Going short

[rond]

I am very interested in this heli, but not in stretching it, but rather shortening it as some guys are now trying with the 475 woodies and short boom conversions. If we can get it light enough and unload the motor with shorter blades, we might be on to something.

Have any of you guys using the short boom conversion tried the MS 470 mm carbon blades? I wonder if they would unload the motor/batteries even more. I am interested in a decent flying setup with two T-Rex sized packs. If I have to go to 3300's or more, I might be more interested in a 600 class heli. But I don't really want to go that route.

Also, does anyone know of a shorter yet blade with a decent sized chord? I am thinking if 475 is good, 450 may be better??? It would have to be a beefier blade than a Lepton sized (425 I think) blade.

Ron

[Hurriken]

Just got my Hurricane a couple of weeks ago, and loving it!

Currently running completely stock everything (plastic head, 850 Kv motor, 50 amp ESC) from the basic combo kit. Only updates are switched all ball links out to T-Rex balls, and using Raptor 30 rod ends.

I am running 475 mm MS Composite carbons off from my old ECO-8, and 2x - 2170 Flightpower EVO 25's. I still have the long tail. I plan on converting to the short boom soon, but am just going through learning hovering mode now, so being tailheavy isn't a problem as of yet.

I'm getting 13 minutes of just hovering, and putting 1400 Mah back into the packs. Ran it down until the voltage alarm went off the other day, (Frankly was having so much fun wasn't watching the clock) and had 18 minutes, and put back 1800 Mah in. I am quite pleased with the runtimes I have been getting, I was expecting to be in the 7 min range based on what others were posting out here. Not sure if my good results are due to light loading of motor, or non-agressive flying at this point.

I have not tached the headspeed yet, need to buy an optical tach one of these days. But based on others, they say that bumping it up smooths things out. I'm just afraid this will really bite into my flight times.

[rond]

Thanks for the reply!

Just curious, with that type of runtime, how much throttle are you using? What's your throttle curve percentage in a hover? I understand there are plenty of variables, but all that aside it's interesting that you can even get it to sustain a hover for 13 minutes on those packs no matter how low your rpm is.

Ron

[Hurriken]

Hi Ron

I was playing around last night with the Hurricane, and tweaking around my throttle/pitch curves a bit just to see how the heli reacted.

First flight last night I was running 0,25,60,75,100 Throttle, 0,25,50,75,100 Pitch. Gentle liftoffs, and landings, and was pretty much just level hovering @ 8-10'. Set down twice, and spooled down, but paused timer each setdown. Ran 11 minutes on the timer, put back 1375+/- in each pack. Packs, and motor just warm to touch, with 11.2v left in both packs.

Second flight: 0,50,80,100,100 Throttle, 0,25,65,85,100 Pitch. Aggressive climbs ground to 25', gentle decents to 2' then hard climb again, some general hovering about, and climbs again. I did notice a slight increase in stability with the higher motor speed. Ran 9 minutes on the timer, put back 1600+/- in each pack. Packs warm to touch, motor hot enough I wouldn't want to grab a hold of it and hold on, probably 150-175°F, 10.7v left in packs.

Both flights were using my EVO 25, 2170's, The packs only have 8 charges through them right now. Also am running a Rx battery pack, not the standalone BEC that came with the kit, w/ digitals on cyclic, and a GY401/9254 digital high speed on the tail. I know digitals are rather power hungry, so I'm sure that feeding them seperately doesn't hurt any.

I am still really pleased with the performance, and flightimes with the setup I am running right now, at least with my limited skill set. Started to try slow figure 8's last night but chickened out just before nose in. Really want more sim time of nose in by Reflex quit working on my PC about a month ago and haven't gotten it fixed yet. If I had some 3300's kicking around I would love to see the flight times I would get with my setup. I saw a guy flying similar setup to me posting out on Runryder getting 22 minutes on 3300's! Way cool! Although I know most doing anything agressive with the 1500kv motors are only getting 6-7 minutes on 3300's, really sound cool running 2200+ on headspeed though.

See you are also in Michigan, I am in the Jackson area, but work in Ann Arbor. If you are interested in getting a hands on look at my Hurricane you are more than welcome to. Just PM me and we can set something up.

Ken

[probe3]

I am running 475 mm MS Composite carbons off from my old ECO-8,

Are you guys running 475 blades with a 3mm or 4mm hole ? I can only find 470~ blades with a 3mm online :(

[Hurriken]

Pretty sure mine are 3mm. I know they fit the Hurricane fasteners perfectly, no spacers required. I really don't know if the blades I'm running are even available any more. I've had them for probably 3 years at least.

Ken

[Hurriken]

Did some quick looking, and the blades I am running are 470 mm with 3mm hole.

Here's where I got them from ages ago:

http://www.fxaeromodels.com/product_info.php?cPath=49_50_67&products_id=1674

[Pinecone]

Running low throttle is NOT good on the packs, as you end up loading the motor with extra pitch when trying to hover, and pulling more amps.

[rond]

I know this is probably too far to go down, but has anyone tried Lepton sized blades (approx. 425 mm) on this helis with the short boom?

Of course the chord is much narrower on the smaller blades...might be interesting though.

Ron

[digger60]

Has anyone tried using the stock wood 500mm blades with the short boom ? I am wondering if its safe to do. I just do general flying, perhaps a flip or two.

Tom

[digger60]

Hi everyone...I have a stock 550 and I just finished putting the shorter boom on it. WOW it hovers much better now. That seems to have fixed my CG problem..I can take my hands off the sticks for 3 seconds now and it sits right there. I am currently still using the stock wood 500 blades. I do have a set of 475 blades but Iam wondering if I need them ? What is the advantage of using the 475 over the 500 blades with the stock motor and 2 x FP 2170 Evo 25 Bats ?


Thanks
Tom