Tony
Staff member
That's right, it flys. However it's not flying like I want it to. The motor and ESC are getting pretty hot, although it's pretty hot outside. But nothing like it was. I'm sorry but I didn't get video either. My camera battery was dead, and I wanted to try this thing out. It was only in the air for about 2 minutes just to test.
So, how did this begin?
When I got up this morning, I realized that there was a helicopter hanging on my wall that beat me. I installed something on it that I couldn't get to work. Well, I have to make everything work one way or another. So, I snatched it off the wall and took it to my desk. I just sat here and stared at it for about an hour, and decided to get my Telemaster down and work on it (that is for another thread). Well, I started lining up pieces of the plane, and I looked back at the Pro. I said to myself, "this thing has got to get into the air, even if it crashes!".
So, with very little work done to the Telemaster, I came back to my desk and looked the heli over. Trying to figure out how to make those links work. The answer was to raise the swash plate, and lower my pitch from 13 to 11. So, I grabbed the flybar rod, sat it on top of the button (closest thing that I had to a level surface) and grabbed my pitch gauge.
After about an hour of popping off, adjusting, and popping back on all of the links on the head, I finally got it setup. I had 11* of pitch up and down, with 0 right at mid stick. So, I grabbed some of my blade tracking tape, and stuck it on the blades. It turns out that one of the blades was a little higher. This could be due to the dampers in the head, or a poorly drilled bearing holder in the grips. Either way, I did what I could to get the tracking correct.
I was going to fire it up here in the living room, but decided that was a bad idea with a gyro that wouldn't work on another helicopter, and with my TV hanging on the wall next to where I would have been hovering. So, I took it outside even though there was a little wind.
When I got out there, I spooled it up and noticed that I only had travel in one direction on the tail. So, I grabbed my screwdriver, and adjusted teh gyro for more travel. I also raised the gain in my Tx just a hair to about 65%. Spooled it up again and we have travel. Not as much as I want, but I have it enough to fly. So, I gave a little more throttle, and it started to lift off the ground.
When it left the ground, I found out why you are not supposed to touch the cyclic until you get into the air. This is hard for me lol. I have always gave it a little right cyclic when taking off, but you shouldn't do this with a properly tuned heli. Once in the air, the wind was causing it to go up and down like crazy. I was almost 1/4 stick just to get the heli down to the ground again because of translational lift. But, it was in the air.
Well, I didn't have any wag at all, so I thought I would raise the gains on the ail and ele just a touch (couple hours) and give it a go. I did, and spooled it back up. Now that I was back in the air, it was just a hair more stable. But, the wind tried to take it, and I pulled it back and that is when all hell broke loose. This thing went into an Ele shake like I have never seen before. There was only one way to get it down, get it over the concrete, and chop the throttle. So I did, and it landed but not before hitting the tail hard on the concrete...
Fortunately, I did not break another gear. And by the way, this thing is a lot quieter with the new gear lol. I am thinking it was bad from the start. So, I lowered the gain on the Ele and took off again. It was still pretty stable, but the tail wasn't holding. So, I landed and put the gain from 65% to 75%. It took off no problem, then when I started playing with the tail, it started to get a wag that just got worse and worse. I put the gain at 70% after landing, took it back up, and all was well.
It still needs to be trimmed out a lot more, but it was in the air. Pitch pumps are not impressive, at all. It will climb, but not as fast as I would like. Because of the washout links that I had to do, I'm limited on the amount of pitch I can give it. But, it hovers and should be good for FF. 3D is out of the question though, even inverted hovering. Sucks too cause I was going to destroy this thing lol.
So, I couldn't get video, but there is a writeup of all of the events. Hope this will do. I will try to get some video later on when I take it up again. But I think I'm going to need to get a bigger ESC before I do. 30a is just not enough...
So, how did this begin?
When I got up this morning, I realized that there was a helicopter hanging on my wall that beat me. I installed something on it that I couldn't get to work. Well, I have to make everything work one way or another. So, I snatched it off the wall and took it to my desk. I just sat here and stared at it for about an hour, and decided to get my Telemaster down and work on it (that is for another thread). Well, I started lining up pieces of the plane, and I looked back at the Pro. I said to myself, "this thing has got to get into the air, even if it crashes!".
So, with very little work done to the Telemaster, I came back to my desk and looked the heli over. Trying to figure out how to make those links work. The answer was to raise the swash plate, and lower my pitch from 13 to 11. So, I grabbed the flybar rod, sat it on top of the button (closest thing that I had to a level surface) and grabbed my pitch gauge.
After about an hour of popping off, adjusting, and popping back on all of the links on the head, I finally got it setup. I had 11* of pitch up and down, with 0 right at mid stick. So, I grabbed some of my blade tracking tape, and stuck it on the blades. It turns out that one of the blades was a little higher. This could be due to the dampers in the head, or a poorly drilled bearing holder in the grips. Either way, I did what I could to get the tracking correct.
I was going to fire it up here in the living room, but decided that was a bad idea with a gyro that wouldn't work on another helicopter, and with my TV hanging on the wall next to where I would have been hovering. So, I took it outside even though there was a little wind.
When I got out there, I spooled it up and noticed that I only had travel in one direction on the tail. So, I grabbed my screwdriver, and adjusted teh gyro for more travel. I also raised the gain in my Tx just a hair to about 65%. Spooled it up again and we have travel. Not as much as I want, but I have it enough to fly. So, I gave a little more throttle, and it started to lift off the ground.
When it left the ground, I found out why you are not supposed to touch the cyclic until you get into the air. This is hard for me lol. I have always gave it a little right cyclic when taking off, but you shouldn't do this with a properly tuned heli. Once in the air, the wind was causing it to go up and down like crazy. I was almost 1/4 stick just to get the heli down to the ground again because of translational lift. But, it was in the air.
Well, I didn't have any wag at all, so I thought I would raise the gains on the ail and ele just a touch (couple hours) and give it a go. I did, and spooled it back up. Now that I was back in the air, it was just a hair more stable. But, the wind tried to take it, and I pulled it back and that is when all hell broke loose. This thing went into an Ele shake like I have never seen before. There was only one way to get it down, get it over the concrete, and chop the throttle. So I did, and it landed but not before hitting the tail hard on the concrete...
Fortunately, I did not break another gear. And by the way, this thing is a lot quieter with the new gear lol. I am thinking it was bad from the start. So, I lowered the gain on the Ele and took off again. It was still pretty stable, but the tail wasn't holding. So, I landed and put the gain from 65% to 75%. It took off no problem, then when I started playing with the tail, it started to get a wag that just got worse and worse. I put the gain at 70% after landing, took it back up, and all was well.
It still needs to be trimmed out a lot more, but it was in the air. Pitch pumps are not impressive, at all. It will climb, but not as fast as I would like. Because of the washout links that I had to do, I'm limited on the amount of pitch I can give it. But, it hovers and should be good for FF. 3D is out of the question though, even inverted hovering. Sucks too cause I was going to destroy this thing lol.
So, I couldn't get video, but there is a writeup of all of the events. Hope this will do. I will try to get some video later on when I take it up again. But I think I'm going to need to get a bigger ESC before I do. 30a is just not enough...
