Hi All,
I just have to say that Tony Farmer and Steve Drake are really making fast progress with learning to fly their helicopters. :yes:

They are pushing each other by seeing who can learn new stuff the fastest. :newstuff:

If they don't burn out and hang in there, they will be excellent flyers in no time at all.

As of today, they both doing loops and baby autos.
Tony is getting a fancy custom paint job on a canopy.
Steve is really into drag racing now and was almost blowing away my TSK MyStar 46 today with his Raptor 50.

<_< Hey, Alvin how many time's can I vote Steve is the Man. B)

I vote Steve

I voted for me just because it seemd wrong to vote against myself, but after carefull thought I think I would rather loose this one so I can see how bad the repair bill is before deciding to go for it myself.

How come Frits wasn't an option? I think Tal was helping him setup one of his Hawks with a throttle hold switch setting yesterday, I didn't see him try any of the baby auto's yesterday but I figure he is planning to sneak out during the week and practice on his own so he can show up saturday and show us his stuff.

I also voted for Steve, he just gets a lot more stick time which is really helping. How many flights did you get in this weekend Steve, like 27?

I think that I heard Frits claiming to have already autoed sometime or other in the past. I can't remember for sure.

Anyways, this is a grudge match between Steve, Tony, and Lanzo.
I put Lanzo in there because I suspect he has been doing secret practice and will come out soon and show yall some good/right stuff.

"Lost count but I went through a gallon and a half of fuel, that's arecord for me in one week end.

Hoping to burn up two gallons next weekend!

I only burned 2 tanks this weekend, I was too busy eating Lasagna! Then again I guess it don't take much fuel to auto.

Me to, two tanks, eat much Lasagna and Margo's homemade chocalate chip cookies.

Looks like we have our priorities set about right.

Hey Tony, I hear that Steve is going to try to get in a couple of secret practice session sometime this week before the weekend auto showdown.
I am working on something to really leave him in the dust next we drag race.
I just about got it figured how to stuff a OS 50 Hyper into a Blade CP. :yickes:

NO secret practice this week for me. :(

Margo is out of town and Holly has been sick, so I had to stay home and do the nurse thing the last two days. Margo comes home tonight and Holly should be ready for school tomorrow so I have to make up lost time at work. Can't wait for the daylight savings change, then I can get a couple flights in after work a couple days a week.

Be carefull with that OS .50 hyper in the blade CP, not sure if it will have the power to spool up those massive blades. You may want to get the carbon upgrades to insure the .50 can handle it.

I am working on setting up the Hawk with the throttle hold and idle up switches, Tal setup the Raptor for me so now I will see if I was paying enough attention. If I do an auto this weekend it will be with the hawk first. I am also upgrading the tail servo, I have been reading up a bit and the 9202 is a very slow servo. I am thinking it probably accounts for why the gain has to be turned all the way down on the gyro to avoid tail wag. Do the experts agree or disagree?

Tell your friend (who ever that could be) that he should stick to the stock canopy for a while, I hate to see him get it all prettied up just how he likes it then crack it up learning auto's and drag racin. He could put the pretty one on while it is sitting in the pits then change to the expendable one for the risky maneuvers.

Let me know what you want to do with that 9202, I think one of mine might be getting funny with me on the Funtana. :yes:

Also, I am thinking that we need to read the gyro instructions and figure out why the gyro still works so well with the gain pot on the gyro body turned all the way down.

A faster servo on the tail would be nice, but it does not need or benifit from speed as much as say the 401 HH gyro on your Raptor 50.

No one likes a gay servo!

Sorry Mike, I am planning to move it to the throttle to replace the 3004 I am using for that. That way I will have all 9202's except the tail will be a 9254.

I did find out that in order to use the 9254 on the hawk I will have to replace the 5 Cell 6V 2700 Mah Battery with a 4 Cell 4.8 Volt, the 9254 is for 4.8 Volt only (see it does pay to read the instructions). So if anyone wants a deal on the 6V let me know, I bought it new for the Hawk so it's only a couple months old. It lasts a long time, I have been getting 7 or 8 flights before having to recharge.

Think about getting a voltage regulator for that five cell pac.

You should be useing a voltage regulator with the five cell pac anyways.
Regulate the voltage to about 5 1/2 volts.
The four cell pacs start off with about that voltage after a charge anyway.

Your electronics will then see a consistant 5 1/2 volts at all times during use till batt pac is almost discharged.

Yeah I know it won't be as good as with the 401 but maybe a little better than it is now, I have been reading the instructions on the gyro and there just isn't much info there. It does show to connect that third lead to channel 5. I am thinking if I connect that then I can control the gain in the radio setup like I can on the raptor.

I'll have the instructions with me this weekend and get you to look over them for me to see if I am reading them correctly.

I just keep thinking that we had it setup with the 3rd lead connected before the big crash and it was working good, then after the crash it had the tail wag and we fixed that by disconnecting it and turning the gain down to the minimum on the pot. The only difference I can think of is the slower servo, I had a 3004 before and the 9202 after. I did not want to risk a 3004 again since we still don't know why it crashed and I since found out that futaba does not recommend 3004's for heli's. The difference in speed is very little between the 3004 and 9202, 3004 is .19 sec/60 Vs. 9202 .21 sec/60 running at 6V but the 9254 is considerably faster .06 sec/60 degrees at 4.8 Volts.

I had ordered the 9254 for the Raptor when I thought the one in it was bad, then I had figured out it was good before it arrived. So I figured I have it and might as well experiment and see if I notice any difference with it on the hawk. If not then I can always put it back and save the 9254 for something else, I may wind up needing it on the raptor some day.

ta da ! :D :dance: :helicopter: :parachute: :boxers: