Monday, October 22, 2007

Too slow too low

Crash number 3 => Too long didn't fly, first flight of the day trying new moves , too slow, too low a roll.

Didnt get to fly for a few days and felt out of touch. It was my first flight of the day and was still feeling abit sleepy. Was fairly comfortable going fast forward flight high up and rolling already before this. Normally the first tank is for warm up but no idea why, nearing the end of the first tank, i just felt like going lower, slower and rolling.

First slow pass from right to left the roll was clumsy, 2nd try left to right around 4m high, roll.... the heli just dropped in attitude so fast before i could react and think oh shit, it had already been sallowed by the ground. Could hear the canopy shield crack into pieces. Ouch. Pain.

Prob hit the ground inverted as the canopy shield cracked and boom bent downwards. Besides the usual, boom, flybar, spindle, blades, the shield and landing skid needed to be replaced too. Belt had a few teeth stripped,found out later that main gear had 1 teeth broken too. Arg have to change! On fast forward flight, i usually give non or only a slight + collective punch before the roll to maintain attitude. I think i had too slow forward speed and didn't punch collective on that roll, the heli just drop like a rock. Dumb and expensive error. New moves should be tried out at least 3 mistakes high.

Got it up ASAP, with new canopy shield and align blades. Low, Slow n Roll is no go, yet...

Sunday, October 14, 2007

3DX Singapore

3DX SG was held at BBAFC over the weekend. It saw pilots from around the region coming down to compete. Caught some 3D action live from the field. The Thais dominated the action with some superb flying, great efforts too by the local pilots.

Kudos to the organisers for bringing the event here. The cometition has inspired many ,yet at the same time i realised there is still so much more to learn, felt like a noob again. Well thats what make RC heli so challenging and addictive, always pushing ourselves to achieve the next level.

More pics here and here.

Spectators and officials
Competitors table
Team Malaysia with their Compass Knights.
Thai team

Ron Sebastian from germany was one of the judge.
Ron Sebastian did a 3D master class demo
Markus Fiehn - another judge
Markus's demo machine - Trex 600 with modified frames + 10s
Bling Bling machines
Kasama upgrades for Stratus, and RJX Extreme

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Shifting winds

I could feel the direction of the winds starting to change while flying today. Had to compensate for it coming from the left instead of the usual right. The winds are starting to blow from the north. Woohoo! which means the slope season is near. It will be just awhile more before it correctly aligns in the north east direction.

Wind direction starting to changeTime to take out those gliders from their storage and wipe the dust off, recycle those batteries and do the repairs and touch up. I still got the Discus to repair and two new kit to build up. Been focusing much on helis and sitting on them for too long. Ahaha.

I hope to start on them soon.

Sprinter

Baudis Salto

I m very sure the rest of the die hard slopers like me, are waiting eagerly in anticipation with their gliders too.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Cracked tail servo plate

Found a crack line developed a few weeks ago on the tail servo plate during a pre-flight check. Had a hunch not to fly. Lucky, as the plate split easily along the crack when i took it out for replacement. It had happened before some time back. Another flier had the crack line developed at the same spot too.The metal material is probably too brittle and stress line developed as the servo plate is being pull n push against the plastic frame all the time. Note to check for those using tail mounted servos.