Rebuilt Helicam

[aramsdell]

Work continuing after washing it in pond. Going from front mount to underslung. exact location not yet determined but there's plenty of room for just about anything under this one. Pix show mount for XPS Rx (unwashed) and AP2000i (also unwashed). Close-up shows AP200 mount(lower) and XPS Rx (upper). There are 5 tailservo brackets there. 1 to hold boom out tight. 2 for servo and 2 for AP2000 mount.
The base Swift is my driven tail conversion.

[aramsdell]

It's after 1 a.m. I finished up a few min. ago. A good preflight in the a.m. and the rebuilt Swift-cam get a test flight. Weight is 4 lbs 12 oz with no battery and no camera mount.

[bullaculla]

Looks good man, you dont stay down long! :)

[aramsdell]

Had a short delay this am. at start of test. Had to change the main shaft as it had a tiny bend from the impact with the pond a couple of weeks ago.
New main shaft in and up she went !
I am going to change to the 600+ motor from the 550+ . the weight with camera and larger batteries is going to be straining that motor. For todays test the heli is weighing in probably a tad over 6lbs. Test flights of <4 min. pretty much used up 4000mah packs. I'm going to probably swap up to something like 5S5000 or5S6000.
AP 2000 works. This (today) was my first experience with it. I still haven't got it all figured out but I managed to calibrate it in the air well enough to fly around using rudder and collective.
I can trim the ship pretty well with stabiliser off. This could easily fly off when trimmed well.


EDIT:
Flew 6 or 7 more short flights. 4S4000and 4S3700FP are really too small for this. I'm getting a little over 3 minutes and coming down WARM. I tried a tired 5S4000 at 85% throttle. I'm running the 8T pinion by-the-way. The 5S at 85% was very ballsy with a 1lb test weight hanging under her. I've ordered a 5S5000. Whether I go back up to the 600+ motor or stay with the 500+ at reduced throttle this will work. I have the 80/100A Electron ESC from Century and it barely got warm. The motor never got too hot to hold my hand firmly aginst indefinately either so battery cap. is the only issue. The 5000 should get me about 5 minutes of quality time.

[aramsdell]

Took some test pix at Sanford, Maine Airport late today. Shooting(free) Sat 8th. The Maine Model Jet Rally. I don't fly jets but I guess I could have bought one after all I've spent in the last year and a half on these eggbeaters and cameras !
I caught a jet on film. He couldn't have been going too fast as the cam froze it in midair at 1/800 th.

Yep the rebuild/redesign is done. AP 2000i. YOU Gotta have one!
These things are great!
It gives you time to look at the downlink and not worry about the thing banking off on you.

Just get one OK???? You won't be sorry. It'll fly better than you guaranteed.