The Pterodactyl Maiden Flight

Well after nearly 12 months since the Pterodactyl arrived on my front door step, the day finally arrived where I thought yes, today is the day to maiden her! Walking the dogs at 7am on Sunday morning without a breath of wind and a crisp sunny sunrise, I decided yeah the time was right.

I loaded her into my car along with a few other models and set out on what I hoped, would be an uneventful mornings flying. On arrival at the field, I decided to warm up with my other models before finally going for it! My flying buddies asked if I'd had a photo with it first (hmmm were they not very confident it would return in one piece??), so I decided to pose with the bird first off.
With the 3S 2200mAh battery installed, I did a receiver range check and checked all the control surfaces once again and then ventured out onto the strip where I hand launched the Pterodactyl into its maiden flight. Wow! Straight up she went and not a word of a lie, but she didn't require any trim on any of the channels. I was stunned in how true and well she flew.

I did numerous circuits before landing just short of five minutes. The landing was pretty fast, but no damage was done. What surprised me however, when I checked the battery, the meter showed there was still 82% of charge left in the pack! 18% for 5 minutes flight! This was one truly happy maiden and the sense of achievement was fantastic given the many hours I'd spent carefully building this beast!

Not content with just one flight, 30 minutes later, I took a fresh 2200 pack and flew the Pterodactyl for just short of 9 minutes. This time, I'd increased the rates and expo slightly, but again she flew like a dream in the 5-8mph wind. Checking the battery this time once landed, and I still had 65% of charge left. She flies around on a quarter throttle easily.

Here’s the video of the maiden flight. Thanks to Ron Marston for designing such a brilliant model which has been a joy to build. Many thanks also to Roy Monk for the help on the build and covering. I look forward to flying her again for many more successful flights. Enjoy!

OpenPilot CopterControl FPV Videos

I've been having a lot of fun with my Tricopter over the past few weeks now it's been fitted with some FPV gear. I'll create a further post very soon and detail the equipment I've got fitted on the Trricopter, but all I can say is it's a great way of flying once you learn to relax!

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!