Freedom Flight Kit

[Raleway]

We have built the FF chinook copters but as others have stated, they are very fragile. So we decided to build a holding rig to make loading the motors easier. We used pictures from Dave's instructions to build a rig similar to his. (He didn't provide any dimensions for a rig, which is understandable considering how busy he is) I have put together a two page powerpoint showing all the dimensions we have used, in case anyone is interested. It turned out really nice, and hopefully testing later today will go more smoothly.

Yes, it would be very helpful to us if you could send a link to those blueprints here.

Seconded

[retired1]

I have not got my chopper kit yet so I am not familiar with the loading. Are you winding on the chopper or winding on a stooge/torque meter and transferring the band?
I would like the fixture link when you can.

[wx4caster]

Retired,

We are winding off the copter rig, then transferring the motor to the copter. At least that is how we are doing it now. We will see how testing goes.

[wx4caster]

We have built the FF chinook copters but as others have stated, they are very fragile. So we decided to build a holding rig to make loading the motors easier. We used pictures from Dave's instructions to build a rig similar to his. (He didn't provide any dimensions for a rig, which is understandable considering how busy he is) I have put together a two page powerpoint showing all the dimensions we have used, in case anyone is interested. It turned out really nice, and hopefully testing later today will go more smoothly.

Yes, it would be very helpful to us if you could send a link to those blueprints here.

Seconded

Okay here ya go. Here is the link to the FF chinook holding rig that we built off of Dave's original design. I sent a copy to Dave, and he loved it, and it has his blessing. I hope this helps.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f6ceox9swjhmd ... 2.pdf?dl=0

[Nano1llus10n]

Yes, it would be very helpful to us if you could send a link to those blueprints here.

Seconded

Okay here ya go. Here is the link to the FF chinook holding rig that we built off of Dave's original design. I sent a copy to Dave, and he loved it, and it has his blessing. I hope this helps.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f6ceox9swjhmd ... 2.pdf?dl=0

Thank you so much for this! This loading dock will definitely help with assembly during competition.

[sciencegirl03]

Finished building FF chinook. The kit is very good and instructions are detailed, but helicopter definitely needs to be handled delicately.

We noticed that the helicopter flips over and flies with the rotors on top. This has happened twice for us. What am I doing wrong?
Could our blades be flipped? The curved up surface of our blades is pointed up (towards the Balsa disc). We think they are aligned correctly.

Any help is appreciated.

[Raleway]

Finished building FF chinook. The kit is very good and instructions are detailed, but helicopter definitely needs to be handled delicately.

We noticed that the helicopter flips over and flies with the rotors on top. This has happened twice for us. What am I doing wrong?
Could our blades be flipped? The curved up surface of our blades is pointed up (towards the Balsa disc). We think they are aligned correctly.

Any help is appreciated.

Does your helicopter flip back around ever? Does it go up straight and come down straight? Flipping over should be quite difficult given the precautions Dave has put in trying to stabilize the heli. Maybe your weighting is not proper? I haven't seen teams with this issue but most likely it's misdistribution of weight and/or lift to cause it to flip. Best thing to probably do is to run mini-tests of less winds and increase and increase until you find the problem and see what caused it. Best of luck!

[sciencegirl03]

This is what happened: We launched the helicopter with the rotor side down, it went down, started flipping, bumped into something, flipped over and then went straight up. We only had around 40 winds(with a 15:1 winder) so didn't fly for long, but looked good. Straight up and then down.

The other time, It went straight down when launched with rotors side down, but when we launched it rotors side up, it flew straight up. Again, there were around 40 winds. We will experiment with more winds soon. It is my first year doing this.

Could be the weight distribution. I did have to glue some broken parts. Will build a second one soon.

[jander14indoor]

I think they are meant to fly rotor side up? Making it stable rotor side down would be a PAIN to say it mildly.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[Unome]

This is what happened: We launched the helicopter with the rotor side down, it went down, started flipping, bumped into something, flipped over and then went straight up. We only had around 40 winds(with a 15:1 winder) so didn't fly for long, but looked good. Straight up and then down.

The other time, It went straight down when launched with rotors side down, but when we launched it rotors side up, it flew straight up. Again, there were around 40 winds. We will experiment with more winds soon. It is my first year doing this.

Could be the weight distribution. I did have to glue some broken parts. Will build a second one soon.

Your description, especially the part about it going down at first, sounds like you have the rotors pointing the wrong way. I'm fairly sure it's intended to fly with the rotors down (at least, based on the one device I've seen).