V-Blades not Tracking on a Mini Titan

[jedijingle]

Any one else having tracking problem on the mini titan. Half turn one way and the (red side) is high. Half turn the other way and the (blue) side is high. What gives. Same thing but not as bad when I adjust the long linkage on the oposite side of the arm. Could it be that my Million Dollar V-blades are not of accepable quality. New v-blade, new heli, no crashes. anyone, anyone. hummmmmmm.

[DebianDog]

Even if the blades were off (which I doubt) you could still make them track. I would check the dampeners and spindle. Take off the paired linkages and make sure they are even.

I paid $300 for my Rototech 830mm blades so no whining about $120 Vblades

[jedijingle]

Debian, thanks for the response. Dont tell your wife how much your paint stiring stix cost. Lol. I did all those things they just will not track. I did it my way, Bob White (finless's) way. They will not get there. Spindle is not bent. Plenty of silicone lube on the dampers. Head scratcher for sure.

[DebianDog]

Can you get the "cheap" blades to track?

[jedijingle]

I dont know, I just balanced them and will try them tonight. If I can then I will assume it is a blade issue. That is all I can think of.

[DebianDog]

Yes although I can't imagine how

[jedijingle]

The woodies flew and perfect. Smooooooooove and tracked perfect. No funkey vibrations. They dont have the POP that the v-s and not as crisp, but much better other-wise. The v-s are going back to the LHS or V-blades themselves. Thanks for listening. John

[DebianDog]

Yeah Vick will take them back. Odd :?

[flyanything]

Hey guys, just wanted to let you all know that I'm having the exact same issue with TWO sets of 325mm V-blades that I bought recently. The V's go wildly out of track as soon as I put the mini titan into idle2 (around 2800 rpm). They go in and out of track in normal mode as collective is applied but definitely go way out as soon as you through the heli into idle-up. I bolted on a set of Radix 325's and they track perfectly and are smooth as silk at any RPM. Also, the stock woodies work fine, just soft.

I will be bringing the two sets of V's down to Port Charlotte this coming weekend. Maybe Vic (or Clint) will be there to make things right. In the meantime I'll be flying the Radix on my mini-T. They don't have quite the "pop" of the V's but hey, at least they track. I love the V's on both my 50 and 90 size helis but I'll fly whatever works.

John

[Jason Bell]

What you all need to do is glue the washout, and bel hiller bearings in, if not, you will be chasing tracking all over the place.

[Ah Clem]

I broke the set of woodies that came with my ship. I was very concerned about replacing these with CF blades after reading about the tracking issue on several forums.

I could not obtain replacement stock blades locally, so I picked up a pair of Align CF blades (the real CF blades-not the flexible ones that come with the helicopter).

I did have to use spacer washers (all I had was a set of the large washers for Radix 600 MM blades, so they look quite stupid on the machine-but they work).

No tracking issues-so far and much better performance than the stock, weighted woodies with no changes to the pitch or throttle curves.

[Ah Clem]

My ship has developed tracking problems with the same Align Carbon Fiber blades that had, initially, been fine.

It would track fine in the morning, when it was cool then, when the sun heated things up, the tracking would be very inconsistant (i.e. tracking sometimes, then not; tracking upright, but not inverted, etc.).

I glued the bearings into the mixing levers and helped just a bit.

My ship then started to nod/shudder severly (after about 30 or more flights).



I believe that I may now have cured the blade tracking and the oscillation issues I was experiencing:

I put the machine on the bench and went over it, looking for wear and slop. One mixing lever had worked loose-this was tightened, but was not the source of the oscillation.

I noticed that I could rock the head block, back and fourth on the bolt which holds it to the main shaft. I checked for cracks in the block, as a few have reported this. No cracks. Closer examination revealed that the hole in the head block, for the shaft, had worn "egg-shapped". I cleaned it out thoroughly, and epoxied the head block to the shaft with JB Weld. I know that I will have to replace the head block when the unthinkable happens (i.e. I crash and bend them main shaft), but I do have a spare (I might epoxy a bushing inside the spare block. I did have an old coning angle tool so that I was able to make sure that I did not epoxy the head block on crooked.

At any rate, one short test flight this morning and it tracked both upright and inverted. More time will be required to see if this is a permanent fix.

The test flight was done in the cool of the morning. It will be interesting to see how the machine performs after it has sat in the sun for a while.

The nodding/shuddering did not show up after my crash (which was on the fourth or fifth flight), but did show up when I started to do Tic Tocs after the 30th flight or so.

I have also noticed that the washout control base (which is non-bushed) wears and rocks on the main shaft. This might be part of the tracking error as well. I have a spare, but have not replaced it, as things appear to be tracking at the moment.

40 or so flights on the machine at this moment.

[jedijingle]

I glued everything and checked everything, put my new replacement v-blades on and they DO NOT Track. Im done with these blades, they are going back to the LHS they came from. If they will take em back.

[Ah Clem]

Did you glue the hub/head block to the shaft?

[tnbulldog]

Jerry Sudimick reported that he has had some luck fixing tracking issues by removing 3mm from the blade grip post which adds some corrective delta.

[Ah Clem]

I think it only would need the corrective delta if the head block were rocking.

Remove the rocking, and no delta is required to maintain tracking.

I suspect that adding delta is masking the problem, as opposed to correcting it.

[Ticidytoc]

Taking a Mini with V-Blade tracking issues, swapping to Radix, one turn on a link and tracking is perfect. Go figgure. I dont have the answer to "why" but it works.

Give them a try.

[Jerry]

Just to clarify....I never encountered any tracking issues personally. I've only run the Radix, and they've tracked fine from the 1st flight through present. The west coast team pilots were having issues with some blades, specifically - the woodies. They had done the epoxy mod on the headblock long before, so that was ruled out. They tried shortening their blade grips 5mm, and at that point - it fixed the tracking with the woodies. They had no tracking issues stock with V's or Radix that I am aware of - but the heli should work just as well with stock woods as it does with higher cost carbons - hence the grip mod.

I took 3mm off of my grips to simply see it's effect on a machine that was already working fine. It feels more locked in with the additional delta. I don't know why - I don't care. I haven't sat around pondering or thinking about the head dynamics. It was just something I did - based on their work - and I liked the results. Figured I'd pass it along for those folks that have glued their headblock and still can't get their blades to track. As a matter of fact - the info I got from those guys was that they were taking "all the delta OUT' with their mod. I pondered it enough to realize that the head comes stock with neutral delta, and that shortening actually yields corrective delta.

Adding corrective delta to a head certainly isn't a new idea, and certainly isn't specific to micros.

Jerry

[MikeWz]

Were exactly on the grips are we removing this 3mm from?

[Jerry]

I'll have to take some pictures. Remove the ball, measure from the tip of the grip's arm inward 3mm and cut.

Re-install ball.

Jerry