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 The spindle didn't hold up for more than two flights and then it was wobbling again. I think the metal it was made out of was soft or something because no blade strikes or crashes and it bent again. LHS was out of stock and had to order, so i just bought another couple from eBoyzToyz.com. Also treated my bird to a new canopy. Ordered the white one without the stickers so i could give it a custom paint job. Hide this entry - View all pilot blogs from Chris |
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| Placed an order from eboyztoyz.com for a bunch of head parts. 3bb grip set, center hub and spindle set, and main head set. Also ordered a replacement main and tail motor because they're got some use on them and they're cheaper to order than get at LHS. Ordered on Sunday, they showed up on Wednesday! Just FYI, when you order the 3BB grip set, they do NOT come with the bearings! If you need those, they're a seperate part number. Had a little time today to tear it down and replace some of the parts. The bent main shaft had to be cut just above the lock retainer below the swash plate because it was too bent to be pulled out (Dremel to the rescue). I noticed there was a little side to side play on the spindle the main blade grips pivot on. while I was pulling the blade grip off, I also noticed the spindle was slightly bent so it's a good thing I ordered a new one. Since the new grip didn't come with bearings, I had to reuse the ones in the broken one. The only way I could get the 3 bearings out was to cut the grip in half lengthways. (Dremel to the rescue again!) When I put it together, i shimmed the spindle out where the bolts screwinto the end of it. That took out all the slop and it was nice and smooth. I spun up the main without the main blades and it was a little out of balance. The weights on the fly bar had shifted, so i recentered those so it was nice and smooth. Put a set of woodies on to test fly it in the house. It spun up very smooth but when I brought it up into a hover it was rocking fore/aft violently and I had to set it down quickly. I rechecked everything over and over again and just couldn't figure it out. But the more I flew it the less it was rocking so I thought something was maybe tight and was slowly loosening up and making it fly better. Here's a video I took before I tore it back down: http://media.putfile.com/Rocking-Heli I got online and went to the RunRyder forums and found this thread: http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/t232086p1/?p=2017630#RR A few people on there said it was a tight or bent spindle... well I guess mine could be too tight since I shimmed it but definately not bent because it was brand new... So I tore into it and discovered to my dismay that the brand new spindle was bent!  So either I bent it installing it (how soft is it!?) or it was bent from the factory. I did my best to straighten it with a block of wood and a hammer and reinstalled it. This time I left the shims out so the .5mm of play was back in it. But she flies good as new again! I did some hovering and flying around the living room since the wind is blowing pretty hard outside and ran out what was left in the lipo from last weekend.Hide this entry - View all pilot blogs from Chris |
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| Well, finally a day without wind! I took the BCP to the lake and did a few test hovers and slow flying around. Took a bit to get the cobs outta my brain since I hadn't flown in so long. The heli was flying great, dialed in perfect it seemed. Did a few nose in hovers about 20-30ft up and then decided it was time for some high speed runs, then those turned in to my very first circuits! I was having a blast till on about the 4th or 5th go around, the Heli didn't want to turn. I managed to bring it around nose-in and was going to turn it clockwise. It turned till it was left side in but thats where it stopped. I gave it full right stick and I could hear the tail motor screaming trying to turn the heli right, but it just stayed left side in. I should have just went full left on the tail to get it around the other way but I was still puzzled by what was going on... before i knew it, she's heading for the ground, so I killed the power and watched it strike in a big cloud of dust. I expected the worst from the impact. The CF blades held up great even tho one was stuck into the ground about 2 inches. The main shaft had a nice 45 deg bend in it, another crack in the canopy, and the ball link on the blade grip of the blade in the ground was snapped off. Not bad at all, but the head has been getting so much more slop in it, that I think I'm just going to replace it all. I'm guessing what I experienced was lack of "tail authority" that everyone talks about on the forums. Hide this entry - View all pilot blogs from Chris |
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| This evening I goofed around adjusting everything on the BCP waiting for a nice calm day to fly outside. I noticed the motor kept getting hotter and hotter and I had loads of positive pitch in the main blades so after watching a few videos on the web about seeting the pitch on the BCP, I tackled that first. I reset the pitch so that while hovering, I could flip the idle-up switch and the transition was nearly unnoticable on the Heli. The motor barely gets warm now after hovering for a few minutes (the two heatsinks on the main motor definately help too). Next I goofed with the gyro gain so the tail is a lot more steady also set the proportion a little stronger so I don't have to trim the tail on the Tx as much. I also tried moving the flybar wieghts all the way in, but I think I like it better with them about halfway in where I've had them for the last month or two. Now if the wind would quit blowing, I'd like to fly outside again! Hide this entry - View all pilot blogs from Chris |
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Too windy outside to fly, so I did a little side-in hovering and flying in the living room. I usually stand to the right of the heli so left side in hovers and flight seems easy for me, it's when it's right side in that i have problems. Oh well, practice practice  I'm wondering if the tail motor might be getting ready to die. I nearly had to trim the tail 3/4 right on the Tx! I reinitialized the 4in1 after centering the trims and it was still like that. I landed to answer the phone and when i ran thru the startup procedure, the tail was fine after that, but then the battery pack gave up about 1 minute later. I hope to get a flight or two in tomorrow so I'll soon see. Hide this entry - View all pilot blogs from Chris |
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| Another great evening with only a mild breeze. I took the heli out in front of my house so I wouldn't have to worry about the fence (now just cars and light posts ) Warmed up a minute or two of hovering and then flew it across the street at fairly high speeds and brought it back tail in. I decided it was time to put some of the side in hovering practice to the test in forward flight. Flew up about 20ft and moved out across the street, then banked left and zoomed down the street for probably 75ft, brought it to a hover and then reeled it back tail-in. I did this a few times, getting higher and higher, but I was facing west... and well, the sun sets in the west. So you can guess what happened next. I lost it in the sun!  I immediately hit the throttle... figured if i fly it UP out of the sun, then I could have time to get it under control, and I'm happy to report that worked. Took me a few hair raising seconds to get the heli pointed in a direction I could control since it was nearly in the stratosphere and I could barely see it! Slowly brought it back to me and landed on the sidewalk. I hope to have my wife record some video of the fun the next time I can fly. Hide this entry - View all pilot blogs from Chris |
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Finally an evening without wind!  My Dad came up to visit, so he watched as I flew around the back yard for a little bit. I started getting comfortable again with flying forward and out of the yard. Since I have the pitch dialed in for the sym blades, it seemed a little washy with the flatbottoms on. I should have put the CF blades on since I was outdoors. But it was great to get outside where I could move it around and practice some side in hovers and such.  A cold breeze came up. Rather than risk a gust trashing it again, I grounded it for the night. Plus it started getting cold, so I didn't want numb fingers crash it either. ha Hide this entry - View all pilot blogs from Chris |
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| Took some new pics tonite. I re-routed the antenna so it looks alot cleaner but isn't wrapped around the Tx like Flyingsport suggests. Just leary of wrapping it around the Tx up under the canopy and only leaving a little out in that antenna tube for reception. Also removed the battery level indicator. Maybe I'll put it back on someday for some gee whiz look. Pictures turned out good, I'm going to use the angle shot for my avatar on helifever.com Tomorrows supposed to get to 60F, here's hoping i'll get an hour of wind-free weather to get a flight in!  Hide this entry - View all pilot blogs from Chris |
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The battery level indicator (BLI) doesn't work well with a 11.1V Li-po. It always indicates over 10V even when the battery drops to 9.6V under load. I noticed the helicopter needed more throttle to hover before the lights changed, so I quit flying and measured the battery voltage. It was at 9.8V  I tried the BLI with some AA batteries varied in a series and it was highly inaccurate. There is a pot on the circuit board, so I messed with that till it indicated about +0.4V within the actual voltage... still not good enough to let me know when I need to stop flying. It's neat if you want some pretty flashing lights, but not helpful. Maybe if I was still using the 9.6V NiCd or a 7.4V Lipo it would do its intended job.Hide this entry - View all pilot blogs from Chris |
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| Attached the new battery level indicator to the back of the Heli. I snipped the leads and soldered on a JST-type connector to attach it to the charge lead on the battery pack. Installed a set of the new flat bottoms and fired it up. It looks really cool and the lights are very bright. I have added a few pics of the new skids and indicator in my gallery. I also took a short video of me hovering in the living room with the lights blinking. They look like they blink slow in the video, but it blinks really fast. Here's the video Hide this entry - View all pilot blogs from Chris |
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