Meet my moth

[swatson144]

It's a dragonbird. When you cross a GWS dragonfly with a humming bird you sort of get this. If you cut the rotors down to about 380mm total and bob the boom then you really get it.
RZv2 motor
PHX10
DD tail with 4.5x3 prop cut to 3"
PG-03

In the pic it perches on the corona concentrating and hoping for a chance to cause trouble. The fullsized version is in the for ground.

It's a fun flier, as can be seen here. The moth (http://www.jacobwatson.com/images/dads%20images/temp/Moth-1.wmv)

Steve

[thanhTran]

Nice "moth". It's realy fun to be able to fly like that in the backyard hah? I could only hover in my front yard. When watching your video I have the feeling I want to see you land that heli on the roof of the house :)

Thanks for sharing

Thanh

[RSA]

Nice fleet u got there Swatson!

[swatson144]

That's just the FPs :wink:

Steve

[Arclite5]

Looks like an undead helicopter, not even kidding o.o;

Cool fleet though.. Now you've gotta show us the CP's!

-Kyle

[eddiemoth]

It's a dragonbird. When you cross a GWS dragonfly with a humming bird you sort of get this. If you cut the rotors down to about 380mm total and bob the boom then you really get it.
RZv2 motor
PHX10
DD tail with 4.5x3 prop cut to 3"
PG-03

In the pic it perches on the corona concentrating and hoping for a chance to cause trouble. The fullsized version is in the for ground.

It's a fun flier, as can be seen here. The moth (http://www.jacobwatson.com/images/dads%20images/temp/Moth-1.wmv)

Steve

Nice landing!

[swatson144]

Sometimes landings happen. I have begun to think a good landing doesn't require more parts than are in the spares box. The rest are upgrade opportunities.

These little FPs are probably a close 2nd to the best beginner heli you can get. Often you can get them for about 150$ RTF. How can you go wrong?

Steve

[avalon]

Can't go wrong with the Dragonfly, Change the blades to the pale grey ones they are just about indestructible, stick a 1800 Lipo in the front, 30 mins flying time, Brain only lasts about 15 so plenty of safety there (I see that we have a safety thread now Steve), The most damage you can do is about 5 bucks worth of carbon fibre tube/rod and some super glue. Means that you are not frightened to try things when you are learning that you would not do with a more expensive helicopter, only thing is it must be indoors or nil wind conditions, small price to pay! In case you have not guessed I love my Dragonfly!

[swatson144]

Nah mine get out when I get in the mood and the winds are less than 10.

The full size one sports Kyosha M24 blades and it really gets the HS up (I don't know if they'll fly a stock motor). They are made out of tupper ware.

The secret to being in the wind with them is don't try and come down when they loft just give them a bunch of cyclic and fly out. Change the altitude to airspeed and then back off the throttle, to loose the airspeed. It works a bunch better than lowering the head speed until it falls. It also helps to stick mostly up and downwind at an angle.

Lot's of throw helps. I have the blades and stiffeners up top to keep the long links from dragging on the stiffeners. That dragging causes some quirky behavior and is suboptimal.

At one point in the vid I was hovering into the wind and then the wind stopped and left me descending under power. Which was about my 1st time being caught in that. I really love taking them out when the wind is like 0 and gusts to 7 If you get a good hover in the gust when it stops you loose lift and the heli falls into its own rotor wash and the more power the more it falls. The Micros will come out of it at GE, the bigger ones you need to fly out.

The funny thing about the vids is it always looks dead calm. It seems that the compression just leaves the tree limbs steady. If there are any shadows of the tree limbs you can often see them moving. In the vid above it was pretty gusty. In fact the reason it has music is I had to cut my neighbors colorful comments out about the wind. :) .

Steve

[avalon]

There is an australian site I think I found it on Ebay that were selling main rotors with an aerofoil section to stop the pitch up problem. From memory they were about A$30. Would you like me to see if I can find it again.

Bruce

[swatson144]

Thanks for the offer Bruce, but I've found the M24 blades just about as good as the Like90s and they are probably gonna out last 3 helis. I think mine has been through 3 main frames with them, any way. Still going strong. Just not mistakable as new any more.

I use just about any blades cut down on the moth and can't see much difference. Though the new style GWS gray blades seem to hold up best and are cheapest.

Steve

[swatson144]

Just to show how tough these little helis are. Here are the moth outtakes (http://www.1upcomputer.com/storage/temps/outtakes1-1.wmv) vid even if it shows what a poor pilot I am. :oops:

A couple pics of the moth.

Indoor flying. It's not as close as it looks in the pic. I was playing around and decided to see if I could get some self timer pics. This would be one. 8 secs isn't much time to get in the air :twisted:

The moth on top of my x400 carrying case.

[eddiemoth]

Hi Steve,
I have to say the video is very entertaining esspecially your caption and the way the heli dropped to the ground. I could not hold laughing. Did you fix it between the crash or you just picked it up and fly again? Is that your GWS dragonfly with a humming bird hybrid? You did a great job fitting the Blade CP canopy into it. So now what do you call it - GWS Dragonfly Humming Bird Blade FP? :):):)

[swatson144]

Just pick it up and fly again. It's pretty rugged. Light and not much energy stored in that little rotor.

It started out as a humming bird V2 FP and now it has so many parts mixed between century and GWS I don't rightly know what to call it. I think it actually has a GWS frame now, HB swash, MS & gear?, It has my signature head mod for more cyclic throw.

Neat little helis. I don't have a really bad crash on film but they usually don't cost more than 5$ and a few mins of time. If you break the main frame though it costs 10$ and a couple hours moving everything over.

Weak points are the skids. You break a lot of them. I keep a bunch on hand and repair them in batches with 2mm CF rod to feed my habit. There are after market skids but they are too heavy, cause more crashes and the damage to the rest of the heli is greater.

Steve