Falcon 3D

[vrex01]

What is the consensus on this heli, is it worth the money? Or should I just invest in a Eflight 400?

[JasonJ]

B400 if you must go rtf. I own a Falcon, it is my beater heli that I have used to learn on. It flies fine, it just has issues. The motor likes to fall apart in some cases, the tx is mediocre at best. Using a good tx makes it a much better helicopter, but then you have pushed past the cost of a Blade 400, which is a much better RTF. The Falcon is a dated design that originates form the original Shogun, and shares mechanical similarity with the Walkera 36. It's not horrible, it just isn't cost effective compared to the Blade 400. Had the Blade 400 existed when I bought the Falcon, I would have bought the B400. It comes with an acceptable radio, which is important if you ever plan on getting more models.

[Galaxyman]

I bought one and it was cheaply constructed. Shortly after I purchased it Hobby Lobby had a battery recall and the design made it suseptable to tail strikes.

[JasonJ]

the design made it suseptable to tail strikes.

Well, not quite. If you leave the vertical fin in the stock position, yes. If you take the fin off, rotate the mount so the fin can be mounted on the other side, and slide it back, no more tail strike. I have to say, this helicopter has been like a faithful old labrador retriever. I have had it over a year, crashed it many times, and it still works. The only parts I have replaced are blade grips, tail shafts, main gear, boom, and blades. I did have the pinion break off of the motor, and HL sent another motor. I have never had the tail gears strip, it has always flown fine. I modified the frame so I could run an Air Thunder 1800mah lipo, and finally did the easton arrow shaft boom mod. This is a difficult helicopter for a beginner, especially one who has little ability to adjust or repair. For someone like me who like to tinker and good at tinkering, it is fine. I still stand by my lack of recommendation of it to others, but I still fly it almost every day along with my RCT-450....

[ginnz]

I am with jasonj on this one.

I have a flacon3d also, ive used it as my beater heli also! i use it to learn on before flying my Shark 450 and Blackhawk 500 SE Pro.

the first thing i did was replace the receiver on the falcon with an ar 6100, to use with my DX6i, then replaced the head with a walkera #35 cnc head..... and replaced the inrunner with a 3800KV outrunner and 30 ESC i won on ebay for 20.00! the new motor was a big improvement over the old.

i also added the FMA CPD-4 co-pilot, which i really sont use much, but wanted to try it out, it has saved my bacon a few times!

IMO the falcon3d is a very good lerning heli, but the blade 400 comes with a much better radio, and parts for it are cheap, thats for sure....

the falcon, when properly set up flys great, its quiet and smooth, and i really enjoy flying it. last night i won a full cnc head, the shogun V2 cnc head and swash, along with the cnc elevator system, it will be a big improvement over the walkera #35 head.

and last night on flea-bay, i saw another heli almost EXACTLY like the falcon, except it had a belt drive tail, and the motor mounted in front of the main gear. i cant recall the name. if you can find a used falcon in good shape for under 200.00, id say go for it, just be prepared to deal with all the set screws, and go over it with a fine tooth comb!

hope this helps you in your decision.....

[JasonJ]

Hey Ginnz, did that walkera head work decent? Any better than the stock plastic head? You are the only person I have seen that used the Walkera head. Even out of all those guys in the RCGroups falcon thread, I could never get a response as to whether the walkera 35/36 head was an improvement over stock. It seems like the Walkera head is better due to eliminated the Z links, but the aluminum falcon head has a better flybar cage. And yes, I have considered the walkera head with the Falcon flybar cage. it would look lame with purple and blue, but I would remove the anodizing anyway...

[ginnz]

sure, it works fine! one thing for sure, the feathering shaft seems indestructable. ive never had to replace it, and ive replace 4 main shafts.....and at 39.00, you certainly get what you pay for. its not the greatest piece of engineering, but when i ordered it, i thought i didnt have much to loose. ive been very happy with it, with that said.

and like i said, i needed to trim a .mm off the main shaft to get the jesus bolt to fit. thats all. now in a week or so ill be getting the zoom 400 full cnc head, looks the same as the rex head, with a full flybar cage, and beefier blade grips and such. i won the head on flea-bay for 49.95, it retails for 109.00!

next ill add the zoom 400 cnc tailcase (in blue ;-)) then my falcon work is done(for now).....

the walkera head took a bit to set up, but has served me well..... give it a try, for the price, its a good upgrade.:thumbup: and im not sure if the falcon flybar cage would work with the walkera head, the main hub looks very different....

now, if i could just figure out how to convert the shaft to belt on my falcon, without changing it over to a shogun (zoom).....:cheers

[JasonJ]

I like the shaft drive. The trick is to set your mesh, and then make sure it can't move. What I did was set my mesh, then drilled a small hole through the tail boom support bracket and into the boom. I used a small machine screw to thread through the boom support into the boom. I did this because I found that the support would slip, causing the the tail boom to drop, which would pull the shaft gear away from the main gear. The boom clamp on the frame is not robust enough to prevent this lever action, and the boom support clamp does not clamp tight enough to prevent slippage. I have crashed and bent several stock booms, and just straightened it by hand and kept flying. I went with the easton arrow mod because it is more stiff, the stock boom is very soft.

I also did the drill and screw method on the tail servo clamps because they slowly slip, and your tail starts to drift. Even the act of picking the helicopter up and bumping the servo causes it to drift eventually.

I'll have to check into that Zoom 400 head. The Falcon upgrade head is ridiculously expensive, it is more than a Trex 450 SE V2 head, and that is just wrong.

[ginnz]

good tip on the boom..... ive noticed this problem also. when i do the head swap, ill put a new "easton" boom on and try this! i also found that the shogun v1 aluminum tailcase will fit, and its blue also, so ill get one from cnchelicopter on my next order with them.......the plastic one wont work, but the aluminum one will :-)

and i agree on the falcon upgrade parts price, there just crazy! and im willing to bet the shogun/zoom head will be as good, if not better anyways, its price is around 100.00, but i got lucky! 49.99, 60.00 shipped..... and i get the cnc elevator crank.

out of the three birds i have, ive played more with the falcon than the others, right now my bh500 se pro is being rebuilt, im waiting for my new cyclic servo's, and looking for a new tail servo for the logicteh 2100T, i should have just got the gyro/servo combo.... i also added a new turnigy 40A esc and program card to run the motor on 4s packs.im taking my time on this build.....

and my shark 450, (my favorite to fly!) has got 2 different motors. the cyclon mini heli punch, at 50.00 it is a complete piece of crap..... so i put the icecold 3800kv in it last week with a 14t align pinion, it seems to be just right. and a home cnc'd motor mount, which is working, but could be refined a bit ;-)

on a different note, are you experiencing flooding now, i just seen on chicken noodle network (CNN) that theres flooding in idaho? or was it indiana? just curious....

ttyl, ginnz.

[JasonJ]

Indiana is where the flooding is happening. This weather is crazy, it's like 93 was, the midwest just getting hammered.

Up here in North Idaho, it is just clouds, rain, and cool temps. Normally we are in the 80s and the rain is done until September by now. Oh well, it is what it is....

Keep us posted on that Zoom head. I do want to put a more robust head on, the head parts are the only thing that breaks if I crash this thing....