SuperDave's BLOG http://u256.com I'm a helicopter enthusiast, what can I say? Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:35:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en Inga’s Terrific Guacamole Dip Recipe http://u256.com/2007/05/31/inga%e2%80%99s-terrific-guacamole-dip-recipe/ http://u256.com/2007/05/31/inga%e2%80%99s-terrific-guacamole-dip-recipe/#comments Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:31:51 +0000 SuperDave http://u256.com/2007/05/31/inga%e2%80%99s-terrific-guacamole-dip-recipe/ Ingredients;

  • 4 ripe avocados – mashed
  • 2 ripe tomatoes – diced
  • ¼ onion – diced
  • 1 ½ limes – juiced
  • ¼ cup cilantro – chopped
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • 1 ½ tsp sugar
  • ¾ tsp salt

Instructions;

Chop, dice, mash and all add all ingredients in a bowl and serve with chips.

Enjoy!

-SuperDave

]]> http://u256.com/2007/05/31/inga%e2%80%99s-terrific-guacamole-dip-recipe/feed/ Check This Out! http://u256.com/2007/04/08/check-this-out/ http://u256.com/2007/04/08/check-this-out/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2007 03:52:04 +0000 SuperDave http://u256.com/2007/04/08/check-this-out/ I’ve made some changes to my web page, finally! It’s been unmodified for many years now and I think it’s quite stale. So I’ve updated my blog, made it my home page and I’ve even added a new feature . It’s a new section called “Check This Out!” You can access by clicking on that tab at the top of the page. I’ll put interesting things in there periodically that I think you should check out (of course). I hope you find it interesting.

-SuperDave

]]> http://u256.com/2007/04/08/check-this-out/feed/ Air Show Day with Dad (X2) http://u256.com/2006/06/11/air-show-day-with-dad-squared/ http://u256.com/2006/06/11/air-show-day-with-dad-squared/#comments Sun, 11 Jun 2006 23:54:04 +0000 SuperDave http://rc-heli-pilot.info/2006/06/11/air-show-day-with-dad-squared/ Today I took my dad to “Rockin AirFest 2006” AKA “The Van Nuys Air Show” and the “Giant Scale Squadron Fly-In” at the Apollo XI RC flying field. The weather was great; not too hot and not too cold. We saw everything that was cool and took lots of photos. At the “AirFest” there wasn’t much happening in the air while we were there but they did have some cool plans and helicopters on the tarmac that we could swarm. At the “Fly-In” the coolest things where the scale jets with REAL turbine engines! Wow, where they fast! The smell and sounds where awesome too! We overheard the owner of the A-10 “Warthog” saying that is cost over $38,000! Now that’s an expensive hobby. Aside from the turbines being a little smaller than the engine cowlings you’d never be able to tell that it wasn’t the real thing, the detail was incredible! Check it out. Click on the images below to visit my Gallery site to view the photos.

Air Fest 2006Giant Scale Squadron Fly-In

-SuperDave

]]> http://u256.com/2006/06/11/air-show-day-with-dad-squared/feed/ My Hummingbird V2 (Fixed Pitch) Helicopter http://u256.com/2006/05/30/my-hummingbird-v2-fixed-pitch-helicopter/ http://u256.com/2006/05/30/my-hummingbird-v2-fixed-pitch-helicopter/#comments Wed, 31 May 2006 03:54:16 +0000 SuperDave http://u256.com/blog/2006/05/30/my-hummingbird-v2-fixed-pitch-helicopter/ I’ve just uploaded some photos of my first electric micro helicopter - the Hummingbird V2 (Fixed Pitch). These are some of the first photos that I took after flying it for the first time. Since then I’ve made a few upgrades. More on that later. This is a GREAT helicopter for beginners! It’s very inexpensive, resilient and easy/cheap to repair. It can’t handle any wind, but if you’ve got a big enough room you can fly it in the house or garage - any time!

Follow this link to view the FULL SIZE PHOTOS in my Gallery. Here are some of the thumbnails…

Hummingbird V2 FP 01 Hummingbird V2 FP 02 Hummingbird V2 FP 03
Hummingbird V2 FP 05 Hummingbird V2 FP 06 Hummingbird V2 FP 07
Hummingbird V2 FP 08 Hummingbird V2 FP 09 Hummingbird V2 FP 10

-SuperDave

]]> http://u256.com/2006/05/30/my-hummingbird-v2-fixed-pitch-helicopter/feed/ Will my X-Cell .40 ever fly again? http://u256.com/2006/05/29/will-my-excel-40-ever-fly-again/ http://u256.com/2006/05/29/will-my-excel-40-ever-fly-again/#comments Tue, 30 May 2006 06:15:09 +0000 SuperDave http://u256.com/blog/2006/05/29/will-my-excel-40-ever-fly-again/ Today was an interesting day. I decided to try to get my X-Cell .40 (vintage 1985?) flight worthy again. It’s so old it had (what we call now) a wide-band receiver. Around 1997 RC radios went to narrow-band which is the system we all use now. A while ago I bought a new Hitec Eclipse 7 transmitter, a new Hitec 8 channel receiver and Futaba GY401 AVCS gyro. I installed them but never got the radio fully programmed to use them. Also, it hasn’t been flown in 8+ years so I’m not even sure if the engine will turn over! So today I decided to try to see how much work it would take to get it flight ready.

First of all, the container of fuel that I had was (I’m sure) useless. If you leave it too long the nitro escapes through the plastic and won’t run the engine. I’ve had this happen before so I know what I’m talking about. So I replaced the fuel container with a newer one. I don’t know how new it really is, but it was never opened so I’m sure it’s got a much better chance of running the engine than the original container would have. Of course in the process I learned that the old container had leaked (some how) all over the inside of my flight box. What a mess that was to clean out! I’m so tired of nitro engines!!! This is why I moved to electrics. I’d rather wait for the batteries to charge and deal with all of the nitro mess!

After getting the fuel situation all sorted out I started on the radio setup. I disabled the collective channel so I would adjust the throttle without the helicopter trying to take off of my test stand. I got my flight box battery fully charged, tested my starter motor and glow plug starter. So far - so good. But my luck was about to change - significantly. I had just filled the gas tank about 3/4 full. When I removed the filler tube all of the gas just shot right out all over the grass! What was that all about?!?! The tank shouldn’t be pressurized until the engine is running! Something was wrong. Perhaps the muffler line was clogged. So I disconnected it and filled the tank again. This time the gas stayed in. I reconnected the muffler line. I turned everything on, connected the glow plug starter, set the throttle and started to turn the engine over. Nothing. I adjusted the throttle. Still nothing. I pumped some gas directly into the carburetor. I removed the glow plug so I could crank the engine to get the fuel flowing. That seemed to work so I replaced the glow plug and tried to start it again. Miraculously it started! For some reason it revved and slowed over and over again. I’m not sure what that was all about. The throttle servo (and others) seemed to be going crazy; oscillating back and forth. I don’t know why. Without the engine running the electronics seemed to be working properly. I tried several times to get the engine running and stable, but couldn’t. When the electronics wasn’t oscillating wildly the engine seemed to be having real problems. I finally had to pull the fuel line to shut it down. I had been holding the rotor head to keep it from spinning and may have burned out the clutch in the process. Bummer! It was smoking by the time I got the engine stopped! What a mess! I’m not sure if this thing will ever fly again. I’ve been so spoiled with electric copters I don’t know if I could ever go back to nitro. But since this copter has to be so much more stable than my Hummingbird V2 (Fixed Pitch) copter I would love to fly it just one more time to see how much better it handles. Since this was my first RC chopper and I’ve invested so much in it I kind of hate to just walk away from it. The last time I flew it I still had the training gear on it. I did pretty well at hovering at any altitude (up to 50 feet) but I had to keep the tail pointed at me to maintain orientation. Since then I’ve been using several computer simulators to improve my skills. I’ve been using a R/C AeroChopper (DOS program with wire frame graphics) for many many years. The graphics aren’t great, but it’s a pretty good simulator. I’ve become quite a “hot shot” on that simulator. Lately I’ve upgraded to a Real Flight G3, which has awesome graphics including several photo realistic flying fields. My personal favorite is the “sod farm“. It takes a good bit of skill and experience to take off, turn around and run straight into the van parked behind me. So far I can only hit it (directly) 2 out of 10 times. I guess I still need more practice. Anyway, I’ve been flying my FP Hummingbird (in the house) for quite a while now and I’m getting pretty good at keeping it in one place (reasonably under control). I’ve even flown it at work, check out the video on the DreamHost blog! On the Real Flight G3 I’m flying the Bell 222 (modified so the retractable landing gear works) and can keep it reasonably under control. I’m getting pretty good at nose-in flying and disaster recovery. That’s why I thought if I could get the X-Cell airborne again I could probably do pretty well with it because it’s got plenty of power to handle a bit of wind and it reacts very well too. Oh well, we’ll see if that ever happens.

At this point I’m not really sure I want to go to all the trouble to get his nitro chopper back in the air. It’s reinforced my distain for nitro and will probably get me to start work right away on getting my new T-REX airborne.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this. I sold my (un-built) Hummingbird V3 (Collective Pitch) chopper with all the upgrades to a colleague of mine and purchased an Align T-REX SE. So far I’ve got the electronics all set up and tested. Now I’ve got to start working on the airframe. More updates on that later.

Here is a link to the FULL SIZE PHOTOS of my X-Cell .40 chopper on my Gallery site. Here are the thumbnails…

X-Cell _40 01 X-Cell _40 02

X-Cell _40 03
X-Cell _40 04 X-Cell _40 05 X-Cell _40 06
X-Cell _40 07 X-Cell _40 08 X-Cell _40 09
X-Cell _40 10 X-Cell _40 11 X-Cell _40 12
X-Cell _40 13 X-Cell _40 15 X-Cell _40 16
X-Cell _40 17 X-Cell _40 18 X-Cell _40 19

X-Cell _40 20

 X-Cell _40 22

X-Cell _40 21
  X-Cell _40 23  

-SuperDave

]]> http://u256.com/2006/05/29/will-my-excel-40-ever-fly-again/feed/ Welcome! http://u256.com/2006/02/12/hello-world/ http://u256.com/2006/02/12/hello-world/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2006 04:33:51 +0000 SuperDave http://u256.com/blog/2006/02/12/hello-world/ RC Helicopter GuyI have decided to start a BLOG. Aren’t you excited?! Well I am. I’m going to document my helicopter related activities and anything else I decide to throw this way. I have 3 R/C (Radio Controlled) helicopters at the moment, one that flies and two that don’t. I’ve also started training to be come a “real” helicopter pilot! I’ve read the training manual 1-1/2 times so far. I’m not sure if I’ll ever become a real helicopter pilot, but it sure is fun knowing the details of how the real things work.

I started working for DreamHost.com last November (2005) as a Technical Support Specialist. They are an awesome web hosting company located in down town Los Angeles! The site you’re on now is hosted with them! As a Technical Support Specialist I thought it would be a good idea to start using some of the tools our customers use. This way I can get intimately familiar with them so I can better support them on the job. So it’s fun for me, good for our customers and (hopefully) entertaining for you.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy checking in on me from time to time to see what I’m up to.

-SuperDave

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