Saturday… Mark and meet at out practice field. Bill and John were there warming up with a flight each. Mark replaced the main gear on his Raptor G4 with a CNC gear designed for the O.S.105. It put the 105 in its proper power band. Then he bought a set of the Zeal performance blades to try out!
First flight, Mark's G4 sounded ok, as I was setting up my N7. So I walked out to ask what he thought of his heli with the new blades and gear…he just handed me the radio and said try it, ok. The head speed was lower than before, the tail was sluggish (oh yea, he replaced the tail blades with longer 112mm blades, so it should have been very touchy) due to having 27% expo in the radio, and the motor was on the rich side.
So I adjusted the motor, made changes to the radio, and then tested it. I was low on fuel and wasn't able to run it through much. Mark said land and let's put more fuel in it! So we did. Second flight was a lot better, but the gyro was too high, the dreaded oscillations. More tuning of the radio and now it's a lot better. One more carb adjustment and a change to the throttle curve…WOW! The 105 came to life and it was ready to "jam!"
I gave that G4 just about everything I could think of and it was taking it with gusto! I pulled some fast "wall" maneuvers that scared the crap out of Mark! He was waiting for the blade to fold, break! But they didn't, they held up fine. Then it was auto time! I wanted to see how well these blades would auto on the G4. They are great, super slow autos to rock'n fast!
After that flight, I handed Mark his radio and said have fun! He was too excited to fly and needed to calm down. His head was swimming with what his heli was doing and the speed of which it was moving. That's fine, time for me to burn some fuel!
I pulled out my Synergy N7 to use to finish off the last of the the 20% fuel (Mark and I bought many cases of 15% during the Toledo show). The third flight was a mixture of 80/20, 80% of the tank with 20% fuel and 20% of 15% fuel. The N7 was running great, and I was a bit concerned switching to the lower nitro content as I would need to readjust the carb. But the forth tank, and the others that followed, I didn't need to change a thing!
As a result, my O.S.105 ran "better" on the 15% versus the 20% nitro content! Go figure that. I started "hammering" on my N7 as I did on Mark's G4. I couldn't get enough of it!
It was dialed in perfectly! Well, Mark and I spent flight after flight having a blast, and wishing the day wouldn't end. We never got the chance to fly our Goblin gassers, as we both brought them to fly.
As for my Mostro nitro heli…I think I will put it up for sale. It's a great flying heli, but it doesn't fit my flying style/feel. Every now and then you find that one heli or airplane that you really like and the Mostro just isn't it. So I'll sell it...and possibly buy another N7!
I pulled my Compass 3D+ out of moth-balls this weekend. I forgot just how much this little heli can jam! The only problem with it, its no longer in production.
So I'm thinking about upgrading it to the N5tt... I'm waiting for Bill to finish his N5tt...he wants me to test fly it for him!!! If I like it, the 3D+ is history! LoL!
