Aug 2009, MD500E flight log
Aug 2009, MD500E
The MD500E was completed a few months ago, and I’ve been putting lots of flight time on it. Its just so smooth and nice to watch in the air, I get asked by spectators and pilots oftent if I’m going to take it up since they want to see it fly.
In the early flights I was having some issues with the ESC going into warning mode by cycling the power. Typically, its used to let the pilot know the batteries are nearing completion and they should land immediately. What happens is the ESC will vary the power level such that you can see the tail wag and hear the head speed oscillate by a 100 rpm or so, and its very noticeable. I was scratching my head since when I checked the batteries on landing, I usually had at least 50% remaining capacity.
I did some investigation, and realized that it was a thermal cutoff, and not a low battery condition. The temperature on the ESC was getting up over 175F about 5 minutes in the flight. To solve that problem, I took out the stock 75AMP ESC and replaced it with a 100AMP ESC, and moved it to a spot with better cooling. The temps are now in the 120F range due to the increased headroom and cooling. When I did a couple test flights with a watt meter installed in the heli, it reported back that my peak amperage load was in range of 75-80AMPs. So the upgrade was needed.
Another thing I did was reduce the head speed. It had been higher since I hadn’t changed it from when I was flying aerobatics with it in a pod and boom configuration. The slower head speed makes it that much more stable and also lowers the motor and mechanics noise quite a bit. The sound of the rotor blades is now more prominent and adds a nice scale touch to it. Another benefit to doing this is that I am less capacity and getting longer flight times.
I haven’t logged the flights, but must be in the neighborhood of 40-50 or so flights on it so far. I’m planning on pulling the mechanics out of the fuse and giving them another ‘once over’ inspection.
Nice looking heli. I saw you fly it in New York not long ago. Very smooth and scale looking in the air. Hope to see you again at VT or CT events.
Yea, I’ll be around. I’ll definitely be at the same VT event, and hope to see ya there. I also plan on the two NY events I attended last year, as well as many in MA, ME, NH and CT. I’m pretty sure I’ll be going to Joe Nall and/or IRCHA, and NEHC Phenomenon in Mansfield. You can never get enough of the flying, socializing, and flight demos