New FAI world record “F5 Open duration electrical RC helicopter” by some helifreakers

[redbird300]

Yesterday, Augusth 4th, after months of planning and testing, two Helifreakers (= my buddy user “Ber60” and myself) attempted to set a new world record for the longest continuous flight with an electric RC helicopter in the F5 Open class. And according to the national officials (representing the FAI) that were present to verify and evaluate the attempt, we succeeded.

The new official world record time will be 1 hour 46 minutes and 22 seconds, after the homologation procedure that will be started by the FAI soon. FYI: the previous record time was 1 hour 17 minutes and 17 seconds, flown by the German Werner Heieck in september 2011, using a heavily modified Henseleit TDR.

With a big thanks to many people on Helifreak, and especially the staff, for all these years of support and allowing me to make use of this great forum, which makes a part of the success of this attempt, as it helped me tremendously to progress further in this hobby. I wanna dedicate this record to Helifreak.

More details and pictures can be found here, and more will follow in the next days:
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=432329

[Ah Clem]

Congratulations!

Well done!

(I assume this was not done with the Schluter Cobra?).

[WillJames]

Originally Posted by redbird300

Yesterday, Augusth 4th, after months of planning and testing, two Helifreakers (= my buddy user “Ber60” and myself) attempted to set a new world record for the longest continuous flight with an electric RC helicopter in the F5 Open class. And according to the national officials (representing the FAI) that were present to verify and evaluate the attempt, we succeeded.

The new official world record time will be 1 hour 46 minutes and 22 seconds, after the homologation procedure that will be started by the FAI soon. FYI: the previous record time was 1 hour 17 minutes and 17 seconds, flown by the German Werner Heieck in september 2011, using a heavily modified Henseleit TDR.

With a big thanks to many people on Helifreak, and especially the staff, for all these years of support and allowing me to make use of this great forum, which makes a part of the success of this attempt, as it helped me tremendously to progress further in this hobby. I wanna dedicate this record to Helifreak.

More details and pictures can be found here, and more will follow in the next days:
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=432329

AWESOME!!!!!!!! Congratulations and thank you VERY much for your support over the years. AWESOME!!!!!!!!

[BountyHunter51]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

[Mixmaster Pilot]

Congratulations.

Some good thinking going on as well. Not sure if I would have gone the way you did on the technical aspects, but I'm not the world record holder am I

[kavic5150]

Simply amazing. Congratulations.

[Luigi_tuga]

Cool
Could the the flying time could have been eventually higher if the pilot have not felt asleep?
One question: what was the flying routine? keep the heli always at a steady moving speed?
Never thought the bar could be set that high!!

[heliphlier]

Way to go guys. Its accomplishments like these that keep the hobby moving forward. An hour and forty-six minutes is some time to stand focused on that heli. I am not sure I could manage that aspect alone. Congrats

[redsoper]

Congratulations!

[Shogun71]

Congratulations.

What if you have to pee.....

Any pictures of the heli?

[redbird300]

Thank you all very much.

Luigi, there's no real obliged flying routine, it has to stay airborne without any exterior help, that includes ground effect, ascending winds from nearby slopes, etc... So simply hovering out of ground effect is OK, or also flying around, as you wish. The FAI wouldn't even mind keeping it inverted all the time for example, lol.

But perhaps your question was what WE did ? We choose to hover it, like 5 to 10 meters high, as the tail holding power is extemely weak, a choice that has been made to save as much energy as possible, by using a very, very low tail speed. Also recovering from descending winds was hard enough as it is, the heli is always flying at it's utter limits, one really needs to anticipate all the time. And there was a bit of wind to help us get slightly more lift, so no use flying circles or so. At this level of records, you have to look for all the limits or you simply don't get where you want.

EDIT: we flew until the lipos were completely empty, the low voltage cut-off was disabled, and let the packs simply die. Imagine that they survived ! Discharge rates or so low that it didn't hurt them much. Don't do this at home, lol.

Originally Posted by Luigi_tuga

Cool
Could the the flying time could have been eventually higher if the pilot have not felt asleep?
One question: what was the flying routine? keep the heli always at a steady moving speed?
Never thought the bar could be set that high!!

[redbird300]

Originally Posted by Shogun71

Congratulations.

What if you have to pee.....

Any pictures of the heli?

Good observation, we thought of that. I didn't drink two hours before the attempt, and used chewing gum to get rid of my thirsty throat, no kidding.

A few pics here, more to follow in the next days:
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread...=432329&page=7

[Luigi_tuga]

Nice pics!
that is a light weight setup.
Wouldn't FBL save some hundreds of mA?

[redbird300]

Originally Posted by Luigi_tuga

Nice pics!
that is a light weight setup.
Wouldn't FBL save some hundreds of mA?

Not really sure at these very low headspeeds, there's very little drag already now, and you'd need better (heavier) servo's, which are working more, and so on. Might try it one day though, you never know. All my "normal" helis are FBL by the way, so it's not that I didn't think of it, but we didn't go there for now. And I would need another head, or modify the existing one without endangering reliabilitiy, while keeping the added benefit of less weight in FBL setup. And vibration levels in this heli are rather high, as the frame and tail are very weak, not sure that the FBL controller would really like it.

[Mixmaster Pilot]

Considering you are just hovering, NOBAR is an option to experiment with for next time! Removes the drag of the clockwork, and you don't waste precious Mah on running an electric device.

The trick is, will you need to make more inputs to keep the heli level, in turn using more energy?

Also you can try experimenting with a single rotor blade. lol, sorry, look at me, you now have the record and we are already thinking of ways to better it! Damn helifreaks.

[Ber60]

Hi Liugi

I'am the "mechanic" of the heli and like Raf said it was an option
Our biggest concern where the blades, we tried many type's of blades and the carbon one's where the heaviesd with a wopping 145gr, finnally we settled on a-symetric wooden blades who came to only +-70gr , we din't even put the plastic sleeve on them I've just treated them with wax

Erwin

[Ber60]

Hi Mixmaster Pilot

What do you mean with a "single rotor blade" lol

[Mixmaster Pilot]

Ber60, here is a link that highlights the added efficiency of using only 1 blade. Not sure if your setup wouldn't be more efficient though.

[redbird300]

Originally Posted by Mixmaster Pilot

Ber60, here is a link that highlights the added efficiency of using only 1 blade. Not sure if your setup wouldn't be more efficient though.

My buddy Ber60 already went there, a long time ago (2009), even using not only 1 main blade, but also 1 paddle and 1 tailblade:
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=155621
That might be the next step indeed, we'll see.

[Blayd]

Outstanding!! And congratulations!!! I'm simply amazed!