I actually have been making a concerted effort at learning to fly RC Helicopters. I have been trying off and on for many years. I first tried way back in 1974 when I was stationed in Japan with the military. At the time I bought a Kalt Baron and used a Futaba radio and a Enya .45 with a heli-head. Way back then there were no gyros yet, so that made it even more difficult. I crashed it many times and only managed maybe a 30 second long flight before I crashed it. Remember we didn't have any flight simulators and the internet hadn't been established yet either.

I later tried using a MFA Sport 500 using a Airtronics radio and a Fox .45 engine. Another attempt was done with a Kyosho Concept .30 and still another try with a Century Hawk .30 size heli. These all used a mechanical gyro that had a small electric motor spin up the little gyro wheel/disc inside.

I finally started making progress with some micro-helicopters in being able to hover reasonably well. But at the time that seemed to be about all I could do.

It wasn't until the flybarless helis came out, andf with the advent of the Blade nanoCPX, that I started having success with flying a heli around. From that point forward I was able to fly them. Now granted the nanoCPX is great and it is amazingly crash resistant to damage. Which is a big plus actually.

I then advanced further up using a Blade mCPX heli and then onto the Blade mCPX BL too. That led to some customizing of course. both with the mCPX and the nanoCPX...Continue Reading

I just finished my build of the Hobby King X900 tricopter. It is a fairly large one. I am hoping I can see it farther away too. But it is all setup and ready for its maiden tomorrow, if everything goes right. This one is pretty big with a 900mm diameter, which is almost a meter across.

I used a KK 2.1 controller board with the LCD panel on it. I sorta like no needing to perform complicated joy stick moves, etc or needing a USB port and a computer to set it up. Maybe they'll come out with one that uses GPS soon too.

The X900 was setup to use a mini-servo for YAW of about 17g weight. But many of the mini-servos cannot handle the motor on it and tend to strip out. A number of people already had problems with the servos not being able to handle the motors on their tricopters already. I went with larger NTM 35-30 1100 KV motors and felt that the mini-servos would not be able to handle the bigger motor, so I opted for a hextronic HX12 metal gear servo instead. It just happens to fit in between the two mount side plates. Thus with some glue to glue it in place (I used GOOP) it ought to work out fine.

I am using a 3 cell 5000mah Lipo battery pack with the X900 for now. It has 40 amp speed controls on it as well. I have a Lemon RC DSMX receiver with a satellite receiver too. I am using Spectrum DX-18 for the transmitter. I also have 12x4 propellers on it as well. I do have some carbon fibre 12x4 props too, but I am saving them for use later after its initial flights.

Anyway, I only need to charge the battery pack up and it is ready to go for its first flight.













Now my setup didn't quite turn out as I expected, the motor power wires are a little too short using a power distribution board on the X900. Thus mine doesn't fold up all the way. I may need to do something about it later, if I need it to fold up more.

I had accumulated the parts to build a larger Hexacopter over time. It isn't all that trivial as you have six motors and six speed controllers as well as the other items.
I had bought a frame that had the power distribution PC board built right into it. It is more or less a DJI F550 clone. One of the hobby shops had a box full of arms for this type of aircraft too. So I got some arms and after visiting the hardware store to get lots of screw, I was in business.

Anyway, I was curious as to how well the multicopters would work which is what led to this.

I used a KK controller board to see how well it would work at first. I plan on swapping out the KK board later for a NAZA M V2 controller with GPS. The KK board works but it is more for a highly advanced multirotor flyer than myself. You have to stay on your toes for the entire flight with it. Plus coupled with the fact that you can't tell the front from the back or the sides makes it easy to get disoriented. The younger folks do not seem to have a problem with it like I do though.

Here is a short video of me doing its second flight after the maiden flight.

My 550 Hexacopter using a KK Multicopter board video (4 min 55 sec)

I have been off and on playing around with some quadcopters and hexacopters too.

A while back I bought a Turnigy Micro Quad with the LCD version KK controller board.
I was pleasantly surprised as to how well it was flying. It actually flies a lot better than I thought it would. Even though it has self leveling capability, it is still a manual kind of operation in that you have to stay on your toes and pay attention to it the entire flight. The multi-rotor aircraft tend to all have that same problem of orientation in that you can't tell front from back or the sides. So you have to pay attention to it closely.

I really like the LCD and control and programming switches on the controller. It makes it so much easier to setup in this case. I think that gives it a much better success rate at getting it working and dialed in better too.

Here is video clip of its maiden flight a while back.

Turnigy Micro Quad (1 min 44 sec)

Many years ago, circa 1990, my best friend at attempted a business venture, where he would have some planes made as ARF's that used foam core wings with 1/64 inch plywood sheeting, balsa, ply fuselage and tail. But the best part was they were all hand painted very nicely. Well the batch of prototype planes all worked out great. I built up six of them for my friend and had used Saito engines for three of them and Fox engines for the other three. He had three models, designed for .45 two stroke glow engines, a high wing trainer like plane, a high wing sport plane and a low wing sport plane built more like a pattern plane.

But unfortunately things didn't work out so well for the container load that came in. The planes were produced during the monsoon season and loaded into a container, which was shipped to Arizona. The dry heat in Arizona dried the wood out too much and the paint all cracked and peeled around the edges of the planes. Some planes turned out much worse than others though. But he couldn't sell them as new, high quality ARF's though.

Anyway, I have been building and flying some of the planes for years now. A while back I accidentally crashed a low wing plane. But I dug another one out of the storage shed and put it together. I almost lost it when some high winds caused it to pancake into the ground when it lost lift at the flying field. But it wasn't damaged much, so I fixed it back up to fly again.

So here is the latest incarnation of the .45 size low...Continue Reading

I accidentally deleted the entire thread by mistake. So I recreated it here again. Sorry.

A while back I had acquired a SV-17cc engine. At the time the reviews weren't all that good for it either. But the price was right, so I couldn't resist.

When I first ran the engine, I found that I couldn't lean it out enough to run at its top speed. It stayed blubbery rich even with the needle valve all the way out, ready to fall out even. So when I looked at the carb I found that it had a Walbro WT-694 carb on it with a 12.7mm venturi bore, which I thought was way too big for a 17cc engine. As I have seen them a carb with around a 9mm venturi is about right. A 12.7mm carb is big enough to run a 35cc engine or even some 50cc engines too. So I rummaged around and found a WT-520 carb with a 9.53mm venturi and I put it on the engine. Now the engine ran great, easy to adjust, throttle response good, nice RPMs and I could lean it out good too.

At that point I didn't see any reason to not use the engine as it was performing good now.





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I had put my second NGH 9cc engine in a Great Planes Escapade 40 size plane.
The only modification done to the engine was to use 8x32 fittings for the crankcase to fuel pump diaphragm and 1/8 inch Tygon fuel tubing instead of the smaller 3/32 inch fuel tubing. Previously I showed a video clip of how well the engine ran like that so I was motivated to fly the engine to be sure it was working in the air too.

Also the carb should have the low speed needle set to about 6 turns out and the high speed needle set to about 1 and a half turns out. The LSN setting on my case was about right and I didn't need to change it from 6 turns out. Also the carb does spit fuel out, so it is not running too rich, it is just the nature of the beast, so to speak.





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I had modified my NGH 9cc engine to use a Walbro carburetor. After getting it all setup I do realize I had several other ways I could have done it. But I wasn't sure what the effects would be or how successful it might be either. So I sort of took a more simple approach to it. This carb I used is a WT-298-1 carb and it has a 7.14mm intake venturi in it, but the carb has no choke, so you have a harder time warming up the engine before it runs good like that. There are several other carb models that ought to work fine as well, and also some carbs with about a 8mm venturi size that might maybe work better too, but I haven't tried one myself.

All in all after getting the carb dialed in some, the engine was running pretty good, much better than how it behaved with the OEM two piece carb and pump/regulator. The Walbro carb exhibited no vibration sensitivity and was reasonably linear in its throttle opening from low to high speed. Now if you rapidly chopped the throttle from WOT to low, the engine had a tendency to flood out and die, but if you more gradually went to low throttle it allowed the regulator to work better and the engine would idle fine then. The engine temperatures I measured were about what measured with the stock unmodified NGH 9cc engine. I don't think it was running much more hot in temperature as the measurements were around the same at 376 degrees on the ground in a static engine run scenario. I assume the engine would run more cool up in the air flying around...Continue Reading

Today I got to test run my poor SV 17cc engine which has some problems. One problem was it ran way too rich and the needle valves were essentially useless at dialing it in. But when I examined it more closely I found that it had a Walbro WT694 carburetor on it, which has a 12.7mm venturi in it. So I don't know if someone had swapped out the carb earlier or that was the carb that came with it. But in anycase I think the intake bore of 12.7mm is way too large for a 17cc engine. I think that a carb with a 9mm bore would be better for the engine.

So I rummaged around in my parts boxes and found a Walbro WT520 carb, which has a 9.53mm venturi bore in it. But when I tried the carb on the engine, it would barely pump any fuel at all. So when I checked it has a stupid blue plastic pump diaphragm on it. So I visited out local small engine repair shop and bought a rebuild kit and put in a black rubber pump diaphragm instead. Now when I test ran the engine the carb started working like it should work. Now the engine had a more linear throttle response and the high speed needle would actually adjust the mixture too. The previous big bore carb was at full throttle way before the carb throttle was at full open. But now with the smaller bore carb the engine was at full throttle when the throttle plate was fully open.

So now the performance was a lot better as I got almost s 1,000 RPM improvement over what it was doing slobbering rich with the oversize carb on it.
With a 13x6 Master...Continue Reading

One of our forum members "Gary Cee" was kind enough to make me a couple of Fox carburetor adapters for some other brand engines. I think he did a really excellent job as the adapter fit perfectly too. Thank you very much Gary Cee, I really appreciate it a lot too. This allows me to use the really good Fox carb on a engine that doesn't quite have as good of a carburetor on it. In this example it is a adapter for a ASP .61 engine. The OEM carb on the engine actually works OK, but the bore is too large. Thus you have to let the engine turn higher RPMs (smaller props) and use a more restrictive muffler, that provides extra back pressure for the fuel tank, in order to get good fuel draw out of the engine. Quite a few people ran afoul of the problem of a carb bore being a little too large for the engine when they used a Pitts muffler that had a lot less muffler back pressure for the pressurizing the fuel tank. They usually had to block off one of the exhaust outlets to increase the muffler pressure for the fuel tank, but even then it may have been somewhat marginal. But by using a carburetor with a little smaller bore to it, I can get good fuel draw for the engine, and it is much less sensitive to fuel tank location and also to needing extra muffler pressure. So I have more versatility and better all around performance with the engine. Besides the Fox carburetors are really good carburetors and well worth using on engines other than Fox engines too. The cost for a Fox carburetor isn't all that bad and quite attractive cost-wise when you compare the cost to some of the other brand name carbs as well. The flange design of the carb does work really well, in that it prevents warps from causing the carb to bind when you attach the carb using clamps or screws. But the flange makes it more difficult to adapt the carb to other brand engines though.









Comparing the larger bore of the ASP carb to the smaller bore of the Fox carb.

Here are pic of my huge Aeroworks Profile Extra plane with a 80 inch wingspan. I can just barely get it into my car to take it to the flying field. I am using a ASP 1.80 engine on the plane. At present I am running a 20x6 prop on the engine. I might have to go larger on the fuel tank, but at this time the 16 ounce tank is doing OK for flight time, as I don't fly the plane WOT all the time.

I also tried out the Futaba S.Bus system with this plane, I used S.Bus servos on all the control surfaces with a conventional throttle servo. A 5 cell NMH 2000 mah pack supplies the power. The receiver is a newer dual S.Bus channel RX.

I flew the plane several times and it flies great. I love the buzz saw roll rate too. One would think with a plane this big that it wouldn't roll fast or perform tight loops, but this plane does them anyway.

The ASP 1.80 engine works OK, but it is too rich through the mid range, so I'll probably have to do some mods to the carb, if I figure out what the problem is. I suspect the spray bar is too short and needs to be a bit longer.





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I recently acquired a WOHM 10cc radial diesel engine. I am in love with it too. These are hand made by Wolfgang in Germany, and he does some really wonderful craftsmanship in making the engines. My engine is #22 of the series he has made so far. The engine is very smooth running. if you look at the fuel jar in the video, you can see that the fuel inside the jar isn't moving or jiggling around any. The jar is just sitting in the test stand loose, it isn't tied down or glued down.





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