Micro 180CFX Msiden and crash

[murankar]

For starters I should not have been flying in these windy conditions and 2: I ensured no one was around and that I was able to fly without hitting anything other than tree overhang.

With that said I would not recommend that anyone fly in a condition that may cause someone to get hurt or something hit that you cant afford to fix. So here it goes.


I have had this bird for about 2 weeks now. I could not fly due to the DX6 being out for repairs. Unfortunately the Vcontrol does not work on the bird, lol. So I had sometime today to get the maiden in during break. I had a slow tail wag so I landed and adjusted the gain to the tail a bit and the wag went away. SO I started braving into choppy waters by trying some piros and things were going ok. The head was bogging due to the gusts of wind (had to be close to 20 mph). On my last piro the wind hit the 180 so hard I kinda lost some control but managed to gain it back, by the time i did it was to late. I missed T.H. and now its down till wednesday or thursday.

I ordered all the parts and them some for the repairs. The only 2 gears that stripped were the main and a servo gear. The entire tail assembly needs replaced except the ouput box of the tail and the gears. The boom, supports, pitch sidder, pitch control rod, main shaft, feathering shaft, tail shaft, main gear a new servo, tail drive gears, zeal blades and finally 3 new pulse packs for the 180. Thats the list of stuff ordered. I ordered the drive gears as a just in case. You never know when that time comes.

 

[trainrider06]

Sorry to hear, but that little voice was talking to you wasn't it? "don't fly don't fly" and ya just had to do that last maneuver didn't ya? Heli abuse! Heli Abuse! i'm reporting this to the AMA!!! LOL
Not funny I know, but gotta have some humor over these things....
I sure hope the post office doesn't give you the slow route like I've been getting here pretty regular.....been waiting on a DFC swash from Amain hobbies for 6-7 days now! I usually get their stuff within 4 days...this is like the 3rd thing I've had to wait over a week for from em, when before it was here lickity split!

 

[murankar]

first thing is the PO is not getting my business.

Next i had the angle on one side saying don't do it, on the other I had the devil saying do it. The devil won and so did mother nature. It felt so good to get airborne. the TX was so natural in my hands pointing downwards and no shakes. This heli feels like a true trainer.

 

[Admiral]

Sorry to hear that the 180 went down, WOW that is some repair list I have put mine in a few times but never that bad.

 

[murankar]

The wind pushed it down and with the forward speed it got tacoed..

 

[leedude1]

I feel you pain... just did a similar thing on Saturday with the my 150... just finished fixing it after a parking lot asphalt kiss and was so anxious to get it in the air I went out in conditions I would never usually fly in and I didn't even get though a full pack before the wind helped it into the side of my garage, called myself a dumbass all the way back to the workbench where I laid down the mangled bird to await replacement parts.. anyway part of the process...

Since we're in the 180 forum ...I went out and ordered mine last week (could not resist the Lynx main grips, swash and tail box) can't wait to see how this compares... sold my 130x to my brother in law with about a half ton of spare parts, blades and accessories to cover some of the outlay but seems from all the feedback that Blade really got this one right.

 

[murankar]

My parts list is in my first post. I was going to order some "hop ups" but decided not to. One thing for sure I may do the metal servo gears. The other hop up I may do is the zeal fiber glass fuselage. That kit looks sweet.

 

[leedude1]

Yeah I ordered the slipper clutch to try and save some gears (in case) but i think ill try the servo saver mod on the servo horns like I did on the 150. It works great there and after a few mishaps (majors) without a stripped plastic gear I'm sold ...it works really well. I don't do any heavy 3d so I dont think ill put enough strain/torque on the arms to cause any concern.

Actually ordered the ZEAL canopy from Canomod that the one you talking about? Agreed sir, looks awesome... (+Dragon 450l canopy as well, paying for shipping might as well make worth it) went with the shorter version I don't really like the full coverage for some reason...

anyway NO MORE WINDY DAY BRAVERY FOR ME

 

[murankar]

Yeah no more windy days. I just might try the servo saver mod. I will see if i can find the gear set so I can replace the gears in the bum servo. In the mean time I will replace the whole servo with the one I just got today.

So far I have replaced the boom supports, torque tube, boom. Next is the main gear, tail shaft and possibly the feathering and main shafts. I need to find my micro screw driver set first. The tail blade grips are really thread locked in there. The provided screwdriver just ain't cutting it.

 

[murankar]

So what did I end up fixing?

I started with the boom since it was the easiest but most involved part. I replaced the tail shaft, pitch slider torque tube, boom and one boom brace. That basically fixed 90% of the damage. Next I changed the main gear and left front servo and for good measure I changed the main shaft. I got a set of Zeal 155mm carbon main blades, the blades were fine but I changed them to match the Gaui. No real reason other than they are carbon fiber.

I also got 3 new Pulse Ultra packs for it and that about rounds out the repairs for now. All thats left is to see if Spektrum actually centered the servo before installing the servo arm. I did look at it last night and it looks goo but I need to get it in the air before i know for sure.


I want to look at the AS3X program cable. I dont think my DX6 will get into the advanced program features. If the servo arm needs 90ed better then I may not be able to do it on the radio. I guess I will have to fire it and find out.

 

[leedude1]

Let me know if you can center with the dx6 as I have the same radio.. good to know for future reference..

Still waiting on my delivery...should be this weekend, if so I just need to find the time to make the 35 minute drive to the HS and it will be on the work bench by Monday if not worst case Wednesday night.

Servo saver mod is a big thumbs up for me Mathias..at least in terms of saving the actual servo gears like I said, this is my second big crash with my 150's where I've had to change everything but the kitchen sink but the servo gears are unscathed...on a small bird like these I don't think the forces gets up enough to cause problems, and since I do see aftermarkets for it I would guess this is in fact the case. Worst case wait for me to give it go and Ill tell you. Mind you I do not throw the thing around so if thats your style of flight you want to go the way of metal gearing.

 

[murankar]

Okay so the new servo was fine out of the box. No need to center. I feel strongly that the servos are set at the factory.

As for the cutting off while in vetted, had linear curves vs a flat curve. That solved the issue. I fixed the canopy with medium CA.

 

[leedude1]

Well sir, got the new 180 yesterday, hobby shop owner delivered it to me personally yesterday evening. Now that is customer service that just does not exist any more.

Will probably read the manual for settings fix things up in my TX over the next few days and fly her stock once or twice on the weekend just to see how things go as a benchmark before I put on the lynx stuff.. did you need to undo and lock tight stuff or is the stock factory build pretty solid in your opinion?

 

[murankar]

Just watch the manual. Some of the settings are off. If you know what your settings are then you'll be fine. I think the Expo and dual rates are a little messed up.

I have found out you can do the servo setup with a DX6. Was not sure I would be able to but I can. So that's good now for the repairs from the last crash.

 

[leedude1]

I heard this is basically a microbeast type set up..is that true? I havent gotten to the manual or anything other than looking in the box.. :_) ordered some 550 50c Xtreme batteries for it, what packs are you flying?

 

[murankar]

It's the 3sx I believe. It's Horizon hobbies own gyro from my understanding. It supposed to have safe technology in it.

 

[leedude1]

Do you know if I can do the firmware update using the USB for the ar7200x or do I need to pick up the other spectrum cable?

 

[murankar]

My edit did not take. It's the AS3X by horizon hobbies. So updates for a ar7200 bx via USB have to be done with beastx stuff. I believe beast X is just a standard cable.

 

[leedude1]

Hey sir,

This thing is sweet just finished putting it all together with the up grades and honestly I am very impressed with this helicopter. Ill see if I can post an image of it shortly.

 

[murankar]

Well got the servo fixed. Went to put the plastic retainer sleeve back on and broke the mounting ear off. Need to order new servo caps. So it's still down.