Marius' learning to fly - "video diary"

[Marius]

Here's today's clips. Still terrified of the Goblin, so not much crazy stuff. Then some inverted practice with the 450 which ends in a crash.

http://youtu.be/u6BjHKn5khA

http://youtu.be/xZQJLoFwkSQ

[Marius]

Almost got hit by my friends bird today. Pretty crazy and scary!

He's sort of a rookie, but he's getting there. Usually I watch him fly, but today he said "it's my first pack so I'll take it easy" - so I thought I'd fuel the NX4 while he flew his 450. Just as I was done fueling, he suddenly yells "oh crap!" - and a millisecond after the 450 comes buzzing into the ground besides me!! He flew straight at himself (me sitting on the ground behind him, bending over the NX4) so he just managed to jump out of the way!!

Could have gone horribly wrong I'm never gonna turn my back unless I'm behind cover, that's for sure!

[Marius]

I have three weeks of vacation, so I'm getting a lot of flight time. Not as much as I was hoping of course - as the Gaui is out of order atm. But parts are on their way, so it should be in the air in a matter of a few weeks.

Here's a bit of Goblin playtime

http://youtu.be/fS_4-MBxrRM

[Marius]

After crashing my Gaui NX4 about three weeks ago, I started ordering spare parts. As I was browsing the pages I stumbled over some night blades that I just had to have! So I ordered a bunch of stuff, including the necessary equipment to perform night flight with my 500 Nitro.

These two last nights I have been rebuilding the Gaui. But after assembling my tail pitch slider, I somehow managed to reverse the slider output, meaning that the gyro compensation and rudder input had to be reversed. Last night I had completed the build and hooked up my fluorescent tail blades and illuminated main blades - only thing needed to be done was to get the tail reversing set straight. For some reason I managed to mess this up every time I was hooked up to the computer. Between these tests I was down in our apartment building's parking garage trying her out.

I finally got it right while she was standing on the concrete at 2300 rpm, the little .37 engine screaming. I was just playing with the tail CW and CCW while admiring the sweet led-lighted blades. It's a rather small parking garage, with about 25 parking spots, a rather low ceiling (8 feet?), concrete pillars placed between every other car (the Gaui sitting double parked LOL) - so the noise was quite loud due to the acoustics of the garage and smoke started to build up.

SUDDENLY I GET NO RESPONSE. No response from my rudder inputs..... !!! I frantically try to hit throttle hold and throttle cut SEVERAL times - NOTHING!! She's just standing there SCREAMING like a bat outta hell. I feel the panic, the shaking hands, the sweat on my forehead. SHIIIIIIIIII***** My first reaction is to run and grab a broom standing against a wall - thinking I could use it to disarm the outta-control illuminated giant buzz saw...

I take cover behind one of the concrete pillars and observe. My God was I panicking at this moment, trying to figure out whether to destroy what I had just built (also risking damage to parked cars, sprinkler systems, myself) or to wait a little longer and see what happens. I try the TH and TC again - no use. Then I see it; the Rx-pack lead is sticking out from the frame - it's disconnected!!! OMG OMG OMG

Luckily I had the bird at mid stick when testing, and for some reason the tail was still holding - everything was holding! She's just standing there, screaming... I see the main tank is empty and the header is half full. I risk it, I'm waiting her out!! After what felt like forever, the header was empty and she gave out with a extra high pitched scream - then died. I came out from behind the pillar - still shaking like crazy. I couldn't believe it. Me, the bird and everything else - still in one piece!

THAT my friends is called luck.

Lesson is: don't hurry when doing anything in this hobby. Take your time - and for Christ's sake: make sure you properly seat battery connectors! LOL

____

No fancy flying - barely daring to do some circuits. Inverted for a second, but chicken out immediately. I couldn't see the tail very well (the video does not do the tail justice, I could see it much better than the vid shows). At first I thought it would be a smart move to have the background lights, but after flying for a short while I realized a pitch black sky is the optimal background.

Anyways, here it is

http://youtu.be/zle_MyeEkOw

[Marius]

One of today's flights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzqL0psP ... UrhEZ2T5WQ

I'm not sure if I love the iKon or the Gaui (or maybe a combination?), but this thing is a dream to fly

[Marius]

My last pack on Saturday - so I was all juiced up. Almost got out of hand at the end, coming a bit close to the camera man (iceyo on the forum) and another spectator. But everything went well, and we were able to laugh it off. LOL

http://youtu.be/h7uYE7Na1KQ

[Marius]

I'm back!

Well, I never really left. I have been lurking around on the forum, not posting as much as I did previously. Half a year since my last post in this thread, that's some poor updating right there

My recent lack of contributions to the forum is due to me getting a bit tired to be perfectly honest. The same questions over and over, it gets old fast. I'm sure my fellow members can relate. But that's exactly what makes this forum great isn't it? That's why I joined in the first place, to ask questions and get answers. And you do get answers on this forum, even though the exact same question was posted (and answered) last week! The relentless Admin and his devoted "regulars" keep at it - answering questions and resolving peoples problems.

This site sure helped me when I was getting into the hobby and I'm sure I couldn't have come as far as I have today without you guys. CUDOS!

Getting a bit tired of the forum wasn't the entire reason though:



No, my hands didn't shrink That hand belongs to my baby boy Oliver, who came into this world about two months ago Yes, I'm a dad now! So between expecting to become a dad, becoming a dad, and playing a good 300 hours of Battlefield 4 on PlayStation - time spent on the forum took a considerable plunge! LOL

But don't think for a second that just because I haven't been around, I also have stopped flying. I flew through all winter (just like last year), and had good progress on my flying skills. I have been flying the Goblin and my 500 DFC - the 500 DFC for the most part, as I've been having some issues with the Gobby. I sure love my 500! I'd like to recommend this bird to everyone. Typical Align quality with decent part prices - but what I like the most is the power to weight ratio in this baby. The Gobby's been in the ground once (broke the landing gear and the tail fin) due to a brown out (flew with just one working sat - stupid stupid stupid), but overall it's been problems with shaking, elevator nodding and satellite failure.

My T-Rex 500 DFC, got some miles on it now



Oh the Gobby.... What an awesome helicopter, right? Super 3D machines with a look you just can't beat - probably the most sought after model on the market at the moment. Well, I never got comfortable with it. I'm sure I could have done more to make it better, but I'm not one for hours of fine tuning really - I just like to build it and fly it.

Anyways, I sold it last week. Disassembled it and shipped it off.






I kept the Ikon and the servos though. They are to be used on my new project



Read more about it here!

Thanks for reading

[Marius]

[QUOTE=Lee;100226]We need to see some video of your new skilzzz [/QUOTE]

Just go ahead and lower those expectations! I have been learning a few new tricks, yes, but how well executed they are....? I have at least not crashed while doing sideways tic tocs, nose down tic tocs, tail down/skids inside funnels and high autos. The autos are still a bit sketchy, but haven't crashed on one of those yet (though I have been REALLY close).

I'll try to make a new video soon.

[QUOTE=danhampson;100244]Nice to see you back. I was talking to a friend about you flying in the snow a couple of days ago.
Happy flying.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, Dan!

[QUOTE=Dirk;100547]Welcome back Marius. I've been wondering where you've disappeared to. Well, you got a little baby boy! Congratulations mate.[/QUOTE]

Thank you, Dirk

_____


I've been on a real crash streak lately with the 500, crashing every weekend, three weekends in a row now - it's getting old and expensive The last crash I just dumb thumbed it into the ground doing inverted backwards loops - which I know how to do, which again makes it even more annoying. But hey, no pain no gain.

The last crash really hurt: servo, mains, boom, tail blades, main gear and tube gears. Since I had to tear down quite a lot of the bird I used the opportunity to install a new upgrade tail servo. An RJX servo for the tail this time, and it's A LOT better than the stock Align servo which has been giving out more than once lately during hard load maneuvers.



This servo is a bit bigger than the stock Align DS525M servo, so mounting it will not be straight forward.



To install it without disassembling the side frame, I had to take off the back cover on the servo.



Had to use my Dremel slightly.



Finally!



Good to go!



Seeing that I'm crashing all the time it's really stupid of me to install a fancy (and more expensive) carbon boom, but hey - I'm a sucker for some bling



Blade review!

I'm also trying out some RJX FBL mains for the first time. I found these to be very stable, but yet they lack some pop. The bird feels softer than with Edge og Align 3G mains. I'm sure I can get used to the RJX's, but atm I'm missing the pop.



I briefly tried some Hobby King fiberglass mains last weekend, and all I can say about these are STAY AWAY! The matching is horrible so the tracking was all outta wack! They farted through the air, not in the good sense, but because of the horrible tracking... Slapped on some Align 3G's right after, and the bird became perfect - no adjustments at all, only changed the blades.



Flew 5 packs today without any incidents. So I broke the crash streak at least

[Marius]

So I place two orders on the same day/time: One from Power Hobby in US, one from Canomod in Vietnam.





The US store takes six days to even ship my order, then the ridiculous US Postal Service takes over... Granted, the package will be stranded at Norwegian customs, but that steals one day at most.

The US side:

Put stuff in envelope
Send stuff
Small envelope travel via airplane to Norway

The Vietnam side:

Get canopy
Paint canopy
Drying and finishing process
Package carefully in medium sized box (700 sized canopy)
Send box through 5 different countries via airplane

__

Canopy arrived yesterday. Tiny parts from the US arrived today. What the FUDGE!?! In a way you could say the Vietnamese actually MADE the product AND DELIVERED before the US...

END RANT:mad1:

[Marius]

This post is a bit late, as I did in fact maiden the Agile last weekend, but better late than never I guess.



My fleet ATM.



Maiden. It's a bit dark and hard to see, but I dared not do anything fancy - so not much to see really.

[video=youtube;DXW1bYQk4yM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXW1bYQk4yM[/video]

I have some vibrations that I'm currently looking into (suspect it's got something to do with the TT). There is also a proper voltage drop on the RX while in flight, but I'm not too worried (6.3 volts), might replace some of the servo extension wires later on to be safe. I'm not nearly as afraid of this model as I was the Goblin (that thing is scary) in spite of this being a larger model. The Agile feels very stable in the air, but the collective needs fine tuning and I might up the head speed a bit (now I'm using 1900 and 2100).

All in all I think I'm gonna like this model very much, but will need some time to get her dialed in.

____

I've been through some camera set-up's over the past two years, and now I'm giving another one a try







With this thing I'm able to correct the angle and placement of the camera before filming (which annoyed me a lot with all the previous set-up's). Also, the camera itself doesn't weigh much, so I hope I don't feel it sitting on my head as much (that's the hope anyways).

Here's my first video with it (it's having trouble with the exposure because I'm standing in a large shade, but I'm hoping this won't be an issue in the middle of the day).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4uALLlck2E

[Marius]

Over 30000 views Then again, it probably the longest vid thread on here LOL

I had some trouble with the recorder I got, so I had to ship it back. Today the replacement arrived, so I'm finally able to post new videos.

Here's a flight from today. My T-rex 500. Freestyle mostly, with orientation transitions, some funnels and tic tocs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEgk7uFbUEM

One with the Agile. This was not the best flight of the day with the Agile, but the other video I recorded wasn't as good as this one video quality vise. A little nervous on this one as it was the first flight of the day with the Agile, some transitioning between orientations here as well, funnels and tic tocs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faMzTu8HClU

I really love the Agile. Pretty forgiving apposed to the Goblin in my opinion - but still very agile and powerful. I'm getting along with it now, getting more comfortable every flight. I recently upped the head speed to 2150 which feels very nice.

There's more videos from todays flight on my https://www.youtube.com/user/st0kke

Thanks for watching

[Marius]

Some picks from today's flights.

Cutting grass (500e) and not knowing when enough is enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg-7tluhxeU

Practicing inverted auto rotations with the 500e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDpcvOlfnr4

Standard acrobatics - but with an auto at the end (second ever with the Agile)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlr8YVpfdug

Performed a full figure eight funnel (tail down) with the 500e for the first time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6A6EB7DP5M

- - - Updated - - -

Btw this camera is so great - wish I'd had it when I started out flying RC, then I'd have all my milestones on tape. Plenty battery capacity, decent recording quality and I do not know it's there while flying - so just perfect!

[Marius]

Had my torque tube disassemble itself during flight today. Sadly I don't have the skills to set her down without tail control yet, so she got pretty banged up. Canopy got a little crack, landing gear broken, main blades shattered and the boom was twisted apart at the base. One of the batteries also got a small dent, but I'm gonna keep using it.

Skip to 2:45 for the grand finale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMzklWs ... UrhEZ2T5WQ

- - - Updated - - -

Oh yeah, forgot to mention WHY the TT failed. I clearly did a poor job epoxying the TT ends on, so one of the ends lost it's lock pin and Bob's your uncle

[Marius]

Agile flight from today. Was happy to perform a new trick at 1:30 - been working on that one for quite some time. It's a tilted inverted piro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY3gX1pr4ls

[Marius]

It's getting dark outside earlier and earlier now. I'm having a hard time getting my butt outside for flying - with my baby boy and everything as it is But, tonight I managed to get one flight! In the darkness Well, not completely dark, I had some big a*s flood lights

It's very windy and I was really nervous - but boy, was it cool! Wish I had brought more batteries. Well, there will be other nights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5dy6wdB8k4

[Marius]

Managed to kill off yet another tail gear

Last pack of the day. Over the timer. Decide to wag that tail. Nope. Too low and too little time to hit the auto level.... Build it, fly it, crash it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAalLrguy98

[Marius]

The Agile will be grounded until next paycheck. Meanwhile I'm torturing the 500

Added some extra goofing around clips at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx3Wg4sbZtc

[Marius]

That's all of the old posts. A new era begins

[Tony]

That's all of the old posts. A new era begins

Wow, nice to see them back Marius, bet your pleased, thought there was more though...

[Derek]

Marius...you've been quite busy getting your video diary around! Very cool! I remember seeing a bunch of these videos.

I remember the picture of little Oliver's hand on your tx. Very cool picture! How is the little man doing? I hope all is well for you and the family!!!