demenicis

That is just to tell you guys that my first proper flight with my guru/DF4 was done yesterday and that was great.
two whole packs ofli-po's 1300 without a single crash (nearly twice though) but I can say I got the hang of it now.

after practicing on the free FMS for a week/half hour/day I learnt how to fly nose-in on the computer and it gave me the confidence I needed to try it on real life.

Now I think that if I'm flying high enough, the chances ofhaving a crash are minimum (I know I will crash eventually!)

I can say I can surf on the air now and I'm able to "feel" the heli more than ever. We can feel where it is heavy (cabin) and when and what to do with the tail to make the heli "going with the flow", that is a bit hard to explain using my poor english.......I'm gonna try to film the bird putting my camcorder sitting on a little tripod.

Also, changing subject a bit. Did anybody tryto put a litle camera on the heli to see if that is possible to fly looking at the screen only?

I saw on ebay -> 16grams/9V/2,4ghz wireless camera (a/v) for 25 pounds + a litle 2,4ghzUSB stick wireless reciver for 30 pounds, so I would be able to take my laptop outside and fly through the screen......is that worth it a goal?

Regards,

D.

clp.eng

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You tell him, Bill! LOL

OJ - work in like a cop? I got to ride in a couple of helis in the service - scary things!

d - It's called FPV (First Person V?). Here's a [link=http://fpvpilot.com/FPVHeliInfo.aspx]link.[/link]

Chuck

clp.eng

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For when you guys want to stop struggling with these darn things:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MzVMfoV3E0[/youtube]

Chuck

clp.eng

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And you can buy it [link=http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10092]here![/link]

Chuck

Odd Job

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CHUCK...yes...I'm a retired Police Lieutenant (Montebello PD, CA) but I stayed on with the dept as a reservist and am assigned to Air Support. It's a regional program consisting of PD agencies as El Monte, Montebello, Baldwin Park, Baldwin Park School Police, West Covina, Azusa, Irwindale and Monterey Park..we cover approx 80 sq. mi., we have 3 Robinson R-44 Raven II's..I only fly on the weekends and work PT gigs during the week to stay busy and to afford this RC Heli hobby!!! LOL

clp.eng

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Sounds interesting. Do you actually fly them? Do you have a steel rimmed top hat instead of a gun? LOL

Chuck

Odd Job

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I'm a T.F.O. (Tactical Flight Officer ~ fancy word for an observer) we are trained to conduct emergency landings however if my pilot is a C.F.I. (certified flight instructor - heli rated)I can fly the thing and have, It's a blast but you better be able to chew gum, walk, rub your belly and tap your head, all at the same time!

And yes..in fact I have both Chuck!!! The Derby is my back-up!!

demenicis

Hi,

does anyone know the pitch (in degrees) of the XP blades,

I just got a 380 motorwhich is much faster than the originalstock 370, therefore I'd like to order some blades with smaller pitch instead just cutting-off my original XP blades (or even the stock ones)

I heard that because the 380 motorsare bigger they don't need so much power to operate therefore we could end up increasing the flight time (they neitherstrugle to lift the heli nor heat up too much at the end of the flight).

Also, faster speed + small pitch angle would give me a better performance in wind withoutincreasing the torque reaction on the tail motor so much, is that right?

Thanks,

Demenicis

clp.eng

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I aksed Gary about the pitch but he never told me. I'm guessing that would be a company secret???

Guru & Xtreme Productions make blades for FP helis with different pitches. I'm not sure they will fit on the Walkera, though.

Chuck

demenicis

Thanks for the reply,

After a little research, I'm guessing the XPs areabout 10°,9..5° or 9° (maybe)

Thats due the fact that the 8° pitch wooden blades are recommended by several websites as the best ones for the Xtreme 380 motor.

The motor I've got is not Xtreme, it is just a normal 380 standard (sold by E-sky) but I don't think the speed should be so different.

I anyone is sure about the XP blades, please let me know just out of curiosity,

Thanks,

D.

Fugitive_Bill

Isn't there a way of heating the blades up just twisting the pitch out of them and letting them cool?
I know that sounds like a silly thing to do as I presume you would end up with blades of different pitch, but I'm sure I read something along those lines somewhere.

GTX SlotCar

Hey guys. You know I pop in here now and then, and in a flash I'll be gone again and not heard from for a while. Oh well....
I'd like to address the issue of Fixed Pitch rotor pitch. Most of what I'm about to explain is something you all know, but don't really think about often.
People often inquire about how much pitch a blade has when they really want to know how much lift it has.
Blade pitch is ONE part of a blade's design that creates lift. If you have identical blades and then change the pitch of one, knowing what those pitches are can give you an idea of how the blades will perform relative to each other. So, for example, if the blades are identical except that one has more pitch than the other, you can assume that blade will have more lift. (Of coarse this also assumes that the added pitch isn't so much that it creates more drag than the power system can handle.)
However, if the blades are not identical, knowing the pitch won't give you a meaningful performance comparison at all. That's because pitch is only one thing that creates lift. There are lots of other things involved. I won't list them all, but 4 that are easy to understand are, 1. the surface area of the blade (how big it is), 2. the shape of the blade, 3. how rigid (stiff) the blade is, and 4. the airfoil of the blade.

Jack and John are both pilots with some change in their pockets. Among other coins, Jack has 13 pennies and John has 16 pennies. So, who has the most money in his pockets? You can see that knowing the number of pennies in each pocket is meaningless unless you also know how many nickels, dimes and quarters each one has.

We believe we're performing a service to our customers by not disclosing the pitch. It would simply lead to false assumptions that would be propagated throughout the web. And, adding to the confusion, SuperBlades don't even have continuous pitch. It varies from the root to the tip.

Fugitive_Bill

OK, Gary, you can take a few weeks off from this thread while I figure out what you just said, then come back.
 I might then have a question! - But at the moment I'm tired and you just made my head hurt

clp.eng

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So it WAS a company secret! LOL

Hi Gary, good to hear from you.

Thanks for that explanation. It certainly makes sense.

How can we fix the tracking on the SuperBlades? Or doesn't it matter that much? I'm thinking of maybe adding something under the blade at the holder, but I'm not sure what yet!??

Chuck

P.S.

The guy with the 13 pennies has the most money because one of them is a 1909 Lincoln SVDB!

Odd Job

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That was an informative post...all I have to say is SUPERBLADES WORK!! They made my "unflyable" EF Sabre into a hovering machine!! Now all I have to do is learn forward flight now!! LOL

SUPERBLADE products are worth buying....gotta get some of them Li-Po batteries, more rubber bands and another tailboom fin!!

demenicis

That is what I call " THEANSWER"

From the moment I had my 1st flight with the super blades, I knew it had something special, the variable pitch is the explanation. XPs are, by far, one of the most " hi-tech" design on the helicopter field.

But anyway, we all know how good they are......but I was told they are not so good for fast head speed......thats why I started talking about this pitch stuff.

Regards,

Demenicis

demenicis

Hi Chuck,

do you know how long the guru-z tailbelt would last for?

i need to know if I should get a spare belt even before I install the new tail kit that just arrived.

Thanks

D.

clp.eng

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demenicis - I probably have 40 or 50 packs (~8 mins ea) through my Guru & the belt looks fine!

I had some trouble the other day, one of the servos (Hi-Tek HS-55) started "jittering" when I powered on the Guru. I'll have to replace it & see what's wrong with it.

Chuck

demenicis

Thanks Chuck, I can see this belt will last for a good while....

Today i went to the field with my daugther but i couldn't fly, no power from both of my batteries.....came back home and replaced main motor and.....all fine again.
very tricky once the motor was old but had no external signs of wearing. in the end i replaced the stincky tail motor for a new one as well, just to use it and then install the dd just to have a look.
I've been crashing a lot....i already broke the guru skids (i made myself a provisory one out of 0.5mmX8mm strips of "shim"/hard stell and it is being working fine)

those skids are a bit fragile, thatplastics is very hard. the sstell one can be bent back to position in seconds, I might stick with them instead the original ones once they are only 6grams havier(on the digitalscale).

Regards,

Luiz

clp.eng

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Luiz - your welcome. In fact I thought about it later & I probably have more than 100 packs on the belt LOL Take a look at SuperSkids as they are tough but flexible. So far the only damage I've done to them is lost the little "button" on the end.

Have you used the 380 motor yet?

Maybe it's time to get the rest of the Guru with a brushless motor! Have you looked into a brushless conversion any more? Remember I have two converters here sitting in the closet... lol

Chuck

demenicis

I didn't install the 380 motor yet, now, with a brand new 370, the heli is already "on the sky" with a half of the trotle on.

I don't think I'll go brushless if the 380 motor + belt drive tail works well. this motor was so cheap that I could buy a pile of it and replace them every 20 flights (just a guess) for example.

I'll only install this 380 motor once I go for the belt driven tail and anyway I already both a 6 pounds cheap receiver and a cheap 15A esc for it, therefore I might not need the converter once this receiver hasn't got any "on board" ESC in it.

I'll let you know in case i need your converters,

Thanks

Demenicis

demenicis

Hi,

although i didn't install it yet,I already assembled my guru belt drive tail on its own, and i'd like to know why i have to have a digital servo to actuate it.

Did anybody try to use a normal "chinese 9g cheap and cheerfull" servo for it? Would the tail be controlable with a normal servo, or that would be imposible?

Thanks

Demenicis

clp.eng

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Demenicis - you do NOT need a digital servo on the tail, you need a fast one! I use a Hi-Tek HS-56HB analog servo on the tail of my Guru with a ZOOM (Telebee rebrand) gyro & it holds just fine. What gyro are you using?

For what we are doing with these FPs, I'm sure the cheapy Chinese one would work as well. Try it, you've got nothing to lose!

Chuck

dchin62973

We always use the products from Super Skids. Gary takes a lot of thought before making the blades, skids, and other durable items. We took the latest 2.4Ghz Walkera 4# / Exceed Falcon 40 V2 and added the Super Skids 200 landing gear system, Super Skids Titanium Tail boom, and other mods. The Blades would have been on but Gary was changing the Super Blades Xp back to a 4mm design which will not fit the Walkera rotor head but will fit the E-SKY HBFP. I think he should have both the 2mm and 4mm. One for the E-SKY HB FP V2 and one for the Walkera 4# and U-FLY.

Below is a video with the mods. Looks great and flys well as we also added a Direct Drive (DD) Tail for better Rudder control.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGwOXkn2Cj0[/youtube]

Keep up the great work Gary.


[8D]

clp.eng

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dchin - you should check the Super-Skids website. He now has XP blades that fit the Walkera blade grips (2.2mm thick).

Chuck