Cold weather flying

[Derek]

I just read a post from Matthias, in one of Tony's threads. Matthias was giving some suggestions about flying belt drives in the cold weather. My Trex 500 is my only belt drive helicopter but it's going to be down for a bit until I can sort out some other issues with it.

However, my Trex 450 and 600 are both torque tube. Are there any concerns that I should be aware of before attempting a cold weather flight? I can't imagine that I'll be flying ALOT in the cold but I do have 1 flight pack, still charged, for my 600 and I was wondering if there is something I should be concerned of before flying. Today's high temp is only 37 degrees F (3 degrees C) with 10mph winds. That's brisk! I'd just like to put the 600 in the truck, go to the flying field, have a bit of fun and then come back to thaw myself out, lol.

[KevG]

I don't think so Derek, just go and have some fun, there are plenty of videos on YouTube of people flying after it's snowed, be more worried for my fingers I would than the heli

[Tony]

Yeah go and have some fun. Can't here because of rain now...

[Derek]

I don't think so Derek, just go and have some fun, there are plenty of videos on YouTube of people flying after it's snowed, be more worried for my fingers I would than the heli

That's what I was hoping to hear! I've seen tons of videos of people flying with snow on the ground...and you can bet that I'll be worried about my fingers. Once I start to feel my fingers getting cold, it will be time to set the helicopter down. Like I said, I have a fully charged flight pack. Never got to fly it the other day because the wind really picked up and I just didn't feel comfortable flying. I'd much rather go fly to get the battery discharged versus removing the blades and just letting the helicopter run on my workbench, lol.

[Derek]

Yeah go and have some fun. Can't here because of rain now...

Fortunately for me, there is no rain in the near forecast. A bit of snow is possible for tomorrow but calmer winds and no rain. I guess I can live with that.

[KevG]

Older piezo gyros would need to sit in the temp you were gonna fly coz they would drift otherwise, newer gyros don't suffer like that.

Yes I would rather discharge by flying but I would discharge on my Icharger otherwise, but man that takes a lot longer than 5 mins flying, I have had to resort to hovering in the garage before now, but won't or can't with the 500 as to mush airflow for a small space

[Derek]

Yeah, I couldn't even imagine trying to hover even my 450 in my garage, much less anything bigger, lol. You can be assured that I won't try this, but I would imagine that my 600 (hovering in the garage) would probably blow the roof off my house, lol.

The temperature right now is about 33 degrees...I'm gonna wait until later this afternoon when the temps are suppose to be around 37-38 and sunny. It will still be chilly but I've got lots of warm clothes and an addiction to flying, lol.

Now....just gotta find a camera person that would be willing to brave the "chill" with me, lol

[Marius]

I have flown both torque tube and belt drive in -10°C - never had any issues. It is worth mentioning however, that the belt drive I used had a belt tentioner.

[Derek]

I appreciate your two cents, Marius! Thanks for that! Since my 450 and 600 are both torque tube, it sounds like I'll be just fine....just a bit chilly ha ha ha.

New servos and maybe a DFC head in the near future for the 500.

[Tony]

happy flying Derek whatever you fly...

[pvolcko]

Let the heli sit in the cold for at least a few minutes. Need to let the gyro sensors acclimate (was true of the older tech, not so sure on the newer stuff, but it doesn't hurt). Also, slow spool up and hover for 30 seconds or so to start the flight. Lets the motor heat up a bit, gets the lube flowing in the bearings, etc. before you hit it was any strong loads.

[Tony]

Good tips Paul, I'll take note too

[murankar]

Torque tubes really don't suffer from the (extreme) expansion and contraction that a belt would. Although one thing to keep in mind with torque tubes in the winter, some plastics do get brittle when its near freezing or below freezing. With you having the Aligns with the newer black gears you should be fine. Just keep an eye on your batteries and adjust your flight times by about 30 seconds to about a minute {shorter flights}. This is to prevent from going below LVC since the cold can rob you of mah. Now if a pack is kept warm the whole time then it should not be an issue, but if th packs get cold then I would be a little concerned.

As for Marius, that's what the tensioner is for, it hwlps with keeping the correct tension on the belt through a wide range of temperature variables. Tony's HK 450 does not have such luxury and could be an issue for him. To be completely honest I never thought about this before i heard the RCHN episode on winter flying practices.

[Tony]

completely new to me too URI, but then i have the perfect excuse as a novice... lol, but its great to have all you guys keeping me on the straight and narrow... thanks

[Derek]

Thanks guys! I will keep all that in mind. And yes, I have upgraded both my helicopters to the black gears and I have no problems with cutting my flights short 30-60 seconds....just in case.

[murankar]

When I was in Korea I built my first 450 which was an EXI 450 Pro that had a belt on it. I started ordering parts for it i December and finally completed the build at the end of February or beginning of March. I had the initial setup done and the belt tensioned as per Tony N. and other videos that I had watched and downloaded from youtube. Tempretures in South Korea during the winter can get as low -20 F. When I maidened the EXI it was around the March time frame and the temps were around 20 F, all I remember from that day was shiveirng from the cold and shaking from my nerves. I never knew to adjust the belt tension for the cold. Anyhow to speed up the story when I finally decided to hang up the EXI {about a year later} I tore the kit down. It had been crashed into my house after getting to Texas. I noticed the front drive gear for the tail {the part that links up to the tail drive gear on the main shaft} was bent. Now this piece is installed into the front tail block and sits in an upper and lower bearing. I am not sure what bent the piece; it could have been one of the number of hard landings or the cold temps and the belt getting to tight. At that time I did not think of the temps causing the belt to shrink, as far as I knew things were fine. I also did not realize that colder temps could rob me of mah on the packs.

Its amazing to find out that I was not knowledgeable on what one could call common sense in this hobby. Its things like this that could get one bashed on a main stream forum.

For your viewing pleasure here is my first time on a CCPM and maiden of the EXI 450 Pro. My Expos were way off for me and the tail trim was way out of whack. I had a lot of setup issues not dialed in correctly at the time but did not know. I don't think I ever leveled the swash and if i did it was by eyeball. I did however got the tracking done. I had to add a bunch of trim to the cyclic and some on the tail. I never did get the Assan GA250 tail gyro to lock in. Every flight on this gyro had tail wag that I could not resolve and thinking about it now it could have been one of two things. Bad linkage ball placement on the servo arm or that drive gear was bent causing a vibration. I will never know since the kit is grounded. If I ever get the Protos Mini back up I might try it on there as a flybar heli.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lAN14z ... ZOMlm88Paw

[Tony]

That's amazing, these days that heli would have been straight back on the workbench I think, Did you make some adjustments to it every time you stopped to try and get it working..

[murankar]

Most of the time i did. I tried to edit out the adjustments so that you did not hear the annoying beeping of the tx. It took me some time to finally get into the air. The one thing that stopped me from doing any real air time was 3 factors: Bad expo, cold weather and nervous. I had a long sleeve shirt, sweet shirt and a leather 3/4 length coat on. It was really cold and not a breeze in the sky. So all the movements the heli made was due to poor setup and me not knowing anything at the time.


BTW: that video and many other are on my other channel. the name of the channel is murankar, it was my first channel and my second is matthias urankar.

[Tony]

I think I've subscribed to those channels, can't remember now. I have to one I know for sure...

It's wakeful trying to fly when it's cold, and being nervous on top of that it's usually best to pack up and take the bird home in one piece... Lol, I've done that loads of times.. The training gear is worth it's weight in gold when your at that stage, saves so much disappointment when it tries to tip over...

Update, just subscribed to latter channel... I'll look at some of the vids later...

[murankar]

Thank you, and yes the training gear did help but didnt last to long. They eventually broke but it was after I had took them off and reinstalled them.