dooleyje

Wow a long road trip. I just got in. I had 15 shows this week and no time to fly at all. I have a couple of days off. Thats ok because it has rained for several days. I had a chance to work with the Futaba 520 gyro.and it is sweet. The programming is actually the same as the LOG2100 and locks the tail very well. I helped a guy set up his Gaui. Down side of this gyro is that the cables are really long. Futaba is coming out with some short ones but as you guessed it. Not available yet!!. You can also use an adapter to program it via computer or use the lights and stick method. The really cool feature that I like is that you can set for a Hard 3D or FAI big air stuff. As with all gyros, they are no better than the servo used with them.

How is everyone doing?. Donica and Jay are you sharing so quality time?

Jim

flyachopper1

Hello flyers,
Not much to report from here. I am sitting at Deb's desk at Ames' shop waiting to do a little flying in the black beauty. The weather has not allowedany flying of the small helis. When it is not raining it is windy. I have been doing some work with the big heli around the area assessing storm damages and mapping the fickle rivers. We have been hammered these last few days by mother nature. Violent thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes. it seems that the storms that once tracked North and South of here are bearing down on us directly this year. It is a dangerous season here and has a lot of folks running for cover often. I haven't even been able to get the Harley out for a cruise for days. I have been flying the big heli out in between storms and then scuttling for the hangar as they barrel through here.

I have gotten some work done on the A Star kit. The fuselage is now all ready for painting and the spare T Rex 450 frame is all ready for test fitting. A note of good/bad news about MSComposit. The US branch has gone belly up. I once again tried to contact them about the blades and windows they still owe me and found their contact addresses are shut down. I did a little internet snooping and found a phone number for Brian Butts who used to run the US branch. I managed to get him on the phone, asked him about the stuff he owes me and bluntly got told "I have no idea whatis going on with that stuffand I don't work for MSComposit anymore. They are no longer active in the US and I have gone on to another business entirely". Well, needless to tell most of you that got me Irish up a bit. I asked him why he didn't bother to contact me on this and at least offer a refund. He said "look, I just told you I'm not in that business anymore and I accept no responsibility for anything to do with it". Oh-oohh-ooohhh, that did not sit well with my already simmering attitude and I boiled over. I closed the conversation with several opinions on his character at least one of which refered to a rather unsavory part of the human anatomy. However, I figured it couldn't hurt to contact the MSComposit home office in Europe and ask about these things. I got an e mail response within two hours and they were very cordial. They informed me that Mr. Butts had been fired from their company, the US branch is for now inactive and that they would be sending me the parts owed to me along with a wide selection of spare fuselage and mechanical spare parts. They asked for my patience as the shipment will be coming from Europe and may take a few weeks to clear customs at both ends. I am now waiting (somewhat patiently) and feel a lot better about the company so far. They did mention in their e mail that if anyone is interested their US franchise is up for grabs and they would be willing to work with anyone interested to get them set up on a line of credit with the company. If I had the time to pursue this it may be lucrative, but I have enough things going already. If anyone is interested just contact them at their home location via the e mail link.

Now the best news. My Cajun beauty is on her way to Nebraska at this moment. She has taken two weeks vacation and will be here late tonight. I am betting I don't need to express how happy this makes me. I am very relieved that she has finished her stint in New Orleans and came through it safely. We hope to fly the little helis a lot and, of course, put a bunch of miles on the Harley.

Gotta go while there is a break in the weather and do some damage survey work out over the area South of here that got hammered by hail last night. More storms are heading this way for later this afternoon so I best get out there while I can.

See all of you later.

David867

Hey everyone! Not much activity here, I guess everyone got busy all at once!!
Jim, sounds like a good road trip though. You may not have flown, but I'm sure you had fun with your other hobby, music! That's great, to be able to do what you love at work.
Futaba 520 is the new toy? Sounds like it's a winner. I'm still using my trusty old GY401, no need for new toys, but I certainly want them! Now that you're back, lots of flying??

I hope everyone's flying, that's why they're so quiet right!?!?! haha. I wish I could say that was the case here.

The weather's picking up, everyone should be flyin!

Except Jay and Donica, haha, hope you guys enjoy the 2 week vacation together! Well, get some flying together in there too!

Take care everyone.


David.

cajungirl

Hidee doodles everybody,
I'm sittin' here next to my favorite Irishman, relaxin' and enjoyin' being in Nebraska. I'm more relaxed now than I've been in a while. I'm real glad to be out of N'awrlins. That city used to be so beautiful and now it's a wreck full ofstressed outpeople. I sure hope they get it rebuilt and back to what it can be.

Jay and I did a little flyin' this mornin'. It was cloudy and lookin' like rain but very calm and cool enough that the little 'lectric motors were happy. We took Jays T Rex 450 and my purty little 'Jessica' out to play. As always Jay flew the dickens out of the T Rex and it worked real good. He had a little problem with tail control but sorted that out real quick. Turned out the belt was kinda worn and he had a spare. He said it was about time something wore out on that heli. He's put a lot of time on it. I can't say I did so good. I'm out of practice with the Copter X and had a bit of a tough time getting it to behave. At first we thought it maybe was needin' some tweakin' but it turned out it was my lack of flyin' time. After a couple of lift offs and havin' it go kinda wacky on me I started to get the hang of it again and got it to fly some circles and did some purty nice forward swoopin'. Uhoh-then I had to land it. Oh my, that went kinda bad. I brought her in way too fast and didn't get leveled off very good. I dug it into the grass hard enough to flip it over cartwheel style forwards. Broke a main blade, a mainblade holder, bent the mainshaft real bad and bent the tailboom. It'll be okay though. After a bunch of huggin' and nice words from Jay I managed not to cry and we have all the parts we need to fix her up. So, I guess tomorrow I'll be gettin' to use Jays neat little tools and be gettin' some experience fixin'.

We've been squeezin' as much time runnin' around on the Harley as we can. The weather here has been real wet and rowdy for days. We've been gettin' it out in between storms. It looked like rain most of the day here but we decided what the heck and got on the scooter anyway. Turned out it didn't rain. Was just kinda cold and cloudy. We took it west 20 miles to a small town called Sutherland where Jay know of a real good little restraunt. We had a great lunch and headed back home. It was a lot of fun. That's the first time I've ever been on the interstate on a cycle going 75 mph. Whoa now. I'm hooked. That's real fun and excitin'. I can't wait to do a real trip on that big ol' noisy, shiny, beautiful bike.

I hope everybody is feelin' good, smilin' and havin' some fun. Don't y'all be workin' all the time now. Have some you time too.

Jay says "hey" to y'all.

Gonna kick back with a big bowl of popcorn, some beers, lean on my Irishman and stare at a movie.

See y'all later,

Donica and Jay

marg2

Yeah Donica enjoy your RR best regard to all still learning to fly fix wings (well crashing and fixing wood kind of learned was is a stall the other day)

be back soon once i get my heli out of the storage, U all have fun

Mar

dooleyje

Hi everyone, been really busy on the road playing music. I have all next week off so some flying we will go!!!. The Gaui has proven to be a zippy little 3D monster. The cyclic/ tailis sooo touchy. All you have to do is thinkabout it. I even have the flybar wieghts installed to tame it down and some expo dialed in to help.Goos news is that you can do piro flip[s 4-5 feetoff the ground and still have plenty of control androom to bail out. I recommend for anyone thinking of buying one to not go 3 cell lipo at first. User a 15t pinion and 2 cell lipo till you get it dialed in and get used to the controls. At the headspeed I am flying it you better be used tobullet blast offs and not afraid to fly close in. When I fly my 450's they seem like trainers now LOL.

Donica don't cry we all crash -um well at least I do. I have already banged the Gaui in 2 times. The repair cost is about half of a 450 cost. The usual has to be replaced such as the main shaft, spindle bolts, and in one case the oneway bearing. The Gaui is very easy to repair and you have to have a light touch when tightening the bolts or rather 1.4mm screws. They will snap off on you. I have a trick I use to loosen bolts and screws and that is to rock them in and out a bit till the thread locker releases.Never crank them out. I had to replace a tail block on the Scale 500E because the tail fin bolt sheared off. I replaced it with a HDX 450 tail assembly. Wow super nice with bearings all around and double tail slider arms. Nice piece!! silky smooth. My scale 500E is flying super and is fast for a guppie shaped fuselage. I have not finished the AS350 yet. I have the tail glued on and now it looks like a 350. I still have not decided which mechanics to use. A 450 would have a lot of power for it and will need the old short tail boom and belt. I just happen to have in stock. Jay offered the G2 to use. I will paint it up and get it ready first. I reassembled my 500E and was planning on adding nav. lights but the ones I wanted to use went up in price 100% so I will let them keep them and go without. I for profit but that is just too much. SorryI will have to wait ________Lights.

David, The 520 was not mine. Super gyro. The Spartan is the Dog Daddy though and same price. I have so many 401s that I don't need one yet. Price wise for scale the Log2100.3100 combo works super. Hard core 3D will need the Spartan or 520 . To test yours out do a piro fasst forward flight and see if theGyro blowes out. A bettertest is backward flight.For us mortals the 401 is fine. I suspect that Futaba may have a replacmentfor the 401. Small is in now that the 200-250 size helis have hit the market. The 520 is by far the smallest and is about the size of a penny.

Jayyyyyy having fun yet!!!!

Marg have fun I fly airplane tooo so when I go to the flield I have a car load to play with.

Bug: wasss-up?

Well that is all ,

Jim

David867

HeyJim,
I like the sounds of the Gaui, but I am a mere mortal, and not like those 3D machines out there that can piro flip1 foot off the ground, so I think it'll be way too fast for my fingers to keep up with. Sounds like a fun heli to have tho ;o)

Don't worry Donica, this weekend wasn't the best of times for me neither. I spent 45 minutes balancing up some new carbon fiber blades, then took it to the air, 10 seconds into the flight the tail case broke and it started to spin like a top, I threw throttle hold on, but in all the ruckess I didn't perform the best auto rotation, and landing hard and tipped, broke a carbon fiber blade. I guess I've crashed too many times with that tail case, it just had to give up sooner or later, I'm thinking the aluminum of the copterx parts aren't as strong as align's, but I've never used an align one so I don't know how they hold up, I'm guessing better than this. I repaired my heli, and took it to the air, but Iforgot to strap my gyro back on, so the tail started wagging and I landed it kinda rough again, it tipped over, but the blades were slow enough to not cause any damage. Istrapped the gyro back on, and finally, took it to the air for 4 more good solid flights.
Have fun fixing ur heli and getting it up in the air! It always feels great when you've got it dialed in and up there flyin around.

I like the 401, it works well for me, I've got some trouble with the belt/pitch of the blades though, Ineed to give the tail blades a lot of pitch to be able to climb out and give full right rudder, if I give too much pitch, I need to tighten the belt a lot, otherwise it'll slip, if I decrease the pitch too much, the tail won't have enough pitch to counteract the torque applied by the main blades. Right now I've got the pitch and belt tension pretty good though. I think if it can pass the climbout and full right rudder test, the tail will hold pretty good. When the tail's not right, the tail always blows out doing inverted backward funnels.

Jay, that's funny, how'd you know your belt was worn out? Ithink that's the same problem I have too, it's sort of a new belt, but it's slipping so I think it's time to swap it with a better one. Did you hear slipping noises? Like it slipping on the gear? It makes a horrible noise when you climbout and give it right rudder. It's one scary noise!


The show must go on.
Have a good one!

Cheers.

David

dooleyje

David, Yes the Gaui with 3 cell setup is way too much at times. I went down to a 10t pinion and a9t would probably tame it down a bit more.The tail will torque on climb out but not as bad as the CopterX or Trex450.Hey this is right down your alley though!!! The guai motors are super strong and the guys around here are swapping them out on the Align 250. Tail blow outs are common on the Trex and Trex clones. My Trex and CopterX holds best with a high head speed. A lot of folks blame the gyro but the tail is the culprit. I suggest you go to a larger tail blade. The stock blades are fine for sport but lacking in holding. I had the same problem with my Evo50. I installed some Trex carbon blades that were the same lenght but they were wider. Tons of difference. You are running a 9254 tail servo so you have plenty of power. I also make sure my control rod is stiff with no flex at all. I use a 2 piece rod set up with and outer plastic tube the rod slides through and that tube is braced in several places. Sadly the belts are common for burning out on Trex designs and or clones. I removed the roller in the back and I do not have as much problem. Jay got some of the good belts a while back so he can remind us where he got them. As far as the metal on the Trex VS copterX. I would think the parts are made in the same place China. Trex parts are for the most part better polished. I will use CopterX parts over the Trex anyday. I have seen Trex falures also(at almost twice the price). The HDX tail assembly I just mounted on my Trex is an awsome piece. The Beam swash is an upgrade that is smart. Shop around and you can get some better parts from many different helicopters that will work on your Trex/clones. The helicopter that made me greenwithenvy is the Rave450. wow rock solid. CY used a different gear ratio. Most of the guys here are using a straightpower band in Idleup so the power is steady. They will also use throttle to cyclic mixing to add power when banging the sticks on the nitro helis.(cheap mans/ladies govenor)The pitch will drag the power down. With your 2221-6 motor I suspect you are running out of tail blade rather than pitch induced torque. Try a 85% across the board so your power is constant and adjust from there. I actually blew a main gear out by banging the power on my Trex and it only has a 3550kv motor. With your power you are going to have to get the premium belts, blades, dampers, gears and so forth. The stock stuff ain't going to hang bro. no matter who has their name on it. The bearings are one place I have a problem with /TrexCopterX.- any helicopter manufactor for that matter. As with anybody you will have a bad one out of the box but I had to buy 2 packs of Align tail shaft bearins to find one out of the four to replace a bad out of the kit bearing on the copterx tail. My Guai blew a one way out 3rd flight. I am like Jay , I am anal about smooth bearings and will oil them and preflight them to death. Yes the oil will sep down around the dust covers. Back in the old days a bad bearing would put out RF and shoot you down with glitches. I must say that my tails hold very well even on blast off. One thing I do is to use the smallest arm that I can onthe tail servo. A examplewould be on the 450 helisI use 7mm out from the center on the servo. The control will be more accurate, and a quicker control. It also allows me to crank my gyro senseup to around 75 locking the tail harder, my 500e is at 80%. I use no rudder trim or sub trim. The total servo throw is set to max in the radio. 125%-140% and them I adjust the piro rate at the dual rate/expo program. I may even use about 20% expo to soften the stick response. I know what your are thinking but The gyro does not see or use expo or the dual rate. I make sure that I have max throw at the tail as adjusted at the gyro. The most inportant thing is to trim the tail in rate mode at first to have the heli hovering with no drift. You trim it by sliding the servo for and aft or by lenghten/ shorten the control rod. Never use any trim what so ever. Yes I know it is a pain to go through so many steps but the rewards are worth it. That is the main reason some folks do not like the Log 2100 Gyro becauase of all the steps to set it up. Get used to it because all of the new gyros are set up step by step. The trusty 401 can be mounted and go with little time setting it up. Spend some time and you will see a big difference.

Jim

flyachopper1

Hello fellow flitterers,
I am sad. Dear Donica got called back to work early. She had to be in Nashville to start work today, so instead of two weeks together we had only four days. Darn, that working for a living sure does interfere with ones social life. Something about another of the people that works at the Nashville hospital having an accident and can't work due to injury. Understandable I guess and of course the angel in Donica came out and off she went to the rescue. Have to admire that part of her.

We didn't get the repairs done on her heli before she left and she made me promise to leave it alone until she gets back again. She is very determined to do the repairs herself. Again, I admire her. We are hoping to get together again sometime in august. Aw heck, I may just hop on the scoot and ride out to see her before that where ever she is.

The belt that I finally wore out on the T Rex (amazing as it seems) was the original stock one. I hadn't needed to change it until lately. I hope the orange one I put on holds up as well or better.

David,
I discovered the belt was giving up when I started going through things to figure out the stability problem. My first move was to turn the main rotor by hand very slowly and watch the tail rotor. I found a spot where it moved in a jerky motion. I ran it around to thatpoint again and held the tail. It slipped at that point. WhenI looked closely at the belt I could see two of the teeth on it were worn down much lower that the ones to each side of them. I took the belt out and stretched it out alongside a new one and could see many more teeth that were worn down. After installing a new belt I did the hold/turn test again to be sure the belt pulleys were ok. They were and everything went well from there. I also took Jims advice some time ago and removed the idler roller from the tail assy. Seems like the belts run smoother and longer without that piece in there.

The orange belts I got from http://www.ronlund.com/Merchant2/mer...Code=MAVHT1003. I checked and they still have them.

As for bearings, i managed to get Timken ceramics through a local supply co. a while back and they are great. Smooth and durable. There are ceramics available from another company. Right now I can't find them in my favorites but they run a banner ad on the forum. I have not yet managed to wear out the ceramics. I clean them a lot with alchohol and re-oil them every flight. Just a couple of drops is enough. Yes, the oil does get on some things and look kind of dirty sometimes, but that's a small problem compared to a shot bearing. A little wiping takes care of that.

Interesting JD,
Your mention of the bearings giving off RF and messing with radio communication. I haven't thought about that for a long time. That was one of the little mysteries that I struggled with back in my early days. I had no idea what was going on until I read about it in one of the old fashioned paper books we had to use in the days before the internet. Came across it mentioned in one of the "Rays Helicopter" manuals. Hey me friend, we are showing some lenght in the tooth here. I wonder if they will object to my helis at the nursing home.

Matty old chap,
How's tricks there matey. Keeping your head above things I hope. Donica and I both would enjoy hearing from you.

Promised my neighbor to help him get the motor out of his little four wheeler today so I best go keep that. I should be able to help him have that all disassembled and confusing in a couple of hours.

Later me buckos.

flyachopper1

Hello forumed flying flitterers,

Just a quick note before I head out to chase cattle that got lost in the recent storms. Wow, rowdy storms, hail and tornadoes all around us this year. It's so humid and hot here right now it reminds me of Louisiana. Donica would love it.

I finally got settled up with MSComposit. After contacting the home company in Chekoslovakia (spelling?) I promptly received an e mail telling me that they hadn't been made aware of the failures of the US branch until Mr. Butts was eliminated and the branch shut down. They sent me the three blades, the second set of windows owed me along with a nice selection of spare fuselage parts, another set of skids, a spare motor, tail tube, and a spare tail rotor assy for no charge. It's all here now. After trying for months to get the parts from the US branch it only took one week to get them from overseas. My confidence in their company has been restored which is great as they sell some real interesting scale stuff and I may be getting another project from them in the near future. Something big and expensive.

Haven't been flying the little guys lately. I have been quite busy chasing aroung the countryside tracking down storm damage to crops, outbuildings and lost livestock.

Dear Donica is safe and sound in Nashville and being an angel to a lot of folks. It's very hot and humid there too as well as stormy. She says to tell you all "hellloooooo theah".

Best go for now my friends. See you all later.

tsteege

I am getting tired of the rain here, thinking I should sell the choppers and get a boat or two...

[:-]

dooleyje

Teestge: You said brother. A lot of bad storms here and HOT. The temp. is suppose to be 100 here in Charlotte, NC area. That is Ok though, I am stuck indoors doing a little recovery from a minor hospital procedure. Man,getting old is for the birds sometimes. All my helis have been cheeked out and ready to go. I love golf also so I will watch the US Open today and resume out door activities tomorrow. I will work on the AS350 a bit. I have some stuffeners to add to the fuselage where the front and back halve meet and plan on mounting the landing gear. Welcome to the thread, what are you flying and take a little time to tell about your self. We have a great group here.

Jay, That makes me feel a lot bettery about MS. Sadly vendors give products a bad name. The guy probably owes MS a bunch ofmoney as an outlet and found him self be hind the meatball. Lesson learned is mthat if you arte goingto be a distibutoryou have to put the money back in the business and be truthful to your customers. Tell Donica Howdeee.


Jim

matty_p80

hey ho! everyone!

it's starting to get really real about our move now! we take our life in boxes to the shipping agent on Monday (amazing the amount of junk you collect over just 6 years!!). my last day at work is on 30th and we're having drinks at one of the popular DM bars after work (don't think Jules will probably want me home that night!??); apparently there are quite a few peeps who have expressed interest in having a farewell drink with me outside of our company which is quite nice to know but i worked it out anyway- it's not that they want to share a drink to say goodbye it's that they want to make sure i'm going !!!!! HA HA HA

it's still good know that my heli is sitting safe and sound at my brother's house in England which takes a lot of stress off of me, i would probably be in an awful state if it was on the same flight as me! seeing as i have two ladies to look after aswell on the flight (older one hates flying!) every little helps

still waiting for our Course Director to get back on Tues. to do my PADI "Prescriptive Update" to put me back into 'Teaching Status' which is all academic now as i'm just doing it to clear my name with PADI before i go home! i willbe keeping my status renewed and up to date but i don't think i'll be doing much in the way of teaching at home (not unless it involves free trips over to the Red Sea!!!)

good news about being in the shop all this time is that i've been getting quite a bit of sim time in (when the boss isn't looking, tee hee) i'm almost getting to beginner level! i looked up on line the BMFA criteria for getting 'A' and 'B' flying proficiency certificates ('A' means that you do not need to be supervised and can just use a spotter! 'B' is the more advanced certification) so i've been practising like crazy the manouvers for 'A' level! the only problem that i have with my old computer and cheap sim is depth perception, which is a common complaint/ symptom of using a simulator rather than the real thing!

AFTER i get a job and a nice little Logitech gyro and servo for my B400 the next order of the day is a 500 methinks! a lot of old school pilots within the clubs in Blighty, combined with that dreaded British Stiff Upper Lip i would probably get on a little easier with the larger heli! don't get me wrong, i love my B400 to bits (it sometimes ends up that way too) and i'm going to be flying the crap out of it when i get home but i just really need an excuse to purchase another (no point in going for the same thing again!). Also, i'll build the new one having already worked in depth on the B400, giving me some grounding on how they go together!!

JD hope everything is fine with you and yours and your recovery is swift

Jay got any openings for a flyer/maintainer??

Donica glad you're somewhere a little more subdued but sorry your trip was cut short

Teestge welcome welcome welcome! let's hear about you and what you're flying!?

evreyone else- hope there is eternal sunshine in your lives and the wind keeps below 8 knts

enjoy guys

Matty )<>}}}}}}}}]@>

cajungirl

Hay theah, hay theah you buncha spinny heads,
So, some of you're workin' too much and not bein' here very often, eh? I guess I'm kinda guilty of that myself. Today's a day off for me so I'm bein' real lazy. This's one busy place. It's my first time workin' in Nashville and I'm lovin' it. The folks here're down to earth countryfied types. They have the wonderful small town attitude mixed with the big town amenities. I'm feelin' real comfy here. Much more so than N'awrlins. I have a small group to train here (just eight) and that makes things easier. Most of my student nursies here have already been through the schools and done training at other hospitals, so they're a somewhat seasoned and smart bunch. I'm sure I'll learn from them as well as get to teach them some too.

I've already got to show off my itty bitty 520 to some of the staff here. That little thang is proving to be too much fun and a great ice breaker for meeting people where I am workin' at the moment. There's a nice open space in the parking area here that works real good for flittin' that little heli around. It's right next to where most of the staff park and walk into the hospital, so, I gather an audience easily. Lotsa fun and , like I said, I get to meet people. The director of the hospital came by day before yesterday and watched for a few minutes. She came up to me after a bit with a grouchy look on her face and said "so is this how our trainers teach medicine?" I was tryin' real hard to come up with somethin' to say that wouldn't get me in trouble when she smiled real big, laughed and said "that is the neatest little toy I've seen in a long time. Would you be interested in flying it for a group of the kids that're here at the hospital for extended stays? They need all the happy therapy they can get." Whew, thought I was gonna get my postieror whittled on there for a minute. After the shock settled a bit I said that I would be glad to. So, I'll be meeting with her Monday morning to arrange gettin' the kids down to the parking area for a little bit of a show. We're going to try and make a little bit of a fair atmosphere for them by getting some of the other staff to bring in some of their grown up toys too. I know of one intern that has R/C trucks aready and I know he would be tickled to bring them in. I will get my students to scout around the place for others that have hobbies that would be fun to show the kids. I'm betting there are musicians in the crowd. Ya think? It is Nashville after all. This is gonna be too much fun. I hope we can come up with a whole afternoon of fun for those kids. I called the local firestation this morning and talked to them. They said they have all kinds of stuff for kids. They'll bring a big ol' firetruck for them to check out, a cool little dalmation dog that does tricks and will be happy to set up a food booth for everyone. I wish now that I had my 450 with me too, but maybe I can find someone with some bigger helis to come show off. I'm lovin' the idea of doin' this 'sides how many times do you get the boss to pay ya for playin' with your heli?

Hay Teestg,
Real glad you found this little corner of the forum. I'm lookin' forward to gettin' to know you. Please come back more.

Mr. JD,
Whatcha' doin' there bub (one eybrow up look)? You had to see the docs again? Not serious I hope. You takin' care of yourself? You watchin' those counts and eatin' right? I hope you"re gonna take a break from all the workin' for a while and have some easy time with Deb and the helis. Give that wonderful lady of yours a hug for me, heah?

Matty P.,
Thanks for the e mail. It was real good to hear from you. You're beginnin' to show the signs of your wit comin' back and that's good. I'm happy to know that you're gettin' things back in order and will be settlin' into your home country soon. Jay sends his greets and said anytime you want to show up he'll have a heli for you to fly and work on. He said he would even put you on as co-pilot for some flyin' in the black beauty.

He's 'nuther one that's been working a bunch lately. He's out again today scoutin' the hillsides for storm related stuff. He'll be out until tomorrow sometime. He's staying the night in Kearney tonight. That's 'bout 100 miles East of North Platte. He's been puttin' some decent miles on that Harley lately too. I knew once he got another one after bein' without one for so long that he'd be ridin' the wheels off it. Can't hold that against him though. The little time I got to sit on the back was great. I'm stiil a little new to the big motorcycle world and it's a real kick to me. I think he told y'all 'bout takin' me on my very first fast ride on the highway. I started out a bunch of nerves but once I saw how adept and comfortable Jay is at drivin' that noisy, shiny machine I relaxed and what a fun time it was. Now, I wanna go on a long trip. Jay has dug out some boxes of his old 'biker' stuff and is wearin' the shirts and leathers again. Last time I saw him he was sportin' a harley t shirt, an American flag ballcap and his old black vest with a ton of patches on it. Ohhhhhh-talk 'bout turnin' a girls head. I had to cuddle him up some. Oof, gotta quit that. Gettin' me all daydreamy heah.

Hooboy, I'm rattlin' on again. I'll get this over with and give your eyes a rest.

Always good to yikky yak with y'all. Please be healthy, happy and keep flittin' those birds. Girls love hunks with toys.

Love all y'all,

Donica

dooleyje

Donica everything is fine. I was having problems swallowing so they had to do a rotor rooter on me. Upper!! they did some opening up on my throat. It has only been a couple of years since my surgery so it was also a checkup. It takes me a few days to get over the whoopy-happy drugs and Deb won't let me drive. Besides i have a sore throat. The nurse was a Army nurse for 15 years and she did not take any crap from me. We had a good laugh cracking jokes till I woke up in the car. LOL. I told the nurse the IV needle felt like a football needle man that hurt. I have a lot of valves in my veins that were hard to get through. The counts are right on the money.

I think that is great to do things for the kids. My club does a lot of stuff like that for the community. It is a lot of fun.

Take care,

Jim

tsteege

Thanks Donica,

It has been a while since I have been at these forums, but the lost is now found.

I got to fly this weekend and had a good time, and even better no fixes needed.

Take care,

Terry

David867

Hey,

I've been buzzzzzzzyyy.  I saved this HTML page, and put it on my GPS, it has a document reader and can read HTML, so I loaded that up while riding the bus home and read the thread. 
Jay, I know the belt you're talking about, it's the Mavrikk, Jim got me to order 5 of them a while ago, and I've been going strong on them, they're awesome!  The reason I haven't switched the copterX belt out with one is because my tools suck.

I ordered some tools from hobby city, and hopefully they're much better than my Bondhus hex I purchased, I thought bondhus was a great name, and that their tools were top notch, but I found out the bad way that they strip easily and don't fit well in 1.5mm hex.  I think RC heli tools need to be good, so hopefully the "RC hand tools" I've ordered will better fit the job.  It's funny, you get what you pay for!!  True with everything.  My buddy got a set of golf clubs on sale, on the first day a couple of them broke, and a shaft snapped.  Reminded me of how I cheaped out on tools and they failed me by stripping so soon.  Oh well, live and learn!  Flyerbug got a set of $45 hex drivers, and they've worked flawlessly for him, I've gotten about the same price of tools, and they just keep breaking!  I guess it's best to not cheap out.

I found this great battery on sale, 2150mAh Rhino 3S1P 30C for $26.74, would be a great 450 pack for anybody needed some, and the Rhinos have been pretty great for us.  We've gotten them to puff, but that's probably due to the deep discharges and poor battery practices, if you take care of them like Jim, they may last.  Jim, how have the Rhino's worked out for you?  If you've gotten them puffing, then we know why they're so cheap..
Link to Rhino.

Hope everyone's doing well!


Cheers.

David.

rcmiket

I've been using the Zippy's from them for years in heli's EDF's and Planes with no issues, So far so good.One thing I do is use a Astro Blinky Balancer rather than trust the balance built in most chargers. Works great and cheap insurance for 25 bucks.
Mike

dooleyje

I saw the batteries and ordered 2. I only have about 30 cycles on the Zippys and they are right on the money at full charge @4.20 per cell. The Zippy/Rhino batteries are heavier than the FP's but the Trex/CopterX helis tend to be tail heavy so it balances everything out. The MD500E I have is very tail heavy so the Zippys help a lot. The bad news is I lost one of my FP2170 batteries a while back. Some one stole it off my table during a fly-in. Luckely it was the very first Lipo battery I ever bought. It had well over 300 cycles and probably closer to 400 cycles, no puffing, no lose in power and a recharge smack dab on 4.20 per cell. Now I hope it puffs on the jerk. I hate a thief.

Mike, right on the money. The Blinkies work super and are very cheap in price so if you do not have a good balancer they are the trick.

I use Cellpro 4 chargers and the balancing is perfect everytime. The charging is fast but automaticaly adjust for a safe cycle. I never charge hotter than 1C and I do not discharge down more than 80%. All transmitters have a timer that you can use to help take care of your batteries. I have always used mine. The batteries are very expensive and I try to take care of them. The other trick is to have several batteries on hand so you are not trying to hurry up the charge cycle by going to 2c to get in the air sooner. Battery killers are deep discharge and over charge. I also never store a battery at full charge. About 50%-60% is perfect.

Terry what are you fly these days?


Jim

David867

That sucks Jim, theives should be shot or <insert your choice here>.  Or they should have everything they own taken away from them, that would be the only way they could learn.  Maybe it'll explode and burn down his car?

Sounds like taking care of batteries will prolong their life, 300 cycles is much better than the 30 cycles I got from my EVO25.  Then again, my cheap balancer was charging to 4.23V+, so it killed it like no tomorrow.  I don't use the timer, I set my ESC to high voltage cut off, but that's still way too low for my liking, you're right, I better start timing my flights.

rcmicket, sounds like you've been using their cells for a long time, I've only been using them for about a year.  They're pretty good for me too.  But I beat on my cells, so I really kill them fast, but compared to the air thunders and EVO25's, they've lasted longer through my punishment.  I've even bent one at a 45 degree angle, and bent it back twice, and it kept working like new!

Hope everyone has a great day!

rcmiket

I've beat mine also. Running them in a EDF is twice as hard as aHeli and so far I'm pretty impressed. We just band together here and place a order, we splitthe express shipping which gets them here in a week.
Mike

David867

rcmiket, that's a good idea to band together. I'm ordering 6 packs + 1 DX7 pack for the guys here too, that'll save a bit on shipping, I think they'll enjoy getting it faster too, it's only $1.50 more or so.
How many amps to you pull on your EDF? And how long are the flights?
In my heli I pull peaks at 80A and pulls 2200+ mAh in about 2mins 30seconds. That's a really hard flight though. That's with an 11T pinion, if I put the 13T pinion on there, it's insane, and flights are about 2 minutes before low voltage cutoff. I think that beats the batteries up pretty bad.

Cheers.

David.

flyerbug686

Yoo Hoo! Wassuuuup?

I Well, it finally happened.....I crashed...hard! David and I tweaked my rates around so that I would have a better flip rate. Hahaha! I had my swash set to 90 degrees somehow. Must have happened by accident. No idea how long I have flown with it like that. Its funny, I was actually relieved when I hit the ground. Not only did it force me to re build and check everything, but I got to throw on all the new parts Ive been hamstering away. CF boom, ceramic bearings, and true blood dampers. I know how lazy of me not to have done that sooner, but I dont fix what aint broke. David and I re built it on the field, threw on some align carbons and back to the skies.

I was trying to do low inverted flyby's when a gust of wind pushed me around. I froze and next thing you know. BAM!.

I ordered two more rhinos today and some new Hyperion blades. If it werent for the Hyperions, my crash would have been cheap cheap cheap to fix. I just love those blades too much.

Well, thats unfortunately all I have time to say right now. Just trying not to be a total stranger.

More later pilots, hope your logging lots of airtime.

BUG

dooleyje

Hey Bug, Sorry about the crash but I too have pounded my Gaui in. Several times!!! LOL Cheap to fix and easy field repair. I like the Hyperion blades also but they are getting hard to find. I am currently using the new Align carbon, the black one with the white edges and Align printed in the middle of the blade. They are stiff and thin like the Hyrerions and easier to get. They hardly make a noise compared to other carbons. I think they are the 325D. I also have a set on my Guai 200 (205D) The cyclic is crisper and faster than the Align solid white carbons. I have found the Standard 325 white carbon Align blades are a very nice all round blade where the "D" is more in line with 3D. I would have waited to upgrade also..... NO broke-UM NO fixey UP -UM

Flying wise I have not been out as much this week. I am having to do some medical exercises and stuff and thats every day plus the music gigs 4 time a week. I went out once last week and it was about 100 degrees and aftyer 2 flights I was ready for the air conditioner and pool.

Speaking of batteries I need to order some more Guai batteries. Thay are 800-900 ma 3 cells. Hobby city has them for about 9 bucks!!! LOL

Every one check in and let us know watcha dooo-un.

Jim

flyachopper1

Hello all,
It's another calm, very hot day here. The temps have been hovering above 90 for a while now. I have been flying the rotors off the black beauty. We have had a lot of violent storms in the area this year and I have been called a lot to do storm damage assessments. I have also been doing a lot of hunting down of livestock. There have been over 2000 cattle lost to the heat and storms in the last two weeks. I have been finding them out on the range and guiding cattlemen in to get them to protected areas with water. The railroad has been good for work too. This last Friday a tornado moved through the West end of the big yard here and tossed some trains around. I have been going in and photographing damage and flying railroad officials in to look around.

I did get to take the T Rex and Donicas Copter X out for a romp a couple of times. The heat really got to the motors and batteries quickly so they were short sessions. I finally burned out one of the old dependable Align 430L motors. It was in the Copt. X. I think the heat contributed to that as well as a lot of dust in the motor. The dust part was my fault. I hadn't been as good as I should about cleaning it out. No worries though, I have six spare Align 430X motors. I will have to warn Donica about the extra zip she will see in her heli next time she flies it.

Not much more going on here now. I am spending the day cleaning and helping service the black beauty. She has had quite a workout lately and needs some TLC.

Donica is a busy lady right now in Nashville. She is working six days a week and working on setting up the day of fun for the kids too. Her stay in Nashville has been extended for two weeks. She says to tell you all "hay theah" and she will drop in here asap.

Later me friends.