RC Day at the Park

Super Bowl Sunday!   The weather was mild.  The sky was Blue.  Batteries were Charged.

Seemed like I had little choice to abandon the Super Bowl and head down to the park.

I took my Helicopters and my Min-Z MB-010 Buggy.    Started with the buggy to warm up.  It has not really got a lot of batteries run through it since it's launch and since it was in 100% working condition, I thought it would be fun to tear it up on the ball diamond.  Unfortunately, with all the moisture due to rain and snow melts, the dirt was super saturated and had standing water.  So I threw the buggy down on the street hockey rink and tore it up.  

I took this video to A)  See how easy it is to take videos by myself and B) get some content to post on youtubes and the blog.

The test video came out great (Nexus S camera phone)  but the issue is I had no way to follow the vehicles with the camera.  I drove around the view angle here so you can see how awesome the Buggy tears it up.

You can see the PN 32 Turn Motor really gives it some punch.  And this is dialed down to 70% throttle.

I set up a track using little orange cones and was doing some laps.   I decided to run opposite direction (for tire wear purposes) and had a large sweeper turn to the right I was flying through.  This goes past the metal street hockey goal post.   Well at one point the buggy was tearing through the sweeper and came out a little wide and the left front wheel contacted the goal post.  I thought for sure I broke a dog bone or something common.   Drove the car back to me and was a bit discouraged when I picked it up.

Notice how the front is separated from the chassis right behind the front axle? I think maybe a plate on top is what holds it together, but realistically I might need a whole new chassis to get running again.    I'll be in the Mini-Zracer.com warehouse this Saturday for our first winter series race, so will worry about repairs at that point.   Was a bummer as it felt great to be tearing it up off road.  Makes me want to dig up a dirt track in the back yard this spring.

After near destroying the buggy, I decided to get some Helicopter practice.  I dont have pictures for this, but might post an update.   Brand new Blade mCPX.  First real flight.  Thing took of beautifully.  Was flying a large circuit around the park when I was near trees and lost the orientation.  I've started having a little issue with depth perception that I've noticed since I started flying again.  To prevent any blade strikes against tree branches, or some other silly problem, I decided to hit Throttle Hold and let the thing come down.  

The problem with the mCPX is that there is no auto-rotation.  So while falling ever so gently down (it's very light) it started to tumble in the air a little and luck would have it, rotated enough so the blade struck first.  The ground was so wet, that it drove the blade into the ground enough that the torque from the heli's inertia tore one of the blades off.   The feathering shaft snapped.   Seems to be about the only real issue from the crash.   Annoyed as I haven't had much stick time with the new CP heli.   Picked up pieces and hope to have it ready to go for the indoor flyin on Sunday.

Since the mCPX was out, I brought out my Blade mSRX.   It's much easier to fly being fixed pitch and I flew out all my lipos without incident.  Even pulled a loop off (with a lot of altitude loss).   Was fun, but is not really giving me the practice I need to get into collective pitch and eventually heavy 3D.

Despite all the damage, it was great to be outside with the hobby.  I'm really excited at the notion of spending the day at a field once spring hits.     I just need to get my collective pitch skills in order and build something big.    But that's another story for another day.