The bird is in the air!

[hookmaker]

Hi Guys - and Happy New Year!

Until yesterday I was the proud owner of a Raptor 50 and a Bergen Intrepid (non EB) kit. BUT NOW I am the owner of a FLYING Intrepid also!

After building it according to the manual, a few questions to Chris, watching Garys DVD over and over again, I took her to the lawn and test yesterday.

Flight checks, arial mounted forwards away from engine, pull engine. She woke up imediately.. :glasses2: . Engine sounded just fine, nice spool up and ready for take off. Ooops, she really wanted to do a fast spin just before taking her off the ground... :arggg: ! Check and check again. Turned out gyro had to be reversed.

AND OFF she went to a nice, steady and almost vibe free hover. AWEEEESOME MACHINE, AWESOME SOUND from that stock muffler :twisted: ..........YYYYaahoooooo!

A GREAT THANKS to Chris, Gary and ALL you guys who posted on this forum - It's a great sharing community!


Now to the more serious part, the questions:

1) I tried to tack it using a sophisticated 1000$ tach from work but without success (huge instruction manual!!) - will try again today. But I am a little confused on what head speed to attain.

Gary you talk about the power band at 1450. The forum postings talk about 1650-1850 and Al at Hanson recommended me to run the engine at 10500 for optimal power and cool engine. Can you guys give some inputs?

2) On my raptor I have tuned in the engine settings guided by engine temperature. So after a 2 min. hover I checked the temp using a Duratrax Flaskpoint temp. gauge on the cylinder head next to the spark plug. It read 405 F. Isn´t that way too hot :dontknow ??

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Hookmaker

[hookmaker]

Update: The tach doesn´t work!! It is a laser tach and the beam bounces off the carbon weawing on the V blades and gives flipping readings... :arggg:

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Hookmaker

[peter84]

I thought the headspeed for the non-EB version (I have one also) is 1650rpm.
Safef flying, Peter

[Bobs]

1450 for the extended boom (EB) and 1650 for non-EB in normal mode. Idle up 1 (stunt mode) can be set to 1850 but you might want to try 1800 or even 1750 at first. It is a very responsive bird at those head speeds. 405 F does seem to be way too hot.

[Gary Travis]

1450 is where I run my EB, 1650 to 1750 is where I run the standard gasser
Gary

[hookmaker]

Thanks for the anwers.

Without a tach and without measuring and concerning myself about temperature readings I will have to rely on checking the spark plug colour to see if the engine is doing fine and use that also in adjusting the needles.

With a gearing at 6.36:1, 1650 rpm on the rotor will mean an engine speed of 10500. But will I get there with a max carb. opening of only 64% (programmed as per Garys DVD)?

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Hookmaker

[cbergen]

The gear ratio is 6.42:1, and go ahead and put the max carb up to 100%.

Without going in to details, the 64% may work best for AP applications and 810mm blades, but not necessarily an aerobatic bird running 720's......

Using the temp is the most difficult way to diagnose how an engine is tuned due to too many variables associated with it.

How does the engine sound, compared to Gary's video? How does it perform? Are there any vibrations?

[Gary Travis]

As Chris said your throttle curve will be more than 64% on the standard gasser. Also keep in mind that the 64% at high stick is a starting point. The key will be taching the headspead and adjusting the curve accordingly. I also agree that engine temp is not the best way to set an engine.
Gary

[hookmaker]

OK. I will keep my throttle curve points 1 and 2 at 15 and 41% and then go linear to 100% in stead of linear to 64%. And experiment with that. I will try and get hold of a tach a.s.a.p.

Well, she is very similar in sound to what I hear in Garys DVD, a little rich and 4-stroking at idle + a bit on spool up, but goes into a clear 2 stroke after that. No bogs at any point. I did have a few tail kicks associated with engine coughs, but I accredited that to the fact that I added an in-line fuel filter - I have removed it and will test fly without that today.

My needles are L: 1-3/8 and H: 1-1/2 and they will stay there for the first gallon I think.

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Hookmaker[/url]

[hookmaker]

Update: Noticed some fine debris on the top of the main gear and side frames, this is most certainly associated with the Tail gear transmission. Don't know how to upload a pic, but I posted 2 macro pics of this in my personal gallery.

I checked and the tail transmission pinion is tight with a 1 mm slack as per manual. It is pressed down on the tail gear mesh as far as it goes which leaves less than 3/4 mm spacing.

Anything to worry about?


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Hookmaker

[cbergen]

Sorry, this one slipped by me without seeing it.

Here are Henriks pics,

http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/77d910cae3dd892479aa9c1be1eddf2a.jpg

http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/6265ada781eb4d9367f0d2a14ab736cb.jpg

And my reply,

It is somewhat normal, as long as the gear mesh is correct. I have been known to take a toothbrush with a little bit of light oil on it to very lightly lubricate and clean the dust off.


I posted this as it is normal to see some dust from a new gear as they bed into each other. A small amount of lubrication, and I do mean small, will help keep the fuzz down!!

[hookmaker]

OK, thank you Chris. Can you reveal the secret of how to attach photos?

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Hookmaker

[peter84]

Chris,
What type of lubrication do you recommend?
Safe flying, Peter

[cbergen]

little bit of light oil

3 in 1, machine oil, tri flow..........

[v22chap]

Hookmaker
To attach photos use the"REPLY" button clear at the bottom of the "quick reply box "It is on the bottom left side of the screen and next to the New topic button

Once the reply window opens you will see an area below the blue bar to add attachments . In there is a box that you can "browse " your own computer for the picture you want and then another box below that to add a comment and one next to that box to " add attachment" .. .once it is done loading to the forum you can hit the submit button at the bottom of the page and you should have a pix added to the post ,,,and if I remember right you will not see the pix in a preveiw of the post ,,just the attachment added box with the title of your picture in it. The picture don't show up until you submit the post
Good luck and ask more if this don't do it for you.

[peter84]

Chris,
Thank you. I should have read earlier your post better! :arggg:
Safe flying,

[hookmaker]

Thanks Larry - it can't be much easier. Tomorrow it´s taching time - let´s see how she's doing!

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Hookmaker