They say…Speed kills, but with skills it thrills.

I have spent all winter practicing and finding the correct setup for the Rigid2. Flying in the Netherlands during the winter is not really a piece of cake with the harsh winds and ice cold on your finger tips. The first week of +25 degrees Celsius was promised, clear skies and little wind – it was time for the next level. The governor was set from 60% to 75% and I was going to see how the helicopter performs under load!

Training setup:

• Henseleit Rigid2 standard config
• Pyro 850-50 Competition / 18Z gear
  • Later 20Z gear is already in order for more headspead
• Kontronik Kosmik Cool 200
• 810mm RotorTech blades
• 2x 7s SLS APL MAGNUM 4400 mAh  40C
  • 2 years old
• Vstabi Neo 6.1
• Graupner MX-22 with 2,4 Ghz FUTABA FASST
  • Transmitter old-school with no telemetry!

The helicopter flight was perfect. I have a personal limitation when it comes to flying, when I fly creative 3D  figures, I do these on my right side (due to the position of the sun at the flight field) and when flying for pure speed I am thus also forced to flying on my left side (where the sun is positioned). I still have to get used to the feeling on flying on my left side. Planning a few hours of extra practice to get this under control and I practice mainly with the Logo 400SE.

To give you a preview and a sneak peak at the thrill of speed, I made a short movie. For the time being, I am making regular turns (180 degree tail turn), and when this is under control I will start to make the cubane-8 (half loop). Firstly, I want to make sure I have 100% control on the speed flight and visibility of the helicopter. Then, in a couple of weeks, get a hang on the turns and head speed shall be increased.

Once I enjoyed the weather and some beautiful flight, I checked the Lipo’s with the logfile analyzer to see if the Lipo’s were still in good shape. When setting the governor to 75% and performing speed flights results in the following graph:

Analyzing the logfile shows

• Peak currents of 120 Amp (this is perfect)
• Voltage drops at the 120 Amp peak are extreme, 3.3 Volt / cell that is far to low
• Average voltage of the Lipo cells under load is 3.7 Volt

Conclusion: The current 14s Lipo cells are at their end of life. They are fine for normal fun flight but for speed not suited anymore. Dilemma, which Lipo’s to buy?

• 7s APL MAGNUM 4400mAh 832 gram -> 132,10 Euro
• 7s APL MAGNUM 5000mAh 978 gram -> 152,88 Euro
• 7s QUANTUM 65C 4500mAh 935 gram -> 135,00 Euro
• 7s QUANTUM 65C 5000mAh 1066 gram -> 152,00 Euro
• 5s + 2s SPEED limited edition 5100mAh -> xxx Euro?
  • These should be the best!

or the hobby-king:

• 7s Turnigy Heavy duty 65C 5000mAh -> 45 Euro
  • Maybe as an extra training and FUN pack?