Hi,

I was wondering if anyone ever had any troubles with their flybar. More to the point...it is like the tracking of the flybar is off. The flybar is straight as an arrow and the tracking of the main blades is perfect (The blades are balanced dynamically as well as statically....so the blade balancer says). I have just noticed this problem. Can anyone help.

Thanks,

Eric

For this I took the main blades off and put a piece of tape on one of the paddles. I then loosed the two screws that keep the flybar in place so I could rotate the flybar. I then spun up the head slowly and watched. As needed I rotated the flybar to adjust the paddle pitches. I then locked down the screws again. Note, I unscrewed flybar just enough to move it (so its not very loose).

With this I am curios if it would help auto center the flybar as the forces should move it to the exact weigted center. Any thoughts on this?

-=ben

Nice idea Ben but:

You would start with the bar off centre so it would fly out that way even more.

You would need the arms to move along on their own and have no resistance on the bar in the first place.

Life just isn't that simple

I dont know why I didnt think of that.

Maybe it worked for me because I already had the flybar at center (or at least very close) or 2 maybe I had enough friction on the bar that it actually never moved.

Adjusting the pitch this way did work however.

Thanks for the feedback.

-=ben

On another note. I notice alot of guys are using flybar weights. I recently picked up some for a .30 sized heli. There probably a bit larger than the Eco needs but im really not sure.

I am having some vibration problems in my head - its pretty slight but I think its my flybar, as they are still there when I remove the blades. I bought these weights thinking I could iron out the vibrations with them. Is this thinking in the right direction?

Where should I adjust the wieghts to, is it better towards the ends or closer to the head? Also does someone have a good method of balancing the flybar on the Eco, it seems straightforward but the way the flybar is on their I can't get it to flop around like it would with ball bearings and it seems I need to adjust it while attatched to the head? Or do I remove it and put it on a wire, adjust it, mark the locations for attatching the servo arms and then re-attatch to the head at those marks (this seems more error prone)?

Ideas?

Thanks.

-=ben

Ben

I think it's worth getting hold of / using somebody's scales and weighing the actual paddles. They are a pretty crude moulding and no matter how acturately you measure to get the centre they can still be out of balance. As the head is also pretty crude there is too much friction in it for the flybar to flop back and forth to give a clue about balance.

I used the digital mail scales at work which are accurate to a gram and sanded the heavy paddle until they were the same weight and then set the flybar up by measuring between the paddle and the arm. It took a good hour to get it so I was happy but it did pay off.

I'm just not looking forward to bending the flybar and having to do it all over again!

Andy

It looks like I'm not the only one with this problem. What I noticed with my heli is when I spin up, it looks like the flybar is moving up and down very fast.....like the main rotors would look like it they were not tracking. I didn't think that weight would make it wobble like that. Is this what was going on with yours?

Thanks,

Eric

What happens with mine is at a particular RPM it causes it vibrate really badly so much in fact that it starts rocking the eco back and forth from one skid to the other. Its a pretty slow RPM as well. If I increase throttle pass this point it smooths out and even flys quite nicely. But I can still see the vibration, however at this point it seems to transfer the vibration so its visible in the tail (shaking up and down).

I have a teetor totter (?) style scale I use to balance my main rotors. Ill give that a try and balance the paddles with it. Soon im going to get a nice electric scale, just havnt had the funds yet. Someone just recently posted a site that has them for around $60 that are accurate to 1/10 of a gram. And for either $70 or $80 you can get 1/100 of a gram. Good deal.

-=ben

I'd like to find the 1/100 gram ones for $70 - $80... I have quite accurate ones 1/100 gram but they were $140...

bT

What happens with mine is at a particular RPM it causes it vibrate really badly so much in fact that it starts rocking the eco back and forth from one skid to the other. Its a pretty slow RPM as well. If I increase throttle pass this point it smooths out and even flys quite nicely.

I know exactly what you mean .

Here's another simple way of "balancing" your paddles. All you have to do is place your flybar in the dead center. Since you are still seeing vibrations then add a piece of tape to one of the paddles.

Sloooowly spool up the machine, if the problem gets worse then remove the piece of tape and put it on the other paddle. Now you should definitely see an improvement. Now you know which is the lighter paddle that's causing the problem. By trying out different amounts of tape on that paddle you should be able to balance it properly.

I have the aluminum head with ball bearings, so this process was a lot simpler.

Hope this helps.

Chachin..

twguns,

Here is that site with the cheap scales: http://www.oldwillknott.com/tabletop.html

Looks like I was off a bit with the price, its $70 for 1/10 scale and $120 for a 1/100th. Still very good prices though.

Chachin,

Yes that method would definatly work, I think im going to take the paddles off and weigh them out that way and then use your method to take into account the flybar not being 100% in the middle.

Thanks.

-=ben

I think you want to spend the time to get the flybar as centered as you can make it... dynamically, it being un-centered will cause some vibrations no matter what you do. You will only be able to get it totally right by first getting the flybar centered and then balancing the paddles.

My 2 cents!

Greg in Minneapolis

How do center the flybar 'dynamically'?

Thanks.

-=ben

Here's a better wording of what I was trying to say:

I think you want to spend the time to get the flybar as centered as you can make it. When you run it, being un-centered will cause some vibrations no matter what you do.

You will only be able to get it totally right by first getting the flybar centered statically, and then balancing the paddles dynamically as it runs.

Sorry for the confusion.

Greg in Minneapolis

I see.

You know, I suppose you could do the same to center the flybar. Maybe color one end of the flybar without the paddles, spin up th head and watch to see which one is sticking out further, adjust, repeat. A good mearsuing tool should work just fine as well.

-=ben