Convert Trex 450 flybar to FBL - doable?

[HokieTR4]

I have an opportunity to buy a Trex 450 flybarred heli. Is converting it to FBL doable? It *seems* that replacing the head, swash and gyro should do the trick. So surely I've overlooked something critical and spendy.

What say you gurus?

jim

[CrashNburn420]

Basically that's what you need to do. One other thing to look at is what servos it has. If it has older analog servos you may need to update/replace them to get it to work. Some FBL units will work with analog but most are run digital servos.

What 450 are you looking at?

[Larryu]

It's do able and parts are readily available. But is it cost effective this I don't know. It depends on what you will pay for the FB heli plus parts vs what a FBL one would cost. Personally I would just go for the FBL to start with, one of the down sides to the conversion is the main shaft is generally longer than a FBL main shaft which changes the center of gravity on the helicopter.
This also makes the linkage longer and more prone to bending in a crash. Just my 2 cents.

[icehunter]

Easily doable. I just did one. Is it cost effective...wellllllllllllll... I paid $135.00 for the parts from align. From tarot they would be about $80.00 or so. Remember I am Canadian.Add in a controller for $150.00 can bucks and we are at $300.00...I can buy a used FBL heli here for $300.00 or so. Lets just say,I probably wont do it again..

[HeliLust]

If you already had the heli on hand I think it's worth it. Having to buy the heli and dfc conversion, new servos, and a FBL would make it cost prohibitive.

On the bright side if your a little creative you can use the dfc main shaft that comes with the upgrade head by grinding off the ridge in it. A new swash is not necessary either. I even went as far as to make an EFL head for mine.

I have to say though that my old sev2 is my favorite 450, it's very light with modern electronics and parts are generally given away and still readily available. As an old heli with a second life on FBL it rips even on 3s and is just as smooth as any of my other modern helis.

Worthy of mention would be a 470lp super combo. It would be about what you would spend on an old 450 and FBL conversion using used parts. It is a different class of 450 all around though, mainly being bigger, more powerful and cheap to fly and maintain.

[HeliLust]

I figured I would put a link to my 450 sev2 so you can see how they come out all finished. Note that the only remaining sev2 original parts are the main frame and bearing blocks.

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=760560

[HokieTR4]

Tnx to you guys (and gals?) for the great responses. The conversion plan is a go - too bad for the Tarot 450 I'm also building - the Trex is more exciting. In the end I'll probably invest 2x (+) the purchase price of the heli, but I'll have a real Trex - woohoo! And have fun building it.

jim

[icehunter]

Since its a go here are a couple of things. If you want to put a align dfc head on it you can buy a conversion kit. The swash from your heli could probably be used but check it out. On my 450 sport I had to change the main shaft. Also you will probably need to swap out the feathering shaft for a new one. For a couple of extra $$ buy the kit with the new bearings in it. When I did mine I made it so that my fb head is still complete and didn't use parts (bearings) from the old one.

If you want a efl head style,its a parts only put together from align as near as I can tell and by pricing it out.

The tarot head is parts only from what I can find..from what guys in here have been telling me use the TL45110-07 head

[Dylan Hudock]

Yes it is definitely doable to convert your heli to fbl. All other aspects aside, it is a good idea. But considering the many different routes you can go with it, it may be cheaper to pick up a used fbl heli on the forums. The servos you have to play a large role in how well the fbl heli flies, whether you are doing sport flying or hard 3d, the servos are part of the control loop when you are flybarless. If you have servos capable of it, you could be in the air with a used beastx and cheap fbl head for less than $100. It all comes down to how you want to do it.