E325 A Tough SOB!

[stevehonn]

I managed to put my E325 in again yesterday afternoon due to expectations exceeding ability (again!) but its a heli I love to throw around. I've had 4 crashes now and the last one looked the worse, in very heavily breaking the battery tray clean off plus the customary skids and a banana shaped boom. The impact was enough to totally trash a pair of V Blades I'd just borrowed from a friend to try out :DOH . Despite this the feathering shaft and main shaft are still unscathed (2 crashes on each enough to break the blades) and the main frames look almost bulletproof. One other thing that broke was one of the arms on a main blade grip, this is the second time so I keep a couple of spares in the box.

It did prove one thing, mines an early kit and I have never had a problem with tracking, my friends have later kits, both using V Blades and have had real tracking problems. The V Blades fitted to mine tracked straight and true, right up until they hit the deck :( Mine also has a new headblock after the original one cracked right through the jesus bolt holes both sides, from bottom through to the flybar hole.

[EricW]

To bad!, Hope your friend is not mad at you :)
I'm beginning to believe they switched the material blend for producing the head during production of the kits.
I have some experience with injection moulding (plastics engineer) and the plastics used in this heli are pretty good overall, but these are all blends with percentages of different raw materials, like glass filling.
The parts used in a heli are extremely light so the amount of material and it's price is not a issue for the manufacturer.
The speed of manufacturing IS.
Production speed (Cooling time needed to produce a piece with the proper size/fit) of different blends can differ enormously.
So it could be a trade-case caused by high market demand, more pieces against less stiffness/strength.

Eric

[comeflywithme]

Wow, I'm amazed you havent bent the spindle shaft yet! Having said that, I did notice how much thicker the spindle shaft for this heli is compared to those used on Twister 3D, T-Rex etc.

My old Twister 3D only needs to be looked at funnily for it to bend the spindle shaft.... and thei're more expensive than the mini titan's parts to top it off!!

[cincyheli]

I'm not :mrgreen: I put mine in hard about a week ago. trashed the woodies, a blade grip, a mixing arm, maingear, boom, tailfin. Pulled all the feather, main and tailshafts and all were perfect. they didnt even look worn or stressed. Put it all back together and it actually feels smoother now :noteworthy

[EricW]

Hehe,
Nice to know the shafts are that tough.
I somehow can't get above 4:30 min. of flight :? (hovering and figure eights)with my Titan and stock ESC/Motor without trashing the lipos
So i will start doing some more figures, maybe crash my woodies so i can replace them with carbon blades :lol:
Mhh, hope the lipo survives it though...

Eric

[MikeWz]

What battery are you using. Everyone seems to say that the stock ESC and motor get a little warmer than others...so I'm going to guess it's not quite as efficient. Also, the stock linkeages on this bird are quite tight in the beginning, so once everything gets broken in you should seem some slighly longer flight times.

[EricW]

I'm using a cheap (3m??) 2500mAh 3s1 15C lipo wich actually performs best on flight time, about 5 to 5.5 Min. but has much less power.
And I use a Flightpower 25c 2170 Mah (One of the best they told me) wich goes to 80% at about 4:30.
All flown on governor mode 85% flat, 13 tht pinion.
Always balance my packs during charging etc.
Optimised my belt tension, lubricated the ball links with special oil etc.
Have to say it was pretty hot outside this week, 29 degr.C (In April!!!), maybe that makes a difference?
Read somewhere else that using carbons makes a big difference in flighttime compared to the woodies.

[kamakazikev24]

Still just hovering about at the moment doing side in but Im getting 9mins 30 secs and putting 75% back into the FP 2170mAh, Well happy with these batterys and the V-Balance that I got with it!

[cincyheli]

i was getting 10min out of my tp 2100's and putting back about 1500mah. The extreme's would put back in about 1400, this was on the stock woodies. I have a set of radix on it now, but haven't really gotten a chance to fly since they have been on. I'm not using the stock motor or esc though, I'm using the JGF 500sh(3300kv) on 13t and a CC phoenix 35.

-c

[EricW]

Wow. :shock:
Wish i could fly that long.
Have to look at my setup again.
First take off the training gear (forgot to mention that one :) ) saves some weight and landings go very smooth so...
And i'm also going to try to fly without the governor and different throttlecurves.
see what that brings.
At least the Mini Titan Flies like a dream and i learn every day, that has to be said.

Thanks for the info
Eric

[cincyheli]

definately lose the training gear. Check your maingear mesh and your belt tension. Lube the front belt pulley with some light silicone oil, i use 70w rc car shock oil.

Regarding belt tension, I thought that i had my belt tension perfect at first, then I decided to play around with it and found that just a hair looser than what i thought had been perfect was actually better.

Indeed this is a very fine flying helicopter :glasses2: :fly

[EricW]

It really is tough!
Had my first crash with the MT today, guess i joined the club now ;)
Looked terrible at first, crashed inverted and sideways with some speed, parts flew around and i was a little late with the throttle-hold switch :oops:
After inspection and disassembly i found just a couple of parts need replacement.
surprisingly my complete seesaw, flybar, flybar-cage assembly is intact and straight :? .
So I have to order:
- set of blades
- Main shaft
- Grips (both linkage balls broke off)
- Mixing levers
- taildrivegear set

That's about it, not as bad as i suspected :).

Edit:
after a closer look, i also order a new flybar to be sure it's straight.
The taildrivergear's lower plastic gearing will probably break each time the tailblades are blocked during a crash.
This piece is imo the weakest link in the complete tail assembly.
Would be nice if TT would supply the gear separate in the future instead of a complete set with bearings and shaft.
still not bad for a serious crash :).

Eric

[Gardner]

Ive crashed 4 times with my MT and the hardest and loudest one was on concrete . Canopy exploded, boom bent, mainshaft and blades but my flybar and paddles wer still straight and true. yet to break anything on the tail or head.

[comeflywithme]

Good thing with a lot of MT's spares is that they come in pairs. I've only had one crash so far and I already have a spare drive gear, main shaft, flybar shaft, tail blades (using T-rex set which comes in 2 pairs) and Canopy pins!.

[bayselec]

Hey All
I've tried to get a bit of a stock of spares so I am not out of the air to long after an "oops". When I had my stack I broke the landing gear, grips mixing arms etc. & the base plate as well and had to wait for the spares to come in from importer, which took a week or so.

Cheers Rob

[stevehonn]

In 6 or so crashes I've only broken the base plate once but the battery tray 3 times, it's usually the two supports at the back that break but you have to buy the whole lot. The arm on the main blade grips is a frequent break point too plus I've lost the short links to the blade grips a few times now.

I've just fitted the metal main blade grips, flybar control arms and the two pulleys on the tail belt, I had a slight problem with the main blade grips as the thrust race in one was actually a tight fit so unable to do its job, I had to file the outside edge of the outer part to get it to work properly.

[EricW]

Ordered the parts yesterday together with TT carbon main blades :D
And been put on the list for the TT metal rotor hub, the TT-metal parts come in irregular so I had to make a reservation for it.
Some parts were out of stock so in my case it will take a week to get all parts.
normally when i have to order i can have my spares within 3 days.
That's pretty quick imo, no need to stock them myself.
Need some kind of punishment for crashing it ;)
Allready found out why i crashed, managed to recreate the exact same mistake in the sim :? ...Back to the sim again.