Tail Kicking

[Blade flappin]

Hey guys, It could be possible that the tail link has a little play under load, the extended space between the servo horn and horizontal fin mount leaves about 1 foot of wire (tail link) which will bend. The correction for me was adding one more hoizontal fin mount centered between the servo horn and original fin mount .

[ckoelliker]

I have a carbon fiber rod with no supports. But the rod is very stiff I do not think it is flexing. On climb outs is the servo not pulling the rod anyway? I have my gain up to 57% on a futaba 9c. What are most people running on their gain? Keep the suggestions coming. It is not that bad, but I think it could be better.

[Ade_Law]

exactly what tail blades are you guys using? Im setting one up with a 401/9650 and i have a shimmey in the tail that im trying to get shot of.

think im going to have to resort to some delay.

Ade

[Blade flappin]

If your head speed is consistant all the way through collective without loading or over speeding at the top end your tail shouldn't be running off. Have you tried reducing your pitch a little (loading the head) or than increasing your throttle at the top end ,if your system allows for a greater amp draw etc. As far as gyro gain increase value until tail wags on full blown climb out than bring it down slightly a couple of % untill wag is gone . Hope this helps.

[ckoelliker]

Most people are using the 68mm. I have 62mm. They are evo blades that have been shortened. I have played around with my pitch curves and throttle curves with some improvement. I will probably get it worked out eventually but I am sure it can be better. My evo tail and my t-rex do not move at all during hover and hold during climb outs. My lepton tail moves just a little during hover and about five degrees during climb out. But it comes out of pirouette rock solid. I have switched servos and it was doing the same so I do not think that is it. I may switch the gyro just to see if that is the problem.

[docjoe]

I was having a problem with the tail holding on my Lepton. Turns out it was also happening on the TRex that I had the specific 401 gyro on. I switched out the Gyro (and futaba sent me a new one under warranty) and that fixed the problem. It may just be the trick.

Interestingly enough, the gyro that Futaba replaced bench tested as normal but when I explained my problem to them, the switched out the gyro for me.

Just something to think about. I hope you guys figure it out.

[ckoelliker]

I am switching the servo. I will try it out tomorrow and see.

[ckoelliker]

I still cannot seem to get this tail to work how I would like. At the moment It is doing good except it has a small oscillation. I would guess about an inch or so. If I play with the gyro gain it helps but I cannot get it to go away. The tail seems to be doing well except for this problem. I have been messing around with it for a while and have done everything from changing the gyro, servo, receiver, moved the esc, and disabled the ubec. I have not had any luck. I cannot seem to get the tail to hold still no matter what I do. Mechanically it seems to be very smooth. The only suspect spot that I can find is the vertical bolt that the pitch slider is attached to the tail housing. I do have some slop there, but I cannot seem to eliminate it. Here are some pictures of my current setup.

[mudbogger2]

Try some diffrent gyro mounting tape. The CSM stuff is wonderful. http://www.ronlund.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=heli&Product_Code=CSM151
It gives the gyro good dampening and sticks good too.

[ckoelliker]

I am using the 3m tape. Two pieces at the moment. I have used it on my other helicopters without issue. Beyond that I am at a loss. Maybe it has something to do with the align esc. At the moment I have it at gov off, soft start off, high timing, and high throttle response. John I have watched the video of you fling it and it looks great. So that makes me think that it is not a mechanical issue. I have not wrecked it or even had a hard landing. It flies great besides this problem. And like I said before the tail performs good in other aspects. At the moment it just does not want to sit still.

[ckoelliker]

Well I am making a little progress. I think I had two different problems. I was getting interference from the esc and have moved it. That helped. But then I was left with a small drift or oscillation. The tail was doing good it just would not sit still. I tried to shorten the servo arm on the gyro because I was rereading the 401 instructions and somewhere in there it said if you have a tail wag that will not go away shorten the servo arm. I went down to 10mm but that did not help and the tail was not happy at that length. I then decided to try to fix some of the slop in the pitch slider and where the control arm is bolted vertically to the tail case. I filled a little bit off of the bushing so there is less vertical play. I also tightened the two screws that fit into the groove on the pitch slider. I thought the gap seemed to be a little bit too much. This has seemed to help I have only flown it once briefly, but it was improved. I will fly it a few more times and see. Here is a picture of my current configuration.