450 Flying in North East, USA 17 degrees...too cold??

[Bruno]

I just rebuilt one of my helis. 450 clone. Earlier in the week, warm day (40 degrees) she flew perfect.

Took her out this morning, 17 degrees (I have never flown in such low Temps.) and noticed the responsiveness was a bit sluggish. I am using Align DS415M servos and DS420 tail servos. The longer I was out there flying (about 10 minutes) the more I noticed responsiveness decreases/problems. Kept flying until I crashed into frozen earth. Not too bad...broken landing gear, couple of linkages and the typical bent shafts.

Anyone else have similar cold weather problems. I am curious if this was the 17 degree Temp ot perhaps not.

Whatayathnk??

Cant't wait for warmer weather!!

 

[Tony]

Sucks about the crash bro. But the cold being that low will affect the motors and battery. When I say motors, I'm talking about the main motor as well as the motors in teh servos. However, some of the sluggishness could also be because of your fingers not working. When it's that cold out, your mind is only thinking about warming it's self up, and you lose concentration on the heli. 10 minutes in 17º weather is a long time to be out there.

 

[Bruno]

...lol....yea...Oh well....Now I can rebuild in a nice sunny and warm room.

Thanks for the support.

 

[coolgabsi]

In the cold the lipos don't perform very well.. Youll feel or experience lower "c" output of the battery and if you are at 20c by chance, then lower head speed...

And like tony said frozen fingers... Yep! That can do it too

Fly safe!! have fun!

 

[BOKI]

It was 6 Degrees out & about 40 mph wind out of the north west! COLD! THE BEST Dave To cold for Flying Helicopter! Your hands would freeze!

 

[Bruno]

Cold causes contraction of molecules. This particular heli is a fly bar heli with a Rock-5 Gyro. It's my first 450 that I purchased from HeliPal about two years ago. It is a STORM 450 with some of my upgrades. STORM 450 Carbon Fiber Premium Edition (RTF) - HeliPal. Not a bad Heli considering come inferior engineering and craftsmanship. I like to use it to experiment with moves or conditions. Seems to hurt less when I crash this instead of my Trex 450 3GX V2. I love the Trex.
Anyway, freezing cold Temps makes a difference. Simple facts of nature and mechanics.
Thanks for all the input. Still sitting here working on this heli. Found one link is a bit too tight (not related to the cold) and the crash seems to have damaged both of the main upper shaft bearings. Otherwise, not too bad so far.
Gonna devout some time to sim till weather warms up.

 

[Bruno]

Well...I found what may have been more of a contributing problem than the cold weather. Cyclic servo ball links are rubbing up against the back of the adjacent servo 9right at about 90 degrees). Seems I need to either drill holes in the servo horns closer to the center of the servo or find different horns. The Align servos are actually smaller in dimension than the stock STORM servo however the Align horns are longer and hole placement for the ball is different.

 

[Tony]

Actually, molecules retract as it gets colder. But yeah, if you have something rubbing that's not supposed to, that would be a problem...

 

[stokke]

The coldest I've flown in was 4°F, and I've been out flyin a bunch of times while temp is below freezing. My main prob is that the bind takes several tries (Spektrum Rx/Tx). I've also noticed the motor needs to "warm up" before you get the normal "kick". Not noticed any difference in cyclic behavior (DS415M's).

 

[murankar]

I was learning (still actually) to fly in February while in south Korea. Let me tell ya that was some cold weather.

Between shivering and nervousness my hands could have made a milk shake. I also had a hard time with control while hovering.

 

[Derek]

I just dunno, lol...maybe I'm a wimp compared to you guys, lol. It's been so darned cold lately that I don't even wanna go outside to go to the grocery store. I've been working pretty hard on my simulator lately, so I'm hoping that when the warmer weather (35+) comes along that I'll be ready to hit the skies. I'm also starting to collect my FPV equipment, too....but that's another post, lol.

Kudos to ya's for flying in such cold weather. BRRRRR! Sorry to hear about the crash.