The Compass Knight 3D

As some of you may have noticed, we’ve picked up a couple of sponsors here at HeliGeek. Our latest sponsor is Common Sense RC, who have relatively recently begun distribution of the Compass Model RC helicopter line which includes the Atom 500, the Knight series, and the Odin .90.

With the assistance of the great folks over at Common Sense RC, I’m pleased to announce that I will be writing a build log / review for the excellent Knight 3D CF .50 size RC helicopter. Additionally, Common Sense RC has picked up the new Torsion brand blades, designed by Czech heli pro Petr Novotný and I will be reviewing the 600CF mains, the 600 paddles and the Torsion tail blades.

To round everything out, I’ll be using [Read more →]

Just a quick post to let anyone following the saga of me and my flybarless-converted Trex 600E in on the progress. If you’ll recall, the heli bit the dust rather spectacularly a few weeks ago during the second attempt at flybarless flight. I’m not quite sure what the issue was, but Art from Skookum Robotics contacted me shortly thereafter and sent me a brand new SK-360 so I could rule that out as a possibility.

I’m happy to report that [Read more →]

Behold the beast

Some of you may remember my occasional mention of the Evil Plane-Eating Tree© that lives at my local flying club’s field. This tree has also been dubbed the “Charlie Brown Tree” in honor of the old Peanuts comic strip, which constantly eats Charlie Brown’s kite. Our tree is similar. in fact, I’m convinced that there is a microscopic black hole at the center of the tree that warps the space around it and draws unwary RC aircraft into it.

I wrote an article last season when this tree decided to suck in my E-Flite Mini Ultra Stick and hold it for two days about 60 feet off the ground. Luckily (?) we had a wave of thunderstorms move through the area which blew my plane out and I repaired the minimal damage, but others have not been so lucky.

You see, the Evil Plane Eating Tree© lives right off the northwest corner of our runway, and is the only tree around. This puts it on our flight path for landings and circuits, and if you’re flying without a spotter, it can sneak up on you and grab your model when you take a half an eye off of it to look at another plane. We lease our field and the landowner seemed to have a soft spot for this tree, and has historically denied us the permission to remove it. Technically, the tree is not on our field, but on the land directly to our west. [Read more →]

Some of you have been waiting a long time for me to finally finish my build log / review of the MSH Protos “500 class” electric helicopter. I’m pleased to say that the wait is finally over! Now maybe my friend Janos will be happy

Anyway, feel free to peruse the article by clicking on the link at right, or of of the REVIEWS page linked in the top header of the blog. Better still, [Read more →]

Yesterday, Sunday May 17th,  Align pilot Bert Kammerer was eating lunch at an IHOP in Orlando, Florida when his car was broken into. All of Bert’s helicopters and radio gear were in the car and were stolen! Please keep an eye out on the boards and eBay for any of the following equipment (excerpt that follows is from a post by Bert himself at Helifreak.com):

“Here is an actual list of what was stolen: [Read more →]

Well, a bit of bad news for me today. It started out as a great day… I played hooky from work (actually had the boss’ permission) and the girlfriend kicked me out of the house to go fly. Among the helis I took was the 600e Flybarless conversion. If you recall, the first attempt at flight didn’t go so well.  The heli lurched over during spool up and the blades grabbed dirt. Three cyclic servos stripped and a link bent. The damaged parts were replaced and the heli was repaired and readied for flight. This time I took a LOT more care setting it up and even [Read more →]

Well everyone… all I can say is SURPRISE!

I’m very glad you managed to find us in our new location, heligeek.com! A few months ago, I started kicking around the idea of getting my own domain and moving the blog from WordPress.com (an AWESOME free blog hosting community) and decided to give it a go! There were a few small glitches and I’ll need to re-do some things, but pretty much everything transferred over properly. I didn’t realize I’d managed to write so much information in just a year!

Please bear with us as some dust settles. You may noticed some broken links or a missing image or two. Our crack tech support department (me) is working at a fevered pitch to get everything back as close to normal as possible.

Any links you have to articles on the old site will likely no longer work, but you can still get to the same content off of the main page by using the “Pages” and “Archives” sections on the right, or by using the appropriate Nav entry near the top of the page. I’d imagine that I’ll lose some folks along the way as updating links posted in all the various internet heli forums will be next to impossible, and that’s truly regrettable. If you find a link that no longer works, drop me an email (link at right) and I’ll see if I can get it fixed.

Thanks for your patience while we migrate and most of all….

Thanks for supporting The HeliGeek’s Blog!!!!

Protos – Finally finished and all the bugs worked out! To get rid of the persistent wag, I took all the advice I could get my hands on. I moved the ball link on the servo in, I re-mounted the Spartan gyro on the steel plate, and I ditched the 9650 on the tail in favor of a 9257. I’m happy to say that after tweaking my stop gains, the tail holds rock steady now! This thing is an absolute blast to fly! Power out the wazoo and light as a feather!

Flybarless 600E – The new servos are in, the SK360 is in and programmed and the head is set up as close to perfect as I could possibly get it. The setup file was looked over by Art at Skookum robotics (THAT is customer service!), and she’s ready to fly! After the last ailed maiden, this one may indeed have a higher pucker factor, but I’m more confident in the setup this time than I was last time.

Big Stik .40 – Grrr… I bought this plane recently, but I’m using a brand-new Evolution .46NX engine that I purchased last summer and never used. Somehow I managed to lose the muffler bolts and I need a new set before firing it up for the first time. The hardware store has nothing and Home Depot had less than that. I located a set of bolts at the hobby shop, and I’ll be getting those tonight after work. Other than that, it’s a complete airplane and IMHO looks really cool!

Audacity Pantera .50 – The kit is in, as are all the parts. I need to finish the other outstanding reviews, and take care of a few pressing things around the house and then the build will begin. I’ll be re-using the AR7000 and GY401 from my Trex 450 that’s temporarily out of commission, as well as the rebuilt HS6965MG cyclic servos from the 600E, and the Align muffler previously used on my 600NSP. Everything else is new. Spec list to come soon!

Stay tuned! More good stuff and pics to follow!

Finally, after a day of mishaps caused by distraction and inattentiveness, the Protos made her maiden flight. Actually it was little more than a hover, but it still counts as a flight. I had initially taken her to my local field, along with my Trex 600 NSP and my girlfriend’s oldest son’s very first model rocket (way cool) but the runes did not fall in my favor.

First spool up revealed that somehow, I had set up the swash incorrectly and the controls were reversed. After reversing the servos, I tried the second spool up. The tail was reversed. Fixed that, and tried a third. Now my collective was backwards. ARRGH. I sat there for a good half hour trying to figure out why and gave up for a while. I made a couple flights on the 600 and then came back to the Protos.
[Read more →]

I got home today from a fun filled day with the girlfriend and the kids and what do I find waiting for me in my mailbox? My MSH ESC! Pete at ElektroRC must bribe the Post Office. It took one  (yes, ONE) day for this to arrive. I can’t even get in-town mail delivered that fast!!!!!

The MSH 80A ESC. A thing of beauty.

Anyway, the ESC will be installed this evening and if the forecast rain and 16 MPH winds don’t materialize, I’ll be attempting the maiden flight again tomorrow! The only thing against me now is Northeast Ohio weather, and that can be a beotch.