550 Maiden flight!

Well yesterday was the maiden flight of the 550. After doing some reading on the internet I decided to fit an external BEC.

Castle Creations PRO BEC

Castle Creations PRO BEC

It seems there have been problems with the one that is built into the ESC and I didn’t want the new heli to turn into a lawn dart. In the end I opted for the Castle Creations Pro BEC (see here at Fast Lad) and fitted it with no problems.

On to the flight. I have to say I double checked everything and then gave it a go! Well it was bloody awful, it had the tremors and then when I went to idle up it sounded like it was going to explode!

Quickly landing it I realised the pitch and throttle curves were wrong (school boy error), this would solve the insane throttle jump but as to the quiver I changed the Elevator and Aileron gain to the 11’o’clock position and tried again.  This time it was much better but the tail wasn’t locked in.  Spent a few minutes messing around with the gain and eventually got it pretty stable enough to fly it around.  However due to the pitch/throttle curve error I had stripped a tooth off the main gear and 3G is very sensitive to vibrations so really that was as much as I could do.

Still initial impressions are very good and I can’t wait to get the new main gear on and get it in the air to tweak it further.

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2010
07/24
CATEGORY
T-Rex 550
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T-Rex 550 Build Update #2

Just spent another couple of hours in the cellar T-Rex 550and this is the current build status.  It’s the first time I have put a torque tube in, normally I have to faff with a belt but this was a lot easier!  T-Rex 550So far so good on the build, even though the canopy is on I still need to put all the electronics in properly that is normally the bit that takes ages..

2010
07/18
CATEGORY
T-Rex 550
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Saturday 17th Flying

Well Saturday dawned a potentially good day but the wind got up quite high and with scattered showers it didn’t live up to it’s promises. Still it was good to get out and have a fly.

Inverted Protos

I had a good friend up on Saturday who has an awesome camera so here are a couple of shots.  At least it proves I can really go upside down!

You will also notice that it is the Protos upside down and regular readers of this blog will also notice that  I was having severe tracking problems with the Protos. I managed to solve this by changing the blades back to SAB’s.  Inverted ProtosI had brought some Align ones which are fine but for some reason they didn’t seem to work so a fellow pilot suggested I try putting SAB’s back on as that’s what the kit is shipped with.  I did this and it was perfect!  Sometime it’s best not to ask…

2010
07/17
CATEGORY
MSH Protos
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T-Rex 550 Manuals

As the T-Rex 250 SE manual is a popular post on this site here is the T-Rex 550 flybar and flybarless manuals.

2010
07/16
CATEGORY
T-Rex 550
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T-Rex 550 Build Update

I haven’t had much time of the last few days to much on the 550 but here is a photo of the build so far.

T-Rex 500 build photo #1

T-Rex 500 build photo #1

A picture says a thousand words so another 100 won’t hurt but as you can see I have built the frame up and slotted the head in. The 3G head comes pre-built and looks magnificent in the polished silver and black.   The skids go on early and it makes it easier to build and move around the bench.

Align does get some grief about the quality of its parts and so far I have to say this looks okay.

Next steps are fitting the servos and then the tail..

2010
07/16
CATEGORY
T-Rex 550
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** New Addition to the Squadron! **

Well it took a along time and some deliberation but finally I brought a T-Rex 550E 3G.  Oh yes, I’m going flybarless! So why the 550E? Well I wanted to stay with electric as my flying time is limited I can just sling a battery in and go flying which is much easier.

T-Rex 550E 3G

T-Rex 550E 3G with Align 4600mAh 40c batteries

I was tempted by the Align T-Rex 600 but thought that the new technology was better and, to all intents and purposes, this will fly just the same.  It can swing up to 550mm blades so it’s a nice size.   Big enough to auto easily and “hang” in the sky but not too big to be imposing. I hope.

The eagle eyed will spot the two batteries beneath the box –  these are Align 4600mAh 40C batteries which I think will be an excellent size and provide me good flight duration.

As I build it up I will post more pictures and of course there will be 550 page in the squadron section to record all the settings.

2010
07/14
CATEGORY
New
T-Rex 550
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Tracking. Again.

Virtually new head.  New Align blades and still the tracking is all over the place!

Okay the details. Went flying yesterday to try the new Turnigy Nano-Tech battery (see post further down) out that turned up on Friday.  However despite my post on June 27th declaring “Protos tracking SOLVED!” it clearly isn’t.  When I put it in the air today the blades decided to go out of track at random, to the extent that half a turn means that one blade goes from being ‘below’ to being ‘above’.  This just isn’t right yet I can’t work out why?  After previous events I thought it had been sorted, however it just isn’t. Hmm..

2010
07/10
CATEGORY
MSH Protos
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