First attempts at speed flying...

[mkovalcson]

I have a new found respect for people who are really making this work.

I was only using 70% throttle,but this was the first time I've tried anything past 60%.

First of all it really is fast, but until I tried I didn't really have an idea what this was like. I know I haven't pushed it hard yet either.

Second of all I still have whole lot to learn about this before I will attempt this again.

Last of all it will be a little while before I can fly my TDR again

However I can say that it was more exciting than I expected and up until I did something really stupid I was having a blast. I can really sense the addiction factor that is possible

[jhunter]

Did you fly it into the ground or did something break?

[mkovalcson]

Originally Posted by jhunter

Did you fly it into the ground or did something break?

The TDR flew perfectly. It was all me.

[im4711]

Come on now - share with us what happened.

I still remember doing first speed passes last year. Still working on them and I have to say it is a pretty good kick.

[Mercuriell]

It is different flying, have to be very gentle of the cyclic during and especially at the end of a speed run, almost no inputs at all until the end of the run when you wind off the collectve before yanking the heli round. Also have to learn to turn the heli by trust and not expect to visualise it completely using the tail and the rotor disc for orientation far more than in normal flight. I'm just a beginner at this but its a steep learning curve !

Hope you're back in the air again soon

[Danny_Swe]

sorry to hear Mark! hope the electronics made it at least!

I'm also a beginner at this but it's really fun. When I feel dizzy I just do some speed runs and then you wake up again it's really fast, especially in the turns I think, it's like it gets more speed then. I did huge oval runs today with banked curves (is that what you mean with "trust" John?). Really cool! The TDR is steadilly gaining more love from me. I like low HS and then turn it up to 1850 to rip some air, what a feeling!!!

/btw: I can recommend a good tuned flight mode for only speed with lower agility and yaw rates.

[mkovalcson]

The electronics are all intact. I'll share pictures later, when I dare look at the wreckage

My biggest concern was that the batteries would ignite. Amazingly my 65C TP batteries balanced out fine afterwards, however they are curled up a bit at the end, and the Jive is intact but the heat sink is "interesting".

The boom bent 90 degrees, but amazingly the tail is intact. The frame is toast. At least one of the 451's will need a new set of gears.

Life goes on. I have two other helis to fly while I learn more about how to do FFF the right way. I don't really think I had an idea what I was in for.

[drdispatch]

Sorry to hear about this. You have the right attitude about it though!

[mykel]

Sorry to hear Mark,

I have tried working into high speed passes over the last few months, but first with the ole trusty and slow 600 ESP, sort of got my flight line and feel prepared for when I tried my TDR, and what a difference that was, the speed difference the TDR does across a field is ridiculous compared with the ESP.

Hope you get your TDR back in the air real soon as I know you will

[CACN]

Sorry about your crash. That sucks!! Hope you get back in the air soon.

[mkovalcson]

As promised, here is the carnage.

I learned a bit about FFF flight today and I will approach it a lot more carefully in the future. I think I may start another thread soliciting suggestions one what to do with FFF flight.

[CACN]

It is just too painful to see a TDR like this. Get her back in the air.

[marcosp]

Oh, that was a pretty big hit. Be carefully with those lipos, even if they do balance ok the compression on the lithium will make it swell over the next days or weeks and finally the worse cells will start loosing capacity as the polymer crystallizes, meaning it doesn't get to 4.2 and it depletes faster, landing below 3.00v and heating up like crazy. You might get 10 to 20 flight more out of them, just watch them, store them carefully, keep an eye on them while charging.

Hope you get it back in the air soon.

[jhunter]

So what actually happened? Thats about what mine looked like when I lost power and my vbar reset doing 200+kmh. Not pretty. I think I paid about 500 in parts including blades but not tp 65c's. Make sure you order the correct battery tray cross pieces. I got one wrong and was forced to try and straighten it. (turned out ok) There are 3 different size ones. Good luck with your rebuild.

[mykel]

Oh no,

It is so sad to see a beautifully built TDR look like that; the only good part about this is no one gets hurt, only parts and pride and all that can be fixed, even better than before.

You have the right attitude Mark and your TDR will be flying the sky’s before you know it...

[mkovalcson]

The cells are all at 3.83V and I'm putting them in the refrigerator for a little while.

Don't worry. I have parts, but I think I'm going to train a bit and learn more about FFF before I attempt this again.

I may even wait a month before rebuilding it. Sorry if that bothers you, but I feel like I need to think about this for a little while.

[im4711]

ouch - that one does look beaten up quite a bit. Sorry to see sine the damage seems severe.

So still - enlighten us to what you did please.... Looks ilk you put it in the ground at pretty good speed.

[KidHeli]

Yeah FFF is a bit different, it was what drew the crowd around me Saturday and I was nervous as hell with people watching. I have been practicing runs at 1450 RPM to work on technique and just overall practicing the turns at the end of the run. I have been bumping it up to 1750 RPM and your stomach gets knotted up from the fun + nervousness. But when I cranked it up to 1850-1900 RPM Saturday I could feel my thumb shaking as I approached the hard deck and was trying not to jerk her up too hard but also trying to avoid Mother Earth. It was all successful that day but I will be practicing before I hit that ST3 mode again.

Mark I hate that for you man but I know you will get her back together soon.

[Stolla]

Ahh man that sucks big time, but you must not let this crash haunt you, it happens in this hobby, at least if it was a plane you would have thrown everything away!
Practice speed flying on your sim while you're fixing it, at least in phoenix you can see top speed, this helps a lot to find the right procedure for max speed. Also the sim heli is a lot less stable than the real one, almost like my original fless unit, but now with bx it's sublime.
That lipo, don't use it, get your discount crash replacement warrantee

[CyprusFlyer]

Oh no thats is a bad one, sorry to see and the learning curve can get expensive. A friend of mine advised me to calm it down a bit lately, saw I was perhaps getting a little over adventurous with my limited skills.

However, right he was, but there is a fine line between making good progress and staying in the comfort zone. Looks like you just spiked outside of yours a little too much impossible to judge though, except with hindsight of course.

Speed runs look so easy on You Tube so welcome a good thread with ideas on building up to a fairly safe technique.

No doubt be up in the air again Mark, spare kit no doubt to the rescue, and look forward to the result.