Another flip, another crash

Sunday morning wasn't to successful for me (Ian) either, following 4 packs of fast circuits across the sky I decided to chance a flip again as my bravery increased beyond my talent.

For some reason I flew the helicopter past me about 8-10 foot off the ground and in fast forward flight decided to try a travelling back flip about 20m in front of my position (I really don't know why I keep doing these low level manoeuvres). As you can imagine this was far to low to attempt this manoeuvre, however, I did manage to get the heli upright but I had lost far too much height (from 8-10 feet up!) and it disappeared below the long grass of the outer field. I hit throttle hold as the helicopter vanished, but a little too late to save the main gear.

Damage was significantly less than my last loop attempt and was restricted to main-gear, landing gear and boom. I'm classifying this one as a heavy landing rather than a crash as the head was intact and it landed on it's skids.

Adrian's first flip

So we all headed up to the field early (8am) today (Sunday 26th June 2011) for a few packs before the wind picked up.

Just a bit of hovering around. Pete was trying to set-up the tail of his after fitting a new alloy tail unit donated by Adrian, after discovering that his own tail unit was snapped in two and only being held together by the tension of the belt!
After killing a GA250 gyro (just died and the heli pirouetted to the ground. Lucky he was only 1m off the ground when it happened. Heli was fine. He swapped the GA250 off his Gaui (not completed yet). That also had tail drift so gave up and flew the plane instead. Noticed a lot of play in the tail pitch.
Later after getting home Pete realised the tail drive from the main gear was slipping causing major vibrations. To be fixed!

So Adrian was up with his 450Pro and brought his CopterX 450 as well so he is now flying two 450 heli's. This gave him some confidence to attempt a flip which worked out just fine.

Vid here:


After that he dropped in another pack then went up for another. This time he forgot to switch into idle up first.
So, What happen's if you attempt a roll without idle up.... You switch off the motor and the heli drops like a stone!
Vid here:


Pete popped off shopping and discovered that HobbyCraft is selling foam core board for £5 for 2 A1 sheets. Bought 2 sheets to try building planes at about £2.50 each, could be fun.

Zone 2011

This Sunday was given over to Zone 2011 at Weston Park where we experienced some truly inspirational flying from the professionals. It was good to put faces to a number of names that crop up on the forums and our partners have elevated our status to cool after contrasting the helicopters with the model plane display.

Two things stood out on the day for me were the Henseleit TDR, an awesome helicopter and fantastic display that highlighted this models capabilities and Raquel Bellot from Team Align who flew a graceful display with the transmitter behind her back.

Image from rcheliaddict - Pulsar

Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in the raffle and missed out on the Rave 700 or even a Spektrum drinks bottle.

A great day and looking forward to next year!

Adrian's back in the air!

It was a late start at the flying field yesterday, I arrived at 8:30pm and managed to get a couple of packs through the 450 following the days heavy rain. Tried some controlled hovering, orientation training and some slow piro's and managed not to crash, however, hovering a box shape at a steady altitude was far more difficult than you would expect - I think I've got a bit too used to blasting across the sky.

Adrian arrived around 9pm and this was to be his first proper flight for weeks following a run of mechanical issues with his gyro and tail servo. The GA250 gyro performed admirably and the the tail was truly locked-in and should prove to be excellent once the disco legs subside and more advanced manoeuvres commence.

This was also my first chance to see the cheapy 450 pro that Adrian had brought second-hand and it looks pretty good quality. Some of the components like the servos, esc and gyro are low spec but it performs well, however, it is plagued by the drift issues previously experienced with the GY401B gyro.

Adrian's tail setup flight



And now a bit more adventerous



The evening was finished off with a few goes with Pete's plane and practising our new catch landing technique!

Ian's first flip

Finally Ian got around to his first flip, admitedly the intention was a loop but at least it was inverted for a moment. A few more flips were attempted and the helicopter came home in one piece.

However, the frustration of not managing a proper loop was playing heavily on my mind so the next evening I tried a full loop, coming in fast from downwind I pulled up heavily on the collective from about 3m up and executed a full loop, however, the ground came up to meet the heli and at the bottom of the loop I landed (hit!) the ground hard on the skids resulting in the following.

The damage wasn't too bad considering the speed of impact as the skids took the brunt of the landing and seperated from the body.

Damage roll-call, skids, boom, main gear, main shaft and feathering shaft. Rebuild time 2 hours.