raptor 30 help

[Tresguey]

hi all, im a complete newbie and need a little help. first off the main rotors, the wood ones. is the plastic wrap supposed to stay on? i took it off and some guy said it was supposed to be left on, it looked like packing wrap to me so i took it off. will it effect it in anyway? second is i have a mean shake in the heli when i start to give it gas just under half throttle. then just above half throttle when i start lifting it stops. but then i get a good tail wag back and forth about 8 inches. is my gyro too sensitive or not sensitive enough. or a different problem. i am useing a airtronics rd8000 jr500 gyro and my raptor is a v2. also i heard that you can over tighten the main and rotor blades. how do i know if they are too loose or too tight? i know i have laid down alot of questions but i need alot of help. LOL, thanks in advance.

[RSL_Mongoose]

Leave the wrap on the blades, if it becomes loose you can use a hair dryer to tighten it up a bit, (its shrink wrap). Its normal for the thing to wobble when you first start the head spinning, its the blades spreading out and you can over tighten the blades, they have to lead and lag in flight but not loose enough that they flop around. It sounds like maybe you have the sensitivity on the gyro set to high I am not farmiliar with that particular gyro but you should be able to turn it down till the wag stops, oh and be sure that you glue the plastic blade grips onto the woodies as per the instructions it can get pretty nasty if they separate in flight.

[Hotshot Charlie]

Just to add to RSL_Mongoose's info:

Don't fly the thing with un-wrapped blades!!!! You could possibly get some separation in the lamanated wood and ..... well that wouldn't be good.

[Tresguey]

thanks guys for all the info. i guess i need to go out and get some new rotor blades. i have put about 8 tanks through the heli with the blades like that. man am i lucky them rotors didnt come unglued huh!!! might of got a little ugly. i assume i would tighten the tail rotors the same as the mains? and yes the mains have been a little too tight then. thanks again RSL and Hotshot.

[Hotshot Charlie]

You can get some shrink wrap or monokote and recover the blades, but that is sort of a pain to do. There is that option though. I don't have a first hand experience with the blades coming un-lamanated, but I was warned about that happening when I first got into heli's.

My rule of thumb with the blades is I don't want them too tight, but not too loose. If I hold my heli up on it's side with the blades out and give the heli a little shake, they will stay extended. If the main blades are too loose, it increases your chance of a boom strike on a hard landing. The tail blades again follow the same type of feel as the main blades.... not too tight or too loose, but you can't use the same "shake" theory with them. Just tight enough to hold them in position when you pull them out straight.

That is my way of doing tightening the blades..... anyone else have a better method?

[Hotshot Charlie]

Also, be sure to follow the instructions about cutting the shrink wrap from under the blade grips and glueing them to the blade with either epoxy or slow CA.

My method on this is over kill, but it works. I cut the shrink wrap back as directed in the blade instructions, then apply thin CA to the wood. Let that dry and them apply a generious application of epoxy, 30 min or 5 min, stick the blade holders on and screw them down. Wipe off all the excess glue, expecially from the open holes. I then use some clamps and let them dry clamped down.

Hope this helps.

[WillJames]

The shrink wrap on the blades also helps keep them from soaking up excess moisture and warping when the humidity is high.

Definitely very carefully epoxy the plastic pieces on the blade roots.

Best of luck, you picked a good machine to learn with.

Will

[RSL_Mongoose]

Tresguey, when I get home from work today I will look, I may have a set of woodies laying around that you can have, if so I will send them to ya as I don't fly them anymore.

[Tresguey]

thanks everyone for all your help. never thought i would get this kind of feedback from a forum. and i did pick up some new blades today. i 30 min epoxy them then balanced them after the cure time. they seemed right on the money right outta the box. is that normal? so i put them on the heli and checked the tracking. do i need to do this everytime i install new blades? anyway they tracked good. also how often do i need to lub things up and what do i lube? i have been flying airplanes for a while and never had a thought to lube anything, but the heli has so many moving parts on it. i think my planes are going to collect some dust now. playing with the heli is way more challenging.

[RSL_Mongoose]

On a Raptor the only places I put oil (silicone oil that is) is a drop or two on the head dampners every now and then and a drop on the main shaft and tail output shaft every few flights.

Its likely that you will have to track the blades everytime you change them out, but your not likely to have to do that until after a mishap and will have to replace the spindle anyways.

[Tresguey]

thanks RSL, this is a great site. im gonna have to break out the manual for the heli sinde i have no idea what the dampners are or what they do.

[RSL_Mongoose]

Heres a good place to find most Raptor questions that you may have.

http://www.raptortechnique.com/

[Tresguey]

thanks, i'll check it out