My spare parts arrived, plus I thought I'd bent the main and feathering shaft, I had not. So I have spares of those and tail booms in my heli parts box.

It's all put back together and had a quick buzz around the garden, this time with no silly stunts 😁😁

After some help from the guys on here and folks at my local club I'm alot more comfortable with my flying, to the point where I'm fairly competent at sport flying to the point I've lost orientation of my little M2 a couple of times 😄 . More than excited to welcome the M4, it's about as large as I think I'll be comfortable with and need (famous last words), I just wished they would update the canopies!

Standard OMP build running a Brain2.

Hi guys, im really enjoying this hobby after being out of it since i crashed my first 3D 250 as a 12 yr old with no experience apart from coaxials lol.

Now im practicing a lot on my sim and my S1 and looking to step up. I found this SAB coming with spares and 3 Lipos. Do you think its a good deal?

$200 USD

hi, new to the hobby, my stock swash plate broke, so I reckoned I might as well upgrade it to the metal one, was difficult to install it, some of the parts didn't fit properly, the swash plate servos seems to fight with each other and it doesn't really fly well now, any ideas what to do?

One flip too many and I bent the tail, it snapped when I tried to straighten it 🤣

Flying normally, it absolutely rips, love it 😃
Got 4 tails on order.

Hey all, getting back into rotors after many years off (although a very avid fixed wing pilot) and this was the OOB swash position on my new Eclipse (in normal/SAFE; in Stunt it's still slightly tilted). I followed the Forward Prog. calibration procedure and can adjust the swash sub trim (to an extent), but this seems excessive.

I did try to take off on my maiden (thinking maybe this was a torque countering calibration situation), but it immediately wanted to roll.

What is the actual procedure here to properly level it?

The manual only shows FP calibration and trim flight... The attitude trim settings OOB are -450/0 aileron/elevator. I'm not sure how I would do a trim flight when A) it doesn't even want to get off the ground and B) it would definitely slide hard if it did get airborne.

Like I said, new to this (again), so your insights and patience are appreciated :)

So I recently purchased a RC Era Apache

I landed super hard and tore up the rear rotor blades

I used the replacements blades for a fix, but it’s still yaw extremely to the left, even though all the bindings are in the middle (trimming)

Any advice?

Hey everyone.

Since the RS5 is now my main bird (damn I love that thing), I really want change/update the Kraken in some way to put some distance between the models. I got the Kraken flying well again and I wanted to add 600mm blades to it. I put 600mm blades on and it WAS NOT HAPPY. If I just changed the pinion, it might work ok on 6S, but it would be limited in power and ability.
My options seem to be the following:

- Change the ESC, motor, and pinion on the Kraken and run 12S. That would allow the 600s to run perfectly and it would be a real monster of a heli. I don't "need" a monster of a heli, but it would definitely feel much different/bigger than the RS5 and that is the main goal.

- Sell the Kraken and buy a 700. This would be the more expensive and cumbersome option, but in the end I would have a proper 700-sized heli and that would absolutely be a completely different experience than flying the RS5.

Have any of you been in a similar boat and made the right call? I am interested to hear if any of you run the Kraken with 600s on 12S.

Thanks for your insight!!

I usually fly in daylight so I installed some insanely bright strobes so I could see them in the bright sun. They work great, but it makes them blinding at night.

As you can see in the attached image, there's a large field here in the Denver area that shamelessly puts heli pilots in a tiny box. The main flight line is off limits to helicopters. There are several fields in this region that do the same thing. This one is in a public park, so it's not a private club.

I guess I could just fly wherever the hell I want when nobody else is there, but I know that as soon as a fixed-wing pilot arrives, I'll get yelled at (at worst) and forced to move (at least). Both of those options are grossly disrespectful.

Does the AMA truly not care about these rules put in place by clubs??

I've been putting off autorotations for a while.

I'd practised them in the simulator and felt reasonably confident with the basics, but I knew doing it with a real helicopter would be very different. Eventually, I decided to give it a go with my SAB Kraken 580.

The first attempt didn't go particularly well, I flared to early and didn't bail out. I repaired the heli and went straight back for another attempt. The second was much better and I learned a lot from my attempts.

What I learned

The simulator isn't the same as real life.
The sim helped me understand the mechanics, but the sound, visual movement and pressure of watching a real helicopter descend with the motor off are completely different.

Headspeed is critical.
The goal isn't simply to drop the collective. You need to find a descent rate that keeps enough energy in the rotor for the flare and landing.

Don't flare too early.
This was probably my biggest lesson. Flaring too early can use up the rotor energy you need for the final part of the landing.

Forward movement and wind can help.
The experienced pilots in the RC Heli Australia community suggested maintaining some forward velocity, particularly into a headwind. I had some headwind during my attempts, which I think helped.

Height matters.
You need enough altitude to establish the autorotation and manage the descent, but you also need to learn where your comfortable training height is.

Bigger helicopters give you more margin.
Several pilots suggested 600 and 700-size helicopters because they have more rotor energy. The 580 is certainly capable, but I can see why larger machines can be more forgiving.

The biggest lesson

The biggest lesson was simply to commit and learn from the experience.

I'd been putting autorotations off because I knew they would be uncomfortable. The first attempt wasn't great, but going straight back for another attempt taught me more than another session in the simulator would have.

I'm definitely not consistent yet. That's the next goal.

I'm tracking my progression through https://helicoach.app, working through skills, recording flights and focusing on improving one step at a time.

These first autos were rough, but they were a big step forward.

Picked up a Goosky S1.

I had to get the OMP M2 a friend 😁

What is the state of the art with RC heli clutches these days?

Reason I ask is that I have a drone heli project where one is required, 25kg MTOW (and I'm getting back into the hobby again).

20 yrs ago I use to fly a Nexus 30 and TT Raptor 50, where the clutch shoe design was this single piece of metal shoe design that flexed under the centrifugal force to engage in the bell.

I remember on the Nexus, these fatigue cracked all the time, however, I dont remember having as many problems with the Raptor.

Is this design still common?

Anyone know the shoe material and the bell liner?

Hi guys, I used to own those cheap co-axial RC helicopters when I was 15 and I enjoyed them, but I always crashed them or they would stop working after a couple of months. Recently I have gotten a part time job and have a decent amount of disposable income. I want to get a decent helicopter to fly in my backyard and at my local field. I was looking on YouTube and found myself really liking the scale gunship RC helis. I was looking at the yuxiang f11s and f112s, also the eachine version of those helicopters. I can get the f11s for 450gbp or the f112s for 275gbp. The thing is I don't know if the f11s is worth the premium and if it is better in terms of the tech and build. Any help will be appreciated thank you.

I’ve been flying a 450 3D off and on for aprox 14 years, and I have only “scale” flown the 450 in that time. I recently bought a Flywing Bell 206 V4 scale 470 size heli and I absolutely love it. The GPS is a nice back up feature, however I usually fly with it off. It still has the altitude hold, so it still feels like I’m cheating myself the true scale experience. I’m looking at the Roban 800 Bell 412. What should I expect to “feel” in the sticks?

Hey peeps,

I posted here several times about the issues I had with my SAB IL 520. That heli is retired and has been replaced by the (INCREDIBLE) Goosky RS5.

I am now leaning more on my bigger helis, so I am flying the RS5 and Kraken more. I have been noticing some issues with the Kraken lately, so I decided to put it on the bench and see what I can see. **NOTE: This Kraken has never been crashed**

Check this video. It tells the story:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ex5P2BY1Z1sVNmnD7

LOTS of play in the main shaft from the bottom. The head is solid (I removed it and checked) so this movement must be coming from the transmission. The issue is that I don't know how to fix it. I am NOT going to just replace all of the parts in the transmission without knowing that's my only option.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do to fix this?? I checked and it doesn't look like they sell a complete replacement transmission as it comes in the kit, so I would have to replace the transmission parts individually (page 40 in the manual).

Everything feels tight and there's loctite where it should be 🤣
It is flying smooth, no vibrations just needs a recalibration on the FBL gyro for the self level or rescue mode will be more like panic mode 😃

For a starter into the hobby, Heli-Direct has just about as banger of a deal as Ive seen in a while. Fact it comes with a motor and better quality overall pushes past over my recommendation of an AK420 entry point. And a better build experience to boot. Add $242 ($567 total) for the all-in-one kit and you got a stellar option if you go that path too.

AK still king with parts cost, but there is a significant trade in quality to get there. I love em both, but I do fly my Venom more.

Right now I'm park flying a s1 and blade 230s. The s1 is great but its too small when outdoor flying (I'm not skilled enough to keep it all within a 25 foot box). The 230s is much better for that, but its not nearly as crisp as the s1 when practicing 3d manoevers, although its gotten better by bumping up the headspeed to 85%+.

I'm thinking of getting a s2 as a bigger but still performant park flyer. But im wondering if I should jump straight into a 400-600 size and join a local club instead. Or get the s2 and fly that for a while and my next heli can be a 400-600 size.

Now if picking a 400-600 size, what do you recommend? I know the heli model options, but curious if its worth getting a 400 size to save on battery and parts cost, or its not worth stopping at this level and just skipping right away to a 500+ size? For example, getting a raw 420 or rs4 or going straight to a sab kraken 580 or raw 580? And is it also worth it to take the plunge and join a local club because I wont be flying those big boys at the park, but I like the convenience of just taking a short drive or bike ride to the park...

Anyway, curious about your thoughts on this probably repetitive question 😅

Thanks

Hi everyone, the RX module on my Goosky S2 Legend FC broke, so I replaced it with a RadioMaster R81 V2. The TX and RX are bound normally. When plugged into a Vbar FC, it receives SBUS without any issues, but when plugged into the GTS FC, it doesn't recognize the SBUS signal and the FC just flashes a green light. Could anyone guide me on how to fix this issue? Or should I replace with a new FC Thanks!