450 maintenance, maintenance, maintenance

[rjhenry]

Hay guys, I would like to share something I found on my align 450. I moved the swash links closer to the
center hub of the servo horn to get straighter links, in doing so, it raised the swash slightly
so I had to go back through the head setup to re-center the swash, check zero pitch at mid stick, and
Full travel plus and minus pitch. When I poped off the uppermost pitch link to make an adjustment, I found
It was cracked and practically fell off in my hand. Just imagine if I had not found that and spooled up !!

Just thought I'd share that to show the importance of regular maintenance. It may be a pain, but finding
that bad link most certainly saved my helicopter from disaster.

But now I do have a question. I have to make full terms on my links and one turn goes either
slightly negative or slightly positive for zero pitch at mid stack. If I can't get it perfect
Should I leave it negative or positive, or does a half degree even matter (I don't have a digital
pitch gauge but it's a half degree or less). I would love any and all opinions.


Thanks, Bob

 

[Admiral]

Hi Bob, with standard links you can only get it so close, unless you like to go to the trouble of swapping links over but I never went that far, yes half a degree does make a slight difference but not really enough to matter, the other answer is to invest in a set of turn buckles they will allow adjustments down to 0.1 of a degree.

PS. negative or positive half degree doesn't make any difference.

 

[rjhenry]

thanks Admiral but I think with my skill level I can wait on the turnbuckles

 

[D.O.G.]

The skill level has nothing to do with getting you closer to 0 degree at mid stick with turnbuckles.

 

[rjhenry]

Thank you D.O.G. your absolutely right.
Admiral I need to apologize for my reply. I made that reply from my phone to quickly say thank you.
My phone does voice to text, and when I "spoke" those words it sounded fine, however "reading" them
It looks like I didn't take your suggestion serious when in fact I agree 100%.
I meant to poke fun at my own flight skills and not your suggestion, so again I do apologize
and thank you very much for the suggestion.

 

[Admiral]

No offense taken, I understood what you meant.

 

[bignatertater78]

Hey ther friend..shes lookin good! Glad i cood be somewhat a part of it lol..got mine goin also..that little servo seems work ok.

 

[rjhenry]

Hey Bignatertater78 Thanks, and you were a big part, if you hadn't shown me the mainframe
I never would have put her back together.
Glad to see you got yours going too. ( wish I had a canopy for mine, I through the old one away it was
pretty beat up LOL)

I noticed you did exactly the same thing I did, and
put the gyro on top, even though the frame is designed to put it under the boom (I wanted to be able
to see it and get to it easily for adjustments) but in the end, I gave in and put it
Under the boom. If you also change your mind, DON'T FORGET (like I did) to reverse the gyro, and check
that it's compensating the correct way.

It will spin like a top !

 

[bignatertater78]

Lol..yea..i got the tail pitch goin the right way..but thanku fer the reminder..and bout the gyro mount position..ive always put mine on the top like that..that tail boom block thru me off lol..by the time i was ready to mount the gyro..i had already had evrything snuggd dwn and loctited lol..so i took a pc of foam..and used it to fill in the gulleys..thataway my gyro woodnt be teeter tottern lol..have uhad yer bird up yet?

 

[rjhenry]

I did put 3 batteries through it when I finished, but I changed the swash links to get them straighter, and we have had nothing but wind, rain, and even snow flurries 2 days ago, so I'm still waiting to try it again.