Still cruising the 300X. I really enjoy relaxed flying and this one scratches the itch. Truth is, I've gotten back into an old sport, one that I first participated in at the tender age of 10. My wife and I both enjoyed it when we first started dating, but it got quite expensive so we gradually dropped it. No serious competition in the future, just relaxed involvement. We've found ways to keep costs down and are members at a club which also helps diffuse costs. Not giving up on helis, just not so crazy anymore. Did an inventory of parts on hand for what I have so it looks like spares are in good shape. Here's the rub. The helis I have are now all obsolete. Granted, the 300X is long in the tooth, but it flys just fine. Parts are getting hard to find which means prices are reflective, i.e. going up. Same for the 450X and 200SRX. While those parts that are used in a current model are available, many are not. I'll continue to enjoy what I have, for as long as I can. When parts become an issue, that'll be the end of it. I don't see myself buying a new heli, but ya never know.

Flew the 300X this morning, never fails to give me a smile. I had 5 nice, relaxing flights at the park. As I had the place to myself I had the opportunity to open it up and enjoy some nice tight figure eights. This is the third season with the Pulse batteries, Scorpion motor/14 t pinion and HW Platinum Pro ESC. Still getting 6.5 minute flights and landing with 3.80v. It doesn't get too much better than that.

I needed some way to safely transport my 300 X so I built this. It's made from scarp lumber I had on hand and stained with a cherry stain.
9/17/2017. You may have noticed, no handle. I had searched the local hardware stores for "D" rings, to no avail. The stock on hand was more fitting of a large tool box, not the size needed for this. While at a crafts store, I found some of the appropriate size, but they were just the rings, no way to fix to the box. I have some AL sheet stock so I cut a couple rectangles, notched a 2 X 4 and made some mounts. An extra shoulder strap was put to use. Inside, I added some plywood for a secure mount. A carabiner now keeps the lid securely closed. Also added a pad under the tail fin, fills the gap so the LG isn't stressed during transport.
10/14/2017. Made a modification to the case, added a strut to hold the lid open. Works like a champion, should have done this in the beginning....Continue Reading

I've had this 300X for awhile now, after my first attempt at flight with it and stripping the cyclic servos it sat in the hanger. The servos repaired and the anti rotation bracket replaced, it was technically ready to go. But it sat there and was soon joined by a 300 CFX. It had it's own issues that I have yet to address, but this is about the X model.
After getting comfortable with the 230 S, I decided it was time. Time to do something with the 300 X, so new servos to replace the non-stock and also replace the RX/FBL which was also not a OEM item.
Why not the CFX, you may ask, fair question. First, the X is much easier to work on and second it's lighter. I had already removed the servos, so out with the Rx/FBL and in with new Spektrum stuff. I have the H3050MG cyclic and H3060MG tail servos along with an AR7210BX. I can see the look on your face. Why not just get a 270 CFX and be done with it? Good question. Here's the answer. I don't have any aspirations for 3D. Simple as that. And, follow the evolution, first came the 300 X followed by the CFX, only to be replaced by the 270. They're all basically the same, yet each is an improvement over the last. If your goal is 3D. Sure, I enjoy watching the guys and gals dance around like dragonfly's on crack, just not my thing.
The 230 is a fine machine and has been a valuable learning tool. But I feel ready for the next step to a proper CP heli with a belt driven tail. This is along the lines of my goal for a...Continue Reading

So some discussion has been going on between Jim and I about stuffing a 230S into an MD500 shell. It will work. Here's a CF frame w/servos in the shell and the pictures that have blue tape show what I will be cutting to allow linkage clearance. To secure the frame to the shell, I think I'll use some 1/16th " ply attached where the LG would and screwed to the ply in the shell. Also, I made the tail feathers from old credit cards and the vertical fin from a 200 SRX (when that was the mechanics) and will most likely do the same for this one as it's much lighter than the included pieces.

8/27/16. Later today I'll add some discussion Jim and I have had. Anyone else interested in this, please feel free to join in.

Ok, taking the easy way on this, just visit the Scale Modeling Thread in micro heli's and go to post # 1443, it's on page 97 and it's in red print, can't miss it. Thanks Jim! rcnutrc (Tim) has joined in along with Jon_PDX and nagas. We'll get this sorted and flying in no time.

8/28/16. One idea that keeps popping up is lowering the frame to prevent cutting the dog house. It just occurred to me why this isn't a good idea. Unless you're making a custom main shaft, the rotor disk will be too low and that will result in very bad things happening when the cyclic gets busy. Due to our on going re- model, I get very little hobby time. My work shop is a disaster since we've needed the space for temp storage. Yeah, you got some cheese for my w(h)...Continue Reading

Moving away from the FP and into CP. My 450X will be the mechanics, along with upgraded cyclic servos, motor and ESC. I'm doing a Cal Fire scheme even though this isn't the same model UH-1.
8/27/16. Got the rivet making "tools" from Jim, thanks my friend! I'll practice with the TH-57 project. So it seems I now have three scale projects and a pair of sail boats for the winter. Cool! Now if I can just finish the house to my wife's satisfaction, I can get to work. Oh, forgot I have 2 new bodies for the cars that need paint, trim and so on. Good thing the shop is heated.
9/8/2016. Got a few minutes this morning while charging up the 230's batteries and checked the tail drive belt against a new tail shaft and it's a perfect fit. The included tail tubes are a good fit inside the 450's tail boom so the spare will be cut up into adapters. Good news for sure so the minor issues with the tail are now resolved. I'm looking forward to starting on this.
Made up my mind to keep it simple and build this as a fun fly scale. It's really too small for extravagant detail and while the purest would notice the main is turning the wrong way and the tail is on the wrong side, why re-invent the wheel? I'll do panel lines and rivets, try to do the wipers and other cabin exterior details.
Parts ordered today include a full Lynx tail box along with other CNC bits.
9/18/2016. Parts started trickling in yesterday, nice Al pieces from Blade to replace the plastic bits at...Continue Reading

7/31/2016. So last Monday, I traded my Stampede and DX6i for a DX8. It's a Gen 1 in new condition and came with everything box and all. It also came with a carrying case, which most likely won't get much use, at least for now. I was able to program several of my helicopters into it without any problem even though I did it the old fashioned way w/o the SD card. I did try to upload some model files to the SD card but didn't succeed. Perhaps because I hadn't registered it? Speaking of which, I tried to however it had already been registered and I couldn't right away so I contacted the fellow I got it from and we soon had that issue corrected. So now it has the latest firmware, up graded from 3.0 to 3.01 and 2 of 3 200 SRX, both 230's my 300X along with my 300 CFX. Later I'll add the 450X.

So I've discovered Expo and telemetry. Could the expo be why my two 230's had different personalities? One was a BNF, the other the RTF and the latter seemed smoother. When flown with the DX8, #1 fly's just like #2. I've since loaded them both into the 8 and am using the DXe for my nano cps. I had wanted to use the e for Phoenix, but have limited success so far. Think I'll try to get my old 6i back as it worked well with the simulator.

Here's my take on the 8. More model memory is a huge advantage, 3 times that of the 6i. You also have more programming options which equals better control. I haven't tried any mixing or the telemetry yet but as I progress I can see where...Continue Reading

Doing some research for this build.

10/5 2016. This shell is going to be the test bed for a couple of skills I want to develop. Riveting and weathering. Bought two airbrushes and this will also be the canvas for those.
I have a plan to make this a removable front section, attached with magnets to the rest of the shell. I'll cut it apart then use the front half to make a template, then cut styrene into bulkheads which can be welded to the shell halves. A couple of small right triangles should keep the bulkheads true. The magnets will then be attached to the bulkheads. I happen to have a set of broken LG, (yeah, I know) that will make a set of locator pins to keep the halves aligned. I want to do this to make battery removal/install possible. Looks good on paper....
Looking at a couple of different options for insignias and other small details. Some can be easily made with a wet transfer decal while others would be better made in vinyl, Most likely will just get a vinyl cutter and do it myself. Why don't the ink jet printers have white ink?
Tonight is the scale modelers meeting at the Jimmy Doolittle Center. I'm going.

Since we've been back into R/C, the first things we got were cars, and I've never really gone into them. So today we'll bring the blog up to speed and share our cars. We have Traxxas Slash's, the 1/10th scale stadium trucks. The basic version, no BL motors two wheel drive, but we do run them on Lipo's. 4000mAh packs. Save for LCG chassis, gearing change and street tires, they're stock. In the past two years we've replaced some parts like spindles and other related items, but they're proving to be really tough. With the current gears they run around 38 to 40 mph and run like that for the entire battery, about 15 minutes. We give them plenty of time to cool down and check temperatures with an IR thermometer. Whenever something has broke, our LHS has it in stock so there's little down time. We've also amassed a good spare parts inventory and can now fix just about anything at the track.
Our track is made of plastic soda bottles painted fluorescent orange, filled with water and glued to 4" square boards. We run clockwise and on the front straight we turn in and go around the center mark on the far side, back to the front straight and around.
The motors are as strong as ever and routine cleaning and lubrication keeps them that way, along with letting them cool between batteries.
Asphalt is hard on tires! Even with the geometry set for the best handling, the left tires get worn fast. For now we're running right side tires on the left and haven't really...Continue Reading

3/30/2016. Today we pulled the plug and ordered a pair of sailboats.
8/13/2017. I decided to start over, interest has renewed and work has resumed. The hull, fin, bulb and rudder have been painted and are ready for clear coat, which will be sprayed today....Continue Reading

Big brother is at it again here in the USA. He wants us to register our various flying machines and send him 5 USD. There's absolutely no requirement for any type of education or proof of even the slightest amount of ability to safely pilot your model. As it stands now, all that matters is the weight of the machine. So if your flyer is under 1/2 a pound or over 60 pounds, you're not required to register. It's as if he's throwing out a net to see who he will snag. The AMA has been heavily involved with the FAA to devise a safe, reasonable program, yet that was ignored and off we go on this totally useless federal law. Personally, I don't think this will do a lick of good to stop the idiots. In these time I understand the need for some form of program to insure the safety of the general public, but wouldn't it make sense to have a training program rather than registration that will most likely be ignored by the very same individuals that are the problem in the first place? Just days before this was announced, I registered a receiver with the manufacturer, a decision I may regret.

I've been in this hobby for many years, flying powered r/c aircraft and gliders and have always done so in a safe and courteous manner. For just over a year my interest is in r/c helicopters, and my wife fly's a small quad. We're fortunate enough to have access to a wonderful site to fly at, most of those who frequent it respect our space as we respect theirs. The workers that maintain...Continue Reading

Some time ago, my wife and I were walking home from the grocery store and hobby shop, conveniently located together in the same area. As is my usual, my eyes were up and watching traffic and the wife was looking around when lo and behold, she stops and says "Hey look at this, isn't this one of the new Blade helicopters?" "Why yes, yes it is" I replied. A good look around revealed no one was looking for it, no one holding a Tx with a bewildered look. We were on a rather busy street and the poor bird was seriously injured. So we walked on home. Into the shop to survey the damage. First up I checked the battery voltage, (mysteriously un-plugged) and had a reading of 4.0 something, so far so good. Did an inventory of damage and thought to my self, I can rebuild it. Programmed the 230 into my radio, plugged in the battery and dad gum if it didn't bind! So made a list, checked my funds and placed an order for; frame, main rotors, servo gear set, servo case set, main gear, landing gear, tail boom, canopy mounts, canopy and tail motor. Placed an ad in the paper. I figured as it looked to have been run over, whom ever was flying it must have lost control, watched it go into traffic and panic/bailed right then and there. No name in the remains of the canopy so wasn't likely to be an AMA member. No one ever answered the lost/found and the work started. Parts trickled in slowly, several took weeks to get. Once the servos were rebuilt I hooked...Continue Reading

11/21/2015. Saw someone else do this and thought it looked good so why not. Picked up the shell and rotors off E Bay for not much cash. Started the mods to the shell to allow the 120 to squeeze in. Also found a paint scheme, U.S. Coast Guard.

11/22/2015. Pulled the included tail motor out, this has to be replaced with a motor for the 120. Cut the shell for linkage clearance and masked for primer. I have a new tail motor and an old boom for wire connectors. There's a battery tray in the shell that had to come out. As it was glued in I was a little reluctant to try to pull it out, but Steve_O said it's easy to remove. Thanks for the advice Steve_O.

If you're doing this one and plan on removing the ESky stickers, don't use goof off. I tried that on the battery holder I removed and it's just too strong. What did work was lighter fluid. With any luck this should get a coat or two of primer today. As this is supposed to be the last nice day for awhile, going to try to get a motorbike ride in. My super motard is feeling neglected.

11/27/2015. Managed to get this primed and a couple of coats of white. Something happened on the last coat, got a run. Haven't had that in quite some time. Haven't decided if it's ok as is, or to try to sand it out. I'm thinking it's ok and will most likely just go ahead with the red.

12/1/2015. Did the final masking and painted the red. Looking real good, however did have a little of the white come off with the masking....Continue Reading

My hobby shop has been a shared room since we moved some 15 years ago and has really gotten too small for me. So this year we decided it was time to build the shed we've wanted since day one in our new, down sized retirement home and bought the Majestic kit shed. I have to say, it's great to be able to go at a pace we're both comfortable with, take a day off whenever and to build as we wanted. From the beginning, this was to be my hobby shop not a garden shed or a place to stash seldom used items, with enough space to store our camping gear where we could get to it easily. It measures 8' X 12', has two lengthwise shelves and a loft for storage. We added an open-able window, insulated it , wired for power, lighting and stereo then sheet rocked, painted, did floor covering, base boards and trimmed out the window. We also added a Whirly Bird vent, the outside was painted after everything was caulked. Here's some pictures for you all, the new home of farquward's helis and rc trucks. Or any other modeling project.

Finally finished, will upload some more pictures tonight, or tomorrow who knows.

I'm moved in and still arranging things. The space is nice and to be able to leave a project and know it'll be unmolested until I return is priceless. Totally worth the effort, the cost wasn't too bad as we did it ourselves and I had most of the electrical supplies on hand, something along 20 bucks a square foot. Using my veteran's discount card helped too! A big thanks...Continue Reading

This will be as the title says, pretty much a photo gallery of my latest project. Parts are starting to trickle in so soon I'll have something to look at. This is to be another 200 SRX powered build and will feature a four blade head. I traded for the remains of a 200 and with parts on hand was able to build a new bird. Some test flights and some adjustments and it's flying like new. This one is the most likely to get the Talon ESC I have as the tail motor runs warmer than either of my other 200's.

I always dug the series "Magnum P.I." so it's that MD500 I'm doing. One of the first requirements for this build would be a removable front section of the fuselage, learned my lesson with the Huey. (she still fly's sweet, and the night missions are a hoot) This will be an early version 500 so the four blade head is correct. My order summary shows everything has shipped and I've beat the Chinese holiday, so with any luck the parts from RHK will be in soon. Pretty standard, if you'll recall the Huey, 13t pinion, 104t main, and my first four blade head, hope I get a good one needing little if any tweaking. Also on the way, Ti main shaft, Lynx boom support mount and two more orange tail rotors.

The fuselage and lighting kit arrived, could have built the lighting, lol but 40+ years of mostly lighting and controls, I went with the kit. About the body, it's the RC Aerodyne KF500DMG2 in the 250 size. I had wanted the white one so I could paint it myself, but...Continue Reading

I started this project awhile back and thought it would be nice to share it with other like minded individuals. The goal was a nice semi scale bird, low cost and to use the Blade 200 SRX for mechanicals. Since there aren't any scale fuselages for the 200, I started to look at what was available in the right size range. As luck would have it, I found the "Huey" by HH to be close enough in size for my project. As I've tried the olive drab paint scheme on other small helicopters, I knew that just wouldn't do as they're too hard to see, and thought maybe US Coast Guard colors would be better. I found some pictures of a Marine Corps Rescue bird and decided on that. (Four years in the Corps, combat engineers, 1st Mar. Div. ) My wife bought me the kit, much to my surprise and I bought another 200 for the build. I wanted to save as much weight as possible, so I bought the Rakon carbon fiber frame. Also bought the 104t main gear, and the 13t pinion for greater head speed. A set of Xtreme 8 degree main rotors and Lynx black tail rotor finishes up the power system. Lighting is by Turnigy and has navigation and strobes. For the tail boom I used 5mm Al stock, notched and cut to length and a Lynx tail boom support bracket as it allows mounting without the horizontal fin. I grafted a new stock 200 tail motor mount to the piece supplied in the kit with micro balloons and 5 minute epoxy. Adaptors for the landing gear were made from .070 X .437 carbon fiber strip stock...Continue Reading

So from the title, you can see that I'm a noob, or a newb, or a new bee you get the idea. I've been doing R/C since the '70's, fixed wing aircraft mostly, and sail boats. Now that we're both retired, we still do cars, the wife and I. My first helicopter was this coaxial from Harbor Freight, yes you read that correct. Well that set the hook, even if I never did master that little beast. She's in flight worthy status right now complete with new rotors and a new tail motor. Well I herded that around for a couple of months and did like always, started to do research into this wonderful past time. My studies lead me to believe that a 4ch. fixed pitch, fly barred bird should be the next stepping stone, and that's what landed me here. After a time I decided to get a WL Toys V913, based on what I read and the fact that this is a somewhat larger micro helicopter and would be easier to see. I can not tell you how bad I sucked, six to eight min. flight time? Yeah right. I trimmed the olive tree, I trimmed the lime tree, the lemon tree, made a golf divit look pathetic. But no one got hurt, and the dogs are safe. Soon with more time and practice I stayed in the air for a whole battery! In fact, I felt so good, I installed the new set of main blades that came with it. And hit the maple tree. Hard. Put the old blades back on.
To be continued...
Let's see, where was I, oh yeah the V913. Pretty soon I was able to hover within a 6' X 6' X 6' box, about 2 meters and...Continue Reading