What L gear is best on Sw. 16?

[aramsdell]

I'm getting tired of the spotty quality of the Swift's landing gear. Sometimes the aluminum skids won't fit in te plastic so you have to ream/drill it. Sometimes its a slop fit. Sometimes it self destructs when you try to assemble it or tighten the setscrews,
What have you tried? The only use I have for the Century l-gear is it shears off in a crash. Sometimes it shears off in a landing though as in this afternoon.

[RAV50]

Hmmmm...I have always used the stock ones with no problems except in two hard autos I have pulled off in almost 150 flights. I have broken struts on any heli I have ever had in similar hard autos. I would not consider the Version 3 landing gear any worse then many others I have had on various helis over the years.

[Chris DeSain]

The V3 although a little storky for my taste in appearance has held up for me fine to date and a hard auto here and there. i split the old V2 gear like you mention tightening the set screw but to date not the V3 If it is spliting then the screws are definitly too tight.

One hint if you dont like the swift gear is running the 30/40 size gear. I did this when I broke my V1 gear on the prototype and they look dam good on as well :mrgreen:

[aramsdell]

Chris D. Where did you get the .30/.40 gear? Do you have a part #? I looked around on Heli-world unsucessfully. Al

[JustPlaneChris]

The RC Universe review of the Swift has some pics with Hirobo Sceadu landing gear installed (after the stock gear broke, go figure! :roll: ). I think it looks pretty sweet:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/reviews/687/34.jpg
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/reviews/687/108.jpg
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/reviews/687/111.jpg
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/reviews/687/052.jpg

-Chris

[davew]

I use century hawk landing gear struts,they are wider and not as tall and dont vibrate like the V3 struts.use the skids and the spacers from the swift.

[aramsdell]

Thanks JustPlaneChris,Davew,
The Sceadu stuff looks good although I'm a little put off with the rake of the boom braces. Davew, got a pic of the Hawk gear?

[Kamikazi]

I use century hawk landing gear struts,they are wider and not as tall and dont vibrate like the V3 struts.use the skids and the spacers from the swift.

Are these (http://www.heli-world.com/detail.aspx?ID=5461) the ones you mean? They look pretty low profile...

Ground resonance problem is driving me nuts. I've tried everything except jacking it up and sliding in a new TRex 600 :arggg:

[RAV50]

Kamikazi,

I have found blades can be a "resonance problem". What blades are you using?

Are you sure you have the V3 landing gear struts?

[Kamikazi]

I'm using the 530mm FunKey blades from Heli-world.

Actually, I'm not 100% sure they are the v3 struts. But, they look exactly like these:

http://www.heli-world.com/detail.aspx?ID=3726

Which are the only ones listed... :dontknow
I thought there was a CNE512A also, but I can't find them anywhere.

[davew]

KAMIKAZI
they are the ones i use part number is H13122 ,i have a 10mm spacer between the rear strut & the frame, there is a 20mm gap between the standard rear fin & the ground.

[Kamikazi]

davew - Looks good. I may have to give them a try. Is that spacer a stocked item, or something you made?

I'm also going to try skuffing up the area on the blade roots so the grips have more friction. They are very glossy and the blades have a tendency to stick before they move. When they do finally break loose, they move pretty easy even with the grips torqued down. I'm thinking the "stiction" might be a problem... a greater and more uniform friction might be better.

[pitch black]

Hey guys.

I really like the sceadu LG.
Seems alot lighter than the r50 ones.

Here's mine, with R50T LG.
I might decide to anchor the boom support some place else as it might hinder the tail servo mounting.

[Kamikazi]

That's similar to how I have my boom supports mounted - no problem with servo clearance - just turned it slightly. Got the idea from here -
http://www.swift-tuning.com/vibration.php

Where can you buy the Sceadu LG ? I've looked around a bit but haven't seen them.

[JustPlaneChris]

Where can you buy the Sceadu LG ? I've looked around a bit but haven't seen them.Heliproz has them:

http://www.heliproz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=403254

That is struts only, no skid tubes.

-Chris

[cmezip]

Wow talk about a usefull post, I will have try some of this. This is the only thing I do not like about the swift.

[Kamikazi]

Where can you buy the Sceadu LG ? I've looked around a bit but haven't seen them.Heliproz has them:

http://www.heliproz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=403254

That is struts only, no skid tubes.

-Chris

Arrrgh... Stock Swift skid tubes don't fit. Guess I'll have to stop by the LHS and see if they have some larger ones that fits these struts.

[victornhi]

I put a pair of trex 600 landing gear, stock black ones, on a couple of weeks ago. Sits about an inch lower and they're about two inches wider. They don't seem any stiffer than the stock struts, but I like the wider stance especially landing on grass.

[aramsdell]

I've broken 6 or 7 pair since I started this thread. I've boiled some for as much as 15 minutes in a covered pot with only a little water, I've usded a heat gun on them. The best cure is not to use them.... I like the Raptor 50 gear Pitch Black had so that's on now. I always modify so I ran the tail boom supports up . I used longer bolts and a 1/4 " tube spacer so they mount on the outside of the frame where the anti-rotation bracket is. I relieved the canopy just a little. My Dean's antenna is now on the rear skid. The tail skid sits about 1 inch higher than the gear. It IS wider for grass and autos. The spoolup/down is a little different because the new gear is much stockier.
VERDICT: Do it. I love it.

[Kamikazi]

Tried the Hawk struts. Spoolup looked fairly good, and during spool-down it was looking good. Got to a lower headspeed than before and then all h*ll broke loose again. Resonance moved to a lower rpm. Heli is smooth in flight.

Time to start over once more. I'll pull the mainshaft and roll it on glass again. I can't imagine that it's bent (it's the longer solid shaft for the 3rd BB upgrade), but I'll check it again anyway... :arggg:

[aramsdell]

Kamikaze, I always get a minute amount of shake. Just stir the cyclic in a little circle on spoolup/down and that will get the blades to adjust in the grips assuming the grips aren't too tight. I like mine a little tight . If they are fairly loose I seem to cut my booms off in a tipover. When they are tight I generally just cut some grass before the rotation stops. ( see also AUTOS-Gone-Wrong ha ha)
I just changed the carbon tailskid to a homemade aluminum skid with lightening holes. 13 G versus 9 g for the carbon. Looks so much nicer and it will bend not break. http://www.helifreak.com/viewtopic.php?t=42013

[Kamikazi]

Stirring the cyclic probably works for some because it interrupts the natural frequency of the resonance. It doesn't work for me however...
My theory is that the real root of the problem is flex in the upper frames. When I firmly move the mainshaft from side to side, I can see the space between the motor housing and side frames changing. I have tried this experiment on several of my other Heli's and none of them exhibit any detectable flex in their frames with the same test.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to put this theory to the test however. There seems no easy way to install any diagonal bracing to the frames in front of the mainshaft or elsewhere.

Why some people have a big problem with the shake, and others have little or no shake makes this a little more difficult to pin down. Perhaps battery weight, location and mounting has a significant effect.

Certainly there must be a slight imbalance in the system to begin with in order to trigger the resonance. Perhaps some guys who have a perfectly balanced rotor head are simply avoiding the problem because they are lucky enough to not have a trigger.

I have balanced my blades as accurately as I possibly can - in weight, in lengthwise CG and even checked chordwise CG. They are within the weight of a mosquito of being perfect. Flybar and paddles have been measured and centered with dial calipers. They are within a couple thousandths of an inch.
The only way I'm going to get it any better is to pull the entire head and mainshaft assy and try to figure out how to dynamically balance it as a unit with main blades installed. This is going to be difficult, and really should not be necessary in order to avoid this violent shaking.

I'm sure there is an underlying problem here that - so far - has only seen band-aide fixes. I believe that is also the case with official fix from Century (i.e. the spindle with the smaller ball)

[aramsdell]

Kamikaze, Try this then. Brute force method, damn the scientific method. Take a piece of tracking tape and, randomly choosing a blade, place it on the span CG mark. If shakes are worse move it to the other blade. Experiment with more or less tape when you notice a change. Now do the same for the flybar setup. This worked on a TREX with a camera mount. It still has a piece of blue painters' tape on the blade but it flies great.

I didn't ask before. Are you running the metal head? I have the metal head block and plastic grips. It is easy to get the head block misaligned. The two 3mm bolts that clamp the head around the mast can be tightened in such a way as to cock the head to one side and that means vibration! If you tighten one screw more than the other the effect is the top of the head moves away from the screw and the blade grip above that screw raises. If you have the metal head chack that.
Al Ramsdell ,Sanford Maine.

[cmezip]

I have Trex 600 gear on mine using the stock rear spacers and the tail boom support is mounted to the top of the frame, I am much happier with these.

[aramsdell]

Haven't broken the Raptor 50 gear yet ! That gear will use the Swifts skids! I also used the stock rear spacers. You must use longer bolts in the front and rear of the gear.
I've done many autos since putting on this gear. I've bounced it numerous times. It's much nicer as it's also harder to tip over as it's wider.