Old - New 44 Magnum

[wolfmanjack]

Hi everyone

I haven’t been around much the last few years due to various things getting in the way … So heres a brief update on my heli .

Basically its a Bergen 44 Turbine I started building in 2012 and it never got finished … it got to about the 90% stage then stopped dead … it and myself moved countries , changed jobs , changed women and it was dragged along and in and out of cupboards every now and again …. but the last 10% never quite got there ....

So now due to the plague putting me temporarily out of work and a recent re interest in foam planks …. It is now going to get finished …. I hope !!!

We have now reached the stage i have no real experience of …. the final setup and programming :-(

Hopefully i can put a few silly questions out here , and in the Bavarian Demon / Helicommand forums as well …. please .

Ive noticed many changes in the time i have been away …. for one no one seems to be flying Bergens much anymore , or at least the stalwarts who were regularly on the forum don’t seem to be …. hopefully they still pop in now and then ... maybe people are and just dont have the time to do the forum thing these days etc .

Here are a few pics of my build as it stands at the moment … I havent decided on a paint scheme yet …. though i am thinking for the moment that i quite like the clean white …. and maybe i will just paint the tanks white as well for the moment …..

please feel free to comment / make suggestions and point out any glaring booboos that i may have incorporated in my build ….

I think i am a fairly thorough kind of person and during the build i was marking and ticking off in the build manual as i completed each step etc …. So i am reasonably confident all is secure that i have done ….. lucky i did that because i cant remember now how i have routed some stuff and fixed things etc…. Its going to take me some time to refamiliarise myself with it .

Over to you guys ….. silly questions to follow shortly …..

cheers , Ian

[wolfmanjack]

heres another couple of snaps i took today ...

And thanks for looking everyone .

cheers , Ian

[floating around]

Very nice!
Unfortunately I can’t help with the turbine side. Interesting to see that you have marked the bolts, I thought I was the only one doing this😂.
Would recommend you ditch the battery’s even if they test ok, not worth the risk.
If you decide for some reason not to carry on with her I would be interested in buying it, I have a bit of a bergen collection and would love a turbine.
Good luck and enjoy!

[wolfmanjack]

Hi Floating Around

Thanks for looking and the comment regarding the batts .... I have 2 of the 3800 thunderpowers ... they are both basically new , but i hear what you mean regarding their age .... though its just like theyve been on a shop shelf for a long while really !!! .... I shall use them for the moment for setup and test hovering etc .... if i get there , ive never flown anything as intimidating as this before ..... though if they show any sign of swelling or weirdness then i will get rid asap.

The bolt marking is just a normal thing to me as an aircraft engineer ... though i think ive overdone the marking a little .... usually just on really important attachments etc .... but it cant do any harm :-)

regarding selling ... this wasnt a sales thread , ive never really thought about selling it in all these years ... but feel free to pm an offer etc , i guess everything has a price ....

I have now removed the tanks for a rub down and some primer and actually powered it up and started on the HC3SX setup wizard ... I seem to be clicking "ok next" rather a lot ... i think i need to be studying Finless's videos about setup a bit more .... but i think my old brain just isnt getting the subtleties of setup here !!!

I think i will have to go through this setup a few times ........ at least ... and ive never yet even plugged in / powered up the Wren ECU for setup !!!

I'll keep y'all posted...

cheers , Ian

[floating around]

Hi Ian,

How’s the bergen coming along?

Re the bolt making, I do it directly after doing loctite on each bolt, i think I’m quite careful but it is always a surprise how many I bolts find later on that aren’t locked/marked. So I do everything regardless of importance as a self check.
And for the first time the other day I actually had it show me a lose bolt! It was great to have the validation.

[wolfmanjack]

Hi Floating

Making enjoyable progress , I’ve got all my wiring finally routed and tidied up , so far, and gone through the Helicommand setup wizard a few times now . I think i am pretty happy with everything so far I have my basic heli mechanics all centred and levelled out and moving correctly .

Things im not so sure about is tail gyro gain … I cant get my head round that at all !!! … And my stabilisation / bailout switch setup …. I need to change the switch i have there to a 2 or 3 position one …. I have the green light on the 3SX and it seems to be in SL mode ok … but i need to understand what i am trying to achieve with the bailout switch better.

I have soldered a pair of wires to one pair of the battery cable connectors to power the EagleTree Logger …. I cant believe they are still selling the same V4 elogger i bought all those years ago !!! …. Now I am now waiting for One deans connector to arrive to connect the power cables to the Logger unit …. Cant believe i dont have a Deans connector …. All mine are standardised at EC3 now .

I cant make up my mind whether to paint the fuel tanks White , Silver or to try and Polish them …. polishing seems like hard work though …. and they might look nice white along with the canopy …. for the moment i think i like the canopy plain white , and it gives me a blank canvas when inspiration comes for a paint scheme…..

I should confess , ive never setup or flown anything this size before … 450 Mini Titan being my previous limit … and just basic manoeuvres then …. Not that im thinking of flying this anytime soon …. but i am looking forward to starting her up :-)

Anyway , thats where we are at at the mo …..

Re bolt marking , I understand your reasoning for marking every bolt …. and it is definitely a 100% foolproof method if you can be disciplined enough to do it from start to finish …. I dont think i could do that though … I chop and change my plans too often …. It would be a mess at the end up … hence why i just try to do what “ I “ think are the “ important ones “ :-)

cheers , Ian

[floating around]

Hi Ian,

I completely understand about changing plans, I have taken to doing a compleat dry build. When I’m happy with things then I go back and do the loctite and mark. That’s probably why I miss so many 😂

Sorry, can’t help with the BD. Have one in the cupboard but never used it. Moved everything to spirit. You mentioned having rescue on a 3 way switch? I would recommend moving it to a momentary switch, easer on off in stressful moments.

It’s going to be a big day when you take her up.
I started a similar way first with a shogun zoom and 280 blades, next up was a bergen industrial twin EB with 890 blades! Huge difference. The shogun was not a very god heli although I did learn allot. bigger helicopters fly so much better than small, partially the older small ones. Currently I have a trex 500x as a warmup/try something new heli it’s geat, but my favourite is the bergen Tazer, just love it!
I really need to get the twin going again, she hasn’t flowed in at least 10 years.