RunRyder - First Flight

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e-Century Hummingbird - Swift > First Flight

rjhpilot91
Senior Heliman
Location: Mays Landing, NJ USA

I just did my first flight this morning, just some low hovering. Heres what I'm running:

Swift 16
600A plus motor
5s AT 5000 mah pack
-3 to +11 pitch curve
0-40-80-90-100 throttle curve
Raptor 30 gear
Futaba 3010 servos
401 with 9254
Electron 80/100 ESC with BEC

The heli flew great on the first try. Needed a little forward trim but I'll move the battery forward to fix that. A couple things seemed strange though.

On spoolup there is a wobble but advancing the throttle through that range minimizes the wobble a lot. On spooldown however the wobble is hoorendous. The first time I spooled down it was flopping around like a fish out of water. I seem to have remedied that though by hitting throttle hold before going below half stick and then slowly increasing pitch. That effectively eliminates the wobble. I though by putting on the raptor gear the wobble wouldn't be a factor but oh well, they look cooler anyway. This is on hard ground as well.

I'm also using the soft start with no governor on the ESC setting. I cant see the need to keep all of that head speed for scale type flying. The other thing I noticed is that sometimes in ground effect, 1 to 2 feet off the ground the heli sometimes has a vibe noticeable in the skids mainly. Its only in that height range and doesn't seem to bad. The blades are tracking real well also right off the bat.

After a 4-5 minute flight of hovering the motor, ESC, and battery were all relatively warm, as in I could keep my finger on there indefinitely. I forgot my temp gauge but I'd say around 100-110 degrees. Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the results of my setup and all of the equipment.

Any opinions on some of these issues or my setup would be greatly appreciated.

06-08-2008 02:49 PM

rjhpilot91
Senior Heliman
Location: Mays Landing, NJ USA

Oh yeah the blades are Sport Aerotech 550 mm woodies. They are perfect right out of the bag. Perfect tracking and no balance issues. Not bad for 20 bucks.

06-08-2008 02:50 PM

laughingstill
Key Veteran
Location: Gainesville, Fl, USA

What spindle did you get with the kit? Aluminum with the ball or steel? Did you move your boom supports to the bottom of the frame? Are the thrust bearings in correctly? Are your blades the correct tightness as well as the same tightness? Do you have the CNC headblock or stock? Are the grips CNC or stock? Did you try turning the phase of the head 180°. I know that's a lot of questions but info on these things will help resolve the problem.....Ron

3DMP-E, Logo 6003D, Logo103D Carbon and Trex 450se Flyin Firefighter

06-08-2008 03:47 PM

3d-wanna-b
Heliman
Location: Newport, Ar. U.S.A

What pinion gear??

<<HeliFreak>>

06-09-2008 02:22 AM

rjhpilot91
Senior Heliman
Location: Mays Landing, NJ USA

The gear is the 9 tooth.

I have the new steel spindle and the boom supports are on the raptor skids very near the frame.

The thrust bearings are in correctly and I'm not really sure on the blade tightness. They are tighter than my 450's blades but not so tight that you can't move them.

Everything else on the bird is the stock plastic.

I also changed my throttle curve back to 0-25-50-75-100 because the battery was only getting 5 minutes of flight. I should be getting at least 8-10 minutes with a low head speed like that and I opted to not use the governor. There still seems to be enough headspeed in this configuration and my trex 450 was great with the same throttle curve and gave very long flights.

I read something about the ESC that you shouldn't run it below 80% if your using the governor but without governor mode I would imagine its okay.

And I have not turned the head 180 yet.

06-09-2008 10:44 AM

Pistol_Pete
Elite Veteran
Location: Tampa Bay non-Buccaneer

Congrats on first flight...you will enjoy this bird.

Assuming 90% efficiency from motor AND running at 100% throtle your head speed with a 9T is roughtly 1700rpm.

I agree that a four to five minute flight is definitely too low.

Consider using governor to get the most out of motor.

brushless are intended to be run at max...pinion determines head speed...not governor.

visit www.swift-tuning.com for good tips as well.

<><>...the lunatic is in my head...<><>

06-09-2008 03:11 PM

HOMEPAGE

rjhpilot91
Senior Heliman
Location: Mays Landing, NJ USA

Blades?

I flew the bird again with the 0-25-50-75-100 throttle curve and I seemed to get much longer flight times, about 3-4 minutes more than the first flight. The head speed is definitely a little less than before but it is still pretty responsive and seems to handle well in a hover. I'll be doing some more hover and FF testing this weekend.

Would going down to 530mm blades help my flight times any over using the current 550's? I'm thinking about getting the 530 helimax carbons possibly and was wondering if going to shorter blades would help my flight times?

I'm also going to snug up the blades a little more and see if the vibes go away. If not I may order a new spindle and rebuild the head.

Also I noticed that the new steel feathering spindle has a sort of ball in the center that appears to be moveable. Mine is perfectly centerd on the shaft but on a prior post I saw that some dont have this ball. Is this a necessary part of the new spindle. I'm curious to know if everyone else has that ball.

06-14-2008 02:07 PM

3d-wanna-b
Heliman
Location: Newport, Ar. U.S.A

Quote
Also I noticed that the new steel feathering spindle has a sort of ball in the center that appears to be moveable. Mine is perfectly centerd on the shaft but on a prior post I saw that some dont have this ball. Is this a necessary part of the new spindle. I'm curious to know if everyone else has that ball

From what I've seen they started out with the aluminum shaft with the ball made to the shaft and then made the reinforced steel shaft with the movable sleeve/ball and now the newest shaft is the one that has no ball period. My kit came with a bad shaft when I bought it so Century had to send me (2) more before I got a good one and they all had the sleeve/ball that was movable. I don't know if they are trying to get rid of old stock before they let the newest ones out the door or not but since they have no movable sleeve/ball on them I'd say they are not necessary.

<<HeliFreak>>

06-14-2008 06:22 PM

rjhpilot91
Senior Heliman
Location: Mays Landing, NJ USA

Well...

I did the first outside flight last weekend and it went great. The heli feels real solid in the air although I suspect hovering at 60% throttle and 4 degrees of pitch, the headspeed is pretty low. Since I changed the throttle curve, I am now getting in excess of 11 minutes of mild flying without hitting the 80% margin.

It still has the wobble on startup and shut down however I ran it up without the blades with no vibes whatsoever, so are my blades the problem?

06-20-2008 02:11 AM

centuryman
Veteran
Location: deerriver,mn usa

landing gear are to flexible, causes ground resonence, use lots of negitive pitch when spooling it down, and spool it up quicker if you can.Or put on stiffer landing gear.My 620 was horrible,till i started useing these practices.I use 7 degrees negitive pitch in normal, seams to stop the wobble on spool down.

06-28-2008 05:15 AM

jamesppp
Senior Heliman
Location: carrollton georgia usa

If you have the BEC in the ESC disabled and a seperate BEC, your temps will stay cooler.

If your 550mm woodies are wide chord like the PV0039 TT Raptor blades they will shorten flight times considerably. I havent tried my 530mm Heli Max blades yet. The stock 515mm woodies should give an you a good 8 minutes with plenty of room to spare on 5S, 5000mah packs.On mine 8 minutes uses 70% of the capacity/

Jimmy

06-29-2008 04:57 PM

Pistol_Pete
Elite Veteran
Location: Tampa Bay non-Buccaneer

Quote
I havent tried my 530mm Heli Max blades yet.

I have...nice and stiff and half the price of rotortechs and definitely not comparable. Great for scale flying and sport. They range in the 115g vs 90g for the OEM woodies.

But if looking for longer flying times...cant beat the woodies...let alone the price.

<><>...the lunatic is in my head...<><>

06-30-2008 04:38 PM

HOMEPAGE

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e-Century Hummingbird - Swift > First Flight

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