Blade Micro - AH-64 Apache

[GoatRider]

I would think a hard rubber tire would be a lot heavier than a pneumatic tire, and would thus have no place in anything that flies.

[Bladekeeper]

Question, will the LP5DSM transmitter work with the Apache? I'm asumming it won't, it takes at least 6 Ch to fly collective pitch. Just wanted to see if I was missing something.

[Ajith]

Originally Posted by Mattinfla

With the battery wires shortened a bit, and perhaps the full size servo connector for the motor / esc wiring replaced, this could become mostly painless.

Some pics:

Why can't we permanently glue the wire and the plug to the top of the battery ? Just a thought

[jbewley]

Four months ago, my Apache disappeared into the undergrowth in a fence line. Lots of poison ivy in there, so no looking too hard for it. Now that the growth is dying off for the winter, I ventured back up there and actually found it. Two cracked main blades and everything else looked OK. It had been rained on many times, so when I plugged in a battery and everything worked, I was amazed.

It is now back in the air and just a hard to fly as it ever was.

Jim

[pgoelz]

Originally Posted by jbewley

Four months ago, my Apache disappeared into the undergrowth in a fence line. Lots of poison ivy in there, so no looking too hard for it. Now that the growth is dying off for the winter, I ventured back up there and actually found it. Two cracked main blades and everything else looked OK. It had been rained on many times, so when I plugged in a battery and everything worked, I was amazed.

It is now back in the air and just a hard to fly as it ever was.

Jim

Really? I find the Apache to be VERY easy to fly, at least in stabilized mode. If it has a flaw it would be that in stabilized mode the bank angle is limited to the point that you might not be able to fly in more than a light breeze.

But that is mine. I worked with someone last year at our indoor flying site whose Apache was unflyable due to very odd tail behavior. It was as if the gyro was either intermittent or had a very limited hold range before it let go. It was night and day different to mine. He took it to the shop where he bought it and had someone check it out. They said they could not find anything wrong with it and indeed..... it has flown perfectly ever since. We never figured out what changed.

I have found that larger blades help with tail authority, especially at the end of a battery. My guess is that as the head speed decays and you compensate with more collective, you end up with an inefficient angle of attack on the main blades and the mainshaft torque can overpower the tail rotor causing the tail to swing. I swapped the blades for four 130 blades (balanced in pairs) and I like how it flies. The collective seems a little crisper and it flies well down to the end of a 3 minute flight where on the original blades, the tail and the collective would be getting just a little mushy. I painted them with a light coat of Krylon Fusion "camouflage" black (really like that stuff) and they look great. They are the same length as the originals but have a tad more chord.

I wonder if yours survived the elements because the electronics are pretty well protected inside the body. Especially if it was not exactly upright. Nice that you got it back!

Paul

[jbewley]

Originally Posted by pgoelz

Really? I find the Apache to be VERY easy to fly, at least in stabilized mode. If it has a flaw it would be that in stabilized mode the bank angle is limited to the point that you might not be able to fly in more than a light breeze.

But that is mine. I worked with someone last year at our indoor flying site whose Apache was unflyable due to very odd tail behavior. It was as if the gyro was either intermittent or had a very limited hold range before it let go. It was night and day different to mine. He took it to the shop where he bought it and had someone check it out. They said they could not find anything wrong with it and indeed..... it has flown perfectly ever since. We never figured out what changed.

I have found that larger blades help with tail authority, especially at the end of a battery. My guess is that as the head speed decays and you compensate with more collective, you end up with an inefficient angle of attack on the main blades and the mainshaft torque can overpower the tail rotor causing the tail to swing. I swapped the blades for four 130 blades (balanced in pairs) and I like how it flies. The collective seems a little crisper and it flies well down to the end of a 3 minute flight where on the original blades, the tail and the collective would be getting just a little mushy. I painted them with a light coat of Krylon Fusion "camouflage" black (really like that stuff) and they look great. They are the same length as the originals but have a tad more chord.

I wonder if yours survived the elements because the electronics are pretty well protected inside the body. Especially if it was not exactly upright. Nice that you got it back!

Paul

Thanks. I have some 130 blades and may give that a try.

Jim

[Psycho_dad]

Just added this "bad boy" to the collection and soon will be giving it my father (huge scale heli-fan) as a New Years eve present.

Can't wait to see this heli fly.

Are there any non-eflite batteries usable for this particular model? If so, please let me know

Grtz
PD

[Psycho_dad]

After approx 1 year of ownership, I just sold the Micro Apache.

It was not HH best flying scale model