Madman
Veteran
Location: Roswell, GA
| Well, I can truly say that putting a 91 into a formerly 61 sized heli and having some real HEAT applied to it by a serious 3D pilot will find every potential problem there is with a machine. It is, however, NOW PERFECT AND A MONSTER!
During Mac Hodges fly-in this weekend, myself, Henry Caldwell (you HAVE to see this guy fly) and the EVER HARD WORKING DAVE HARKEY put this machine through it's paces. The machine is an XLSE with OS91 and Hatori SB15 muffler, GV-1 and GY-601.
The constant collective pumping 3D of Henry's (and my lame attempts at imitation) resulted in...
- LOOSENING everything that wasn't nailed down including tail spindle/gears that weren't red-loctited
- BREAKING the flybar in half during a hover (saved it)
- BENDING the main shaft in flight (poor Q non-MA mast)
- TOASTING a set of SAB tail blades at the root in flight
- EATING the stock MA rubber dampeners after 2 flights (went to Ron Lunds hardened ones which fixed the problem and made the head very hard)
- CHEWING through my regulator wiring at a carbon plate meeting point resulting in Failsafe during inverted (saved it)
Bottom line - ZERO DAMAGE and NO CRASHES and a machine with the vertical performance of an Estes rocket.
BTW, Harkey, I can't thank you enough. All of us owe him one. I never met anyone so willing to spend HIS time helping assemble and dissassemble helicopters. It was like having a one-man pit crew! A pleasure of a guy to hang out with and a real asset for MA! Thanks!
Mike "MadMan" DeMita |
