450 Size HUP Retriever

First flight of my tandem 450 TwinRex completed. Still needs tuning, but it’s well on its way to being finished as a HUP Retriever.

First flights with new Demon 3SX unit installed. Still some tuning to go, but off to a good start!

Merry Christmas all!

Just got a few photos of the finished fuselage. Can’t wait to have it in hand!

I’ve still been fighting the VRS tendency of the rear rotor of the tandem mechanics. It requires a pretty aggressive nose down input and full collective to recover from, and can be impossible to recover if it happens too low. I’ve switched to the Align blades and there isn’t much of a difference so far. It’s strange to me that this twinrexx tandem seems to be the only one that exhibits this performance.

One of the things that I noticed on most other tandems, is that the forward mast generally has some forward tilt. I may try biasing the swash forward a few degrees to mimic this. Also will try moving the CG farther forward to unload the rear rotor a bit. This will need to be resolved (or at least more livable) before I put on this beautiful fuselage.