Heli competition at Rain City
05-03-2006, 11:14 PM
#47
Rough night for the Slapmaster helo. Pretty much LQ'ed. But we got to see a good treat. Eron brought up a couple of trick choppers and demo'ed them tonight. First, he had a hopped up Eflite CP that was really quite amazing to see fly. Unfortunately, he took an evasive move that made his finger slip off the stick and it kind of augered in during one of the heat races. He pulled out an even more expensive bird that was just as impressive. We had 6 heli's tonight, could have been 7, but it didn't make it past warm up. Patric and son, could have made it 9, but they both had their feathers clipped earlier in the day.
With so many showing up, we may have to restructure the "round robin" fly off system. We should probably get our take off pad spread into two. Eron had the big bird churning up 2500 rotor rpm's... which would chew up and spit out our CX's. But that did not stop Weylin going for the diving move to get under Eron's heli in a race to the finish in what turned out to be a winner take all heat. Weylin took round two of the Helicopter World Championships at Rain City with 3 wins, Eron with 2, Adam with 2, Paul with 1.5 and Brian .5, Kaywood got introduced to the wall and shut down for the night. Why the ".5" you ask? Well, the Brian vs Paul heat was so bad, they called it a draw.
Once again... a good time for not a lot of money. Stay tuned for more action!
With so many showing up, we may have to restructure the "round robin" fly off system. We should probably get our take off pad spread into two. Eron had the big bird churning up 2500 rotor rpm's... which would chew up and spit out our CX's. But that did not stop Weylin going for the diving move to get under Eron's heli in a race to the finish in what turned out to be a winner take all heat. Weylin took round two of the Helicopter World Championships at Rain City with 3 wins, Eron with 2, Adam with 2, Paul with 1.5 and Brian .5, Kaywood got introduced to the wall and shut down for the night. Why the ".5" you ask? Well, the Brian vs Paul heat was so bad, they called it a draw.
Once again... a good time for not a lot of money. Stay tuned for more action!
and I will get the egg-beater out of mine
05-04-2006, 12:27 AM
#50
Thanks to Debbie for hosting the competition, I had a blast. I guess I'm going to have to practice spot landings... LOL, I'm so used to flying outdoors flying at speed indoors was a trip. I take for granted being able to slide in landings taking as much space as I want.
I can't believe I forgot to take out my camera and get some pics of the CX racing. Next week I'll try to remember to bring my onboard video camera so everyone can see the race from the heli's perspective
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Don't fear, the BCP will be back (mounting better blades to it), the damage was limited to a few teeth on the maingear and a pair of blades. I think the Maxir was a bit much for the space, I noticed many people taking steps back every time it was pointed their way
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-Eron
I can't believe I forgot to take out my camera and get some pics of the CX racing. Next week I'll try to remember to bring my onboard video camera so everyone can see the race from the heli's perspective
.Don't fear, the BCP will be back (mounting better blades to it), the damage was limited to a few teeth on the maingear and a pair of blades. I think the Maxir was a bit much for the space, I noticed many people taking steps back every time it was pointed their way
.-Eron
05-04-2006, 10:57 AM
#53
Hehe, I figure that emoticon embodied the faces of the people the best.
I forgot to mention, that I am willing to help anyone out who comes out with a BCP, I've gotten quite good at tuning most helis (by necessity
, crashes and repairs are part of the learning process).
There is a world of difference between a BCP out of the box, and one that has been tuned and trimmed. It makes learning to fly them much easier if you don't have to fight them from the start, as well as reducing the number of crashes that you'll have to endure. In stock form, a BCP is quite durable, add some plastiblades and it would have shrugged off the crash I had with no damaged parts (usually, just pull the blades straight, sometimes flip a blade grip back around, and take off again).
I think a stock BCP or CP2 would actually have an advantage in the point to point race over my 3D helis and the BCX. It doesn't spin as many RPM's so it can get off the ground in a shorter amount of startup time than my helis, and it shouldn't have as much problem controlling the speed in the raceway (it also doesn't wander as fast in hover as my modded BCP and Maxir). Both of my helis actually accelerate too fast for the conditions in flight (but, I still had a blast trying, LOL)
-Kai_Shiden
I forgot to mention, that I am willing to help anyone out who comes out with a BCP, I've gotten quite good at tuning most helis (by necessity
, crashes and repairs are part of the learning process).There is a world of difference between a BCP out of the box, and one that has been tuned and trimmed. It makes learning to fly them much easier if you don't have to fight them from the start, as well as reducing the number of crashes that you'll have to endure. In stock form, a BCP is quite durable, add some plastiblades and it would have shrugged off the crash I had with no damaged parts (usually, just pull the blades straight, sometimes flip a blade grip back around, and take off again).
I think a stock BCP or CP2 would actually have an advantage in the point to point race over my 3D helis and the BCX. It doesn't spin as many RPM's so it can get off the ground in a shorter amount of startup time than my helis, and it shouldn't have as much problem controlling the speed in the raceway (it also doesn't wander as fast in hover as my modded BCP and Maxir). Both of my helis actually accelerate too fast for the conditions in flight (but, I still had a blast trying, LOL)
-Kai_Shiden
05-04-2006, 11:21 AM
#54
It was absolutely amazing to watch the heli's out there.
I'm so glad you all came out to play and do some demo's.
There was talk of having your own night and we have a few nights/times available-you all need to chat-I'm sure we can work it out.
It's hard to do it on a regular race night-Wed. or Fri., but it was great to show the "surface" racers the cool stuff you all can do. And in turn, the car guys impressed the copter guys too!
Thank you for coming out-it was great to meet you all-let's do it again...
I'm so glad you all came out to play and do some demo's.
There was talk of having your own night and we have a few nights/times available-you all need to chat-I'm sure we can work it out.
It's hard to do it on a regular race night-Wed. or Fri., but it was great to show the "surface" racers the cool stuff you all can do. And in turn, the car guys impressed the copter guys too!
Thank you for coming out-it was great to meet you all-let's do it again...
05-04-2006, 12:07 PM
#55
Tech Rookie
Hey guys, Mike here. I had a blast, so thanks for doing that Debbie. Maybe next time I won't crash so soon and actually get to play 
05-04-2006, 12:09 PM
#56
It was quite fun doing the demos, I do wish that Mike and I hadn't demonstrated the durability of the BCP mechanics... That definetly wasn't our intention 
.
I was indeed quite impressed by the cars, I haven't run an RC car since back in the late 80's (Kyosho Optima Mid, a Bolink Eliminator, and an Associated RC12), at the time finding a great group of people to run with was a dream that eluded my grasp (and budget, LOL).
I'm also more than willing to help anyone with flight tips in the learning process, I learned how to fly helis all by myself (with what I read online). There are many simple things (and ways of looking at them), that can make the process of learning much easier, less costly (in both frustration and money), and much more enjoyable.
-Eron
.I was indeed quite impressed by the cars, I haven't run an RC car since back in the late 80's (Kyosho Optima Mid, a Bolink Eliminator, and an Associated RC12), at the time finding a great group of people to run with was a dream that eluded my grasp (and budget, LOL).
I'm also more than willing to help anyone with flight tips in the learning process, I learned how to fly helis all by myself (with what I read online). There are many simple things (and ways of looking at them), that can make the process of learning much easier, less costly (in both frustration and money), and much more enjoyable.
-Eron
05-06-2006, 01:10 PM
#57
Well Eron I'll let you know when my CP2 comes in and you can give me a little basic knowhow on it 
. I should have it early this week though so I'll be at the Rain with it when I do 
.
As for having our own night, we could probably do tuesday night, thursday night, saturday day or night (not sure if we ever really have racing then, mainly because Im not there.... Deb?), or sunday day. Whichever works best for everyone I think would be the best.
. I should have it early this week though so I'll be at the Rain with it when I do .As for having our own night, we could probably do tuesday night, thursday night, saturday day or night (not sure if we ever really have racing then, mainly because Im not there.... Deb?), or sunday day. Whichever works best for everyone I think would be the best.
05-06-2006, 10:06 PM
#59
I'll leave the decision to all of you for what day of the week, I don't do any scheduled weekly evening events right now. My main concern is that Debbie not have to sacrifice on time or stress.
No problem with the tips mini-dub, the main thing is to get assistance tuning it up for the first time (this makes a huge difference between a first successful hover and crashing). For the first few flights, the learning is greatly accelerated by having a perfectly trimmed and tuned CP heli. For learning to hover, I usually set people up with slightly higher gyro gain than I would normally run for doing circuits, that just makes it so that the tail is slightly less of a battle (however, at that high a gain, the tail will kind of "stutter turn" a little through circuit turns and piroettes, but by the time circuit turns are being learned, the pilot has gained confidence in the other controls and the gain can be backed down to a more "normal" setting).
Later down the road, actually flying one that is slightly out of trim actually makes a different segment of the learning process faster (I did this process on my simulator when I was learning). The reason for the later "out of trim" practice is that with the right state of mind (trying to achieve a perfect stable hover), finesse on the controls is learned in muscle memory (it's actually best to have someone else slightly retrim at this stage, of course someone you trust to not make it unflyable).
For those of you interested in what a BCP is capable of, someone posted a video on RCG of a BCP with only factory upgrades (basically, the same items the CP2 comes with out of the box, Bell/Hiller mixer, and symetrical blades):
http://media.putfile.com/BCP-videoceiling-landing
It's quite an impressive display of what the hardware is capable of (in the case of the CP2, this is what it is capable of out of the box once tuned).
-Kai_Shiden
No problem with the tips mini-dub, the main thing is to get assistance tuning it up for the first time (this makes a huge difference between a first successful hover and crashing). For the first few flights, the learning is greatly accelerated by having a perfectly trimmed and tuned CP heli. For learning to hover, I usually set people up with slightly higher gyro gain than I would normally run for doing circuits, that just makes it so that the tail is slightly less of a battle (however, at that high a gain, the tail will kind of "stutter turn" a little through circuit turns and piroettes, but by the time circuit turns are being learned, the pilot has gained confidence in the other controls and the gain can be backed down to a more "normal" setting).
Later down the road, actually flying one that is slightly out of trim actually makes a different segment of the learning process faster (I did this process on my simulator when I was learning). The reason for the later "out of trim" practice is that with the right state of mind (trying to achieve a perfect stable hover), finesse on the controls is learned in muscle memory (it's actually best to have someone else slightly retrim at this stage, of course someone you trust to not make it unflyable).
For those of you interested in what a BCP is capable of, someone posted a video on RCG of a BCP with only factory upgrades (basically, the same items the CP2 comes with out of the box, Bell/Hiller mixer, and symetrical blades):
http://media.putfile.com/BCP-videoceiling-landing
It's quite an impressive display of what the hardware is capable of (in the case of the CP2, this is what it is capable of out of the box once tuned).
-Kai_Shiden
Last edited by Kai_Shiden; 05-15-2006 at 10:48 AM. Reason: Updated Video link
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