A lot has happened since my last post way back in August. I’ve since added quite a few upgrades to the ole Venture. Some good, some I really don’t know if it helped or not and some, well I guess I did just for the heck of it.
- First off, I was getting hits on my FM radio at the club on channel 25, I wasn’t the only one experiencing this, as a matter of fact a couple of planes went down because of the interference. So, I switched to a Futaba 9CHP Transmitter and R149DP PCM receiver. This seems to have gotten rid of the glitching.
- Then the fun fly which happened at my club, “Smackdown of the South – Heli vs Dirt“. I blew up my Webra at this event, the skirt on the piston broke off in flight. I don’t know what caused the failure but it did not result in a crash
which was a good thing. This prompted the purchase of an O.S. .37 szh engine. I must say this engine is a real power house and really provided a lot more performance. I no longer have the headspeed issue I was having with the Webra, as a matter of fact I had to tone it down a little bit with the throttle curve. I purchased the engine from a local guy off RunRyder and in the deal got a metal head. I don’t know what kind of head it is, but I did notice a difference in performance. Also in this deal I got a fiberglass canopy and general concensus seems to agree it’s an old X-Cell canopy (I know, huge on a 30) so I got rid of the ugly painted canopy. - Next was the Fall Fest Heli Funfly in Sulphur, Louisiana at Larks field. This was an awesome funfly and I purchased a complete Venture 50 minus engine and electronics. This purchase included a metal swash plate which I fitted to the Venture 30. This made a so-so improvement. I was having issues with the tail blowing out and starting to wag violently so it may have made a difference but I was so concerned with the tail wag that I didn’t notice. I also fitted the 50 boom and tail blades in the hopes of stablizing the tail some, but to no avail.
- I purchased a Futaba GY 401 w/9254 servo for the venture and fitted it and all I can say is WOW, what a difference. I was using the JR G500T Gyro with DS811 Servo on the tail. The 401/9254 combo made the tail MUCH more stable and predictable, made the machine much more enjoyable to fly. This was the best $100 I could have ever spent on this heli.
That’s about all the upgrades I’ve made to the heli. I’ve since purchased a Raptor 50 Titan. I don’t have it completed yet as I’m waiting on a few more parts, mainly a Gyro and then I’ll get it in the air. My daughter has started showing interest in the heli and I think she wants to give it a try, so, I think we’re gonna give her the Venture to learn on as it’s a great learning machine. Not to mention that it’s a way to spend time with her, which is always a plus.
Today was a great day of flying. I was flying with Matt Botos today, great guy by the way. I was having issues with the head speed on my Venture 30 being too slow. Well Matt got a hold of it and corrected my issues by fixing the pitch on the blades, basically the engine couldn’t keep up with the pitch, so with adjusting some of the head linkages this was corrected. He also setup my idle up, not for 3d or anything but I now have a linear pitch curve with idle up being almost a straight line, 100 90 85 90 100. This greatly improved the responsiveness of the heli and made flying it much more enjoyable. Also, with the linear pitch curve (-8 to +11) the heli now comes down a lot easier.
Overall, a great day. I learned more today than I have since I started the hobby. I’m really looking forward to my next day of flying, I don’t know when that’ll be, but I’m still looking forward to it.
