Caliber 30 Flight Log
| Date | Wind | Flights | Notes | Maintenance |
| 12/10/03 | 4 | Removed training gear for first time. Engine difficult to start, replaced glow plug but still no good. Readjusted needle valve - no difference. Reason was loose battery in glow plug starter. | Replaced glow plug | |
| 16/10/03 | 5mph | 3 | L collective lever came loose as screw unthreaded; heli fell over but no damage. Became uncontrollable. Replaced screw with Allen bolt - all OK again. | Replaced L collective screw with Allen bolt |
| 18/10/03 | 4 | First flight with GV-1 (set @ off, 1500, 1600). Very stable, much better control - much better landings. Started forward flight and left side / right side hover. FFF Ok (c. 200m). L/R hover needs lot of work. | ||
| 19/10/03 | 10mph | 1 | Too windy - stopped after 1 tank | GV-1 (1350, 1500, 1600) |
| 21/10/03 | 1 | One flight all OK | ||
| 24/10/03 | 2 | Have adjusted pitch curves to allow negative pitch. Hovers now at ¾ throttle in Normal and ½ throttle in idle 1. Nice steady flying. L/R Hover getting better still can't bring it round to nose first. Better position control though and vertical control; heli stays where I want it and moves where I want it to. | ||
| 25/10/03 | 3 | Better at FFF. Still can't hover nose in, got to try something else; have been trying hovering and gently turning from tail in to nose in. Used Idle up 1 for most of flight as additional head speed gives much better control and really fast take offs | ||
| 26/10/03 | 3 | Went to larger field and was able to fly around a lot more. At about 20m turned heli around and hovered nose in for about 10 seconds then pirouetted back around. Flying better now and less afraid for heli to go high and further away. | GV-1 (1400, 1500, 1600) | |
| 1/11/03 | 4 | All OK - practicing nose in, still not really comfortable | ||
| 7/12/03 | 4 | Battery flat on 4th flight
- crash! Nose in hover coming on well and pirouettes - before crash :-( Frames, Main Gear, Main Shaft, Spindle, Body Mounts, Main Blades |
Rebuild after crash due to
flat battery. Replaced: Main frames (L&R) Stabiliser bar Paddles Main shaft Feathering shaft Main gear Main blades Fuel tank (not damaged in crash) Battery (upgraded to JR 1900mAh) Heavy duty switch Fuel lines |
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| 30/12/03 | 2 | First flight after rebuild. Blades out of alignment - appeared to 'flap', have added extra washer to blade grip / blade root. | Change glow plug | |
| 31/12/03 | 10-15mph | 1 | Flight to check blade tracking after using both washers on SAB Main Blades. All steady now. | |
| 2/01/04 | 1 | Flying nice and stable, nose in coming along well. Ball link came off main rotor (no crash) and fan screws sheared as I overtightened during rebuild. Need new clutch shaft. Fan dropped down slightly when bolts sheared and shattered GV-1 sensor case (sensor still works) | Need to replace sensor and
Clutch Shaft (damaged it trying to get the sheared fan bolts out) Clutch Shaft replaced and GV-1 sensor repaired 10/01/04 |
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| 15/02/04 | 3mph | 4 | First proper flights after crash and fan screws breaking. Repaired GV-1 sensor works well. Good flights. Left, right and nose-in hover and flight good. | |
| 13/03/04 | 10mph | 3 | Crashed the Caliber again!
Started with nose in practice and fast left right
flights. Engine just doesn't seem to have any power and bogs down when
collective punched for climb out. Not too much damage, only one blade cracked, main shaft, stabiliser bar, feathering spindle and tail boom support beam. |
Engine just doesn't seem to have any power. Not sure if this is real or just that I'm now so used to flying the Fury. |
| 11/04/04 | 3 | First proper flights with Caliber since previous crash. Flying very stable. First flights with the new radio (JR PCM 10X). Great flights, with my first loops! Lots of fast pirouettes. Plenty of nose in practice, both hovering and flying towards me - proper circuits at last. | Engine OK now. Problem was the feathering spindle which was slightly bent. | |
| 15/04/04 | 25mph | 1 | One flight. Lost control
over collective a few minutes into flight and down she went again - hard
crash. Probably due to an 'L' lever link breaking to the swash plate. That's it for the Caliber - not worth repairing any more. Going to replace with Raptor 50! |
Crash took out:
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| Total | 44 |