Torii Says I Want To Fly Higher

Assalamu’alaikum.

Yesterday (Sunday 12 April), I have the chance to do quick flight of the Torii. Hmm.. before I continue, starting from now I am calling this TR3703 Century Raven CCPM 50 helicopter as Torii. For whom who has watched Anime Gundam Seed, you know what it means. He he he.

Ok, earlier on Saturday, I was thinking to do the flight, however, remember from my previous post, I need to first check and re-setup the blade pitch. When I finished the setup it was about 12:00, and furthermore, my fellow fliers friends all decided to fly only on Sunday now days.

Good for me, I have Aerobrain (a.k.a Su Pi) helping with the blade pitch setup. I was quite surprise, when I first checked the pitch, Torii was flying with only 7 degree positive pitch! That was the reason why the climb rate was so slow in the previous flights. Started with leveling the servo horn at the middle stick positions, then we lengthen the blade pitch push rod bit by bit, while assuring both sides have the same length. At the end of the session, I manage to get +10 and -10 degree pitch and 51% at the center, that is really superb.

Ok, Sunday morning, it was already 11:20am (various reasons why I only reached there that late, another blog) when I reached Putra Heights Field II.

Note: No Photo in this Post – I forgot to bring my camera! (doh). Well if I have the photo, you will be seeing similar thing. Torri’s canopy yellow in color, with white wooden blades. Probably some photo’s of me as well, with the same favorite T-shirt (ha ha ha, don’t ask me about the shirt, I like it very much and I always wear it when I got the opportunity!) and my favorite track bottom (the one with on white strip at the sides, make me feel like Han Solo in Starwars :) )

Putra Heights regular fliers were already there. I quickly filled up Torii’s tank. I turned on the switch on the controller, then the Torii electronic switch, tested the control response. Good, working as usual. Connected the starter to the battery, plugged in the ‘Glow Plug Heater’, tried to start the engine. But, the engine won’t rotate, looks like very heavy. Tried several times, it just rotated a bit (less than 45 degree) then stopped. Ouch.

Hmm.. must be problem with my battery for the starter. It has been quite sometimes I have not charge it. I borrowed another starter from Lan, his starter come with LiPo battery attached, customized so that he won’t need big battery like mine. Yes, using his starter Torii’s engine started up right away! Alhamdulillah.

With Torii’s engine running, I brought Torii to the take off location, at a side of wide open field. Started to spool up the main rotor blades, everything looks good. While spooling up I tested the control again, all movements are ok. Lifted off from ground successfully, put it into hover. I noticed that Torii tend to lean to the left and forward. I need to compensate the tendency with the opposite control, which is right and back. Tested the climb rate, excellent! The climb response was very fast.

I landed Torii on ground. Checked the engine temperature, it just right. I adjusted the back and right control trim to ease the control. Took off again, put into hover. I have to add more trim control to make it stay put at hover. However, the trim adjustment was only for Normal Flight Mode. When I switched to Idle-Up-2 Flight mode, it was back to non-trim behavior. Hmmm.. not to take any risk, I switched back to the Normal Flight Mode and continue to fly. Yes, I did my normal maneuvers, figure 8, and a bit of crooked stall turn. I don’t dare to do high stall turn in Normal Flight Mode. In theory it should be the same, but I just not comfortable doing it.

Finished the fuel in main tank, I landed Torri at the shades.

Session ended at about 12.20pm.

For the next session I need to:
1. First check the center of gravity
2. Level the swash plate, this should fix the problem where it was leaning to left and forward.

Over and out,
::truemax