Daily chat. Talk about about MX/X400s

[kenpsych]

So far, I like the Align 2100 3s bats from GrandRC. a pair for $110 shipped, not bad. I had a bad experience with Common Sense Batteries. They lasted a good three months and then thats it. Not good. $130 for the pair, gone. That's some expensive fuel...

[Raven_darkcloud]

ya when I can get 3 or 4 of the ones I got for that price.
I'm also thinking of trying a 450th motor @ 3000kv.
Found a new trick for flying in grass, the small foam tubing you put on pvc pipes to keep them from freezing. Put it on the skids and zip tie it on, no more hanging up on grass.

[kenpsych]

I'm grounded again. Where can I get replacement blades or a crash kit for the head? Grandrc is out of stock and I refuse to pay Tower's prices and shipping!

[helisforfun]

I'm grounded again. Where can I get replacement blades or a crash kit for the head? Grandrc is out of stock and I refuse to pay Tower's prices and shipping!


Check out this site they have hellimax parts look at there price pluss free shipping and if its your first time ordering save 5% more

http://www.advantagehobby.com/
http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/cea0a00c4b14d7bb3f677872f321aab3.jpg

http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/b398cbec3f3b1d8aa0bc241601b2879c.jpg[/img]

[Raven_darkcloud]

This weekend I bought the full alumi head for my 400. I'm not big on the red thats offerd for the 400 so I have align parts in gunmeatal grey. Wow the differance thats made by having alumi parts is incredable. I now have no slop in my head at all, did have much on the plastic but this is sweet. I will post pics later as I'm at work now.

[helisforfun]

Glad to here its working I was tempted by the gun metal garay but I already had the red swash and button so I orderd the rest of the head in red should have by the end of the week hope this cures the slop on the flybar. I made sure to get the new aluminum head with the bearings. but still using the plastic align grips.

[Raven_darkcloud]

I have setup one of the ark alumi heads befor and yes its slop free. Just remember to carefully put a small amount oflocktite in the treads of the seesaw.

[helisforfun]

Well went to the field yesterday tried to do a flip I had succsefuly done this for the first time on the previous sunday hovered about 20ft pulled back thumbs froze watched it land inverted hit throtle hold and went to pick up the pieces Damage fly bar, mixing lever, two servos striped main gear, canopy cracked, Bent main shaft, broken spindle. went home and in the mail box was the new aluminum head parts. Time to rebuild. :arggg:

[kenpsych]

So I installed a new main shaft and I still see "walk" in the head. Now this is observed during slow turning of the motor, with blades on. Could the main head be bent? This is an all metal head.

[helisforfun]

The new head. I think I put it together right ?

http://www.helifreak.com/album_mod/upload/260e6401252b3b3ef867c8b67f0930d2.jpg

[kenpsych]

So I installed a new main shaft and I still see "walk" in the head. Now this is observed during slow turning of the motor, with blades on. Could the main head be bent? This is an all metal head.

Well, I have not idea here, but it seems to fly ok. I also installed a Dean's antenna and got rid of the old clothesline! Pics later...

[helisforfun]

So I installed a new main shaft and I still see "walk" in the head. Now this is observed during slow turning of the motor, with blades on. Could the main head be bent? This is an all metal head.

Well, I have not idea here, but it seems to fly ok. I also installed a Dean's antenna and got rid of the old clothesline! Pics later...

I have noticed the same when turning the main blades by hand my theory is the swivel ball joint that the main shaft runs through is not perfectly centered but like yours flys great.

[kenpsych]

I flew over the weekend at the club field and had a great time. Once you get this "control" thing down, flying a heli is a blast! It did a couple of rolls and a front flip! I just flew back and forth and felt ok with this heli flying back at me! :D

[Kushal_22]

We are back on the flight deck! I received my parts from Grandrc.com and Towerhobbies on Monday. Spent many hours piecing it all back together...still waiting for alloy parts....

WOW thats Fast Service. Crash on the 5th up and flying the 7th. Wish I could get Service like that :(

Regards
MAl

[h2xmark]

well anyone get any new stuff over the Christmas holidays?? I got a new Futaba radio and some extra parts, weather has been a little bad around here so not much flight time right now.

[a320jockey]

Hello all,

I wanted to share my latest experience so you may save yourselves from a big headache. Yesterday while doing my usual hovering practice 30 ft up with my MX something happened, a bang and immediately a strange and sudden change in the blades' noise, like a flapping sound and it went into the ground, not at full speed however a hard hit into the pavement. After disconnecting the batt I went on to check the wreckage: a broken left landing gear, stripped top dome screw and a broken main MX carbon blade, the other one was also damaged. A more detailed inspection showed a missing pitch control linkage in the rotor head, the one which goes from the swash plate to the main blade control lever. Everything else was in place however both blade control arms were apart from their links as well, maybe a consequence of the crash. It seems the missing linkage went off the rotor head in flight causing the corresponding blade to flip, hence the change in noise and later flapping sound -the top dome was found displaced upwards on that blade's side, probably hit by the blade's control arm suddenly going upwards- and control was lost. The rotor did not stop turning because of its rotational moment, which may explain the lower speed during the fall but the heli was no longer controlable.

Later I noticed that the ball link on the swash plate had its sides flat instead of round when compared to the other ones which were visible so it seems like that was the one which failed. I never found the complete linkage. Going back into my maintenance procedures I remember to have been working on these linkages, specifically on the swash plate links in order to adjust blade tracking which is the normal procedure, however I never took a more detailed glance into the ball links' condition. Lesson learned the hard way: always do a regular check of the ball links specially on the rotating segment of the rotor head, a flattened ball link can an will cause trouble, worst if it happens during flight.

The MX seems repairable as far as I can see: replace the landing gear, a new linkage set, new set of main and tail blades, however being so difficult to get spare parts for the MX at a decent price here in Ecuador, I may be declaring my poor MX a total loss and leave it as a spares source if I can get a conveniently priced MX. Anyway I had a really good experience learning to fly this small heli and would have continued to do so if this accident did not happen.

Cheers and happy (and safe) flying to all,

Carlos A. Cordova
QUITO - ECUADOR
(Now-considering-to-build-that-stored-TRex-ha!)

[h2xmark]

wow, thanks for the info, guess i need to check my heli over

[z_man_95]

Or I may just be a little slow.
Has anyone seen this site? http://www.arktaiwan.com.tw
Check out the upgrades:
canopy mounts
paddle mounts
tail pitch set pro (secured top and bottom - haven't seen this before)
trex style head

[h2xmark]

wow, they have some new stuff out. like the new pro tail and head assy

[KITEPILOT]

Hello all,

I wanted to share my latest experience so you may save yourselves from a big headache. Yesterday while doing my usual hovering practice 30 ft up with my MX something happened, a bang and immediately a strange and sudden change in the blades' noise, like a flapping sound and it went into the ground, not at full speed however a hard hit into the pavement. After disconnecting the batt I went on to check the wreckage: a broken left landing gear, stripped top dome screw and a broken main MX carbon blade, the other one was also damaged. A more detailed inspection showed a missing pitch control linkage in the rotor head, the one which goes from the swash plate to the main blade control lever. Everything else was in place however both blade control arms were apart from their links as well, maybe a consequence of the crash. It seems the missing linkage went off the rotor head in flight causing the corresponding blade to flip, hence the change in noise and later flapping sound -the top dome was found displaced upwards on that blade's side, probably hit by the blade's control arm suddenly going upwards- and control was lost. The rotor did not stop turning because of its rotational moment, which may explain the lower speed during the fall but the heli was no longer controlable.

Later I noticed that the ball link on the swash plate had its sides flat instead of round when compared to the other ones which were visible so it seems like that was the one which failed. I never found the complete linkage. Going back into my maintenance procedures I remember to have been working on these linkages, specifically on the swash plate links in order to adjust blade tracking which is the normal procedure, however I never took a more detailed glance into the ball links' condition. Lesson learned the hard way: always do a regular check of the ball links specially on the rotating segment of the rotor head, a flattened ball link can an will cause trouble, worst if it happens during flight.

The MX seems repairable as far as I can see: replace the landing gear, a new linkage set, new set of main and tail blades, however being so difficult to get spare parts for the MX at a decent price here in Ecuador, I may be declaring my poor MX a total loss and leave it as a spares source if I can get a conveniently priced MX. Anyway I had a really good experience learning to fly this small heli and would have continued to do so if this accident did not happen.

Cheers and happy (and safe) flying to all,

Carlos A. Cordova
QUITO - ECUADOR
(Now-considering-to-build-that-stored-TRex-ha!)


the 1st thing ya wanna do is go around the head area or any moving parts and replace all those funky screws with allen heads, also use some locktite, models costing this low arent exactly perfect....

[Raven_darkcloud]

get a set of steal balls to replace the alumi ones. This happens on trex parts too. align has a steal ball upgrade that works great. Don't forget the loctite on screws in metal.

[Stableblade]

I see that same Microheli main gear I have. Mine is very noisy and does not seem to mesh well. As a matter of fact it is so bad I just use the stock gear which is just fine anyway.

SB

[Raven_darkcloud]

Put a thin coat of lithium grease will quiet it and it will wear in after a few flights.

[LTCOBRA1]

can you use the 400 metal parts on the 400 pro? For the head?

[Raven_darkcloud]

yes. the 400 /pro / 450 all use the same parts (except the longer boom on 450)