What a glorious day in SE VA.!

[swatson144]

72F wind was at 0 mph for my first 2 packs. It's gotten up to 4/7mph during the last 2 packs. Only 3 more packs to go before I have to wait on the chargers.

It's so nice for a change instead of our 10 mph average.

Steve

[swatson144]

Not to rub it in but... I've flown this morning until my arms ache :P And then flew a couple packs out in my tiny side yard doing passes. It seems going to the larger lot across the street I just jack around and have fun. I can never seem to find the discipline to do anything very constructive. Winds seem to have settled at 7mph (still low for here).

I got passes going from L to R turning nose in slowly and hovering knocked :D

I can do passes R to L and turning slowly to nose in but I'm not as comfortable and indeed a bit scared. It may be because I'm so close to the house when I do it. This evening I'll be on the other side and have more room to practice that with the sun at my back.

Then it's on to doing the same with a very slow piro in the middle.

Hopefully after I get that knocked and can truely and comfortably nose in from either direction, I can actually get some where with FBF.

Whoot only one crash on the Corona through it all.

Steve

[medtech]

don't feel too bad, I just went thru my 2 packs, now I have to wait for them to charge, then I'm back out there. It's sunny with no wind! There is a very slight gust about 10-15ft up that caused me to drift real close to a tree once.

The first pack I spent keeping the heli in one place. The second I practiced a bit of side-in hovering. It's real easy until a gust moves it suddenly then my slow brain doesn't process fast enough and I overcorrect.

The one good thing, even when the wind caused me to completely lose it side-in I still had time to turn it tail in and regained control. It's amazing how comfortable I am tail-in. During emergency maneuvers it isn't pretty but I manage to get it back and settle it down. Then I usually land just to regroup. I'm sure after a few more hours of side-in it'll be the same.

Edit: I really need more batteries. I get about 20 minutes out of both packs and then have to wait 40 minutes each for them to charge.

[swatson144]

I just got a couple more packs in but the wind is up to it's norm. at 13 mph.

You should checkout commonsenserc.com their budget packs 2000 mAh 3s makes your corona pretty happy for 6 mins (1700 mAh out and that puts it right at their 8c limit) and won't break the bank, since you have a charger for it. About 45$ a pair.

Did you get the motor and are using it or did you go with plan B?

Steve

[medtech]

I put in your motor. After another 10 or so packs the brushes are already pretty worn. I know from experience that if I let them go any lower they will overheat the motor and melt things. I don't know if it's because I keep doing 2 packs in a row and I'm getting it too hot. Things I've read say that the brushes do wear down quick and 10 flights isn't unheard of. I guess this is just the nature of the beast with brushed motors.

I think I'm going to go with a brushless setup to save on the headache of dealing with brushes. I'm thinking of going with the Mega 16/15/3 and the CC45. Will a brushless setup give me more flight time versus a brushed motor?

I got a bit extra money yesterday from my side job. What would be a good upgrade (besides motor, esc, battery). I'm looking for a mod that will tighten things up and make the helicopter a bit more responsive and reliable. The only thing I could find that looked neat and should be functional is the billet swashplate. Is this a worthy upgrade. I've got around $150 to spend to upgrade the heli. I already got the delrin TH and delrin tail fin.

Any suggestions?

edit: Or should I not waste any money upgrading the corona and instead save my money and buy a new fancy 3d heli when I'm ready for one?

[swatson144]

Thanks for the info on the motor. I've only test flown them and never did much else. I've been brushless and LiPo since I got back into RC.

The Corona in my opinion, is what it is. Like the Blade CP a lot of people wind up with entirely too much money in them IMO. It's your/their money so what ever makes it all come out happy. :) .

Things I have done to mine (thus think are good values), aside from how yours arrived, and Brett's very nice TH.

Hyper drive and tail belt drive. These really don't do much (since your tail is so high) except make it almost silent. I like that but some times I wonder about me. Down side is when you are recovering and really jinking hard and hear a belt skip trying to figure out which one :o Once a belt skips they pretty much skip until it's over. Not sure if it was all worth it.

I recall I had put in -30% expo on elevator and ailerons on your radio since you were a beginner. Returning that to 0 would be a big step in the more responsive direction.

Either buy the carbon fiber flybar or flaten yours like this. http://www.chopper-1.org/Mod_flybar.html it really helps in FFF but not much point until then.

Moving the Z links to the inner holes will liven it up.

You already have a CF pushrod on the tail. Big help there. No more Yaw left, comeon left...Gawk stop piroing!

If you are thinking of going 3s lipo the 16-15-3 is pretty hot running. I've been working pretty hard on finding a good 3s motor with out paying 300$ for a hacker and waiting. I have both the 16-15-3 and the astro 020. Of the 2 I fly the 020 on the corona. I'm happy with both but deilighted with neither. Wish I had a better answer on that. Unfortunataly everyone I know who flies electric is either bigger smaller or way high or low on KV. So I can't just borrow from the spares box. On 3s 2500-2800 KV would be perfect in a 300W motor.

The PHX45 is indeed a good choice and is installed on mine.

Steve

[medtech]

Steve,
I already removed all the expo on the tx. It did make it more sensitive but not bad at all. I'll have to try moving the z-links. If the belt systems only decrease noise then I think I'll pass on them because I'm not too worried about it.

After thinking about it more I'll probably hold off on doing much else until I find something that is limiting my ability to progress. Right now the only thing holding me back is experience and I need more flight time to get that so batteries will be my next purchase. I'll pick up a lipo pack and give it a try. Of course I know less than nothing about lipos so it's time to go read some more. :shock:

I'm not quite up to forward flight but when I get there I'll probably buy the cf flybar since it's plenty cheap!

It seems the only thing I need now to improve is practice and that's something I can't buy anywhere!!

[swatson144]

Good plan on the belts I'd say. My tail belt drive was bought used from Vahe (sp?) OrionV and didn't go on until I stripped a drive wire. I bought the Hyperdrive when I used my spare maingear vice buying another.

The flybar is probably the prettiest mod for it :lol: .

Are you looking for faster action because you always seem behind it in a hover? I don't really know what is slow, or what you are after. Wow theres no good way to ask that so I just blurt it out and hope you take it right :) .

Another mod to quicken them up is to take the big bolts out of the fly bar ends and replace it with setscrews in the subrotor pivot rod goes in. Works the same as litening the flybar paddles on other helis. Once the subrotor pivot rod is secured with setscrews you can experiment with different weight/lengths of bolts.

I'd have to say that it'd probably be best to wait on the performance enhancements until you get into FF, and acrobatics.

Steve