Shot of the day - Brents Chronos in flight

A fab weekend last at Marcs, had all my cylinders firing hot, with revs off the tacho. I was very keen to keep flying through the week so that is exactly what I did.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday presented opportune weather conditions. It didn't take much for me to leave for work on all 3 days prepped for some late afternoon after work flying action. On all three occasions I flew my light portable and travel friendly Trex 500 Dominator which has been receiving some very rough treatment as of late but nevertheless continues to tick along nicely! Not to be left out, my 600L 12s Trex received some sky time on Monday also.

A feeling of accomplishment encompassed me as I reflected Friday night on my ability to hit 13 mid week flights (my most to date). It was as though the perfect storm was building and ready to unleash its fury for the weekend.

All of the above made for a great Marcs after party / recovery experience!

Saturday morning was a slow start with a build up of chores during the week needing doing. My arrival at MRCHC was a little after 12pm. I arrived to find Brent Byrnes, Brian Johnson, Bryan Stu and Tom Standing already flying. Mick Stefani had apparently arrived early Saturday morning and left before midday and my arrival. A little after 2pm had Ian Burgess and Tony Hilton also arrive being the last of the attendees for the day.

Weather conditions Saturday had turned for the worst in comparison to mid week periods. Reasonably windy conditions were present with winds at 25km/h to 30km/h with overcast low light periods. The cloudy conditions did ease as the afternoon progressed. It wasn't exactly ideal flying conditions, however we all took full advantage of calmer conditions between gusty periods. Many of us came away with some amazing flying nonetheless!.

Brent Byrne


Brent had his Chronos 700 with him today and flew it in spectacular fashion at the rear flight line. As I had failed at capturing any stills of Brents Chronos during his last field visit, I spent a bit of time shooting Brents Chronos in flight this time round.



Brents flying again was full of popping moves and lots of hard stops linked together with all or nothing collective moves sure to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up every time! Great flying Brent!



Brian Johnson
Brian brought with him this week his Compass 6HV which I had watched him fly numerous times before. As always Brians flying was strong Bold and fast. Learning alot from you guys!

Tom Standing



Tom was also back with his Logo700 and his Goblin 700 Blackthunder. Tom made good work dealing with the windy conditions. It was obvious the Goblin700 being a little heavier than the logo700 handled the windy conditions far more efficiently!



Here is a video of Tom flying earlier in the afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't get a video of Toms better flights, but great to watch anyway!

Tony Hilton



Tony flew his Soxos DB7, 550 and Synergy E7se on Saturday and fly them beautifully he did.



Ill refrain from any descriptive analysis of Tony's flying this time round and let you enjoy one of Tony's great flight videos below!

Ian burgess


Ian was back on Saturday with his Logo600 following a very successful maiden flight last week end. Apologies Ian as I had forgotten to include in last weeks entry. A quick recap though is in order.

Last week, Tony Hilton, Bryan Stu and I assisted Ian with setting up the Brain, binding his Spectrum transmitter to enable Logo600 to be maidened. Following a successful Brain setup, Transmitter setup with mild throttle, aileron and elevator setups suitable for hovering, we tested failsafe and throttle hold. All was in order and not long after Ian maidened his Logo600sx in fine fashion.

This week Ian was back to fly his Logo600sx. As Ian doesn't possess his Bronze Wings yet, he flew his Logo 600sx on the flight line accompanied. Ian flew large fig 8s at reasonable speed and with what appeared to be reasonably good control. I have to admit I was a little terrified at times but Ian did very well. I recall asking Ian to reduce his speed to walking pace to mimic the Bronze wings testing requirements to ensure he was always on top of controls.

Overall Ian did very well and Im sure he will have his Bronze wings sooner rather than later.

Nabil
There is nothing surprising or shocking about the heli community constantly being in a state of flux. Every week sees a myriad of heli pilots swapping selling and buying the latest and greatest, replacing old with new, clearing stockholds or just adding to the already overcrowded party
Out with the old / in with the new... there are always great deals to be had!

My experience this week was no exception.
When news hit me of Tom Standings Kyle Stacey Goblin380 impending sale, a few to and fro msgs later and the goblin 380 was as good as mine!

Having witnessed the way the 380 (now 420) flew in the very capable hands of Ray Close (smakmeharder), Mick3d and Ben Biggs, it didn't take any convincing to effect the sale. It had been a heli I've been longing to own and fly.... and a long time coming at that!! Plans where in place to pick up Friday. The countdown began......

My smile could not be wider when I received a surprise and impromptu msg from Tom Standing on Thursday morning

"Heli with me, im in cbd if you want it today lol...????"

I paused for a brief moment whilst contemplating whether what I had just heard was reality or a figment of my imagination.....
"hell yeah!!!"

This sort of thing doesn't happen to me often enough... Receiving my new toy a day earlier than planned !! BONUS!! Thanks Tom!!

I spent that evening looking over the heli and taking stock of the great build and immaculately well looked after condition of (in the voice of Golum from LOR's) Myyy Preciououuss.



The heli is truly in immaculate condition I thought!" Since which, I have stripped head and tail down and rebuilt just for piece of mind. Definitely maidening this sweet precious before heli heatwave2017..



Ill be fitting her out with a Brain2 and a new Futaba 7008 receiver (receiver on route, brain2 waiting rebirth).





Flying 3 out of 5 week days left me with little remaining time to contemplate finishing off repair works on the e7se. Sadly my Synergy E7SE remained bench ridden over the weekend once again. Thinking quietly to myself...." Must devote more time this week to maintenance". With all parts required having been with me for some time. The only thing stopping me is me!

Received delivery 1 of 2 for some spanking new packs for my 600l dominator during the week to compliment my existing ZENRC 2x 3300 6s 60c (currently configured as a stick pack now one year on and still holding strong).

Sadly, I spent the better half of Thursday night soldering new connectors to the new packs. If you must know, soldering ec5 connectors to packs is one if those loathing tasks I prefer not to do!! Almost as much as painting!! I must convert to rcpro connectors one day!

It was a long and late night full of cursing, frustration and mind numbing concentration in search of that perfect solder connection. In the end however I triumphed but not without tragedy... (burnt my left thumb and forefinger, whilst distracted grabbed the soldering iron by the tip........ ouch!!!!!!!!!!!

Lucky the burn was not severe, however the skin had smoothed out over my thumb due to the heat It was bad enough to cause my thumb to continuously slip off the sticks. Oh sheez.... there goes my flying for the next month or sooo.. I thought!!!!

I spent the last part of the night experimenting with various bandaids and light bandage wraps to determine what would work best and allow the right balance of friction and feel to allow my stick banging to be unaffected (until my skin had repaired anyway...)

In the end cotton style bandaids (not the plastic type) did the job nicely and obviously held up nicely during my flying Friday afternoon and all Saturday!

I thoroughly enjoyed my Saturday flying and managed to shock myself when recounting the number of flights for the day at 28 (including 6 shorter flights - running in new packs).

A close encounter of the dangerous slivering kind (bingo - thread title meaning) towards the end of the afternoon. This brown snake decided to bath in the afternoon sun right in the middle of our path to the hover patch. Be on the look out fellow pilots!

Another great week of flying and no casualties by all!

Nabil.

Brents Chronos pics.



















Tony Hilton