The laboratory has been buzzin' again

[nightflyr]

T - 20 hours...

All birds charged.... Tx's charged......, camera's charged....., laptop charged..... .
Charging stations packed, spare batteries packed..

Fleet loading will commence @ T - 8 hrs

[nightflyr]

This is Mission Control.......FMA1... T - 8 Hours 20 minutes....

Main transport, Cleaned, polished and fully fueled, waiting on the pad....

GPS NAV up and running.

All flight equipment loaded and secured.

All camera and video equipment, loaded and stored......

This is Mission Control..............FMA1 you are T - 8 hours 13 minutes and counting..

[Bri]

Have a safe trip nightflyr.

Probably don't have to say this but I will anyways, make sure and take lots of pictures. I don't know if they (FMA) have any rules about what can and cannot be photographed but it would be nice to see their place/factory.

I have read quite a few posts lately about guys forgetting their transmitter. Double check that you have yours.

Again, be safe and have fun.

[Navigator53]

And don't forget your glasses, hearing aids & teeth

And especially don't forget the mortals that got left behind

Tim, Cindy and Howard told us you'd have full access to their internet to keep us up to date

[nightflyr]

Originally Posted by Navigator53

And don't forget your glasses, hearing aids & teeth

And especially don't forget the mortals that got left behind

Tim, Cindy and Howard told us you'd have full access to their internet to keep us up to date

Dangggg they didn't tell me

[mhoebrec]

Have fun night.

[Stumblebee]

And don't forget to take picture and videos!!! Lots of pictures and videos!!!!!

[nightflyr]

Well gentlemen,
I will say this...
The crew of FMA Direct are the nicest friendliest bunch you would ever care to meet and spend a day with.

A readers digest for now....

Howard is a very pleasant, fun and funny person to hang with.

Tim and Jamie Marks, both very down to earth and very knowledgeable people and very easy to converse with.

Nathan, one word to describe him..genius ..plain and simple....but is willing and open to listen to any ideas that might help improve on a design.

And the Ladies of FMA...quite sweet and pleasant to say the least..

In short I will say this..if ever a group existed that wholeheartedly cared about what they do and customer satisfaction.
You'll be hard press to surpass this crew
A rousing :thum bup:

And though I swore I wouldn't reveal the secrets yet to come .....
I can share this..... All of you who purchased the CPII WILL be doing the "happy" dance in the hopefully near future.

And I can promise you..... the other stabilization platforms.....We'll lets just say you'll be hearing "Danngggggggggggggg....mine can't do that!!!!!"

Yes I have a load of pics and video, but after 11 hours on the road I'm a bit worn to start uploading now, but I will get them posted before the weekend is over

[Stumblebee]

We, the humble, unwashed, mortal masses have heard the word and it is good. Now is the time to arm our VISA cards and gird our PAYPAL accounts. Whatever it is, if nightflyr says its good and it comes from FMA, I'm buying it.

I just hope that whatever it is, it will fit on a 450 Pro.

[Navigator53]

Awesome Night!

That's been my experience and everyone I know that has taken the step into Co-Pilot world.

Nothing but good to say about them, their commitment and even personal emails to help us out!

Really looking forward to the new things to come in Co-Pilot world!

PS: Stumblebee, if they'd make a 450 Nitro my friend, you'd be in fuel n fly heaven

Mel

[nightflyr]

As promised..here are some pics from the trip...

Here we have Tim Marks and Howard Matos, scheming up to something with my helicopters...



Howard doing some work with the new CellPro Powerlab8 chargers



That's when they decided they didn't like my chargers and were going to recharge my helicopters using thier equipment



Now the fleet is spread out all over the tables for them



Tim giving me a schooling on how to operate the new high power chargers, these things are power houses.....




This gives Howard a moment to torture his coworker




By dive bombing her with his EF cp



And Tim showing serious concerns




Now we're loading up to go do some Alpha testing at the local field




And now we have Nathan setting up his latest invention.....




Not quite sure what Nathan was attempting to do there..use your own judgment



Going through preflight checks...

[n6nev]

WOW , I'm overwhelmed, good show!

[Stumblebee]

nightflyr, somehow I am not surprised that the folks at FMA would point out why you should be using their battery chargers. You can't expect your batteries to be charged with anything but the most pure and righteous of electricity. After all, this is FMA.

We are going over each and every pixel of every pic. Glad to see that FMA runs a properly equipped "skinkworks".

[nightflyr]

[nightflyr]

Well since building the RJX / ALIGN Hybrid 800, I've be plagued with a tail vibration that has been annoying me...

Being this is a one of heli, the possibilities are endless to what could be the cause...

So being slightly anal, I go and tear down the entire bird...

Starting with the head stripping it down completely and rebuilding it, re doing the servo's and swash, CG and balance the main blades.

Double check the main and auto gears,

Pull and check the motor, pinion and bearings

Reset the mesh accordingly

Pull the boom and TT, checking there is no bend in the custom length TT and that all the bearings are spinning freely.

Tear the tail box apart, checking the bearings and gears also rebuilt the QuickUK tail,
make sure nothing is binding.

Get it all back together, and give it a test hop, and the dang vibration is still there.

So now I have it on the ground @ 0 pitch and spinning at speed, and I noticed the tail blades are a bit fuzzy when they are at speed.

I readjusted the holding screws and spun it up again and still got that fuzzy look (BTW they are KBDD's)

So for giggles I swap them out for a set of CF 105 tail blades, spool up again and dammed if the back end isn't solid as a rock.

My thought is the plastic KBDD's can't handle the 800.

So it just goes to prove the simplest things can bite you in the butt...

At least I know all the mechanics are good to go now

[pril250]

That is what we call here 'the long way round' good on you that you got it solved

[Navigator53]

Good detective work there Night

As I'm reading your ruling out item by item, I'm thinking "harmonic resonance" due the the length of the boom in conjuction with the swept area

Glad you got her figured out!

I'm going to maiden my ol' Raptor 30 tommorrow with CP installed.

I know, I know the CP is worth more than the Heli

But I still enjoy flying it and it gets great gas mileage having no power and all.

Mel

[nightflyr]

As long as you enjoy it ..that's what matters most!!!

[Luvmyhelis]

Originally Posted by nightflyr

As long as you enjoy it ..that's what matters most!!!

Yes, at least I enjoy the mechanical end of this! Tail blades. Who would have figured? Especially on a big heli like that. I have seen it in the higher rev smaller ones with really cheap plastics, and fixed it with Carbonfibre. Just more ridged and less reciprocating weight to cause issues. Some blades that I have seen even have a slightly differant twist to them and dont cause an imbalance until they are spun up. Generally I can find it by using the isolation method. but sometimes it is impossable.
Nice catch sir! Nice catch.

[nightflyr]

Well the Labor day weekend has come and gone, along with it the unofficial end of summer.

I hope you all had a wonderful flying season and manage to squeeze out as many decent days to catch a few flights before the weather turns.

Some of you will brave the cold and snow and fly well into the winter ( Personally ..getting a bit old for that myself )

For myself...this past Holiday weekend was spent final tweaking the fleet for ( at least for me the last ) the NEAT funfly.
The folks @ FMA were kind enough to invite me to accompany them for the weekend, should be a lot of fun...

Yes..... pictures and video will follow, need to get Howard on the sticks of the 800's

Afterwards...Time to discharge the lipo's and store the fleet till next season, and hopefully get to start few new projects ( The lab never sleeps )

So to all of you, stay healthy and fly safely