Long-term Memory

Place: Sporthall Braillard, Ruisbroek
Flights: 3
Time flown: 0h27 (cumulative model timer: 2h37)
Heli battery recharged with: (1) 1566 mAh; (2) 1844 mAh; (1) 1774 mAh
Tx battery recharged with: 607 mAh
Starter battery recharged with: 1187 mAh

Comments:
Indoor flying. Finally got the chance to properly trim my miniTitan. The gyro still needs some tuning: when I stop the rudder command, the tail overshoots, then comes back. Also sometimes I notice the tail vibrating left-right at around 3Hz. Unsure if this is a gyro problem or just a vibration problem.

I tried recharging my LiPo with the starter battery, but after 15′ (680mAh) of delivering 2.5A the charger reported that the source battery was too low… Luckily one of my friends had some spare 12V power.

On the third flight I tried getting some forward speed. Even though it was a big indoor hall, this machine wants more…

Place: Home garden
Flights: 1
Time flown: 0h25 (cumulative model timer: 2h10)
Heli battery recharged with: 1714 mAh
Tx battery recharged with: not recharged

Comments:
Demonstration for the family. Flew for 7 minutes or 68%, guestimating on the charged-in capacity.

Right after the flight, the battery was warm (I’d guess somewhere 35-40°C), the engine was fairly warm (around 50°C) and the ESC was hot (60-70°C). The temperatures are measured with my fingertips, so they are very accurate…

Place: Home garden
Flights: 1
Time flown: 0h08 (cumulative model timer: 1h45)
Heli battery recharged with: 1185 mAh
Tx battery recharged with: 1021 mAh

Comments:
First real flight. One of the things I need to calibrate is the flight duration of my battery. I flew 5m55s on this battery and it was recharged with 1158 mAh. Extrapolating this gives an max flight time of around 12 minutes and 28 seconds.

I got myself a new RC helicopter. It’s an electric one so I can fly indoors.

Here is the partlist and some basic specs:

• Thunder Tiger miniTitan E325
  624mm long, 120mm wide, 210mm heigh, 728mm main rotor diameter, 156mm tail rotor diameter, 750g weight
• Thunder Tiger Ripper OBL Series Helicopter Brushless Motor 29/35-10H (mine came with the miniTitan kit)
  3500rpm/V, 20A continuous, 30A.60s burst, 12 stator windings, 8 permanent magnets on the (outrunner) rotor
• ACE R/C Brushless Motors Speed Control ESC BLC-40 (included in the kit as well)
  40A continuous, optional governor function
• 3x Hitec HS 65 MG (more detailed specs)
  4.8 – 6V input voltage, 60° in 0.14s (4.8V, no load), 1.8kg.cm stall torque
• Futaba S-9257 (more detailed specs)
  digital, 4.8V input voltage, 60° in 0.08s (no load), 2.0kg.cm stall torque
• R319DPS receiver – 35MHz band
  1024PCM receiver, 8 proportional channels, 1 digital channel
• Futabe GY401 Gyro
  Solid state gyroscope with Heading Hold (AVCS)
• FLIGHTPOWER 3s1p 25C 2500mA 11,1V
  Continuous discharge 25C/62.5A, Climbouts 35C/87.5A, Max burst 50C/125.0A
• Flightpower V-balancer
  LiPo balancer for up to 6s packs

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