Catching Up

[Heliman450]

Hi, checking out since joining. I didn't manage to read all 349 pages of one-liners but it was entertaining never-the-less. Now I'm retired I've found another distraction to keep me away from flying...........joining in here!
Bye to all those poor devils having to slave away in front of screens, I only have fun at the computer these days.

 

[Admiral]

Hi Heliman, I retired October 2014, now I wonder how I ever had time to go to work, I love hearing the traffic reports in the morning and realising that I don't have to do that anymore. I love the fact that when I have a job to do around the house I don't need to rush it, cup of coffee first take your time doing the job and do it properly. I love having plenty of time for my Helicopters & Planes, being retired hasn't improved my flying but it gives me time to fix what I break. It's a good life!

 

[Heliman450]

Hi Heliman, I retired October 2014, now I wonder how I ever had time to go to work, I love hearing the traffic reports in the morning and realising that I don't have to do that anymore. I love the fact that when I have a job to do around the house I don't need to rush it, cup of coffee first take your time doing the job and do it properly. I love having plenty of time for my Helicopters & Planes, being retired hasn't improved my flying but it gives me time to fix what I break. It's a good life!

Hello there Admiral, I started with the Hobby after attending a pre-retirement course set up by my wife's employers as she finished early to join me on an assignment in Singapore (I thought my last, but not the case). Main question for me was "what to do in retirement?", sit around eating and drinking beer? No, not for me although beer drinking is also good, hence, my choice of something I'd had a passing interest in but never got round to. I used to be heavily into cars (full size ones) doing almost all work myself. When I was younger that was what I had in mind for retirement, but the rigours of time and probably the damage to my back due to lying underneath cars lifting out gearboxes etc.! Hey, now I can lift up the the whole machine with no pain and stand up while working with my workshop setup.

Your other question, I bought my first heli in Singapore, an E Sky Belt-CP (RTF). I was put in touch with a small group of accomplished flyers and we met up regularly. I quickly found out my mechanical skills were serving me well and after crashing it more times than enough, I can almost strip and re-build without problem. Setting up and flying.............. a different story there. I won't waffle on too long about that, suffice to say that I haven't been able to spend as much time as the last six months due to working away from home in foreign lands. My second heli was a Beam E4, a better quality model and I built it myself. Both helis were bought in Singapore where spares were no problem and access to help and support. All the usual advice given. Then the problems arose.

The young guys, although great flyers, couldn't answer my questions about how things work. My view is three skills are required, mechanical, power/control and flying. I'm concentrating mainly on power and control right now after setting up my workshop and buying cool new tools. My third heli was a Blade 450X also RTF to get me into the flybarless world as the technology changed during my downtime. Fortunately, my local model shop here in Switzerland stocks spares for it and as yet I haven't crashed it. Being an old fashioned kind of guy, I was focused on books for my learning. Never really had time for the Internet as a learning tool. Now I have what looks like the perfect platform for packing what's left of my little grey cells with the required knowledge.

Enough for now, the start of a new heli day is with me as that big orange ball in the sky comes round for my use. Thanks for the contact.

 

[trainrider06]

You guys both suck! I wish I could retire! LOL 28 years ain't good enough it seems!
welcome to the forum Heliman450, Lot of great guys here and very helpful too!
If you run into a problem it'll get sorted here.
I see your the tinkerin type also, I think thats probably the type that makes this a long term prospect for this and other like hobbies, and how folks like us get so dang hooked into it. For me it's a challenge to set em up and watch for the first time the heli lift off nicely and fly so well with the stick
inputs....(well the correct ones at least) hehe.... congratulations to both of you on your retirements also! Lucky fellows!

 

[Heliman450]

Hi Trainrider06, I was reading through existing entries and saw that you're a regular contributor. Great stuff there! Hope you've resolved the Beemer troubles for your wife. Over here in Europe the top end cars have plenty of second hand and old timer support without spending money hand over fist. It takes me about 40minutes to cross the border to Germany to join the Autobahn. Then you can really see why the Audis, BMWs etc. are so popular. I watched an Audi TT and a BMW M3 passing me at 180km/h. Guess they were well over 220km/h and the TT looked like it was on a towbar. Lane discipline is perfect there and it's like being on a race track. MAGIC! Wish I was a racecar fan again.

Back to "work", sorry about that..............

 

[Heliman450]

Hi all, just found out how to set up limiting the threads displayed. Makes it much easier to focus in on what's going on. I had about an hour to kill before doing a family duty job, great way to while away a bit of time between tasks. Will be returning to the articles a bit later on.

 

[Heliman450]

Hi again, back home and decided to stop off for a couple of beers. We're enjoying some very nice weather right now (93F on the terrace). Couldn't resist it as my time is my own (sorry trainrider06).

I was able to spend some time thinking of my next heli. What I've learned up to now is that many of the mainline manufacturers don't actually make the best package. I refer particularly to Ray Hostetler's submissions in his productions. He talks of grinding here and there to avoid binding (Align 450). I'm thinking "is this a precision model??". Now that I've gained more knowledge, I'm inclined towards an 800 produced locally by Soxos (it reads the same backwards and forwards to emphasise inverted and normal flight). I also discovered a Website "servo database" making available comparisons. This brings me to say that Savoex provide the best quality servos (also available locally). Herein are my musings. Any Feedback much appreciated.
Bye for now.

 

[trainrider06]

Hi Trainrider06, I was reading through existing entries and saw that you're a regular contributor. Great stuff there! Hope you've resolved the Beemer troubles for your wife. Over here in Europe the top end cars have plenty of second hand and old timer support without spending money hand over fist. It takes me about 40minutes to cross the border to Germany to join the Autobahn. Then you can really see why the Audis, BMWs etc. are so popular. I watched an Audi TT and a BMW M3 passing me at 180km/h. Guess they were well over 220km/h and the TT looked like it was on a towbar. Lane discipline is perfect there and it's like being on a race track. MAGIC! Wish I was a racecar fan again.

Back to "work", sorry about that..............

Hi Heliman, yeah I spent a little time over there in Germany in the AF, and witnessed the Autobahn, back in the 80's...sure wish we had a few of those over here, i'd have to have some cool car/bike to open up on it if so!
Got the Beemer running fine now, the inspection will be due soon so I am sure more money will be needed!

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Hi again, back home and decided to stop off for a couple of beers. We're enjoying some very nice weather right now (93F on the terrace). Couldn't resist it as my time is my own (sorry trainrider06).

I was able to spend some time thinking of my next heli. What I've learned up to now is that many of the mainline manufacturers don't actually make the best package. I refer particularly to Ray Hostetler's submissions in his productions. He talks of grinding here and there to avoid binding (Align 450). I'm thinking "is this a precision model??". Now that I've gained more knowledge, I'm inclined towards an 800 produced locally by Soxos (it reads the same backwards and forwards to emphasise inverted and normal flight). I also discovered a Website "servo database" making available comparisons. This brings me to say that Savoex provide the best quality servos (also available locally). Herein are my musings. Any Feedback much appreciated.
Bye for now.

I think why these "precision" heli's like the Align are big sellers over here is parts availability. I've never heard of a Soxos, but now my curiosity about them is such I'll have to search one and check it out.
Servo data base is a cool site huh? I have that one bookmarked and check it out fairly regular, servocity is another great site. Bad sites though for tinkerers because one can get lost and end up with a headache thinking of all the possibilities of builds and what would be best...lol

 

[Heliman450]

Hi Trainrider06, the Website for Soxos is http://www.heli-professional.com/

 

[Admiral]

You guys both suck! I wish I could retire! LOL 28 years ain't good enough it seems!

Hi Rodney, when you get to this point you will look back and wish you were 28 again, I would trade you tomorrow. When I was 28 I was playing football, hunting, fishing, kayaking and flying RC fixed wing of those activities only the flying remains, not that I'm bitching, all stages of life have their compensation but every time I have to climb a set of stairs I wish I was 28 again.

 

[trainrider06]

Hi Trainrider06, the Website for Soxos is http://www.heli-professional.com/

Hmm very interesting birds, look to be well made too!

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Hi Rodney, when you get to this point you will look back and wish you were 28 again, I would trade you tomorrow. When I was 28 I was playing football, hunting, fishing, kayaking and flying RC fixed wing of those activities only the flying remains, not that I'm bitching, all stages of life have their compensation but every time I have to climb a set of stairs I wish I was 28 again.

oh shoot wish I was 28 too! I'm 54 with 28 years in at this company! Lol

 

[Heliman450]

Hey guys, don't go wishing for things from days gone by or wish your lives away. Next week, my mother-in-law celebrates her 96th birthday! She's fiercely independent, walks every day and still living alone since my father-in-law passed away after a fatal accident at 87 in 2009. He was doing his last rounds for the night as caretaker for the building where they've lived since it was built over fifty years ago.

I've got an appointment for my 90th, breakfast in bed, which I intend to keep! Gives me almost 30 years to learn how to make this damn heli fly inverted! Enjoy every day as though it was your last.

 

[Admiral]

Hi Heliman, not wishing my life away, had a recent close call that makes every day on this earth a bonus and I intend to live life to the fullest, just come back from a month away in Hawaii, Canada & Alaska had a ball and now looking forward to more travel.

Don't know about my 90th, but hoping to go to my sisters in a few years, she is 86 next birthday.

 

[Heliman450]

Hi Admiral, it's great keeping contact with folks around the world. Updated my phone to include Brisbane in my world clock. Having lived and worked in various places over the last 18 years, it's familiar to me. Unfortunately, not so many of my colleagues keep in touch......... just getting on with their lives. The extra time helps now and also being in contact with those with similar interests is even better.

I've been to Oz a couple of times now (my wife a few more times), a tour round the Northern Territories with a 4WD camper was great. We wanted to do the Tanami Track but the rains came early and the rental Company wouldn't cover the insurance if anythting happened. We decided to back-track and give it a miss, so did a 1,500km detour with a lot of it checking out what we'd just seen! Tanami Track is still on the list! After Singapore, we spent two weeks in Sydney just chilling out before starting home overland to Switzerland from Singapore. That was cut short by the untimely demise of my father-in-law in 2009. Since then, we've done a bit of the planned journey in bits. The main attraction for my wife was that we didn't have a home then (her gypsy spirit) so now it doesn't hold the same attraction. I was going to write a book about it "Turn Left at Mongolia". Need to find another subject for a book now...........

Next trip is Peru and the Golapagos Islands, so she's been in school brushing up on her Spanish over the couple of years, I leave the clever stuff to her. Plan is for next year.

Bye for now.

 

[Lee]

Hi Heliman,
I have the travelling bug as well.
Worked and lived all over the world, from Aus to Venezuela, South Africa to Switzerland
The Soxos heli is a really nice looking machine.
I have used Savox servos. They make the servos for Align.
But my all time favourite servos are the BK servos from Bert Kammerer.
Top of the line specs, at mid point pricing. Can't be beat.
Anyway off for a run now. Catch you later

 

[Admiral]

Hi Heliman, The Tanami that's a pretty rough trip not recommended for the unprepared traveler, the company that I worked for upgraded about 60 KM of it bout 200KM in from the Stuart highway, I had to go there to set up their computer network, interesting place. I also did a lot of travel with work, Middle East, Asia, SE Asia, Pacific and North America, I don't have that much of a travel bug nowadays but my wife has so I guess we will be traveling again soon.

 

[Heliman450]

Hi Lee, thanks for the tip on BK servos. I'll have a look for my nearest stockist. I don't like ordering from the Internet, I prefer to go look around and ALWAYS see something else, mainly extra tools these days. I think I have all I need for now until I go for a bigger heli sometime down the road, then it'll be spares, hence, wanting to go local. The Soxos seems like the best engineered air frame I've seen to date and I can drive there in about 30mins. Smaller parts, I can walk to the local store. Perfect!
Bye for now.

 

[Heliman450]

Hi Admiral (Keith), the only requirement the local police made at Halls Creek was to have a second spare wheel. Recommendation was an Extended 4WD. It was the rental company specifying no insurance on our brand new 4WD Toyota Adventure camper that did it for me. Didn't fancy coughing up the full price if it was totalled. Also, the recovery charge of $1,000 per axle (not sure of the distance, per 100km?), not too bad for us, but I suppose the cost of getting a roadtrain recovered adds up! On top of that is the personal damage part, that was my wife's main reason for deciding against. However, we did manage a stretch of 110km off road. My teeth have only just recovered from their shaking! It took nearly four hours to complete it, great fun! I wish I'd been driving a Range Rover (sorry Trainrider06). You can drive them 50mph across a ploughed field. I've owned two during my driving career, great but thirsty when gas costs over £1 a litre (when I was in the UK) £100 per tank, OUCH!. I also had a Discovery for a couple of years, it was new so didn't have any problems with it. Driving a Suzuki Grand Vitara now, seems to be going very well. Our second of the make, my wife loves it.
Bye now, men's Tennis final today (Wawrinka, Switzerland's last hope). Canadian GP later, perfect day to come.

 

[Lee]

looking forward to the GP.
Hope Mercedes don't screw up Hamiltons race again
What a farce that was.