Airdonkey

"Schnell! Schnell! Kartoffelkopf.....!"

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

ESky Honey Bee

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".

"Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby..."

My birthday came and went, thanks for all your messages. My lovely wife gave me a video camera which means I can provide better quality footage than I've been able to previously.  Shame that the flying hasn't improved as much.  In any event, here's the mSR in a little flyby:

Simulator work

The Dominion 3D 90 is proving to be one of my favourite simulator helicopters.  It's a shame that it's a fictional model, created by artists at Knife Edge. In idle up mode it happily flies inverted as you can see here.

Blade mSR

This is the latest addition to the stable, E-flite's Blade mSR. She's a single rotor, ultra-micro helicopter weighing in at less than one ounce and fitting perfectly between the traditional beginner's level co-axial helis (twin-rotor), like my Blade CX2 and the significantly more advanced and difficult to fly CCPM helis, like my Cypher.  A unique rotor head design provides the same inherent stability of co-axial  helicopters, but thanks to a fixed-pitch bell-hiller design the mSR delivers a much more responsive and spirited performance. Put simply she's ultra stable if you let go of the sticks, but very feisty in response to throttle and cyclic inputs.  The mSR is capable of doing loops and flying in a light breeze, but the small size and low weight make it ideal for flying indoors.

My aim is for the mSR to assist with my nose-in hovering skills, which as far as the Cypher goes is proving difficult, requiring lots of confidence and a regular pay cheque.

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:

Shot of the day

This is me hovering side-in, in the Alpine meadow photofield.

The Dominion 3D  90 offers the maximum in 3D potential.  Powered by a 90-sized engine, the Dominion 3D 90 is the right choice for practicing intense unlimited 3D aerobatics.

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.

Outdoor fun

Some footage of me flying the Blade CX2 on a very calm day. The video quality isn't great, although I am assured that an HD camera is in the offing for my birthday in a couple of weeks....

Training day

My helicopter training gear has now been removed in line with recent progress. The four quite battered orange ping-pong balls on sticks will now be consigned to gather dust on the top shelf, so confident am I that I can now routinely land gently enough and sufficiently horizontal to avoid catching a main blade on the deck.

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.

Note to self....

The latest crash was horrible. It was a beautiful day and the winds were manageable, or so I thought. The sun was shining brightly and as I approached the helipad I mulled over putting on my sunglasses.  I rejected the idea, figuring that I could keep my back to the sun and avoid any mishap. Somewhat typically, the winds had picked up by the time I was ready to spin-up, and it was marginal whether I should fly or not. I favoured optimism after my latest run of good fortune so I went for it. A huge gust immediately lifted her up to about twenty five feet right over my head, forcing me to spin around, straight into the glare of the sun.  I was blinded immediately, and fearing a crash into the trees, I took evasive action.  My cyclic inputs were too heavy-handed, she pitched violently backwards and swan-dived quickly and upsettingly to the ground, landing directly on the rotor head assembly with a catastrophic explosion of parts.  The entire flight lasted about 5 seconds.

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.

Bell H-13 Float Heli

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.

Airdonkey is back....

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.