Hover Drift

[hammerfall77]

Hi,
My Ep 200 had a light crash couple of days ago. No big deal, just some
bend linkage rods and some broken plastik parts.
Repairing the damage only took me about 2 hours.

Becaus of the bad weather here in Germany, I hovered in our
basement garage.
I noticed that when the Heli (Frame) was upright it startet moving
to the left. To keep it in one spot, I had to tilt it a little bit to the right.
So I rechecked the head, swashplate level, blade tracking...
couldn't find anything wrong.

Any good ideas what could be the problem?

[Buzzkill]

The nose was drifting left or the whole heli was drifting left?

[Mikej]

That's normal - to counter-act the torque of the rotor blades, the tail rotor pushes to the left, this makes the heli want to slide to the left, to counter-act this slide you need to angle the heli slightly to the right (right-skid down)

[hammerfall77]

Hi,
the whole heli was moving to the left. The nose is stable.

Mikej, your explanation is quite good... I am aware of the
tailrotor-phenomenon (or however it's called) but somehow
I didn't notice the drift tendency on my first flights.

Maybe because most of the flights were outdoors.

Thanks for your help.

Osprey

[Buzzkill]

If there was wind (however slight) you'll notice it with the 200. That might explain it?

[surgicalCFe]

Sounds like you just need to trim the heli not to do this, if everything else is in order.

[R.Lim]

Well, it is typical case of the bended featherinf shaft. The best thing to do is to replace the feathering shaft.

[rotorhead58d]

feathering shaft for sure. lim knows his stuff.

[crabfu]

a slight tilt is normal, as Mikej mentioned. If it's drifting even when it's slightly tilted to the right, then you have other issues, check to make sure that your swash is level throughout :)

-Crabfu

[jad]

how do you test for a bent feather shaft, On my old esky belt cp I used to remove the shaft and roll it on a piece of glass, I take it the only way to tell is to remove it? I have done a couple of blade grip screws so far but she still flies very well, so should I not worry?

[hammerfall77]

Ok, I will change the feathering shaft, now that you mention it,
I remember that the screws of the blade holders were bent after
the crash and I had to replace them.
So there is a fair chance that the feathering shaft is the problem.
Thanks everybody! I will post the results.

[crabfu]

how do you test for a bent feather shaft, On my old esky belt cp I used to remove the shaft and roll it on a piece of glass, I take it the only way to tell is to remove it? I have done a couple of blade grip screws so far but she still flies very well, so should I not worry?

I've often mess with helis that was flying nicely.... only to end up with hours of debugging, trying to figure out what I messed up on with the changes, wishing that I had just left well enough alone lol.

I've bent the feathering / spindle shaft a couple of times now, once it was basically busted in 2, but the other time I could not tell that it was bent, but my tracking was really off. It caused really bad vibrations which made my gyro work for its money... took me forever before I checked the spindle shaft, tried and replaced all sorts of stuff first because the feathering shaft didn't look/feel like it was bent. I couldn't even really tell when I had it out and rolled it on the table, but decided to replace it anyway while I had it out.... and it fixed my issues.... but my issues were tracking and vibration from the bent spindle, not drifting.

-Crabfu

[rotorhead58d]

i noticed too, that when you have a blade strike, it strips the screws out of the feathering shaft. i always replace mine if that happens, just to be on the safe side.:thumbup:

[jad]

got a few spare ones and have a damaged screw head, not from a strike though so might as well replace, never removed one but I takeit the pin holds it in place, have to find my manual!

[jad]

easist way to change the feathershaft/spindle shaft.

do you remove the head from the main shaft or is it easier just to try and pop out the pin with it all still attached, How do you changed yours.

manage to dremmel off the ruined head screws and take the blade holders off think I might repalce the shaft now?

[crabfu]

easist way to change the feathershaft/spindle shaft.
do you remove the head from the main shaft or is it easier just to try and pop out the pin with it all still attached, How do you changed yours.


was covered here http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=59724

-Crabfu

[jad]

thanks crabfu I normally go back though threads looking for things must nbe old age catching up, in there it suggests it has one hole bigger than the other? is this true ie it only comes out one way, if so how can you tell I have looked and they must be very close in size? On mine one side protrudes ( the pin ) I take it that is the side that needs pushing back?

off to buy a vice;0)