Old School

[trillian]

I finally got round to getting my Knight 3D ready to fly. I have now run the engine and everything seems to be working as it should.

I am reminded of the phrase 'everything old is new again'. I have been flying mostly electric and FBL for a bit over a year now and it just feels so odd to setup a flybarred heli, using subtrims again, things like that. I'm sure I had not used my Align starter in over a year. All these things that used to be routine now feel alien.

Anyway I always wanted to see how the Knight FB head flies so it's starting out that way and we'll see how it goes but if I'm not thrilled with it I'll convert it to FBL. (yeah the wiring is messy, I had to change out the servos as the first set I put in one was wonky, but you don't see it under the canopy anyway :-)

I had to put about 40grams of weight in the nose of the canopy or it was tail-heavy by the way.

[Ah Clem]

Good luck to you trillian!

You should find it very stable, but amazingly quick!

I had been flying Raptors and Trex's and the Knight 3D really opened my eyes.

Great flying helicopter (I need to take mine out and fly it again-it has been sitting for a few years now (since I got the 6HV)).

[trillian]

Yeah, that reminds me I want to weigh it just out of curiousity as it seems quite light.

My one concern is I might have too stiff damping in it now. This is the 8mm feathering shaft version and there was some slop in the plastic inserts so I removed them and discovered that the o-rings I have for the Robbe Milli / Futura fit very well straight onto the the feathering shaft. So it has two per side and I think they're 70 duro, maybe 80.

I'm hoping it will be super quick but accurate and stable in a straight line. If the OS50 isn't enough grunt I have a KME .60 I can try.

Originally Posted by Ah Clem

Good luck to you trillian!

You should find it very stable, but amazingly quick!

I had been flying Raptors and Trex's and the Knight 3D really opened my eyes.

Great flying helicopter (I need to take mine out and fly it again-it has been sitting for a few years now (since I got the 6HV)).

[Mercuriell]

You guys are tempting me to blow the dust off my K3D and Odin, been a few years now since they flew, can I remember how to tune an engine? lol .....

[trillian]

Originally Posted by Mercuriell

You guys are tempting me to blow the dust off my K3D and Odin, been a few years now since they flew, can I remember how to tune an engine? lol .....

The thing is, I had a brand new K3D kit ages ago, must have been at least 3 years ago, probably 4. It sat here and I never got round to building it and finally sold it. I always intended to and wanted to but for whatever reason I didn't get it going. I also had a spare airframe that was a bit tatty and I sold it just last year and that's when I got the bug to have one again. But what gave me the proverbial push was that the guy I sold the spare airframe to was looking for one of the original red and white Knight canopies and I started searching for one as well and stumbled onto this pristine carbon framed K3D at a shop over here for £75.00 and it even had two Futaba 9252 servos on it, canopy is like new. (I swapped out the 9252s for Align DS620s)

So I still have two bottles of Wildcat, two bottles of Rapicon, a bottle of Optifuel and I think about half a bottle of Model Technics fuel that needs to get used up. 'Time for the smell of nitro in the morning :-)

[trillian]

I finally flew it today and it's pretty much just as I expected it to be, very precise, nimble, basically it's what I wanted previous .50 nitro helis to be.

I started with the 30 gram Raptor paddles and it was sooooo sloow roll and flip rate, so those came off and on went a pair of much lighter carbon paddles. Now it was punchy and quick. I did fly it with the Mavrikk Patriot blades but then put on a set of the TT (BBT) carbons and they were much better.

I was just very pleased that it all worked, the engine ran well, nothing came loose or fell off :-) I thought the damping my be too stiff but it's fine, I'm not going to be flying at low headspeeds anyway, it's idle-up, max rpms the whole time.

I ran it with some very old Wildcat 30%, I have two bottles that had never been opened but are probably 3 years old now maybe more, so I don't know what happens to the nitro over time, I suspect it may be more like fresh 20% but in any case it does work just fine.

So I'm happy with todays results and will be flying the Knight fairly regularly and will probably just leave it flybarred, at least for the moment, and I'll see if I can fine-tune it a little on the gov rpms and maybe up the pitch a bit.

[Ah Clem]

"I started with the 30 gram Raptor paddles and it was sooooo sloow roll and flip rate, so those came off and on went a pair of much lighter carbon paddles. "

I tried several different paddles on mine.

If you can find a set of KBDD "TWEE" Paddles (Tony Whiteside designed them) that will make it even faster but still keep it smooth around center.

Glad to see one of these flying!

[trillian]

Originally Posted by Ah Clem

I tried several different paddles on mine.

If you can find a set of KBDD "TWEE" Paddles (Tony Whiteside designed them) that will make it even faster but still keep it smooth around center.

Glad to see one of these flying!

Yeah I'll have a look for those. I used KBDD paddles back when I was flying a Trex 450 and they really helped keep it punchy but still stable in a hover.

Right now I have some Raptor green paddles on the Knight as they have more surface area than the carbon paddles so we'll see how that goes.

---update, I just ordered some of those KBDD paddles, in bright orange. I'll probably fly the Knight tomorrow and make do with what I have for now and then next time I can try the TWEE paddles (Tony Whiteside Extreme Edition).

[skunkworx]

The TWEE's will make a pretty decent difference IMHO. I didn't really fly them for long when I did have FB still, but they were a really good combination of speed and stability that I couldn't find in carbons. There is always the tradeoff of leading edge shape and attack angle to the response of the paddles. The thinner, and sharper the edge, the quicker the response which the CF's just never did feel like enough even though they weighed next to nothing. But to each his own I suppose? The KBDD's worked well for me so I have no problem endorsing them whole-heartedly. ESCPECIALLY on any of the Raptors (which need all the help they can get!)

[trillian]

Originally Posted by skunkworx

The TWEE's will make a pretty decent difference IMHO. I didn't really fly them for long when I did have FB still, but they were a really good combination of speed and stability that I couldn't find in carbons. There is always the tradeoff of leading edge shape and attack angle to the response of the paddles. The thinner, and sharper the edge, the quicker the response which the CF's just never did feel like enough even though they weighed next to nothing. But to each his own I suppose? The KBDD's worked well for me so I have no problem endorsing them whole-heartedly. ESCPECIALLY on any of the Raptors (which need all the help they can get!)

I got the KBDDs and have them on and balanced etc. but have not flown the Knight with them yet. It was not bad with the carbon paddles (I think they're 'V blade' paddles) and the KBDDs have more surface area and a sharper profile so if they're even a little punchier it will be welcome.

On my Raptor 50, which is now retired from active duty, what made it come alive was a set of G-force mixer arms. Those longer arms gave it a lot more pitch, both cyclic and collective, and that really woke it up as well as being super stable in the wind.

[Ah Clem]

"On my Raptor 50, which is now retired from active duty, what made it come alive was a set of G-force mixer arms. Those longer arms gave it a lot more pitch, both cyclic and collective, and that really woke it up as well as being super stable in the wind."

Wow! I did that too, as my Raptor was just too slow when I got it. It last flew as a flybarred machine with TWEE Paddles and the G-Force arms. Since then it has been to converted to FBL with a Compass head and a Robird.

[trillian]

The TWEE paddles are exactly what it needed for that little bit more punch in the cyclics.

I got them a few weeks ago but today was the first time I got a chance to fly with them. I don't think it needs any changes now, it's right where it needs to be and feels great with those paddles. :-)

[Ah Clem]

OUTSTANDING TRILLIAN!

[trillian]

Originally Posted by Ah Clem

OUTSTANDING TRILLIAN!

Thanks :-) I really wasn't sure if I'd get on with a .50 nitro again after flying electric for the last year and a half or so but it's just as much fun IMHO and I think it keeps me a bit sharper due to the natural drifting of the flybar. It's quite accurate, it goes where you point it and doesn't have any bad habits in flight.

So far I have been flying with 600mm TT carbons and they're pretty good but annoyingly they will not fold back in the grips, the bit at the root sticks out too much. So for that extra measure of convenience I must try some other blades and get some that suit it and will also fold back.

The thing I love about nitro is that you can just grab it and go fly with very little notice. I only have to charge a couple 2s RX packs. Lately the weather is so unpredictable in this country it can be very frustrating trying to plan ahead with electric, to have the packs charged knowing you'll actually be able to fly.

[skunkworx]

I love nitro for the same reason. Usually if your packs are low its minutes to charge and what seems like hours of flight and there's no waiting unless you choose to go that route. I just miss the days of sub $20 gallons of fuel. With a 50 it takes a while to empty a bottle so its family unnoticeable unless its all that you fly. Even then its not insanely expensive if you can buy in bulk.

[trillian]

It's quiet in here so I'll just post a quick pic from today's flying (Thursday). It just seemed like the perfect day to take the Knight out again and see how much fuel I could get through.

I should have spent less time chatting as I got a tiny bit sunburned but so it goes. The Knight was flawless once again. Last time I took it out the weather was much cooler and windier and I tried a set of Edge flybarless blades so I left them on and they seem to suit the Knight really well.

[Rob43]

This was a cool post, Trillian. Really burns my ass that Compass exited nitro helis. Wish they would've done what it takes to survive. They discontinued the 3D+ not long after introducing it, and parts have been a tough proposition.

[trillian]

Originally Posted by Rob43

This was a cool post, Trillian. Really burns my ass that Compass exited nitro helis. Wish they would've done what it takes to survive. They discontinued the 3D+ not long after introducing it, and parts have been a tough proposition.

Yeah it's a shame about the 3D+ because it looked like it had a lot of nice features. I didn't realise they had discontinued it till it was too late.

I just flew my Knight again today as it was such a pleasant sunny afternoon here. I'm finding it's great as a heli to try new moves in real life that I have worked on in the sim and I like having a worry-free 8 minutes in idle-up the whole time :-)

Over time I collected some spares from a shop here and on Ebay and I think I have everything to completely rebuild the Knight if I had to and I've got several booms and belts etc. I'd hate to have to stop flying it so I just have to not crash and I think I can keep it going for a good while yet.