Originally Posted by pdooley

no idea
the heli won't spool, something is going on with the ESC. in my attempts to get it going i think i may have accidentally done some stick programming, if Castle ESC's have that function.
So i have to go thru the learning curve and figure that out. Already set the beastx up on my transmitter and controls seems fine on the ground.

I was very excited to get this big heli flying, bought it months ago but now I'm busy and usually only manage a few flights in the neighborhood with the 450 before dark.

so the 800 is a spruce goose until i get time and ambition. too bad really.. yes it's true i bought a used, but it's nice. seller said he only put 12 flights on it, i believe him. it looks like new.

Ok Pat im shure you will solve it.. secmd hand can be very good deals.. Any photo?

BA

Used is not bad. I have three used helis. Only one of them, was a mess and that one was so cheap that it was a bargain nevertheless.
I am sure you'll get everything solved son enough. You'll love tha big one. They are incredibly relaxing to fly.

Originally Posted by JetPlaneFlyer

Mine had the same cracks. on mine the cracks were from where the canopy is pressed against the two socket head screws right at the front of the frame (see pic attached).

The fix was simply to replace these two screws with button head screws.

Thanks. I'll check that.

I didn't fly today. There were off and on thunderstorms. The next week is supposed to be nice and cool. Tomorrow is forecast to be extremely windy so flying may again be postponed another day.

I'm really itching for a new big heli even though I have way too many already. I wish they made a 1000 size.

No flying today . We have a buffalo warning in effect .
But seriously flash flood warnings and heavy rains for the next few days .
That buffalo is real . It crossed our path in yellowstone in July this summer.

Jombo you've been to Yellowstone? Oh man, I want to go there some time!

Good flying day but damn that Devil 420 needs so much lead in the nose. Finally flies as it should. I tried several FBL but in the end it was just the crappy design with a totally screwed up COG.
The Lipo you can see is a complete goner. Did an endless funnel until the headspeed went down. I think the picture tells the rest of the story.

Originally Posted by Flying Pitcher

Jombo you've been to Yellowstone? Oh man, I want to go there some time!

Yes Sir ! We flew in to Denver airport and drove 3300 miles in 2 weeks . Went to south Dakota , saw the devils tower , mount rushmore, idaho, wyoming , and Utah

Originally Posted by Thoemse

Good flying day but damn that Devil 420 needs so much lead in the nose. Finally flies as it should. I tried several FBL but in the end it was just the crappy design with a totally screwed up COG.
The Lipo you can see is a complete goner. Did an endless funnel until the headspeed went down. I think the picture tells the rest of the story.

Yeah, SAB did screw up with the design on the 380/420. I don't know how they didn't pick it up during testing, I can only assume that they did but decided to release it anyway... And of course ALZRC just copied the flawed design.

Wow, that's wicked! great pix, Jombo! Thank you, Sir! The presidents' carvings are in that park? How loud is that bang? They even have horses to ride?! Man, those bisons are a lot of meat. One would have me set for life! Endless steaks!! Halfway between ejqustor and North Pole, heh no kiddin', never thought it's right in spanking middle!

Ah, that would be a long drive if I ever went by road. I usually begin to moan after 2 hours

Thoemse, funnels make lipos fat need new diet for em!

Shocking! I think the Protos 500 is a better heli anyway, cheap as chips, especially in the plastic version.

Foggy morning, with still air, so I did auto-trim flights with three helis. The Forza 450 has a persistent slow right drift, even after the trim flights. The Protos 500 was rock steady, even tho the tail "only" uses a 306G. Frenzy 600 was almost as good, but still has a small tail "tick". That disappears when I drop below 75% gov store throttle. Might be time to do further experimentation with the governor parameters and Kbar deadband.

Rather than burning off, the fog started to close in, to the point where the Forza and Protos would almost disappear at the top of big stall turns.

I did almost a whole pack on each heli doing mini autos. Managed to get the Forza 450 up to about 8ft, a little more with the Protos, but chickened out with the Frenzy beyond 10ft or so, even tho it had plenty of hang time.

On the Forza, one of my Turnigy 3s 2200 40c packs is weakening, to the point where I have to fly at HS2800 rather than HS3000 to get 4 minutes. Looks like one cell is weak. I may re-install the Superbrain 45A ESC so that I can compare the voltage drops of my 3 packs. I don't seem to have got as many cycles out of these packs as the previous batch. Only thing I don't like about the Superbrain is the really slow spool up in governor mode - it's not adjustable and it takes over 20 seconds, compared with about 5 for the YEP 40 with my current settings.

Lots of gusty wind today. I've been out six times despite it but it's a lot of stick work instead of fun.

I wish I could go on a vacation some day again. With a disabled kid at home and another now in college it's not so easy. I'd love to go back to the deep southern Caribbean for the fifth time during the winter. Cruises though aren't what they used to be in my younger years. They've gotten all cheapened out and have the herd em on then herd em off kind of thing. The one I enjoyed the most was when we had a suite on the SS France of which there were only four. It became the SS Norway in later years then eventually caught fire and was scrapped.

Yikes, you didn't leave any puffed lipos in your suite did you?

Originally Posted by 2Doggs

Yikes, you didn't leave any puffed lipos in your suite did you?

it's story time.

*hands mic to Dad*

Originally Posted by 2Doggs

Shocking! I think the Protos 500 is a better heli anyway, cheap as chips, especially in the plastic version.

The CoG issue is annoying for sure because there really is no excuse for SAB not sorting it out, or even ALZRC modifying the design to fix SAB's error. But for me it's still a nice little heli even with it's little flaw.