Sunday session at Hoyt Park

I headed out to a rare Sunday session at Hoyt park. Normally I only fly here after work during the week. 

I brought out the 650 for show and the 380 / 550 for flying. The 380 was flying awesome, but I almost crashed it into myself trying an inverted hover!  Luckily my Vbar rescue saved it and punched it away. 

Then I flew my 550 at all my headspeeds. It also flew awesome, but the governor bogged a little on a banked turn at 2500 rpm. I'm guessing because my pack voltage was sagging since my packs are fairly old. It flew fine at my mid headspeed of 2300 rpm though, so I'll probably just use that for these packs. 

I also figured out why the Scorpion motor keeps running hot. The bearings are shot and the motor shaft keeps moving back and forth because a washer was missing below the c-clip!  I had taken the motor out of the 380 because my motor shaft shifted again and I wanted to figure out why. That's when I noticed that a washer was missing while shopping for replacement bearings and spare c-clips!

I ordered some parts from a shop in Vista and I should get them in a few days. But now I need an Arbor press so I can replace the bearings without damaging them or the motor :-/

Vbar Neo and BK servos ready for install

I completed the initial setup of my Vbar Neo and bound it to my Vcontrol radio.  I also installed the servo horns on each servo and installed the "Free Swash" app on my radio so that I can individually trim each cyclic servo to level the swash like I'm used to. So now I don't need a laptop to setup my heli!  I can do everything via the radio now :)

Trex 550 test flight successful!

The rebuild and setup was finally done and it was time to test fly my 550!  I crashed it in August of 2015, then finally started rebuilding it at the beginning of June 2016. 

Some upgrades I put in during the rebuild were thicker frames from the pro model,

KDE tail control upgrade, 600 boom from the pro, Vbar Neo with rescue, Vcontrol radio, and Vcontrol current sensor. 

The test was a success!  But the tail gain needs to be turned up and I need to do a trim flight. 

650 mocked up!

Last night I was able to finish building the tail case and mount it into the boom. Of course now I had to install the boom in the frame and put the canopy and blades on and compare its size to my 550! Lol!

Oh and my BK servos were delivered also :)

The 650 is huge!  The blades reach up my chin!  The 550 to my chest. I can't wait to fly them!

650 tail shaft done!

I was only able too assemble the 650 tail shaft with the blade grips and pitch slider. Next up is completing the tail case and boom. Just so I can mount it to the frame and install the blades and see how big this thing is!  Lol!

Goblin 650 head assembly completed!

I managed to complete assembly of the head on the 650 last night!  I did need to make a run to Home Depot though for a 5mm Allen wrench, as I needed 2 of them to tighten the spindle screws for the huge blade grips on this thing!

The black carbon frame disappears into my black tabletop. Oh well. Lol!

Trex 550 setup 99% complete

I sort of completed the setup on my Trex 550. Only "sort of" because it turns out the stock Align servo horns are too long to work correctly with the Vbar Neo control loops. :(

My collective range is too low at about 72 for positive and 74 for negative. For the control loop who work correctly these numbers need to be between 80-100.

I was about to test fly it, but decided against it until the setup is perfect!  Plus, I would hate it if I crashed on my test flight due to being impatient. I ordered some SAB servo horns which have mounting locations for the ball links closer to the output shaft of the servo, which should bring the control loop range above 80 :)

Goblin 650 Black Thunder Build Underway!

I was able get the frame and transmission plate built during the last 2 evenings. No had one assembly problem though with the upgraded landing skids. The mounting holes in the carbon didn't line up with the mountain holes in the frame!

I ended up increasing all of the mounting holes diameters until they were big enough to compensate for the misalignment. Lame. 

The assembly of the transmission plate went smoothly though, so I'm happy again :). Next up is assembly of the head block and swash plate. Just so I can mount the blades and see how big this sucker is!

Went plane flying!

I was able to get out to the field and get 5 flights on my 48" P51 Mustang foam plane. I went out about mid afternoon and it was windy like it always is, but I handled it ok. I just flew circuits and practiced my landings.  Last time I flew I managed to break the rudder off, but I repaired it with about 4 layers of tape. Loll!