270 CFX Flight/Review/Repair Videos

[RCBound]

Originally Posted by crsorrell0653

Not a fan of facebook, I'm too old to start. Have you had any luck in the permanent job department yet? I wish you luck.

I've got a new Trio 360cfx that is still in the box. I need to download bail out before I get it going, also want to put a belt drive in, I am so impressed with the one I did for the 270, it has given no problems at all. Also convinced it is better suited to 325mm blades, which has been taken up by some, with great success.

So really, we are both ending up with a 325 machine, but come to it from two different ends. ho ho !!

PS - just a thought on that last landing you did on the video - you may need wider skids.

Skids are fine, level ground and more frequent flying is what I need!

I can't find a "permanent" full time position while I have class from 9-4 M-F. I should have no issues fining a job after this year though.

I may have misunderstood, but are you running the 270 as 325? Or 325 on the 360? I can't wait to see your belt conversion on the 360. After seeing how tight it was on the 270 I really just don't want to do it...even though you had success.

[crsorrell0653]

Originally Posted by RCBound

Skids are fine, level ground and more frequent flying is what I need!

I can't find a "permanent" full time position while I have class from 9-4 M-F. I should have no issues fining a job after this year though.

I may have misunderstood, but are you running the 270 as 325? Or 325 on the 360? I can't wait to see your belt conversion on the 360. After seeing how tight it was on the 270 I really just don't want to do it...even though you had success.

Will be running the 325 blades on the Trio 360. The 360 blades put 50% more load on the same running gear, and some have been stripping the main gear if the mesh gets a bit loose in flight. Reports are that it is flying a lot crisper with the smaller blades.

I will be using a bigger main gear on the 360, I have one off a mini protos which is 120T and a 12 or 13T pinion. There is plenty of room in both the 270 and the 360 for this conversion, just fiddly and precise work. Now you have been going to machining classes ( did you mention that you were having machining lessons somewhere?), you will be able to do this work with a lathe.

[RCBound]

Originally Posted by crsorrell0653

Will be running the 325 blades on the Trio 360. The 360 blades put 50% more load on the same running gear, and some have been stripping the main gear if the mesh gets a bit loose in flight. Reports are that it is flying a lot crisper with the smaller blades.

I will be using a bigger main gear on the 360, I have one off a mini protos which is 120T and a 12 or 13T pinion. There is plenty of room in both the 270 and the 360 for this conversion, just fiddly and precise work. Now you have been going to machining classes ( did you mention that you were having machining lessons somewhere?), you will be able to do this work with a lathe.

I've mentioned it some places but not everywhere. I'm having a lot of fun with the classes. Not much time to do personal stuff as we are always working on assignments but after I get my NIMS certification I mayou have more free reign to do personal projects. All of next semester will be spent on SolidCAM and the CNCs which I'm stoked for!

For some reason after the last Samsung update I'm no longer receiving and notifications so sorry if I don't see your replies sooner rather than later.

[RCBound]

Had a bit of a close call in this flight(nearly 1 month ago). Accidentally hit the wrong switch and idled down to lower HS but pulled out of it before the heli dug a hole. Definitely tossed up some dirt though! Chose not to slap the phone on my face for this flight.

Delaminated Blade! (5 min 32 sec)

[Inverted Hokie]

So after tanking the little beast twice in the past 6 weeks or so, once due to not having the EC3 connector jammed all the way on (thing is really hard to put press flush), and once due to bailout not working (think it was a bad servo), here she is (pic 1B). This last 'carsh' was almost a total rebuild/reassemble...ESC, Rx, and frame still good though. (pic 1a)

Just went out and test hovered. It's real smooth and tail can whip around like Bruce Lee's nunchucks and stop on a dime.

After an 8 month addiction and a few rebuilds (230s and 270) Some random repair thoughts from a newbie...

1) Most of us have crashed, more than once. It's not a matter of "if"...as repair/rebuild is part of the hobby. I enjoy it b/c I have the attention span of a squirrel and it's therapeutic & teaches patience. It's a great feeling to get the bird reassembled and see it take aloft. Can't beat it.

2) Make sure your EC3 connector is pressed flush after connecting the battery. Sounds painfully obvious, but I didn't have it pressed in all the way for the first several weeks and it bit me bad - I thought I had it pressed together as far as it would go. Total loss of power while inverted about 2 feet above runway. Tried to flip it over and auto down, but caught the tail on the ground and it tumbled like a gymnast on crack. That was a full tail rebuild along with main & pinion gears.

I now use silicon grease to slide the male part in with less friction and it pulls out easier too...brought to you by monsieur double-entendre. I also use it on the motor leads b/c they can be hard to disconnect and it's easy to hoze up the shrink tubing if you have to use needle nose.

3) Take an insane amount of pics of your bird before you fly a new one. It's amazing what you forget during reassembly. I have a BOM that I did in Excel with each part called out with a link for reordering. It's helped me get to know her too. The exploded view of the 270 lacks any info on bearings, so I use the 450x view to help as they supposedly have the same bearings.

4) Servo upgrade. I suggest upgrading the servos to the KST DS215MG V3. The 270 finds tail servos quite delicious also, but I'm still using the stock one as I had an extra on hand. I'm on my 2nd. First one failed
within about 20 flights.
To be honest, I'm not sure when you would want to upgrade but definitely if you're rebuilding.

5) For swash leveling in menu G of the Beastx, I use this little gem from Rick Lohr: http://www.rdlohr.com/

You want to turn the whole shaft/head assy while checking swash, don't just turn the leveling tool itself. It's similar to the zip tie method where you don't have to remove the whole head, but more accurate (pic 2).
I had the head off initially but I don't have a standard leveling tool.
Make sure that when you enter menu G, that you tap the left stick to choose the first servo...it will dance. Don't check the swash until you do this.

Once swash is level, then I use two carpenter line levels and my cell phone level app to check for zero pitch. I place the phone behind the battery platform to make sure the heli itself is level first (use envelope or piece of paper under skids to level the heli) and the two line levels on the top of the blade grips. Then, adjust the grip linkage length to get as close to level as you can on the head/blade grips (pic 3A - doesn't have the level app on as it's my wife's barbie fone b/c I was using mine to take pic).

After this, attach the main blades to double check zero pitch by moving the blades to the "rabbit ear" position and tightening the blades fully. Mine still needed to be tweaked (see pic 3B). You can tweak each servo (back to menu G) slightly to get the blades level (pic 3C), but you'll have to make sure swash is still level though It's somewhat iterative, but you just barely move the cyclic stick up or down for tweaking.

Not saying the above is the exact way to do things, but it seems to work for me.


6) Lead Wire bundling. The lead wires on the KST's are nice and beefy. I went thru a few zip ties trying to bundle them...probably old ties. Get some at Lowe's; can't have too many and I had just enough. The one going around the boom is a larger tie. (pic 4). If you're changing out the servos, it's possible to route the leads without removing the Rx by removing the servo pins from its connector and then routing
them between the tail boom mount and Rx plate. With the new KST's, the last lead was REALLY hard to get thru due to the space of the other leads, so I'll probably just remove the Rx in the future.

7) Dry Fluid Extreme. I use the gear lube on the main gear and tail slider and the Dry Fluid Heli lube for the bearings.

8) Bearings on the main grip: Unlike other helis I've seen, the first bearing inside the outer grip (where the blades go), is a thrust bearing. Inner race is first to go inside the blade grip. I think most heli's have a standard type bearing here. There is, of course, a std bearing on the opposite side of the grip closest to the main shaft, along with a bevel type washer.

One side of the grips had the bearings installed incorrectly from the factory (pic 5). Left side is correct in the pic, but the inner race is not shown as it's inserted into the blade grip...top view in pic.

9) 3M 411 double sided tape. I used this b/c it was recommended on this forum as the stock tape induces too much vibration. It's perfect wrt width and I used 2 layers...hope that's right (pic 6).

Couldn't have done much without all the help & knowledge in this forum. Thank you!

[RCBound]

Glad you stuck with it and got it back goin. One of the benefits of this heli is rather inexpensive repairs (compared to a 380 or 500).

[Inverted Hokie]

Thanks man & Very true about the repair cost.
.

[crsorrell0653]

Very tidy job which is reflected in the way it flies now.

I have always been impressed with how much punishment the 270 will take, mines been crashed maybe 20 times or more, drowned in a water trough, landed upside down and lost twice (and found once). Smashed the bearing mounts, dozens of servo gears and horns, main cogs till the cows come home, snapped main shafts, bent feathering spindles for and aft, not to mention blades etc etc, yet after each fairly inexpensive rebuild (excluding the drowned esc), she's as good as new.

[Inverted Hokie]

Originally Posted by crsorrell0653

Very tidy job which is reflected in the way it flies now.

I have always been impressed with how much punishment the 270 will take, mines been crashed maybe 20 times or more, drowned in a water trough, landed upside down and lost twice (and found once). Smashed the bearing mounts, dozens of servo gears and horns, main cogs till the cows come home, snapped main shafts, bent feathering spindles for and aft, not to mention blades etc etc, yet after each fairly inexpensive rebuild (excluding the drowned esc), she's as good as new.

Dang man, that's impressive! Yeah, after my first wreck I thought, "no way that thing survived", but just had to rebuild the tail (and replace main gear of course). It is a little tank.

[ssschmidt4]

270cfx in Kansas air! (5 min 30 sec)

[Helithunder]

blade 270cfx fast flying with loops (4 min 48 sec)