RC-TEK Sky Shark/Diablo thread

[strat1960s]

HobbyStuff,

You canopy looks great. I may do the same thing when I get home.

Ted

[HeliSmith]

I hooked up about 5 flights today on the Sky Shark. Tail blows out on me with this servo running at 5v and I was going to low. Tail just went whacky on me, I probably could have saved it but I didn't want major damage so I hit thold. Broke one blade only so not too bad.

Did 6 on the Trex V2 SE Scorpion -6 V2 w/11T pinion and RC-TEK fiberglass blades at about 3400 RPM. Very nice, loving it. I only get 3:30 flight time but it just rips. Inverted backwards hurricanes the blades have that nice slapping/cracking of the air sound. This is my answer to my CF blades woes. I know fiber glass blades but you have to try them I am telling you.

Poor Trex is donating its 9650 servo though and will be shelfed because I can't be without the Sky Shark. (I think this makes its 3rd shelfing to donate stuff now.. lol) I just love the way my Sky Shark flies so much. I am going to save this little servo for the throttle on my upcoming Trex 600N purchase.

P.S. Luckily it was a wood blade I broke not my nice fiberglass ones.

[HeliSmith]

This thread is kind of not moving. Anyway putting Radix blades on both helis.

Hope you guys are flying and having fun!

[Jetleaf]

Helismith what do you think of the RC-TEK carbon fiber blades?

[HeliSmith]

They remind me of the 24 dollar ones. They do fly very well.

[HeliSmith]

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9399209&postcount=4
Please read -
Regards,
Scott

Not great news from RC-TEK

[JasonJ]

That sucks. Guess I'll have to try not to crash my 450. Thank God align parts can work....

[Laurens]

Lets hope we just won't trash the centerhub, if you crash HARD you might bend it.

[HeliSmith]

I appreciate everyone's well wishes for the people affected and we are doing our part to move past this. We still have most parts available and we will be looking at alternative production options - but it will probably take some time. I have John on a plane to China now since he already has a traveler's Visa and was able to bump up his normally scheduled trip.
Again, nothing is cancelled; just temporally retired. The RCT-450 (aka RCT-325) will be back soon if I have anything to say about it! Sit tight!
Regards,
Scott

That it needed to be posted here too.

[TheBum]

Unfortunately, I crashed my Diablo hard on Saturday and amongst the damage was a severely bent anti-rotation bracket and bent linkage rods, neither of which have T-Rex equivalents that I'm aware of (one of the linkages I bent is one of the long ones going from the swash to the seesaw mixer arm; I *might* be able to use a T-Rex linkage for the other one).

[Laurens]

Linkages should be universal, you can cut them to the right lenght if you have some that are too long.

Did you email Scott if he has any antirotation brackets in stock?

[TheBum]

I sent e-mail but haven't gotten a reply yet. The problem with buying longer linkages and cutting them down is that I don't have a threading die and I don't know where I could locate one the right size in the US.

[Laurens]

Put a nut on the thread, cut it off at the right lenght, then unscrew the nut. Thats a cheap die;-)

[TheBum]

The linkages aren't typically threaded all the way across. They're usually only threaded just enough to go all the way into a ball link. So, wouldn't a die be needed to add threads if you cut off most or all of the threads?

Anyway, Scott e-mailed me back and they have stock, so I just need to finish coordinating the part numbers I need.

[TheBum]

I had a nasty crash with my Diablo last weekend. I managed to do something I've never done before: bend the hell out of the aluminum anti-rotation bracket. As the subject says, it reminds me of something from a Dali painting. I just thought you all might get a chuckle out of seeing it.

[HeliSmith]

Not funny Alan. I have seen funny that isn't it.

[JasonJ]

I just thought you all might get a chuckle out of seeing it.

I'll chuckle, but it will be one of those uneasy chuckles like when you walk through a graveyard at midnight on Halloween after watching those zombie movies....

[TheBum]

I was going to add that I meant chuckle in a mad scientist sort of way, but Jason pretty much beat me to it.

I got the Diablo back together while I'm home sick (really). Ever since I got the heli, I had been having problems with the tail slider not moving smoothly. The slider pins would "pop" in the forks, making slider movement jerky. My solution up until today has been to back off on the bell crank screw until it smoothed out. Today, while replacing the tail rotor shaft, I remembered what somebody had posted about rotating the slider 180 degrees, i.e. so that the bottom pin is in the top fork and vice versa. It worked; the bell crank screw is tightened all the way down and the slider movement is smooth as silk. Apparently, every time I've replace the shaft previously, I've gotten the slider in the "wrong" way.

[HeliSmith]

When you described the problem I was going to tell you to turn the forks 180 but you beat me to that as I read on. Yeah I get it backwards almost everytime too.

I don't even bother loctite the first time I mount it to see if it is smooth then back it out a little adding loctite from the top in the screw hole. I guess I should rememeber which way it goes but somehow I don't.

[TheBum]

Which screw? I figured out a way to get the slider/tail rotor assembly on the shaft and engaged with the forks without loosening any screws. I just pop the pushrod off the bell crank, turn the bell crank so that the forks are pointing outward as far as possible, and then I just slide the slider into the forks.

[HeliSmith]

Oh yeah can cool. I will look at that next time I have to take it apart.

[TheBum]

Oh yeah can cool. I will look at that next time I have to take it apart.
It's actually a trick I picked up when assembling my T-Rex 600N. Even though the slider/bell crank attachment is different on the 600N, it works for both.