LoveToFlyGuy’s Logbook

That’s right, I got it figured out - thanks to the fine people on the Heliguy forums!

Read the adventure HERE and HERE…

So here’s what I learned…

If you want to upgrade your servos with Hitec (hs50, at least) servos, and you have already upgraded to a brushless motor, YOU WILL NEED A PROGRAMMABLE Tx/Rx.

What I did to solve the problem, was to reinstall my original stock Esky servos for the cyclic. Problem solved for now - I’ll reinstall the Hitecs when I can afford to buy a nice programmable Tx/Rx.

It seems like as soon as I fix one thing, something else goes haywire. I haven’t flown for the last two weeks, instead, I’ve been chasing one problem after another.

So, I get home yesterday, and the heli is still setup from the night before, and the (stock) battery is fully charged, so I thought I’d give it a try before changing anything. I took it outside, anchored it down using a couple of heavy pry-bars across the training gear, powered up the Tx, double checked the controls (made that mistake before!), and connected the battery. As expected, the esc sang it’s little startup song, while I reassured myself that the controls were not reversed. I started to add power, and got nothing… Half throttle, and no joy… three quarters, and nothing… full throttle, and nothing… Hmmm. It looks like Flossie was definitely right about the battery - not that I doubted it! Then, without warning, the silly thing *jumped* to life! I was really glad that I had it firmly anchored down, and had my hands & other parts well clear of the blades’ arc!

Here’s the strange thing… The problem that I’ve been trying to solve has mysteriously disappeared, but strange things are afoot… The throttle and collective controls seem to be at odds with each other; full throttle (in training mode) gives me full *negative* pitch, pushing the heli down, while reducing throttle lets the heli rise back up to a ‘normal’ stance. I’m hoping that the new battery will solve this latest problem…

I’d really like to fly this thing again someday!

At least I got to see the rotors go around, and test the cyclic controls… Maybe my battery will arrive tomorrow…

A more powerful King!

Well, I was working on getting my flight experiences up to date, but it seems that I just keep falling further behind on my log entries… So enough of that!

Today I’m sitting in my office waiting for my new batch of servos to arrive so that I can finally go fly. You see, last week I had this little “boo-boo” while attempting to hover in the back yard. I looked the heli over after the incident, and all seemed fine, but when I went to spin it up again the heli made “bad noises”… As the rotors spun up, the motor would seem to slip or miss or something, which produced a loud bang/whack sound. Spiiiiiinnnnnnn WHACK!, Spiiiiiiiinnnnn WHACK!, repeat. Confused, I decided to end the day’s flights and put her down for diagnostics & repairs.

When I took a closer look at the motor, I found one of diode thingies had broken off, and was hanging onto the motor by magnetic attraction only. I figured the motor was probably shot, especially since I had seen electrical arcing while in flight (probably from when the diode came off) and the motor was *HOT*. I mean burn your fingertips hot! So… Now I get to order the upgrades that I had been planning to order.

I ordered a Just Go Fly 400DH brushless motor, and a Sonic 35A ESC with BEC last Wednesday, and when they arrived a couple of days later, I was itching to get them installed so that I could JUST GO FLY! I got them all soldered in, making use of a couple of power connectors from an old computer floppy drive for the wiring contacts. I fired it up, and had the same noise come back. Hmmm…

Upon closer inspection, I noted some chewed up teeth on the main rotor driven gear. Time to order parts again… Well, while she’s down for repairs, I might as well level the swashplate with my new Trex levelling tool, right? Yeah, right… Now I find out that I have a dead servo to boot. Hello? helicopter parts house? You carry servos too? Great! I need four… several days later (yesterday actually) the gearset(s) arrive, so now all I need are the servos, and guess what? They just arrived!

Anybody care to guess what I’m doing when I get home?

Wish me success!

Saturday, April 7th, 2007:

Today I made my first flight. Unintentionally. Scared the living stuff out of me, to say the least! I was on the front porch at home, and was having a great time watching my little heli go back & forth in front of me on the cement. I was practicing following a specific path in an attempt to get a feel for coordinating the rudder and throttle. I was giving it just enough power (around half throttle) to make it light enough to move. I was trying to have it follow a joint in the walkway, when I accidently pushed the throttle the wrong way… I heard the motor spool up fast, and the heli jumped off the ground! Fortunately I have fast reflexes, and was able to shut it down quickly, before it got more than a few inches off the ground. No damage, thank God! Boy, was my pulse racing! I put it away for the day after that, so that my frazzled nerves could calm down… Lesson learned; *don’t forget which way is off*! Got it!