Here's some pics of my X7 out at the field. Man I love this heli.

Well I've been real busy since my last update here. Been spending most of my time on helifreak. But it's nice to get back here. I joined a helicopter club. It's called Cascade Model Helicopter Club. And it's great. Helicopter only really. Seen one dude with a plane once, and some quad copters. But we had a funfly last year, and it was amazing. the turnout was quite incredible. And since joining my progress has skyrocketed. It's amazing what stick time will do for you. Oh that and a powerful charging system with a generator that can keep up. This hobby is so much fun.

Anyway, I now have my 450 FBL, Gaui X5 FBL, and now a Gaui X7. Just building the X7 now. Using a YGE 160 ESC, Western Robotics Super Mini BEC G2, Torq 9180 cyclic servos, Torq 9188 rudder servo. Should have it done by sometime in March. Hope to post some vidoes. But in case anyone wants to see my current videos you can find them at:
www.youtube.com/newbheliusr

Take Care everyone. Happy New Year

I am done building my T-REX 450 Sport. I have a video on youtube of me hovering it in my living room. Bad idea, but nothing bad happened. But I won't be doing that anymore. The heli was nose heavy when I shot the vid, but now it's almost perfect COG. So, I just need a nice day when it's not going to rain or the wind blowing hard to take it outside and try it for real. I purchased some training gear, but I don't think I'll need to use it. But I have it if I want to use it. I also ordered some more plastic linkages as I messed one up taking it off, I also ordered a couple main shafts and a couple feathering shafts. And just in case I break the landing gear, I have a spare set of Superskids that should fit.

I assembled the head and made sure everything had loctite. I also assembled the frame and mounted the motor. I will loctite that after I add the tail and make sure everything is good. So far so good. The links that link the flybar to the swivel parts are a slight bit stiff. But I think thru time this will wear in. I am not sure this is the way it is suppose to be. But it's just lightly stiff.

So far I like the look. I am not sure where I will mount the ESC, perhaps on the bottom. But all in all, it's nice, real nice. I am not sure I am going to be able to fly this. I think I am going to have to start RADD's schooling again with this bird. But that's ok. I don't want to crash it, not right off. So I plan on being careful.

I repaired my helicopter tonight. I apparently had a slightly bend main shaft. Although I can't see that it's bend. Getting the retaining collar off was very hard. I had to put a set of needle nose pliers on top of it and tap it to get it to let loose. I think that indicates a bent shaft. Anyway, I replaced it. I also replaced the main gear as about 5 teeth got very slightly chewed up. I replaced it with a CNC Delrin main gear. The gear is somewhat tight, but it has loosened up since it ran a few times. Seems like a nice gear, and it ought to be for what it cost. I replaced the swashplate as the the old one separated and I didn't want to take a chance on that happening again. I have ordered a CNC swash, so I'll put that on when it comes in.

Now the most important part. I had to adjust the pitch linkage as I was not getting any negative pitch at all. Heck, at 50% stick I was getting +7 degrees pitch. So, I had apparently, when tracking the blades, adjusted too much. I had to shorten the links by about 10 turns each in order to get the pitch I wanted. Which was +10 and -4 in normal mode, and +10 and -7 or 8 in Stunt mode. All in all it works great now. I now lift off just after mid stick, and when I set it down it actually holds it to the ground once I get below mid stick. So far it's working great. I am so very happy with it. I may actually get slightly more than -7, when I set it, my swash mix for pitch was -30. I have since moved it to -35. I...Continue Reading

Well, we are back from the wonderful land of the high desert of Yakima. We had fun. Took my sister, her daugther, 2 granddaughters, and of of their friends out to a real nice mexican restaurant. I also took my plane out. My sisters 2nd daughter is 2, and she really got a kick out of my airplane. My sister has taught her to wave at airplanes and helicopters. So she was waving at my airplane whenever it would fly by. It was so cute. She's the sweetest little girl. Since I am taller than everyone there I get to lift her up higher than she normally gets lifted. She loves that too. Anyway, we had a great time, and I had some relaxing fun flying my airplane. But now I am real tired. I have been having some fun in the sim. I have been messing around with trying to flip upside down and hover for a second or 2 and then flip back. I try to get about 30 or 40 feet off the ground and flip it over and try and hover for a moment and flip back. So far I have done it without wrecking. I am just real tired. I didn't sleep well at my sisters. I never do, it's just not my bed. For some reason, I slept less this time than ever before. If I got 5 hours in 2 days I am lucky. But, I need to hold out as best I can cause I have to work tomorrow at 5pm. And I don't want to wake up at 9 am.

So, I am going to practice some more upside down stuff. I am more working on get over and moving the throttle to where it needs to be to maintain the altitude. I mean it would be real easy to flip over and pull all the way down, but then it just takes off. So I am trying to have a stable flip over.

I ran 3 more batteries through the HB tonight and ran 1 through the SR. I was more trying to fine tune the HB. Slightly adjusting linkages to see if I can smooth it out a bit. And it seemed to work. It's real easy to control in the living room. That might be a mixture of adjustment and more experience than when I first got it. I am real happy I modded it so I could use my DX6i with it. That is real nice. The modded 4in1 unit still really kinda sucks, or is it the tail motor? But it holds fine, just requires a lot of "maintenance" to keep it where it is. But I really like it, it really really helped me be able to hover the SR in my living room.

I ran 1 battery through the SR, and I have managed to not have an accident yet. I am sure that is coming soon as I try new things. But practicing what I have learned so far I think is the key. Control, control, control, is the real key to successfully flying these heli's. But I enjoy it. I more practiced landing and not just killing the throttle quickly, but slowly lowering it. And that seemed to work out real good. I didn't experience that weird click and drop of the heli 3 to 5 inches. That was weird. But it hasn't happened since, and I have examined it repeatedly. I'll just keep an eye on it and hope it doesn't happen again. Anyway, I had to quit for the night as I am tired. I think I might fly my airplane this weekend. It's been a while, and it's kinda fun and a break in compared to flying a heli. You don't have to keep your eyes on it 100% of the time, more like 85 or 90%. So it's a bit more relaxing to fly.

Tonight I took the training gear off and hovered in the living room. I was scared out of my mind at first, but when I seen it wasn't as hard as I have been making it out to be. I got over that. I still get the pucker factor every time I take off knowing I have to land without training gear. Grass isn't going to be fun. I would like to avoid that if possible.

I also received my new 12amp Pentium ESC. I have it programmed and tested. Work great, plays Jingle Bells when it starts up. I am looking forward to wiring this one, to the 10amp one that comes with the DDVP tail and getting them both installed. This doesn't appear as though it's quite as hard as I was making it out to be. The electronics are pretty simplified and all you have to do is program you ESC properly and everything should go good. I need to splice the power leads together from both ESC's and then attach a good power lead for connecting and EC3 connector. Then I need to splice the lines that go to the throttle connection on the receiver from both ESC's. Then install it in the helicopter, and then the next phase comes. Setting up the tail to work right.......and programming the DX6i. My new ESC now plays, Auld Lang Syne in honor of my beautiful, wonderful wife. She's truly the best little woman in the world. I truly love her.

I ran 2 more batteries through the SR hovering in the living room tonight. I like to hover for about 5 or so minutes, then set it down for a few minutes, feel the tail motor and then proceed from there. Between batteries I let it sit for about 20 min. So far so good. I am still trying to dial the tail in so it doesn't wag, but that appears impossible. So I have got it now to where it does it very little. I can hardly wait for my DDVP tail. But stock isn't due in until March. I am in serious hopes I can go through all that time without crashing this bird. I really like it, and I like it undamaged. It's real nice with the DX6i and I just want to keep it that way. Last weekend I took it out and flew it. I have worked on getting the Phoenix sim to make the Blade SR act like the real thing, minus the tail wag, I can't get it to do that. Anyway, I think I about have it. I have been practicing doing circles in one direction and then on the fly switching to the other direction. I am going to work on that quite a bit more before trying it in real life.

So far I have been doing ok with this. I really enjoy flying it. I am in hopes I can one day flip her upside down for a brief, very brief look at it upside down. My wife was reading this, she asked me if I was talking about the helicopter, when speaking of flipping her upside down statement. Geez!!!! But so far it's hover practice. I really need to try it without the training gear. I just want to get more...Continue Reading

Alright, I am actually flying my SR. I got in some FFF this weekend and man it was fun. I had that thing really moving in the circle. It was real fun. I managed to fly my SR, and crash my HB. Amazing how that works. But the HB was fixed in just a few minutes. I like that heli.

Alright, I am finally making some progress. I went outside today for the first time that it was real nice. No wind, no rain, and perfect for my first test. I started off by hovering a bit and moving side to side, and forward and backwards. Then I attempted a circle. I was doing pretty good for my first circle, but the bank of the heli scared me and I cut power as I thought I was going to crash. So I picked it up and set it up and took off again. I tried it again, and this time even though I was scared due to the bank of the helicopter I let it continue, and it just kept going in the circle. I did 3 or 4 and then wanted to see if I could do a "running" landing. To me that is doing the circle, then leveling out and bringing it back to me, and then pointing the tail to me and landing without ever really going into a hover. That is a big challenging due to how fixed pitch heli's can go up and down at times, but I did it. I did crash a couple times, when I would get close to the ground sometimes the tail would grab the grass and I could not compensate. But that was only a couple times. Other than that, I am really happy. It is suppose to be very nice this weekend so I will get back out again and work on this. I can't go to the school on a Friday, but Saturday is fine. I think working here at the apt complex is good though as it is somewhat tight 50x50 area to fly in. And I have to keep the circle tight. I am really having fun now. I can hardly wait until I get my BSR out and try it. But I want to make sure I am ready. I want to get real good with the HB first.

I started my first 2 lessons last night after work. Went ok. I will try again tonight and see how it goes. I am hoping to track my progress here. My honey bee V2 will be here tomorrow. I am looking forward to trying it. I hope it isn't raining tomorrow so I can go outside with it. I am sure it is going to handle quite differently than the 120SR I have. The honey bee has a 90 degree flybar and I think that actually makes quite a bit of difference in the flight characteristics of the heli. But I am looking forward to trying it. I have bought a lot of extra parts, and I do mean a lot. 4 tail motors and like 30 of those little ring like rods and a bunch more stuff. I even bought some of those Superblades. For my BSR I have also bought these Plasti-blades. They are flat bottomed as I read this might help me control the heli a bit easier. I have lots of blades for the BSR. I even got a set of carbon fiber blades. I am not going to use those for long time. But anyway. Here's my first blog, and blog entry.