It's been a while since I last posted and in the interim period I've had several comments from friends and "well-wishers" pointing out how much they enjoyed my first flight, the one where Airdonkey was flown into the tree.
I now work very hard on discipline and controlled flying to the extent that the chances of me repeating that crash are getting slimmer. For those who need their fix of some hapless cretin with more money than sense trashing an expensive arrangement of electronics, I've identified a similar video. The learner is flying a T-Rex 700 nitro, a large, expensive (and potentially dangerous) petrol-powered helicopter. As is often the case with heli flying, all is going well, and then suddenly, it's not and it's all over. In this case, the German amateur pilot only has time to shout out "Nein!" before the heli hits the deck. It's obviously an upsetting affair on his part and I know how he feels.
"Schnell! Schnell! Kartoffelkopf...."
"Quickly, quickly, potatohead...!"
Captain Blackadder to Captain Darling, Series 4, Corporal Punishment
My mate Andy is off to Antarctica for 6 months and he's entrusted me with his Honey Bee until he gets back. I unpacked his flight case earlier, assembled the heli and attempted some basic hovering in my kitchen. She's along the same lines as the newly purchased mSR - it's another fixed pitch beginners helicopter, 4 channels, pretty robust, plenty of spares floating around and nicely stable in the hover. The basic controls follow the standard layout - the main control sticks operate the servos and speed controller, allowing full forward, backward, left, right (the cyclic controls), turning about its axis (rudder/tail) and up and down movement.
First impressions were pretty good after I reversed the tail servo. She should be OK for some outdoor flights when the wind drops. Hopefully have her doing loops by the time you get back!
Cheers mate, have a good one "down south".
First impressions are brilliant. This is a fantastic fun helicopter, which delivers on performance and is robust enough to survive repeated crashes into doors and walls. And so far I've not managed to break anything, which is very refreshing and pushes the enjoyment/cost ratio firmly into credit. The flight tests are here:
This is me hovering side-in, in the Alpine meadow photofield.
The Alpine Meadow is a study in contrasts, with the flat grassy green of a wide-open meadow framed by the towering stone majesty of the Alps. At their feet, you’ll find rural roads, glistening white chalets and of course, woodland that ranges from single trees to entire forests.
Side-in hovering is now quite comfortable. Although I can do it on the simulator, nose-in hovering in real life still proves to be quite taxing and far from comfortable. More work and discipline is required. And possibly a bigger garden.
But today, it's a minor victory. The training gear is gone.
The rotor head assembly was utterly destroyed. The flybar was so bent it was wrapped around the main hub in a complete circle. The impact was clearly very heavy because the autorotation sleeve (at the opposite end of the main shaft) was cracked down its entire length. One of the servo arms had snapped and another servo had the ball joint forced out of the servo arm. The main gear had around three cm of chewed-up teeth. I've had to replace two main blades, the feathering spindle, spacers and O-rings, flybar control arms, the main shaft, the main gear, the flybar, the centre hub, the flybar carrier, two servo arms, the autorotation sleeve and several bearings. The motor may have a problem and may have to be replaced. Remarkably, the tail was untouched.
What did I learn? If there's any perceived danger prior to take-off, stop, and either remove the risk, or cancel the flight. In this case sunglasses might just have saved the day.
Managed to get 4 batteries in yesterday, without incident, in what may prove to be the last really hot day of the year. The weather was perfect, with little wind and progress was made with circles and side-in hovering. Having broken two sets of main blades the day before, I didn't want to push my luck with more nose-in hovering, so I had some fun. I'm getting there and it's becoming less of an exercise in controlled panic, and more about where I want to put the heli, and how quickly. My recent simulator work is paying off.
This is me flying at Lake Douglas - the H-13 is not too frisky and is good for working on basic manouevres.
This is an irritatingly difficult game, but see how far you can fly the helicopter. My best is a pretty amazing 2168, which clearly reflects my awesome heli flying skills. The other high scores in the table despite being poor likely reflect excellent photoshop skills rather than any aptitude for flying. See what you can do. There's a prize for the winner.
High score table
1. 2168 Airdonkey
2. 1943 Tim Toon
3. 1738 Dave
4. 1481 Paul
5. 342 Jo (!)
Paul anecdotally reports a score of over 2000, but the lack of evidence means it cannot be counted. Sorry.
My spare parts arrived, late, again. The ground crew worked solidly overnight to restore her to full glory. The swash set-up is perfect. The new servo sits like a jewel in the airframe. There are no parts with any damage to them, she is quite literally pristine. A model maker's ultimate goal achieved.
Which will make it even more upsetting the next time she gets dumped, by me.
More discipline is required. Or it really hurts.
I was hovering about 6 inches off the ground the other day and ended up catching a rotor blade, which resulted in an upsettingly spectacular crash and an explosion of parts. Given that I've crashed into trees and fallen from much greater heights previously, the list of broken components is surprisingly extensive, and expensive. I've had to replace the following: a cyclic servo (£20), a seriously bent main shaft (£2.50), the tail boom (£1.99), the horizontal stabiliser mount (£1.99), the main blades (£9.99), the flybar (£0.99), one of the boom supports (£1.99), and one of the boom support ends (£0.50). I also broke the receiver aerial, but this can be fixed with a twist of the wires and some tape.
Those blades must have some energy in them - the tail boom was absolutely fucked - it was bent nearly 90 degrees and had pulled the tail servo about an inch along the boom! Ouch.
I wonder if I'll ever get to 3D flight....
Roll on some calm weather.
Always be ready to correct the drift by using opposite roll.
If you get into trouble at any stage, reduce the throttle, land, change your trousers and try again.
Twister CP manual.
Voted the greatest commentary ever, during the 5th Test, England v West Indies at The Oval on 9 August 1991. Jonathan Agnew describes Ian Botham's freak dismissal where he fell over his own stumps, with the immortal "just couldn't quite get his leg over".
The late, great Brian Johnston desperately tries to maintain control of his hysteria while attempting to sum up the day's play, while Agnew sinks further and further into helpless laughter.
It always raises a smile.
The maiden outdoor flight didn't go to plan. Since then there's been a protracted period of radio silence, the first few weeks being a dark period in which I doubted my ability to re-build and fly the helicopter and actually enjoy my hobby. The initial inspection after the tree incident revealed only "minor cosmetic damage", however closer scrutiny revealed more significant injuries which necessitated completely rebuilding the tail rotor assembly and replacing the main rotor shaft, which was bent. Getting the parts took long enough and I compounded the misery by initially failing to identify everything that was broken, resulting in more orders for spares and more delay. Airdonkey sat on my table, looking forlorn and broken for about 4 weeks. Even when the ground crew were in a position to complete the repairs and get her airborne again, I didn't exactly rush to it. I had also realised that having spent many hours hunched over a table with the build, the 2 minutes of nervous anticipation and the ensuing crushing disappointment upon crashing into a tree didn't represent a good trade-off in the enjoyment stakes. Put simply, I hadn't enjoyed the flying bit yet because it was too difficult and crashes were inevitable. I wasn't exactly enthusing the prospect of an endless cycle of building for hours and crashing in seconds. I also concluded that my fight simulation work hadn't been disciplined enough. Loops and rolls were all well and good on the computer, but the basics were not sufficiently in place when the stakes were high with my real world helicopter. I've learned the following:
I need a new approach.