Raptor 30 blades went out of track? Why????

[harryb49]

I was flying for the first time without my "training wheels" at about 2 feet off the ground. (By the way, I was able to go through 2 tanks of fuel without any mishaps!!!!)

I heard a "fluttering" from the copter and then it went away and sounded normal while still in the air. I was really focusing on flying the bird but thought I saw the blades "out of track".

I set it down and checked for anything loose but came up empty handed. The blades are 550 carbons from Heliproz and they are still fairly tight.

I finished that tank of fuel and ran another through it with no other issues. Does anyone have a thought about what happened and what I can do to prevent it from happening in the future?

Thanks,
Harry

[WayneBrown]

dampners or bent spindle would be my first guess...
The dampners are the enlarged (thicker) O-rings between the blade grips and the bearings in the head.

[RPM 1.5]

Check Thrust bearings?????? maybe in backwards
Ray

[harryb49]

I had just installed a new spindle, main shaft, blades, and new metal grips from Heliproz which came with bearings installed. I greased the dampners with dielectric grease while assembling them so don't think that the dampners are the problem.

Tonight I was scratching my head and looking at every possibility and very slightly readjusted the paddles on the flybar. One of them looked just a TINY bit off from the other. That's about all I can see. I'll keep looking for a cause. I don't like having unexplained things happen while my heli is up in the air (unless my thumbs cause them. Ugh.)

Thanks.
Harry

[harryb49]

FYI, I had balanced the blades using a DuBro high-point balancer and a bubble level. They were very close to begin with and I just added a slightly different amount of tracking tape (less than 1/4 difference in length) to make them balance.

Could the slight difference in alignment with the paddles have caused this?

Thanks again,
Harry
:dontknow

[Ivan]

Typically on the raptor, the reason for "woof" or the blades going drastically out of track is the head block getting loose on the main shaft, allowing the head to shift. The result is called "woof". If your raptor is an old V1, expect this to happen. Most of them had that problem, because the moldings were so inconsistent. My raptor never had that trouble, but my head block was so tight, it took a rubber hammer to get it on the main shaft. I have seen this trouble on other helis as well, when the head block or hub, gets an egg shaped hole in the middle allowing the head to shift.

From what I have seen, the Fury head is probably the best one in this aspect, it uses a steel pin and then the bottom clamps on to the shaft. The Vigor has a through bolt, and a clamping bolt near the bottom of the head block, and runs a close second.

From what I can remember, the solution was to give the mainshaft a good smear of JB weld and then put the head on and tighten the bolt, and let it set up.

The other consideration is the blade grips them selfs, which were also inconsistent. If the bearings can move inside the grips, you can get a similar situation, although not as pronounced.

I have not heard of many guys compalining about the V2's, and believe me the V1's had plenty of guys scratching their heads, beating on street signs, stomping their feet, and spitting on thier transmitters. But, hey, it was cheap, and even cheaper to repair. :mrgreen:

[WillJames]

As Ray Vigor 1 said, make sure your thrust bearings are in teh correct way. One side is a lot looser on teh spindle than the other and it does make a difference if you install them in the wrong order.

[johndale]

You said the magic word Mavvic Blades. Alot of there blades will do the woof and poof.The woodies are real bad and they sent me there pro CF and in trans/lift they woof and poof on both of my ships. I was told it was my ships (Raptor 50's) but when I put TT blades on it it went away and has never done it again since I do not use Mavvic blades anymore.

[capebob]

The standard Mavrikk blades are unusable on Raptors and Evos. The Mavrikk pros work well. Our group has had nothing but trouble with these blades on both machines. Switching to the Mavrikk Pro or Thunder Tiger blades has solved the problem.

Bob

[johndale]

I still had problems with the Pro and like I mention earlier when I went back to TT blades the problem went away.