Aches and pains

[pgkevet]

Always soem niggling issues.
My spectra G got an overhaul about 19mths ago and new fuel lines etc and hen on the second flight and third flights the engine kept dying on flips or loops. After a dozen forced autos I'd had enough and put it away.
I only got it out again a few weeks ago and went through the thing. The replaced hays line had indeed split from the clunk. I also foudn one of the throttle servo standoffs missing - don;t know how I missed that!

Anyway all gone through and sorted again.. last was a leaking tank bung. I ordered an HK alloy set and bung to fit the dubro tank.. fitted that and it still leaked. Taking it off the HK bung had split on tightening..so a new dubro gasser bung ordered and fitted today..no leaks.

Finally a test flight. It took a few puls to start after near 18mths unused but once fird up it purred happily. A simpel set of circuits, some flips and loops and a bit of simpe inverted hovering and everything was fine. I ws just coming in to land after 6 mins to check engine temps and it started misfiring. So back to idle2 and some hovering near the helipad..picked up, stumbled, then dropped to a tickover..another easy auto.

Just been looking at it and it looks like it's stripped the throttle servo gear set (9252)!! that's no biggie except that resetting a gasser curve is a pain.

For all that nice to have had it back in the air unconcerned by wind - just have to keep remembering to take the ticktocks steady with that heavy bus.

[chris231]

I know what you mean,

My Whiplash gasser has been fairly hard work and a steep learning curve.

You have to use loads of loctite and tighen everything down til it's close to shearing off or bits fall off the heli. (after a few crashes I learnt that the hard way)
Heat for me has been a major problem, playing hell with the FBL controller and the heli doing almost what it likes once the FBL starts to overheat.

The carb needles also need careful setup or else the heli will quit, splitter or something like that.
Air getting into the fuel delivery line also complicates this setup further.

But overall I like the challenge and the power and noise (v v loud) has massive presence in the air like nothing else I've seen or flown.

When it's flying well it's fantastic. But certainly needs a lot more work to get it right than anything else I've flown.

Good Luck with yours and don't give up on it.
Chris

Also did I mention the cheap fuel and low fuel consumption, am loving that for sure.

[pgkevet]

I heard about the heat issue with the whiplash.. not an issue with the Spectra. You hav he supposed advantage of the rc motor whereas my SG still runs on the PUH with it's greater cooling issues.
One thing I do that the gasser folk don;t seem to use much ..is a venom thermocouple temp sensor wrapped around the bottom of the pot fins to a read-out at the back of heli next to my voltage indicator - much easier than trying to lasersight a temp reading on landing (gotta couple of spares if your interested- not sure what they cost these days but cheap enough from the states).

The ony bit I've had trying to fall off was the bottom frame and this throttle servo - presumably when the governor knackered it's gears which finally gave way.

Mine came down at 313^F yesterday.. probbalya bit hotter than I;d like (remmeber that thermocouples give higher and more repetative readings than the IR systems).. usually like it around 260/280F but I was also using a new oil mix... basically decided just to use the same can I use for my chainsaws and strimmers etc 50:1 stihl oil and sod all this special oil/special ratio stuff for gassers - so it'll need a touch richening.

Mine has the century v3 pipe and frankly is no noisier than a nitro..if anything the tone is more mellow and less intrusive - way quieter than ride on mowers or chainsaws etc so not a problem rurally.

You do learn which bolts to check regulalrly.. mostly the pipe gets tested/tightened every 2-3 flights.

it's a fun heli to fly but repair costs on the spectra are plain silly so not sure what I'll do when it goes in again big-time..last crashes cost around £££'s each (£200 of that just blades and canopy with scott greys on board)

[pgkevet]

Of all the weird things it was the protruding bit of the black gear that the horn screws into that had sheared off! 9252 owners keep spare gearsets so all fixed.

[pgkevet]

I reset the throttle aervo arm so that at throttle cut the linkage is just straining at a closed throttle..as I had it before. But typical gasser when i fired it up the engine was racing enough I had to hang onto the head and hit my spark ground switch. All it took to get it tcking over nicely was to drop the throttle trim from just under 1/3rd range to just above zero.
Non gasser folk won't appreciate just how sensitive that throttle is and how weird the curves are.

Engine is a 3D max and it's singing at the moment.. might be time to try adding another degree of pitch and cyclic

[Malc1]

Playing with my Spectra G also today.

Changed the muffler to one of the new 'flex mount' Hatori's a few weeks ago after not touching the helicopter since last September,had a lean run second flight out and trashed the motor for the second time.

So the Hanson 3D Max been completely rebuilt again and today I continued with the running in with non synthetic mix.
Got a good half gallon through with probably a quarter to go before I change back over to synthetic.

Engines running well,still rich obviously and with a nice low curve for now.

The plan is to get the engine running good again and then get the flybarless conversion finally done.

A Futaba CGY750, new JR HV servos,new 8 channel receiver and Min Air flybarless head have been stuck in a box for 12 months.

So so time consuming these gassers to get right and not for anyone short of patience.

[Steve]

MA are now doing a Whiplash gasser kit and it's going down well over the pond.

[Malc1]

Yeah looks very nice as well.
Uses the RC format motor so I would think that it runs a lot cooler.