Wednesday 18 February 2004

The beginning of the year is a busy time for us Treasurers. I have been flying a few Sundays this year. But what with:

...I'm not complaining, but I just haven't had a right lot of time to keep this diary up-to-date (I am writing this on a train back from London)!

The first Sunday out (I've forgotten which it was now) it was pretty cold and dull and only Rob Barclay, Andy Harrison and I turned out. Rob had a new Throttle Governor fitted to his Futura, but try what we might it just didn't want to kick in. Initial thoughts turned to the problem that Rob had before, with the magnet falling off. However, a quick inspection showed that  not to be the problem. After much scratching of head, delves into the manual (always a dangerous thing) and assorted abortive attempts, we finally decided that the best bet was to follow the config that Andy had set up on both his Governor and his TX. Slight changes were made for gear ratios and head speed and... bingo! It worked! A few tweaks to get the gear ratio right and the head speed was holding spot on the settings of 1500 and 1700 rpm. Rob has promised to give me a rundown of his settings which could act as a start point for others.

The next Sunday saw an old friend who hadn't flown with the club simce 1993, and hadn't flown at all for three years (and then only for an hour), turn up at the field. After a check of his heli and some observation of his flying, which hadn't changed from all those years ago (i.e. very proficient), he let rip. After zipping about the sky for a while he went up into a stall turn. He exited into inverted flight, which was a bit of a surprise (but he assured me it was intended), at which point the engine, and consequently the head speed, died. It was a crash for sure. But no, a quick flip to the right way up, the engine picked up and the day was saved. Unfortunately, only a few moments later, the tail drive belt gave up. However, a controlled landing was achieved with only minor damage.

Meanwhile I had been flying my Futura. It was on good form and I was comfortably (well, for me anyway) doing a few loops and rolls. I also love doing auto's, but for some reason I am having trouble with the head speed dying dramatically through the auto - even though I have -9 deg of negative (perhaps its too much!). Anyway, I had made a couple of successful attempts and was just trying my third. The head speed went completely. I flicked the Throttle Hold off, which due to the very, by now, slow head speed cause a rapid series of pirouettes. This all occurring very close to the ground and a hedge! Somehow, I managed to retain a semblance of control and successfully recovered - to a resounding cheer from the pits!

Then I went out on Sunday 1 Feb 2004.

The weather wasn't bad. Not great, a bit grey, but not bad. However, the previous night had been torrential rain. This meant that getting onto the field was impossible by car - and even a if 4x4s could make it it was going to make an awful mess of the field. So we all had to park by the gate and trek across the field. Andy Harrison arrived at pretty much the same time as me. We collected up our gear (we both select to only transport our Raptors, rather our heavier machines) and started to trudge across the, very wet, field. I couldn't understand why Andy was leaving significant footprints in the grass, but thought no more about it. Until we got to the field, when we both realised that he had quite unnecessarily carried his 60ampHour, sealed, Lead Acid battery (at god knows what weight), that he uses to start his 3DNT, to the pits. In retrospect its surprising he didn't disappear into the mud altogether, rather than just leave footprints!

So... the flying was going well. When for some completely inexplicable reason I lost all orientation. A short, high speed, "nose first" dive resulted in the following...

     

I don't think there isn't a major component that isn't broken. I think its a case of "Revolution Models here we come!" It just the way it goes sometimes - you win some weekends and loose the next.

There is one learning (at least) to come from this mishap. As I walked up to the crash site, the engine was still running at fairly high-speed - though the rotors were held by the ground and could not turn. Andy, who had run down to help pick up the pieces, shouted to me to be careful. His concern was that a causal move of the heli could result in the head being freed and the blades suddenly spinning up. Andy's timely call stopped me from moving the heli too much until I could stop the supply of fuel to the engine by squeezing the fuel tube. 

Sunday 29th February

I couldn't make it to the field this weekend, as I had other commitments. But it looks like a certain club member - one Andy Harrison - decided that he could out do my attempt to total a Raptor. I'll leave it to you to decide if he succeeded!

     

Pictures courtesy of John Bottomley

I believe this was caused by a high speed horizontal Auto - into a tree stump!

Nice one Andy!