June 13, 2010

I performed surgery on my T-Rex 250 this morning. It was flying great so I hope I didn't goof up a good thing. I moved the elevator servo from the location hsown in the owner's manual to the opposite side of the frame. The reason for doing so was to try to balance the helicopter a little better. Both the tail servo and the elevator servo were hanging off the same side of the frame. By moving one of them there are now two servos on each side of the frame. This should help the model hover a fly a little better with less trim. The fact that you might want to do this seems obvious but I didn't think of it until I read about it on the T-Rex 250 forum on the Helifreak.com. Afterwards I went out for a quick hover. Some trim changes and a mechanical adjustment were needed. I think this will be a change for the good. It was worth the time I spent on it.

June 12, 2010

I decided to replace the head on my T-Rex 450XL / HK 450 with the head that shipped with the HK 450. There was a lot of slop in the old plastic XL head. I was interested in seeing how much better it might fly with the HK head. I disassembled most of the HK head. I applied CA on all of the metal to plastic screws and blue Loctite on all of the metal to metal screws. I had some trouble getting the links adjusted like I wanted and finally decided I was close enough and brought it out for a quick hover. There were no surprises. I am looking forward to flying it after I charge up some flight packs.

I also performed some maintenance on a couple of lithium battery packs. After about eight charges on one of my new Flightmax 3S 800mAh packs one of the cells puffed up big time. I used it a couple of times like that but it was losing it charge quick. Rather than tossing the pack I removed the damaged cell and turned it into a 2S 800 pack. Since it wasn't the middle cell of the pack that went bad the modification was pretty easy. I just needed a rotary tool and a soldering iron. It works fine now!

I also had a 3S 1350 ThunderPower pack that went "bad" because I could no longer balance charge it with my FMA CellPro charger. It turns out that the cells were fine. This pack shipped with a glider I bought on RC Groups and I later found that it really was a 2S pack that the owner changed to a 3S pack. It looks like the wire he added for the balance tap wasn't soldered into the pack and it came loose.Because of that the CellPro could not charge it. I soldered the loose wire to the appropriate tab and now its like new again. Now I have two packs I can use on my Radian and Slow Stik.

May 27, 2010

I picked up a second EPP Yak 55 at the Big Sky Hobby Spring swap meet last Sunday. This thing has four strips of LEDs on it so it can be flown at night. After two short flights this evening I can say that was a different experience. This heavier Yak doesn't fly as well as the lighter model but I think it will still be a lot of fun.

I also picked up a Electron 6 receiver for $5, and a Spektrum DM8 transmitter module for my Futaba 8U. I have the new Yak 55 set up for this transmitter and it worked well.

I replaced the JR compatible receiver in my Easy Star with the new Electron. Since I have no more models flying with JR receivers I am going to try selling my JR equipment.

May 5, 2010

I now have both of my 450 size helicopters ready to fly. After having a few problems with the T-Rex 450XL I took all of the compononets and put them into a frame from a Hobby King HK450 which is identical to my T-Rex 450SA. The helicopter is now half T-Rex and half HK450. Its not as smooth as the 'SA' and I now think it is because of wear in the XL head. I will have to try the HK head after I take it apart and rebuild. Everything is pretty tight as it was received. I want to be sure all of the screws have thread lock too.

Tomorrow will be my first day of thermal duration soaring. After a week and a half of incessant wind, cold weather and rain, tomorrow will be nice. I get to try out my new Thermal Scout from Winged Shadow Systems. Hopefully it will help me find those elusive thermals. I plan to try it with the Radian and then later in the Soprano if it works OK in the Radian. Battieries are charging now. I also hope to get 6-8 good flights with the helicopters before the day is over too.

Next week has a four day slope soaring trip to South Dakota on the schedule. Hopefully the temps will get out of the 40's.

April 2010

Spring arrived early in Minnesota this year and its time to go flying! I have recently finished a 32" EPP Yak 55 that I purchased from www.midwestfoamplanes.com. This kit is based off the "Leadfeather" EPP Yak on RC Groups. All of the great things I have heard about this model seem to be true. I have six flights on it so far and I really enjoy the model. It is very responsive and flys very slow. It also inexpensive and very easy to build. It is something I will be flying a lot.

I have also flown the Fancy Foam MX2 several times and really like it as well. Being made from Depron it won't take the abuse that the EPP Yak will so I probably won't be flying this much for now. On my third flight the landing was just a tad off and the wing touched the ground and broke an aileron in half. I hope to get a lot of aerobatic and 3D practice with the Yak before coming back to this model.

I also plan to do more flying with my helicopters this summer. I still don't feel like I can actually pilot these things. I am hoping for more stick time which will lead to more confidence and ability. I discovered the low cost lithium-polymer packs from Hobby King and can now go to the field and get multiple flights in without having to wait for packs to charge. This alone should help a lot.

Last week I was set to spend a bunch of time with my T-Rex XL after two test flights and a little tuning had it performing to my liking. Then something happened. I think one of my cyclic servos went bad and I replaced it. That helped, but the hover is not stable. Its all over the place. I'm not sure why. I don't care much for the design of the XL in regard to the servo locations and linkages and the location of the battery pack. Since I picked up an HK-450 v2 from Hobby King I am going to transfer over the electronics from the XL and fly that.

Model pages on the MX2, Yak and HK450 coming soon.