dooleyje

Well if he can't crash any better than that then I would go home. He still has things attached. Now if you want to see some REAL crashes look at mine... Usually nothing is still attached and the parts would be all over the field.[:@] Kidding a side. I am glad he was not hit. The 450 is a really nice helicopter but will get away from you fast. The big helis have some hang time and a bit more comfortable to handle. I too have my 450Pro parked. I really like the 500 size a lot and the crash expense is not much more than the 450.

How does the yak suppose to fly??? asking the wrong person. It is suppose to be a bind and fly.... What is "Binding"? Does that have somthing to do with controlling it?

Jim

Mack66

JD,

You are right about his crash. He had it all fixed in less than two hours at home. In fact the canopy was still on. We removed it to disconnect his battery.

As to "bind", well...if you already did the bind, it would be all bound up, right? At my age I don't like to think about getting bound up.

Seriously folks, I am about to order a Model Avionics Throttle Jockey Pro. That's what my friends at the club are running so thought best to stick with what seems to be working for them. A few of them tried the Curtis Youngblood ATG and apparently had issues with it. That doesn't mean the ATG is not good, just that they didn't seem to get it working right. Maybe the ATG was smarter than them?

But now I have a dilemma of sorts. The servo I'm using on my throttle is a Futaba S3003 (I think) analog. They recommend a fast digital. Guess I'd better call them and see what they're recommending and switch that out while I'm at it. Any comments?

Mack

dooleyje

Mack Align 610 or 620.. super servos and fast. I personally do not usE a gov. I use mix for the throttle and old school curves.

Jim

cajungirl

Well hi theah everybody,
We're in Nebraska now and'll be here for five days. We saw lots of flooding on the trip here. So many folks are having a hard time this year. Sad to see so much beautiful country under water. Here in North Platte the rivers are beginning to run out into the surrounding areas. The Army Corps of Engineers are working like crazy to try and contain the flows. Seems it's a losing battle though. The melt from the wyoming Rockies is just beginning and the North Platte River is already flooding from all the rains. 'Nuther big storm out here tonight that dumped a lot of rain and hail. The Colorado Rockies snow melt will come through here in the South Platte River and cause problems from the other side of town. A one two punch comin' for the folks here.

We got here late in the evenin' and spent several hours visitin' Ames, Debi and Jays sis. Tomorrow is 'sposed to be hot and calm and after opening up Jays place, dustin' and cleanin' some we will try to get out with the 500s for a while. We brought Jays truck and the trailer so we have all the helis and the Harley along. Was the first time I've ever gone down the highway in that old Ford truck and it runs real sweet. The modern suspension under it makes it ride real good too. A fun way to travel.

Just wanted to check in. Sorry we don't have much heli talk lately. We'll get all this stuff taken care of soon and be back to normal. I'm jonesin' for some real flyin' days.

Mr Mack,
Flyin' a 450 is a lot of fun but the 500 or bigger will spoil ya. They just seem to be more capable and pilot friendly. The little guys flit and change direction quicker and take a different set of reactions. I'm glad I learned on one though. Made me a more confident pilot by the time I got to the 500. Oooooohhh, bound up. That's no fun at any age. Big ol' bowl of cheerios each mornin' will help prevent that.

Yeah shore JD,
We all believe you don't know how to get that plank flyin', you betcha. We know you're bound to bind, fly and float, land and love it.

Gotta go and sleep for awhile.

Please be safe, healthy and happy,

Jay and Donica

rcmiket

600 size Seahawk next up on the table. My repairs and builds for thr LHS have slowed a bit so I figured the only way to pick thing up was to start another scale build.
Mike

one thumb

Jay and Donica,
When do we get to see pictures of the Bride and Groom in their special wedding clothes?
If we was holding our breath, we'd be blue by now!
You know everybody wants to see.
Karl

Mack66

Are you sure that's a 600 size, Mike? It looks humongous! It's dwarfing that table. Can't wait to see you finish and fly this one.

Mack

rcmiket

Yep a 600. I thought about the 600 Cobra but wanted another easy install. After the 109 I'm sold on theses larger fuses. It's actually very light. This one will take a bit of time I'm planning on a few scale extras along the way.
Mike

dooleyje

Mike,,, NIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCEEEEE

Jim

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Mike, AWESOME! Can't wait to see it finished.

I've both jumped out of the side, and been winched out of the water by one of those, so I have a special place in my heart for the 60

rcmiket

Thanks guys I hope I can do it justice. I'll do my best.
Mike

Chopper Chuck

Hi everyone!

Mack: Thanks for the Choppy Special Addition of my fav rag the RCC! Can't live without it!

Jimbo: Love that Yak! Been eyeballing 1 myself. Also scoping out the new staggerwing Beech! Cool looking!
I really Frankensteined out my mCPX! I'm now running a tail motor, shortened tail rotor, clipped vertical fin and partial boom from an SR 120 along with HeliMax main rotors from a Novus CP. I'm powering "Mrs Stein" with a 500 mAh battery, which is essential now! I've gotta post pics and a vid as this is a pretty serious mod!

Mike: Dude that chopper looks full scale!! It's super badd!

Jay and Donica: Keep that groove!!!!!

All: I haven't been posting much, but all of you are always in my thoughts! I'm happy I've got a nice place to fly and I'm happy I've got yuz all to share stuff with!

Choppy

Chopper Chuck

All:

Here are some pics of my mCPX mods. Hope you find them interesting/entertaining on some leve.

Chop

Chopper Chuck

Sorry, had to send them in phases.

Chop

Chopper Chuck

Last one!

Chop

rcmiket

I was looking at picking up one of these how do you like it. I've fooled with one at the LHS but not serious enough to make a decide if I have to have one.
Mike

dooleyje

Mike,, I really like mine and can't put it down. It does need a bit more power but if you manage your collective it does great. The only mode i have done to mine is to extend the boom to keep the tail from blowing out in flips. I used a piece of 2mm carbon and cut it to 145mm. That seems to be the magic number. I do not get blow out now. The heli is a mild 3D heli and a great training tool for those who want to learn tricks. It takes a beating,,, at least mine has... I fly mine out doors and find it is great in the wind and it has fast forward flight and rolls very well. You have to be quick on your collective to catch it when flipping.

Jim

Chopper Chuck

It's a wonderful heli. Very fast and agile. Flies great in the wind, hovers rock solid and is as durable as an MSR, which is near bullet-proof! I've been experimenting with the tail for a good while, which led to other mods (bigger main blades, bigger disk and way bigger battery) and now I've changed mine up so much that it has totally different characteristics. This is unnecessary, but there are some tweaks that must be done to make it as predictable as desired. Jim mentions these in various places.
Get yourself 1 and have big fun!
Chop.

Mack66

Choppy,

I looks like an overgrown skeeter.

Mack

Mack66

OK Folks, it's time for yet another episode of the Rat Club Chronicles (name chosen by El Choppo). Yep, after making "Dana's Chili" today, Greg called me and urged me to come out and play at the playground. Not too windy today, and only 100F at the field, so hey, why not?

Went out at 2pm and found a bunch of the usual players flying around, plus a few new plank flyers. Jim was out there with his rebuilt 450, which he flew with gay abandon. Greg of course was there flying and helping others. Jim was helping new plank pilots too. Ronnie was working on his loops and rolls, trying to keep ahead of me. Scott, our newest pilot was working on flying his trainer and a P51 with leading edge goobers to help add lift for the uninitiated. Whatever. Haha. Scott really really wants to get into helis but is short on cash. He's a high tension power lineman, and needs a good hurricane so he can make lots of money. Heh.

Joel was there, flying his BIG YAK (40%), but didn't bring his T-Wrecks 700 today.

So I whipped out me wee Sceadu and flew the britches off of it. Tore up the skies, criss-crossing with the plank pilots with no ill effect. Felt good. Winds were manageable, say 5mph or so with some errant gusts.

And then along came Ron T. He hadn't flown for quite a while because of WORK. Sad. Got all his stuff out, fueled up his SDX, and then discovered he forgot his transmitter. Haha. Soooo he unloaded his fuel. Round trip to home would have taken the time he had available before needing to go home. Greg, bless his heart offered to program up a Ron model and let Ron fly with his Futaba. So Ron refueled his SDX and long story short, got in a flight using Greg's transmitter. Greg is like that. So giving. He'd give you the shirt off his back. I've seen him give out his jacket on a cold day. I'm not making this up.

That taken care of, then Richard showed up with his Century gasser. While Richard got set up out I went again and proceeded to tear up the skies some more. Winds came and went but didn't bother me. I was really gettin' down. I've ordered a governor and it is due to arrive early next week. Once I get it installed and comfortable with it I intend to do my first loop, and first roll. Meanwhile, I have been working on better lazy eights and better descent/landings. Ahhh it felt good to be unleashing my Sceadu once again, having regained my confidence in my flying and the Sceadu's performance. As you may recall, it never was established whether my Sceadu failed or I did on the last crash. I am more and more convinced that the gear failure was the cause of my crash, coupled with my lack of experience on dealing with the emergency.

Soooo, we were all hanging around and trying to decide who would fly next when the afternoon thunderstorms started circling around us. You could hear the thunder and started seeing lightning strikes in the distance. Richard was starting to fuel up, and I was ready. I figured I had better fly then or not at all, because the weather looked like it was closing in. I started up and taxied out to the active. Took off and immediately struck out to the South, arching hard to the East and coming back North in the first leg of my lazy eight. Whizzed past at low level and headed for the forest. Turned hard to the right to come about and the winds went crazy. I have never seen such strong winds while flying. The winds were completely different at 60 feet! They grabbed by baby from me and literally threatened to throw her to the ground. At full throttle and nose down, she could barely make any headway. I floundered and struggled. The winds buffeted her like a banshee. It was all I could do to keep her from being dashed to the ground! Finally the turbulence ebbed enough for me to find a path to the ground. I landed quickly, shut her down, grabbed her and dashed for the pits.

Got he on the table and the winds picked up even more. I knew it was gonna rain hard so started emptying my tank and putting my gear away. Others followed. But then it seemed to get quiet. Oh yeah the lull before the storm. Been there, done that. While many of us were packing up, poor Richard decided to face the elements and fly his gasser. Out he went. As he spooled up we could hear heavy raindrops hitting the metal roof over our heads. Oddly, Richard wasn't getting any rain just out into the pits. One of those things I guess.

So he spooled up and started flying, not knowing the rain was falling behind him. He made a couple passes after which he started getting rained on. He quickly landed and headed for shelter.

Down came the rain. First rain on the Rat Club in over 100 days. No complaints and all looked in wonder. Is this what rain looks like? It had been so long.

Soooo, the end of the afternoon was called by the weather. We all wrapped things up and headed for the gates. Another exciting and satisfying day at the Rat Club.

Mack

cajungirl

Helloooooo everybody,
It's been hot and dry here in Nebraska. Upper 80s to low 90s. So far the flooding seems to be under a kind of control. The Army Corps of engineers are doing some good work as are a lot of volunteers. Lots of sandbag and dirt walls going up all around. Jay and I are goin' out to help fill and stack sandbags around Buffalo Bills ranch South of town tomorrow. Lots of historical treasures out there to protect. Ames and his crew are out working around the airport to build berms. The water is real close to Ames shop and hangars. We offered to go out there and he said they had lots of help and we could be of more help out at the old ranch. So we'll do that.

Today we took the 500s and 600s out for a fly. We found one soccer field that isn't soggy yet and we ran 'em for all they're worth. Probably the last chance we'll have to fly here. We plan to leave here early on the 10th to head back to Farmerville. I'll be goin' back to work in Albany, GA on the 20th and will be there for a full month. It'll be good to see ol' Henry again and get back into the groove of work. All this time off has spoilt me rotten. It'll be good to settle out of all the travellin' for awhile too and stick to one place.

Better get some sleep. We're gonna get a workout tomorrow.

Please be safe, healthy and happy,

Donica and Jay

Chopper Chuck

Wow Mack!
Best RCC ever!! Wonderfully crafted and you had me rivited like a Dean Koontz novel! I could hear the thunder, smell the rain and feel the wind and the tension to get all the craft safely on terrafirma!

However, I made the mistake of reading it at work and now I'm shot for getting my mind on anything as mundane as my job!

Might have to go home due to an eye problem. I cant see staying here!

Le Chop

Chopper Chuck

You got it Mack! An atomic mutation run amuk! More dangerous experimentation from Choppy's Deranged Deviant Aircraft Laboratories!

Mack66

Donica and Jay,

Thanks so much for pitchin' in on the ranch. I'm sure the folks there appreciate anything you could do. Recently during our Tuesday morning "Old Codgers Club" at the Jitterbug Cafe where we solve all the world's problems (some people refer to this as the "table of knowledge", but I digress), one of our newest members announced that he had surviving kin in Joplin and was heading up to help. He pointed at his truck in the parking lot and said his goal was to have it filled up by Friday morning when he was going to drive up there. Long story short, by Thursday afternoon, he had twice the stuff he had room for in his truck plus hundreds of dollars in cash. He was sincerely moved. When he came back the following week, he was close to tears over the whole event, seeing the devastation, and so grateful for what everyone gave him to carry up there. These are the kind of people I like to stick with!

All,

For the record, the official high temperature yesterday here was 105F a new all-time record. No wonder my flying was so hot. Nyuk-nyuk.

Mack

Chopper Chuck

Great Stuff Donica! Same foe Mack's buddy too! The entire world needs more humanitarianism! Makes me aware of how fortunate I am and how I need to step up more!

Chuck