Long-term Memory

Trex600 time flown: 0h02 (cumulative model timer: 2h21)

Another try with the Trex 600, another crash… and again related to the rudder. Right after takeoff, the tail was oscillating heavily (yaw-wise, ~7cm amplitude, ~3Hz). I recognized this to be a gyro-issue so I landed and reduced the gyro gain from 30% to 20% (Futaba-scale). This settings still had oscillations, but they were slower and wider. Further reducing the gain (I went down to 5%) further reduced the frequency (down to ~1Hz), but didn’t stop the oscillation. Also, it became quite unstable as well.

Cyclic was still too sensitive, but I wanted to fix the rudder first; which turned out to be a wrong decision. Next thing I tried was switching to non-heading-hold mode. As soon as I switched heading-hold off, the heli started a pirouette and ascended. I managed to get it back to the ground, but with the sensitive cyclic I got myself a ground induced unscheduled maintanance.

Continue reading ‘Flight log 2012-07-28’ »

After way to long, I finally found some time/weather combination to fly again. I’m a little embarrassed it took so long…

Of course, all my batteries were fairly dead. The glow heater was completely gone (0V), but was still usable after charging. My starter-battery was dead beyond repair. The LiPo’s of the miniTitan were is fairly good shape after more than a year in the fridge: 3/4th charged.

Before the flights, I upgrade my CastleLink software to version 3.40.0, and upgraded the ESC firmware to 3.27 along with these (PDF) new settings.
Continue reading ‘Flight log 2011-10-15’ »

Place: Home
Batteries flown: 0.2
Time flown: 0h07 (cumulative model timer: 4h40)
Flight battery recharged with: (2)
Tx battery recharged with:

Comments:
Got my miniTitan repaired; at around €20 it was fairly cheap. But the governor-config still needed to be done. So I gave the collective a punch while in a hoover and noticed a drop in RPM, as it was last time. I changed the settings to have a governor gain at “Medium (25)” instead of “Low (15)”.

Continue reading ‘Flight log – 2010-08-09’ »

Place: Home
Batteries flown: 0.2
Time flown: 0h03 (cumulative model timer: 4h33)
Flight battery recharged with: (2) 2398 mAh (after full discharge)
Tx battery recharged with:

Comments:
My miniTitan was repaired and had a new ESC. Time for the first test flight. After a minute of hoovering, I shortly pushed full collective to check the governor. The headspeed dropped, not surprisingly since the governor is set to it’s lowest setting. So I pushed full collective again, to see if the governor is able to compensate.

Again the rotor headspeed dropped. The governor did compensate, but only the motor rpm increased, not the rotor’s… And then the ground intervened. I squeezed the remaining rpm’s out of the rotor to soften the crash, but it did hit fairly hard.

Continue reading ‘Flight log – 2010-07-14’ »

As mentioned, my new ESC also has data-logging capabilities. The provided software actually has a fairly descend viewer, but it lacks some features.

Continue reading ‘ESC data logging’ »

A friend of mine has the exact same behaviour on his miniTitan. Although my crash may have caused some damage, his heli started this behaviour after a regular flight. I guess this is an additional indication against the ESC. So I bought a new ESC.

Continue reading ‘miniTitan repairs – cont’d’ »

I never had a course in aerodynamics. If I had, I might have programmed a power-calculator myself, but I doubt that it would have been as complete and easy-to-use as this calculator.

Received the spare parts a few days ago (2009-08-17). Total cost was €106, including shipping. The battery holder was out of stock, so I bended a thin (1.5mm) aluminium sheet into the right shape. It’s far from perfect, but it should do the job. However, some new problems popped up: The heli won’t spool up on its own.

Continue reading ‘miniTitan repairs’ »

Place: Halle

Raptor
Tanks flown: 1
Time flown: 0h18 (cumulative model timer: 32h07)
Rx battery recharged with: 428+197 mAh
Tx battery recharged with: 548 mAh
Glow heater battery recharged with: 1246 mAh
Starter battery recharged with: 450-ish mAh (forgot to note down)

miniTitan
Flights: 0.5
Time flown: 0h06 (cumulative model timer: 3h23)
Heli battery recharged with: (2) balanced 2181 mAh;
Tx battery recharged with: see above

Comments:
Went flying after dinner, the wind had calmed down and the rain had stopped.

I had some trouble starting my Raptor (glow heater indicated only 1A instead of the usual 5A). Since it’s been a while since I charged it, the battery was dead. A few minutes at the charger solved the problem.

In the mean time, I took my miniTitan out. Did some flying back and forth and a few stall turns to regain confidence. Next I did some back-flips. This is where it went wrong. On my 3rd back-flip, I intended to keep the heli inverted for a second and continue the back-flip, but the ground intervened…

Continue reading ‘Flight log – 2009-07-25’ »

Place: Halle

Raptor
Tanks flown: 2
Time flown: 0h27 (cumulative model timer: 31h19)
Rx battery recharged with: mAh
Tx battery recharged with: 559 mAh
Glow heater battery recharged with: 1300 mAh
Starter battery recharged with: 1250 mAh

miniTitan
Flights: 2
Time flown: 0h21 (cumulative model timer: 3h17)
Heli battery recharged with: (1) balanced 1934 mAh; (2) balanced 2137 mAh;
Tx battery recharged with: see above

Comments:
Went flying after work. It was fairly windy, but the wind was fairly constant. I practiced the maneuvers I’ve been doing in the sim lately: autorotation and inverted flight, both successful!

Inverted flight worked out fairly well. I started by doing backflips. Next I stopped halfway through the backflip and tried to keep it stable. I only need to work on my reflexes to get me out of inverted trouble. Obviously pushing the throttle/pitch up is not the best idea… Luckily I had (just) enough height to correct my peculiar situation.

The miniTitan held up fairly well in the winds, although I was more busy fighting the wind than flying. I increased the CCMP-mixing from 50% to 75% on the elevator and ailerons. Now it is more vivid, just like my raptor. I tried some backflips as well, but the wind made this a challange.

Continue reading ‘Flight log – 2009-04-23’ »