Finally the part I needed

Finally the warranty replacement parts I needed arrived. Well actually only needed one of them. Turns out the ESC was causing all my issues. I tried flying it for 2 minutes around the basement. Then took the cover off and the ESC and motor were warm, not burning hot like before.

I'll have to charge up the battery and try again. Just to make sure.

Edit: Well spoke too soon. The thing is still heating up just as bad as before. I emailed a guy who had the same problem. Seems this is normal. Guess I need to do the heatsink trick and possible shield the wires some how. (or lengthen them and move them to the other side of the servos.)

Nope the problem is NOT a problem as I was told from HeliMax. It's NORMAL. I did fix it myself as best I could by cutting a small hole in the canopy and also installing a very small heatsink on the motor. The motor gets hottest during a hover but I have found it's not too bad as long as you keep the heli moving.

Some parts Arrived

Well some of the parts arrived for my Novus 125 CP. Replaced the motor and adjusted the pitch as recommended by Heli-Max. But it's still heating up after a few minutes. (Even replaced the main rotor blades too)

Guess I'm waiting for the new ESC. It must be the cause of the problem. Bummer... won't have it by camping (unless they arrive in the next two days.)

CP Helicopter Down!

A week ago I was trying around the living room when I smelled something burning. So I landed. Went over and took the cover off. The ESC and Motor were so hot I couldn't touch them. You could ignite tissue paper it was so hot. The smell, I think, was the outer plastic of the wires.

So I contacted helihotline at hobbico dot com to see if there was something I could look at. Their first thought was that the pitch might be set too high. So they gave me the instructions to set it at 45%. However, this doesn't really explain the ESC.

Their next question was when did I purchase it, from where, and what my address was. Turns out the motor and ESC are covered under warranty. Their shipping me new ones. There's light at the end of this dark tunnel. I thought I was going to have to spend the $90 to replace them.

Now we just have to invent transporters, replicators or ID Portals so I can keep flying...

Since I'm in the usual -- waiting for response -- mode I thought I'd update on yesterdays experience. I was flying the Novus 125 CP and kept eyeing the flight mode switch. When flying in wind, if the wind picks up the helicopter I can't get enough downward thrust to keep the helicopter where it is. I need the V shaped curve of the 3D flight mode, or so I assume. The big question is how much of a jump will switching between modes have and can I control it. So I come up with a plan.

I was going to switch it in the living room where I had a nice soft carpet and nice soft -- well ok not so soft -- stucko. So I started to hover and every time I reached for the switch I would move the collective pitch and start to loose control. Not good. But my wife came to the rescue. I explained everything I was doing to her and asked if she could flip the switch and flip back if I started to lose it. (helicopter I mean) So all geared up we tried it.

First Attempt: Once the switch was thrown the helicopter immediately dropped and hit the floor. So I said "switch back switch back", and cut the throttle. Checked the helicopter over and no apparent damage.

Second Attempt: now semi-prepared for the sudden down we repeated the steps. This time in trying to regain control I nicked the tail on the futon. So we switched back to normal flight mode and I landed. But this time there was damage. When trying to bring the helicopter up again, the tail was fish tailing all over the place. After powering down I manually turned the gears. The tail stop moving at a spot, which means I have a stripped gear. No problem though the helicopter came with some gears.

So I proceeded to take the helicopter apart. Took the landing gear off. The tail support off. Then the instructions say "remove pin with a pair of needle nose pliers. Ya right! My pliers couldn't grip the damn thing. After 20 minutes I gave up. Went to the hardware store and purchased an actual pair of needle noes pliers. (seams mine are called long nose pliers). Then spent another 30 minutes trying to get the thing out. I was surprised I didn't bust something else while trying. Then took the rest of the parts off to get at the gear. Yep flat on one side. Replaced everything (another 10 minutes later) and started to fly again.

This time noticed the tracking was off a bit. Which was supper easy to fix. Just popped off part 5 from the swashplate, see chart to the right, and gave a couple of turns. Now the tracking appears dead on.

It's been a while since I've posted anything new. Nothing really new to say till now. I was practising, practising, practising on my Novus FP. I was trying to get good at nose in hovering and control for the day when the New Novus 125 CP would be available.

Well yippeee! Yesterday the Hobby Hobby in streetsville finally got in the Novus 125 CP on their website. Since I was going to be dropping off a friend at the airport I took the family for a swing by streetsville. Got the last one on the shelf. It must have been the longest drive home, and the longest wait for the battery to charge -- only to find out the charger is broken and won't charge the battery, good thing the Novus FP is has the same charger --

So I started it up on the dinning room table. Man flying the CX is like flying a tri-cycle, the FP like riding a bike, and the Novus 125 CP is like driving a high performance race car. WOW what a difference. The controls are so sensitive the slightest touch and I'm over correcting. And that's on the low sensitivity setting! I'm really anxious to fly it outside. The with a content blade speed, and the fact 60% power is enough to sent it rapidly approaching the ceiling -- 50% throttle is hover speed --, I might have a chance now at fighting the wind. For anyone thinking of stepping up from the CX helicopter I strongly recommend the a Fixed-Pitch first.

I've been flying the FP and become quite good and manoeuvring around the rooms. Still can't go tail out yet. Need a really big room to practise that. So today I replaced the tail assembly. Mostly because I wanted to see the difference between the stock tail motor and the high-performance one. Putting it together was a pain. I need 3 year/old sized fingers to get everything done. But after about 1 hour managed to get everything in place. Then took it up for a spin. The one thing I noticed is the tail is much more solid. It doesn't have the play like the old one. Which makes the helicopter feel more stable. However, I am noticing a fish tail effect. I'll have to wait for my batteries to charge so I can play some more.

Also while I had the helicopter apart I noticed the linkage between the swash-plate and the servo was loose. Which explained the consent lean to the right. At the hobby store he kept telling me it was normal. Obvously it wasn't, it was just not aligned at the factory correctly.