it when my weather station shows those horizontal lines for high winds...they are there for both Friday and Saturday...so we'll see.

I doubt the SDX will see any flight time anytime real soon...the only place I have to fly it is MHA, and I don't even have my AMA yet, nor my MHA membership paid....

JPEE,

That is weird on the screw...must be some odd size thing...

Good luck on your maiden of 500 two tomorrow.

Nick,

Sorry your engine was so stubborn. I have managed to flood mine a couple of times.

Justin showed me a neat trick once, that actually worked on my SDX when it was flooded once....he laid the heli over on the left side to help evacuate the excess fuel from the cylinder and crankcase while he kept turning it over with the starter...it actually worked...I was amazed...it started right up... I think that will work on a mildly flooded engine, it sounds like yours was pretty bad.

That is good that you secured your wireless network, and hid the SSID. Not only can you get freeloaders on your network that will slow your connection, but people can get on it and use it for bad things...

I saw your weather was like 72 degrees today??

I think that is the weather that I'm getting for the weekend...

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Whoops, I meant to say for Glenn Andrews AFB and typed Edwards AFB...must of been CaliForNia Dreaming.

John...Awesome news on your multiple maidens!!! Glad that you got everything working smooth as butter (as the saying goes ).

I too learned to charge my camera battery before an outing just b/c my batt died during my 550 hover. I don't like that feeling after you've landed finding out the camera shut off mid flight. []

You and I are going to have to put our heads together to somehow convince mister "I don't do mornings" in MD that mornings are great for flying - no wind and if your early enough no glare!

Glenn,

I am grateful for the 500 in that it was a great transition platform from my 450...I'm sure if I went from the 450 to the 550 I would be a lot more nervous and hesitant while flying. The 500 was a perfect size to get used to the power and flight characteristics. The 550 is actually very similar...a bit more stable (or maybe I'm a bit more stable flying it ) and they both have good solid power, although I do remember the 500 seemed to take off at a faster rate when doing punch outs. I need more flights to really get a 'feel' for her though...these are just initial takes.

Mark

evdreamer

Mark,

That is good you are liking the 550. Now you can fly in some stronger winds. Have fun with the foamy.

John,

That is good your 500#2 is flying good.

Glenn,

Yeah, it was nice yesterday. It is pretty nice today also.

Nick

angel18

wow nice to fly with the wind conditions are very tight, if it was modified in advance

JPEE

Hey Nick,


Just did, or tried to hover three times on 500-1 and had a vibration. I didn't realize from a little blade strike landing that I had bent the main shaft!!

I am shocked to be honest. I rolled it on flat surface and found it to be just "barely" bent. I just replaced the main shaft and now find the blades won't

stay in tracking. I noticed the head had some slop but not in the blade grips as I just rebuilt them as they were very knotchy. So that part of the head

is tight. However, I noticed the flybar cage is sloppy and the arms that tie to it. So a little more detective work is ahead of me.


JPEE

JPEE

Hey Guys,

I will explain more tomorrow but here are some videos I took at the Club Field today. On the snap shots, they are of a solar panel that charges two deep cycle batts in the box. When the guy flies his plane,

it needs two 5,800 mah packs. But he has these small RX pack and Servo pack buried down deep in the plane. So he uses this charger to reload those after each flight. The charger you'll see is called a cube

charger. If it is a real sunny day it will via the solar panel run the charger and charge the planes small packs. If there is not enough sun then there are the deep cell batterys down in his box and they will charge

his onboard packs. In short he has a 12vt solar panel that goes into a regulator (note the big fins for cooling) then on to the gel deep cycle packs in his box. If the sun is really cooking then he has extra ports

on the top of the box and he just charges from there and by passes his back deep cells. I hope this makes sense, I am sleepy and heading to the old rack....bye. Watch in 720 HD

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLj70GC3NV0[/youtube]

The other video is from my key chain cam and is about our access road to the field.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Qe_Hm26k0&feature=player_detailpage[/youtube]