T-Rex Maiden Flight(s)
Last week I wrangled myself free of work for an hour or so and was able to attempt the maiden flight of my T-Rex 450. I had some difficulty with the rudder and gyro, specifically when the bird would get light on the skids it would spin very quickly in circles. Next, when I pushed the tail to try and compensate, it only made it worse! After a bit of head scratching, I realized that both my rudder channel and gyro were reversed. When I applied the changes, the tail held, but it was ‘hunting’ (i.e. it was oscillating back and forth, trying to find the right position to stop the motion).
I called it a day, but when I got back inside I was able to find some better pictures on how the rudder servo should be mounted. I adjusted it by shortening the servo arm (the shorter it is, the higher the resolution of the servo), as well as making some other very minor adjustments. The following day, after a busy morning I went out again and the tail was locked in pretty well. I was also able to see the tracking “paint” I applied to one of the blades, and went from about 1 centimeter out of track to near perfect with 2 turns of one of the links.
With the blades in track, I played around a little. Having a brand new toy up in the air was pretty fun - I just did some basic tail-in hovering and flew some big box patterns to get a feel for the heli. It definitely handles much better than the HoneyBee, and for 3-4 times the price it had better! I was not disappointed, by any means.
The only downside of the day was that I probably over-discharged my LiPo batteries a hair. I had a hard time making out the little gas-gauge I bought, so by the time I realized I was over, the gauge was showing red, and briefly red+green. I flew 2 packs this way, because, ya know, I learn. I did manage to follow some instructions on rcgroups about doing a booster charge up to 10V, then continuing at a slower rate. That seemed to work fine - the cells didn’t vent or anything. Next time I fly I’ll have to see how they hold up. At least now I’ve changed my transmitter timer to 6 minutes instead of 10.
Definitely going to need more batteries with a 6-minute flight time.