surgicalCFe
03-07-2008, 02:23 PM
For those of you that haven't already installed these upgrades I thought I would post a few pointers.
The carbon fiber tail boom is a tight fit for both the tail case and tail boom holders on the frame of the heli (was for me at least). I couldn't just slide the parts on, I had to kinda get the tail case started on the boom and then tap the rear of the tail case with a small hammer to seat it properly. The same thing had to be done on the other end with the holders on the frame and it had to be inserted about 5mm past the inner most boom holder to have enough room to install the tail belt on the main gear with shaft inserted.
The carbon fiber landing skids and skid supports were a pain. The holes on the supports for the skids to be secured to were not quite big enough and had to be drilled out a little bit for the screws to be able to be started. Holding the skids/supports while screwing in the screws that hold the skids to the supports before drilling out the holes on the supports was impossible (for me). If you do have to drill out these holes make absolutely sure that you use a very small drill bit, you don't want to drill out to much so that the screws can't bite into the frame. Mounting the skids to the frame of the heli is pretty easy, just prop the frame up, upside down, set the brass standoffs in place for the rear skid support, gently position the support in place and attach with the appropriate screw (gently).
On a one to ten scale of difficulty working on this heli I would put this "upgrade package" at a healthy seven, it was a bit of a pain. I also installed Trex 450 canopy mounts and found very quickly that you absolutely need to take the frame apart to remove the existing support and install the new ones. Do not try to remove them any other way, you will just strip the screws (unless you have a special phillips head screw driver that bends at a 90deg angle about half an inch from the tip). I didn't take any pictures while the parts were being installed, limited time etc.., but I will take after pics when I get home from work tonight.
The carbon fiber tail boom is a tight fit for both the tail case and tail boom holders on the frame of the heli (was for me at least). I couldn't just slide the parts on, I had to kinda get the tail case started on the boom and then tap the rear of the tail case with a small hammer to seat it properly. The same thing had to be done on the other end with the holders on the frame and it had to be inserted about 5mm past the inner most boom holder to have enough room to install the tail belt on the main gear with shaft inserted.
The carbon fiber landing skids and skid supports were a pain. The holes on the supports for the skids to be secured to were not quite big enough and had to be drilled out a little bit for the screws to be able to be started. Holding the skids/supports while screwing in the screws that hold the skids to the supports before drilling out the holes on the supports was impossible (for me). If you do have to drill out these holes make absolutely sure that you use a very small drill bit, you don't want to drill out to much so that the screws can't bite into the frame. Mounting the skids to the frame of the heli is pretty easy, just prop the frame up, upside down, set the brass standoffs in place for the rear skid support, gently position the support in place and attach with the appropriate screw (gently).
On a one to ten scale of difficulty working on this heli I would put this "upgrade package" at a healthy seven, it was a bit of a pain. I also installed Trex 450 canopy mounts and found very quickly that you absolutely need to take the frame apart to remove the existing support and install the new ones. Do not try to remove them any other way, you will just strip the screws (unless you have a special phillips head screw driver that bends at a 90deg angle about half an inch from the tip). I didn't take any pictures while the parts were being installed, limited time etc.., but I will take after pics when I get home from work tonight.