Had my first real casualty today. I noticed that the tail was blowing out 90-180 degrees everytime I gave it a burst of collective. Backed the travel off to 70%, no difference. Got inside and found that the carbon boom had split in half all the way up to the motor! I've CA'ed it back solid and will try again here shortly.

I also had a weird issue where the heli would "shudder" in the air occasionally. I noticed in throttle hold that at around half stick the blades were vibrating up and down real fast. I wiggled the stick thinking something must be caught up in there and it just went away. Who knows?

Originally Posted by PastaRocket848

Had my first real casualty today. I noticed that the tail was blowing out 90-180 degrees everytime I gave it a burst of collective. Backed the travel off to 70%, no difference. Got inside and found that the carbon boom had split in half all the way up to the motor! I've CA'ed it back solid and will try again here shortly.

I also had a weird issue where the heli would "shudder" in the air occasionally. I noticed in throttle hold that at around half stick the blades were vibrating up and down real fast. I wiggled the stick thinking something must be caught up in there and it just went away. Who knows?

Check the the gear is really all the way up and that there is no up and down play at all on the shaft.

Originally Posted by sideburn

yeah.. i just wanted to do a quick test to see but yes now at mid stick the pitch is a little negative because of what i did. but with the default linear settings, i have to slam the stick to the bottom to get any lift.

Have you noticed if you have much more punch in the positive pitch vs negative ?

I mean when i am inverted sometimes I have to take the stick all the way to the bottom to avoid hitting the ground and it climbs slowly up. that's why i made these adjustments in the first place. but when not inverted and I give it full positive on the stick it shoots up like a rocket.

And after 4mins or so, while the battery is getting low, I still get lots of lift and power while upright but it pretty much has no lift while inverted and slowly falls to the floor unless i flip it back around in time.

This is how old style 3D helis fly. That's what I'm calling this one - it's old-style - by today's standard we would call it underpowered. The trouble you're having is common with beginners and old style helis - they don't maintain head speed during the flip. In order to get the flip just right, you have to be a little quicker to get to zero pitch, and a little smoother going into the negative. Flip it up and go to zero pitch (which regains your head speed), then pull it over to level inverted and as it starts to fall, just catch it with a little negative - catch it smoothly, and the head speed won't drop and you won't have to punch in a lot of negative pitch.

Hi
people have been finding out that the rear swash ball likes to break off in a crash , someone posted a good theory as to why on on of the other forums , seems to be that the rear link wire being straight , does not bend like the front two do , this transmits the impact of a crash to the rear ball

one problem with putting a relief bend in the rear link , is that there is a frame member in the way

i used a piece of 0.020" ( 0.5mm ) music wire and formed a half loop to pass out and around this frame member , and i snipped the threaded end off a stock link , and used a simple lap joint , with a fine wire wrap and solder to complete it

here is a photo , best regards

Originally Posted by mCP_X

Hi
people have been finding out that the rear swash ball likes to break off in a crash , someone posted a good theory as to why on on of the other forums , seems to be that the rear link wire being straight , does not bend like the front two do , this transmits the impact of a crash to the rear ball

one problem with putting a relief bend in the rear link , is that there is a frame member in the way

i used a piece of 0.020" ( 0.5mm ) music wire and formed a half loop to pass out and around this frame member , and i snipped the threaded end off a stock link , and used a simple lap joint , with a fine wire wrap and solder to complete it

here is a photo , best regards

Excellent mod! I previously suggested using a U bend, reminiscent of UM planks, to relieve some crash stress. Glad to see someone actually did it. I'm still awaiting my mCP X in transit. Let us know how it holds up in future crashes.

I received my box of spares yesterday so I was able to install the new tail boom. Flew once more yesterday but managed to pop out the pin fix yet again. Back into the hangar, where I regaled it with some med CA. Finally got some good flights in this morning, 7 in total. The wind had picked up, and was fairly gusty, for the last 4 flights, but this heli sure can handle it well, especially for its size. I mostly practiced normal flight, and due to the wind, didn't attempt any stunts. Had a few crashes but everything held together this time, for once!!

Originally Posted by mCP_X

Hi
people have been finding out that the rear swash ball likes to break off in a crash , someone posted a good theory as to why on on of the other forums , seems to be that the rear link wire being straight , does not bend like the front two do , this transmits the impact of a crash to the rear ball

one problem with putting a relief bend in the rear link , is that there is a frame member in the way

i used a piece of 0.020" ( 0.5mm ) music wire and formed a half loop to pass out and around this frame member , and i snipped the threaded end off a stock link , and used a simple lap joint , with a fine wire wrap and solder to complete it

here is a photo , best regards

Posted a link to this post in the description of the video. Pretty sure this should fix the problem. Let me know if you have any trouble with it. Does it fly good that way?

Originally Posted by jasmine2501

This is how old style 3D helis fly. That's what I'm calling this one - it's old-style - by today's standard we would call it underpowered. The trouble you're having is common with beginners and old style helis - they don't maintain head speed during the flip. In order to get the flip just right, you have to be a little quicker to get to zero pitch, and a little smoother going into the negative. Flip it up and go to zero pitch (which regains your head speed), then pull it over to level inverted and as it starts to fall, just catch it with a little negative - catch it smoothly, and the head speed won't drop and you won't have to punch in a lot of negative pitch.

yeah.. figuring it out. also i think my batteries are fading a bit. the first 3-4 minutes I have lots of power even while flipping. But they used to go 5 minutes.

Originally Posted by mCP_X

one problem with putting a relief bend in the rear link , is that there is a frame member in the way

i used a piece of 0.020" ( 0.5mm ) music wire and formed a half loop to pass out and around this frame member , and i snipped the threaded end off a stock link , and used a simple lap joint , with a fine wire wrap and solder to complete it

here is a photo , best regards

Excellent design and workmanship! If (when) my pin fix breaks I will definitely be doing this when putting my spare swash in.

Originally Posted by sideburn

yeah.. figuring it out. also i think my batteries are fading a bit. the first 3-4 minutes I have lots of power even while flipping. But they used to go 5 minutes.

It's only supposed to give 3.5 minutes of idle-up. I set my timer at 3 minutes. And yeah it will cause the batteries to fade if you run them down too far too often.

Originally Posted by bdshort

I received my box of spares yesterday so I was able to install the new tail boom. Flew once more yesterday but managed to pop out the pin fix yet again. Back into the hangar, where I regaled it with some med CA. Finally got some good flights in this morning, 7 in total. The wind had picked up, and was fairly gusty, for the last 4 flights, but this heli sure can handle it well, especially for its size. I mostly practiced normal flight, and due to the wind, didn't attempt any stunts. Had a few crashes but everything held together this time, for once!!

are you talking about the shirt pin ball fix?
CA and Epoxy do not work. nothing wants to stick to this plastic but JB weld works the best for me so far. or wrap it in thread and ca it. i did that for the tail boom. my heli looks like HELL now but its still kicking.

Jasmine, I've done numerous tests but may only be my set of batts.

100% Idle up - 5 mins hovering and forward flights: 160-170mah put back
100% Idle up - 5 mins flips only and FFF: 175-185 mah put back in
100% Idle up - 4 mins hovering: 120 - 130mah put back in

Originally Posted by jasmine2501

It's only supposed to give 3.5 minutes of idle-up. I set my timer at 3 minutes. And yeah it will cause the batteries to fade if you run them down too far too often.

Hi
i wanted to post a bit of an update on the soft rear link i have been playing with

i was worried that the big half loop i did the first time might prove to be too soft and i thought it was worth playing around a bit to match the flex of the front links

i first saw this idea on the freak , and the post i was looking at had a piece of wire with a couple of bends in it right at the servo , it got me thinking a small loop would be a good solution also , and depending on the size of the loop you could tune the stiffness of the link , here is a new photo , best regards

I picked up some 2mm CF today and am gonna tear it down tonight and do a complete overhaul on it,to include cleaning the servos,changing the swash,head and servo links,and installing a new canopy(mine beat to pieces) a new tail boom.I have went through 3 tail booms,one blade grip(bearing seperated at flight #146),a canopy,and a set of bullet blades.The tail booms are annoying and cost a little bit so I won't do that anymore-using solid 2mm CF from now on.The airframe has 12 hours and 8 minutes on it.That's a pretty good return on my investment,in my opinion.Best of all-approximately 30 minutes of downtime so far.That's priceless to me,as I work offshore and have limited time in which to enjoy this hobby.

I have bound my mCP X to my DX6i as described in the manual, but in step 6 it says move the trainer switch and the swash will move up and down to confirm it is in computer mode.

However, my swash does not move when the trainer switch is moved.... is this a problem?