Betty, still grounded

When my brother asked me if I want his JR transmitter few weeks ago, I happily agreed. My Betty has not left the ground for maybe more than a year now. I thought it is time she flies again.

Higher expectation leads to greater disappointment. After I successfully bound the transmitter with Betty, I realized that I had selected the wrong model. Model 1 is my brother's Blade 400, whereas my Betty is model 6. I spent the whole afternoon today sorting this out. Somehow the settings kept reverting back to default. I changed the model to number 6, turned off and on the transmitter, and yet model 1 kept showing up in the display every time.

I searched the Internet many times without finding any relevant result. The only similar issue I found was regarding the JR X9303, the predecessor of my brother's X9503. Some people commented that a resistor is burnt inside the transmitter. Well, I am not going to pry it open to check. That would void the warranty.

Betty sitting on top of the transmitter.

In any case, poor Betty is not going to fly anytime soon now. I thought it is time she flies again. I am disappointed.

2014: Blog updates, World updates, Betty grounded

Happy New Year 2014!

It is rather embarrassing that it has been 1.5 years since I last written here. Blogging used to be a popular activity among my friends back in the 2000s. With the advent of microblogging sites, blogging has seen a decline in usage. There used to be almost a dozen links in the You may also like section at the right sidebar, but over time most of the links are dead.

From what I gather, Yahoo! acquired Wretch.cc, a blogging site most of my friends used, and shut it down on December 26, 2013 (an act which Yahoo! has been notoriously known for. They acquired one of my favourite to-do apps Astrid and shut it down soon after.)

Lately there has been a resurge in my blogging interest. I want to record down my feeling at this point of my life, hoping that in the future when I looked back, I would laugh at how silly I was. So here I am, sitting down staring at my laptop, trying to resurrect my old, dusty blog. And this post is going to kickstart the blogging engine once more (God forbid I stop blogging again.)

2014 is the year my student life officially ends. It might be the year I started working professionally. It might be the year I moved overseas. It might be a year full of life-changing events.

Ushering in the new year is the news of extreme heat wave in Victoria, Australia, with temperature soaring to 44°C. On the other side of the world, the U.S. is hit by what is dubbed as the polar vortex, where temperature drops to -53°C (colder than the Arctic!) I am not sure this is a common occurrence but it does make me wonder what has happened to Earth.

On a more personal notes, after coming back from Australia and with an ample amount of free time to spend, I decided to get back into my RC hobby. My old, dusty Betty has not been flown for more than 2 years if I am not wrong. Having bringing her back here, I swore to let it soar into the sky once more.

Unfortunately, while I was testing out the receiver and servos, the stock transmitter broke. It no longer binds with the receiver, and I notice that the LED does not light up as brightly as it did.

Transmit LED is suspiciously dim.

This leads me to believe that the transmitter is not transmitting anything. There are two options for me:

1. Swap the Futaba receiver from my father's Align TRex 450 and use the stock Align T6 (Futaba 6J) programmable transmitter.
2. Get a new transmitter.

Maybe it is time to get my own transmitter? HobbyKing has an OrangeRx T-SIX 2.4GHz DSM2 6CH Programmable Transmitter (w/10 Model Memory) which really piques me.

Flamboyantly catchy.

At any rate, Betty is going to be grounded (again) for quite some time now.

Mission Impossible

So, after going home on January 28th, I managed to catch up with my big brother who was on a few days holiday at that time. I reached home around 2pm that day and my brother, unsurprisingly, was still sleeping. Dad was supposed to take him to barber shop but he was busy, so I was charged with the task.

Well, it was not something I would want to complain. I had not seen my brother for almost a year. While in the car, we chatted a lot, from study to heli. And that was when the conversation started to get exciting.

It was him who introduced me to this hobby. It has been our dream toy. We discussed everything about R/C helicopter, from technical stuff to bragging our skills. It has been a long time since we chatted like this.

After having his hair cut, we went to a nearby mamak restaurant to have our lunch. That was when I suggested to look for a new helicopter, since my old Big Lama has been out of service for a long time. That was when he suggested to buy me a new helicopter. A quick phone call to dad and my ear was filled with angry words. Well, not so angry actually. :D

A quick visit to the local hobby shop had my brother eyeing on some models. Too bad he didn't bring his wallet (and most importantly his credit card!). Another quick phone call to dad and he was still disagreeing. Brother had instead followed his own way. So we went home and grab his wallet (and of course, card!), and made another visit to the shop.

And with a swipe of his "almighty" credit card, he bought me a new R/C helicopter.

E-Sky Belt-CP 2

Another E-Sky (because the shop only sells E-Sky and other more expensive brands), another helicopter. This is collective pitch. This is 3D capable. This is serious flying. This is wooden blade. This is brushless motor. This is potong rumput. This is Belt-CP 2.

Been flying for a few weeks now and I still cannot hover it in place. This is really serious business.

Brother has been teasing me since the day we got this. He is very confident I will crash it in this month. But I will prove to him my clean sheet record is not a laughing matter! Don't play play! :DD

Missione: Addomesticare la bestia selvaggia

Mission: Taming the Wild Beast - E-Sky Big Lama

Few weeks ago, my brother bought something very catchy. He posted the photo in Facebook, and it immediately caught our attention. We could not believe it. Dad was especially surprised.

My brother bought a radio controlled helicopter. Big Boy's Dream Toy. And thus, the R/C fever began.