New Tail fin

[Icman69]

I have never seen anyone with an Aluminum tail fin on a heli so I thought I would make a custom one for mine. It is cut from T6 heat treated Aluminum all work was done with a Dremel, drill press, and hand files. Of is there a reason no one runs this type of Fin?

[vandelescrow]

Nice work, must have taken you along time, especialy getting the "Raptor" to look right. Cureouse what the tail disk looks like with the two different collor blades, interesting.

My guess on why people dont use metal is weight and in the event of a bad landing, you now have a bent vertical stab.

[BigBoh]

Looks Nice. I would like to have one myself but im not about to take the time to make one :rolling, But you did a great job making that .:thumbup:

[Icman69]

Actually it only took about 4 hours to make it it really doesn't weigh much more than the Carbon one maybe 30 grams more. Thanks for the complements though. The two different colors on the rear blades actually blend together when it is running they look like pumpkin orange. I am changing it to a single color didn't look like I had hoped.

[Coop]

Sweet looks great! With my recent luck I'd bend it all to hell. Last crash snapped my plastic one....and that was the least of the damage.

[archiebald]

Looks very nice, but I would be concerned with metal fatigue around the mounting holes. Even if the heli is balanced well, engine vibration magnified at the end of the boom might set up some resonance at certain rpm.

It may work well, but I would keep making careful post flight inspections if I were you.

(I used to ride British bikes and made some nice brackets that looked supercool for about a week :( )

[JimLerch]

I made an aluminum one for my little electric bird. Yea, it didn't last long. The tail fin was fine, but the metal fatigue on the bolts sheered both off at the heads where they passed thru the metal plate.

I think there is a lot of vibration dampening happening with our stock flimsy tail fins.. :confused:

[Icman69]

I thought about the metal wear through the bolts I used a very stiff fuel line tarragon as a dampener around the bolts just drilled the holes a little larger. I found some nice thin walled stuff I will just check it after about 5 flights. I flew it tonight man when the sun hits it that fin it's got a heck of a flash. I like it allot and no difference in balance or handling. But I have my carbon one prepped for paint so it matches the Canopy.

Here is a picture of her before the Fin and colored blades. I will have to get the wife to shoot some with the changes.

[MartyH]

Actually it only took about 4 hours to make it it really doesn't weigh much more than the Carbon one maybe 30 grams more. Thanks for the complements though. The two different colors on the rear blades actually blend together when it is running they look like pumpkin orange. I am changing it to a single color didn't look like I had hoped.


We obviously measure things differently. 4 hours of my time is a TON to commit to making a vertical fin and 30 grams is a whole ounce all the way out at the end of the tail, again, thats a TON to me. Not pooh-poohing your efforts, just saying we see things differently.