By Nigel on Sunday, 27 June 2010 11:01 AM

Thought I should dust the cobwebs off the mini-titan properly with a couple of flights today.

First flight was just a get the feel for it.  Second flight I did some circuits, with figure 8's and a couple of stall turns.

The tail wasn't too bad.  It held very well, with some wag at times, but was still pretty solid.  A decent tail servo will definately help.

Battery #6 took xx ma to charge in yy minutes for an 8 minute flight

Battery #7 took xx ma to charge in yy minutes...

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By Nigel on Sunday, 27 June 2010 11:01 AM

After a couple of nice flights with the mini-titan it was the Trex's turn hehe

First flight was the usual flying, circuits, figure 8's, stall turns, stall and stall piro turns, piros and forward flight piros.

Second flight I did a few extra things. :)  A couple of barrel rolls and 3 or 4 loops. Near the end of the flight I decided to do some autos.  I started off at a couple of metres, then increasing the height.  Before teh fuel got too low, I guess I had worked up to about 20 metres. ...

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By Nigel on Saturday, 26 June 2010 9:12 AM

It was looking like a nice morning when I left home to head down for a flight and it was still nice when I got to the field but before I even got my first flight in the showers started. We had a few more thought out the morning, but still had nice sunshine between these showers.

I got two enjoyable flights in.  The tail if a lot nicer now with the Tail Lock gain set down to 50.  I was able to increase the tail gain (back up to 34 now) and the tail is holding a lot nicer now.

The flights...

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By Nigel on Monday, 21 June 2010 4:49 PM

This was a test flight after fitting the spartan gyro to the mini-titan.

This gyro really shows how bad and slow the spektrum servos are.

I got the tail dialled, but when doing piros, the tail has a really bad bounce (1/4 turn) when you stop.

New tail servo is now on the list

Battery #7 took 1536 ma in 66:43minutes to charge for an approximately 8 minute long flight

By Nigel on Saturday, 19 June 2010 9:04 AM

Didn't think it was going to be a nice day for flying as when I was heading in, I passed through a really heavy rain storm, but thankfully it cleared up (just icy cold winds)

I had two good flights.  I had reduced the "Rudder Lock Gain Adjustment" on the 3G control unit as suggested on archeli forums in an attempt to stop the tail wag that I have been unable to get rid of by dropping the gain.

The first flight I was a bit dissappointed as the wag was still there.  About half way through...

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By Nigel on Monday, 14 June 2010 8:36 AM

Boy it was cold.  According to the car, it was only 5 degrees.

I only managed one flight as I had to go help a friend.  I was hoping to squeeze two flights in, but that was not to be as time was going to quick.

I reduced the tail gain to see if I could get rid of the wag.  I dropped it down to 20%. the wag was reduced, but at the expense of any holding.  In the end, I put it back up to 25%.  This is a compromise with some wag and also some holding. At this point, I would rate the tail...

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By Nigel on Saturday, 12 June 2010 8:11 AM

First flight after re-setting up the 3G unit after upgrading the firmware to v2.1.

I had set the gains to 50% (about 11 o'clock on the pots) and spooled up. WOW.  extremely agile and I had a blast zooming along and doing stall turns etc.  The biggest high light was doing piros.  The only thing that caused the heli to drift was the breeze.  Piro after piro. left and right rotations it was stable as could be.  There was no other stick input required other than rudder input :)

I dialled...

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By Nigel on Saturday, 5 June 2010 9:07 AM

The morning turned out better than expected.  It was looking like it was going to be yuck, but it cleared up a bit and by the time I got down to the field it was rather nice (all be it a tad cold)

I had to replace the glow plug before the first flight as it wouldn't glow, so once that was replaced, she fired up nicely.

I videod the first flight, but didn't strap down the camera tight enough, so there was a fair amount of rippling through out the video :( I reduced the tail gain from...

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By Nigel on Saturday, 22 May 2010 9:22 AM

Wonderful conditions for flying today.  Hardly a breath of wind, and some cloud.

First flights with the Radix blades.  CG of these blades were the same, with one blade being slightly heavier.

I played with the tail gain on the first flight, increasing it to try and fix the tail issues.  I went up to 75, but wasn't game enough to go any further as the high speed wag was a little hard for me to control, so I reduced it back down to 50 where it was "hoverable", then continued to reduce...

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By Nigel on Saturday, 22 May 2010 9:21 AM

Beautiful conditions for a flight with hardly a breath of wind.

I was hoping to do circuits with the mini, but had orientation issues when it was about 30 metres away.  I have learnt with the Trex that even though the red canopies look good, they are hard to see, so I think I will be ordering some new canopies soon.

Also think I need better main blades and possibly a proper tail servo.  This used to be such a fun heli to fly and now its not.  Ever since the crash and I was unable to...

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By Nigel on Saturday, 15 May 2010 9:06 AM

Well I maidened the 3G setup today in excellent conditions (hardly a breath of wind)

A total of two flights.  10 and 14 minutes a peice.  The second flight's maximum engine temp was 109c

I have installed the following setup: For the sensor, I have run 1 layer of 3m 4010 tape, spartan metal plate, then a 2nd layer of 4010 tape sensor then strapped down tightly (on the gyro mount above the front servos).

Elevator and Aileron Gains both at 12 o'clock.

Apart from an extremely...

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By Nigel on Thursday, 13 May 2010 5:00 PM

A quick test flight to see how the 3G flybarless setup works.

I need to reduce the throws as the heli is extremely sensitive to inputs, but the tail has a really annoying kick and a slow wag.  I will give it a flight or 2 to see how it goes, but if I can't get anywhere, then I will plug the spartan back in.

Im looking forwards to getting down to the field on saturday and start dailling it in.

By Nigel on Saturday, 8 May 2010 9:32 AM

Beautiful conditions for flying.  The only let down were the clouds.

The flights were the usual circuits stall turns, stall piro turns and some turns turning towards me (instead of away from me as I usually do)

On the first flight (which I video recorded) I also did another barrel roll.  It was so nice with no wind.  The heli is really well trimmed and I was able to do some hands off hovering :)

Second flight much similar to the first, but no barrel roll.  I did flick up to stunt...

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By Nigel on Saturday, 1 May 2010 8:38 AM

The conditions started out ok, but the winds steadily got stronger making it unpleasant to fly.

I had one flight that was enjoyable and managed to get a video of it as well.

Nothing new, just the usual circuits, stall turns, piro stall turns. 

The flight was 13minutes in length

By Nigel on Saturday, 1 May 2010 8:38 AM

Another nice flight with the titan, although the tail is playing up and I suspect the tail servo, or possible binding.

It would be fine, then twitch and almost start wagging..

I started to move the heli around, doing small circuits (about 30metres long)

I might have to invest in another canopy and make it a nice bright one.  The darker colours (as good as they look) make it very hard to determine orientation.

Battery #7 took 1484 ma to charge in 77:34 minutes for a 6 minute...

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By Nigel on Monday, 26 April 2010 8:49 AM

I haven't flown the mini titan for a while and given the lack of wind, decided to give her a flight.

Nothing special about the flight.  Just basic hovering - left and right side in.  The mini titan is soo twitchy after the trex

Battery #6 took 1630 ma to charge in 77:14 minutes for a 6 minute flight

By Nigel on Monday, 26 April 2010 8:49 AM

Winds had started to increase by the time I got to fly the 'Rex

Lots of circuits with stall and piro stall turns.  Even snuck in a reasonable roll (in forward flight, so would this be a corkscrew or barrel roll??)

I got a video of the flight.  I don't think I had it strapped tight enough as the jello was back. But it is watchable :)

Flight time was 13 minutes.  Max engine temp was 111c

By Nigel on Saturday, 24 April 2010 9:52 AM

Well it looked like it was going to be an ok day when I left home, but the weather deteriorated.  When I got to the field, the other guys were about to head off for a coffee.

After our coffee and chat, the weather had improved slightly, so we decided to have some flights.

I only had the one flight as I didn't enjoy the conditions.  It wasn't so much the wind but the clouds at times were making it hard to determine orientation.  So it was just circuits with hovering and stall turns.

...

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By Nigel on Sunday, 18 April 2010 12:00 AM

Two wonderful flights down at my parents farm 10 and 6 minutes respectively

Lots of stall turns and circuits.  Even some high altitude passes over my parents house.  The best part was my first roll since the crash back in decembet last year.  This one was in forward flight and was reasonably smooth Yippee :)

I also took a 6 minute video of part of the flight.  I strapped the camera as tight as I could.  This is the best video I have taken so far.  Very watchable :)

I think I...

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By Nigel on Saturday, 17 April 2010 9:30 AM

Two nice flights, one with the camera.

I "hard" mounted the camera to the underside of the canopy instead of the 5mm of foam.  This resulted in a much better picture, with a lot less "jello" effect.

The second flight I was unable to getr the camera to work again.  Thankfully just a press of the reset button gets it all good again.

Also on the second flight, the tail had a slight wag.  I will have to keep an eye on it, but once I got up and flying around, the tail settled down.

...

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