Paul's Flight Log

[cml001]

Very nice Paul!

[pvolcko]

Got a bunch of flights in today. Ended up crashing the Visionaire. First crash with it (except for a small roll over crash on my second flight ever with it) and I basically need a new fusalage for it. Banged up the front badly. Snapped the motor shaft. Dented a battery to the point that I'm going to junk it. Unfortunately I didn't have that flight on video, but I caught a number of others. Will edit and post them up tomorrow.

[Graham Lawrie]

Not so good Paul:) hate losing batteries:(

[cml001]

Aauuurrrgggg! Hate it when not only a fuse goes but battery too! Mmm

[pvolcko]

Not having good luck lately. The 550x went in today. Mechanical issue mid flight. 50ft up. Flipping to inverted. Either the tail fin broke off and got ate by the tail rotor, causing the front tail drive gear to split off. Or the gear broke and the tail rotor slowed enough to lag so badly it hit the tail fin. Either way, uncontrollable piro. Hit throttle hold. Attempted to flip it back over but it was having none of it. Ended up going in inverted. Slammed full negative pitch when it got close to the ground to bleed off headspeed. Damage was light all considered. Boom, tail fin, tail blades, esc tray, front tail drive gear, and probably some shafts will need replacing.

[cml001]

Aww man...

[Graham Lawrie]

That sucks Paul:( weather here raining, build day today:)

[pvolcko]

Just doing some repair work on that 550x just a little bit ago. Spindle is bent bad. Boom was bent but tt looks ok. Got the gears replaced. Main shaft checked out ok. Top main bearing needed replacing. Etc tray.

Should be able to wrap it up tonight or tomorrow.

[danhampson]

did you get it done paul?

[pvolcko]

Not yet. I got it mostly back together but need to order a tail fin. Also have to check spindle again. Either I replaced it and don't remember or I'm not seeing the bend I did before.

[pvolcko]

Tail finally came in. Need to replace spindle shaft and then should be good to go.

Got 6 flights in on the KSE today. Rare for me to fly one heli on a trip to the field but I think I'll be doing more of it. I'll still bring a backup but will be sticking to one per trip so long as there's no issues.

Backward flying is getting more comfortable. Still dicey on clockwise turns, but getting better. Starting to better fly through half piro flips instead of depending on stick pattern alone.

No video from this outing, but got some pics of a great scale aerobatic biplane another member was flying. Will cull through the photos and get some posted up.

[cml001]

Awesome.. I do that often.. Just take one bird.. Especially if time is limited... Usually the N5C as I can just fuel & go... I have 4 packs for the 550 & 4 packs for the E7SE.. So for a quicky I get 4 flights on the electrics if I don't take the geni. Glad to hear u got out to fly!

[pvolcko]

Yeah, it had been a couple/few weeks. Weather and weekends haven't been cooperating lately. Felt good.

I usually bring three helis out to the field with me and fly each of them, rotating through them as packs charge. This time I just stuck with the one heli. Helped keep things the same between flights and allowed me to get comfortable flying and trying some of the stuff I've been working on. Normally switching helis results in having to get a feel for each one and I just never get "locked in" at all.

[pvolcko]

Wow, been a while since I posted here. Not a lot of flying going on since late fall.

Well, weather appears to be turning warmer and the itch to fly is returning. I've picked up some new models.

1) Yuneec Q500 4K. Got to fly it today for the first time. A bit on the windy side so it was struggling to maintain position, but it was a good test for it. Here's the video from the first flight. Nothing special, just a shake out and testing things out. Comes with its own transmitter with a video screen embedded in it for slightly delayed FPV. Weather is going to be warmer tomorrow and the wind a bit calmer so should get some more flying in.

https://youtu.be/nn506-XkWCE


2) From my other thread, a Immersion Vortex 285 racing quad. Still waiting on a Rx module for the goggles, but should be able to get a receiver on it and test it out tomorrow too. Maybe. Need to read up on it and see what's involved in getting it setup. What little I've seen makes me think it is heavily dependent on OSD for certain setup and configuration tasks so I may be grounded until the Rx unit comes in.

3) Hobbyking had a good price going on the Tundra plank so I picked one up. High wing cessna type of model but has flaps and is capable of some solid aerobatics. I also wanted something with fat wheels and the ability to attach skis for winter flying.

The Visionaire replacement fusalage has been sitting around waiting for me. I unwrapped it finally and discovered it was damaged before I even got it. Tail was bend and broken up. I glued it best I could. I'll try putting it together soon. Have to swap out the linkages, electronics, motor, etc. I'm tempted to keep the wings and elevator pieces and electronics for spares and just buy a new one, the night version.

Helis that were down for repairs after last season are still waiting to get finished up. Should have them wrapped up by next weekend. Going to get the 550X and TRex 700 in shape to sell. Will also sell the 300CFX. May sell the goblin 700 v1 I have too. Keeping 180CFX, 2 Gob 700 KSEs, and the Gob 500. Have a Gob 570 kit and fixins all ready to go since last spring that will be going together.

Along with cutting down the heli fleet I'm going to be making a dedicated effort to fly a lot more this season. More backyard flights and more flights at the club.

[Graham Lawrie]

Nice clear video Paul:) was that deer in the field?

[pvolcko]

Yup. I didn't see them while I was flying due to the sun hitting the screen, or else I would have spent some more time flying around them. I was about 100ft up at that point in the video. Seemed to be spooked by it none the less.

[pvolcko]

Finally got around to registering the VBar Neo from the KSE I won. Interesting process you have to follow with VControl and Neo for registration and whatnot. The software works well, but the instructions for the Neo were kind of buried in a video. I read instructions referring to a plug but didn't know what it was talking about. Had no idea that the "sensor" port on the Neo acted like a bind plug port of sorts. You need to have the plug in to register it and do the firmware installs, but to bind with a vcontrol and for use of the neo pc software you have the plug out. Finally ran across a video that showed that plug in there and the lightbulb moment occurred.

My early season flying goal is to decide if I like the VControl and the Neo vs my tried and trusted DX9 and Ikon (or 7200bx). If I don't like it, either I'm selling them off or I'm selling the whole KSE and VControl combo. If I do like it better... well I can't ditch the DX9 since I need it for the quads and planks, but I can start converting my heli fleet over to Neo. My bank account is not looking forward to that possibility.

[Stambo]

That is some seriously stable video from the Yuneec, I like it.
Until now, I did not consider it to be a serious competitor to the Inspire but I think maybe I was wrong.

[pvolcko]

There is some jello when I'm out over that farm lot. But like I said it was also moderate winds (at about the limit of what it can handle and still maintain position) and about 100ft up. Winds were probably worse up there, especially on the edge of the tree line where a pretty good updraft was probably being created. Up until that point it was pretty well clear of jello. And I didn't do any prop balancing yet. That was straight out of the box.

Did some reading tonight on the Vortex. Turns out I can't connect my standard spektrum rx units to it. It only accepts CPPM input signal (one wire, all channel PPM sent in sequence). No spektrum rx units do it. There is a lemon rx unit that is DSMX compatible that does it, so I ordered it as a backup in case I run into trouble with the spektrum sat going into the conversion cable (already on order, awaiting delivery). Also ordered a couple of light weight standard DSMX lemon rx units to fill out the package. Might as well get my $3 shipping's worth.

And I was right, the entire thing is configured through the OSD, so I'm grounded until the video rx module for the goggles shows up. That said, it is really a cool system. It may be possible to configure using a cleanflight gui and a usb connection (haven't read that far in the full user manual yet), but it is designed to be entirely configured, including finding a default video channel and setting up Tx channels and "mode" configuration, entirely through OSD and using a reset/toggle button on the back of the frame. Once through basic setup (can be done in a minute or two), you gain access to the full menu system which gives you access to literally everything via OSD and Tx stick movements. Every PID setting, ESC control feature (one shot, braking, etc), video channel selection, in flight OSD settings, flight modes (including pre-sets from known pilots), etc. It's pretty remarkable. No need to connect to a computer except to perform firmware updates.

I believe I ordered the wrong batteries. They're a usable capacity and S count, but the discharge rating is far too low for what this thing can do. So I'm going to see about a return for refund on Monday and in the meantime order up two high discharge packs.

So I've made some mistakes with this thing. Nothing too critical or expensive, thankfully. Deal came up on the Vortex and I ordered up everything else without reading a bit first.

[Graham Lawrie]

That is some seriously stable video from the Yuneec, I like it.
Until now, I did not consider it to be a serious competitor to the Inspire but I think maybe I was wrong.

+1 Stambo i agree:)