Short maiden...sorry...more questions...

[FailureToFly]

Sorry guy's, I like a child when it comes to this sized heli so I am full of questions and concerns!

I maidened the heli with the stock ESC/SBEC in my driveway and so far so good.

I always do this when I setup a 450 as it saves a trip down the park to find out something isn't right which will require a few minutes on the bench.

Firstly I set my DX6i TC to 60% with the 15T pinion and green dampers and I got some wobby of the head.

I'd balanced the blades spot on (couple of strips of cellotape is all that was required) so I was concerned something was out. I landed, watched from ground level as I spooled up and the head was smooth and tracking was spot on.

So I bumped up to 70% TC in IU in the air and no wobble. I went back to Normal and got another wobble. I then pushed Normal to 70% and IU to 80% and no wobble but the tail kicked a few inches with a little up down jink/pitch pump (v small pitch pump!).

Pushed the Gyro from 60% to 63% and the tail seemed solid.

Ran through about 4-5min of hovering and the heli seemed nice and stable. No drifts, sounded smooth and quiet. When I hit 80% in IU I got lots of blade noise but the heli seems about as loud of my 450s at 3650rpm which was good.

I've checked links, pulled on the head and tail grips to make sure nothing is coming loose etc so it looks like I'm ok for a proper flight...weather is bad here atm with rain and lots of wind so it might be the weekend.

So, the Q!

How tight do you make blades on the X5? 450's are meant to be tight enough so they will hold if the heli is oriented sideways but not tight enough so they won't move with a shake. I've always run quite tight main and tail blades (they won't move with a shake) and it hasn't caused any issues.

Should the X5 blades be tightened down pretty hard (naturally so you can still fold them)?

I've currently got them tight enough so I can move them reasonably easily...same with the tails...so they won't move if I shake the heli but they will move if I gently push against them.

Also the little plastic pitch rod holder on the tail (the round one that can move up and down on the boom), should that stay loose or should I CA it in the middle between the frame of the heli and the horizontal fin?

Cheers!

[ccnada]

If doing any kind of autos, tighter the better on the main blades. Too loose and they will fold. Tight enough so your spool up doesn't fold the blades either. My opinion, tail blades should be tight enough so they won't fall from their own weight. Just so if your tail hits, your not stripping your crown gears.

As far as the tail rod holders, shove a piece of zip tie in it so it stays snug on the boom. You don't want them traveling during flight. Too far apart and it could pick up some vibs which will give you inconsistent tail.

Wait till you open her up in the open field. The grin will come!

[FailureToFly]

Thanks ccnada! I'll do the zip tie thing and it sounds like my blades are ok...might double check the tail.

No wear on the main gear or front TT gears so hopefully the lash it all ok.

I still stressing about little things like did I loctite the head 'right' (used green loctite which is as strong as red) and will the stock ESC/SBEC be ok but I'm going to do the 'proper' maiden tomorrow or Sat regardless.

It was pretty nerve wracking spooling it as I was worried about drift and the setup etc (first time using the tripod thing) but the moment I popped it up it was so stable and solid that the nerves just vanished. It's way easier to hover than my 450's!

Seriously can't wait to give it a thrash at 100%TC!

[newbheliusr]

If you don't secure the tail pushrod guide, it will let the pushrod bend. That is bad. Make sure you do as suggested and get a piece of zip tie under it to secure it.

The blades need to be fairly tight. You don't want them so tight so that once you get up to full headspeed that they won't straighten. This will cause the heli to wobble. So if you get the wobbles the blades are probably too tight. Or your throttle curve is set to low. Typically a low throttle curve will show itself as a up and down movement of the tail while hovering.

For the ESC to run in the most efficient way, you should have your throttle set to 80 to 100%. What you want is to use a pinion that will give you the headspeed range you want with a throttle curve between 80 and 100. I changed the stock esc for a CC ice 100 and I use the gov. With the stock ESC, probably a throttle curve of 0-60-80-80-80 to start with and then you can bump it up later. I like a flat curve myself. In normal mode you really aren't below mid stick ever, or rarely ever, hence the curve I posted. For IU i would try 90 flat or 100 flat. But depending on your pinion, you may have some pretty fast headspeed.

[FailureToFly]

The wobble was funny, it was a gello type wobble of the whole heli...like what happens when you go through resonance peaks when spooling up though it was actually flying.

I read that hard dampers can make this happen and the greens whilst not as hard as the reds prob can still do this at low hs like I was running...plus they are brand new.

I'll prob be running 90-100% TC in IU. Take off at 75-80% and then I'll move to IU so it should be ok. I found I got absolutely not shake at 80%.

I'm running the stock 15T pinion so it should have pretty decent HS. I'm fine with 4m flights so high hs will provide lots of grins!

I couldn't for the life of me get a cable tie under the pushrod guide...even the little ties...I just put pipe tape on each side of the guide and then tape over it to lock it down. It won't move and it's easy to adjust if I need to.

Can't believe how easy the thing was to hover compared to a 450.

[B.Ewing]

I just use a drop of superglue on the boom and position the guide over it. easy to break free if needed, just dont go overboard with the glue. i also tighten the shit out of my blades. the arent so tight that i cant move them, but i generally get them pretty snug. I wouldnt worry about wobbles at that low of throttle..as long as its smooth when its cranked up. X5 blades are a bit noisy, i believe this is normal.

[keither1984]

did you say that you used green loctite to asswmble the head, should be using blue some even use red but blue is fine.

[FailureToFly]

In the instructions it shows low strength loctite L and high strength loctite T.

The head showed a T so as I didn't have red I used the green (which I believe is the same strength but it's flows more easily - I wicked any excess away as I didn't want to jam up the thrust bearings).

I think the head comes stock with red...even though I've used blue without issue on my 450's I didn't feel confident using blue with the X5. The red loctite they use at the factory is pretty tough to remove but it came apart ok with good tools (I did need an Align spindle wrench though!).

Have you found using the blue ok? I have the blue 243 loctite.

[MiXiN]

I use Zap 242 Blue on 90% of it, including the spindle bolts and it's been great.
No loosening after around 40 flights.

[FailureToFly]

Ok...proper maiden today.

I ran two batteries (short window to fly - between pouring rain) and whilst I took it pretty easy for the first half of the first battery I then inverted it, did some flips and loops and some tic tocs.

First impressions...HS was way too slow and the heli felt like I had tranquilized it...upped everything to 100% and maxed out the TC.

Immediately better but still pretty slow. I flew this battery thinking...hmm...this is so slow compared to my 450's...really ponderous and not at all rocket fast.

It pitch pumped ok so I figured the HS was up there but it bogged quite a bit on tic tocs as my collective is not the greatest and I'm used to unboggable 450s.

I was TBBH a bit ambivalent and quite disappointed when I landed and was wondering what the hell I did wrong in the setup or what could potentially do to make it snappy, fast and totally insane.

I was driving home and I realised that as I had bought a stand alone AR7200BX, it would be only in sport mode rather than TX mode and immediately breathed a fricken huge sigh of relief.

It was floaty and stable and flew ok but it was like flying a V8 impala with 5 Tongans in it. Solid but slow.

I'm going to max it out tomorrow and give it another whirl.

I don't think the 16T pinion would be the answer either as that will cause it to bog even more. Hopefully it's much more snappy and aggressive when set to kill!

No grin so far unfortunately...hopefully I'll have a good grin tomorrow arvo!

[lucidchaos]

What you described is definitely not characteristic of an X5. Tic-tocs should be unboggable, even with horrendous collective management.

What kind of packs are you running? Tired or low C rated packs will make it bog.

Also have you made sure you have a 0-50-100 throttle curve and programmed your ESC? If not, program that TC into your radio, crank your throttle to max (not in throttle hold,) plug in the ESC, wait for two beeps and immediately drop your throttle to zero.

[Mixmaster Pilot]

Originally Posted by FailureToFly

I was driving home and I realised that as I had bought a stand alone AR7200BX, it would be only in sport mode rather than TX mode and immediately breathed a fricken huge sigh of relief.

lol, I've done that before. I had 30% expo in the TX settings so add the expo in the BX sport mode and the 450 felt like the titanic!

[FailureToFly]

I'm running brand new 4000mah 30C 6S Turnigy packs. I've been running loads of the Turnigy blue and nano's on my 450's and they seem great.

The heli had lots of pop when I pushed but the packs are brand new (first run) and will provide more grunt soon.

On vids I frequently have thought the X5 bogs...not hugely but my 450's kinda don't bog at all so I notice it. Different sizes of bird for sure but I'll get the packs broken in and see how it goes. Having the collective so slow was prob half of it.

Flat PC 0-100 in 5 points 0,25,50,75,100 and TC 100% flat.

I did the Hobbywing ESC end points using the external WR SBEC and got the right ESC beeps and the HS really kicked up from 70% to 100%. I'll see if I can tac it tomorrow.

Originally Posted by lucidchaos

What you described is definitely not characteristic of an X5. Tic-tocs should be unboggable, even with horrendous collective management.

What kind of packs are you running? Tired or low C rated packs will make it bog.

Also have you made sure you have a 0-50-100 throttle curve and programmed your ESC? If not, program that TC into your radio, crank your throttle to max (not in throttle hold,) plug in the ESC, wait for two beeps and immediately drop your throttle to zero.

I'm really hoping this is the cause!

I don't remember my 450X being this slow but I do remember it made a big difference when I upped it to kill.

I was running 80% DR on the first battery with the DR and Throw reduction in Sport it felt like trying to fly a tank. Second battery was better but still way too slow.

Think I'll go have a look at it now.

I'm running the servos at 6v as well.

Originally Posted by Mixmaster Pilot

lol, I've done that before. I had 30% expo in the TX settings so add the expo in the BX sport mode and the 450 felt like the titanic!

[B.Ewing]

dont worry, once you get it set right, the x5 will murder the sky

[Chris Sexton]

The X5 is a GREAT flying heli. Fixing the control behavior to TX mode and upping the head speed will fix the sluggishness.

Look forward to hearing your next review

[FailureToFly]

HS is already maxed out but it was set on Sport in the BX. It's now in TX mode with 100% DR and Throws across the board so it should be a lot more spritely tomorrow!

[Chris Sexton]

I always set mine to 115% Rate and 15% expo on cyclics. It's nuts

[FailureToFly]

Ok...ran 5 batteries today on kill and it was loads better. Heli actually was responsive and punchy.

Not 100% on how much I actually enjoyed the experience as I was flying it in a soccer oval sized area which made it a bit tricky (water on one side)...alot of nerves with that amount of money in the air!

I certainly found it much more floaty and it flew really well. Had it inverted about 4' off the ground and it didn't drift or do anything odd. Power was good and the heli didn't wag or blow out during flips, rainbows, tic tocs, loops etc

The X5 flys really well and the build was extremely smooth and easy.

I'd like to make mention of the fact that the HF community has been very gracious with their time and help and really helped me out with some of my (frequent) questions. So thanks everyone that chimed in as it was a great help to me and enabled me to get my bird setup so right.

Unfortunately, I can't help thinking that the size will cause me problems and that I'm going to have to join a club...which I'm kinda loath to do!

I did do something absolutely stupid though...when I was finished adjusting the TX I grabbed a battery from the back of the car and took off for another flight. It was going well but at about 3 minutes into the flight whilst inverted I detected a slight drop in HS.

I immediately flipped back over but the HS started clearly dropping...

I thought fk, something's failed (motor was clearly slowing down) so I clicked off IU and brought it towards me as quickly as I could. It was still over long grass when there was clearly zero power in the motor and I did my first auto onto the road and touched down perfectly with the cyclic maxed out. It was down to the last second and I 100% thought I was going to destroy it on my 5th battery!

After checking it out and being about ready to pack it in for the day I realised I'd absently grabbed a discharged lipo and I'd actually hit the LVC.

I'm a frickin dummy!

So I may have screwed a new battery but the heli is in one piece. Ran a few more batteries after that and it was great.

So a very happy end to the true maiden...I'm still a bit tired from the stress I put myself through!

[czynot]

Congratulation with madien flight!!