Hurricane 550 kicks butt!

[medtech]

I green lock-tite my one way bearing gear, waited a day, and had to try it again today. It is 32 degrees outside, **** cold. It's a bit windy too, 10mph gusts. I had to try it anyway.

This is my first CP heli, moving up from a corona. I was a bit nervous to say the least. The one way bearing held this time. I managed to hover for 6 minutes with only a few minor problems. The wind kept pushing the heli around and once a big gust made the heli drop pretty quick, the tail lightly hit the ground. I stopped the heli but there was no damage, thanks to the snow.

I was real shakey even after hovering for a bit and telling myself to calm down and the worst that could happen is I crash. I think the wind didn't help. I even flipped into idle1 for most of the flight but believe me, my finger never left that throttle hold switch!

The only problem was a small tear in the plastic covering the wood blades? Where the heck did this come from? It's on top near the tip of the blade? I never hit anything, maybe a bug I didn't see, lol. Any ideas? I'll have to put a piece of tape over it and rebalance the blades.

Overall a successful flight. I couldn't believe how rock steady the heli was even with the wind. It's nothing like the sim. Not even close to as twitchy. Now I'm going to go check my elogger and see how much power I have left. I can't wait til my eagletree display is delivered!

[medtech]

I just flew again, winds are much lower now! No where near as much nervousness. I hovered fine, loved jumping up and down with the pitch, still haven't done much else! Slowly but surely! No need to rush!

I love the z20-980kv. Last flight after 7 minutes I used 2100mah from my FP 3200's. Voltage low was 20.5, 22.5 after flight. How low can I go with these batteries. I'm sure I can go lower, I've read 3.0v per cell is limit, so 18v. How about mah, is there a number I should stay below?

The motor got to 86, batteries 90, and esc 93. Head speed in idle1 was 1950rpm at hover, is this ok with woodies? Max was 2000 at 0 pitch using 14t pinion.

The thing is rock steady with no wind. I could let go of the controls and it would stay in place for quite a while. No vibes at all, thanks to Finless and his videos setup went perfect!!

My corona was fun but this is a whole new level and I'm completely addicted now. I just have to learn how to fly for real!

[swatson144]

I don't know how I missed this!

You should try to leave 20-30% in the packs as cushion and for long life. So putting back about 2.5A/h should be about right. Dropping below 3.0V/cell causes irreversable damage. Most of the heat is generated in the last 20% of the pack. Heat is the enemy.

I still like my H550 but it's a bit of a pain to prepare. But it's light and a nice flyer. I'm thinking about up motoring my Swift 16 and moving the Neu 1907 1.5Y to the H550 I'm finding the stock motor a little lame (not poor but a little lame) It'll see some flight time this weekend but the day to day flier has become the Swift. simply because I can plug it in without removing the canopy (great for darting across the street for a quicky)

Steve

[xodarap1]

Steve, the Z20A motor with a 16T pinion works great. Don't even need to run the expensive batteries. I only paid $121 for each pair of Kong Power 2200 25C's (got 8 batteries for $484) and 6 min crusing around run times or 5 min 3-D is no problem. Can land and switch batteries and be back in the air again in less than a min. That's about 20 seconds longer than it takes me to swap out batteries in my honey bee or shark.. it's only one more battery and one more connector. Not really a time hog at all if you velcro the battery bottoms and the rails where the batteries sit. Then the velcro straps only have to put a little pressure on the batteries to hold them in place and they don't slide around like they do without the velcro. Loosen the straps, (i don't take them all the way off).. pull the batteries, stick the new ones on the velcro, strap/tighten em down, plug em in, replace canopy and back in the air. Seriously, it takes less than a min and that's with a re-load of my sunflower seed kernels! ;) :)

[swatson144]

Yeah it's no big deal really to prep the H550. The FG canopy helps. I've put G10 battery flats on mine and swapping packs is pretty easy now that I don't have to worry about the styrene canopy.

Really I pretty much take turns with the Swift and the H550. The H550 is pretty lackadasically powered compared to the Swift. I don't really know what I want to do with it yet. It's gets flown often enough but it needs more POP. The 1907 would be serious on it if I could gear it for 9S and probably can with the new gears. I could even fit 3X 3S 2200 in it 8-). I don't know I have the plastic frame with the 3rd bearing motor plate, long 1way shaft etc but heck I've done autos from shredding gears. It'll probably be like most other things, when I put the 1907 1.5Y on it and a 1910 on the Swift I'll be wondering why I didn't do it long ago.

My buddy has a scorpion on his and I really haven't had a chance to fly it and I'd like to see, but I think 9S Lipo is where I want to go. In the interim it's 7S A123 as that the most I can get crammed into the canopy.

I'm keeping it up to date and the only mod I haven't installed is the pulley shaft with steel gear. It'll get changed on the next gear change. Maybe this weekend;).

I've built up a complete short boom for it so I don't have to mess around when I change it. I just haven't stuck it on yet. Maybe by this weekend for the saturday fly and see how it does with Lipo and short (475mm) blades. Maybe that will make it more interesting to me.

Steve

[xodarap1]

A video of me flying the z30 powered 550 a while ago when it was kicked way back to 70% throttle curves to see if it would still perform a few easier maneuvers at the lower head speeds. This was taken about a month after i was starting to hover and fly around inverted with it.

Also a few more recent pics of the z30 hurri flying out in the field after a thunderstorm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_bBlgHgWfM

[xodarap1]

The rest of the pics:

[eddiemoth]

Wow, that is a very nice Hurricane and you are great!

P/S, I edited your top post to embed the video. Thanks for sharing.

[xodarap1]

Eddie, thank you for embedding the video and for the compliment.

My piloting skill is far from great though :doubt:. This is only my 10th month flying helis and I'm still really struggling with some of the advanced 3-D maneuvers. I guess it just takes more practice and patience. Some of them have come easy for me, and others... well, i'm ready to pull my hair out. :D

I'm sure that better electronics and a deep pocket of money for parts would speed things up a lot lol, but I'm not that fortunate and this hobby has tapped me out quick. I'm forced to fly more conservatively most days. :)

[Mysterious]

nice heli :) me want