SEFSD helipad upgrades!

The helipad has been upgraded over the Holidays! New carpet! More of it also! One more table too!

Getting kinda cold out here though with the wind picking up in the afternoon.

Stripped tail gear!

Out at the field getting some flights in before the rain this week, as I wanted to finish breaking in my new batteries for the 450. But, now it's broken again and the tail is doing weird stuff :(

My 550 is flying good at least :)

Also someone showed up with some scale helis.

Rain!

Looks like rain is forecasted from today until Monday! I guess no flying this weekend.

Out flying again

Out at the field flying and the gang is out here again.

New canopy!

I picked up a new canopy for my 550, which happens to be in the same colors as my rc cars :)

Trex 450 repaired!

My 450 is ready to fly again after crashing in the wind when the tail let go. Parts list for the repair;

Feathering shaft
Trueblood green dampers
Main shaft
Carbon frame set
Main and auto gear set
Torque tube conversion kit
Aluminum tail assembly upgrade kit
Carbon main blades
Carbon tail blades
Carbon boom and tail fins

550 Loop!

I finally did a loop with my 550!

 

550 Back Flips on video!

Eric got a video of me doing a few back flips with my 550 also on Sunday!

Cloudy day

It was a cloudy day out at the field yesterday. In fact it was even drizzling slightly while I was setting up my pit table. All was good though as the sun was out by mid morning and it turned into a nice day for flying. It did get windy around noon though, like it usually does in the afternoon.

"New" 130x

Today I got my new yellow blades, white landing gear, and white and blue canopy for my 130x! Looks like a brand new bird!

550 Figure 8's

My friend Eric shot a vid of me on his iPhone5 flying some fast figure 8's during this mornings session at the SEFSD field in Mission Bay.

   

550 Backflip!

So this morning at the field I was having a great time flying huge, fast, figure 8's with my 550 :). On my last battery of the day, I flipped the mode switch into Idle Up 2, for 100% throttle and +\- 12 pitch curves. I climbed up high and slowed to a steady hover. I then put in a little positive collective then pulled full back elevator. When I saw the rotor disk, I went to 0 pitch , then negative when it was inverted, and back to positive pitch as I came out of the flip. I made it without losing much altitude. I did it a few more times to get the feel for the flip rate, then switched back down to IU1 and finished out my last pack of the day.

Next time I'll try it a few more times, then work on doing it down lower to get it on camera.

Wind picking up

The wind is starting to pick up, but not too bad. Yet.

Out early this time!

The wind yesterday frustrated me so much that I'm out at the field again early this morning. No wind! I'll probably head back home by noon when the wind picks up.

Crashed the 450!

Crashed the 450 in the wind when I lost control of the tail. Got the crash on vid also.

Vid of the crash from my GoPro camera mounted on my head.

Finally!

Everyone finally left, but now its really windy. I guess I'll fly the 550 for now. Hopefully the wind dies down some soon.

Somebody else is here?!

In 2 months of coming out to the field to fly, today was the first time somebody was setup on the helipad before me! There's no room to pit over there as there's 2 pilots setup. So I've been parked at the end of the runway for 1hr 45 min waiting for one of them to leave. If the runway was fairly empty I'd fly over here. Maybe I'll get some lunch and come back.

Lunch time flying!

I decided to try and fly at the park close to work during my lunch hour, since next week after the time change, it will be too dark to fly after work. An added bonus is that won't be caught in the peak traffic on the way home. Win!

The park was empty till about noon, when some people showed up to work out. Otherwise the flying area was clear.

I'll probably go again tomorrow :)

Close up of my "new" main motor heat sink, salvaged from my crashed Blade CP Pro.

1st Real Flight with my 550!

Had an awesome time yesterday flying my 550! I warmed up by flying figure 8's with my 450 and 130. Then I took my 550 up and flew huge figure 8's about 20-30 ft up :). I wanted to go again today, but my allergies started acting up last night and got worse this morning, so I decided to stay home.

Indoor Flying!

I decided to attend my club's indoor flying session at the Alliant University Gym. I picked out a pit table and flight box in the left rear corner of the gym. I had to fly between a basket ball hoop on my right and over some bleachers on my left. It was fine as I was flying my Blade 130x and mCPx about 10-20 ft high! It was nice to fly and not fight the wind. I'll probably attend again next month.

Weekday flying!

I decided to try flying after work at this park near my brother's house, since I wasn't able to fly this weekend due to bad weather at the field.  It was awesome!  I got 5 flights in, and did some back flips, ugly stall turns, and fast figure 8's.  I did a couple of ovals, but my nose in turn (right hand bank turn) was ugly!  I got stuck in traffic on the way home, but it was worth it!

First backflip and actual flight!

I finally performed a backflip with my mCPx! After flying consistent and fast figure 8's (my first time actually flying vs hovering) on my 1st two batteries, I decided to try a backflip on my 3rd battery. I was able to do it 4 out of 5 times. I crashed once when I was late on the negative pitch. No damage though. Now I'm want to try a figure 8 with my 450 at the field this weekend!

Blade 130x!

Since my Blade CP is a pile of carbon bits and electronics now, I took advantage of a sale at Heliproz and picked up a 130x!  I needed something to replace the CP, that flies well, and I'm not so scared of crashing.  My MCPx was supposed to play that role, but it's a bit too small and under powered to fly in the wind.  The 130x has more power and can handle the wind better, plus you can crash it and keep going!  Most of the time anyway.

I already have some upgrades planned for it.  Metal tail drive gear, blue canopy, neon yellow main and tail blades, and extra tail push rod supports.  Fun!

Dirt Nap :(

I was on the 2nd battery for my newly repaired Blade CP when I think the tail rotor popped off the motor and it went in tail first :(. It hit the ground before I realized what was happening, and I didn't hit the throttle hold switch. The frame, tail boom, tail motor, and flybar is some of the obvious damage. I bet the main and spindle shafts are also bent. Not sure if I even want to repair it this time as this heli never flew well anyway .

All flying again!

I finally have all my CP helis working again and am out at the field. I repaired the Trex 450 and Blade CP after crashing both of them a month ago.

More head speed!

At the Silent Electric Flyers Field bumping up my head speed again. I had it so low that I could fly for 10 minutes. I don't like concentrating for that long anyway, so I'm bumping up my head speed until I'm flying in the 5-6 minute range with a head speed if at least 2200 rpm or end my flight with about 20% battery left.

Helifreak Fun Fly

This morning I headed up to the Palomar RC Flyers field to check out this years Helifreak Fun Fly. This is the biggest helicopter fun fly in the San Diego area, with some of the best pro pilots in the nation attending. The flying I saw was unbelievable! I hope that some day I can do one of those maneuvers. :)

Video of my 550 Flying at the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego (SEFSD) Field

Eric took a vid of me practicing side in hovers and slow forward flight today at the SEFSD field on his new iPhone 5!  Thanks Eric!

Repair and upgrade parts for my 450!

I crashed my 450 a few weeks ago due to the tail belt slipping causing me to lose control. So I decided to change the tail drive to a torque tube. Let the rebuild begin.

5 Blade heli! Updated!

Another guy showed up with a 5 blade head scale heli! Cool!

UPDATE!

Added a vid of the heli that I shot with my iPhone 4s.

Another great day for flying!

At the field again. This time trying some different throttle profiles to get certain head speed, which I will measure using my optical tach. Hmm. A little hard to measure the head speed with the sky tach. But my iPhone app says I'm at about 2200 rpm at 80% throttle.

Going back to normal throttle curve as a few times I almost shut the motor off while I was trying to descend. Also I don't think I got a full charge on my batteries for some reason, as my lvc turned on with about 30 seconds left on my timer. Or the batts have a large voltage drop under load, since when I checked them later, the still had 65% capacity left?