Put In the Gasser Today

[lperagallo]

I knew my time would be coming up soon and it did. This time though it wasn't dumb thumbs, it was dumb pre-flight. I guess I've never checked the balls on the swash plate and today one on the long link decided it had enough and went off to heli heaven. It just plain backed out. Unfortunately for me it did it just after a loop and in FFF. You just can't believe how fast the headspeed dies when one blade becomes a plank. Oh well it wasn't too bad. I managed to save the Vblades. Front skid, head axle, flybar, mixer, long link (don't know where that is) and a slight bend in the tail. I hope the torque tube is OK.

Chris. I don't have a medium size ball but I have 2 of the short balls. Is there a reason why I can't use the short balls until I can order the medium ones. It looks like there isn't any interference anywhere. What do you think?

Lou

[cbergen]

There is a reason, the throw of the swashplate to the head will be reduced, in the cyclics.

Kind of like putting the ball on a servo wheel closer in, the throw is reduced.

Did the ball come out cleanly? The threads are ok in the swashplate?

[lperagallo]

Chris,

Yes it came out cleanly. Threads were fine when I put the small ball back in. As long as both balls are the same size I should be OK at least until I get the right parts.....right? I thought that it would be like moving a ball on a wheel, but after I put it together I have the same throws in cyclic and pitch as far as I could see. I'll call Mary Ann in the morning and order the correct ones. It's an easy swap out. Would you use red locktite or stay with blue?

I'm glad I have the new dampers. I hadn't changed over teh Gasser and when I took teh head axle out the Oring were shot. One was completely destroyed and the other was pretty bad. I've put the hard dampers back in. Is there any special grease I should use or should I just use the high temp brake caliper grease I've been using since day one?

Lou

[cbergen]

Blue should be just fine.

I've not been lubing these new dampeners, except for what may be left in the head to aid in installation, especially the hard dampeners!