Initial testing has been completed!!!!!! OK so hear is the report. So charge up my 24 cell pack and plan to run just the front fan to setup the pitch gyro. So setup the ESC and all the correct beeps where heard from the ESC, which was setup in 'soft start' mode. Planned to run the motor for approximatly 10 seconds and stop to check integrity of the fan unit after re mounting the motor and fan. So run up the fan, holding the nose to prevent the model flipping and spool down after 10 secs. Did a visual check of the fan for rubbing, loose screws etc and everything is OK.
So I then ran up the front fan again and powered up slowly and at about 2/3 power the nose wanted to lift off the ground. So powered down and increased the gain on the pitch gyro a half turn. Restarted and up to 2/3 power, so the nose lifted. Good so far.....
Then gently released the nose and the motor could be heard changing speed by the gyro input, however the response was to slow and the nose slowly lowered to the ground. So power down and another tweak to increase the gain on the gyro. Power up and let the nose go with the front wheel about 6 inches off the ground. Slowly released my hold on the nose and......
IT STAYED THERE!!!!!!
The gyro held the front up in the air perfectly, I could even push the nose down with my finger and the motor increased speed to resist the movement. Wow it works.....
So the next step is the repeat the process with both rear fans running and tune in the roll gyro.
So disconnect the front fan, and connect both rear fans. Armed the ESC's and beeps confirmed the setup was ready. Powered up the fans and WOW what a sound, 2 620's fans roared into life . So powered down after 10 seconds and checked the fans and rotation assembly, everything is OK. The HS77BB held the fans in the down position, so thats great, I just needed to tune the roll gyro and I would be ready for a quick 'hop'.

So 1 turn of the gyro gain and power up again..................

Then...............................

Only one fan was rotating, I quickly looked at the ESC's and DISASTER!!!!!! there was a small puff of smoke from one of the ESC's. Quickly powered down and disconnected the ESC's. To late, one of the ESC's was toasted and the other didnt look to good with some of the protective cover melted. Darn, the air turned blue and I disconneted and switched off everything.

After a day of manic depression I talked to Schultz and it turns out that the published data for the Wemotec 620 fan (on the Wemotec site) which used a HP220/30 A3 S P4 (my motor) on 24 cells, was actually a 'special' motor. I must state it was not the Schultz ESC's which were at fault it was my choice of cells.

So I have subsequently sent the ESC's back to Schultz and they offered 3 new Future 18-61 ESC's. Which will arrive soon. Also the number of cells which drive the motors has been reduced to 16 cells. So 3 packs of 16 x 1700mAh cells were ordered (matched and zapped) and have arrived. Now I'm waiting for the ESC's to try again.

On the bright side (yes there is a bright side) I did get some important information from my 2 minutes of testing, the first was that the control system for the roll control worked. The second, that the rotation servo was up to the task of holding the rear fans without stalling. Finally I also found from the 10 second run of the rear fans that the fans were to close together to provide positive roll control. This was not good. The answer to this problem? I had to up the scale to 1:9 scale and do another structure rebuild. Pictures will soon follow of progress. Who said this would be easy? not me........

The test schedule is described as follows. Initial testing will make use of a 'gimble' which is attached to the bottom of the model at the CG point. It will allow the model to move in pitch, roll and yaw in any combination. For example the yaw and pitch axis can be locked and the roll control system tuned correctly. Then the roll axis is locked and the pitch control tuned.

Initial testing of the system will use an umbilical to supply the power to save the battery pack and will use 2 x 12V batteries connected in parallel (thats why I decided to have the battery pack made from 24 cells).

Once this is complete then the gimble and model is attached to a pole which rotates around a central pivot complete with counterweight. This will allow 'free' hovering with some degree of restraint to allow me to practice flying the model in hover.

Once this phase is complete then the conventional flying testing is started.

The 'now extinct' X32-B airframe was used as a 'rig' to test the structural integrity of the rear fan rotation assembly. It all worked as planned and the 3 fans produced a scary amount of thrust. ...was it loud.... scared the pants off me.....