Tony Mitchell
New Member
Hey Fran, I finally managed to video it and put on Youtube. First on the 'uneven' grass, the second on a huge marble slab. Notice the difference.
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General T-rex 800 Battery Connection.
- Thread starter Tony Mitchell
- Start date
Admiral
Well-Known Member
I agree nothing too much wrong with those spool ups, I always find a second spool up is smoother than the first, even though you think you have main & tail blade straight centrifugal force on the first spool up moves them to the optimal position for the second spool up.
Tony Mitchell
New Member
OK thanks for the confidence boost there Fran and Smoggie. I just need to get her trimmed out now and get out and fly. I'm waiting for the swashplate leveller at the mo. Everywhere except Align in Taiwan are showing no stock. align.tw state on their site that they only sell to resellers, not individuals. Anyway, I've ordered one from Align UK, it's on back order, but when I phoned them, the guy said they were expecting a delivery this coming week.
Smoggie
Well-Known Member
Tony Mitchell
New Member
Thanks for the offer Smoggie, but it's ordered and paid for. Should have it this week. I set the links to the exact measurement quoted in the manual using a vernier caliper. It's close, but as you can see in the video, it's not perfect as there's a slight tilt to the left as it reaches takeoff speed.
. You want to make sure that you did everything correctly before maiden.
Tony Mitchell
New Member
Oh yes. I learned my lesson the hard way with my first heli, the CopterX Black Angel. Smashed blades, bent and crushed boom and bent feathering shaft. Repaired the boom and feathering shaft at work. 11mm drill bit fits the boom exactly. Warmed the boom and forced the drill bit down into the distorted bit. Then just gentle panel beating brought it to good as new again. Feathering shaft was a little trickier and that needed a press and a micrometer. She's still flying.
Smoggie
Well-Known Member
On the subject of the tilting to the left as the rotors come up to speed. A small error on swash level wouldn't usually cause that. I would be worth a few checks:
Always better to check these things than take a chance.
- Check that you havent got any trim or sub-trim applied in the Tx (on helis I always disable trims to prevent any accidentally being applied)
- Double check that the gyro response of the swash is in the correct direction (i.e. heli tilts left, swash corrects right)
- Double check that the control response from Tx stick movement moves swash in correct direction.
- FBL unit is mounted on vibration tape and wiring has enough slack to not pass on vibrations, and nothing is touching the FBL
Always better to check these things than take a chance.
Tony Mitchell
New Member
I had her a couple of feet off the ground, but very nervous about making a mistake, especially given the limited space in my back garden. Whilst I can hover and move around the garden with the 450, 470 and 500, the 800 is almost twice the size of the 500 and although the handling is so sweet, it still worries me. So, to that end, I made a custom training undercarriage specially for the 800 size. Two 2 metre lengths of springy wood, 35 x 11mm, crossed and screwed in the centre, with an extra stabilizing block to stop any tendency for them to twist. For the ends of the arms, I bought four orange balls (ballcock floats), sawed off the screw fixing bits and cut slots 35 x 11mm in each, then a 3mm hole directly opposite. Nice tight fit over the wood, then M3 x 25mm screws through the little holes into the ends of the wooden arms. Perfect. Despite the extra few pounds weight, the 800 lifts it all no problem. Had her hovering around the garden up to about 6 feet high. I'm amazed, it's so much easier to handle than the little 450 and 470.
Bring on an end to the lockdown so I can get back to the airfield and fly her properly. No 3D for me yet, just circuits.
Despite everything, I still can't fly that damn thing on the NEXT heli simulator. Can do all the hover training and practice etc, but when it comes to flying circuits etc. I just lose it.
One unexpected bonus of flying the RC helis, I can now successfully fly the helis in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Also an unforseen problem... the 800 is a bit big for my car. With the back seats down, it sits nose to the rear and the tail rotor is up between the two front seats. (Nissan Juke). Looks like I'm going to have to build a trailer just for my helis.
Bring on an end to the lockdown so I can get back to the airfield and fly her properly. No 3D for me yet, just circuits.
Despite everything, I still can't fly that damn thing on the NEXT heli simulator. Can do all the hover training and practice etc, but when it comes to flying circuits etc. I just lose it.
One unexpected bonus of flying the RC helis, I can now successfully fly the helis in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Also an unforseen problem... the 800 is a bit big for my car. With the back seats down, it sits nose to the rear and the tail rotor is up between the two front seats. (Nissan Juke). Looks like I'm going to have to build a trailer just for my helis.
Tony Mitchell
New Member
As the 800 is brand new that I built from a kit, hopefully it won't suffer the same fate as my second hand 470. Was flying that back in January when suddenly it went into a spin. Would not respond to rudder commands. Fortunately I got it down with the only damage being smashed landing skids. Fitted new skids and checked it out and found there was no drive to the tail rotor. This ensued with a stripdown where I found that the one way bearing that drives the tail rotor drive gear was slipping on the main shaft. It's supposed to be a tight press fit, but this was just slipping as the shaft rotated. I found nothing in the manual to suggest that this part should be glued to the shaft, so can't explain it. Bought a new part, fitted it and no problems since.