Thanks Ivan & Jon in the tail belt tips.

Damn, ~4300 RPM on the Gaui 255! I wonder what the shear strength on the main rotor bolts are...[&:]


More pics of my Trex450v2 build...

-Dave

Dave - Finless has a bunch of videos & in most of them he has little tips & tricks regardless of the heli size. I've watch a lot of them. He used a small rubber band to flatten the very end of the belt & it slipped right through. He hooked it up & then described what a twisted belt would feel like. Good stuff.

Hey what brand heli is that, Dave???? lol It's looking good, I'm getting excited for you.

Jeff - hi!

2 days of flying in the warehouse - FEELS good. Managed nose right for over a minute & not quite that long nose left. But those iron beams really make me nervous. lol

Ivan - I've got a spare bedroom I can rent you if you run out of storage space for all those helis! The numbers may be decreasing but the size sure isn't!

Chuck

Good point. I've been meaning to hit the finless vids. Maybe now is the time!


Hang on, let me check one of the myriad of parts, AND the diagonal banner across every friggin page in the manual....
I'm getting excited myself. I can only make helicopter sounds so long before I have to start the real one up!


Nice!


-Dave

Chuck, which heli are you doing this with? I remember reading a bit ago about you wanting to bring your 450 to work. Is that the one?


You don't know how true that statement is......

I nearly have the Beam E4 back together. I replaced the tail shaft, tail pitch lever and vertical stab on the tail... the main shaft, feathering shaft, main drive pulley and one way sleeve. I still need to go through the servos. The one that caused the crash needs to be replaced and another has a stripped gear. I thought HS65MGs were supposed to be tough..... meh... The stock SWE main blades survived but the tail blades did not. I have factory tail blades but also ordered a set of KBDD neon green 61mm blades and matching KBDD paddles. It will be nice to fly this thing again.

Ivan, every recent crash of my BH500 I've had to replace something in the HS65's I've got. Mostly cases.

Scott

Eddie.... we miss your contributions. I even went to HF to see if you were posting over there but nothing. Hope you are getting some flying in.

Jeff, if you are around, miss you too. Hope you are doing well.

Phil, still too windy to fly?

Gary, how are the new blades selling? Would you happen to have landing gear that could be adapted to work with the Gaui 255? Stock landing gear is very brittle.

Chuck, looks like there is an afternoon flying day at the Lake Barrington Field House on New Years Day from Noon to 3PM. You should come.

Brian, you going to get any flying weather soon?

Dave, looking forward to your reactions to flying the new heli. The V3 tail looks really good on that.

Scott, also looking forward to your reactions on your new bird. I love my Pro.

Jon, HI!! Wish I was down under so I could be flying.

Bill, are you getting any flying in with the 550?

Shane, I see you must have gotten your 255s. What do you think?

I think the Holidays are taking their toll. I know after tonight, I'm going to be busy until Christmas afternoon when I get even more busy on the 450pro. Maybe not then... Ijust remembered...I'm cooking so probably Saturday.

So... Happy Holidays to everyone. Thank you all for welcoming me into the collective. It's a good feeling.

Scott

I didn't have any more parts for the 4G1A (plastic) head for the 300, so I put on the original head with the SuperBlades. It didn't quite fly right so I started ajusting the gyro & now I can't hardly keep it in the air. Never had this trouble before. After the holidays I think I'm going to do an "Ivan" & just strip it down & replace everything I can!

D@mn, I was going to bring my camera today & vid a short flight in the warehouse with the 450 & I forgot it (sorry Jeff!). I want to document the iron monsters who will eventually eat my heli! Yea, Ivan, since the 300 isn't working at the moment I brought the 450 the last 2 days & if all goes well next week too (I'm thinking of just leaving it here until they stop me!). Great fun! And I certainly can use the practice.

I was bound & determined to keep the heli tail right for as long as I could. That pig headness almost cost me body parts! I had to duck under it & back up a step to get out of the way. I've decided that was dumb & not to do that any more. LOL

Chuck

I actually sold out of the XP version, but luckily only for a day.
How long are the 255 skids? SuperSkids200 will probably fit.

Only hovering in the driveway.Everything else is covered with snow from the last storm and temps are just getting above freezing. I'll have to check out the local parks to see if there are any clear enough areas for takeoffs and landings (some of them don't even have paved parking areas) but it probably won't be until after the holidays and then it will depend on the weather as well. Not the best time of year but I'm at least glad that I know it will fly.

Here's a tail servo question for you guys. I originally stuck a Futaba S9650 servo on the tail with the new Quark gyro. Although it worked OK (it was on in that brief intial hovering videoI posted) it's not all that fast. The holiday prices atHelidirect have been pretty good soI bought an AlignDS650 (only $65 shipped). The specs seemed pretty good(0.05sec @6V, 5kg torque, metal gears).I liked that you don't need a step down voltage regulator plus I've read that it, and all the Aligns, are made bySavox and my Savox cyclic servos seem to work well. Anyway, I've noticed that the Align servo is quite noisy even with the rudder stick in the neutral position. Not a binding kind of noisy but more like the normal operational sound.The 9650 didn't do this. I think I've read it suggested that some TX's may not provide a perfectly consistent neutral signal and I'm wondering if the new servo is just more sensitive to this (maybe has a narrower center deadzone bandwidth??). Anybody with any thoughts? It worked fine during ahovering test and I'm pretty confident that there is no actual binding. Maybe I need to try a littleelectronics cleaner spray on the rudder pot in the TX???

BTW, the Quark seems to work very well so far. Even with the significant vibration/wag problems I had initially because of the loose boom strut, the tail held pretty well so it's obviously not very sensitive to vibration. Plus I haven't really acclimated it very long when taking it out into the cold temps and I'm not seeing any drift in hovering. So it looks like a winner so far.

Nice!

[link=http://www.servodatabase.com/compare?servos=76,589]Align vs Futaba[/link]


Sounds like it's doing a little seeking. Like you say, maybe a more narrow deadzone on the Align,
Disconnected from the tail, does it do the same thing?
If you move the stick, and hold it (or try as best you can), does it seek at that position?

If it seeks at neutral and at another point, it could be a dirty pot.
If it's just at neutral, like you said, it could just be a "bad" 1520us pulse and a sensitive servo.

-Dave

No flying weather here (it's actually clear, but COLD! My motorcycling must have zapped my cold resistance.

Rumor has it that I will be receiving a membership to that field where I have been flying... I'll find out tomorrow night

Well, so far, assembling it has been a delight. I'm very impressed with the fit on everything. The metal and plastic "tabs" fit perfectly into the laser cut slots on the body. The head and tail assemblies are as smooth as butter.

Happy Holidays to you too Scott. You have got one awesome helicopter... when you finally slide the main blades into the grips you will be absolutely amazed at how perfectly they fit and how smooth they slide in. The 450Pro is top quality. I am sure this place will be dead for the next week or so.


Chuck, anytime you want, I can go through the birds and see if I notice anything out of the ordinary that would make em fly funky. Just let me know. Awesome that you are getting the 450 in the air.... but BE CAREFUL!! LOL. New years day.... you should come out. Lots of space.


Gary, excellent on the sales. Maybe Chuck will let me check out his helis and I can get a chance to fly your blades.

The Gaui 255 skids are 130mm long and 30mm tall. The pipes are about 85mm apart and the struts are spaced at about 75mm.


Bill, I get too excited when I get a new heli and will hover them in my living room. Even my T500 ESP and Protos have been maidened in the living room. Not too sure I have enough room for anything bigger.... but who knows. I would be in my driveway too if I was you.

Fast digital servos chatter a lot when sitting there doing nothing. They are always trying to hit that center or get to their commanded location. You should see some of the 3D foamies that people fly at the dome that have ultra fast digital servos on them.... All their flight surfaces are chattering away until they get in the air. Is it possible that this is the noise you are hearing?

As far as tempature acclimation. Your spartan uses MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems)
which should not be affected by tempature like a pizo gyro would be.


Brian, Sucks about the weather.. AWESOME about the membership!!

Bill - REMEMBER - breathe! Glad you're making progress - winter, Bah humbug! Have you driven the Traxxas in the snow yet? If so avoid the salt!!!!! Don't ask!!!

Gary - Super on the sellout of the XP blades! I really got to get the 300 back in the air & soon.

Ivan - I'd be embarassed to have you fix the 300, there's nothing to them! If I can get it back to "normal" I'd be happy to let you fly it! We could even swap blades to show you how much better Gary's are then the stock ones. Yea, I've been pushing the 450 a bit in the warehouse, I've done a few good saves, but we all know that won't go on forever!
Do you need an AMA membership for the Barrington fly? I never got around to getting one - too many heli parts to buy! If you'll be there, I might come any way & see if I can pick up anything from watching you. Your buddy that did all that fancy flying in the dome, he doesn't happen to teach beginning flying does he?

Dave - One weekend I spent a couple of hours just downloading all the Finless vids that sounded useful to me & then I watched them over the next couple of weeks even before I got the 450. That helped me decide I really "NEEDED" the 450! Then when I got the 450 I watched the ones I remembered that applied & they helped a lot.

Not sure what the next couple of days may bring as I'm expecting a house full of out-of-town relatives, so I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a

Happy & Safe Holiday. May all your heli dreams come true!

Chuck

Hey Ivan
It is never too windy to fly- well it has to be blowing a huricane well literally and the bird is a hurricane, so it must be blowing a hurricane. Greetings from Puerto Rico
Cheers

Hey Ivan
It is never too windy to fly. I must be blowing a hurricane; well the bird is a hurricane so. Greetings from Puerto Rico
Cheers

Hey guys...

Winding down for Christmas now. Sitting at my desk at work waiting to finish at 12 midday wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Managed to get 2 and a half flights in this morning - I was a bit rushed to get to work as I took the time to water the lawn this morning. On the third flight the tail start twitching again so I think the xmas break will see me fixing that once and for all!

Got a couple of 'OK' bigger loops in and some axial rolls. Tempted to do a backwards axial roll but going to try that on the sim first!! [X(]

I have a video uploading to YouTube from this morning. I will limit my videos for a while until something different is happening (like CF blades eh Scott!!) as it is a bit boring otherwise.

My mate let me know of a website called www.nearmap.com which has really clear pics of Australia (not sure about other countries) but if you put in Flanders Court Greenmount WA- mine's the 'new' blue roof!! The interesting thing is it has a timeline so you can see what I have done around the house!! Cool - even the deck by the pool with my wife sitting on it!! The shed is in it's new position, moved from where the kids trampoline is now.! Try it. You will see the oval just 250 metres up the road where I fly sometimes. Bit small now for the 550!!

Back soon with a video and Christmas wishes before I go home for the day (only 9.34am at the moment on the 24th).

JL

Very cool Jon. I liked the shots of the porch being built.

With the 550mm blades this thing has a 48" rotor span so there's no way I'm going to lift it off anywhere in the house(althoughI'll admit that I did spin it up with the skids weighted down just to get a quick check on blade tracking).

I really think that's all I'm seeing/hearing so I'm not too concerned about it. The servo arm itself isn't visibly moving/chattering, it's just some buzzing in the neutral position (sometimes it stops on its own after a while).

Ya, it's just even better than I would have expected. I think I'll take it out for a hover tomorrow without any acclimation at alljust to see how it does again. Thanks to you and Dave for your comments.

y
Yeah we laughed when we saw that! I has said that "I wonder if it shows it being built" and then 'voila' there are the joists on show! Apparently the shire use it to monitor illegal constructions... technology has it's down side!

Here is the YouTube link for this morning. I promise the next one will show some better flying. STILL PROCESSING so you may need to check back in a few minutes or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHe750TRj4E

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHe750TRj4E[/youtube]

So boys... Ivan. Phil, Eddie, , Scott, Bill, Chuck, Dave, especially Jeff and anyone I have forgotten - have a safe and happy Christmas with friends and relatives... eat, drink and be merry... I know I will.

Christmas day I will be in the Pool!! Weird I know and I have been here 20 years! it should snow shouldn't it!! 34'C forecast [8D] [8D]

I hope to get some relaxed flying in in the 10 days I have off now - back to work on the 4th Jan.

Take Care

Jon

Jon, that photo site with your area is really pretty impressive. The "time lapse" images are also pretty cool. I'm really jealous of that flying location you have so close to your house!

<span style="color: #ff0000"><span style="font-size: large">Happy Holidays to you and everyone else in the group!!

</span></span>

Aww c'mon, man! I think the ONLY reason I didn't fire up the gasser indoors is because of the exhaust. Then again, you probably saw the vid of me hovering it in MY GARAGE. I didn't even think about the safety ramifications of that until after I did it. I will not be reposting it for obvious reasons...


(if anyone is on facebook, then it's there...but that's the only place)

Heck,I don't think these things are even safe to fly outdoors!!