1st flight (new shorts please)

[steve c]

Hi all, So today's the day she get's gets her 1st flight! and being honest i'm bricking them!! she's a 50 scale airwolf and i've only been flying almost 6 months so my skill's aint quite up there yet, but i can get my raptor up and away and back again in 1 peice. So i'm looking at just hovering this 1 for now, any tips for me as there will be no training aids to bail on and what are retracts like for landing with??? Club i'm with mainly deal in fixed wing so sort of turn their noses up at heli's so i'm going it alone. Any advice greatful...

Will let you know how we get on.....

steve c

[chisnsid]

awwww man! I feel for you... I'm nervous about flying and haven't got hold of a heli just yet! Wish u all the best mate! any pics by the way? Would be keen to see some of her flying!

Question I'm bustinf to ask....
... will you be humming the airwolf theme tuune to yourself while flying her? LOL

Mikey

[steve c]

HA HA i have to laugh cause your right i've been humming that tune for days now and can't get it out of my head!!! But thanks for your reply and best of luck getting your heli....

steve c

[jimbob]

My advice - have fun

Good luck...

[Kwickkwack]

Best of luck, but as jimbob says, have fun, this is suppose to be a hobby!

[Disc]

Just rember it won't be nimble like the Raptor, turns will probably be slower
and it will feel heavier but enjoy it above all.

[steve c]

well she went up and came back in 1 peice! whooo! bit shakey still needs a bit of tuning, noticed it wanted to keep turning so had to do a lot of tail work.only used a tank of fuel nerves got the better of me!!( and i forgot a spare pair of shorts) Bit worried about the shaking? only at certain rpm really wobbles, at 1 point thought it was gonna topple could this be balance prob?? Still she flew...at last!

steve c

[Raptorite]

Steve,

Well done on flying your scale baby. You might well have already noticed that as has already been mentioned, it will feel "heavy" in the air. this has it's good and bad points, the good part is that it should feel more stable and less suseptable to changes in wind conditions. The bad point and it's only bad until you get used to it, is that you will need to be mindful of the pitch control. You will need to get on the pitch earlier in a descent than you would a pod and boom model, as it has that much more weight to take up.

The vibration problem could be a number of things but from what you describe I would look at the main rotor blades first, as they might be a little tight in their grips and also be a little sticky, so if one or other of them is slightly out of true it will cause the vibration until it has enough energy behind it to move the blade into line. The way to tell if this theory is right or not is to see if it does it only the once, or if you can repeat it time and time again at the same sort of revs. If it does it only once then this theory is likely but if it does it repeatedly, then it has to be something else.

Cheers,
Pete.

[steve c]

Thanks for reply, i'll look at the blades 2morrow, i'm a bit worried cause it didn't just wobble it threw it side 2 side like i said i thought it was going to topple? but only at a certain rpm? up and down the throttle??

steve c

[Raptorite]

It might be a blade out of balance then rather than what I have just mentioned. Is there any sort of add on colour covering on the blades that might cause then to go out of balance?

Cheers,
Pete.

[steve c]

No nothing added just plain carbon fiber blades. If they are out of balance dose that mean new 1's?? or can somthing be done???

[Raptorite]

They can be balanced, so no need to replace them. The first step is to bolt them together with a long bolt such as the two roots are end to end with blades themselves pointing out in opposite directions. Then rest the ends of the bolts on the top of a couple of sturdy implements such as tall glasses or mugs, if one blade drops straight away you know it is heavier than the other one, which will cause the out of balance vibrations.

If this is the case, add some tracking tape or such like to the lighter of the two blades to bring their weight up to the same level. You will know when you have achieved this as the blades will maintain a horizontal attitude on the make shift balancer.

Try this first and see how you get on.

Cheers,
Pete.

[Ade_Law]

is it wobbling on the ground or in the air?

Ade

[steve c]

Hi ade, just on ground worse when just landed and bring it back to idle. I thought maybe pod needs supporting somewhere cause you can see it shake in fuzz....

steve c

[Ade_Law]

its a common problem with the scale stuff i have played with.

try putting the model on the ground then flick throttle hold. it works well on the century hawk/airwolfs i have had the privilege (cough) to fly

Ade