Hurricane Main Blade – Test Flight

Ok. So the root cause for the limited negative pitch during looping is due to the binding of one of the blade grip with the rotor head.

Last night I have taken out the spindle bar, replaced it with a new one.

However even after I replaced the spindle bar, it seems that the binding issue is still there. Hmm.. looks like the head itself is not quite symmetry and the blade grip screw holder is thicker. I used 'file' to remove some thickness and remove a bit on the rotor head surface. Now it has smooth movement, no binding any more.

Fix up the new (old?) Hurricane Main Blade, it is a Fiber Reinforced blade. This blade came standard with Century Raven 50 (http://www.heli-world.com/detail.aspx?ID=5822). It looks superb.

From Remote Control Helicopter - My Journey

Using some remaining fuel (about 1/8 of main tank) I started up the engine, for a test flight. This is the reason for the test flight:

1. Need to make sure engine is running ok. I have not started the engine since last Saturday, which is 4 days ago!
   
2. I need to make sure the blade tracking is ok
   
3. Need to have the feeling with the new blade – it wider and I think lighter as well.

From RC Helicopter - My Journey

Starting up the engine is the story by itself. Cranking the starter, but the sound of the rotation is indicating either glow heater connected or blown glow plug. I took out the glow plug, connect the glow heater directly, not light. I open up my brand new spare glow plug and tried on that. Still the same, even the new plug also not the glowing. Then I tried to connect back to the old glow plug, play with the connection a bit, then only it started to glow. So it is because the connection is not firm enough.

Ok, so I put back the glow plug in. I tried to start the engine again. It works!

Let the engine warm for about 30 seconds. Then started to take off, hovering. Then, I checked the blade tracking, accent and descent rate.

Here is the result:

1. Engine started ok, using the remaining fuel which was in the tank since 4 days ago and it is ok.
   
2. Blade tracking is almost perfect.
   
3. With this new blade, the response is much faster.
   
4. The head speed seems to be faster as well.
   

After about 5 minutes (or less), noticed that it started to utilize fuel from the header tank. Landed safely with header tank almost empty.