Radio Control Flying Toys

Esky Honey Bee King 2

webmaster — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:03:04 +0000

Esky have captured a impressive following in the last few years with there line of RTF Electric Radio Control Helicopter Line.

I purchased a Esky Honey Bee King 2 bare bones kit. I went this method because i already had all the components available to complete the helicopter.

My only past experience with Electric Radio Control Helicopters was with the Eflite Blade CP. Although i learned to fly a radio control helicopter with the Blade CP. I did not have much luck with upgrades to make it a stable and reliable platform for my intention of having a scale micro helicopter.

The King with its belt driven tail, fitted with a brush less main motor and head holding gyro fits my purpose quite nicely at about the same cost as a Blade CP.

I was pleasantly surprised by how stable this heli is for its size. With a main rotor span of 25 inches, it is still small enough for most indoor venues. Or for learning to hover in your garage or basement. In my case i have 10′X10′ clear space in the basement that allows me to practice any time of day or night oblivious to outside weather.

The Esky Honeybee King 2 has been a great investment and learning experience for me in the Radio Control Modeling Hobby.

More on the King when hobby funds permit, the addition of the scale bits.

More info on the King here

What to Expect from the EFlite Blade Cp Radio Control Helicopter

webmaster — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:57:33 +0000

This Radio Control Helicopter performs best in calm or light wind conditions. The Blade Cp is not a powerhouse and weight gain takes away from the flying performance with every gram added. Although weight adds to the stability and wind handling capabilities. The only upgrade necessary for a great flying helicopter is lipo batteries that are light.This is a great Little Helicopter for cruising around the back yard. Getting accustomed the very sensitive controls takes some time and practice.It is not that this a unstable flying platform, The small size coupled with the direct collective pitch linkage setup makes even the smallest stick movements on the transmitter have a large and very quick reaction. This definitely takes practice and patience to master.In the year that I owned and flew the Blade CP. I tried some of the suggested upgrades from the various RC Forums and Dealers.Number 1 - Brush less Main Motor with ESC and adaptor to allow keeping the original 4 in 1. Cost $60.00Number 2 – Dual Tail Motor Mount with 2 new tail motors.Cost $50.00 including motors.

Number 3 – Complete separate electrical components.Replaced 4 in 1 unit with receiver for my Futaba 8 channel Transmitter.

Added separate H.H. Gyro

Added separate speed control for tail motors.

Cost $200.00

The Brush less motor and Dual tail motor upgrades were worth the effort and expense . The brush less main motor will give 100’s of flights with extra power as a bonus. The dual tail motor setup gives much the same benefit. A little more tail authority with a lot less maintenance. IF hard 3d flying is what is intended, then frame, head and belt tail mods are what is required. When all of these mods are accomplished the helicopter is no longer a blade cp as all the working parts have been changed to after market upgrades. It makes more sense at this point to just purchase a machine for this type of flying if that is the intention. The final cost of upgrading is usually more than a purpose built helicopter. Without the frustration that goes along with getting all this stuff to work properly. Unless of course you are like me and love to tinker.Conclusion The Blade CP is a GREAT small Collective Pitch Helicopter that is in the middle price range of Helis in this size. Most Hobby Stores and Online shops carry the Blade CP and stock parts.

Mild 3d is doable with a battery and main blade upgrade.If hard 3d and very aggressive flying is in your future, look at some of the other helis out there more suited to this style of flying.For those interested in moving up to larger radio control helicopters, MASTERING the blade cp will help develop a skill level that will allow a very easy transition to the larger more docile machines.

Eflite Blade Cp Radio Control Helicopter

webmaster — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:53:18 +0000

My first collective pitch radio control helicopter.
I have been flying radio control airplane models of various types and sizes since 1984. Although this is not the first RC Helicopter I have owned, this is the first one that I actually learned to fly.

My interest in radio control helicopters got tweaked by a fellow club member who started a business doing aerial photography with large radio control helicopters. Watching and helping him set up his equipment allowed me to have a close look at the machines and how they worked.

On a visit to the local hobby shop for some glue, I purchased a eflite blade cp that had been damaged at a greatly reduced price. I could never pass up a bargain when it comes to rc stuff. After some haggling the shop owner threw in the required parts for repair also.
Before I got the first replacement part (the main shaft) installed I had a few questions that the manual did not explain. I don’t believe these heli’s were designed as beginners machines. Although they are often marketed in this way.

A quick search on the popular radio control hobby forums resulted in pages upon pages of info on the blade cp. The vast majority of this info was how to upgrade and change out pieces from some other machine apparently to make the blade actually fly. After sifting threw the mountain of posts my questions were answered and I got the thing together and set up.
One of the best finds I made searching the forums was a link to site that explains in detail with a well laid out learning program that actually works and is free for the reading. A link to the program can be found on my web site.

Following the steps laid out in the flight program I was soon hovering a couple feet off the floor in my basement. My flying area is a 15’X15’ clear space. I could not seem to manage to stay inside a 10’X10’ space when hovering regardless of how I tried. After reading all the stuff on the forums I was a little disappointed as I was sure there was something amiss with the helicopter and I was going to have to start buying more parts to get it to work properly.
My Buddy from our club dropped by and I asked him to check it out. He lifted it off the floor in my basement to about 5’ and hovered in a 6” space for a few minutes then landed and said its set up pretty good. This got me away from the computer and forums and back to practicing. It took a few weeks practicing every night to get to the point where I could hover inside a 2’ space for a whole battery pack and a couple more weeks to get proficient enough to have complete control. Actual daily flying time was about 10 minutes each day.

Next Blog Post
What to expect from this helicopter and how to get it.

My adventures in the hobby of Radio Control Flying Toys

webmaster — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:50:50 +0000

I have been building and flying radio control models for about 15 years or so. Thanks to my brother who introduced me to radio control planes He had four or five at the time. After watching a unsuccessful attempt at flying one of his models i was hooked.

I purchased a Sig LT 40 from the local hobby shop and got the plane built within a month or so. The thought occurred to me that because i lived on the shore of Lake Ontario that floats would be a great idea. A 100 ft walk and presto, a perfect flying site. The floats were completed and mounted. I then called my brother and asked when he would be able to visit and show me how to fly this thing. His reply was he had no idea how to fly one, his first attempt was when i was watching and it did not work out. I then checked back with the hobby shop and found there were a couple local clubs but no float clubs.

At this point i thought i would give it a go on my own. The first flight was pretty much perfect. A nice take off and a couple large circuits and a perfect float landing. Every one of the next 50 attempts resulted in a crash and repairs. Moral of story Join a club and get some help.

I have been looking for and sharing info on the subject of radio control aircraft on the net also for the past 15 years.

My goal of this blog is to bring as much info about a particular model into one place.It has been my experience that most all the info you would need to purchase, build and fly a particular model is on the net. But this info is in 20 different places. If you have a particular subject you would like to write about and have it posted here, just drop me a note

PETE’S UNORTHODOX HELICOPTER LEARNING METHOD

webmaster — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:25:16 +0000

Hi guys, I thought a note on how I learnt to fly helicopters might be useful to some. I am assuming here that we are dealing with a RTF, ready to fly, electric helicopter, and someone that has never had a hand on a helicopter before. One word of warning there is no such thing as a ready to fly helicopter in the hands of a novice. If you think that you are going to give it gas and fly off into the wild blue yonder, forget it, and go back to watching television. If you have seen the experts lift a helicopter out of the grass into a perfectly steady hover without a twitch or a shake just remember that is a long way down the road. You are going to need all of your patience, determination and lots of time to get to that stage.

So for those that are not already watching television here is how I started. This is intended for a small electric powered heli, NOT a 90 size gas job. My first heli was an Eflite Blade CP. There are two trains of thought on what type of heli should be the first. Those that say you start with a FP, fixed pitch, and graduate to a CP, collective pitch, heli, and those that say “forget it” start with a CP, heli. I don’t want to get into the pros and cons of these types here but I just didn’t want to spend the money on a FP heli that would not grow with me.

So how do we learn to fly a CP heli without a major pain in the wallet? Here is my unorthodox method. First lesson, spend the money on training gear. Don’t attempt any of this without training gear otherwise the pain in the wallet will become very apparent very fast. Set up the training gear with the center boss centered under the rotor drive shaft.

Find a pencil, paper clip and a piece of string. Hopefully you have a dinning room table with a center extension. If not a patio table with an umbrella hole in the middle will also work. Tie the pencil to one end of the string. Pull the string up under the table through the gap between the extension, with the pencil underneath. The purpose of the pencil is of course to stop the string pulling up, and something else could be used for this purpose. [At this point in time you will probably encounter protests from your partner. I can’t offer any advice on this, you are on your own here.] Now tie the paper clip to the top end of the string and make a hook that will clip onto the center of the training gear. The object of the exercise here is to have the length of the string long enough to allow the heli to rise off the table about 6-10 inches without being able to tip over and hit the rotor blades on the table. The whole set-up also has to be strong enough to prevent the heli from flying off. OK, now your ready to begin. The first exercise is to learn orientation, which way is right and which way is left. Surly, you say, right is right and left is left, well sometimes. Place the heli on the table with the nose facing away from you and the string contraption firmly attached. Looking at the transmitter, the right stick will make the heli go right and left, forward and backward, and the left stick will make the heli rotate right and left and rise up. This is a RTF heli and all of this should be correctly set up out of the box.

With the left stick slowly push forward increasing the rotor speed and at some point the heli will move in one direction or the other. Try to maintain the heli in the centre position without it twisting one way or the other. DO NOT lift the heli off the table at this point. Practice keeping the heli in this orientation, nose away, with as much rotor speed as possible without lifting off the table. Try not to come to the end of the string, but this will be difficult. If the heli consistently moves to one side or the other use the transmitter trims to try and stabilize the heli. It won’t be possible for the heli to stay in the center by its self. YOU have to control it all the time to achieve this. Once you have a feel for how the sticks operate try turning the nose of the heli to the left or right about 30 to 45 degrees, and holding it in that position. You may find it is easier to hold it to the left or right. DON’T concentrate on the easy side. You want to be able to fly in both directions don’t you? Or do you want to be a NASCAR driver and only fly left hand circles? As you progress turn the heli more and more until the nose starts to face you. You will now start to find that right is not always right and left is not always left. With the nose facing you the left/right control will be reversed. This is what you are trying to learn here, orientation. A tip here is to watch the nose of the heli and which direction it is going, right from the helis point of view will always be right. DON’T watch which way the tail is going. The tail is moving much more than the nose and it easy to concentrate on that rather than the nose. DON’T DO IT.

There is one more thing to learn before you move away from the table. A heli has to have power applied all the time for it to fly. There is an exception to that rule but I won’t deal with that here. So now, with the nose away from you, increase the rotor speed and let the heli lift up. Too much and the heli will come to the end of the string and stay there, probably tipped over at about 45 degrees to the table. DON’T let this happen this is NOT flying. The object is to keep the string loose and just do small hops without the string becoming tight. This will teach you how to let the heli down gently. Chop the power suddenly and the heli will crash to the table. That’s what you don’t want to happen. Let it down gently with finesse of the collective, left stick. OK, so I am a slow leaner I did this for about ten battery charges. Now you should be ready to go to stage two.

Now is the time to remember baby steps, giant leaps will lead to that pain in the wallet. You need a flat surface at least ten feet square, the bigger the better. Ideally a wooden or tiled floor which allows the heli to move around freely is best. A smooth concrete garage floor also works great. Indoors is better than out as there is no chance of wind upsets. DO NOT do your first attempts on the grass. On grass the heli can not move sideways and the first hint of which way it’s going will be when it is in the air, and then you will be fighting to gain control. Set the heli in your space with the nose facing away from you, stand well back and start increasing rotor speed. Don’t forget there is no safety net now. Remember baby steps and no giant leaps. This is not NASCAR racing where you can bump and grind the wall, this is Formula One where one touch and you may as well go home. DO NOT forget that the heli has inertia; once it gets going it will keep going in that direction until YOU stop it. If you feel it is getting out of control finesse that collective and gently bring it back on the deck.

OK, with table time behind you, you should have no trouble being able to hold the heli on the floor within a 3 or 4 foot circle. Now is the time to try and hover. Start with little hops. People will tell you that it is easier to hover a few feet in the air than it is close to the ground in the rotor wash. This is true, but right now height costs money. Save the height for when you get outside. Slowly increase the time in the air, and as you get used to it nose out, start trying turn the heli in a hovering position. This is a long process so do not get discouraged. Do a little at a time. This requires a lot of concentration and is mentally fatiguing. Start slowly and work up until you can hover a complete battery charge without landing. This will take many battery charges to accomplish do not get discouraged. I’m not going to tell you how long it took me to get that far, but it was a lot of battery charges. Once you can hover a complete battery without landing it’s time to find more space and start maneuvering. Hopefully at this point the damage will be minimal and the wallet pain not too great. Just remember crashes are inevitable. If you’re not crashing you’re probably not flying.

Happy landings. Pete.

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webmaster — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 21:26:55 +0000

WHY BUILD RADIO CONTROL MODELS

Thursday March 13th 2008,

Our world today is so fast paced at times that weeks go by, where thoughts of anything but work, the bills or the next place we have to get to by 6pm etc is the only thoughts we have.

If you are in this group of folks, that all you’re waking moments are taken up by these thoughts. Read on.

I have always been intrigued with how aircraft work and fly. My start in aircraft model building was first inspired by my brother, who showed up at our house one weekend in July with a Radio Control Model Airplane. His attempts to fly the model were unsuccessful that weekend, but I was intrigued with his explanations of the building and preparation involved in getting the model ready for the sky’s. The concept of having my own creation take to the sky’s was very appealing.

Looking back (hind sight is really great) I now see the great stress reduction that building models have given me at times. Building Aircraft of any size or type that are intended to fly requires a lot of focus on the project at hand.

I have found that if I work on a model a few hours a week, the concentration required to do a good job allows the tuning out of the rest of the world for a few hours. The best part is this is done in the comfort of my home. With no time limits attached to the project, there is no pressure. I have had conversations with modelers about there creations that have taken 20 years from concept to completion. I personally have a couple that is past the 5 year mark. They are always there when I need to escape for a few hours. Although these are very complicated models, they will eventually get finished maybe.

Most folks complete an airplane kit build in 4 to 6 months working a few hours a week. My suggestion is to start with a trainer kit, such as a Sig Manufacturing Kadet LT 40 or Great Planes PT 40. Both these manufactures supply these kits with instructions tailored to the novice builder. These models can be found in most Hobby Stores that carry Radio Control Airplane Products.

Everything required to build, finish and have the model ready to fly will cost less than $600.00 for the first one. Additional models will be in the $200.00 to $300.00 range if staying within the 40 size arena.

Many modelers agree that building Radio Control Models is the most relaxing and rewarding form of recreation they have tried. Stop in at your local Hobby Store and have a look at some of the wonderful flying machine kits available, that you can turn into a real flying airplane.

The finished airplane will be a source of praise for you’re skill from others. But the journey to that point will most certainly be some of the most relaxing hours you may get to spend in this hectic life style we all seem to be caught up in. Above All be sure to HAVE FUN