Helicycle-- Hoverings & Happenings

Stan, so you have three diodes installed now? One between the governor breaker and the governor switch, one between the other side of the switch and the voltmeter and one between the main buss and the voltmeter, correct? I just drew that out and it looks like it should work.

One thing to remember is that there's up to a .7 volt drop across a diode, so your meter may read a little lower than before. I've used diodes as a simple way to drop voltage in a few R/C applications where the battery voltage was too high for a certain servo or to power a 1.5v glow plug with a 3.6v lithium battery.

PS: I got my windshield trimmed to fit this afternoon and 6 of the holes drilled, so I'm slowly making progress, hoping to join you in the Helicycle pilots club someday.

Mike
 
Akoshier- You are correct on getting too much information. I like idiot lights since they were named after me. They get my attention.......................................... Mike- Yes, there are 3 diodes now. Except one is BEFORE the governor circuit breaker and not between the breaker and the switch. I have to put the diode before the breaker because right after the diode, I Tee in my backup battery power and then it all goes through my breaker. If the diode was between the breaker and the switch, then my backup battery would have no circuit breaker protecting it. I did take my voltmeter across a diode and measured around a . 4 voltage drop. I now feel more complete being able to preflight my backup batteries voltage. I wish I had thought of your suggestion, but when you mentioned it, it was like a light went off in my head it was so obvious it was needed.........................................Good luck on your windshield. Are you going to paint an outline strip on the inside of your windshield? It hides the channel and really dolls it up. The Helicycle is constantly evolving as we builders add our modifications. After my flameout, switching my MFS became front and center priority. I was wanting to do that before I even flew it, but Blake said to do it after my checlout. Now it will be a mandatory modification. I am glad to hear that. The turbine is a very dependable powerplant. Its the supporting systems that have a greater chance of causing it to fail. These mods reduce some chances for this to happen. Oh, another great use for the voltmeter is on startup. Once, and I will say only once when I was first engaging my starter to hear the turbine turn over, it stuck on. I had to shut the main power off to disengage it. That immediately got me concerned how to know if the starter disengaged during an actual light off. I mean during all this excitement and turbine whine while starting, you have to be on your toes to hear the starter disengage. I want to KNOW my starter disengaged. I was thinking of running a light in my dash that came on when the starter had voltage, but that's when I realized to simply monitor the information that is vividly already in my face coming from my voltmeter. When the starter is engaged, the voltmeter shows a huge voltage drop, and snaps back to nominal voltage when the starter is out of gear. So, I simply look at my voltmeter while holding the starter button, and when the turbine gets to 20,000 or so rpm, my finger comes off the starter, and my eye verifies the voltmeter snapped back telling me the starter is disengaged. That starter sticking on me happened only once while in my shop a month before my first turbine start, and I could never get it to stick on again. I am glad it happened as I don't forget little or major lessons like this. Stan
 
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Stan- That makes sense tying in before the breaker. I'm glad you mentioned the starter sticking, I wouldn't have even thought about that happening, do you know of anyone else reporting it sticking?

Yes, I plan to paint the inside edge of the windshield, I agree it really cleans up the look. On your doors, did you end up just bonding them to the frames without the rivets? If not, you did a very good job smoothing the rivets and painting.

Mike
 
Mike- I did use rivets, I figured they gave the door some redundancy in case the bond broke loose. Those doors were the hardest part of the whole build for me. It just took forever to get them acceptable. I haven't heard of any other starter sticking. Mine was probably a fluke, but I love that it happened. That hard wired my particular awareness to it disengaging on startup. That might just save me a starter burning up someday. Good luck on your build. I would love to see some pictures of it. Stan
 
Mike- I just remembered that when my starter stuck on that one time, I had the switches that came with the kit. It could have stuck on. I went to NAPA and bought some heavy duty momentary switches. They don't have plastic bodies and have a nice firm button you have to push. These are much stronger. Stan
 
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind, sounds like a worthwhile upgrade.

Mike
 
Back to flight status

Back to flight status

My main fuel solenoid arrived today....and it took all of 5 minutes to switch out my other one. It now does not take any voltage to keep my fuel on. I have been wanting this switched out before I even flew it. Its much more dependable having the main fuel solenoid off to keep the fuel running.

Its automatically tested on preflight and shut down as far as knowing it will kill the turbine in case of overspeed.


After it was all installed....I had test all scenarios. Main breaker on...mfs off...governor on......

main breaker off.... governor on......mfs on and off....etc...

This checked out, so I next had to start it up , and check for fuel leaks at the mfs.

I then did catastrophic electrical tests. I started the turbine and had every thing on...landing lights. strobes..radio gps. nav lights...

I then cut the main breaker killing all the battery power..... the turbine kept running....all my electrical didnt care...the KeyWest regulator was handling it all.

I then went a step further and killed all my charging power by taking a wire off the KeyWest regulator. all the power was dead now...the ship was on its own. My instrument panel went dead of course...but the turbine was making its peaceful whine back there.

This was testing my backup battery circuitry....and it handled it well. I was granted flight status and away I went...


The first few pictures are the main fuel solenoid.....my old one and the new reconfigured one. The last pictures are while I was doing the electrical failure testing. The KeyWest regulator is the blue box with the wire off of it.


Stan
 

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Well done , Stan ! Happy choppering !
 
I realized today that I hadn't flown in December yet, so I went out flying today testing my new configured wiring. I love the fact now that I can lose all my batteries, lose my regulator which keeps everything running if the batteries fail, and the backup battery keeps the computer controlled governor operating. I actually modified my wiring again. I can switch the main power or the backup power and know they are flight ready. If either the master or the backup power switch is left on, I have the strobes flashing telling me I left a switch on. .......................................................I had an issue while flying today. My collective was tightening up , felt like my friction lock was on. I reached over and checked that the friction was off, and it was. I immediately landed , love that freedom, and shut it down to see what was going on. It was in the 20's outside as I was crawling around trying to find what was binding. I found it. It was the fact that I removed my helicopter from its 70 degree room and the grease I had on my collective had simply thickened up. I was glad I used the ability to land NOW and not just try to make it back wondering what was binding up my collective. I have had enough excitement to last me a long time than trying to fly with bound up controls! I fired it up and headed for the warm hanger, put it inside, and sure enough , about 15 minutes later the collective had its normal feel again. I am going to use light oil through the winter as I most definately will be flying someday near 0 or even negative temps. Stan
 
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It's Amazing

It's Amazing

It never fails to amaze me how with thousand's of hours of thought and consideration little things like that show up from time to time. It really puts into perspective how difficult it is to design for all of the challenges of space travel. I'm sure you were glad to discover the cause quickly.
 
Steve- Machinery and systems are constantly evolving. The asme with the Helicycle. In just two short weeks , actually 2 weeks this time, my Helicycle and future Helicycles will see changes. Now I am told that instead of the factory not allowing me to change my main fuel solenoid to NO which is fail safe if power is lost to it, it will be a mandatory upgrade on Helicycles in the future. They are considering my cable reinforcement system that was so aggressively tested on my flameout. The evolvement in just the rewiring I experienced was changed just by me posting here and receiving a brilliant suggestion that found me tearing into my panel an upgrading my already upgrade from the day before. Right now I feel my latest wiring has evolved my ship to a higher level than it was at. But, I know it will evolve further as others or myself come up with more ideas. After my flameout, I was obsessed and laser focused to not fly it again until my MFS was changed over to the NO configuration, and this had nothing to do with my flameout. It was all about doing my best to improve my fuel delivery system that I was flying with.................................................................Something else that has evolved from my flameout is my maturity as a helicopter pilot. I am not the same pilot at the controls. My future videos will not look like the same pilot took them, simply because I have changed. I love my helicopter flying more than ever, and feel a heightened sense of responsible flying so I may cointinue being blessed flying my dream. Stan
 
Stan I wonder if Aeroshell grease number 7 or 14 would be a good year round grease for your collective.
 

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.........Something else that has evolved from my flameout is my maturity as a helicopter pilot. I am not the same pilot at the controls. My future videos will not look like the same pilot took them, simply because I have changed. ... Stan


Not just you Stan. The people wise enough to learn from watching you will be better for the experience. Which I know is why you share the details so precisely.


As an interested bystander this has been a very evolutionary and thankfully positive experience. For me anyway.
 
Jeff- Your grease may work, but now after flying yesterday in the 20's, it was loose as a goose with my oil. I just may use this all the time instead................................................................Illinini85- Glad you have enjoyed my sharing this experience. Hey, you could take all my other 18 forced landings, add their excitement all together, and this 19th one in a helicopter was by far the most exciting. There was something so serious about this one. Those few seconds I knew I had more than likely some serious helicopter damage at the least coming and very possibly getting badly injured. The adrenalin output has permanently hardwired my senses. I would need Vances literary skills to describe it. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything else I have ever done, but yet NEVER want to be put in that situation again. If I only told half the story of how I saved my helicopter, I wouldn't be honest with everyone by not telling my mistake of getting into that situation. Its the whole story or none with me. And you are right, I wanted this to be a good lesson to much more experienced pilots and to other fledglings like myself what euphoria can do to my common sense at times. I assure you I have satisfied my curiosity what the limits of my helicopter are with regards to climb performance. Its got more than I need! Stan
 
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Man buddy you are fast! You tell me about it and it's done in the same day, way to just do it!!!!

Boy that is a first-class setup!!!! :first:
 
Turbine startup

Turbine startup

I had 8 inches of snow on the ground and would have flown today except the visibility was bad.....and I dont fly when I see snowflakes.

Here is a startup video...I was testing a new way to start my Helicycle after leaving it outside in the cold. I actually have low batteries in this test on purpose simulating a hard to start scenario. If you listen...you can hear the starter windup, then I release it and making available all the juice for the start fuel solenoid and exciter. It seems to light off immediately, then I rehit the starter to get it up to 20,000 rpm. From there the start fuel button takes it past 30,000 where the governor takes over and idles it around 45-48000 rpm.

YouTube - December4


Stan
 
I have been leaving the video camera off most of my flights lately...but today I put it on the skids and took a short video of a flight out of the woods, circled back, and then landed. With my full doors on now, I cant reach out and operate the camera. You may want to go to the 2 minute mark before I am close to lifting off. I was checking out my new systems, and just in my own little world...and forgot about the camera running.

I flew quite awhile with the camera off and I was very warm inside my jumpsuit. It was in the teens. The turbine doesnt seem to care about temperatures at all. This felt like prime conditions for carb icing. I dont have to even think about that.


YouTube - December9

Stan
 
Cool Video,the snow really shows your chopper channel well and your landing area.

well we can see you no longer need the orange paint can lids to center down the channel.
looking and sounding sweet Stan. sure glad we don't have that white stuff here right now. but no telling what we may get sunday.
just cold temps here now going to be a low of 14 monday.
 
"Nearly frozen collective" Happened to me too on a very cold day- In my case the clearance between the slider and the control tube was a tad too tight - the alum slider tightened onto the tube after chilling.
Was outright scary for a few minutes till I had the ship on the ground.
I now have two grease fittings on the slider and machined an annular channel (at each fitting) all the way around to make sure grease gets everywhere. When I took mine apart it looked to me as if there was local lack of grease (metal/metal)
avk
 
Akoshier- My problem was nothing but the grease getting thick. I have thin oil on it now...and its well lubed...and doesnt stiffen up at all now. Thats why I was taking a short flight here...this is the coldest I have flown in and I am working my way down to single digits. It was much looser on these temps in the teens as it was with grease around 30 degrees.

Stan
 
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