Helicycle Hatchery

[500e]

YLF what mount on the vertical compass looks like 4 screws through panel, is there some compliant mount to isolate from the hull?
Stan the cat has 2 catnip plants for its personal use, & it is still trying to phone Gabor

[ylf]

500e - That's Stan's panel in the picture, I think it's been working ok for him, I hope so because mine is done similarly but I'm not to the point where I can test mine yet.

[StanFoster]

500- Not sure what you are asking about the screws. My VCC filled the hole where I would put a transponder which is very unlikely, but arranged for anyway. Stan

[500e]

Originally Posted by StanFoster

500- Not sure what you are asking about the screws. My VCC filled the hole where I would put a transponder which is very unlikely, but arranged for anyway. Stan

Hi Stan in the compass instructions it suggests a compliant mounting for the instrument all the ones I have seen have a mount to the frame Then a soft rubber vibration damper to isolate it.
Just wondering if you have some crafty mount hidden behind the front ?

[StanFoster]

Brett- I just mounted it in the hole. It works very smoothly....I have it adjusted NS-EW as per instructions. I check it only when flying on a cross country to have a backup heading should my gps fail. Otherwise, to me, its just a fancy spinning gizmo that does read accurately! I dont recall ever using it otherwise. Its mainly something that was cheaper to fill my transponder hole than a transponder.


Stan

[StanFoster]

Its a cold Saturday morning, and a great time to do my basic maintenance on the Turbinator.

The first three pictures are draining my tail rotor gearbox oil. Its only a small amount...I pour it into a red plastic cup, then transfer the oil slowly to a clear cup and slowly roll the film of oil around with a bright light behind it looking for anything. The first 50 hours this oil would have a metallic gold paint look to it, but I was told that is normal and it would slowly diminish. It has and I just put in new oil every 10 hours. Takes all of 5 minutes to drain, and replace the oil. I leave the drained oil in the cup for further evaluation.

I moved on to check my belt tension that drives the main and tail rotors. B.J. Schramm developed this system as a torque limiter to the gearbox. At my factory checkout, Doug set the belt tension with his pull gauge....then I used mine and placed a red mark on it to have an accurate setting since our pull gauges read a little differently. I initially only had to tighten the belts one time up to 10 hours...then since I have had the same over center pull reading on my gauge...and havent had to tighten them once.

I could overtighten these belts and turn the fuel on at the turbine and have one smoking hotrod......but that would be over torquing the transmission and shorten its life. I dont want to find out how much it shortens its life by over tightening these belts.

My free fuel flow check was next. Typically my fuel system delivers a 25 gph flow to the turbine. I take the fuel line off the fuel pump on the turbine and time how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon fuel can. Once I caught my fuel flow down to 20 gph....which is way more than plenty, but was indicating something was restricting my fuel flow. I posted this over a year ago and had discovered algae on my gascolator filter screen. Since then I have been adding biobor to my fuel...and I havent seen so much a speck since then.

I cant let complacency take over, so I still persistently look for problems. My fuel flow check was normal, and I also took my gascolator screen off and inspected it. It looked very clean, but I put some kerosene in that red solo cup and sloshed the filter vigorously in the fuel for quite awhile....spinnning it in my fingers and everything. I inspected the kerosene in the cup as with that white interior, any foreign material is easily seen. I could see very small specks of debris hardly detectable by eye.....it could have had 100 times as much and wouldnt been as bad as the black green algae that had it half plugged as I previously mentioned. I put it all back together...re safety wired the gascolator bowl to my fuel shut off arm. I love that fuel shut off as it cuts the fuel right before the gascolator and not even a drip of kerosene while I am cleaning the filter.

Next I greased the collective slider. During the cold weather I just apply Marvel Mystery oil, then change to grease in the warmer weather. The reason is I fly year round from single digit temps to upper 90's. One day it was around 10 degrees out and I pulled the pre-flighted Turbinator out of its heated nest.....then took off for a flight. I noticed my collective was getting real stiff. I checked my collective friction and it was off. I immediately flew it back to the shop and the collective just was binding up badly. I was really concerned I had something wrong with the rotorshaft or elastomeric bearings....I just didnt know. I pulled the Turbinator in the heated hanger, and was really perplexed. I couldnt find anything that looked wrong...but a little later I noticed the collective was nice and loose again. I slapped my dumb forehead....or trying to slap the dumb grey matter that was behind it and realized it was just my grease thickening up on the collective slider. The 70 degree shop temp thinned out the grease again.

I cleaned the collective shaft off and applied Marvel mystery oil....and then just took it outside to let it acclimate to the single cold temps. It never stiffened a bit.....so since then...its Marvel Mystery oil in the winter...and now grease till next winter.

A few shots of grease on some zerks....and the machine is ready for its next mission. Next is a nice was job as the TV crew is coming up Thursday to tape the TV show segment. Got to go prean its feathers!

Stan

[titanhank]

stan, you need to watch that moroso oil cooler very close after taking the guts out. i blew one apart this morning. i was turning the drive train without the blades at 14000 rpm to check a few things and i heard of pop. the pressure actually broke one of the t15 screws and let the o-ring bulge out. this sprayed progear 21 everywhere. i have spent the entire morning cleaning up the mess. i am not sure taking the guts have had any effect, but i know i can't run the thing on my transmission.


hank canup
03-04

[StanFoster]

Hank- I would almost bet $100 that you had the filter put in backwards blocking the exiting oil. There is only one way it will work correctly. One way the oil flows easily, the other way the oil pressure actually forces the filters base to seal off the exiting port. I could see the oil pump blowing the o-rings or blowing out the end like yours did. I studied this intensely when I installed mine. Later I took the filter out all together as I have a nice filter anyway on the transmission. The main transmission has low oil pressure during operation. I had an 8 pound pressure switch that would flicker, so I went to a 2 pound switch. My instrument panel has a bright red light that will catch my attention immediately if I lose oil pressure for whatever reason plus I monitor the oil temperature as well. That Morosso oil cooler really keeps my oil cooler on hot days. Stan

[StanFoster]

Sometime ago I had noticed my battery cables that I ran together had their insulation warm enough to bond to each other. I separated them to let them generate less heat during the torcherous amperage draw while spooling the turbine up. I have 2 Odyssey 680 batteries running through #4 copper starting cable for a distance of 3.5 feet. There has to be some voltage drop , so this morning I changed out my # 4 cable to #2 copper. My cables shouldn't get near as warm now, plus I should see more available voltage at the starter. Stan

[titanhank]

stan. my cooler was gutted. no filter installed at all. just keep an eye on it.

[ylf]

Hank,
Have you verified the orientation of the filter in the transmission? I can't see how it could have made that much pressure, especially at that RPM, unless something was blocking the flow.

Mike

[StanFoster]

Hank- You are absolutely correct about watching thst oil cooler, or any oil line in my opinion. Before I installed my oil cooler, I didn't like the idea of oil flowing outside the transmission thru aluminum tubing, just for the fact that I only had an oil temperature gauge. I could see an oil leak pumping out my transmission oil and no indication in the cabin. I doubt my temp gauge would tell me. Thats why I have a red idiot light in my dash. Its tested everytime I spin the rotors up. The light is glowing until the rotors are between 50 and 100 rpm, then it goes out. I love knowing if I lose oil pressure in either the turbine or the main transmission, I have a light to tell me to land NOW! Stan

[titanhank]

i have the same setup of lights and low pressure switches. everything works fine and with no obstructions to fluid flow. i am guessing the fluid could not exit the cooler fast enough. i have installed the factory cooler for the checkout and will replace it latter.

[titanhank]

stan, found out why the cooler exploded. blake called me today after seeing the post of helicycle builders and suggested i pull the filter in the trans. it was put in backwards. it came from the factory that way. all fixed now. i am going to get another cooler tommorrow since i already have all the mounting stuff made.


hank

[RotorTom]

Originally Posted by titanhank

stan, found out why the cooler exploded. blake called me today after seeing the post of helicycle builders and suggested i pull the filter in the trans. it was put in backwards. it came from the factory that way. all fixed now. i am going to get another cooler tommorrow since i already have all the mounting stuff made.
hank

Dang, Stan is always right!