Synergy E5S 626 UAV

[Chris Olson]

Hi everyone,
I've never posted to the forum yet. But I've been talking with Matt about this project.

Some background on me - I'm a commercial ag pilot (both rotary and fixed wing) for the last 28 years. Besides the full-sized application aircraft I also fly UAV helicopters for agricultural aerial imagery work doing NVDI (NIR), crop scouting, crop insurance, wildlife damage, watershed surveys, etc.. I was one of the first commercial pilots in the US to get a Section 333 to fly UAV aircraft for agricultural purposes.  I still fly my Section 333 - never went with Part 107 that was designed for all the wannabee aerial photographers flying multi-rotor "drones".

I've historically flown piston engine gassers, including an Align Trex 700 conversion and a Gaui GX9. The high vibration levels in the piston engine helicopters, combined with short engine life with constant cylinder/piston/rings/main bearing (and now cylinder head with four-stroke) replacements got me interested in long-flight time electric heli's.

My first experiment in electrics is a Trex 600 flybar model with Scorpion power and Rail 606 blades. It was a highly succesful experiment but it only flies for 15 minutes on 8,300 6S @ 1,700 rpm headspeed. The 600 class is the most efficient and ideal size for an electric carrying a GoPro or MAPPIR camera for ag imagery work. So at IRCHA this year I looked over all the various models and decided on the E5S with 626's as the ideal candidate. I was all set to buy a new one and start the build, then I saw that Mike King had one for sale on HeliFreak. Mike had a price on it that I couldn't pass up since it already had everything in it I would want as options. So I bought Mike's helicopter and did the UAV conversion on it. It has completed its initital flight and performance testing and passed with flying colors (pardon the pun).

I, unfortunately, am not into 3D flying. But I do enjoy scale and sport flying, and use my UAV helicopters to tow gliders for RC glider pilots and some other fun things. My wife is also a pilot (full size fixed wing) and also flies RC scale helicopers. It's not all work!

So as courtesy I figured I should post an introduction about myself here. I will post a thread in the E5 section of the forum for those that might be interested in seeing a E5S 626 in UAV configuration. Matt hinted that when I get this helicopter done he would like to see a video of it in action. So we'll put that in the build and details thread as well   

[Rodney Kirstine]

Welcome Chris!  That's awesome.

I grew up in a house right across the river from a small airport in an agricultural area and spent my summers falling asleep to the lullaby of Ag Cats and Thrush Commanders rattling all the pictures on the walls of our house.  I loved the sound of those radial engines. The turbine ag planes are just way too quiet, lol.

[Chris Olson]

Hi Rodney,
Yeah, most of those have been retired now due to hours on the airframes. The bulk of the work now is done by AT-402's, AT-802's, JetRanger 206B's, and surprisingly the old Bell 47's are still out there.  More 47's than there is 206B's because they're so cheap to maintain and tougher than all get out. Robinson R-22's are pretty popular in the ranching business, not so much here in the US but there's a lot of them in Australia being used to herd cattle. Ranching happens to be (I think) the second largest market on earth for light utility helicopters.

[cml001]

Welcome!.. sounds interesting.. I look forward to ur post!