Stay 2 or 3 mistakes high, it can give you enough time to catch it when you fluff the maneuver
Simon

 

That last one was loss of clear visibility from being too low at a distance.
You are right, however, the one before was a near miss, but I was able to recover due to altitude and lower headspeed. @Crash Heligod tried to drag the 450 out over a neighborhood nearby and I lost orientation for a moment, but I maintained my composure despite the adrenaline rush, kicked the tail sideways to get my bearings, and worked the problem.
I'm finding the lower headspeed at 2S a bit more manageable at my current level. 2000 (ish) rpm is a bit low I know, but the bird floats nice and easy but is still responsive enough that I can fly in some wind without loosing control. I'll be working back up to 3S/2800rpm soon enough now that I've replaced (destroyed) the silly wood blades I was using temporarily.

 

My HP6DSM is supposed to ship tomorrow. It should be interesting. It has a normal throttle/collective function with idle up switch and an adjustment knob to vary the throttle curve while in idle up mode. Channel 5 has a knob for working a servo, which I could use to control the throttle channel if I decide to do so. Up to now, I've been running full throttle by on/off switch on the DX4e independently from the collective. I would almost rather keep it that way, but I will try the idle up and throttle curve setup first. It has the same range as my DX4e.
It's said to be like new with the clear plastic shipping liners still on the radio. The guy said he never used it with his SR because he already had a DX6g2. It was only $20, so why not?
(Looks like this: )

 

Test flight inside the shop today....
I found myself having to turn up the tail gain from 60 to 67 as the tail was getting a bit loose in pitch bumps. This seems backwards having reduced some of the vibration in the 450. I would have thought reduced vibration would make the gyros more efficient and possibly need to be turned down.

 

With less vibration you can make the gyro more sensitive but it should also have improved holding. Did you change blade type as well?

 

Back to FG blades.... I killed the woodies.
Yes, the increased gain improved tail lock and I also upped the main a bit as well. Good so far. (The vibration was in the main motor)

 

Generally if the heli feels like jelly in the air or its starts to turn by itself there are vibes. A motor vibe is a hard one to find normally..

 

In this case, no.... the main gears were getting noisy and the frequency of the noise suggested nothing else.
Adjustments were expected..... new servo, blade change, vibe reduction.... etc.

 

Just out of curiosity while on a 3S flight today, I decided to see how many consecutive piros I could get out of the 450. I was able to get multiple sets of 15 in either direction before the thing started drifting due to the slight breeze. That's definitely a first.
I don't think the new dampener rings work well for low head speed at 2S, as they are a bit harder than the original ones... The 450 now has a randomish wobble at 2000 (2S) that wasn't there before I changed the dampeners, but at close to 2900 (3S), the heli flies nice and solid. It's not so bad, so I can live with it for now.

 

are you using hard dampers? generally hard dampers are designed for high head speed, soft dampers are for low

 

Yeah, they are a bit hard.

 

Ugh. ....... I'm going to be sick!
The new (NOS HP6dsm) arrived.
I went to set it up in VStabi, toggled the reset and started a new setup for the new radio, worked out the channel assignments for throttle, and by the time I got to the servo setups, the cyclic servos had quit responding! I was using the Android/Bluetooth app to do this, and I'm not sure yet, but I think the K-Bar defaulted to Digital without my knowing it and fried my HiTec servos (analog). The channel monitors showed correct signals to the K-Bar, so I hooked up the three cyclic servos to a servo tester..... nothing.
Test of tail servo verified the servo tester is working.
Now to diagnose the servos and determine whether or not I have to get parts or buy new ones all over again.

 

oh that's nasty. yeah if you ever do a reset on a vstabi setup, disconnect all servos, just to be safe. Think of it as a first time setup.

Take it easy, it's just a hobby.

 

I haven't confirmed it yet. I'll have to hook up the laptop later to be able to check the analog/digital setting. I can't find it in the Android version. I seem to keep finding the hard way that only the PC version can be completely trusted for full setup.
Meanwhile..... I'm gathering all my servo parts. I'll be benchmarking motors for current load to find all the good ones and checking circuit boards. It's going to be a busy night.
And yes, it is just a hobby..... but there are far worse things I could be doing in my leisure time.

 

yeah for a first time or reset setup, use the pc vstabi software to configure everything. Only use the android app to fine tune stuff in the field.

 

Anyways I'm getting a new heli bench sometime this week, it cost me $800. I have to prepare the area to where it will be setup sometime today. So much to do, so little time.

 

Okay..... forensic examination of the Hitec servos revealed that the FETs were burnt and the motors as well. They're shot.
I performed surgery on the Turnigy MG90s servos I had left. One was still good, one had a loose motor lead which explains why it failed. It's good now. I replaced a motor and circuit board in the third one. I ran each of them on the servo tester for 10 minutes each at 150% (full sweep), occasionally loading them down by friction (thumb on servo arm). All good.
Servos installed, I spent another hour configuring the DIP switches on the HP6DSM, which doesn't seem to be a true 6 channels. The throttle/collective function doesn't jive with the K-bar, so I put the throttle on the spare channel knob as I had half-figured I'd end up doing anyway.
Flight test went as expected. Radio seems to have a wider pulse width output as the gimbals are more responsive than on the DX4e and seem smoother.
The 2S flight naturally had to be run at full throttle trim since the HS is already low, but a I did cut it down a little just to see how it responded.
The 3S flight was a different story.
Full throttle seemed to have the head speed a bit higher than it was with the DX4e. Dialing the throttle down worked well with full range control.
Overall the radio swap was a success, though I now have no mode switch. It is however, a weird radio.

 

Uh.... No.
The 450 started having some strange drop-out. Back to the DX4e for the moment.
No loss if the HP6 doesn't work out.... I'll use it on a foam 3S/EDF plank I have my eye on for $60 (closeout of 10 year old model).

 

Beaver if you're planning to stay in the hobby for several years, invest in a good radio if you can. It doesn't have to be the best, but good enough. In the US there's heaps of good deals(shop around). But again you'll have to decide how long you plan to stay in the game.

Some say Taranis, some say futaba, mine is not the best, but it does the job Dx9

 

That's the plan.... eventually. DX6e at the very least, but would like to have a few optional channels just in case I need them. Ive been doing some reading up here and there lately.