6-Feb-2008 United States of America Pending customs inspection.

Woo hoo. Almost here! Hopefully the customs peeps are gentle with my compy.

I posted a few questions a couple of weeks ago about my Compy. Since then I have made some progress but also had quite a few problems.

I now have now fitted the correct screws to hold the blades on. I had improvised with some brass studding with out much luck. What I don't understand is how do I retain the nut to prevent it from coming loose? After a few short flights the blades end up very loose! On the honeybee the threaded plastic of the rotor head does the job but the Compy rotor head is a clearance fit with the supplied screws.

Despite the advice offered by the here I mounted the receiver on top of the ESC resulting in lots of glitches. I moved it to below the main gear in the frame as suggested and the glitching has gone. (Note to self: listen to advice from the experts!)

Has anybody else found that the main shaft pin doesn't sit fully into the slot on the main gear? The slot isn't wide enough for the pin resulting in the main gear spinning on the pinion after a few minutes flying. I have tried the to pull the pin tight into the main gear a few times before tightening up the retaining collar. I have now had to switch back to the honeybee collar because the supplied one has stretched so much it's now loose on the main shaft.

Due to the problems above (and my lack of skill) I have had a few light crashes. I have the alloy upgrades and I think they result in more crash damage than plastic parts. I have broken the flybar twice after very light slow crashes. This may be due to the shearing action of the rigid alloy 'see-saw'. I've also had the little links sheared by the alloy yoke. I never had this happen before. I know the higher headspeed doesn't help but my damage/crash experience with the honeybee FP has been a lot better. I love the rock solid tail control but I'm thinking of dumping the Compy FP head and replacing it with the one I already have from a CP honeybee. I have a spare servo so would it be a straight swap or do I need other bits?

Originally Posted by BBD

I posted a few questions a couple of weeks ago about my Compy. Since then I have made some progress but also had quite a few problems.

I now have now fitted the correct screws to hold the blades on. I had improvised with some brass studding with out much luck. What I don't understand is how do I retain the nut to prevent it from coming loose? After a few short flights the blades end up very loose! On the honeybee the threaded plastic of the rotor head does the job but the Compy rotor head is a clearance fit with the supplied screws.

Loc-tite

Originally Posted by BBD

Despite the advice offered by the here I mounted the receiver on top of the ESC resulting in lots of glitches. I moved it to below the main gear in the frame as suggested and the glitching has gone. (Note to self: listen to advice from the experts!)

Nice! Glad the glitching is gone!

Originally Posted by BBD

Has anybody else found that the main shaft pin doesn't sit fully into the slot on the main gear? The slot isn't wide enough for the pin resulting in the main gear spinning on the pinion after a few minutes flying. I have tried the to pull the pin tight into the main gear a few times before tightening up the retaining collar. I have now had to switch back to the honeybee collar because the supplied one has stretched so much it's now loose on the main shaft.

I found the reason for this to be that the hole through the main shaft is not centered and that's why the pin does not sit nicely in the slot on the main gear. With a little tapping I was able to get the pin into the slot. Or you can grind the slot a little wider. I also didn't like the main shaft collar provided with the Compy kit. I switched to the Honeybee FP collar and it works much better.

Originally Posted by BBD

Due to the problems above (and my lack of skill) I have had a few light crashes. I have the alloy upgrades and I think they result in more crash damage than plastic parts. I have broken the flybar twice after very light slow crashes. This may be due to the shearing action of the rigid alloy 'see-saw'. I've also had the little links sheared by the alloy yoke. I never had this happen before. I know the higher headspeed doesn't help but my damage/crash experience with the honeybee FP has been a lot better. I love the rock solid tail control but I'm thinking of dumping the Compy FP head and replacing it with the one I already have from a CP honeybee. I have a spare servo so would it be a straight swap or do I need other bits?

If you add the third servo the CP head will be a straight swap.

Robin, the root of the problem is the stock blades.

Thanks, I'll have to give the other blades a try.

I discovered a couple more things today - one is that my '20c' batteries (Long Max cheapos from UH) only do 10c
The other is that at much over 100W, the stock blades start to flutter or something because the noise changes dramatically and the power drops off.

I also discovered that it flies OK even if one of the paddles is pointing the wrong way - ooops!

Thanks for the help kt74.

Loc-tite

I thought about loctite but didn't like the idea of not being able to adjust the blade grip stiffness. Nyloc nuts would have been nice.

I found the reason for this to be that the hole through the main shaft is not centered and that's why the pin does not sit nicely in the slot on the main gear. With a little tapping I was able to get the pin into the slot. Or you can grind the slot a little wider.

I try giving it a few taps but it's not easy to get at. I'll need to use a drift/punch of some sort.

If you add the third servo the CP head will be a straight swap.

I'm still thinking about this. The weather looks promising for the weekend. So I'll give it another go in FP form before I commit to the conversion.

Thanks again for the help

Originally Posted by BBD

I thought about loctite but didn't like the idea of not being able to adjust the blade grip stiffness. Nyloc nuts would have been nice.

I guess I could have mentioned this before... but this is the reason I don't use the stock nut and bolt. I actually made myself a head stiffener out of aluminum a while ago that I used on the Honeybee FP. I am using bolts with a torque nut and it works out great. I would suggest finding a bolt/nut that you like at the hardware store and then simply drill out the head, stiffener and blades in order to make it work. I can post some photos when I get home.

EDIT: Find a bolt that's sized small enough to reduce the amount of material you'll have to drill out.

i recieved my FP yesterday

SADLY...ALOT OF PARTS WERE MISSING :

80% of the extra replacement parts i ordered, they didn't even bother to ship, i ordered an extra belt..heck i didn't even get the belt that was suppose to come with the kit.

i emailed the "store owner" i'm assuming it is ALBERT, yesterday afternoon..but i haven't gotten a reply ?

kinda bums me out

Originally Posted by KCinNC

i recieved my FP yesterday

SADLY...ALOT OF PARTS WERE MISSING :

80% of the extra replacement parts i ordered, they didn't even bother to ship, i ordered an extra belt..heck i didn't even get the belt that was suppose to come with the kit.

i emailed the "store owner" i'm assuming it is ALBERT, yesterday afternoon..but i haven't gotten a reply ?

kinda bums me out

It is not sad; it is terrible and totally unaceptable. The worst in business is to ship incomplete kit parts. Have you double checked?

Originally Posted by KCinNC

i recieved my FP yesterday

SADLY...ALOT OF PARTS WERE MISSING :

80% of the extra replacement parts i ordered, they didn't even bother to ship, i ordered an extra belt..heck i didn't even get the belt that was suppose to come with the kit.

i emailed the "store owner" i'm assuming it is ALBERT, yesterday afternoon..but i haven't gotten a reply ?

kinda bums me out

WOW, that is BAD! Sorry to hear it! I do know that Albert has treated me very fairly and it turned out that the entire issue I was having was completely my fault!

That being said, you should never have experienced this debacle...

Let us know how it turns out. I've been waiting to hear some initial reports about this new Compy FP before jumping on board. I have belt conversion (Freestyle-Hobby) HB FP that I have been enjoying immensely except for the fact that I'm experiencing some ESD issues w/ the setup that are resetting my receiver. Unfortunately, I'm not alone. I'm curious to see if this new Compy FP is more resistant to this issue.

I do know that the new T-Rex 500's seem to be having MAJOR ESD issues...

Pete

Originally Posted by kt74

I guess I could have mentioned this before... but this is the reason I don't use the stock nut and bolt. I actually made myself a head stiffener out of aluminum a while ago that I used on the Honeybee FP. I am using bolts with a torque nut and it works out great. I would suggest finding a bolt/nut that you like at the hardware store and then simply drill out the head, stiffener and blades in order to make it work. I can post some photos when I get home.

EDIT: Find a bolt that's sized small enough to reduce the amount of material you'll have to drill out.

I used the extra bolts/fiber nuts from a set of 315mm blades. M3 is the size ?

-Dave

Originally Posted by kt74

Find a bolt that's sized small enough to reduce the amount of material you'll have to drill out.

I used a #2-56 screw and didn't have to drill at all, or figure out this new-fangled metric stuff

Originally Posted by lovespicyfood

I'm curious to see if this new Compy FP is more resistant to this issue.

I followed the whole thread on ESD on the Freestyle very closely. So far, I've had no Spektrum problems with the Compy.

Well... I didn't quite get to it right after work... but here are a couple of photos of my Compy. I replaced the canopy with a King V2 canopy- much sturdier- and the tail fin and blades with those of the Belt-CP. I like the way it looks all yellow.
Here's also a photo of my home-made ghetto head stiffener. It does the job though... I guess I ended up drilling out my stuff because the screws I'm using were ones I could find at work. So yeah... get some that lock but don't need drilling out. I will probably do that to use my new blades and head stiffener. So far this setup is working great!

Originally Posted by KCinNC

i recieved my FP yesterday

SADLY...ALOT OF PARTS WERE MISSING :

80% of the extra replacement parts i ordered, they didn't even bother to ship, i ordered an extra belt..heck i didn't even get the belt that was suppose to come with the kit.

i emailed the "store owner" i'm assuming it is ALBERT, yesterday afternoon..but i haven't gotten a reply ?

kinda bums me out

all good !!!

with an apology from Albert...parts will be rushed out first of the week !!

Originally Posted by kt74

I replaced the canopy with a King V2 canopy- much sturdier...

Yes, the stock Compy canopy is just about the thinnest plastic I could imagine. It makes the HBFP canopy look robust by comparison. Alas, I really love the styling of the Compy canopy (no accounting for taste?) and would pay big bucks for a thicker plastic or a fiberglass version... (Albert, are you listening?)

Six flights on the Compy today in dry, dead calm 70F conditions. I'm really loving its performance.