[Keyrigger]

Hi all:

Previously, I owned an MD8 all setup for F3C. Through an accident at a meet in Florida caused by the cataract in my left eye (no depth perception to speak of), I wrecked it but it was totally repairable. I chose not to pursue that direction (long and sorted story) and with my wife's blessing, got the go ahead to buy a new helicopter. I looked at the Goblin Urukay, Logo, and the Diabolo 800. I could not find an Urukay at the price level I wanted and most that were for sale were older models with lots of use. That left the Logo and the Diabolo.

The Logo was a front runner but with the lack of an up to date 800 (like the new700) model, the 800XXTreme was not in the cards. The replacement 800 is coming but so is Christmas and I needed to have my replacement up and running by last weekend and that didn't happen. However, Chuck at Peak Aircraft had a plan. I would give him 6 weeks lead time and he would have one ready for me to pick up at IRCHA 2019. Either later that day or the very next morning (it's still a foggy moment in time) he called me back with an offer that I couldn't refuse.

I picked up a slightly used (it didn't even have any dust on it) and according to the fellow that delivered it from Chuck, only had a very few minutes of flying done on it. I have set up many helicopters over the past 12 years and I didn't realize something about this helicopter until after I did my build in it and put it in the air. When I was setting up the gyro, not one single arm needed ANY adjustment for zero pitch. That included the tail rotor. It only needed to have the endpoints expanded to get full pitch travel. When I put the throttle stick at mid way, the pitch was zero on my Soko pitch gauge.

Who knew?

It came straight up in 28 to 33kmh winds this afternoon at Burlington and aside from the tilt to the wind, hovered like it was anchored in place. I have flown my MD8 fast and it boogied really nice but this one is a formula 1 racer in disguise. It will take a lot of getting used to and I am really looking forward to the challenge since I can now see it properly. I didn't take any pictures during the final setup but the specs are:

Motor - Quantum 4250 500kv 16t pinion
ESC - Castle 160HV with fan
Cyclic - MKS BL950
Tail - MKS BL980
BEC - Western Robotics Super BEC Pro
Gyro - iKON2 w/2 DSMX Spektrum Sats
Telemetry - TM1000 and Castle Spectrum Telemetry Link
Main Blades - Rotor Tech 760 3D for Competition, Rotor Tech 810 for big air.
Tail - Rotor Tech 105

Currently, there are some XBlades 807 mains and NHP tails that were on the helicopter when I took possession of it but will be coming off once the RT 105s get in. Here are some pictures of it as it sits now. Take care.

Don