It was bound to happen, taking the next step and actually taking 2 minutes to edit my little ‘movies’ (really a personal video diary of my learning to fly and crash little flying machines). Here are the first two that I actually was able to load into iMovie and convert.

First is the Revel Proto CX. My micro counter-rotating blade heli: I cut a bunch of worthless time (more worthless that this video, hard to image but true) out of the middle and focused on the ‘good stuff’:

Next is video of the bird #2, the Blade CX3.

I had just unpacked it, installed the training gear extensions (the funny orange balls) and bound it to the Spectrum radio that came in the ParkFlyer HobbyZone P-51 foamy. That was a nice little treat.

For the most part it worked great. Here 90% condensation of about 25 minutes of actual flight time with the CX3. This was my first attempt.

However, yet again, I managed to mangle the landing gear after a few panic throttle chops as it got a little close to big steel things that would break it. :/ Back to the hobby shop for MORE stuff!

And finally, here is my repair video. First semi-successful attempt at time-lapse with the Canon S1100 micro-camera. The hardest part, I thought, would be learning how to do this with iMovie ’09. Nope, after some prodding around it turned out to be pretty simple. Sadly the camera was doing some sort of zoom-in and zoom-out madness. Site down before watching, you might get ill. Some are going to wonder about the music. Did I shot the video with this music in mind. NOT! Who’d try to shoot video like this, outside the brain-dead corridors of intellectual bankruptcy one finds in L.A. or N.Y.? No, but the frantic into to a good German industrial metal song just… WORKED! I only hope YouTube does not over-dub the music with something totally lame out of their music library, as I’ve heard they have started to do this.

UPDATE!

YouTube send me this message today. Hopefully they don’t over-dub the music. But, when you’re using a free service, their hardware, their network, it’s not a stretch to concede they own that copy of it.:

Your video, Eflite Blade CX3 MD520N (Notar), may have content that is owned or licensed by UMG.

No action is required on your part; however, if you are interested in learning how this affects your video, please visit the Content ID Matches section of your account for more information.

After a number of pretty bad nose-in crashes (flying nose in is the most challenging), the bird was getting pretty beat up:

With the landing gear broken and the canopy smashed, it was looking very ragged. Not only that, but the metal rod and zip ties I had holding the landing skids together added enough weight to make it fly a little funny (balance, what balance?).

Removing the weight of the rod, well.. that was not really an option:

Fortunately, the local hobby shop has a variety of replacement parts for these things (big shock, isn’t it?). The landing gear itself was about $8.50 to purchase. Easy enough. However, with all the plug-and-play miniaturization on these things, one thing that was not plug and play was the landing gear + battery tray. I’d have to perform some micro soldering to complete the repair.

I lit up the soldering iron and did my best. Turns out that it was a little easier than I thought it would be. Plus, I didn’t accidentally melt any of the sensitive parts, like that servo there, located perilously close to the solder points I needed to use.

With the important structural stuff fixed, the canopy was re-attached and she’s ready to fly. Good, maybe bad, but the shop did not have replacement canopy in stock. It’s OK I suppose, since I’d crashed this many times on the nose before the canopy finally shattered.

Some pieces are still missing, but some clear tape and Sharpie marker returned it to serviceable condition. It’s not going to win a beauty contest, but it does fly, as you can see here!