rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE,

Hope you can finish your 610 install, and get the servo mounting hardware, and the extra capacity 70 amp ESC sounds good too...good luck on the parts at your LHS....but then again, you have real LHS out there, I have to drive 55 miles to get to a decent heli shop!

Mark,

Good luck on the Zero testing...glad you caught the elevator servo when you did, instead of having a potential disaster..[X(]

Those wildfires sound kind of familiar, we had something like that here a while back, basically wind-fed brush fires that closed a part of I-95 up here, which is very, very rare. Hope they don't ever get too close to your proximity.

Nick,

That fieldbox brings back some memories!! That thing looks EXACTLY like the one I bought 20+ years ago for the Cobra...lol...they haven't changed much, that is for sure...

Mine was identical, down to the power panel mounting, the drawer, and the fuel bottle storage...I painted mine white with some sort of fuel proof hobby paint. It's so funny seeing one of those again. I guess some things never change...I mean how can you change such a classic design as that?

I though of you last night when I saw this, I actually stumbled across it on an iPad 2 demonstator at Best Buy, the app was on it....

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icirc...383359044?mt=8

It is VERY cool in action, the circuits actually function when you turn the switch on, you can follow the current flow...one of those things you have to see, very cool app though....looks like you can do a lot of experimentation with it as well.

Be sure to check all the screen shots with the little slider there at the bottom of them... looks like it costs about $10...what a bargain, I'll have to put it on my wish list!

It looks like it's not yet perfected by those reviews posted, but the overall review rating is pretty decent with 3 1/2 stars....

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend, my weather here feels like we went backwards into winter again, quite chilly today, and a wintery mix tonight and tomorrow...

At least I'm not at work today!

Glenn

evdreamer

Mark,

I now have all my Nitro accessories in my flight box. So far it is well worth the money. I made an adaptor to charge my starter battery through my power panel. Now I don't have to remove the battery to charge it.

It would be hard for me to develop a chess game. All I have to write programs is a command line interface of a Linux system. The tic tac toe game was easy because I only needed X, O, and lines.

That is good you caught the elevator came loose. I went over my Velocity again and I found it was leaking fuel around the fuel filter. The fuel filter case came unscrewed, so I tightend it up and all was good again.

Hope the fires didn't cause too much damage.

John,

Hope you had fun with the family a few days ago.

Glenn,

That is a cool app. It looks kind of like my electronic simulator. It sure helps out trying to test an idea really quick or work with parts that I don't have.

Nick

JPEE

Hey guys,

I just completed a minor repair, a new ESC and motor to 500 #1. I took it in the backyard for a test hover and she did fine. I'm very pleased with the results and now I have two flyable 500s. I had to stop working temporarily on the 600-2 because I do not have the backing plates for the servos that the screws go into through inside the frame. I have to go to the hobby shop tomorrow and buy some. Talk to you guys soon this was just a short update.

Nick, cool that you found the fuel leak, that could have been serious!


John

JPEE

Hey Guys,

We met at the field today and had to climb down the hillside to get access to the field as the road is still under water.

I took both 500s for their final tweaks. I flew each heli once and noted some adjustments that were needed to both. Then on the bench I re-adjusted the pitch on 500-2 and had her honed down to perfection.

I popped in the second pack and off she flew smooth and stable. I had stuck to mild flying and no 3D at all. Then about a minute and half into the flight and only about forty feet from me the heli started

spinning 360s. I "think" as I struggled to bring the heli into control could see that the tail was not spinning! and down she came into the rocks and dirt. As we reviewed the carnage there at the crash site we

noted the boom was totally broken off from the main frame from about 3/16" inside the front boom mount. The one boom strut was broken and other was the only thing holding the entire boom on the helicopter.

It appears and I'll know more later after deeper review that boom fatigued and snapped off in flight. Oddly, the boom had broken off where the tail had been pinned in the main frame boom box! Could it have

been the drilling of that tiny little hole in the boom tube and with time and stress that caused the crack to move 360 degrees around the boom tube and cause this failure, I will never know...........[]

John

evdreamer

John,

Sorry about the crash. Trying to recover from a spin with no tail control is never fun to deal with.

I added a spark suppressor to my charger and my starter battery yesterday. I got a pretty big spark when I first tried to charge the battery through my power panel. Now there is no spark when I attach the connectors. I bought another pair to add to my 600 to get rid of that spark.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

John, I am really sory to hear about your 500...hope the damage wasn't too bad.

Was this boom involved in a previous crash? If so, I guess its possible that the force of the crash (having the weight of the tail case acting like a counter weight flexing) could cause extreme metal fatigue on the opposite side (the side that goes into the boom block), and in an unfortunate accident failed during a subsequent flight. Either way things like this are rough and I do feel your pain.

On the brighter side your other 500 (1) sounds like its flying fine...at least in that sense you still have a bird to fly.

Nick,

Sounds good on your spark suppressor. And I see your doing a bit of customization to your flight box...anything to make hobby life a bit simpler.

Mark

JPEE

Mark,

You know I can't really tell you if this boom had even been down before or taken a bump. But it does mean that after any accidents this area will draw my focus. So in the future I will slip the boom out and look it over if even a tail blade got bit, that energy might have traveled up the boom.

Not only did I have that bad luck but my buddy totalled his new plane 30 seconds after take off.

On a brighter note, is sunny and blue skies here. We are goining to have wonderful weather through this week so Wed will be a another fly day for us. I still have my 450 Pro and 500-1 and I must say it is pretty nice to back up helis.

John

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIC0SKNsbLc[/youtube]

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE,

So sorry to hear the bad news. That is a strange failure on the boom, and it does make you wonder about metal fatigue, and the possiblity of it spreading from a small crack, possibly when the hole for the boom pinning was made?

I know on real planes, they get inspected regularly for small cracks...which then can turn into big failures. It may be very hard to tell...it might take a metalurgist to study the failure to really know...and I don't think we have any of those around here...lol...

Sorry about your buddy's plane, that's sad to see one go down that fast. Hope he can salvage some electronics and so forth out of it at least.

Try to enjoy your great weather, you deserve it after all that rain!

Nick,

Cool on the surge suppressor...was there an article in RC Heli magazine about that? I just glanced over my new one the other day....

Mark,

I see your weather is in the 80's for the most part lately..

It still feels like winter up here, possibly some "wintery mix" tomorrow...

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

I don't know about the newest RC heli magazine, but I know there was one in a past magazine and there was one in the Model Aviation magazine that comes with the AMA membership. I have been wanting to do it for awhile now. It is pretty simple. You just add two small connectors in parallel with the main connectors. Then add a small resistor in series with the small connectors. You plug the small connectors in first. Then you wait a couple of seconds for the capacitors to charge up. Then attach the main connectors and then unplug the small connectors. I used two JST connectors and I think a 1K .25W resistor for my 12V battery.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Guys,

Here are a few more pic's they mean nothing as far as why, but I did look of old cracks verses new shinny metal. To be honest, the metal is very thin of course and even with jewlers glasses I can't say anything forsure.

I forget to say, I FINALLY got my first issue of RC Heli. Man that took like two months to arrive, but I do love it.

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

John,

Your pictures look interesting...it doesn't even appear like the boom bent or anything, just a clean break w/ the exception of the one side with the tear as if it was twisted. I wouldn't think of that much stress on the boom during easy flying and hovering...I guess it was very close to giving and wonder if a bit of pulling on it on the ground would have caused it to go. Maybe in the future that can be something to add to the preflight...a simple tug and pull on the boom to ensure the metal isn't getting that weak. Definitely a mystery.

As you said though you have nice skies and good weather plus the 450 and 500-1 still to fly. Just chaulk this up to a fluke and an offering to the heli gods. Glad you finally got March's (or April?) subscription of RCHeli...I had to email them to get mine sent.

Nick,

I think Glenn was right...I do recall seeing an article in March's RC Heli mag about the spark suppressor. Glad it worked out for you.

Glenn,

Sorry to hear about the winter mix your going to be getting...we were in the 80's (and had 90 on Saturday [X(]) but have had a cold front move in so temps are back down in the 70's. I did get a flight in on Sunday after work (3pm) and was actually sweating after a 5 min. flight...now I remember why I fly at the break of dawn. lol

I was going through some of my older CPP2 vids (thanks Rabbit ) and found myself missing my old beater bird. So took a look at the new mCP X...hmm, this can't be good. I just got a big heli so I really need to stop this...

Mark

JPEE

Hi Guys,

I dug into the 500 and removed the boom stob that was still in the heard drive gear box. It is pretty clear that some of it was torn from the crash but

clearly there damage and break down before that. In the one pitcure you can see that it is right off the hole for the boom pin.

As was also asked has the heli been crashed or hard set downs, heck yes! That is to say, some bumps and bruses but if there were any kind of damages

visible then those parts were changed from the get-go.

A friends "Chopper" thought that the pin was to long and made those scratches on the tt but as I held it together here on the bench it was clear that those

scratches came from it rubbing the boom tube after it spearated form the heli and the boom was held on by one boom strut. This was determined on the

bench where I could slip what was left of the tail kinda together.

My final observation is as follows, the boom must have sustained stress fractures over time. The pin hole provided a weak spot to fail under that the stress.

My heli's have been pinned for two and half years and I have never seen any signs from that tiny hole in the past.

The final damage is:
TT
boom tube
head TT verticle drive gear
tail blade gear shaft
auto rotation gear
CF main blades
three sets of servo replacement gears

I guess it is fair to say, it could have been a lot worse as always. My new canopy might have gotten a scratch, it was 2 minutes old LOL, that's the first thing

I looked at after the crash, I guess the heli Gods gave me that good fortune

Mark, I think your right on a tail tug, but mine will be from side to side.

John

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

Well, its been storming and storming and storming down here. I think Glenn is also getting hammered by this thing too...its been a brutal 2 days of nonstop rain and wind. Looking forward to seeing the sun again sometime tomorrow.

John,

In that video it looked like your friends P51 was a bit tail heavy...looks like it kept pitching up and then did that low snap which ended it. Did the electronics fair well to be used in another plane? I know that most of my foamy warbirds end up very tail heavy and I usually have to put quite a bit of weight up front...it was a nice looking plane...a bit of 5 minute epoxy, a few evenings, and it should be ready for a remaiden.

So any more flights with your 500-1 or 450?

I am really looking forward to some nice mornings to hopefully get some flights in.

Mark from the soggy south.

JPEE

Hey Guys,

This morning my wife and I were watching the news and weather. We saw where you Mark are in for it! As they moved up the cost to Glenn's home area OUCH! he is gonna snow and worse. Glenn, get some canned

food, gas up the heaters and generator and get ready to hunker down with Tiger! Right now at 5:00 p.m. it is still 101 here with wind, so no flying. It is supposed to let up some (the wind) so perhaps we fly tomorrow.


I was working on the servos in the 600-2 and found I did not like the plastic star servo arms. You screw into the plastic with the your ball and I just don't trust it on a heli this size. In my opinion they cannot be drilled and change

the to ball's with nuts as the end of the arm would be to weak. So I bought plastic servo wheels that have a grip on them to hold a nut. I have just been poking along on this 600-2 as there is no rush. Last night in "taking my time"

I noticed that elevator inner servo arm that has the middle ball to lift the elevator was splitting around the end where the ball had been screwed in. So I pulled mine out of 600-1 for now until I decide what I will do with her later.

That is an issue when you buy used, you really really need to look and check over every dang screw and fitting on the heli.

Because I might get a chance to fly tomorrow I was going over my Pro. I found that I could pull my blade grips out from eachother 1/8"! I pulled the head down and found that once of the F shaft screw had broken its Loctite and

backed out to a dangerous position. When checking that both blade grips their link balls were a bit loose too, once again the I could see the blue Loctite had let go. I found some wear in the head in the arms and mixers but nothing

dangerous there. Then dropped a driver on every screw on the heli. Funny this is just what I did with both 500's last week before I flew them. For me it is a regular practice to pull on the blade grips before I go out. What further

suprsied me is the tracking was dead on too the last time I flew it. Maybe the screw back out after those last three flights that day, I don't know for sure. But is fixed proper tonight

John

evdreamer

It has been pretty quiet lately.

John,

That is good you are enjoying your RCheli magazine.

That is good you noticed the blade grip was loose on your 450.

How is your 600 coming along?

I have been busy with homework and writing papers.

Today was pretty good for flying, so I couldn't pass it up. I almost went through a gallon. The carbon tail blades have helped, but I am still trying to fix a wag. I had an interesting moment during my last flight of the day. My engine died while I was hovering inverted. Luckily I was high enough to pull out of it and do a nice auto. I am thinking it was a combination of a few things. I think it might have leaned out because the engine was hotter than normal, the glow plug also burned out, then there is a piece loose in my muffler. At first I thought there was a metal piece in the engine, but I took the back plate off and looked through the exhaust port and I couldn't find any metal shavings. It sounds kind of like a big piece that is loose in the muffler. At least it is an easy fix, but kind of expensive.

Nick

JPEE

Hey Nick,

Sorry to hear about your motor and glow plug. Seems like you eat those glow plugs up like candy! I hope they are not expensive

You must feel somewhat better now that you have looked inside your port to ensure there are no foreign objects. WOW a gallon of fuel, that's

some stick time my friend.

No one likes homework and term papers but it is a must to succeed in life.


I have been really busy here around the house. Because I am retired I tend to put far to much time into the hobby and let other things slip

by. So yesterday it was prunning and today it was spraying the lawns for weeds that are trying to take over, but not on my watch!

I have had some hold ups on the 600. I have my servos mounted and I bought wheels rather than the star arms. They are mounted now

and will be recentered and the wheels installed today. Another unexpected surprise was the bearings behind the upper control arms were dang

near square they were so bad. So I replaced those and in that same kit comes the bearings that the flybar ride on so I may put those in too

while the head is down. Each new issue that pops up requires another trip to the LHS. As Glenn said, I am blessed to live right next to HeliHobby.

I am very close, another few days, there's no rush. Tomorrow is a fly day that we need to take advanagage of as the later days in the week will

be cloudy and windy.

That's it from Sunny California

John

evdreamer

John,

Yeah, I go through glow plugs pretty quick. I try to baby them, but they don't last long for me. They are like $7-8 a piece. I had the whole field to myself yesterday, so it was easy to get a lot of flights in. It was kind of windy, so that probably kept the plane pilots away. One of my heli friends stopped by, so that helped pass the time.

That is good you are close to finishing the 600 up.

Have fun flying tomorrow.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

I've been pretty quiet, mainly because I had to work Saturday, which tends to put a damper on my entire weekend...I didn't feel much like doing anything after work yesterday...

Today was a major spring cleaning day. I found my RC heli stuff that I had put away in the fall, and forgot where it was.. I found it in a plain, non-descript box that was in the spare room. So now I'm set to get everything set up on the heli table for this year's flying, get orgainzed, so to speak...

My RC Heli Magazine subscription is due, and I remembered that there was an iPad app for that...lol...so I'm going to subscribe to RC Heli Magazine on the iPad. Should be kinda neat, if I want to look at back issues, they'll be right there on that app. The price is the same, and lord knows, the delivery should be better, I don't have to tell you guys (JPEE and Mark) how slow/poor their mailing can be. I had to email them once to get 2 magazines sent that I never got...hopefully this online service will be better.

Nick,

Sorry about the engine stall/loose piece...not sure I understand, is there still something rattling around in the pipe? Maybe the filiment from the glow plug, although that's not very big?

Glad you got nearly an entire gallon of fuel in, and sounds like you had fun with the whole field to yourself.

JPEE,

Glad you found that loose F. shaft screw, that could have been ugly.

Sounds like a fun project to just take your time with 600-2, since you are in no hurry.

I know what you mean about things around the house, I spent all day today on that, want to get that out of the way before flying season hits full swing, 'cause after that, it'll never get done...lol...

Hope your wind dies down some so you can get some flights in, and that heat, wow, 101 already?

It was probably nice enough today to fly a bit, but a bit breezy. I have all spring and summer ahead, no real rush...

Mark,

Hope the weather cleared down there, and you got some flying in. It's been cloudy with on and off sprinkles here, but no major storms. Yesterday was quite windy though.


Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

That is cool you can look at back issues on the iPad.

Yeah, there is still something rattling inside the pipe. It is a pretty loud rattle, so I doubt it is the glow plug filament. If I tilt the pipe back and forth I can hear a loud thoud. I think I read that the Align pipe has done something similar for people on the forums. The heli sounded different than normal when I was flying yesterday, but I couldn't figure out what was causing it until I shook my heli. I ordered a new pipe, so I should be up soon again.

That is good you haven't had any major storms recently.

Nick

rotarydoc

Nick,

Now that I think about it, Justin or somebody was mentioning something like that on the Align pipes. A baffle or something comes loose.

I thought you had an Outrage pipe like mine on the Velocity?

I am looking forward to seeing how the iPad app works with RC Heli.

I also got an app that downloads, stores and views PDF files. So I could have manuals on the iPad for each heli, radio, etc.

Right now, I have manuals for my scanner radios, and the iPad itself on it, and it works great. I could probably get manuals in PDF form for almost everything I own..

Glenn

evdreamer

Glenn,

I do have an Outrage pipe. I was just trying to compare the two pipe problems.

Nick

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi guys,

Nick...that must have been some save to do an auto from an inverted position. Kudo's to you.

Glad you were able to get a new pipe for your engine...I took a look at some of those prices and they start at $54 and go up from there. BTW, what glow plugs are you using...maybe I'll invest in some of their stock.

Techno-savy-Glenn ,

What can I say...everytime they come out with something new to try your in it knee deep. I bet it is a nice feature to have all the manuals and such right there.

gotta run now []

Mark

rotarydoc

Nick,

Ahh, I see. I thought you had the same pipe as me. I'll have to keep an eye on mine.

It was HOT here today, like 85 degrees....but super windy. I think big storms are on the way, to cool things off a bit.

Mark,

Yeah, gotta keep up with the technology! Sometimes, it even comes in handy at work. We have to know about pairing bluetooth phones, MP3 players, iPods, GPS, radar (blind spot monitoring) and more....high tech is all around us!

Glenn

evdreamer

Mark,

I am using OS #8 glow plugs. They seem to be the standard for 50 size helis.

Glenn,

It has been really windy here too.

Nick

JPEE

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbi6KSqkVQI[/youtube]

Hey Guys,

I 600-2 finished and for the most part set up at home. I used my key chain cam to make this 7 min video, boarrrrrrring! I take the heli up and check her out and make some small tweeks but she few well. I put three

packs through her and now I will go over the entire heli again. You will hear me speak to my set up being at factory spec's. In my 600 manual they give you the pitch, rpm, throttle curve that is the best for normal,

idle-up 1-2. I have always had a 600 at 12+ 12-. But in reading the manual they want you to stay at 9+ and 7-. Now I know you are questioning that but you must remember this is the "old" motor type. So giver a look

and don't sit for the entire 7 min. Glenn will notice how I fly off until I can barely see the 600 and then bring here back, stupid maybe........... but a challenge, remember I do crash from time to time LOL.

The big news is, as we climbed down the side hill to gain access to the road (the dry part) I am walking along and I just glanced ahead a few feet and there he was! A diamondback rattle snake! big as life right there before

my feet about 8 feet in front of me. I dang near wet myself lol. I tried to count his rattles but he started moving away and "I" was backing up too.

All in all it was a grand day

JPEE