Still not it

Ran to the field early with just a few packs to test out whether changing part of the tail assembly on the G500 worked to eliminate the noise.  Nope, maybe just partially.  My job only involved replacing one bearing because I continued to use the red fin half of the assembly, to match the canopy and boom color.  The noise is still there but less, I think, so I have to replace the fin half too, or at least the bearing in there.  And if that does not elim the noise, then the cause is elsewhere.  So I got in just one flight.

Also took the Star and a couple packs with me.  Tried a low pass on the sod field, got too low, and actually landed fast.  That snapped the nose steering arm...done for the day after a pack and a half.  Oh well.  Came home and scavenged a new steering arm out of the NIB Dirty Birdy box.

Flight log: 05/29/2016

Had a real nice time flying with Tad today.  Great calm  and cool weather again, and no workers on the field.  He flew his G500 and G570.  I had my G500 and 690SX.  Tad got in four smooth as silk flights on each of his.  I got in four on the 500 and three on the 690SX.  Also got in four flights of the Star plane.  While there, Tad inspected my 500 and deduced that one of the bearings in the tail has play due to wear, and might be the cause of the sounds the heli is making.  At home later, I switched the tail assembly out with another used one from a previous crash.  It seems to have less play in the tail bearing.  Hope that eliminates the noise.

Yes it is HIGH but it is INVERTED, lol.

Warbird Saturday

After flying my Goblin 500 four times, I flew these guys in honor of  Memorial Day and those who gave their lives so that we may enjoy our freedoms today.  Took both up twice, in perfect weather conditions...cool and calm and sunny!  Enjoyed both immensely due to smooth engine runs and no issues with either whatsoever.

Mike brought out three warbirds...his Spitfire, Focke Wulf 190, and September Fury.  He broke the retract landing gear on the Spitfire then the FW190.  I heard a crack on the landing of the SF, as he avoided the fence by hitting left rudder and/or left aileron, and the plane stalled into the left wingtip.  I think he broke the LG on that one too.   I don't know if he realizes or not that each time he now lands, he comes in at an angle such that any long landing requires left turn to avoid hitting the fence.  He has been doing this the last few months.  I am not understanding why he keeps doing it...does he not realize what he is doing?

Jerry came out with a couple foam electric warbirds, but I left before he flew.  And finally Sam came out again...the same guy that comes year after year, never joins, has a zillion questions about dues and flying conditions during the winter, etc.  I ignored him today.

Flight log: 05/21/2016

We thought or hoped it would be calmer but it was about 5-10mph with only about 50F, so the wind chill made it pretty cool and a little uncomfortable.  Tad and I were surprised by the coldness, but he got in his 4 flights on the G570.  I put in 2 on the G500 and one on the 690SX.  I had packs to do another on the 690SX but decided against it due to the cold, wind, and my gut feeling.  Had a good time anyway, with Tad putting up real nice flights with much forward inverted and upright backwards flying in very smooth style.  He treated me to the Big Breakfast at MacDonalds on the way home , as part of my birthday celebration.  Good times!

FLight log: 05/20/2016

Very gorgeous morning, cool but not cold, beats being hot!  Calm, cloudy at first.  No workers although the sprinklers were running right off the south edge of the runway.  No worries.  Flew helis first, and got in 4 flights on the G500, and 3 on the new Logo 690SX.  Still had echo issues on the Goblin.  Seemed less than last time, but not gone.  Upon further examination, I noticed that I used just one zip tie to hold the CC esc in place, and that has loosened, so the esc could wiggle side to side.  That is the only thing sorta loose that I can find, so later on at home, I replaced that zip tie and added another.  Hopefully that takes care of the echo sound.  BTW I tested with canopy off and the heli still made the noise but not as loud.  Other than that the Goblin is flying well.

The 690SX makes me smile when I fly it.  So darn quiet!  And the light disc loading just makes it smooth and responsive, and effortless compared to the other helis.

I also flew the Aerostar 40 for 3 flights.  Can't be more relaxful than that plane.

Flight Log: 05/18/2016

Oo lah lah it was gorgeous today with little to no wind, partly sunny, and best of all....no workers in sight!  That is so rare.  So I flew my Goblin 500 for 4 flights, then the 7HV for 5 flights, and finally the Stinger II for 2.  All went well.  The 500 has been making a weird echo sound in the  air  and I have been trying to find the cause with no success.  I have found where the servos or a wire or a corner of the frame touches the canopy, and then padded those locations with velcro.  No difference.  Have tried different belt tensions to see if that makes a difference...nope.  My next try is to simply remove some play I found in the main shaft today.  Maybe it will make a diff but I am doubtful.  Still there is nothing else amiss that I can find.

Had a blast with the Stinger.  The YS63 ran like a top today with power and nice smoke trail.  No deadsticks, no issues, just lots of hot passes!  Great fun.

Just one other pilot at the field today...Bud.  Nearly hit me with this Cub foam plane twice.  I was standing by my truck tailgate.  Doggone!  Told him to take out the right thrust from the motor, but I doubt he will listen.

FLight Log: 05/13/2016

4 flights of the Gaui X5 followed by 5 flights of the Logo 690SX.  The new Logo is super quiet and smooth...might be my fave heli now!  The adjustment I made to the pitch curve on the xmitter is really good and provides for smooth transition from normal mode to IU and vice versa.  It is weird because I had to make the pitch greater numerically in normal mode than what it is in IU in order to get the blades to not change pitch when I flick the mode switch.  Shouldn't be that way to me, but if it works, I will accept the weirdness.

Bravata and G500

G500 for 4 flights was followed by 3 flights of the Bravata.  First flight perfect.  Second and third ended in deadsticks when I held inverted and vertical upwards for too long.  Something must be wrong in the fuel tank causing bad fuel feed in those attitudes, so it's time to remove the tank and assess again, durn it.

Long time no fly...

...the Stinger II!  I checked this blog, and the last time the Stinger flew was in Sept 2013!  Holy Moly that is a long time ago, but I left it alone due to my growing interest in helis and my worsening long distance vision due to cataracts, which have since been removed. In addition the YS 63 was not running real great.

Over the past few days, I took the engine off the plane and was going to replace it with either a OS40 two-stroke or a OS70 four-stroke.  After seeing how much work that is to mount different engines on the mounts, I said humbug and looked at how to fix the YS 63 instead, lol.  So I reset needle valves to factory settings, both high, and idle.  I opened the regulator and found small debris in it, which can plug the fine holes in there and make it run inconsistently...I was happy to find that and remove it.  Also checked the fuel lines in the tank but they looked ok.  I replaced some external fuel lines that looked loose or worn.  Next up was the engine had no compression from laying unused so long.  Turns out the valves were ok, but the push rods were not moving.  Upon further dismantling, I found the little pushrod sleeves that contact the cams were stuck in place from not running for about 2.5 years!  I was able to force them out.  Used the Dremel and some polishing compound to shine the sleeves up, then they slipped in and out of the engine block real smooth again.  Since I had the pushrods out and they were looking stained, I polished them too.  Next I reset the gaps at the rockers.  I don't know how much 0.1mm is, but for the OS engines I just use a slip of paper as the gap feeler gauge, so I did the same on the YS.  And finally, the flight battery pack was dead so I put a new 6V 2000mAh pack into the plane.

 I took the Stinger to the field today, and after flying the X5 four times and the Logo 690SX three times, I went to work on the Stinger.  The factory settings were decent as starting points, but my xmitter throttle was set too low to maintain idle.  Changed the control rod length at the servo connection, and that helped.  Next I ran up the engine and she held high idle and I took a flight with a rich high needle setting.  She ran the whole time but was weak, so for the next flight I leaned it out half a turn and also opened the low end, which is also equivalent to leaning the low end so that the idle was smoother, lower, and did not die.  Seemed to do the trick as the engine really pulled the plane fast, with a slight smoke trail.  Felt like a new plane and engine...lots of speed and authority.  Gonna be fun flying this bugger again!  Feeling satisfaction that I got that engine to run well again.

The Logo spooled up much better with the main blades loosened a little.  The shaking is less, but still there.  My throttle curve adjustment did not do the trick...the heli still jumps up when switching to IU mode, and it drops when I go from IU to normal, so that is not good.  It must be pitch curve differences, so I am going to adjust those to get a smooth transition between IU and normal mode.  Other than this, the Logo 690SX really is amazing for how smooth and quiet it runs and flies!  It is light on its toes like the X5, very spritely performance.

Maiden success!

 Yay, the second attempt to maiden the new Logo 690SX was a success this morning.  After flying the Gaui X5 4 times and likewise the Goblin 500, I was ready to maiden the Logo.  The programming mistake from last time was corrected, so that the self corrections in the iKon were in the correct directions.  There is a new bugaboo though, in that the heli has a bad shake for a few seconds in the middle of spool up.  Once past that, the heli is super smooth and quiet.  Probably my smoothest and quietest heli of the whole fleet.  Everything seemed to be fine...CG, nice responses, very lively but not touchy, and did I say smooth!  Got in 3 flights.  At home later, I loosened the main blades a wee bit and adjusted the throttle curve.  The former hopefully eliminates the shakes (advice in a thread on HeliFreak), and the latter should smooth out the transition between Normal mode and Idle Up.  That transition is a bit too much for my liking going up or down between those modes.  Great maiden day!

CG Ultimate maintenance

Maintained the Carl Goldberg Ultimate 10-300 yesterday.  After one flight a week or so ago, the plane would not take on fuel for another flight.  It felt like the tank was fully pressurized and fuel would not go into it.  A few days ago, I took the tank out...to do so requires removal of the spinner, prop, muffler, cowl, and both damn wings!  Finally got it out and replaced the fuel lines inside the tank, the clunk, and the lines to the engine and muffler...I guess that means all lines.  I did not find anything really wrong with what I yanked out other than blackness in the muffler line, typical.  At least I determined the tank itself is still sound.  With the cowl off, I found the Robart fueler was falling off due to a broken back plate and missing bolt (one of two).  Figured out a way to secure that without a new backplate.  And I repaired the biggest cracks in the old ABS cowl with FG cloth and copious amounts of thin and medium CA.  Someday this old plane deserves a strong FG cowl.

Anyway, I tested fueling of the tank with it out of the plane, and via the Robart fueler, and didn't really find anything wrong except if the lines are hooked up wrong to the the two nipples on the Robart fueler.  The back nipple must go to the tank for it to work.  The thing had to be hooked up right for it to work all these years until last week.  Basically I think I did not find the real problem but when done, the fueling worked, so I just have to try flying the plane this way.  It should work fine, but the mysterious issue remains mysterious.  Oh well, I got some satisfaction by doing the maintenance.

Failure to maiden!

Doggone it, I took the Logo 690SX to maiden today.  First I flew the G500 4 flights, all good.  Then got the Logo on the flight pad, and it misbehaved by tilting over every which way as I spooled the motor up.  Main blades hit the ground and cracked.  That makes them useless, but I tried to spool up again just to see what is happening.  Same result of course, but it showed that the tail was ok, but the main rotor was the malfunction.  So I got it home and hooked the iKon to the laptop to analyze the beast.  Turns out I had the rotor responding correctly to stick inputs, but that can be correct while the self leveling action of the iKon can be wrong.  So as I tilted the head forward, the iKon reaction was to tilt forward some more instead of tilt back to correct the situation.  Same wrong reaction was true for tilting the head backward, or either side.  Bah...I failed to observe the moving slide bars on the xmitter page of the iKon setup menu.  The slide bars moved opposite to my stick movement even though the head tilted the correct way on stick movement but not on the head tilt test.  Anyhow, with enough servo reversing in the xmitter AND the cyclic head page of the iKon menu, it is possible to get the correct head responses to both xmitter input and the head tilt test.  I would have saved myself the aggravation of this issue if I observed the menu better.  Got too cocky from prior successes I guess, as this is my 4th heli to have the iKon FBL, and I did not run into this issue till now.  And so I have ordered a new set of Zeal blades for a mere $95 to replace the stock blades that I murdered through stupidity.  I need those blades to come fast, lol, so I can have a successful maiden to rid myself of this bad taste in mouth!