Hi All
Well as some of you know, building is not my forte, but I finally got the Evo into the air. This is the story....
I finished the build about last Thursday, soldered up my 7S packs and was ready. The forecast for the weekend looked great. I called my brother (@Andrew R) and asked if he could come out and check the headspeeds and generally check over my heli (a great tip I found on HeliGods - get another pilot to check your heli before the maiden). On being told of my intent to maiden, Andrew suggested that he qued up the chicken dance music, then he said, "hang on, electrics don't dance, they just crash and burst in flames, don't worry mate, I'll post the carnage on Facebook". Got to love your brother. So for the rest of this story, we will call him "The Jackal" .

In the morning it was hosing down, my heart sunk (thanks @Storm Heligod), but in the afternoon, prayers were answered and the sky cleared. Off to the club. ..
With the Jackal salivating behind me in a spotting position, camera and one hand and head speed meter in the other, I spooled up. It lifted off smooth as silk, and the head speed was tracked at 2054, that seemed OK. It did seem a bit boggy (14S and a stump grinder motor!). A quick call to @Jeff B and it was like "I'm coming down tomorrow to sort it out for you".
Next day and @Jeff B was on the doorstep at 8:15 - it's a two hour drive for him so I was impressed. Down to the club again. he did a couple of tuning flights on his Rush 750, crazy, then proceeded to take my Evo up. He didn't like the setup at all, connected it to his laptop and before I knew it he had unleashed it's inner Beast. It was 3 parts awesome and one part fantastic. I had about 4-5 flights on it that day, it's on the twitchy side for my style, but Jeff and my brother say that I set up my helicopters so "your Nanna could fly it". I will leave it as is as I need to sharpen my skills on the sticks.
I would really like to thank @Jeff B and @Andrew R for their help that momentous day. Seriously, Thanks. YourHobby goes above and beyond the call....And Sorry @Andrew R, Facebook next time....maybe.

As a side note of interest, he took my (his old) E7 for a go and in his normal fashion, finished the flight off with a crazy big auto. Well after it was a dot in the sky he hit the TH, orientation was almost impossible to see, and when we did finally see it clearly the Blades had completely stopped and it was tumbling to the Earth with the Mains parallel to the boom. It looked like it had been thrown off a building. Jeff caught it, and landed at my feet (well nine meters from my feet) nose in. It was the last flight of the day and seemed somehow fitting for the day to end with a maneuver like that

Now for some shots.
1. Charging the packs, me in anticipation - 7S of goodness

2. The Maiden flight.....

3. The afterglow....

4. Team Alees Booyah -walking back to Club Hardcore

Again....Thanks @Jeff B, you make this hobby easy for people like Me. Thanks @Andrew R for taking the photos
Simon
ps. Sorry it's a new thread but I just needed to get this out there