http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5511870341954810339&hl=en

Here is a video of me trying to show how the tail is responsive. Man… I wish I could do 3D!

 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1170350825242273849&hl=en

Anyways….

 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8028932764776437664&hl=en

   A student called in sick. Great! No worries about not covering a class then or at another time!

   Took out the heli to the back parking lot where there is more space to hover high and maybe do some flying about. I had forgot to check the screws in my excitement. I had put it off the last time I took her hovering. Well, I paid for it. After flying around and feeling good about myself, the battery had started to lose its power, so I brought her in. As I was coming in, a blade started acting funny! It seemed to have grown longer! Magic? Nope, a loose screw had that up its sleeve for me. About a foot high, I was scared that it would do the funky chicken on the pavement.  I hit the throttle hold. Almost saved her, but alas… a side strike. One blade had been demolished and the other was scarred for life. Threw them in the bin immediately. Kinda frustrated that I didn’t do a checkup.

   One of the blade grips moved when pulled. After closer examination, the threadlock had come loose and the side strike had bent the grip shaft… I think that is what it’s called, but don’t quote me…..! Ah-Ha! It was the feathering shaft. Got it!

 Here, look for yourself…..

 

   Well… the moral of this story is what Mr. Mazakari has been saying all along….” Check your screws for threadlock!”

   Will do sir!

   Other than that, it works great. The new motors are also a plus in that they don’t get in the way of the CNC swash plate. With the old motors, there was a problem where the swash plate would get caught up in the soldering on the tops of the motors. The new motors have the soldering at the top, but centered more to be away from the movements of the CNC swash plate.

   I haven’t gotten the new white blades that are supposed to be more durable than the older ones. They were out of stock. Once they get them in, I will upgrade those, too. I think they are supposed to have more of an angle so that there is more lift power….. we’ll see.

 

 

I wrapped the Rx wire around the boom cause it won’t get any interference from the tail drive. Well…. there is no drive… nor a belt to cause any probs. Plus, she is only flown indoors.

Here is a pic of the new motor. As you can see, the tops are rebuilt so that the swash plate won’t be interfered with by the soldering on the old motors. There are also new clips for the soldering to be done on so that it isn’t so exposed.

 

   I landed soft and hard on them and they felt better than the stock skids. Although there was less bounce, it absorbed enough impact to offset any differences between the 2 in that department. They held up well and much better I would have expected.

   Plus, they look great!

No flying today as I didn’t have the car and couldn’t get out to an open field.

   Since the rain and work had kept me from flying, I was reduced to practicing in the parking garage. Practicing in such close quarters keeps your fingers honest. I am now able to weave in and out of cars.

   Now, taking it outside was something new altogether. I think I got used to being in tight spaces, so when I was in open ground, I was like…. “duh”….. “oh no!”….. “what the heck?!” I couldn’t hold her steady with all this space!

   So I went around to the back of the apartment where the space was more limited, then “BAM!” I was able to control her with ease. I was able to get very close to hedges and parking limiters….. check it out.

   Then, I was living dangerously. I figured what the heck. Might as well do some damage by practicing something that shouldn’t be done. I have extra cash for some spares….      :-O   Come on David, tread that water without getting her wet!

 

   After using up 2 battery packs, I decided to walk or hover her in close to the entrance of my apartment building. Mine is the one behind the one in the picture. The one in the picture has 18 floors. Mine has 21. Tall, arent’ they?

   On the way in around the apartment in the picture, I took her a bit further away from me. The sun, after many days in the gloomy rain, must have affected my depth perception. I trimmed the hedges similar to the ones in the picks. Lopped the tops right off of a set! The heli fell and rolled over to the side and fell down, but no damage! The drop was about 2 feet. Not even a scratch on the canopy! After checking to make things were ok and testing the swash and pitches, I hovered her into the entrance.

   I don’t know if I was happy or sad that it didn’t crash. Weird huh? I guess that with all the rain, I did about as much playing around on the sim and upgrading my helis as could. I am bored. I need to fly in an open field and push my abilities to its limits! Plus, the wife has the car and I can’t go to an open field. That is why I stayed around the apartments.

   I wanted to check the skids today and that is what I did. They did very well as opposed to the nylon/plastic ones that come stock. There was less bounce than the stock ones. On the landing, it was smooth. Like I was landing on wet cardboard. I was pleasantly surprised. Worth the 20 bucks in my opinion. Plus, they look damn good.

   By the way… that isn’t a fat lip I have. It’s a big wad of Skoal.

   The pics were taken by a neighbor washing his car…………

   It handles light wind fairly well and the gyro seems to do the trick. The gyro is a stock Esky gyro. The King II’s motor seems to burn hot, but hasn’t given out on me yet. Am I just getting lucky with the brushed motors? …Knock on wood….

   The responsiveness of the King II is great for a heli of this size and price. I think they still need to upgrade the landing skids, but that might raise its price, and thus the attractiveness to many new flyers. I have upgraded the skids to the ones I had on my GL 450 and it seems to do much better on landings since the skids are now wider.

   There is a problem with the motor. Although, the brushed motor hasn’t gone out on me yet, the motor seems to cause some glitches while flying. This will not do! I will upgrade the motor and ESC around the middle of April. I will report back on whether the power is greater and if the glitches have stopped.

   The GL 450 can be best described as a TRex 450. The one I have compares to the TRex 450 SE. This is the one where almost everything on the heli is made from metal. The frame is a carbon fiber frame which gives it some flexibility.

   I have the Futaba 401 gyro and mini tower servos. I run a 3800Kv motor with a 30A ESC. The receiver is a Futaba 146i. There were some questions as to whether this Rx is good enough for the 450 models, but I believe it to be just right for the heli.

   This heli responds very quickly to the controls. You can set up the controls to be less sensitive, but I think that it is better to have set the controls where you have full movement of the servos in case you need them. Hovering is fairly simple. Once you have achieved the hovering, tail in and nose in, the flying of this heli is pure poetry in motion. This helicopter scared me when I first got it, but once adjusted, it became my favorite. No more to write here as I don’t even have the idle up set up yet. Once I get good enough to fly with the idle up on, I will report back.

    I can get you some good deals on cheaper fixed pitch helicopters while you are here.

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