Today was a great day for flying. I had about 4 flights and each one was better than the last. We also had a guest today, Bert Kammerer. He put on some awesome flights. Also, Matt Botos who is a regular at the CCRC field.
I tried out the new Mavrick G5 Wide Chord blades from Heliproz today. They’re much better than the G4 blades. I switched blades initially because the G4 blades didn’t seem to stop the heli when doing a tail slide, then I turned the heli over (radio hit I think) and just snapped one of the G4 blades. So, the new G5 blades seem to stop the heli when doing a tail slide, much better I think.
So, all in all a great day of flying. See you at the field.
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.
Filed under: Upgrades
I’ve painted the canopy on my Venture 30. The process I used is detailed below. While that process probably isn’t the best or most efficient I think it turned out just OK. This was my first time painting a heli canopy so I guess not bad for my first attempt. I’m sure this paint job won’t last and will have to be done again at some point in time and I will try a different preparation. But, in the mean time, doing my research for this I did come up with some useful tips for painting these “Bleach Bottle” type canopies.
Hopefully the paints, preps and clear coat I chose will work. I just couldn’t stand the plain white color with the JR decals anymore. Bummer I don’t have anymore “JR Heli Division” stickers to put back on it. But the items I chose are:
- Krylon Fusion White
- Pactra #RC264 Metallic Red
- Pactra #RC265 Metallic Blue
- Pactra #RC279 Flourescent Yellow
- Testors #1629 Red Metal Flake
- Automotive clear coat
- Parma PSE Outlined Flame Design Paint Mask
The steps I took to paint are:
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I installed this header tank on my Venture. This was installed for a couple of reasons:
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To keep the engine from leaning out toward the end of the tank
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Longer flight times
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More stable tuning of the engine (hopefully)
The installation was pretty simple. I had to drill a hole in the frame. There is one there already, but it’s too low. I made the bottom nipple of the header tank at the same level as the main fuel tank nipple. This keeps the tuning of the engine fairly constant as it was before. Now, after I installed the header tank I did have to change the Main needle and idle adjustment on the carb. I went 3 clicks richer on the main needle and about 1/8th of a turn richer on the idle adjustment. I also found that you could play with the tuning by tilting the header tank up or down, this should be expected as making the header tank nipple lower will lean out the engine and making the header tank nipple higher will make the engine run richer. I don’t think I would depend on this type of tuning, but it does work.
When I ordered the Header tank I also ordered another package which included 30″ of high quality silicone tubing, a T-Filter a fuel line clip and plug. I don’t really like how long the T-Filter is, it made it difficult to get to fit properly, it still looks kinda bad.
Now, installation…
