The Heli Hanger

With the addition of my new Blade MCP-X V2 shortly before Christmas, my heli hanger now looks like this!

First go at FPV!

My first go at FPVing.


OpenPilot CopterControl Tricopter flying FPV - Knighton Park Leicester GoPro Hero 2 HD

GoPro Hero 2 HD arrives - First impressions are positive!

First outing with my new GoPro Hero 2 HD. First impressions are very positive compared to the first GoPro. The colours for one seem a lot more vivid and it handles low light a lot better. More to follow soon!

RC Helicopter Fun - Blade 450 3D Align and Trex 600 ESP

Having recently passed my Helicopter BMFA 'A Certificate', I've been having a lot of fun with my Blade 450 3D and recently acquired Align Trex 600 ESP. I was fortunate enough to have my fellow RC Helicopter pilot buddy Colin Wilson on hand with his Nikon camera at a recent flying session and he was able to capture the following excellent images. More of Colin's images can be found on his website as follows: ShowPhoto.co.uk

In the coming weeks, I hope Colin will be on hand to capture some inverted shots of the Blade 450 which I have now built up the confidence to perform. Hopefully we'll get some bluer skies too.

 

  

Whether I'll have the same confidence to flip this beast is a different matter all together!! 

 

 

Here's a recent video of my Trex 600 ESP in action.

Pterodactyl gets horny!

Well, I'm about there with the Pterodactyl, the horns have been added along with two ounces of lead to the head. Now the receiver and battery have been added, she balances out on the CoG spot as shown on the plan.

I'm just waiting for a calm day now and my next Pterodactyl post will be to report on the maiden flight with hopefully a video too.  I've really enjoyed building this kit and hope she goes as well as she looks. I'll probably need a valium before launching, but I guess this is what this hobby is all about, committing your work to the sky to see how it handles!  Wish me luck!

Circumstances are not helping the Pterodactly build!

Due to the sad loss of a fellow modeller, I've been very kindly given the below two models. Both are IC models and having tested them, they both run fine. I'm not sure how long since they were last started/flown, but all the electronics were installed so it was just a matter of installing my own receiver and flight batteries.

The first model is called a Trident II and features the very strange looking swept forward wings. It's fitted with an OS 46 two stroke engine and is certainly brightly coloured. I might need to fly this one with my shades on!

The second is called a Vivace and is fitted with a two stroke 62 engine. She's a low wing sports aerobatic plane and boasts a six foot single piece wing span. The installed pilot looks a bit of a cool dude as does my son Joseph (5 years old) who is posing with the plane. Joseph's practising on the RC Phoenix simulator when he can, so once he can consistently demonstrate to me he can fly circuits and not just do random stick bashing, then you never know, he might get the chance to have a go with something a bit smaller in months to come!

I'm going to renew the fuel pipe in both planes, but hopefully watch out for some flight videos and further reports coming to my Youtube channel soon!

More Tricopter fun!

Still distracting me from completing the Pterodactyl (although I now have working ailerons) is the lure of the Tricopter equipped with the GoPro camera.

I captured the following video over the weekend and diced with it a bit of flying/hovering over water!

 
I also captured the followng still picture hovering over my house. 

Lured to the dark side of helicopters! Blade 450 3D.

Since returning to the RC hobby, I've had three micro Blade helicopters. I started with the Blade MCX2 and then picked a second hand Blade MSR up off of eBay before then settling on the slightly larger Blade 120SR. Attending a few indoor flying events recently coupled with flying the tricopter a lot has got me craving a larger helicopter. A couple of months ago I decided I'd purchase a Blade 450 3D and see how I get along with that. Well the bug has certainly got me and as the two videos show, I'm not getting to grips with this helicopter following the first few flights where I was just practising hovering.  Already I'm starting to think of getting to grips with a bigger heli! Hmmmm a nice Trex 600 I think!

Tricopter Fun

As indicated in an earlier post, I've been having a lot of fun with my Tricopter recently. Here are a selection of some of the HD videos I have uploaded to YouTube showing some of the flights and what I've been up to. I'm using the KK blue controller board on the Tricopter with 3 2215/15 outrunner motors. These provide ample power and I get about six minutes of flight time from a 3S 2200mAh battery.

Pterodactyl - Progress or lack of it!

I know I know, there hasn't been a whole lot of progress with Terry over the past couple of months. Rest assured however that my intentions are good to get this bird completed as soon as possible! The body/fusalage has now been covered (see below)!  I just need to rig the ailerons up and get it all balanced out.  It won't be too much longer, I've just had the distraction of my Tricopter and venturing over to the dark side with Helicopters over the past few weeks! See separate post for some videos of my recent flying.

 Me with my little lad Joseph!

Pterodactyl - Covering commences

The latest pictures show the progress of the Pterodactyl to date. With the help of a good RC friend Roy Monk, we've been able to cover the wing and install the ailerons. The wing has been covered with transparent gold Profilm. I just need to add some horns to the ailerons now and connect up the linkages to the metal gear servos which are installed into the wing. That should pretty well see the wing complete then.

 
As opposed to the wooden horns which were supplied, I've opted for some plastic horns and installed these on both tail control surfaces. 1.5mm Carbon rods have been used with piano wire with Z bends. I've opted for two Ripmax S100 servos to control the tail surfaces and will show pictures of these installed in a later post.

Whats that coming over the hill, is it a monster?

Sneak preview images of the latest addition to my hanger.

Weston Cougar 2000 to the sky.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a second hand Weston Cougar 2000 from a guy who was giving up the RC hobby. I'd spotted the plane on EBay and given the guy lived pretty close to where I work, I took the liberty to view the item prior to committing a bid. All was good with the model and the nice chap even threw in a gallon of fuel at a knock down price. An Irvine 46 was installed and included, as well as a 35Mhz Receiver which was surplus to requirements. This has gone back onto EBay!  I made him and offer and took it off his hands there and then!

The following video was taken from it's first outing to the field. It's a relatively quick flight as it was very close to a no fly period.

   
Since the video, I've had a further two outings with the Cougar and I'm really enjoying flying this lively bird, even though it is IC!

Waddington 2011 Highlights

Not Strictly RC related, but thought I'd share a few highlight pictures from the Waddington Air show 2011