Flight Trimming

[illusionist]

SJ do you use a probe?

I believe that's what he meant by the "ceiling bumper". It surprised me how well it worked.... I've gotten my highest time yet using a probe and letting it spin on the ceiling.

[sj]

SJ do you use a probe?

I believe that's what he meant by the "ceiling bumper". It surprised me how well it worked.... I've gotten my highest time yet using a probe and letting it spin on the ceiling.

Yeah thats what we do. However i'm worried about how well it will work in a gym with rafters. If the probe breaks off and falls to the ground before the rest of the heli does that stop the time

[illusionist]

If the probe breaks and falls first, I think that time will stop when the heli touches the floor, and not the free falling piece of balsa/wire.
Depending on the location, I don't think I will use a probe in a gym with rafters. Most likely the probe will just cause the helicopter to get itself tangled on the rafters, which will happen even without the probe (probably not as bad though).

[Littleboy]

Last year on the night before states we were doing some last minute testing. Our wright stuff plane got stuck in the bars high up on a basketball net. The balloon we had could not fit. When we used our pole our plane broke. Our other backups all had something major wrong with them. We could not fix it to its normal capability of 3+ minutes. We did not do so well.

[lllazar]

Ouch that sucks, i really can't speak from experience but i don't know how i would handle something like that.

[Kovu]

I notice today at the trial event there were a lot of helicopters getting stuck on rafters is there any way to avoid this.

[lllazar]

Wow that's depressing...im kinda glad the armory at the UIUC campus where state is held is so tall that the helis usually go near the top and just stay there before gliding down.

Diverging from that a little bit, can anyone give some helpful hints on winding rubber? I don't want to break my winder as it is quite expensive (20 bucks) and i'm sure there are ways to ease the immense amount of torque on the gears.

[jander14indoor]

How much rubber did you get for $20? Hope it was at least half a pound, good for more than 100 motors! That's from the source, www.faimodelsupply.com
If you do have a half pound of rubber that's on the thick side, you might want to find a local free flighter with a rubber stripper who can cut various widths for you to try.

To your real question, make sure the winder is in line with the motor when winding. It's amazing how much additional stress the winder is under when its cocked even a little from lined up with the rubber. A common mistake I see students make without really realizing it. But you WILL be challenging a 15 or 20 to 1 winder with 1/8th thick rubber already so its really imperative to wind with the thing lined up. Listen to the winder, if you can hear the gears at all its either already approaching failure, or more likely cocked from the line of the tight rubber.

Oh, and I'm assuming you have one of the plastic yellow Kinght & Pridham winders (pretty well built), not the black and red 16.2 or so to 1 one (not nearly as well built).

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[lllazar]

Uhh, no i got the winder for 20 bucks. And your text got censored in two areas but i think i can make out what it's saying.

And thanks for the advice, how long do you think 1/2 pound of 1/8 rubber will last me, i think i might order that.

Also wat is tan super sport vs tan sport?

[jander14indoor]

Half a pound of rubber weighs 226 gms, so with a little waste that should be 100 motors or slightly more. Should last a season or two if cared for. Keep it out of heat, sun and ozone exposure.

Tan Super Sport is better rubber, higher energy storage by a lot than Tan Sport. Takes more winds for the same amount of rubber and higher torque.

Not sure where my text got censored, looks like what I wrote, maybe it was just me being choppy and skipping around on thoughts. Let me know what didn't make sense.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI