Help with my hawk

[aballen]

I bought and built a century hawk sport ~5 years ago... had a kid that year and put it in the basement.

Well I have been flying micros, and now a t-rex, and I want to get this bird back up in the air.

Mechanically it is perfectly set up... but i have a new radio, and I have to set it all up again :(

I have no manuals, and it has a copilot on it... aslo no manuals.

For starters, can someone tell me which mode to put my tx in, HR-3, HE-3, H2? I'm totally stumped, but all the linkages.

no matte what mode i put it in it seems ok, except the entire swash moves up or down when i put in alieron. elevator seems to work as expected.

I'm attaching some pics of my heli swash and linkages, in case it will help.

[Ray Fernandez]

Ari,

Your Hawk is the basic mechanical setup. Depending on what radio you have, you should set up the SR1 configuration. That should get the setup back to the original mechanical mode.

What radio are you using?

[aballen]

I have a 7chp, I dont htink there is an sr1 mode...

h-1
h-1
he3
hr3
h-3
hn3

yep thats it

[aballen]

dang guys I'm getting the impression century nitros are not that popular?

[RAV50]

Ari,

The Hawk is the most popular trainer heli at the 3 clubs I belong to.

If you check page 61 of your 7C manual it explains the different swashplate modes.

H1 is the one you want for the Hawk .."independent aileron, pitch and elevator servos linked to the swashplate."

You will find a lot of Centurians here:

http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/f48p1/

[aballen]

Thanks RAV, at least I know its H1, I can try to get the mixing from there... would you believe I was flying it as SR3.... it was all over the place.

[jackheli]

Replace your aileron servo arm. It will bind.

You need to use a disc and offset the holes so the rods exit at 90 degrees from the arm.

The Hawk hasn't changed that much, so you can get manuals from here:

http://www.centuryheli.com/support/manuals/manual.html?currentid=2

for the copilot, check my gallery on RR and get the manual from here:

http://www.fmadirect.com/downloads.htm

What's with the T-Rex 600?

[aballen]

wow thanks for the manual... i just noticed there is a different setup for heli and air tx. My hawk was originally set up on a futaba 8uaf(air) and now im trying to set it up on a 7hcp(heli) I'm going to go over the linkages too just to sure how i set it up back then... cant say I remember.

[aballen]

I made a lot of changes, and I'll be taking her out for a test flight today. I still have some more setup questions.

In the attached photos you can see what I changed.

Q1) new arms for aileron, not quite at 90 deg yet, but it was the largest on eI could find... I know I had a large disk at some point, I'll try to get another one at the LHS, but there is no binding and it is much closer to straight on. The larger arms mean I get more throw, and loose resolution thought, is this really what I want?

Q2) moved the rudder control to the underside of the servo arm(wheel) to keep it from binding with the pitch assembly. There appears to be a tiny guide next to the main gear, but it seems too tight to get the rudder slider through, should I drill it out, or just forget about it?

I also completely reworked the linkages from bottom to top... mechanically, I don't think it was set up well at all. Now everything is even and level, throws are correct etc.

Oh yea,
A1) not sure why I posted a pic if my rex... it must have just gotten in there when I was uploading by mistake...she flys sweet though
A2) well more of a thank you, once in H1, I found all my servos were hooked up right, and duh... its the most simple setup ever, no mixing at all. Thanks guys.

Please compare the pics of my new setup to my old... and offer any tips you can, I'm happy to listen, as I said this is my first and only nitro heli.

[aballen]

the images wont upload... trouble rescaling... I'll try for them again later.

ok think i got it

[jackheli]

You got it wrong on the Aileron. It is not the size of the arm but where you put the holes for the links. They cannot be lined up.

Check the attached image.

I'll try to double-check the rest of your setup shortly.

Jack

[jackheli]

ops...

Jack

[aballen]

judging from your picture I made some improvements.... I made one mistake though...

the throttle needed to be reversed... so when i fired it up it was on full throttle.... and yes, i had throttle hold on... so moving the stick did nothing :( I ended out holdig the prop head until the engine just died... now i cant get it to turn start.

[jackheli]

I you can't start the engine there is the likelihood that the barrel ended up being too closed at idle. Now that you reversed the channel make sure that the endpoints are suitable.

Also, there is a good chance that you have fried your clutch liner, so check for that as well.

[jackheli]

Also, make sure that at 0 degrees - centre stick - that everything is level. Check the attached picture where I added a straight line across the pitch lever. (THERE IS A SMALL THUMBNAIL ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BIG PICTURE)

For example, the picture below show what is NOT level:

[aballen]

here is where my nitro newbness comes in... how do i check the clutch liner?

[jackheli]

Check the clutch liner:

Firstly, check the fan and see if there is a lot of black powder stuck on your fan and shroud. It is a bad sign.


From there, you can either fire the engine up and try to listen for a ringing sound indicating the shoe is hitting the bell and check if the clutch engages late on spool up, or drop the engine, remove the fan and clutch and check the liner visually.

[jackheli]

Missing picture above indicating unleveled setup:

[aballen]

really appreciate all the input... turns out my clutch was fried... I took it out, cleaned it up, and fired it up... turns out I bent my fs too...

I figured the clutch would work for getting her set up but not with a bent fs, and all I can find is the fs for the hawk pro, which is a different part

do you know where I can find a hawk sport FS in stock, I want to get a new FS with a new clutch, housing and fan... it's all melty, so I'm going to replace it all, but without the FS its all useless.

[jackheli]

Unfortunately with Rick's out of business, I only know heli-world. You can also get a new liner from them:

Spindle: what Hawk go you have? Your signature says Hawk Gasser, but there is no such thing as gasoline powered Hawk.
This is the spindle for the hawk pro:
http://www.heli-world.com/detail.aspx?ID=5378

This is the 6mm spindle for the the Hawk SE:
http://www.heli-world.com/detail.aspx?ID=3425

Do you have the plastic clutch bell? full bell and lining:
http://www.heli-world.com/detail.aspx?ID=5483

or liner only, for the metal bell:
http://www.heli-world.com/detail.aspx?ID=3183

If you have the thinner spindle, why noy take this opportunity to upgrade to a 6mm spindle (fs)? you will be much happier with that setup.

Check this post on RR:

http://www.runryder.com/helicopter/t379356p1/

[aballen]

its a hawk sport, thanks for the lead on the 6mm spindle... but bp is out of the bearings... man I cant win with this heli.... I'm off to search for esmart helis for parts :(

[RAV50]

May I suggest that you go onto the Century site. Klik on the custommer support icon - then select the Hawk Sport manual (a PDF file) and print it out. Then you will have a list of all the part numbers. There you will find the Hawk Pro and Hawk SPort will use the same feathering shaft (part # HW3180).

If your Sport spindle is bent, this would be a good time to do the full upgrade to the feathering shaft set from the Hawk Pro (HW3180C). This is the same spindle shaft (HW3180) but the set (C version) comes with two special spacers that result in a stiffer damping.

From comparing the manual from the Sport and the Pro, you will see that most "crash parts" are the same. This is why the CN2230H4 crash kit is the same for use on both.

Many parts are the same e.g. the clutch/clutch bell & fan system, tail rotor and some other systems are the same.

You will find that flying R/C helicopters is a steep learning curve at first. Once you have been through a few mishaps and into more demanding flight you will feel a lot more "veteran" and comfortable in doing so.

[aballen]

hrm, how can you tell the 3180 and 3810C are compatible?

[jackheli]

Century only does three head blocks for the Hawk. One is full metal, another is metal and plastic and the last is full plastic. If yours is full plastic you are using the same head as the Hawk Pro. Everything on the head that aplies to the Pro will apply to yours.

So, either upgrade for a 6mm spindle for a tighter head for 3D or stick with what you have and get either the http://www.heli-world.com/detail.aspx?ID=5378 or http://www.heli-world.com/detail.aspx?ID=3271 the first is a tighter setup.

BTW, you may want to take the "gasser" off your signature. A Gasser is a completely different beast, usually a 90 size bird that runs on a 23~30cc gasoline engine. I think you meant a "nitro".

[aballen]

yeah I think my clutch was bad... took it apart and it was literally fused into a solid block... I took it off cleaned it up, and flew a litle... but dont trust it...

here is a picture after I cleaned it up... not bad eh?

I replaced the clutch, clutch bell and fan,