Episode 83: Spring Has Sprung

to another episode of Skids Up Podcast. Joining me tonight we have Darren How's it going, eh? And Mr. Frank. What up, guys? Mr. Franklin. Yeah, I felt like changing it up a little. Yes, boss. All right. This is episode eighty-three. I mean, I'll have time. Yeah. Uh All right, this is episode eighty three. Spring has sprung. How's it? All right. I think so. It's getting a little bit uh I mean today's a little bit chilly, but it has definitely been getting warmer though and I don't know.

I don't know. I was talking. enough to fly. I was talking to one of my coworkers on the phone yesterday. He's up in f fur much further north than I am and he ha still has what did he say? About two feet of snow right now. So yeah, he's it's not spring for him. Well you're like in Canada. Like literally in Canada. So, yeah. It's it's you know, snow like six months out of the year. 6. Try 8 to 10. Okay, that's correct. Why do you d live up there? No entiendo.

As I get older I'm like further and further south I wanna go. Further and further closer to the equator, you know.

I I want I want to move to like Georgia. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. I can live in Georgia. But the problem is that for me to do my job I gotta be in a metropolitan city, right? So I I'm not about Atlanta. That is poof. That trust me. I don't want to do a ladder. I wanna be like far from Atlanta, but I wanna be close enough to a major airport so I guess I gotta be like at least an hour away from Atlanta or I got it. I want to like Savannah. Savannah. Not.

I won't make anywhere any other amount of money that I make, but I'll probably get to work at a go at a cool design firm. Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's get to the show here. So let's uh catch up. Who wants to go first? I'll go first. Go for it. Do it, Frank. So, uh not much flying. I was gonna say no fly but uh you're saying not much, so I'll I I've I've I've gone to the field a couple of times.

Some were rainy days, they got the the minute a water drops, I don't care if it's only for five minutes, I'm out. I it it took the wind out of my sails. So not much of that. Uh Man, that's another one. You'd never fly if you're up here then. Yeah. I convinced one of my friends to build my three blade. So I'm finishing it up.

Yeah, so this year I've gotten two helicopters built by two different people, so I'm doing good so far. I actually gotta put one together, so I'm waiting for the two hundred to come out. That's gonna be my big bill of the year. All forty four parts of them. Ha ha ha ha. Uh Forty four parts? That's a lot for a little thing. Yeah dude, forty four parts. Everything. That's every screw too, that's counting every screw. Okay, okay.

That being said, what else Frank? What else? What else have you done that that? Um I bought another charger. Uh The the brand that we shall not be n that we shall never name, one thousand. Uh it's a pulse charger that uh Kyle Yeah, dude, it's like it's like the Gen Says one. It's just like the top two that I have. It's uh it's the one I talked to you guys about last year, you know, the one that is like Dhows and Watch.

How well how's how's uh how's it gonna look when you're at the field and you're you're plugging your your beautiful red maniacs battery packs into this green Alien looking charger. He's gonna have to put a rush. I'd like to see that. Put a vinyl wrap on it. Oh, that's the first thing that's going on there. I got a big old maniac stick. I'm going to put it right on top of it. Steve, it'll be your job to pull that off and take pictures. Oh look at that serial number in that

Well, it's made by giant size. Yeah. or Taylor South. Yeah. I mean a charge is a charge, it is what it is. That's not that's not the that's not the game we're in right now, right? No, no. I don't have a I don't have a charger sponsor. No. Y'all hit me up, man. I probably already have one of your charges m probably too. Um Yeah, I got three P30s. I'm still rocking the old Rev Electric.

I have mine, so I had one that until I found out that they were out of business and then I couldn't f and then I couldn't sell it cheap enough. See and mine are still going strong. Mine are still going strong, so I'm gonna just keep'em till they die.

Um I order some bits for my three blade. Just some auto note. I need some new I need connectors. Uh So oh I needed con uh connectors and I had to get the smaller Tel pulley. 'Cause you know I I rock that eighteen hundred like it's like it's twenty five hundred to anybody else. That way it keeps I am I am keeping it slow and steady these days, man. I my fear now is not even crashing, it's having to rebuild something else. I'm like, no. If I crash let that thing die on the spot, you know.

But other than that Shouldn't you be doing high head speed then? My high head speed is like two thousand, but that's That's like bank three shit for me now. I'm like fifteen, eighteen, nineteen hundred, just pat around the in the sky. Bye. Frankie's getting older. Now I just like it I now it's just for me it's just like therapy. Just get up there and just you know? Uh But Other than that, I Yeah. Trying to figure out if I can make it to Virginia for the spring frame.

I can make some I'm trying to do I'm trying to. I just got get it in place and rent a car and the flights are like stupid early in the morning or late in the day. So my I on a Sunday I my my flight back would be at eight either at five thirty in the morning or eight o'clock at night. So I I literally I spent the whole day there. And yeah, it'd probably be me and Casey going between bar and pool or bowling. So I'd be okay with that. I haven't hung out with him for a while.

I mean I don't know, maybe I can drop my stuff off and come back with uh all my guns and we can go เมื่อเมื่อเมื่อเมื่อเมื่อ Yeah, in fact if if Casey has a a range at his place, ooh. We could have some fun. You can do a little pew-pewing. Yeah, yeah. I can install a little I can install a little thing in my pew pew that goes brrrrk, you know, that type of pew pew. Yeah. That makes me want to come out too.

Oh that'd be cool. But other than that I I've uh so my next couple of events are a little bit on down the year, so I'm trying to figure out how to bring some in between that. And I was thinking about doing one of the Cincinnati events, you know. I've mm That'd be cool. That would be cool. That'd be a I've never done it, you know, I don't even know never even been in that part. I well I've driven through it to go to Urcha of course, but Other than that, I've um

That's that's my boy Leroy, right? Yeah. Hell yeah. DJ Leroy. And I'm also going to uh I got con or actually didn't. I the the Chopper Fest in Texas. Uh they they were so kind dude. They the original it was originally dated for the weekend of my wife's birthday. And I was like, Oh man, I I really want to go but I can't do it that weekend. And then, you know, said uh I I got a little pushing from uh Uncle Doug Darby, you know, the abuser. Um

He's like, oh, you know, you should really come. You're gonna have three of your top guys here. You know, he always gives the privilege. And plus you get to see me. And I'm like, oh Doug, that's you're you're bringing it on, man. And then um He went and talked to them and got it to push it back one week, one more week. Definitely uh yeah, I'm definitely going to chop her fish. Now you're locked again. Going to dude, I am blocked, dude. So when is this? Child Professors When?

And uh it's like two weeks after Helia. Two weeks after Helia. Yeah. September seventh it's it's the second it's like the third weekend of September. Are you doing Heli X too or no? Oh yeah. Okay, go ahead. There there's three there it used to be like five staples, but as you get older you you gotta reduce that, right? So it's definitely Helia. Definitely Urcha and definitely Orlando. Those are three that no matter what I'm going to Yeah.

Awesome. And I already did Puerto Rico this year, so I am I'm I'm in good standing so far with my sponsors, but I g I gotta get uh a few more in there just'cause for good measure. Maybe the f the far pole, maybe I go there too. Oh yeah, that'd be nice. RCHO's always a blast. It is always a blast, man. And dude, we gotta give it up to our boy Jay. He's engaged. Yeah, yeah, it's gotten engaged. Yes. Who would have thought that? Oh I knew That's good for him, though, man. I mean,

I do a little for a while. He showed me the ring too like a while ago. Oh that's awesome. Brian's got to be. Yeah. If you don't know hospitality into you to show up to RCHO. Like the best, just the very, very best. Yeah, so that's it for me man. Hopefully by t time this comes out I've finished putting the three blades together and I will start finishing up putting the wraith together as well. Alright. Well, Steve, you want to go next or should I? I could go next, but Go for it.

Yeah. So what have I been up to? So uh flying wise I've I've kind of been doing my thing, flying here and there. Um my one day a week kind of deal. Um Last weekend I didn't get a chance to fly. I were I was out with the family, did a I've been doing some work on the camper recently and Uh this past weekend I had uh for Easter we went on a little camping trip, so I just got back from that. And everything went well with my modifications and nothing blew up.

Yeah, you're mentioning you put all the solar panel stuff and whatnot. Yeah, and the batteries and everything and everything went well, so that's good. So it's ready for spring flowing. Um It's ready for swing flame but I I'm kinda half thinking I wanna get a new camper ready. But anyways, I I'm not gonna go into I'm not gonna go into that because I don't know. Oh you just go and spend all that money on I know.

It's funny you say that. I went to go see Ernie uh last f uh was it? Yeah. Last Friday to get some blood uh to get some blood work and kinda You know, get me all tuned up for the rest of the year, you know. Yeah. Hit me hit me with that good TRT testosterone shit, you know. Testosterone. Why? And he's telling me he has he has some he has something like the What are the guys from like up uh up New York, upstate New York? I forgot Diamantes. Yeah, something like the Diamantes. โอเค five, seven,

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's like I put twenty thousand miles on it this year. I think it I think it's time I get another one. Nice. Sheesh, it must be nice. I don't know if I'm gonna sell the one I got, but I I just want another one. I mean he's like he got money like that I see a car I went and hung out with him at his place. Mm-hmm. He maybe had like two or three minutes to talk to it. It was one customer after the other. He's We're going to do it.

Killing it man, I'm super happy for him. He's such a good man. He's such a blast to talk to. Yeah, it looks like he's kinda coming back a little, no? It's He shows up he show he shows up when Augie comes to town. So if Augie comes again, maybe he'll show up then because I invite him all the time.

I even tried to get him to go to Seabring with me and he's like, Oh dude, we'll take the RB. I'm like, bro, I'm trying to go there and come back the same day. This isn't a this isn't let's hang out there for the whole time, but yeah.

But yeah. All right. Uh let me see, what else? So yeah, we'll see. I don't know about the camera, we'll see. I mean I I have made a call See what the people will give me for my camper and then we'll go from there. But I I I probably will keep it for another year. I don't know. But we'll see. Anyways, flying wise, uh I've been doing my thing, just flying. And uh I've been trying some new maneuvers and the the f Main two maneuvers I've been trying are like over speeds.

I like the way they sound. I feel like I'm gonna blow up my heli doing it, but whatever. All my helicopters are getting old. It's time for a refresh anyways. So let's go for it. Um that and and it's, you know, I don't even know what to call it. It's it's like uh I don't know. When I do a tail end, the maneuver becomes a half pure flip one way and a half pure flip other, so like a half pure flip

uh left rudder and then a half pure flip right rudder out. But when I do it nose in, it it's it's different. It's the same m maneuver where like I'm doing a half pure Um, but I'm not doing a pure, I'm doing this other maneuver. I don't know. It's so hard to describe. I can like show it, but I can't really describe it um over a podcast. But I've been working on those two maneuvers.

Um, every time I get a chance to go fly and, you know, between not every flight, but I'll try to practice those, trying to get those down and get those locked in a little bit better. Um, so that's kinda one thing I've been trying to work on this year. Uh what else? Uh my custom Ill Goblin Payuma kit that I ordered is it's getting closer. I was getting some proofs. I have like three canopy kits coming for this thing, so like there's a lot of there's a lot of proof.

So one by one they're kinda going through it and building it up. So so I've seen the second of the two out of the three and um hopefully get the third one done. They'll get the third one done soon. Cool. I doubt it'll get here before spring flang. I'm like I'm like hoping it does, but then like

I don't know. I don't want to come like the day before or some sh you know, some crap like that and then like you know, me rushing the building and have like a shitty maiden or something, you know. Like I don't want to rush it so like I wanna like record a a build video and all that stuff with this so so I'll probably take my time regardless whenever it comes. So um but yeah, that's getting closer. I'm getting

I don't know, I'm getting excited, it's getting it's looking good. Can't wait to get it. Um, but beyond that, you know, putting some orders in, doing my my due diligence as a as a R C hobbyist and and spending money in the hobby to support uh R C Japan this time with some gold plugs and some c O S parts that I needed. So yeah, I got that hopefully coming soon. I I really dislike the R C Japan ordering method. I I understand the process but I I I don't know, that's annoying. In this day and a

It's it is convoluted. And them having to send you back to tell you how much the ship is gonna cost you, do they still Yeah, yeah, they still do that. Yeah. Dude, they're the they are the cheapest by far. It's cheapest. To be honest, it's probably not as cheap anymore because Of just the way currency exchange works and as well as like the TARA stuff.

You know, I feel like I feel like it's not you're not getting as much of a deal as it used to be. It used to be, you know, get a motor for you know, f forty percent of what you would buy it in the in the States, you know, which is crazy. Yeah, but now it's like I feel like that same motor that used to cost forty percent of what it costs here, now it costs like sixty five percent of what it costs, you know. Still cheaper but just not as much. So

But um but yeah, yeah, I got those parts hopefully coming soon. And yeah, I think that's really about it for me. I'm sure I'm forgetting things but Yeah. That's all right. Yep. All right. What about you Darren?

I actually have been doing a few things. So we'll see if we can get this in Reasonable chronological order. So I mentioned in the last podcast that I was heading down to Houston, Texas. Yes. And I was going to bring a helicopter with me. And I did, and I got to hang out with Carrie Snyder for a day. What an awesome guy. He's just one of those kind of guys that you just want to hang out with regularly. Uh got to meet his new his new what do you call it, a wing lady, his pup? Alba.

His little dog. And uh yeah, it was man, it was a little bit windy of a day, but I think I still got in like six or seven flights, something like that. And had a really good day. The next day I tried uh ended up hanging out with Eric Bircham, one of our regular listeners. He's been on our guest on our show a few times too. And unfortunately that day it was really windy. It was thirty mile an hour winds. Oh.

We're both going, yeah, we could fly in this, but it's not as fun. Just not much fun in that kind of wind. So we went shooting in instead. Did some pew pew. ナイス And uh yeah, I uh it was kind of fun. I you know, here in Canada our gun laws are stupid strict. Yeah. And handguns are almost illegal up here in Canada now. And So Eric brought out a bunch of handguns and did a bunch of shooting, so it was a lot of fun. Yeah.

Yeah, and other than that, the trip went really well. The flight back home was awful. Of course. So, yeah. Oh well, I waited well over three and a half or sorry, well over three hours in the lineup for security. And I was one of During that whole DHS like Yeah, and of course to make matters even more so, I as far as I know, Houston Airport was also undergoing some renovations.

Which means that part of the tur bunch of the terminals were shut down, so everybody was congregated into fewer terminals for security part stuff. And then of course it was also spring break, yeah too. So there was an extra inflow of passengers. By the time I got through security that lineup was I think five or six hours long. And uh yeah, it was it was a nightmare. I almost missed my flight. I got on the plane less than five minutes before they closed the door. Yeah.

So but I made it and it all came everything came back safely, helicopter arrived safely and all that stuff. So

I've been working on my little indoor scale heli. I think it's so it's not hundred percent finished. I need to put glass in there and paint it. But other than that, it's ready for flying. And uh yeah, looking forward to actually getting that tested here in the at indoor here s pretty soon. Although we're almost finished our indoor for the season, but anyways. And then... Batteries. Yeah, you guys all know how much I've been talking about batteries over Yes. Uh pretty much last year.

Well, I think I may have finally got my batteries solved. So those Z batteries have been working really well on the logo and the logo is flying awesome right now. And then for the specter. Frank isn't gonna be super happy. Well, actually neither one of you guys are gonna be super happy'cause I didn't buy Mania X. But I did buy some SMC batteries.

Yes, yes. We need to have the other opinion, the other side. We can't all just be team maniacs here or can't all be team XL or all be team, you know, whatever. It's okay. Can you imagine how great it would be if that was it, you know? That would be awful. No it'd be so boring it'd be an echo chamber in here. That would sound like one of the other podcasts where everybody Exactly. Oh did I say that out loud? Oops. Holy shit. Enough for Darren. I'm Roman Darren, that's amazing. Great comment.

Fucking break. Oh man. So anyways, yes, uh a buddy of mine needed to buy some batteries and he was gonna go and buy some SMC batteries. So me and actually a couple other guys we all got in and we shared the shipping and duty costs and all that kind of a thing, so it made it a lot more affordable than two. And so I got a couple of uh SMC forty four hundreds, six S forty four hundred.

So and uh I f went and cycled them. I actually got them last Saturday. I put a bunch of cycles on'em during uh on Sun Sunday, Saturday night and Sunday. And I had Monday off for Easter. So I went and actually maiden them on Monday and put a whole whack of flights on them and they are testing out awesome. No low voltage alarms, lots of power. They're working really good, so I'm happy. So I think

I think I don't want to speak too soon, but I think my I actually have two helicopters with really good flying batteries for both helicopters. So I'm actually kind of looking forward to doing a bunch of Yeah. Knockwood, no uh no problems. Other than dumb thumb crashes. So yeah. Just don't put him in the lake. Hellies are flying there. Yeah. Keep them out of the moat. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So, yeah, and that's

Probably the main part for me is it's you know, is I'm actually quite quite excited to finally have some decent batteries flying for the helicopters again. So and uh so yes, I have been doing some flying and Now everything seems to be flying really well. Uh it uh yeah, I've got both helis flying quite well and I'm happy with how they're going and Yeah. תודה רבה. Had to get those spiders recycled. Yeah. The IR.

You know, I took a look at the IRs on these things. You know, I was checking the IR after every time I did a cycle. I haven't I was gonna go and actually check the IRs now again after I did put my first flights on them. I think I've got about I think I have four flights on those packs now on the SMC batteries. And I was actually going to go through and check the IRs again yet. I haven't had a chance to do that yet. But uh the these SMC batteries anyways the IRs were far Or

are lower than any of the other packs that I've been trying out. So That was really encouraging right off the bat and sure enough, you know, they had good power and I'm not a hard smack guy, like I you know, I I'm not pushing the helicopter that hard. I'm a relatively lower you know, I'm flying the Spectre at eighteen hundred RPM. So I'm not a super high head speed guy either. And those batteries came down nice and cool too. Like they were barely noticed any warmth.

And so it was uh yeah, they f were I was really happy with how they flew. So yeah.

Awesome. Alright. So let's get into that main topic. I'm not really sure what we're talking about. So sprung of of spring or spring has sprung, right? Ring has front. Yeah, for for most For some of you. Yeah, for most of us here down in a normal part of the Americas, you know. Ha ha ha. I like how you put that. Ha ha. Of the Americas. Yeah. You know, the southern part of the North Americas at least.

But uh yeah. You know, what what what are we talking about here? Getting ready for fun fly season? Getting ready for flying? Yeah, let's do it. Thawing out. I know I know how the air is probably still f frozen up there. You know? Probably, I don't know. Yeah. That's uh probably. You know. Probably. I don't even have a whole lot of fun flies to get ready for this year, unfortunately. The both the the all of the ones in British Columbia here, none of them as far as I know have.

in the US you gotta come over the border and hang out. So the only one that I will probably be able to do Well, the one I'm pretty much for sure able to do is Snowholmish in August and uh W I to be honest, I'm undecided. I do I I can confirm I definitely am not gonna be able to make Heli X this year again. That one I'm definitely not gonna be able to. I didn't actually think about Urcha. I'm kind of wondering about the fall pull. You haven't been to our CHO, right?

I've not been to RCHO yet. That's why I'm kind of thinking maybe to Fallpole. So and what I might be able to do Is so there's no direct flight to Oh where did the the guy say to go fly to? What was the closest airport? Raleigh. Raleigh, yeah. I there's no direct flight from Vancouver to Raleigh. But I did find that there's a direct flight from Seattle to Raleigh. How far is Seattle driving? It's about a three hour drive. Three to the airport, about three and a half hours.

Not including crossing the border. So you know that's not too bad. So I might we'll see. It's something I'm thinking about right now. I I'm not gonna say yes or no, but it is something I'm thinking about. Um yeah. But anyways. What do you guys do? Are you looking forward to spring for the season then for flying? I know Frank's been already mentioning all the fun flies he's planning on going to. Uh Yeah, Frank. So what do you do to get ready for the season?

Yeah, I don't really there's really no season for me. I'm consistent all year around. There's there's cold. And rainy. Those are my four seasons. So I fly all year long. But I do find that I gotta do some main some helicopters so I gotta start checking some tailbelt. Um, you know, maybe redo some uh check the one ways. See if there if there if there's any wear and tear on on those. Um You know what's a good way to check one ways?

You turn the helicopter, invert it, and you punch out, inverted all the way up in the sky and just keep it inverted. Keep that negative when you flip it over it as you're coming down screaming down, then you level off and then it makes this noise and then you can test your one way right there. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Make sure you level off. And you know. But the noise it makes, if you get to really wind up, that's the that's the way to really test your one way. That's the ultimate test.

Nice. So, yes. I have to remember that. No, but you gotta do some you gotta do some over speeds. They're fun. They're so scary too as they're coming down the ground. You're like when do I pull out? What do I pull out? You know. Oh my my favorite over speed, I'll actually come down inverted low co climb way up and then come down upright. And it just I hit it right, seem to hit it right every time doing that, and it just gets this nice woo.

Yeah. You could even do it when you're coming doing big loops. And when you're coming out of it, you can overspeed that back end. Yeah. I can't see the doom as well when I do it that way. I can do'em, just not as well. Yeah, they just wind up a little like Yeah. No, no. That those are the ones I want to learn how to do. Yeah. The one that that made the whole freaking helicopter shake?

Just Well it just sounds like it's gonna blow up it just you know it gets so high pitched. You know, it's like Wha it screams, you know. Start hearing the tail chatter. Yeah.

But anyways, uh yeah. What else do you guys do to get ready? Like, you know, you you don't you say you don't have an off season. So I guess you just l look at your helies and say, It's time, time time for maintenance. Yeah, this time of the year's maintenance, you know. Yeah. It's kinda rainy so I don't get to go fly as much. But yeah, it's uh

Yeah. I mean I'm kinda in the same boat too. I fly year round, so like wintertime even though it's cold I'll still fly. And one thing I've uh Done is like basically just kinda What do you call it? C you know, my free f my pre flight checks I'll do my pre flight checks and I'll usually notice like, oh well this

Links are worn out or this belt looks pretty shoddy or something looks pretty nasty here or doesn't look right or why do I have this head plate out? Dik dink dink d you know, you're like, Okay, that needs to be tightened up so So usually w that's when I'll start doing some maintenance on it, right? Like So here's a question. Thanks.

question. If you it you know, what we would what you guys might be willing to call winter, what we actually have winter, but you know what you guys might want to call winter. Do you ever actually just pull a heli out of service and just pull it apart to tear it down and take a look at it then just to do some maintenance just to see how well it's doing? Ooh no, never. They don't last me out. Yeah, same here. I used to.

But I don't anymore. Mostly because the same reason they don't last long enough. I mean, you know, some uh it depends on my helies, but some helies do last as long, yeah, you know, they last and I don't crash'em, but like Unless I notice a problem?

Why bother? Like you know, you take something apart and like to me at that point you're looking for a problem and sure it might be nice to surface a problem that could be a bigger problem later on, early on, like an early detection of it, but You know, I think like if you do your pre flight checks you know, pretty regularly or like just if you know your model pretty well.

You'll kinda notice when things don't sound right or they don't feel right or you know, you're walking into the to the flight line and if something feels weird or wrong, you know, it doesn't feel right, you can kinda feel it. I don't know. You know, I think one of the reasons why I used to do it Was because especially when I did live in lived in areas where there was a lot more snow than I get now.

It was kind of in some ways a little bit of my connection still with the hobby then because since I knew I couldn't fly'cause it was too cold and windy it in the wintertime. Wrenching. So it was yeah, I f I figured if I take one heli out of service and do some wrenching on it, just pull it apart, take a look at everything, check all the bearings and all that kind of thing. In some ways it was a little bit of a still having a connection with the hobby, even though I couldn't fly.

And uh and I would only ever pull one heli out of service for that, right? That way I could still if there was a uh a day when I could still fly, then I could still go and fly. I never actually pulled ev all of'em out of service. But yeah, I used to do that. I don't really do that anymore and now I'm pretty much kind of the same as you guys.

But uh yeah, that was one of the things I used to do. Especially when, you know, I know some of the guys out in other parts of Canada where it really does get a lot colder than than I do and a lot or have. and whatnot, they will do that kind of thing still. Just but and I think that's one of the reasons why. It's just so they can have still a bit of a connection with the hobby. And that way then too, they know that the heli's in perfect shape for when the snow is gone.

And spring has come, then you know, time to start beating on it. Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean there's definitely some, you know A good habit to do maintenance on your helicopters, right? Like I'm not saying everyone to do what I do or what Frank does. You know. Your mileage may your mile yeah, or you, your you know, your mileage may differ. Um But at the end of the day, I think if you're flying a model enough,

things that are gonna go wrong you'll notice'em, you know. You should notice them. You should do your pre flight checks and things like that and and try to do your due diligence due diligence at least on that front. So that way you don't have to do the breakdown maintenance, you know? But then do you ever find two you're flying it so often that you almost get used to some of the weird bobbles and you don't really notice them because you gotten used to them and you just keep flying it? Um

It doesn't even bother you anymore. Kind of that that tail does a l bit of a kick on a on a on a funnel. Yeah. And it never used to be a little bit more. Ja. Or you get that extra little quick little head bob on on on there that you're you know, from your damper's wearing out and you but you're just like, Oh, whatever, kiss keep flying, you don't even really pay attention.

Yeah, today. Like little head bobbles, I don't I don't bother with it. Um You'll never get the the helicopter will never even if it's perfectly flying, it will never stay perfectly flying because like you're saying, over time things will wear. So um you know, unless you wanna throw money at it, throwing like, oh, the dampeners are like a little bit off now so I gotta replace them and to make it back to perfect again. Sure, if you wanna throw money at it like that, that's fine.

For me, I'm just gonna f I I my purpose of these helicopters is to fly as much as I can. And, you know... having helys in downtime is not a good thing in my opinion because it makes it I don't know how to describe it I guess. It's Having extra helicopters makes it so they can fly the other ones harder.'Cause you know you have the extras. Ha ha.

But now when those extra helities are no longer flying then you don't really have'em, so you kinda like you're I don't know, for me I I'm I tend to be a little more reserved sometimes. So, I don't know. It all depends, I guess, on the person.

Uh let's see. But one of the things I do Yeah, I did say do. Do. Do do Is to uh it's to order some parts and things that I know I'm gonna need for the for the season. So especially on a nitro front. Um Oh. Okay. You know. Uh nitro is it's a a living breathing engine and and, you know, i it sometimes gets a a bad diet of, you know, some little crap in the fuel and my glow plug goes bad and I gotta order another glow plug and, you know.

things wear and I you know, needles turn too lean and you know, the engine sounds like it's uh screaming for something and it's probably oil and fuel and uh and you know, things get worn now and you gotta replace things, you know, so It's nice to put in an R C Japan order or or get it from the States, you know. You can get your order from May Maine and other hobby shops that that carry OS parts and nitro. What kind of parts do you usually order then? Bearings and sleeve and piston or what?

Yeah, it depends what I need. Like right now I do have a stock of bearings and pistons and sleeves and things like that, so it was just really odd and a little odd and end thing. So I ordered a whole bunch of glow plugs, like, I don't know. I think like eight eight number eights and I think six number NF4s just have some NF4s as well.

Um I ordered a couple of little O rings for needles and as well as the I don't know what they're called, but it's a needle It's a little clicky thing that goes on the needle so that way it clicks. Oh okay. Yeah, it's like a little bit Guard or whatever it's called.

You turn the needle and it clicks on that thing, well, click click click click click. Yeah. And that also holds the needle from moving when you know you're flying. So, um, you know, knowing your model is very good because when you're flying your model and you're like, Why is it sound weird?

Ooh, it's starting to sound like Ooh, where's the smoke? Ooh, I need to land this thing. You know, when things like that happen you're like, why does it why is the height needle only a quarter turn out? What the hell? How did it turn in so much? You know, when vibrations happen and and those little clicky things don't really hold the needle very well. It c you know. And suddenly that annoying nitro sound just stops.

Yeah. Well and it doesn't sound well, I'm glad it didn't stop, but it did get you know, it just started getting higher pitched and it's like, hmm that doesn't sound right. But um, but yeah. It's uh just little parts and stuff like that I I I'll order if I need it. Um, stocking up if you need rods or pistons and sleeves and things like that. But I'm pretty good with with my current stock of it. And um What else do you guys think?

That's actually a good idea too to go and stock up on a bunch of parts, you know, even not just for nitros, but even you know, uh of a a few good things for that we commonly replaced on our helicopters because you never know when you do crash, you might end up having to go wait for parts and whatnot. And if you can Have some spare parts and restock of your spare spares that you know you normally use, then that's always a good thing to have too, right?

Yeah. I have a whole shelf of spares for for my hellies and You know, it's great, it's great. You crash and you're like, Oh great, I got this part, I got that part, and then you're like, I don't have this, I don't have that, I don't have this, I still gotta order this, I still gotta order that. So I always try to order two of everything if I can. Yeah. So But yeah, ordering spare parts, that's definitely a nice thing to have. Um

You know, I I am on the camp of having more helies than parts. You know, I know there are some pilots out there that'll have two helicopters and like a boatload of parts and they bring it to the front fly and they're like You know, to fly helicopters and they'll crash it and fly another one and they'll wrench on the first one the next day and get that one flying and they'll crash the other one and they'll wrench on that one, you know. Well I'm like I have seven helicopters.

I'm just gonna put that one away, grab another one, hopefully I don't crash this one. If I do, put this one away and grab another one. You know, so I'm I feel like I d I don't like I don't do the wrenching it and you know, so I don't usually pre order a lot of parts.

Just uh, you know, wearables and like glow plugs and things like that obviously. Fuel's another thing. I've been uh you know, I put in my little uh RCHO fuel order recently, get another uh I think I did four four gallons to do like a case worth. Um a VP thirty from them, so hopefully I can have Jay bring that up to Spring Fling for me and uh yeah, stock up on some of that a good VP nitro fuel. Cool.

I would agree with bringing lots of helies too. I usually try to bring as many'cause wrenching at a fun fly is Yeah. Not really what you want to do. You're there to fly, you're not there to wrench. You know, and it's sometimes cool, you know, like at RCHO we'll like they'll they'll swarm on a helicopter and get this helicopter fixed for someone and you know, and and get it flying and you know and things like that, which is cool. It's very uh You know, the community aspect is great for it, but

But you know, like if you're like, Oh it crashed and you gotta sit in your corner or sit in your camper and you're fixing your helicopter and it's kinda taking you away from the event at that point, then put it away, go hang out, pull out another helicopter, go fly. You know, there's there's plenty of you know I mean I I go to one event a month basically, so like there's three weeks between the next event that I could

I could take my time, wrench on that Halese that I crashed, make sure I fix'em right. Because I'm it's most likely I'm gonna order parts and be like and start fixing and be like, Fuck, I need this part, I need that part, so I gotta put another order. And then like, oh crap, I need this part and that part, I'll put another order. Oh, I know.

So it'll be like two, three orders before the Heli is done, but then that's that two, three weeks so you don't put all those two three orders in and get'em, you know. Would I do that? You know. I'm sure, you know Uh, UPS or FedEx love that I do that, you know,'cause they're getting they're getting the sh the shipping every time.

You know, I've got my Goose Guy S one sitting here. I haven't flown it in months, and that's simply because the last time I ordered parts, I forgot to order the tailblades. And that's all I need for it is just the tailblades. Uh but I have nothing else I need to place an order from from that deal. Order ten sets of tail blades. Oh, I don't wanna go and order a make you know, order a bunch of tail blades just for one order. I wanna have more on the order, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I hate that when you have to make multiple orders for the same helicopter, same crash. You wanna hear something that uh I guess it's uh That's an added open but it's like it's a lesson learned this past weekend I had. Ooh, story time. Yeah, a little story time. So, you know, I went on this camping trip and I'm like, Okay, you know, I'm I'm out on the Outer Banks in North Carolina and I'm like

I'm gonna bring my little OMP M two, you know, my M two V three Pro. I'm gonna fly that somewhere in the campground or I'll fly it somewhere, you know, on the shore or the beach or something. I'll figure it out, I'm gonna fly it. And so I brought it, you know, uh well, rewind a little. I fixed it from RCHO's Chill Out when I you know, crashed it or got it sliced up into combat. So I finally got it fixed. And

This is the the l you know, and I'll I'll get to the lesson but I bring it to the Outer Banks and I'm like, Okay, I'm all ready to go. It's Saturday morning, you know. I I'm like I'm all stoked up. I got my meta glasses on. I'm gonna record this thing I'm like, alright. And and the ground then you know, it's a it's a cappy ground so like it's like

Uh gravel, you know, like a gravel lot. And I'm like taking off a gravel and I'm like, ah, whatever. And I start spooling up and it's like and and I it does a little 180 or 360 and I'm like, oh crap. I'm like, damn, I didn't atta you know I think I had the tail motor, you know wrong polarity so like it's spinning the wrong way, so I have to switch two wires.

I switch two wires and then I'm like, Okay, cool, I start f I take off, I'm like, Okay cool, it takes off and and all I hear is like a click click click cli clicking noise and I'm like, What the fuck is that clicking noise? And like the tail's all kinda like wobbly or whatever and I'm like, Alright, whatever, I'll land. And I and I land and I look at it and I'm like, Oh, what the hell? The tailblades are bent. Oh no, the tailblades aren't bent. They're cracked.

So the o the O M P the way that the tailblades go in is it's like it has like the blade and then there's two holes in the base that you screw the two screws in there. And it cracked right between the two screws, so like The tailblades were held on, but there were one screw and one screw, so they kinda just like tilted whatever direction. They kind of flopped around.

Yeah. Lesson learned here's the lesson for all you girls and boys is uh if you fix a helicopter and you plan on flying it at a place Lesson one is to fly it at home to make sure you don't have some wiring fucked up or something backwards and make sure you test flights so you know that when you go out there

and fly it at the, you know, place you want to fly it at this vacation, this family vacation, you're ready to go and this doesn't happen. And then lesson two, second lesson that I learned is carry some spit apart. I didn't carry any parts. I just carried the helicopter and my V controller. I'm like, that's all I need. I got three batteries and my V control. I'll bust out three flights. It'll be epic. And then I'll put that shit away and no one would be the wiser.

Um no, no, none of that happened because I broke the tailblades and what could have been like a five second fix with just putting a new set of tailblades and be on my way I don't have any extra tailblaze because I don't bring any parts with me. Oh Because I don't bring parts. I bring Heli blah blah blah. So Yeah. That sucks. ولد ولد ولد ولد ولد ولد ولد

I'm like damn I had this little spot between the trees, I'm like, fuck, I might do some hurricanes between the trees. I don't give a fuck. We delight this little helicopter. There's a little stream, like, you know, where A little bit of w like I don't know, some of the sound or whatever. Some water coming down. I'm like, ooh, I could probably do a little over the water too. Like uh nope, nothing happened because I had the tail motor backwards and I cracked my tailblades and that was it.

Oh that sucks. Yeah. I don't know. I guess Javier has a worse story than that, but I'll let him say that when he Yeah, we'll wait until he gets a chance to come on.

Alright, so what else? What else do you guys get ready for the flying season? I know I'm getting my camper ready. Well I was gonna say, what other non heli stuff? Like do you check the generator? Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. I d I haven't done that in years. Yeah. Yeah. My generator changes its own oil, so Yeah, it cycles it itself, right? Exactly.

I I you know what I have done on my generator, the one that I I bring to like the feel for like my battery charging, um it's a little Ryobi, twenty three hundred watt or whatever, eighteen hundred watt. Um The carbs are dirty and I was like I'm gonna look for a carb cleaning kit. I couldn't find a carb cleaning kit, but I found a whole carb. So I just replaced the whole carb. And it went from like that like the you know, oscillating like You know, idle to being freaking perfectly smooth.

Starting the film again, all that stuff. Like it worked everything worked perfect. I was like, Wow. I pulled this old carbon out, put a new one on there and like I didn't do any adjustments. I just slapped it back together the way I took it apart. And uh yeah. Shit w runs qu perfectly. Starts up in like

Uh I mean not often. More recently I've been doing because I've been trying to get more Like more twelve S like you know, I only have a couple twelve S packs, so I've been trying to get more like seven hundred flights in so like I'll bring the charger to like You know, cycle my batteries twice, you know, once once I charge at home and then once at the field I'll charge to get like two cycles out of each of'em.

Um, so I've been bringing my generator more often nowadays and that's kind of why I finally did that, you know. maintenance on that to to get it to run properly. And um yeah, it wasn't that bag big of a deal. So yeah, I'll send you a link for it. It's not you know, I don't know if you have the same model or not, but like I just I got I think I have the I have the twenty three twenty three hundred watt. Bye.

The Ryobi? Yeah. Yeah. So that uses the same like home light, whatever. If you go to Amazon and just do Ryobi 2300 watts. replacement carb kit, it'll come up. Um I just got whatever one on Prime that had that looked like it had all the bits and pieces. And you don't use all the tubes and stuff. You can replace them if you want, but like I just kept the stock tubes just put The carbon nerve, the air filter, and called it done, you know?

'Cause I use my generator quite a bit still because I only really have one pack for each helicopter and I've kind of gotten lazy and haven't charged at home in a long time, in years actually. So I just the first thing I do is set up the generator and start charging pack.

Yeah. And so I I use the generator pretty much every single weekend, but I probably could use a bit of a maintenance on the carburetor and All that kind of stuff too, because I mean up here in Canada there's no such thing as ethanol free fuel with all fuel no matter what. All the time. Do you use fuel stabilizer at the very least? I do not know because I like I say I'm running it almost every weekend. So I don't know if it would really help or not. I don't know because I'm using it so often.

We still help. How many times am I refueling? Probably every other weekend, or almost every other time I go to the field. Yeah, you'll be fine. So Ciebie, ciebie, ciebie, ciebie, ciebie. And that's just it. I am moving fuel through it. Uh a fair amount. And that's why, you know, the longest that generator sits is usually usually about two weeks at the most, usually. that it'll sit not doing Even during your ten months of winter? Yep.

Yeah. I usually still, even in the wintertime, you know you know, rain was Frank was saying one drop of rain he sto and he'll he'll stop flying. I'll go out to the fr out to the field on a rainy day and just wait till There's a break in the rain and go fly for a few you know, get a click flight flight in between the rains. I've done that

Yeah, I've done that quite a bit quite m quite often. And uh sometimes that's the only way I can fly in the wintertime. So It kinda sucks though because like It does.

Eight out of ten times it'll stop, you get out there, you start flying and it'll start back up you're like, fuck, I guess I'll just f finish the flight and then you come back and like Shaking off your V control, you know. Yep. Yeah. On those days it doesn't usually rain hard. It's usually a really light rain, so things don't get super wet. Yeah. Ja. Alright, let's see. What else did you guys say? Yeah.

What other things? You know, I keep thinking it might be time for me to get in a new uh little pop-up shelter too. Mine is Is a cheap Walmart one that I bought s oh man, probably almost ten years ago and it's uh it leaks a little bit and So have you guys ever tried to go and reseal those things to in order to keep them from leaking or spray anything on to try and keep them from leaking? No, I I'll probably just go and buy a replacement top. I don't know if I could buy a replacement top.

If it's like a Walmart blue one, you know, like the The cheap old ten foot, you know, one. Mine is actually a twelve by twelve. Not a ten by ten. Oh, fancy! Yeah, but if but Did you did you buy it from Walmart or did you buy it some? I think it was Walmart, yeah. I think so. Check because a lot of times the

The two I I know definitely the smaller one, they they sell replacement canopies and you just it just comes the canopy, you know, like you don't have that metal structure. So it's pretty cheap. It's like I don't know, like twenty bucks or something like that. My frame isn't in the best of shape either though. Well then then get a new one. If you have like a decent frame though, sometimes like it's good just to like, you know, get a replacement comb in top or something, you know.

My that you know the one that you know as much as I love the twelve by twelve, because I do get noticeably more shade. Uh it it also is a little bit more susceptible to wind. And I've had it flip over and catch uh like a you know, like a parachute, even in very light wind. I've had it flip over on me just because it's you know, it's bigger. It catches the wind a lot easier, right? 嗯哼 So that my frame is n I've had to Jerry rigged that frame back together numerous times already, so

Yeah. It might be time for a new one. But then what sucks is, you know, I in my opinion A lot of manufacturers put plant obsolescence into their products and I feel like The newer stuff you buy is getting cheaper and cheaper and the metal's getting cheaper and thinner and things are getting cheaper and cheaper, you know, more plastic pieces that get brittle over time in the sun.

You know, instead of making everything out of heart uh out of metal or aluminum or s some type of, you know, stronger material. Well, in that kind of a thing, do you guys actually have you bought a really actually paid for a really high end one and for a heavy duty one or have you just gotten the cheap Walmart ones too? Walmart. Hãy subscribe cho kênh La La School Để không bỏ lỡ những video hấp dẫn I I had a nice one.

And then it got messed up and then I bought cheap ones from then on because Yeah. they they don't last too long, so why spend extra money in my opinion? And what I've realized for myself is I tend to Bring him to the event and not even set him up and

Um, I'm all over the place. I'm not in one spot most of the time. So my home base, like at RCHO sure, you know, I'll set up a little get my charger set up in the in the Um, the little charging areas, the little hangout areas, you know, uh, to get a little spot there. So I don't have to set up anything. But even at like spring flame and stuff like I I'll have my camper there, I'll I'll just set up camp you know, set up my charger next to my camper and Yeah.

Yeah, I won't really need that. I'll just use a canopy if I need a canopy, like I have a electric awning type, whatever. Yeah, so you know I don't have a I don't have a a camper trailer or anything like that. All I have is set set up. So I do set it up quite often and uh it's Nice to have.

It it is. And I'm one of those guys, you know, and I'll I'll admit it, I'm one of those guys if if I don't have one and I'm like at an event I kinda need I'll be like I'll like see like who who which one of my friends got some space for me? Okay.

You mind if I set up a table right here? Just grab a corner, you know, like I don't care if I'm like not in the s shade all the time, you know, how the sun moves and you might not be in the shade all the time, but it's just yeah, just I could lay my shit down for a minute, kinda deal.

Speaking of two, you made me think of what about tables. Check those over to make sure they're in good shape still. Those take those can take a beating sometimes too. Yeah, and some of those tables don't last. I got table that's brittle as F. It just starts it's starting to fall apart. It's one of those tables you you lift the plastic part and the metal frame stays to the ground. Yes. Uh yeah. And those tables usually aren't that expensive, so they're not bad to replace those either.

No, I think you get like a sixty foot table for like thirty bucks at Walmart or something. I usually try to buy my Costco or Sam's Club. What else? I don't know. About uh so I mean, I know you just recently do this, right? Like stocking up on new batteries for the season. I got it. That's always a good thing. Bye. Right. Blades. Nitro I spoke about.

As much as we talked about, you know, it's n we bring go to a f an event to fly and not to repair. It's still I find bringing a spare set of blades to an event is always a good idea. I've had times where I've just all I did was just wreck break the blades and that's it. And main and tail, not just you know, bring both, main and tail blades.

But like yeah, I've I've broken mains when like the rest of Heli survived, especially on on goblins, they're all belted, so you know, you don't have to worry. So like, yeah. Yeah, and that stopped me from flying. That that's actually why I don't I don't think I spoke about it, but I had a little mishap with my five twenty at the chill out. So everything's fine except the the main blade broke a little. There's a little crack on it. I'm like, yeah, I don't know if I should fly this anymore.

You know, so, waiting for a new set to come in. It's just a goblin. Fly it. Yeah, that's fine. It's just a five twenty, it's tiny anyways. Exactly. It's a small helly, it's a small goblin. It doesn't matter. Yeah. It's not like I don't I have a replacement boom already and then I'm getting another one which says canop custom canopy crap and I ordered so So yeah, why don't why should just send it? Just whatever, let it blow up. Make sure you get it on video. Yeah.

Always, always. I'm trying to I'm trying to record all my flights, you know. And and post snippets from those to, you know, post on on little posts on, you know, social media and stuff these days. So

No, the other thing I was thinking of, you know, for those of you that do have RVs and whatnot, make sure those are in good shape. And even just your car and truck for getting to the field too. I mean, how many times have you heard stories of people having problems getting to a fun fly? Mm-hmm. And uh Good idea to get the brakes checked and Yeah.

And tires good and yeah, make sure all that's ready for for fun fly season and You know, it's it's right at the beginning of the year when it's still not always fliable every weekend, it's a good time to get some of that kind of stuff done when you actually still have some downtime, right? Yeah. That reminds me I gotta do an old change of the truck soon. I think we're starting to reach here though.

Yes, we are. Ha ha. And I think Frank Young like two three three times already or something, so Yeah, that's our cue. All right. So I guess uh if folks want to get in touch with you, right? We still do that? What's the best way? Facebook, hangout. You'll find me there. Send me a message. Yeah, and a facial book for sure for me too. You could try Facebook for me, but you know, I o I'm still old school, prefer email, rcellydarren at gmail.com. Email I barely checked my email. I hate that thing.

I hate it. I hate it. Yeah. My my job has changed so much, like my role my job has changed so much that like Uh I mean i I check emails for like some alerts, but beyond that I I really don't check my emails that much anymore. W my work I get s I get probably eight or ten emails a day. oh i get more than i get that and then i just Yeah. What's up? I get copied on such on so much stupid shit that I'm like why is this why am I being bothered with this? Right.

Mine actually isn't from that kind of stuff. Mine is actually from uh we have a lot of remote monitoring equipment and those remote monitoring equipment constantly sending out you know, emails to say, Hey, you gotta look at me. Like, no, I don't. But anyways. Very needy. Yep, exactly. All right then. All right. Thanks everyone. See ya later.

And there was much rejection. The battles fucking. Well fucking lights off, dude. Pimps f pimp fucking rope. Yeah, that's awesome. I'm gonna get a pimps rope and a fucking hat. That bitch's gonna be all LED the fuck out. Nah, I'm fucking gonna go Bogarko. I am going to go berserko on this shit, dude. I am preparing fuck I Oh, that is going in the blueprint. Just