2017 Flight Log

[rcnut]

Time to start a new year of flying! Happy New Year guys!

[rbort]

I had 6 tanks on New Year's eve and two yesterday on NYD. Just so its logged, here is my current flight counts:

Raptor 90, Hanson 300, 267 flights
MA 1005, Hanson 280, 4039 flights
Spectra-g, Hanson 270, 3120 flights
Whiplash-g V1, Hanson 270, 1280 flights
Whiplash-g V2, Hanson 300, 30 flights

I subtracted 2 from the whiplash for the 1/1/17 start.

Personal gasser totals not including OPG, 8736 tanks.

-=>Raja.

[rbort]

Came out to meet Jeremy and John. No wind a big draw for all (breathless), totally overcast and 43 degrees down to 39F, turned out to be a great day.

Jeremy took Joey up for several flights, John flew his electric slick 50 I think is what its called, and I worked on the 1005 as well as flew the Whiplash v1.

1005 needed some governor tweaking, I think I got that licked. Had to redo the servo arm and change some hidden menu settings to get it the way I wanted it. The weather was so nice I put 3 in a row on it before putting it away and pulling out the Whiplash.

John's hands got cold, so I offered him the radio glove heater. I have two deep cycle batteries in my truck, and we ended up running both heaters all afternoon. John got spoiled flying in 80 degree weather in January, and not only that he was sitting on my tailgate while flying to boot. Looks like I got a new buddy he loved the warmth couldn't wait to get his hands back inside of the glove even while waiting to take a flight!

The whiplash went up for 3 in a row, last takeoff was at sunset (4:25pm) and I landed somewhere around 4:45 as it was getting dark. John and I alternated flights after Jeremy left, and we practically closed out the field.

MA 1005 = 3
Whiplash V1 = 3

2017 count:

MA 1005 = 3
Whiplash V1 = 5

Total = 8
Gallons Mixed = 3.50

-=>Raja.

[jharkin]

Johns plane is a Extreme Flight 60" Slick 580:
http://extremeflightrc.com/60-Slick-...me_p_2233.html

Unlimited acro planes do the same silly things with numbering as rc heli companies do. Some use the horsepower rating as the number (Extra), and others use the engine displacement in cubic inches (Edge, Slick, etc). Still others just use model numbers (Yak, Sukhoi).

This is how an Extra 300 and an Edge 540 end up with the same engine - a Lycoming IO-540 making 300hp.


It was a nice day to be out.... Joey has been desperately wanting to come out with the guys the last few times I got out so he was thrilled to be with us yeasterday, however at 6 years old he overestimates his patience for a long session and got cold and tired after a couple hours. He is doing quite well on his trainer however and its time to start teaching him without the gyro aid. Maybe he may yet solo this year..


Speaking of batteries, the little 50Ah AGM deep cycle box I built is holding up great. I ran the heater for 4 hours yesterday and also charged a bunch of 3S-2200 lipos for Joey off it at the same time. It ran all afternoon averaging 5-6 amps load and took back less than 1/3 capacity when I recharged it last night.


Countsthis year so far:
Whiplash-G: 2
Trex 450: 1 (new years day)
Sensei training flights w/ Joey: 3
Total: 6


I have to to the king with his 8000 flights. I have only 257 gasser heli flights all-time. Maybe 500-700 total gas lfights including planes. Probably only a couple thousand flights combined on EVERYTHING over the last 16~17 years.

[rbort]

Today was one of those cold and a little bit windy day. 34 down to 31F mostly cloudy and wind gusting to 12mph. I turned the nose of the truck into the wind and that solved 90% of my issues. Heated radio glove felt fantastic, the music blaring and the power screaming, I was able to rock and roll with both the Whiplash and the Spectra for 3 flights each. I need some guy with brave hands to take the cold and film a little snippet for you guys of the cold weather flying, its remarkable.

Ansy was at the field but froze early and practically left when I got there. He never dresses enough, plus, he was not turned into the wind. Regardless of the wind, I enjoyed the day and the snow cover added to the wow factor with all the sliding and skiing autos throwing snow left and right.

I got a new name for an auto, I dove down and at the last minute pumped the collective to stop it and land, the snow blew in a big dust cloud around the heli, that was a puffin' auto. Also for fun was sitting on the ground, running it up and throwing in some negative pitch, the snow was powdery and it would just suck up the rotors and go straight up, it was like snow blowing with helis. Fun little stuff you can do in the winter

Couple of days ago was another day, 45 degrees and practically a vacuum with no wind whatsoever, I was on the phone with Ansy and remember telling him if the day could just pause the way it is now, I would put in 8 flights in a row. As it was I flew 6 flights in a row until the TX battery ran out and ended my flights for that day.

Limping Mark showed up on the calm 45 degree day, and decided he was going to fly the nitro plane again and have me check it out, Well while I was flying the 1005 (too bad he didn't wait for me), he took it off and shortly after takeoff the engine quit as he was turning left and next thing you know I see him augering in behind the tree line. I said to him you turned it too hard and pulled back too much, he said he was trying to turn back to the field and didn't have much speed or altitude. I begged to differ but I didn't comment much, I think he over reacted, too bad it went in. He wanted me to go get it, but I wasn't up for going bush walking in thorns with ticks, so I let him get it, I did the nice thing of getting him his cane and carrying the plane back from the edge of the bushes back to the pitts.

Today's count

Whiplash V1 = 3
Spectra-g = 3

Couple of days ago's count

MA 1005 = 3
Whiplash V1 = 3

2017 count:

MA 1005 = 6
Spectra-g = 3
Whiplash V1 = 11

Total = 20
Gallons Mixed = 5.75

-=>Raja.

[rbort]

After some beautiful while powder snow yesterday, I headed out to the field to clean up my space and get a couple of flights in. It was bright and cold, 20.7 degrees down to 20.1 (really didn't move much), so I had a t-shirt and 2 sweatshirts on plus my jacket to stay warm.

At the gate, after shoveling paths in the snow to walk from my truck and not step in snow, I found the lock frozen locked and I couldn't turn the key. Damn. I didn't have a lighter with me or any heat to warm it up, only thing I found was a can of WD40 which saved the day. Took me about 15 minutes or rocking the key and spraying the lock twice before it opened.

Once in I was able to download the snowblower and get to work. 3/4 way though I caught a rock from the pebble road in the auger and it sheared the pin, bummer, down to 1/2 chute the other 1/2 was plowing the snow and overflowing out the side. I stayed with it 1/2 bites at a time until the place was cleaned up and then put it aside and brought out the Whiplash to get some cleanup reward flights.

The wind was blowing somewhat and in general you might get cold but I was hot from cleanup work so the first flight went easy and so much fun it flamed out upwind I had to turn around back to the carrier deck. On the way down I realized I'm heading for a mistake right to the deck so I steered outbound away from the LZ and turned back into the wind for a feather light landing. Would have not fared so well trying to land in the LZ downwind, especially since its small in comparison to a runway and a sliding landing is out of the question (slide right into the fence).

One thing of note today at 20F the engine was bogging at full power and I had to richen it up some more 2nd time since FL settings. Also autos seemed to hang forever felt like the air was very dense.

Clear blue skies was terrible for visibility for high autos, or distant flying with low sunlight. I much prefer solid overcast the model is alot easier to see.

I did fuel up for a 2nd flight, felt like I hadn't had enough so I fueled up for a 3rd. Part way through the 3rd I started to feel a little bit cold as I was cooling down from the wind, and decided good to go, finished that one and packed it up.

I tried twice to take pictures for you guys, but my iphone shut down twice due to being cold. Iphones hate the cold apparently, and they just shut off even with 75% battery left. I rewarmed it in my pocket, got it booted back up 1/2 hour later, went to take the picture, while I was framing it the darn thing shut off again.

Whiplash V1 = 3

2017 count:

MA 1005 = 6
Spectra-g = 3
Whiplash V1 = 14

Total = 23
Gallons Mixed = 5.75

Edit: Just checked, at some point today after I left (reset it then), the wind gusted to 22mph, no wonder I was a little bit cold during the 3rd flight...right now is 12F.

-=>Raja.

[Rogue22]

Raja, such dedication with your flights in such unbelievably cold weather! The high today for me in Florida was 57F and windy. Now to me, my weather felt cold.... Thank you for keeping it in perspective! Also thank you for your humorous and informative update. I guess gas doesn't freeze!

Steve


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[rbort]

Tomorrow promises to be a nicer day, about the same temp of 20F but looky here, only 5mph wind and cloudy....hmmmm...nice, might just be a day, I really love calm weather flying.

Yes gas doesn't freeze but my water bottles do, in the past I've taken some pictures the walls of the bottle turn to ice, water just in the center. You shake it and it sounds like broken glass inside the bottle. Coldest I've flown and sustained being out there is 14F down to 10F, so 20 is within my "range" so to speak...! When its that cold (less than 15F), I fuel up the helicopters at home, come in with the heated radio glove already heated with the radio inside, I just have to pull start a couple of times and I'm on my way. Then what I do is "hot fuel" the helicopter, so before it runs out completely, I just land, run up to it while idling, remove the return line hose, and fuel it back up. Takes about a minute and by the time I'm done my hands are starting to freeze and the heated radio glove is very welcoming, rather stay in there than anywhere else. Great thing about gassers is that its 20 minutes per fuel tank, so my hands get a chance to get nice and warm inside the glove. I get all my flights in with that heli, then shut it down, put it away, and start the other one with the full tank and hot fuel if needed.

I usually bang out about 6 tanks on average, sometimes up to 8 when the weather is perfect, and 3 to 4 when its not so good.

Here is what my street looked like this morning prior to heading to the field. They are a little under exposed and darkish, should have been brighter but I didn't pay attention to the exposure while I was flying.

-=>Raja.

[rbort]

I certainly had to cash in today's picture perfect day. The skies were mostly overcast, temp was 25F down to 18.7 when I landed, and then temps crashed to 16.2 by the time I packed up after the sun came out last 1/2 hour of the day and then set. Now at home its 12F, wind gust shows at 7 mph while I was out.

I got some pictures for you today to show the place, and a little short video as well. I grabbed the Whiplashes (ooh, new word for me) and flew V2 for 3 in a row with the 300 and then switched to V1 for 3 more in a row with the 270.

The 300 makes more power, but consumes more gas, and for winter flying for me, the 270 makes plenty of power so its more than sufficient to fly that one. In the summer time when its hot and humid and things tend to bog more easily the 300 saves the day over the 27.

Nothing out of the ordinary today, just a bunch of stick banging to music (flying to the beat) and many autos to the carrier deck -- that little 20x10 piece of cleared area in front of me as everywhere else is deep snow I don't want to walk in.

This time I kept the phone warm in my pocket and was able to pull it out to take some pictures here and there. The first 3 you can see the space I clear to park and turn around to go back out of the field. Luckily no-one has come in yet besides me so my tire tracks are still pristine in the snow and I try to stay in them all the way as its easier to ride that way I can get in and out with 2WD now.

A short video clip, phone memory ran out and cut the video but I was practically done anyways:

IMG 38751 (0 min 55 sec)

Whiplash V1 = 3
Whiplash V2 = 3

2017 count:

MA 1005 = 6
Spectra-g = 3
Whiplash V1 = 17
Whiplash V2 = 3

Total = 29
Gallons Mixed = 5.75

-=>Raja.

[Rogue22]

Raja, very nice pictures of your neighborhood. It looks like what I expect on Christmas/New Year cards. Then you added a dose of reality with your FROZEN flying field pictures! How does that saying go again? "Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there"!

Since I have no gasser yet, I probably do not qualify to add to the 2017 Flight Log in this forum, but yesterday afternoon I logged 5 late afternoon flights on electric helis. It is always intimidating on that last flight, trying to get finished before complete darkness. It actually got a little bit cool too, at 72F when I quit for the day....

Happy to say, I have flown 9 flights so far this year, which if I remember correctly is more than the total of all my 2016 flights. My goal for 2017 is to take this stuff seriously!

Steve

[rcnut]

Rogue22...

You can fly any type of heli here. The point of this thread is to see how many flights you can achieve in a years time. This thread initially started out trying to get 1000 flights in a years time. Raja achieved that a few years ago. We liked the concept of that and have continued to keep this thread going. My goal is to hit 500 flights in a year with everything else I have going on.

So join in and share your adventures!

[jharkin]

Yeah, agreed - please feel free to share what 'ya brung. I fly airplanes about half the time and post about that too. Anything thats airborne is fair game.


Now, we may try to convert you to buying a gas heli along the way... Just 'sayin..

[rbort]

We may try to convert you to buying a gas heli along the way... Just 'sayin..

I've been there done that to Jeremy!

-=>Raja.

[SlezY83]

Today, it stopped snowing for few hours and temperature went from -13C to about 0 and was sunny - I went out with my Helilbug 600. Funny fly above to fresh snow :-):

My Helibug 600 - Fun in Winter (3 min 10 sec)

I use heated radio glove, but the window was sweaty after some time. How do you deal with it?

[rbort]

Remember this:

I got a new name for an auto, I dove down and at the last minute pumped the collective to stop it and land, the snow blew in a big dust cloud around the heli, that was a puffin' auto. Also for fun was sitting on the ground, running it up and throwing in some negative pitch, the snow was powdery and it would just suck up the rotors and go straight up, it was like snow blowing with helis. Fun little stuff you can do in the winter

In your video you can see exactly what I meant by the "Puffin' Auto"!

As for the radio glove, build your own with a fan and 4 10watt resistors in series over a heat sink and it will be like a mini hot air furnace which means no fogging on the windshield. Mine stays clear all the time, in only fogs if I turn off the heat with my hands inside.

Snow cover like that adds a +1 rating to any day, making a an Eleven!

Hey what was that power landing at the end? You're not supposed to do that...! Climb up and hit throttle hold and you need to land it on that strip perfectly with no power!!

-=>Raja.

[SlezY83]

I use this configuration:




I will consider the fan, which could help. How about an antifog liquid, which is for used for optical glasses?

About the landing :-). I was not at the airfield, but on a roar between fields and under the snow, there is a lot of bumpy ice. I had to land in the middle of the road. I was not in the "home environment", therefore I landed under power.

But I have to say, it was maybe the most funny day. I wanted to train some figures, but I spent whole flight playing with the snow :-).

[jharkin]

Originally Posted by rbort

I've been there done that to Jeremy!

-=>Raja.

He is a very pursuasive fellow... not that he really needs to be, gassers sell themselves. Once you get one, you will get hooked.

Raja is also a great mentor/teacher who has helped many helifreaker learn gassers and the joys of auto.

[Rogue22]

I am still amazed about the "heated radio glove".... At the beginning of the year, I joined TORCHS, in Orlando. This past weekend, I had my safety orientation and check flight. WOW, on beautiful weather, great group of guys, very nice field, minimal breeze, and a perfect temperature of 72F to 76F degrees. I also may have brought up in conversation the issue of flying in snow and ice and... those heated radio gloves. Do they make an air-conditioned, dehumidified body suit for our hot Florida summers??

So, the update from me, 10 flights on Sunday and 11 flights for me on Monday. That brings me to a total of 30 for 2017. Maybe I will get in 100 flights this year! Or was that 1,000?

Steve

[rbort]

You do need full body air conditioning in FL to stay cool 9 months of the year. The glove is only for your hands, so we need to make a cooled human glove that you can step in!

I did get out and flew my whippy for 2 flights, but it was shifting winds and I just didn't enjoy it. I had to go to Needham later to pickup my wife's eyeglasses, so I decided to bag it and go home early. It was basically overcast, 40 degrees and winds gusting to 16mph. I'd rate the day a 5 out of 10. I had the Spectra in the back of the truck as well but didn't even pull it out..

Whiplash V1 = 2

2017 count:

MA 1005 = 6
Spectra-g = 3
Whiplash V1 = 19
Whiplash V2 = 3

Total = 31
Gallons Mixed = 5.75

-=>Raja.

[rbort]

Overcast, calm and 42 degrees down to 40F. Another day, it was like flying in a vacuum or indoors, breathless!

I took the 1005 and the Spectra for an outing. Started with the 1005 did a couple of circuits but after the first auto something seemed wrong on takeoff, it leaned and then jumped level. Huh? Upon closer inspection I found that the right servo gears are stripped. I'm puzzled I can't remember if I turned on the radio with the blade holder on or something like that in the shop, somehow they were hurt and failed today. Oh well that's why I bring 2 of them, put it away and whipped out the Spectra.

That flew great, I did alot of climbouts and autos plus tic tocs and piro flips. I noticed that the engine is making more power than I'm using at full collective, it runs away if I turn on the governor, so I have to go into the demon software and add 5 more points of pitch to it to consume that power.

I put is up for 5 in a row and finished the gas container. I had a 2nd full container there but I had my fill so I packed up. My hands were hot in the radio glove, it wasn't cold enough to challenge it.

Spectra-g = 5

2017 count:

MA 1005 = 6
Spectra-g = 8
Whiplash V1 = 19
Whiplash V2 = 3

Total = 36
Gallons Mixed = 5.75

-=>Raja.