My impressions of Hurricane 550

[Helifan]

I put 6-7 flights on the Hurricane 550 so far. What a nice flying helicopter.
It is not a power house like my Ion-X, but it’s not a dog either.

I have tried micros and they are not for me (T-rex 450 and Mini Titan). I have also had a Logo and Swift before, but I like the Hurricane more than all of them. It’s small without being too small and it flies bigger that it is.

I have another pinion coming to bump up the head speed. Only 2200 on the head right now but should be more crisp at 2400-2500. Performance has been respectful at the 2200rpm head speed. Temps have been 120/packs, 95/motor. 73F ambient temp.

Here is my setup. Hurricane 550 XES Pro, Century 600+ motor, CC 60A ESC, Revco gears, frame brace, 1100mah receiver pack with bec, GY611/S9256, Align tail, Futaba S9650 servos, Raptor flybar, stock paddles/tail blades.

I have tried MS 512mm and RCP 500mm main blades. I am only using two 2200mah (25C) packs. It is what I had and I did not want to invest into larger packs incase I didn’t like the heli. I am only getting 4min. flights of 3D.

I have had no problems with tracking, gears stripping, or frames distorting. Tonight I hooked up the EagleTree data logger and have included graphs from this evenings flight.

I was running MS 512mm blades for this flight. The RCP blades are not as an aggressive blade but I like them. Will also run a flight with the RCP blades and post if there is a big difference in readings.

[ukgroucho]

Nice review comments.

Where can you get the MS512 blades... do you think they are 'better' than the 500 RCPs?

I'm still working thru the setup on my 550... 10S (23005S x 2) and I'm not sure that the RCP 500s give the right 'bite.. My 550 build is a little heavy (2500 grams) so I think bigger blades at the same or a slightly lower HS might give more 'pop' . Running just under 2400 HS right now.

Gotta stick that raptor flybar in..

EDIT: I'd like to see your graphs for the RCP blades if you have time.

[Helifan]

I don't think the MS blades any better or worse than the 500 RCPs. Just different. They are a little bit wider, longer (515 vs. 500), have a different surface profile, and are slightly thicker. I misplaced my dial calipers or I would take some measurement.

The MS blades do auto better than the RCP's, not surprisingly due to the difference stated above.
I picked up a pair of used one's but I am sure some of the online venders have them.

If I get a flight in I will certainly post results with the RCP blades.

[nubli]

very interesting data you collected, helifan..

at times (from the chart) your voltage dropped to 17-18Volt.. pretty scarry. you really put your cells through tough tests

[Helifan]

I have collected data from other E-powered helicopters and airplanes and it's not uncommon for voltage to drop below 3v per cell under load.

It is only for only a brief period of time and seems to have no ill affect to packs. This occurs with low and high C rated packs.

Posting more data on RCP blades tonight.

[Helifan]

Here is data from two flights with the RCP 500 blades. I like these blades a lot.

They don't load up like the MS 512mm blades do and I was flying them harder and got the same amount of flight time.

Flights consisted of Tic Tocs, Kaos, Funnels, Hurricanes. Mild 3D pyro flips, stationary flips and rolls.

The Tic Tocs are the sections on the graphs that the watts are the highest. When I do these it gives me a good idea of the power of the setup because it can be such a power hungry maneuver.

Notice that voltage drops below 18v. Packs measured 10.6v apiece at the start of a charge.

Flight 1

[Helifan]

Flight 2 RCP blades.

[bstock]

helifan - what was your flight times on those 2 flights?

thanks - Brent

[Helifan]

4 minutes exactly.

[ukgroucho]

Quick question about the graphs... I'm assuming that you take off and hover briefly before "getting into it".. trying to gauge your hovering watts. I think it's around 550 watts...

[Helifan]

I would have to say that is pretty close. Some where between 550 - 650 watts.

[ukgroucho]

That's great.. I was trying to reconcile my hovering watts with some equations I saw (rules of thumb) that a heli should hover with about 100 watts per Kg (+ or minus 30%) at a HS around 1700 RPM.

I'm up around 520 watts average in a hover on a 2.5Kg helicopter. I guess pushing the HS up to nearly 2400 RPM is the 'issue'.
I'm wondering about slightly bigger blades for mine to reduce disk loading.

[Helifan]

I tried a 24T pinion and got 2500 rpm for the head speed. The heli flies really nice at this speed vs. the 2200 that I was getting.

Shorter flight times, down to 3.5 min. vs 4 min. Both motor and battery temps were up, but the ambient temp. was also up by 10 deg. today. Will try a 23T pinion when I get my hands one.

I have some 3000mAh 25C packs coming and hopefully they will arrive soon. Will post time and flight data after I get the packs broke in.

Posting graphs from the EagleTree logger of the 2500 head speed flight.

[ke6d]

I tried a 24T pinion and got 2500 rpm for the head speed. The heli flies really nice at this speed vs. the 2200 that I was getting.

Shorter flight times, down to 3.5 min. vs 4 min. Both motor and battery temps were up, but the ambient temp. was also up by 10 deg. today. Will try a 23T pinion when I get my hands one.

I have some 3000mAh 25C packs coming and hopefully they will arrive soon. Will post time and flight data after I get the packs broke in.

Posting graphs from the EagleTree logger of the 2500 head speed flight.

Hi,

At the beginning of the graphs, there was a big spike in current and big drop in voltage (down to < 17.5v) What was the maneuver? I am really nervous if my pack voltage under load drop down that low.

GL,

Dan, KE6D

[Helifan]

I am more worried about how hot a pack gets then a split second drop in voltage below 3V per cell under load. At 17.5V that is still 2.91V per cell under load. As you can see in the graph, the voltage never drops bellow 19.5V (3.25V per cell) after that. After I land it jumps back up to 21.5V (3.58V per cell) at rest.

Some of the newer battery companies are saying that you can go as low as 2.5V per cell and that is at rest. Even giving advice on how to fool the charger so that it will charge these below 3V cells.

I am not saying abuse your packs by going below 3V per cell under load. Your packs will last longer if you don’t. But I do realize that in hi-power systems it does happen for very brief periods of time, and I am not going to loose any sleep over it.

I am not sure exactly what I was doing at that point in the flight. Probably just poor collective management to spike like that.
Pitch range is -/+15. So full pitch could have been too much for the batteries. The amps were 68 at that time and probably just too much for the batteries to sustain. The packs are rated at 55A continuos/66A burst.

I do have some packs coming that are rated at 75A continuous so they should be able to handle things much better.

A 23T pinion would probably be a good compromise for the 55A packs. A 23T would give head speeds between 2200 and 2500 and not to much amp draw for the packs.

That's the nice thing about having a data logger. It allows you fine tune your system by letting you know how your changes affect the system.

[ukgroucho]

Absolutely agree about the data logger...my Eagletree has educated me quite a bit since I got it a few month back. I've run in-flight tests on pretty much all of my models since I got it and it revealed some really interesting stuff - not to mention giving real-world headspeed data.

This is flight data from my 10S setup - 2 x 2300MaH Hextronik 5S packs.

You can see HS is around 2360, AMPs peak at 60 with 1950 watts :YeaBaby:

EDIT: for the record, that flight took 1568MaH

[ke6d]

Absolutely agree about the data logger...my Eagletree has educated me quite a bit since I got it a few month back. I've run in-flight tests on pretty much all of my models since I got it and it revealed some really interesting stuff - not to mention giving real-world headspeed data.

This is flight data from my 10S setup - 2 x 2300MaH Hextronik 5S packs.

You can see HS is around 2360, AMPs peak at 60 with 1950 watts :YeaBaby:

EDIT: for the record, that flight took 1568MaH

Yes, the data logger is a very good and fun tool to have. I must confess that I only have it for a week, but I have been pretty busy taking data, looking at voltage, amp, and rpm after each maneuver. I must say that I have learned so much about the power systems on my helicopters in the last few days.

Cheers,

Dan, KE6D