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Saturday, March 06, 2010
Lama v4 Xtreme Outdoor Test Flight
[ZOMBiE CyGiG] ranted at 10:41 AM --- Post#2405533444956365690

Lama v4 is a 4 channel fix pitched RC helicopter measuring 40+cm in length. Unlike those nitro fed 6 channel helicopter that does aerobics 3D stuns, Lama v4 was originally designed to be low powered for playing indoor - at home. But due to shortage of space (SG's public housing isn't big, plus my room was filled with stuff from many of my hobbies), there is no fun playing Lama at home, all I could do was to fly forward 2 to 3 meters and I got to turn back. The most practical thing you could do is to take off gently and try to do precision landing. But that is not what I want, I wanted more speed and more thrill, and the versatility to play heli at home.

Due to lack of time and not confident in flying 6 channel helis yet, I decided that I should hold off buying one. It's not quite possible to fly CP helis in my small room, and it's also not quite possible for me to go down to the large field (not to mention that it's often used for soccer games) everyday to play, plus I was not able to fork out large amount of cash in one shot.

As I am still new to this hobby, aggressive flying of lama in my room lead to lots of crashes. Esky stock parts are easily broken and most of them are made of plastic, they warp when there is too much movement causing the flight to be harder to control.

Thus, I decided to upgrade my Lama. The RTF kit costed me $160, and I spent another $500 on crashes and upgrades. I mainly used Xtreme Production's upgrade as their stuff had never disappoint me before. After upgrading, my heli got much more power and durability. I replaced 95% of all the stock parts with Xtreme's upgrade, other than the design it's hardly a Lama v4 now. But with power and durability brings instability to my helicopter. The upgrades seemed to have upsetted the delicate balance of the machine.

Now, it drifts more during hover, and it drifts in random direction. Sometimes heading or turning too fast will cause the heli to become out of control, in which it will drift severely in one direction and it's hard to steer it back in course. With wind, it made it worst as the 180 motor are far from capable from deterring wind. It will still be able to steer, but it would be extremely difficult hard to control, but I would still insist on flying my bird on a windy day to get the kick out of "battling with wind", which lead to more fun and crashes, luckily the Xtreme upgrades could withstand a lot of abuse.

On the other hand, I have to be careful, even if I have to crash my on a tree, I would always try my best never to crash it into human or animals, for obvious reasons. The park at my neighbourhood has lot's of kids and they are damn irritating as they will bug you to let them play and ask you 1001 stupid questions. Luckily most of them are smart enough to avoid an incoming heli by ducking and running away.

This video is recorded by mounting my camera on my Transmitter, I was not able to see the screen while recording as I have to focus on the helicopter. Thus some of the camera angles appears weird and off-center.

List of Upgrades:
- Xtreme Blades
- Xtreme Carbon Fibre Body Frame
- Xtreme Carbon Fibe Tail Boom
- Xtreme Landing Skid
- Xtreme Canopy
- Xtreme Swash Plate
- Xtreme Lower Rotor Hub
- Xtreme Outer Shaft
- Xtreme 8mm Extended Inner Shaft
- Xtreme Delrin Gears
- Xtreme Blade Grips
- Xtreme Metal Bearing Housing
- Xtreme SE180 Motors
- Xtreme Motor Fuse
- Xtreme Flybar Linkage
- HiTec HS-65HB Servos
- Kong Power 880mAh 28C and Turnigy 1000mAh 20C Batteries

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