I Will Not Give Up

[TW]

Oh no I won’t ! . . . . well, I may do in the end, but not right now.

My thanks go to all you guys who took the time and trouble to e-mail me and offer encouragement (and even replacement parts too) following my latest Piccolo problems. It “cheered me up” considerably to hear from you all.

The current situation is that my little heli is looking very sad for itself right now. I’ve removed the Piccoboard and the failed main motor, and have arranged for them (plus an earlier failed main motor) to be returned to the main agent for investigation/replacement.

Time will tell what will happen, but I’ll report back when the main agent, or local supplier who’s dealing with it, contacts me with news (it will probably all turn out to have beem my own fault – it usually does in the end ).

But by stripping my Piccolo down, I’ve been reminded how amazingly light it’s chassis is. I was about to start “carving” excess weight from the heli before my latest “set-back.” But having now stripped it down and felt its lack of weight, I wonder if it’s really worth trying to lighten what is already an extremely light construction.

It’s the battery pack, Piccoboard and motors that account for most of the weight after all, isn’t it?

Is it really a viable exercise to drill a few holes in the frame, skids, etc, when most of the weight is elsewhere? Won’t the “lightened” parts then be less able to support the really heavy partsin an "arrival"?

What do you think?

Tony.

[JJ]

First of all, Good Show that man; show some grit!
And yes those are also my thoughts, saving weight is easier and more effective if applied to the heavier items first. Find some cells 1g lighter and that's 7g saved already.

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John
G-JJ300800

[Malcolm]

Tony,

You think you have a weight problem (sorry thet me rephrase that), with the pic. Take a look at my post "grounded"

I would not drill out any of the material to save 1/2 or poss a gramm on the main frame. There is always a compromise between strength and lightness

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Malcolm
G-MC030201

[TW]

Thanks JJ and Malcolm for your replies.

I read your post Malcolm. It sounds as though you have a weightier problem than I have right now. But at least you could just leave the body off and go fly.

I really would like to build a lightweight Piccolo, but now I've stripped mine down it already feels very light.

Do you know if there are any lightweight batteries available?

Tony.

i am currently experimenting with 1mm cf for struts and 4mm cf tube for landing skids, they seem a lot lighter and have some bounce, but like you say there's not a lot of weight to save from the airframe. im using wes tube for the boom (seems light) and is lighter than normal 5mm tube. the main chassis seems heavy and one from cf would be lighter but making the joints strong would be a big problem.
wes servos at 2.3 g would make a difference, but at £100 for 2 it would be an expensive experiment, although i have seen an old plan for an indoor heli the same size as the pic using these servos.
you could try 2/3 AAA cells, these are a lot lighter than AAA and i know someone who has used these succesfully

TW why not try drilling holes in the batterys,that will lighten them!!
(only joking)

[TW]

Interesting stuff NForster. If I remember correctly (and I usually don't!) J uses 1mm cf for his struts, but I believe he has to have a "cross-brace" also, to stop them splaying. No doubt J will correct me if I'm wrong. And you're right about the cost of the lightweight servos - very expensive.

Al, I once did what you jokingly suggest (well, almost). I had a club 20 (Dara - still got it actually) and had shoe-horned a larger-than-spec fuel tank into the fuz, so the battery was a really tight fit. So tight, that there was no room for packing of any kind. Pushing the battery pack as far into the fuz as it would go, it was in contact with the back of the former onto which the engine-mount was "screwed - with self-tapping screws". Yes, one of the screws punctured the front cell in the pack (but I didn't notice this at the time).

To make matters worse, a fuel pipe came off the tank during my first flight, so I had to take the battery pack out to re-fit the fuel pipe. Then, of course, I pushed the battery pack back into its place the opposite way round to the way it was the first time. This punctured the cell at the other end of the pack (still unknown to me of course).

During the second flight the .38 motor was screaming around the sky in fine style. By over-powering the model by almost 100% (club 20 = .20-size engines) I'd achieved my ambition to have a "really fast" plane. It was frighteningly fast (to me). Then the lack of battery power started to make itself known.

Fortunately I noticed that the model was responding a little slower with each loop and roll it was put through, so I landed it.

I went home wondering why the battery had flattened in less than two flights - but when I found out I'd been flying with two punctured cells, I realised what a close escape my plane had really had.

No, drilling lightening holes in batteries wouldn't work, would it.

Tony.

That was a lucky escape.I glad you were able to land safely and fly it again I just hope your pic will be flying again soon.......al

[TW]

Thanks Al, me too.

Tony.

[JJ]

Hmm, just been peering at the Sanyo site, anyone know if the N350AAAEC (11g) or N500AAAEC (15g) nicads have any chance of working?

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John
G-JJ300800