Foggy but Flyable!

I charged 10 batteries for the helis last night, then was faced with fog this morning.  The fog thinned enough by 10AM for me to head out for a try at flying.  Happily it was as thin at the field, and I got to fly the helis.  I just had to stay close in for a few flights at first.  First I ran three packs through the Goblin 500 to warm up my brain.  After that I ran six packs through the Goblin 630, but that makes just 3 flights since the 630 uses two packs at once.  Concluded with the last pack on the 500.  Pretty much did the usual things after a few flights and the fog thinned even more to provide decent visibility...stall turns, loops, flips, and a little straight inverted flight.  The 630 is nice and stable, almost slow and too stable compared to the 500!

Back to oil painting, finally!

Gosh I took a long break from my oil paintings...my last ones were done in January 2014, so it has been almost 10 months since I held the brushes!  I just got into enhancing my HO trains from Feb to May, then put them away and flew my helis (some planes too) for the Summer.  Now we are into Fall and rainy days have commenced running together one after another.  When I walked this morning, some ideas popped into my head for my next painting, and I came home and got set up immediately in the bonus room, on the pool table as usual.  Here is what I produced today, not bad after the long layoff that made me wonder if I still knew how to paint!

Misty Hills

Big Easy...the Goblin 630

I maidened my new Goblin 630 today and it was totally uneventful!  Kinda anti-climatic actually!  I guess with good assembly and preparation, that is how it should work out, lol, so I am grateful and satisfied.  I had my G500 and X5 with me today too.  First I put 3 packs through the G500 and 2 through the X5 to get my bearings and confidence since flying is getting irregular now in the Fall.  Had not flown since 8 days ago.

Those flights went well, so I busted out the Goblin 630 from the bed of the Nissan Kingcab, and installed the 2 Glacier 4000 30C packs.  After announcing I was doing a maiden and to be wary, I spooled up the 630.  Sounds pretty impressive compared to 500 size helis!  Liftoff and the flight were smooth and without any surprises, very good.  I made an easy flight with no flips or stall turns, just some slow piros, and calm forward flight.  It's easy to fly slow and make tight flat circles.  Did a few fast piros and the rotation seems fast enough for my flying, being no 3D pilot.  Ran 4 minutes and 30 seconds like usual for my 500's, and landed softly.  Meter showed 3.81V per cell just like when I run the packs singly.  Sounds like a good thing to me.  After a short rest to calm down, I loaded the 630 with 2 Turnigy 4000 40C packs.  I am too dense to tell much difference between the Glacier 30C and the Turnigy 40C packs.  I would say the CG was probably more nosewise and therefore stable with the Turnigy packs, but I can fly both without a performance difference to my dumb fingers and brain, lol.  Now time will tell if I prefer the 630 versus the 500 size helis!

Dummy me forgot to snap some pics at the field today, so this will have to do!

I flew the X5 with tighter gear mesh today for the first time.  Due to the inability to removed the motor plate with motor from the frame, and no access to the mesh otherwise, I used the very crude method of using a nail punch with a hammer to slide the motor back for a tighter mesh, via the heads of the two socket bolts that are exposed on each side of the CF frame.  Crude but effective!  Anyway the X5 sounded just a little different with a slight drone or up and down hum, but not in any way a binding noise.  Flew well like usual, so the gear mesh will suffice for now.

The G500 was its great self, smooth but responsive and active, just not touchy like the X5 borders upon.  I still love the Dragon canopy, boom, tail skid, and LG that Tad and Becky gave me last Christmas, making the G500 very visible in the air and on the tables at the field!  Best looking heli there on any day, lol.  That's for Tad to frown upon.  ;)

I'm Baaaaack!

After an emergency trip to see my Mom in Hawaii, I am back home.  I only had four battery packs ready for the Goblin 500 today, and I made very easy flights to get my heli senses back.  All were close in and low speed due to dense grey overcast.  At least it was nearly 60F.  Breezes were stronger at my house when I was trying to decide to go flying or not.  Glad I went as the wind was almost non existent at the field.  Felt good to do a whole lot of slow and low right and left figure 8's and circles, just getting used to the bird, and practicing collective management.  Had to do one back flip and it was fine on the last flight, haha.  Ready for more now, but mother nature might be making a mess of things as Fall sets in.

Flight log: 10/02 and 10/03/14

Logged in 4 flights on the G500 and 3 on the X5 this morning.  Yesterday with Tad, I had 4 on the G500 and 6 on the X5, plus 3 on the Battlewing with Tad. We had just one hit where I got Tad good, but then we both proceeded to fly the other guy's wing down, haha.  Both ended up in the dirt of the north field, so neither could claim a kill, lol.

Flying helis was good and I am doing a little bit of inverted at the top of many loops, going so far as to piro 180 and then complete the downward half of the loop.  Getting more and more comfortable and I can tell I am getting lower on the inverted flight so that I can see the heli better.

Flight log: 10/01/14

The first day of October was a beauty for flying.  Got 4 packs in the G500, 4 in the X5, and 3 on the Battlewing.  Very clear sky, bright, and mild, with little to no wind.  WOW!  I was not the only one attracted by the fine conditions:  Rudy, Ashton, Glover, Bob R, and Mike L were there too.  Hmmm, that is as many guys as some Saturdays or Sundays!

I enjoyed doing more inverted with both helis.  In fact I was able to do a half piro while hovering inverted up high, my first one, and it was uneventful and grin producing.  :)  Did many inverted longer forward flight paths at the top of loops, and adjusted with up or down pitch to maintain level flight (sorta) and not build up speed.  Also worked in more slow back flips vs the usual full back stick I have used in the past.

Nobody was there to combat, but I just flew sport with the Battlewing, and maybe can be better in actual combat sorties.  Made a couple good hand catches and flubbed a couple others off my finger tips.