Flying and more Flying

I've been flying most nights for the last few weeks.
Confidence has returned and I'm now doing lots of low circuits and general flying here and there.
All of this has been done in quite a small area. I will soon start to get it really cranked up in a bigger space for some decent fast forward flight.  Once that becomes easy again i'll move into doing some light aerobatics :)

Mishaps & Spares

Since getting the heli flightworthy i've had a few minor scrapes of the blades.
I bought some main shafts from Trademe but they weren't straight so decided to send them back and get a spare belt instead.
I went to Hobby Hangar and bought myself some new Align mainshafts that are considerably better made, and straight!  I also picked up a few main gears as I noticed that mine had a few teeth that were a bit broken.
The heli is now considerably quieter and wobble free.

Goodies

I decided to buy a few items, some spares and a battery alarm.
2x Sets of Fibreglass blades which are very similar to the carbons i'm currently using.
Bought from DuncB on Trademe.co.nz for NZD$12 a pair!!!!

Some spare main and feathering shafts, always useful to have around.
A Yeah Racing Lipo Alarm which in my opinion is the best looking alarm you can buy! Most look a little homemade in appearance. Also bought from PugSpeed on Trademe.co.nz for NZD$10.50!!

Flying

Well I've been flying a lot, here are some pics my wife took while doing a little hover practice.

Flying and Update

Well I've been flying as much as I can, getting at least 1 flight a day under my belt.
Confidence is slowly returning, and I expect I'll be back doing circuits and mild aerobatics in no time.
I've updated the page tabs at the top of the blog, i've filled them with info on setups, manual downloads etc.
Take a look and see if you can find anything useful.

Maiden Flight

Got up reasonably early, did a preflight check after doing a light oil with some Triflow.
Installed the battery, canopy and started to spool it up.
Cyclic needed a few clicks of right and forward to correct, tail seemed pretty steady with the gain set to 72% on AVCS mode.
Lifted off a little to check the handling out, then dropped it down and spooled down to make sure everything was still okay, and it was.
Did a few more hovers and a little bit of a circuit and it feels great, can't really tell the difference between this and my Align made heli to be honest!!!
I'll post some pics soon.

Gyro & CCPM/Radio Setup

 Made sure my Gyro linkages were mechanically setup perfect as this can cause trouble later on.
Ball is 7-8mm from centre of servo arm, 90 degrees to rod as per the V2 SE Manual.
Check for full movement and set the limits on the gyro so you don't stall and burn your servo.
I then spent the rest of the night setting up pitch and throttle curves, if you have trouble with these please check out Finless Bob Whites video series in the Heli Setup tab at the top of this blog.