Forced Flights

Forced myself into the air on Saturday, to get over the humdinger crash on Fri.  Took 7 flights with my 9 remaining packs.  5 with the X5 and 2 with the G630.  Also got in four flights on the Mini Aerostar.  I flew kinda conservatively due to the memory of the day before, but I still managed some inverted circle attempts.  Just did not trust my vision and abilities.

Flew again today, Sunday.  I focused on planes today and had fun with 4 flights on the Toledo Special, and 2 on the Shoestring 60.  Great stuff, flying low and fast, and looping and rolling all about.  Followed that up with 2 flights on the X5, although I had 3 more packs.  I decided to quit while tired and ahead!

Also sold my MCPX with spare airframe, LG, and tail blades...all to new guy named Brian who has been seeking help on helis.  He has a Blade 200 with CP and flybar that just is not set up right.  While Jer tried to help him with that 200 last week, the thing is still not set up right this weekend.  I tried again to help Brian with it yesterday but the heli had little power, and pitch seems too little. Mentioned to him that Tad has an MCPX (turned out to be Nano CPX), and took my own MCPX with parts and charger to him today.  He liked it lots after I showed him how it flies.  Since he has the same xmitter, he copied setting from mine to his easily, I test flew it on his xmitter, and it now resides in a new home.  I was not using it, so good deal for both of us at just $70.

Massive failure

On my very first flight with the Goblin 500 this morning, I had a bad crash due to seeing the heli as a silhouette only due to bright sun on the right of me as I faced North.  I lost where I was, my perception, and then guessed wrong to correct.  Pretty much did a right roll into the tall grass from about 10' high, a low height from having just moved to the North field after takeoff.  Even though I tried to hit the kill fast, from that height it was too fast, and there was no recovery.  Oh well.  Repairable with enough parts and money, lol.  I took one more flight with the X5 then decided I was just not in the mood for more, and headed home.  All batteries remain charged for tomorrow's endeavor...just keep trying.

Small Success

I did my first complete inverted forward circle today!   Maybe i did two, and several half circles.  All were left since i did not want to get confused.   Most were with the Gaui X5, but some with the G630.  These were lower than prior attempts, but i want to be still lower so i can see better.   I am trying to do them slowly with very little bank so that the heli does not pick up speed quickly and get in trouble.   Great fun after i stop shaking, lol.   I dont think i had any panic bailouts like yesterday.   I got in 2 flights on the G500, 4 on the X5, and 2 on the G630.   Skies were clear and blue for best visibility, and aiding my courage to try the inverted turns.   Maybe now i should bust out the mcpx for backyard stick time on inverted practice.  

flight Log: 05/26/2015

Flew today.  Ten packs split with 2 in the G500, 2 in the X5, 6 in the G630.   Tried flipping to inverted in new ways....side flips and forward flips.   Those worked fine.   Tried forward inverted turns and had to bail each time.   Kind of scarey way up high where it is harder to see the machines.   Gonna have to try lower so i can see them , but less recovery height.  No crashes!

Young Day

It was weird for a cool but nice Sunday for flying...nobody else showed up to fly except all of the Youngs, lol.  That means me and all three sons, plus all the wives, girlfriend and granddaughters!   That made it a uniquely wonderful day because we rarely have all four of us flying together, plus the fams rarely come.   So very special!

Tad flew his G570 and Forza 700.   Jer his Warp 360, blade 130x, and quad.  Alex flew my mini Aerostar.   I got in 2 packs on the G500, 2 on the x5 and 2 on the G630.

Later jer, alex, and i got in a number of flights on the three battlewings.  Great fun.   Alex and i tangled twice, and both times my plane fell to the ground.   Actually on one, i mistakenly loss track of my plane and crashed it while i thought i was flying another!  I did this with the Scythe too, yesterday, so i need markings or colors on the wings to make it easier for me to follow my own plane.

Warbird saturday

Yesterday was warbird Saturday at our club field.  Hardly anyone showed up, but it meant i got to fly my T-28 and P-47 as much as i wanted.  Three flights on the former, and two on the latter made me happy.   Both flew like usual and made it through another Zmemorial Day weekend.

As part of this years event, we also had a combat session with our Scythe wings.  Mike, Dick, Chris and I were the only ones with our wings.   We had about three sorties.  Chris and i managed to hit each other over the tall grass of the North field.  My plane spun down while Chris stayed up another 20 seconds or so.  I thought that won the kill for Chris.  Much fun had by all.

Nice 7

Had 7 flights today.  4 on the G500, 2 on the X5, and the maiden of the Mini Aerostar.  Bought the MA a couple days ago from Dick, got the receiver in and programmed yesterday, and flew it today.  I had two packs for it but only used one today due to close proximity of JB mechanics working on the sod machines.  Take off was exciting as the plane climbed steeply after breaking ground, and had a strong left roll!  Backed off on power and got it trimmed out over the next minute, and came to like the zippy performance quickly.  It uses the same 3cell 2200mah packs as the Star, but is much smaller, so it feels like a hornet, with a much higher roll rate and wing loading.  All in all, glad to have it.

Re helis, I had to fly lower due to poor overcast lighting conditions, but I still managed a bunch of flips and inverted straight flight and hovering.  Comfort level is increasing at lower altitudes, so I think turns are coming soon.  My goal is to be able to fly forward inverted flight comfortably this season.

Flight Log: 05/20/2015

I flew on Wednesday the 20th.  Took 8 packs for the 500's, split 4 in each of the G500 and X5.  Also sprayed an orange H and a red H on the new helipad area.  These are almost twice the distance that we used to take off and land on the single old mat.  Forgot to snap a pic!  Due to overcast it was hard to see my helis so I did not do as much nor fly as high.  Still fun, and I still did a bunch of flips lower.

And then I followed Dick home and picked up two of his Aerostars for sale.  Now I have all 3 in this pic...the two outer ones are the new ones for me.  It will be fun flying the new ones, especially the small red one that will be fast!  The large one has those funny leading edges that Dick added as and experiment.  Turns out he later glued them on, arg, so I will not be able to easily remove them for sportier flying!

Flight Log: 05/15 and 15/17/2015

Flew Friday with Tad.  He put up 8 flights on his G570 and Forza 700, with his new 14ch Futaba xmitter.  The feel is a little different to him, but he is adjusting quick and flying like usual!  Hopefully the changed xmitter will be the solution to those motor cutoffs he experienced.

I flew 8 packs, turning out 2 flights on each of the three helis...G500, Gaui X5, and G630.  Great fun again doing more flips and sustained but straight line inverted flight.

Flew Sunday, getting in 5 flights, with 2 on the G500, and 3 on the G630.  Between flights, I helped nail a gazillion spikes and long staples into new mats and the ground, expanding our helipad and small electric runway many times.  In the near future, I am going to make a cardboard stencil for spraying the H in several spots to help demarcate where helis should takeoff and land.

Flight Log: 05/10/2015

I keep forgetting to log flights in the blog!  Went out Sunday, Mothers Day.  While I had the Bravata, JB was on the field, and heading due East at the runway, prolly to cut a swath of sod along the South edge of the runway.  Too close for me.  I did not even fly the helis.  Saw Victor there and he crashed his 450 about 6' from my xB!  No harm done since it was a near miss.  I advised of danger of flying with JB fast approaching and making a beeline for the runway.  Dunno if I got through to him as I was courteous, but hopefully my example of just not flying was demonstrative enough for him.  Went home and wrote an email to all members to not fly today while JB is near.

Flight Log: Th and Fri

On Thursday I went to the field to fly and mow.  Turns out the mowing was done so I just flew my 500 and 630.  With 8 packs, I got in 4 flights on the 500 and 2 on the 630.  Nice day.  Doing more inverted up high and trying to do turns when the mood is right, lol.  Have not made a full circle yet, but have done a half circle.

Went again on Friday.  Did some mowing first even though I later found out that mowing was done after I left on Thurs.  Oh well, it is nice and short now!  I had 8 packs again but for the 500 and X5 this time, so I got in 4 flights on each chopper.

Lots of flyers today like a weekend!  Mike, Ashton, Rudy, Don, Jerry, Bob, Doug.  Oh Mike and Doug did a glider tow and it worked better and better with each flight made.  Last news is that JB is harvesting more and more sod.  West end of the runway is now hardpan dirt.  They look about 150 yards out on the South side.

Messing with the DLE 55 on my AW Ultimate

Drove me nuts to assemble and disassemble this and not get the engine to run right that day!

After the failure to run at the field again, I tried to solve the engine problems at home.  Over the next couple days I tried to figure out the AW Ultimate problem...what is bugging that engine!  I found a new RCXEL optikill at home, so I swapped that out with the 42% optikill in the plane.  Tried running the engine in the backyard.   No joy...same bad behavior from the DLE 55!  Rats.  I left the new optikill on the plane and will put the 42% away for future reuse.

While messing with that swap, I noted that the optikill light would go out by using another toggle besides the button I assigned the task.  Also found that when the throttle is high, the button would make the throttle servo go to low idle while also killing the optikill light.  What the!  So I ironed out the programming issues by comparing the Ultimate channel and switch assignments to those for the Sbach and Bravata.  Finally got it working right in a couple hours of frustration.

Next up I decided to try a new ignition by borrowing one from Tad's DLE 35.  Problem, the printing on the ignition says for the DLE 35 only!  Nevertheless I swapped it for mine on the plane.  Sure enough, no joy.  The engine would not pop at all.  I did note that the spark plug would spark in my hand while holding it and propping the engine.  WEIRD!  Must be timing or some such thing is different between the sizes of DLE engines?  I took Tad's off and put my ignition back on the plane.

And finally, while the cowl is off, Tad suggested swapping out the ignition battery.  I thought that sounds dumb because I tested the battery on the plane and it was reading a healthy 5.25V.  But this is a simple swap so I put in an old 6V nimh that was in the garage where I was working.  Bingo bango bongo the engine started up and ran strong!  I was overjoyed and relieved to not have to tear into the carb of the engine.  With that, I swapped in a brand new 6V nimh from my bonus room stock.  I took another hour to zip tie everything back, add connector safety locks, and mount the cowl, prop, and spinner.

What a journey.  I discovered the old nimh on the plane is only 4.8V and I thought it was 6V.  It was reading 5.25V due to charging with a 6V charger.  Maybe over time that damaged the battery.  Very weird.  That old battery went to the trash.  Still can't believe that battery caused the hard starting and erratic running of the engine.  Wish I had tried a new battery in September when the Ultimate first exhibited the nutty behaviour at the field.  Well, I am now really ready to fly that plane again with its fully operational engine that might just need a few needle adjustments due to the fiddling with them to try to get the thing to run right since September 2014, haha.  Looking forward to a positive report after that!

Failure to Launch Redux

Crap, I took the AW Ultimate out today and it again failed to run properly.  This means the fuel tank tubing was not the issue last Sept when I tried and failed just like this to fly the aircraft.  I am sure the fuel tube replacement was not a wasted effort, but it just was not the issue with the engine not running properly.  I noted today during assembly that the optikill switch was hanging loose inside the fuselage, not stuck to the wood like it was installed.  I also observed that the optikill light stayed on all the time, and did not go off when I hit the kill button on my xmitter.  To me that is an indicator that the optikill is malfunctioning at least in that respect, and likely is the cause for uneven running of the DLE-55 engine!  So I am going to replace the optikill with a new one I found at home later.  We will see if that solves the issue.

A giant waste of time today!

I put away the Ultimate after spending all that time assembling it.  I got out my two 500 size helis and put 4 packs through each...the Gaui X5 and Goblin 500.  Nice weather and nice fun!

Here are a few pics of other aircraft today:

Don and Jerry new Dago Red foamie electrics...could not take off due to thick grass.
That and the fact they are typical warbirds!

John with new old timer!

It has an old OS20  four stroker in it.  Sounds awesome and flies that way too!

Flight Log: 04/29 and 05/01/2015

Getting forgetful about logging my flights!  Flew 16 packs on April 29!  6 were on the Star while 2 were on the G500, 2 on the X5, and 6 on the G630.  Great day of flying with no workers to be seen.  Tad and Quang were there too, and we had fun watching Quang fly what used to be Tad's Extra 300.  Tad had a motor cutoff on his G570, resulting in minor damage, but it is a quandry.  He suspects the transmitter is the common denominator in several motor cutoffs in different helis.  The big show was seeing Tad maiden his Forza 700...what a gorgeous machine!

Flew again on May 1.  I had 2 packs on the G500, and 6 on the G630.

Prior to flying, I mowed the very thick grass on our runway and infield.