Out of the fire.... back in the frying pan. This stock tail boom didn't make it beyond 3 packs. Odd thing is, the original boom that came with the Nano lasted nearly 9 months. Things didn't seem to break so much before I installed the BL kit...... gotta love extra torque!

 

I used to use superglue and cotton. I would wrap the cotton around the boom and frame and put superglue on each layer... just a bit. Now i would actually bring the wrap further down the boom to create a funnel type effect. It really helped - BUT, watch superglue fumes and electronics! for some reason the glue is really corrosive to the carbon tracks on the servos i found.

 

Actually the spring idea is very ingenus and should help with the slop. The servos are the only disadvantage of the micros... but its hard to get a descent servo working on that level and still keep it light i guess... also the servos take a beating, ie they rarely strip gears...

 

Right, I use a similar procedure. I've taken to wrapping and/or binding with cotton thread, then coating with superglue. Wrapping holds things tight and in place while the glue sets, then its rock solid. It's almost like using fiberglass in a way. The superglue fumes bond to the resistive coating on those servo pads. They could probably be cleaned, fortunately, I haven't run into that problem yet.

 

The spring does help. I left it off when I installed the new swash, thinking I wouldn't need it. I really notice the difference when I put it back on. The Nano goes from drifting all over, to being able to spot hover within a 30cm circle with minimal cyclic input.

 

It was a good night for a little night flying with the 120sr ...... or so I thought. Three circuits around the back yard went well enough, till on the fourth and fifth, there was an irresistible gravitational pull towards that one small tree. Hmmm.... I wonder who or what was the cause of that?? Then of course one of the silly little plastic ball-links broke off the flybar that had over 6 months of wear on it and was probably about to fail anyway (the tree finished it off). That was an easy fix though, only took 5 minutes. Nice try @Crash Heligod.

 

Ah! Beautiful evening for leisure flying....... film at eleven. (CDT)

 

The calm before the storm... smoothest air I've seen in a while. Good flying weather for sure! The 120SR flew well.

 

Great video mate, love the Cu Nim building at the beginning and some of the video looks like you have problems with electric bats! ...Nice flight, nice work
Simon

 

Absolutely beautiful time lapse photos. Those electric bats though...It looks as if your flying is progressing well beaver!

 

Electric bats! You guys crack me up! You're right though, it does look like a bat or a bird or something darting about the screen. I couldn't help myself, I set out to get a good time-lapse to begin with..... then 5 minutes in I thought "Hey! Get the 120!!".

 

One of my customers came to the shop to pick up his boat that we just finished building and installing a new 5.0l Mercury inboard engine..... come to find out, he's into helis, and proceeds to tell me he wants to sell a Blade 550 flown once/no crash, DX9, 3 packs, charger, tools, essentially a full blown RTF set-up........ for $1000 USD. Talk about temptation!! I'm not sure I'm ready to go that big just yet though, and it's a discontinued heli, so who knows how much longer HH will support the parts.

 

......and now this??!?
Maybe I need to wait another month or two and see what else drops.

 

Well, ain't that a bitc#. As if I wasn't already stuck with a less than adequate DX4e..... I see they have been upgraded to 3-position mode switch to accommodate the new "s.a.f e." systems, where mine only has a 2-position mode switch.

 

It depends @Beaver. There is a real rush flying a big heli. If you can do figure 8s with confidence and know most upright orientations a bigger heli can give you a big adrenalin shot. I would stick with something like a trex 550 however. Probably the best trex IMO. you can pick them up pretty cheaply and while being a bigger heli tend to be quite a bit cheaper as they dont have to run 12S. As for transmitter, 0nce you move into the big league you will pick either a dx8 or futaba. Spektrum stuff will run most micros out of the box, futaba not usually - ie you need a futaba reciever. If your transmitter currently wont cut the mustard (dx4 is pretty low grade), i would recommend upgrading your transmitter to something that you will use longerterm to fly bigger helis. Better gimbals, better switches. The amount of channels does not matter providing its > 7 or 8 . I fly a futaba 14sg which have more channels than what i need but i purchased this radio because of its reliability and gimbal feel. Gimbals on the futaba are really nice and fast for me. Spektrum can be good however - i wasnt so lucky but many other people have used spektrum with no issues.

 

Yes, I discovered the need for 6 channels or more when I started reading -up on bigger helis. Even a mCPx BL needs 6ch. Ive already reached the limit of the DX4e unless I want to start flying planks (no). A better radio with more channels is mandatory for me to move up to bigger helis.

 

without a doubt a good radio is essential. Made a big difference to my flying enjoyment. Everything seemed more precise

 

Speaking of radios..... indirectly, I finally found and ordered a proper USB cable for my DX4e so I can finally start getting some sim work done.

 

Hey thats GREAT news @Beaver. Hopefully you take to the sim because that is usually the difference between those who can fly and those who can fly exceptionally...

 

Right. The converted PS3 controller wasn't ergonomically friendly and wasn't very accurate.... I tried an app that decoded the DX4e pwm signal through the sound card on my laptop, but response was glitchy. If the new (correct) USB cable works, sim will be easier to use with good control behavior.