Fog, Goblin, and Aerostar 40

Yesterday was calm, just above 50F, but pretty foggy at the field.  I almost did not leave home, but decided to risk it.  Same conditions at the field but I could see the farmhouse from the helipad.  Heck, good enough!  I flew the G500 four times.  Had to stay low and close, but still managed some flips to inverted and some hovering inverted.  Fog forced tighter turns too.  All good, no mishaps!  Flew the Aerostar 40 after that, and kept it close too.  Almost lost it inverted on one disorientation, lol, but recovered a few feet above terra firma.  Yay, I got to take both home in one piece.  I would have flown the 7HV but forgot the charged receiver pack at home!  Oh, the repaired Aerostar flew like it always has....GOOD!  So the damages incurred last time, plus ensuing repairs, have no ill effect on the flyability of that great plane.

Gobbies and Gobbled up!

What a great day of flying even though it was mostly foggy.  I took both Goblins today, and got in 4 flights on the 500 and 3 on the 630.  Due to low ceiling and limited visibility, I stayed pretty close with both and had much fun doing lower than usual flips and inverted hovering.  When I was done with helis, the fog was dissipating and it was much fun to fly the Aerostar 40 low through the pockets of mist, and up high where the Aerostar 40 turned to a ghost.  I got carried away though as pics will attest!  I was having too much fun flying low and damaged the right wing tip of the plane.

Rats, on my last flight, I got too close to the Private Property sign!

If just 3/4" higher, or 6" closer to me,  the plane would have missed the sign post.

The plane actually hit the top tip of the steel post, not the sign itself.  Cuts balsa like butter!

I went home and immediately got at repairing the plane.  It is ready to fly again!  With a slightly different color scheme, lol.

Actually in this one, I already cut away  most of the torn covering, and shredded balsa.
Also, I already glued two pieces of recovered LE back in place.  Good that I collected them at the field!

Repairs to wood completed.

Repairs done.  Note perfect match of newly covered area to rest of wing.
Had to use transparent orange since I don't have transparent yellow.

Flight Log: 11/02/2016

Great day of flying with the field all to myself.  Couldn't figure why no one else came, with temp over 50F, dead calm, mostly sunny skies, no rain at all.  Oh well, go figure!  Enjoyed 5 flights of the 7HV and 2 with the Toledo Special.  That runway officially sucks now with all dead grass being taken over basically by lumps of soil brought up by the night crawlers every where on the field.  Worse it has ever been in my 10 years of membership!  My guess is it will be like this all Winter since the powers that be started the whole reseed operation too late in the Fall.  No worries, the helipad is fine!  I will stick to helis most of  the time anyway.  Got in lots of inverted stuff, and even did some coordinated half circles.

Too dang rainy

That is the view from the car this morning when I tried to fly.  ARG.  I flew a little anyway...3 flights of the X5 and then one with the StarStream.  Flying was fine but the drizzle just would not let up so I gave in and went home.  Had to discharge 7 heli packs and the 3 plane packs!  Good flying anyway since I could still do what I usually do even though conditions were pretty dismal.  I kinda wanted to see if I would lose orientation of the heli in such skies because I feel my eyes, right vision especially, is really deteriorating from the perfection I learned quickly to love immediately after cataract surgery in both eyes.  Not a happy man anymore.

Flight Log: 10/28/2016

Flew today with the X5 six flights, and 4 with the Starstream.  I had the 7HV with me but forgot the battery tray, so 2 of the 6 packs went to the X5 instead.  Could have flown all 10 packs in the X5 but just did not want to.  Flying was good in just over 50F, calm air, and actually mostly sunny skies!  How weird is that for Fall in the PNW!  Did much fun inverted flying and noted some craziness to flip inverted even lower than usual.  Perhaps the stick time is breeding some comfort in going inverted.  The Starstream was fine...noted much up trim due to shrinkage of the plastic control rods in cooler weather.  Also noted that straight and level comes with slight down elevator trim, so later at home, I added about 1/3 oz of weight into the nose of the plane.  Tested balance of wings and seemed close enough.  Anxious to try it again.

I flew another day between last post and this post, but I am not sure of the day.  I do recall flying the G500 four times, 7HV twice, and G630 twice.

Foggy Fun

Flew this morning in decent weather that was 55F, mostly grey, partly foggy.  I took my Gaui X5, Compass 7HV, and Aerostar 40.  Felt good like I have been flying more regularly than actual.   Got in lots of flips, and on the final flight with the 7HV, I was doing inverted stall turns and straight inverted passes consecutively.  With the Aerostar, I flew into the low hanging clouds...sounds high but I bet it was under 400 feet.  The plane turned grey in the fog but never really disappeared, lol.

Flight log: 10/03/2016

Great time flying before the rain actually began as I drove back home!  I took 12 packs that gave me 4 flights on the Goblin 500, 3 on the 7HV, and 1 on the Goblin 630.  Skies were mostly overcast but bright enough for seeing the helis good.  Nothing new to report as my program remains the same...lots of flips to inverted and back to upright.  Still connecting straight inverted with shallow stall turns.  Doing the same with all helis.

Gobble plank

Another fine morning, and I dared to venture into rush traffic to go early so I could get home early for watching grandkids.  Traffic not so bad at 7:30AM, but not great.  Anyway, the field was empty and I flew the Gobby 500 five times, and then my Yak 54 once.  The JB disker was out again, but distant enough and safe.  Yak 54 flew well, started right up and idled good from the beginning.  Nice smoke trail in the blue sky.  Fun with the heli, doing the inverted things.  Got a little nuttier and did a couple half rolls while pretty much vertical diving down from high.  Yikes, but no problems.  Home by 9:30AM!

Gobble gobble

Flew the two Goblins today, 500 and 630.  Four flights on the former, 3 on the latter, ten packs in all.  Fun in mostly clear skies with good light and visibility.  JB was already disking the soil even though they still need to harvest some of the sod, but they are nearly done.  I did not fly my Yak 54 due to the disk tractor making passes close to the runway at times.  The helis flew well before JB got close to the runway.  Good passes inverted, very fun, getting relaxed and likely overconfident, so expect a bad report in the near future, lol.

Sunny sunny

Today was the opposite of yesterday morning.  It was clear and although JB was harvesting, they were done and gone by 9AM.   Before that I got in 5 flights on the Goblin 500.   Then I put in 5 flights on the Bravata...I believe that is the most in one outing for that plane.  I ought to inspect the muffler because that is the weak point in this plane...the stock and then the JTec muffler always loosens or cracks.  I seem to have the loosening cured by using red threadlock on the mounting bolts, but there is not much I can do about the cracking due to vibes in the gas engines.  Anyway, the Bravata was a champ today.  Just so easy to fly and fun to play with flaps and do simple aerobatics like rolls, loops, and stall turns.  The G500 was great and I got in lots of inverted passes.  No pics today as I forgot my cell phone at home.

Foggy foggy

Conditions were not perfect due to fog but I flew anyway.  It was dense enough to warrant staying close but light enough to try, lol.  I got in some inverted anyway, but lower and closer than usual for me.  Good practice I suppose.  Five flights on the Goblin 500.  I had the Bravata but due to half a dozen workers weeding the sod farm (what is left of it to harvest), and the fog, I decided against flying it.

Fog everywhere!

FLight log: 09/19/2016

Flew Monday to test whether I could see good enough after having YAG noninvasive laser surgery on right eye to remove secondary cataract.  Yup, I could fly but not with exact confidence level  as the first 6 months after cataracts were removed in Feb 2016.  Wah, I thought the effects would be permanent but I got secondary cataracts already in both eyes and my vision is down.  While still 20/20 in the right eye, it is a blurry 20/20 with more mistakes on the eye chart.  The left eye is down to 20/30.  Crapola.  Still better than having cataracts.

ANyways I flew the G500 twice and the 7HV four times without losing orientation or crashing, in my worst sky condition....solid grey overcast.  So perhaps my lack of visual accuity was somewhat to blame on the sky condition instead of the YAG effect.  Was happy to see good enough to continue heli and plane flying.

Flight log: 09/15/2016

Nice morning of flying early.  Won't be able to do this much longer to beat the morning traffic because the sun is rising later and later.  Look at the pics below, I stood in the shadow of the tree all the time, but the heli was in sun most of the time because it was higher than the trees' shadows.  Got in 2 flights on the G500 and 4 on the 7HV.  Tighter belt tensioner seemed to reduce the vibes, so I am going to stretch it out some more and see if it helps.  Great flying today with lots of inverted practice.  Getting better at not steadily gaining altitude with each inverted pass, lol.

No sod harvesting today, yay!

My shadow looks cool in this one!

Casino Coast Cruisin!

Haven't taken the Boxster on a long drive for a loooooooooooonnnng time, so I finally got off the dime and hit the road on something manageable.  133.3 miles in about 4 hours took me from home to Chinook Winds in Lincoln City first, via Hwy 22, then Hwy 18 and short stretch of Hwy 101.  Hit four 4's on video poker but I was only playing one credit of 25 cents so that won $20.  Left there in 20 minutes with $15 of the winnings.  Drove next north on 101 heading for Hebo.  Construction signs warned of closure of Hwy 22.  I didn't know if that would be north or south of Hebo, so I took the first right off 101 on the Neskowin River cutoff.  Many one lane bridges on this route but nice twisties.  That joined with Hwy 22 apparently south of the closure because I rode it all the way to Grand Ronde and Spirit Mountain.  Lost $5 of my winnings from CW while at SM for perhaps 20 minutes again.  Headed home $10 in the black.  Round trip was about four hours from just before 9AM till 1PM.

I parked on the upmost tier of the Chinook Winds parking lot.

At Spirit Mountain, I just parked far enough out in the middle of the lot.

The 981 Boxster was a joy driving on the state highways and the county roads I took today.  Very smooth ride, easy steering, and power to spare.  Passed on the uphill passing lanes near where the buffalo used to roam, hitting 90 mph easy to scoot by everyone I wanted to pass.  Then I hit about 85 mph on the first long uphill passing section just west of Grand Ronde.  Very positive and feels safe.  No incidents recorded with numbnuts parking next to my Boxster just to be irritating.  All in all, just a very fine outing in the 981!

Weekend flying

Yesterday was the KRCA annual picnic and fly-in, so I took just my Toledo Special and Aerostar 40 to fly.  Got 3 flights on the Aerostar, and maybe 4 on the TS.  I forget!  Hamburgers and hot dogs were great!

This morning I flew helis with Tad.  I charged all 14 of my 4000 mah packs and got in 2 flights on the X5, 2 on the G500, 2 on the G630, and 3 on the 7HV.  When Tad came at 8AM I had 4 flights in on the smaller helis, and then we took turns from then on.  Tad had 4 flights on the beautiful Forza 700.  I did a lot of inverted practice again.  Keep on piling on the time and something is bound to improve, lol.  Tad said my pullouts from inverted were lower than ever, so that shows more confidence.  Or stupidity!  Great fun flying with Tad in the perfect weather, with no interruptions from JB or other fliers today.

Geez forgot again

Flew yesterday, 10 packs for 7 flights.  2 on the X5, 2 on the G500, 3 on the 7HV.  All went well, with only watering carried out by JB.  Nobody else there as I was at the field very early for maybe an hour and few minutes in all.  Same old inverted practice went fine.

Labor Day

Nice day for flying early due to no traffic.  Surprised to see JB working on the holiday, but all was good because I got there at 7:15, and as I got my things out of the truck, JB was already sending a full semi-load of sod on its way.  The harvester was in fact back in the midfield area instead of on the south end where the sod was harvested from.  They must have been working in the dark!  To my benefit, they were done and I had the place to myself until Don and Jerry and Bud showed up.  By then though, I was about half done with my flights.

Flew the X5 twice, G500 three times, 7HV once, and 690SX three times.  I wanted to fly the 7HV twice but a vibration has shown up , and it needs to be eliminated.  I actually noticed it last time out, but thought my eyes were playing tricks.  Not so, the vibe is real today.  Got in lots of inverted practice and just am building the time and muscle memory.  A good day of flying.

New record!

Today I took just 1 hour and 45 minutes to go to and from the field and fly 7 flights on my helis there!  2 on the X5, 2 on the G500, and 3 on the 690SX.  Light fog but flyable.  Everything behaved well, no JB workers surprisingly, and calm and cool air, around 55F.

Record time!

I went to the field at 6:45 and was home at 8:45.  AND I got 7 flights in on my helis!  That has to be my record...2 hours for 7 flights and including travel time back and forth, lol.  It was cool and partly grey and cloudy, but fine, with no JB workers ruining the fun!  I put in 2 flights on the X5 first, followed by 2 on the G500, then 3 on the 7HV.  All performed well, and I had a ball doing the usual stuff, with no disorientations nor distractions!

Monday sun day

NICE day again...so sunny and clear but crispy cool around 60F.  JUST PERFECT!  Loved the flying.  I got in 8 flights using all 14 of my  6s 4000 packs.  2 on the G500, 3 on the G630, and 3 on the 7HV.  Yes, same helis as yesterday since they were so fun.  Also I reduced tail gain on the 7HV by one point, and I wanted to see the effect today...it was great...no funny hunting sound on fast straight line passes.  All helis behaved well, as did my fingers and brain.  Lots of inverted practice with the usual 180 pyro stall turns, hovering, flip outs via forward, backward or right, and some at altitude and some lower.  Also did some coordinate half turns and those are getting better.  Right now they are pretty flat and big.  I want to tighten them up to stay in view better.  I can tell things are coming together.

7HV on the H spot upon landing, lol!

Sunday funday

Mighty great flying day with Tad.  Flew 2 flights on the g500, 3 on the g630, and 2 on the 7HV.  Did a lot of of inverted practice....stick time just has to be acquired to build the muscle and brain memory.  Also flew the Ministar four flights.  Tad impressed as usual with 4 flights on his g500 and 2 on his Forza 700.  While JB was harvesting, they were far enough away that we hardly had to stop flying.

Tad doing low inverted hover with Goblin 500...NICE!

Funtastic 4

Flying was exceptional this morning, again early bird style.  I was there by 7 and home by just after 9.  Got in 11 flights.  Eight were on the helis, with two each on the X5, G500, G630, and 690SX.  Gosh they all flew good.  It was clear and cool with JB way out on the south end of the farm.  Nobody else came to fly.  Flying was better than normal for some reason, perhaps due to no extraneous distractions, workers or other pilots and aircraft.  Felt very comfy doing inverted practice as usual.  Seems I might be getting a little lower at times due to the comfort level rising.  I practiced coming out of inverted by all means I know...pull half loop, flip forward/outside, roll right, and today I did many roll lefts too.  I can feel coordinated inverted turns coming soon!

 
I also flew the Aerostar 40  three flights.  Love that slow silly plank.

Early birds

Hit the road early again and was at the field just after 7AM in hopes to beat the heat and beat JB.  JB won, lol, as they were already loading the first semi trailer with sod.  Still they were distant enough that I flew my helis over the north field with no issues.  I got in two flights on each of the G500, G630, and 690SX.  Just relaxation and fun, more comfort and time at flying inverted.  All flew well, but I was most relaxed with the 690SX because by then JB had hauled the second load of sod out of the farm and I could fly unworried.  I was able to do a number of inverted high passes connected by shallow stall turns/pyros.  Getting more used to the negative pitch for maintaining altitude.  My early tendency has been to apply more than needed to assure no loss of altitude, but soon the heli is too high!  Today I maintained a more constant altitude.  Very fun.  Should have charged more packs!

Early birds

I was at the field just a few minutes after 7AM to beat the heat (expecting 100F) and the JB workers.  The temp was about 70-80F while I was there a couple hours only.  JB was there mowing and vacuuming, perhaps in prep for harvesting as the machine was nearby but not manned yet.

I got in eight nice flights, two with each of four helis:  G500, X5, 7HV, and G630.  No planes today.  Did many inverted passes and pyros  and shallow stall turns.  Great fun, all alone, sunny, mild, calm.  Oh, every heli had something different about it today.  Also, I resprayed the H on the tarmac a few days ago.

G550 has new XNova stickers, lol, but the motor is just on its 3rd day or so.

Put the Monster canopy back on the X5 for a change.

The 7HV has a brand new Scorpion 4525-520kv motor in it, and it ran fine.

First time for the G630 to wear this pretty new canopy!

Motor updates

Both the G500 and 7HV got new motors in August 2016.  The G500 has a new XNova 4020-1200 in it which pulls hard and quiet.  That solved an untraceable noise issue that I had for a couple months, and a super hot motor issue recognized by Ron on his visit.  New motor was $170 after $15 discount coupon at AMain.

Slick looking motor

Even matches the canopy!

Then after Ron left, the 7HV had superheating issues with the motor, esc, and packs!  Deduced that the motor was defective, certainly not overworked by my style and frequency of flying that heli.  I installed a new Scorpion 4525-520kv today.  When I removed the stock Compass motor, the mounting housing end of the motor basically fell off the can, and I found a magnet jutting out loose from the can.  Jeez, poor quality.  Anyway after a few issues were resolved, the Scorpion is in the heli and ready for flight.  I had to add three 1mm thick washers at each of the four mounting bolts holding the motor to the aluminum motor cage, to give appropriate spacing for the pinion within the cage.  New motor was $275 after $25 discount coupon at AMain.

That should not fall apart like that!

See magnet sticking up in center of pic?

Three 1mm washers at each mounting bolt location

ESC wires rerouted over top of ESC due to shorter motor leads that require center exit from motor

Back on track!

Well, actually this reports on yesterday's flying, lol, but I am caught up with this post.  Flew the G500 and X5 twice each yesterday.  Flew the G630 three times.  All are doing great.  Really back in love with the G500 due to the powerhouse XNova motor on it.  Runs silent and so dang strong.  I don't need much power since I fly slow and very beginner big sky.  But I pumped the throttle from slow forward flight to do a huge loop, and that heli shot off like a rocket, wow!

With all three helis, I did a number of flips to inverted, then 180 turns, straight sections, followed by either a half loop back to upright, or yet another 180 and straight section.  This is getting me closer to coordinated turns as I get comfy with managing speed and height with elevator and throttle.  I also get to correct lines with rudder, and drift with aileron.  Fun, getting better and not so scarey!  Very good feeling to make some progress...this is such a brain game.

Oh, I flew the Factor after a long layoff, for two flights.  Flies better than I recall, because I remember kinda hating the aircraft.

Still catching up!

Must be a lazy bones because I just am not blogging the same day as flying!  I think I flew three times more since the last post, including a day with Tad last Thurs on his day off.  My usual SOP of around 7 flights each day with helis, rotating among four (X5 left at home due to falling back in love with the G500 with its new XNova motor), so that is 21 total, or 5 per heli...G500, 7HV, 690SX, and G630.  I have had probs with the 7HV overheating...the motor, esc, and batteries come down super hot, so actually I have flown that a little less than the others.  Gear train seems smooth.  The can on the stock Compass motor is shifting such that it touches the bottom motor housing...burn marks from overheating are self evident.  Thus after much consideration, I blame the motor as the cause and have ordered a new Scorpion motor.  $275, arg!  Lucky I had a $25 coupon for AMain or it would be $300.

Been flying various Stars a couple flights on each day too, including the StarStream, Aerostar 40, and MiniStar.

Catching up!

I have not been blogging because Cousin Ron came for a visit from July 29 till August 8.  Out of nine days of his stay, we flew eight!  It is too hard to remember exactly what i flew how many tome, but this will be close.  I flew all five helis over the 8 days, and typically had an average of 7 flights each day.  That makes 56 total flights distributed over five helis, so that makes about 11 flights per heli over the period.  I also flew the Star, Ministar, and Starstream during someof those days.

Ron put all my helis except the X5 on governor mode in the Castle escs.  Seems to work fine except i am having a possibly unrelated overheating issue with the stock motor in the 7HV.

On one of the first flying days, Ron detected my Quantum motor in the G500 overheating.  Combined with the weird noise issue in the heli, which i have noted in other blog entries, i decided to replace the motor with an XNova motor like Ron did.  The motor came from Amain in just two days.  It solved the noise issue and is just lukewarm to the fingers after flights.

Here are a few pics from the 8 days we flew:

Great flying conditions AND NO JB work!

I have neglected to enter my flight log the last few times.  Flew Thurs, putting on 4 flights of the X5, 4 on the Star, and 4 on the StarStream!  (NOTE to self: on 07/17 I added two very thin washers on bottom motor mount flanges to give more neutral thrust...stock setup has too much down thrust as exhibited by plane diving slightly on sudden application of full throttle.)

On Saturday, I flew the Aerostar 40 three flights, X5 4 flights, and 7HV 5 flights!

Then today I flew the MiniStar 6 flights X5 4 flights, and 690SX 5 flights.  It was good flying conditions each day.  No harvest work witnessed on Sat and Sun, and today I duly noted that the harvest machines are NOT even located at the field now.  Only the mowers and sprinklers are still there.  JB must have moved ops elsewhere for now.  HURRAH!

I actually tried to fly turns inverted today with the 690SX.  Kinda hard to see because I was too scared to try lower.  I feel like I will have a brain fart and not even know how to recover, so I need to be high enough to allow my brain to think!  Slight success because I made half a circle twice, and lesser arcs a few more times before bailing out to upright.  I guess it is a start.  I attempted left circles today, with left aileron and opposite rudder.  So much to think about with elevator and throttle to coordinate.  Upcoming plan....practice, practice, practice.

Another good day

While JB was harvesting, they were on the far south side of the sod farm, so flying was possible and easy.  Flew the X5 4 packs, 690SX 3 flights, and the StarStream 6 flights.  All went well.  Did not like the 9x4.7sf prop on the StarStream (no guts), so I upped it to a 10x4.7.  That was good and torquey and slightly more efficient on the packs compared to the 9x6 prop provided with the new plane by Dick.  Plane had seemingly same top speed with the 9x6 and 10x4.7 but the latter was punchier so I am sticking with that for now.  Flight times still are about 3.5 minutes though, nothing to brag about.

Surprise company

Jer and Ariel joined me at the field early this morning.  Jer flew my new StarStream for three packs and loved the design by Dick.  I got in three flights on it too, and also 3 on my X5, as well as the Logo 690SX.  Nice to have no JB workers at all while we were there a couple hours.

Where is everybody!

Flew this morning on a perfectly good day, with JB working in the distance, so flying was allowable and safe and possible.  Bud was there too, but only flew a few short flights due to binding problems.  I got in 4 flights on the X5, 3 on the 7HV, and 6 on the StarStream.  Used 4 new Zippy Compact packs in the StarStream.  They seem fine.  Not happy with 3.5 minute flight time on any of my packs, coming down with about 3.75 to 3.8V per cell typically.  Emailed Dick and he suggests going to GP prop of 9x4.5.  I guess I will get a range of props for future use.  I want to get more flight time without sacrificing much speed, but that is the tradeoff.  The plane flew good, but could still use more right thrust, so I might put another thin washer in on the left side motor mount flanges.  Helis were great...time to start the inverted turning efforts again!

Good thrust!

The looks of the StarStream are growing on my quickly!

The right thrust adjustment I made to the StarStream worked well today.  If anything, maybe just a smidge more could be better but I am leaving it as is.  Plane tracks well on takeoff and climbout.  It goes vertical with just a hair left turn, but it is easily corrected with right rudder as the speed bleeds off in the climb.  The better thrust line makes the plane more fun to fly.  I have found one bad thing...the plane wallows on landing approach if no throttle is kept on, and then it will tip stall.  And that almost got me a couple times in the strong crosswind today.  It is not hard to keep some throttle on and blip in more as needed on final, but I must be mindful of this.  Cannot get complacent landing this guy.

The sprinklers were on final approach close to the runway!

 

Preceded the StarStream with 4 packs on the X5 and 6 (three flights) on the 7HV.  Both of those were a joy to fly again after 3 weeks hiatus due to sod farm operations!  Rustiness fell off pretty fast.  Just great fun flying both with hopefully enough control and gracefulness, lol.  Got into loops, flips, and some inverted hovering again.