A few more details added tonight. I know that the tail boom on this helicopter was equiped with a lot more than a communications antenna and I took a stab at what is in the rear coffin shaped housing. Sensors. I am going by pictures of TD's that are in a museum (deactivated) and in a graveyard. None of them are so equipped anymore but I did find a video on YouTube that gave me a clue that the housing was not just a junction box for wiring. It is only a short section of video and not very high res but I was able to spot the black looking circles on the rear of the housing. I had seen other sensor shots showing nothing more than a flat disk so that is what it became. Lot's more screws got used tonight and I have a couple more panels to make. I found it is easier to make the panel then paint it off the heli and assemble using the actual screws to hold it on. No mess and who knows, one day they may come in useful. Take care.

Don

I took some pictures last night of some of the detailing and distressing I did over the last day or so. These are also from the replacement "Point 'n Shoot" camera I bought to let my wife have her's back where she is more happy about it. For 30 dollars, it was a great deal but I can't go by the rear screen as it has too much contrast and fools me into thinking I have greatly over exposed the picture with the flash. Tomorrow, I may get the chance to test the mechanics out, as it is still way too cold for my liking. Here's hoping.

Don

I've just about run out of things to do aside from adding the antennas on. It's still a bit early for that as there is too much handling going on right now during detailing and assembling. I added screws to one of the last places on the boom to be done. I also cleaned up some mistakes in aging which I did with an unusual cleaner for models. Hoppe's No.9. It cuts through well set acrylic or laquer and does not leave any trace once evaporated. I'm never without it for solvent related jobs that do not cut plastic or rubber. Great stuff.

Don

I made it out to do a bit of test flying today and it flys like a dream. What does get interesting is the additional weight that I am not used to in the air and the anticipation of how far in advance an action must be started, like a high angle approach. I was only able to take a couple of fast (not in focus because of how quick I shot them) snaps of the chassis in position hold mode. Since it was its first full flight, I thought I had already armed the timer but apparently not so I had a rather fast decent and landing as the ESC started the slow spool down. Yes, in one piece but it was close. I found my error and for the second flight, took it up for 4 minutes to see how much it used and it was only 2700mAH from the 4000 pack. I may get 5 but something tells me I will be ordering a 450kv 5mm shaft motor and switching to 12s. Oh well, not all is lost.

After, I went to the local LHS and since they have a scale in there, I weighed the porker and by jove, it is a porker at 14.5 pounds. I had it in the air with 5.4 additional pounds of weight but the body weighed 6.4 minus the tail, so taking other things off the chassis that are not going to be there in the body, and adding the "T" tail, it works out to 6.5 pounds for the complete body with pilots. Maybe time to trim their bodies down to a skeleton rather than the very heavy full plastic shell they are. I don't care about what is under the clothing as long as it carries the look properly.

The last item is the video test I did downstairs in the parking lot after I got home as it was too cold out on the runway and I could duck into the truck if it really got nasty. As it turned out, it got warmer as the afternoon wore on and was near 5C when I did the vid test. I will try one more at 24fps as the movie cameras use to see what effect it will give the video. This is shot at 60 fps and then transposed to 29.97 fps (NTSC spec) so there are some things I will adjust in the video shooting as I spotted some unusual artifacts while watching the centre hub in other modes. At least the blades don't look like bent noodles, lol. Take care.

Don

Test 4 (0 min 0 sec)

I got some testing done indoors today and there is no question that the helicopter has lots of power but not enough battery power. I made up a new adaptor plate to take two batteries beside the frame. It will add weight but the batteries will run cooler as the pull with be half what it is now. The motor only gets to 125 degrees in flight and 135 after spool-down but the telemetry rotor speed is not correct. I had a tach and it was correct with it but wrong with the sensor so that will need to be looked at as it is off by 80 rpm or more. Oh well. Here are a couple of pictures of the new adaptor and the mess at the testing session. Take care.

Don

lookin great don . i just got a test flight out of mine today it was almost as good as yours lol but like the way yours is going thanks for all the advise on mine .

josh

That's great. Some bad news. Seems that I have had way too many people viewing these threads and the bandwidth limit has been reached. I may need to cut down on the number of pictures OR drop one or two of the less popular threads. I still see the pictures and I am not quite sure about where the bandwidth issue comes up but if it is from direct downloads, I may drop back to 800x600 format. The lower res pictures are certainly a LOT smaller in size. I may need to do that, anyway. When I figure it out, I will add a few more pictures but no guarantee they will show up. Take care.

Don

So, as I alluded to, I had to come up with a way to install two batteries, one way or the other so I now have an 8000mAH pack and there was just enough room to do it. I also had to come up with a parallel harness as that is one I have not seen for a pack this large. It all fits like a nice golf glove. You see it but you don't know you are wearing it, it's that close. The battery tray worked out well but as ususal, I forgot to try all four screws in it an had to remove it and make a small adjustment to two cuts I had made. All is good and if I get permission, I will fly this indoors this Friday and get video of it with my camera. I will also get more pictures of it in its current level of completion as I just don't have the room in here to do so. Take care.

Don

I thought I might post a few pictures of just how tight things are in the back of this heli. I don't think there is room to sneeze back there and you would have to exit the window to change your mind, lol. I also took some pictures of the tail assembly with the micro connectors in place but I am now looking at painting the washers and the silver pitch control unit. I don't mind the black as there are black coloured components in the tail housing but mostly they are body colour. The rear upper windows are also finally installed with 98 tiny screws like those on the rest of the body. I had mistakenly said before that they used a .040" drill but in fact they need a .028" drill. That gets hard on the arms holding back a drill that could easily be snapped with the weight used to drill the hole. Shapening them is also a treat because if you don't, they will certainly buckle and snap. Take care.

Don

Hi all:

Let there be no doubt, this one is a porker. It now weighs in at 16 pounds, full flying weight. I have some video shot in my friends studio of it lifting off and hovering for a full 5 minutes and then a second flight of four minutes so my goal of a nice full 6 minutes in the air (with cushion) has been met in Spades. It is a boring video but I will post it later as it does look kind of cool. I'll most likely keep it to take-off, a minute of flight, and the landing. I had to spool it up first to get the blades set, then put an anti-skid run under it to keep it in one place as they have a glazed concrete floor. LOVE THIS.

Don

I'm surprise you are only getting 6minute flight time. My AH-6 weighs 27.5 pounds and gets 8-10 minutes leaving 20% in the packs. Although I am running 2 x 6000mah packs. Looking forwards to seeing the flight video

hank79:

I get nine minutes so far but I have not done it as single fligh,t so I will most likely get 10 minutes in the air IF required. I do not want to fly for more than 6 minutes, and I am now charging the batteries, but so far, I will have enough for up to 12 at the rate the battery charger is telling me. I don't even care that much about flying more than 6 as my eyes are sore after that. I have lots of battery packs to make for a very long but not so tiring flying day. Take care.

Don

PS: I just got one battery charged and after 9 minutes, it took 1430mAH on a balanced charge, so that should work out to 2860mAH returned for 9 minutes in the air from an 8000mAH pack. That's economy, lol.

In a much more reliable test, I did a full five minute hover this evening and a more accurate reading is 1950mAH returned per pack for the five minutes in the air. I also did a full one minute spool up to show the motor cooling itself when running vs. just shut off, so a bit more was pulled than just the flight. If so, then I would say that I will be putting back in 50% of the charge for a full 6 minutes in the air, not including spool-up, which is exactly what my goal of flight time is. Since I have 50% of the charge left, I will certainly be able to get another few minutes out of it so that if someone is in the way of a landing (heli's can land pretty much anywhere) at the official runway, I can put it into Position Hold and "have a smoke break", lol (no, I don't smoke). Now comes the boring part of processing and uploading the video and I may just make it a single vid with my editor. Nah, too much like work. Take care and vids to come.

Don

Here is a link to the video shot in my friends studio. A second one with some flying and nose-in hover will be posted asap.

Don

Hover at the Stu-Stu-Studio (0 min 0 sec)

A short walkaround before any flying was done.

Don

Walkaround (0 min 0 sec)