I love my Swift!

[JustPlaneChris]

Just because there isn't a lot of activity in the Century forum, I thought I'd post a video from yesterday. This is my Swift 16, buzzing around a field behind a local church. Here's my setup:

Airframe: Stock except for 3rd bearing upgrade, CNC rotor hub, and Hirobo landing gear.
Motor: Neu 1910/1.5Y with 10T pinion
ESC: CC 45HV
Battery: 10S A123 "brick"
Blades: 550 woodies ($19!) / K&B tail blades (trimmed to stock Swift length)
Radio: JR 9303 (Spekrumized) / AR7000 / DS821 on cyclic / 401/9254 tail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX9_FpadC7o

[warpspeed]

I love your Swift too. That's why you can't find her on Friday evenings.:YeaBaby:

Seriously, I really like mine too. It gets more time than any of my other helis.
Main shaft prices could stand to come down though, although I'll admit that's a pretty stout piece of metal!

Just saw somebody selling standard Swifts (Grand?) for $179. THAT is a bargain!

[JustPlaneChris]

Heli-World just dropped the price on the Swift to $189.95 too. It's definitely the "unknown jewel" in the midsize heli market. :)

[GyroAl]

Heli-World just dropped the price on the Swift to $189.95 too. It's definitely the "unknown jewel" in the midsize heli market. :)

I certainly agree with that. But I think you can say that about most of their helis...they all seem underated by the general R/C heli community - specially here on HF....from the Hawk Pro...to the Raven 50...to the Predator...to their great scale offerings.

[warpspeed]

Why is that? I can remember hearing the Century name years ago, long before I ever got into heli's, so apparently they've been around for awhile. I've only built the 550 but it's quality doesn't seem to be any less than Align's. I know they've had issues with parts availability in the past-was that situation so bad that it turned people away?

[JustPlaneChris]

I think it has more to do with marketing dollars and the fact that the "other brands" have big-name 3D flyers who showcase their products all over the magazines and fly-ins. *shrug*

[GyroAl]

warpspeed

I think JPC hit the nail on the head.

Seems in this hobby, one can have a superior heli, but if he would rather save the cost of hiring/sponsoring big name pilots to showcase them, and pass those savings on to the end user who are actually paying for the helis, then the product does not get the credit it deserves.

[centuryman]

I also love my swift and my 4 hawks and my 3 ravens and my 2 kinetic 50s(witch is just a cross between a hawk and a raven. they are definatley under rated. my ravens perform 3D as well as my Knights witch get very good rateings. and they weigh 7.5 pounds ready to fly minus fuel.Witch is what the trex 600 and the knights weigh.

[WillJames]

Your machine flys good Chris. It really did not look to fly heavy even with the A123's on it. Nice meeting you in Corpus.

[JustPlaneChris]

Thanks Will! It was great meeting you and the other crazy guys. :) I'm definitely going to be there next year, and I'll have some NITRO stuff by then too. :smokin:

[aramsdell]

JPChris, Could you give and show a few details on the power setup in the Swift please?
I have 2 and I love them. One has a driven tail that I designed(my helicam) The other is a blinged pig with Raptor 50 gear and progarammable mixing arms from another Century heli (Raven ?) They both have RT 550's
The big pig scares the CR$P out of me now and then. On 5S lipo it's fun with a 9T pinion. On 6S and 9T it's a blast.
I want to research the A123's for my helicam and you seem to have a handle on it. What's the weight of a 10 S pack? What's the flight time flying like in your video? How many amp/hours are A123's now?

I've been flying Kong-Power 5S on the helicam for the low-worry factor.

Al


Edit: The programable aluminum mixing arms are from a Hawk Pro.

I'd love to see mine on a strong 6S with a 10 or 11T pinion. I have a tired 6S4000 Maxamps that puffs slightly if I do much with it. It is only getting about 4 min on the Helicam and soon will be a starter bat or something along that line.

[JustPlaneChris]

Hey Al! I'd love to see more details about your driven tail modification. I seem to remember reading about that a while back?

My 10S A123 (2300 mah) 'brick' weighs 775g, and with my current setup (Neu 1910/1.5Y with 10T and 550 blades) I'm getting 6 minutes. At 6:30 you'd better be close to the ground, or ready to auto. I was previously running it on a 9T with 520 blades, and the pack wouldn't dump until just over 9 minutes. I have a post over on RCG with pictures of my equipment layout:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8071134&postcount=341

[JustPlaneChris]

Just thought I'd share a "hatcam" video of a pack full of auto practice. As you can tell, I still need a bit more practice as some of them are pretty darn ugly. :roll:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGClsAM2vZQ

[aramsdell]

JustPlaneChris, here's a couple of shots of the area that counts. In essence use the long main shaft without the 3rd b.block. Add a second main gear. Drop the tailboom by 1/2 ". The second gear mounts to a Logo 10 main-gear flange. It's plastic and doesn't look too strong but has served well for months now.
http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=31901

[centuryman]

nice autos. I've been working on mine as well, but not as far along as you.I'm still leaving a little throttle on to keep the tailblades sping for that flare at the landing.I've done alot of forced autos on my nitros with driven tails and did good with those. but the non driven tail on my swift 16's make me a little nervous. Got any pointers for autoing a non driven tail swift?I've been slowly backing the throttle off to get used to the no tail control. No crashes yet:) I've got a new 620 with a driven tail, but don't whant to risk crashing it.Maybye i should dust off one of my hawks and use it to practice, what do think?

[centuryman]

I like your driven tail. I have a swift that the frames are less then perfect.maybye I'll sacrice them for a go at this driven tail mod.Don't have any carbon but aluminum should work.have lots of that.Do you think the driven hub from a swift 620 would work instead of the logo hub?

[JustPlaneChris]

JustPlaneChris, here's a couple of shots of the area that counts. Very cool! That looks much easier than I thought!

nice autos. I've been working on mine as well, but not as far along as you.I'm still leaving a little throttle on to keep the tailblades sping for that flare at the landing.I've done alot of forced autos on my nitros with driven tails and did good with those. but the non driven tail on my swift 16's make me a little nervous. Got any pointers for autoing a non driven tail swift?Thanks! I'd practiced in HeliSimRC, since it has much less "hangtime" than RealFlight (which is totally bogus). I just went for it, and it wasn't that hard. The tail pretty much follows the nose around, with only a slight yawing in the final flare. A non-issue really, but I'm curious how different a driven tail will be since I've only ever really auto'd the Swift! :)

[centuryman]

Like i said i've unintesionally autoed alot of my driven tail nitro's and you maintain complete tail control as long as the mains are still spinning. It's nice.thats why i whant to try that driven mod on my swifts.A couple weeks ago i pushed my 6s swift harder then normal and hit the voltage limit 20seconds before my timer whent off.Unfortantly i was in the middle of a staionary flipping manuver and the tail started pirruetting and well you know the rest.
Gotta love that swift though. less then $20.00 in parts and 20 minutes it was back in the air.But a driven tail would be nice.Had i had a driven tail i am convedent i could have landed that one safley.
Just a couple weeks before that one of my ravens flamed out in a simular situation and i landed it safley.I even brought in backwards.

[aramsdell]

JustPlaneChris, where did you get the A123's?
When the power goes, how fast does it drop?
With my KongPower (like Airthunder) there is a short lower power time followed by a fairly steep dropoff. If I'm at 300' and power begins to drop I have to head back fast as the Century 80/100 will be going into pulsed alert mode by the time I land !

[JustPlaneChris]

I rescued my A123s from a couple of Dewalt tool packs. They are in the same configuration as they come out of the Dewalt. The power drops fast, and with very little warning. I'd say within 20 seconds, kinda like the old nicads did back in the day. I very seldom fly them till they dump though, even though it allegedly doesn't hurt the packs. It's a pain to recharge since sometimes my charger complains about the low voltage, so I just set my timer for 6:00 since I know they dump at 6:30 with my typical flying style.

[centuryman]

I'm running 7s a123 on one of my swift 16's and i only get 3min40sec.aperently the neu motor and the 10s setup makes a huge difference.i have a10s pack that i fly in my gohbee phazor and i only get 2min 40 sec on that pack with a 1907. whats your headspeed? and what esc are you useing for the 10s.I have a 80 amp pheniox inmy swift and it's only good to 25 volts. thats why i'm running 7s,do you think it could handle 8s?

[richDog]

I asked Castle about 8s A123 on a CC80 a while back. They said 7s is the max. For 8s they recommend a HV ESC.

[centuryman]

thanks. that was what i was told but i heard there are some people useing 8son them anyways.

[richDog]

I would think 8s would be Ok, since a 7s A123 only holds 25v for the first few seconds, but I'm not sure how the CC80 would handle that initial >25v surge. Didn't want to risk frying my ESC.

I'm getting about the same flight times on 7s. Around 3.5 minutes with a 600+ and an 11t pinion.

[centuryman]

that was what i was thinking .thanks for your input.I'm glad to see your flight times are the same.