evdreamer

Jeff,

Nice flying. In time you will be comfortable flying it.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

Thanks Nick I sure hope so. Starting to rain now... Arrrrghhh ! The Funtana is so pretty and cool looking, that sometimes I just think about parking it forevor... But It needs to be sacrificed for learning... There will be others. My next one I would LOVE something like your 540 Edge... So awesome ! [8D]


Take care,

~ Jeff

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

And fellow night owls....LOL...

Mark,

Welcome to the forum, glad to have you on board! I gusss that did take some time, like reading a novel, all 360+ pages!

Hope you enjoy visiting, and keep in touch, for sure!

Nick,

Yeah, Justin is amazing, for sure... nice example for Mark's son...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9yaRsrSfEo

How's the CAD and plane coming along?

JPEE,

Big fly day today?

Jeff,

Looking good! A bit rusty there at first, but then once ya got it up in the air a bit, you settled right down...nice flying!

Great video work as well, as usual!


Well guys,

This has been the most miserable, most frustrating heli weekend I think I have ever had...I cannot for the life of me, figure out what is wrong with the B400...it still has a huge vibration issue...and I am running out if ideas, and patience...

I finally had to pack it up and throw in the towel for the day at least, I got so discouraged...

To make a LONG story SHORT as possible...and keep in mind that this was happening before all the nice upgrade parts...

The left (and only the left) tail boom support strut on this heli will oscillate at such a high frequency, that it makes music!! LITERALLY!! Sounds like a bass guitar string being plucked...and it gets blurry to look at it...the entire tail boom is vibrating as well, but it's this left support that seems to take all the abuse from the vibes...in fact, today, it broke the second support...

I have isolated it to the tail....for sure....because it does it with no main blades or rotor head installed at all....been testing it with no head, or main blades...so let's see...

EVERYTHING is new, with the exception of the tailcase...new front drive pully, and bearing for it, new belt, new tailshaft, new tailgrips, all that CNC stuff, new tail case bearings, tailboom is practially new, never crashed, brand new CF tail blades...

I can run this thing up with just the tail spinning and easily dupicate it...the left strut will hum like you've never heard...so, I started doing some things...I checked the stock B400 for comparison...and the vibes are not present on it...it has a minor bit...but nothing like this...I'll get to than in a minute...

First, I just took the tail blades off....and it's smooth as glass....so, I'm thinking, "it's gotta be the blade balance"....so took and measured the weight, and the one is 1.8g...and the other varies from 1.8 to 1.9 on the scale....so I made a blade balancer out of a long bold with nuts through the mounting holes, and balanced them on the top of two glasses side by side...trimmed a bit, until I got them real close...put them back on...no go...

Took the blades off the stock one, which doesn't vibrate, and no go...still there...then I tried the blades both really tight in the grips, then loose...no difference..then the same with the belt...super tight, then super loose..no difference...

I'm still thinking it's balance, as I can feel it at lower speeds....but then I'm saying to myself "what the hell am I doing?? I've NEVER had to balance tail rotor blades on any heli??"....but proceded to attempt to balance them with tape, by trial and error, put a piece on, then run it up, check it, etc....until it gets better...

I'll try to explain this vibration...it starts out very mild at lower speeds...I'll be holding the tailboom in my hand...and as I speed it up, it gets a little worse...and then faster, and it gets a bit more...making some noise now...some vibes in the fins...and then take it up to about 3/4 stick...hovering speed, and the vibration turns in to a violent shaking, affecting the enitre tailbox, boom, fins, everything is just shaking itself to death...unreal to see it...

I'll tell ya how bad it is....just before I called it a day...I was working with the tape/balance some more...and got it smoother, so I thought...and took it up to nearly full throttle...and there was this horrific sound, and then it slowed way down...it turns out it BENT THE TAILSHAFT.....WITHOUT EVEN TOUCHING ANYTHING....just from the severity of the vibration in this thing...

I am really at a loss. I really have no idea what to do next. I did swap the entire tailbox, blades and all from the stock B400, and it still does it, althogh not quite as bad....

I have never seen something so simple go so horribly wrong....can't figure out what I'm missing here....

I also swapped the the main gear/tail drive gear out of the stock one....thinking maybe one way bearing issues....nope...

The main shaft is 100% straight, double checked that...this is definitely originating in the tail/box...

I'm done with it for the immediate future....until I settle down a bit...

There it sits, with $200 worth of upgrades, and won't fly....[&o]

I was hoping my shotgun approach with all the new and CNC stuff would somehow take care of it...it SHOULD have, everything in the tail is NEW!

I think this issue has been ongoing, and might very well explain the strange issue with the fatigue/breaking of the CF tail boom recently...the horrendous vibes would explain that as well...

I just don't know.....

Anyways, I'm going to watch a movie tonight...

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi all,

Finally awake for another fun night at work, yay. Only thing to look forward to is my lunch period so I can get some flight time under the street lights in the parking lot.

Jeff, I envy you and everyone else that has so much time to fly - hopefully after this week I can start to get some of my birds back in the air during daylight hours! Don't worry about the mini-funtana - eflight builds them quite well. I had a mini-funtana a few years back and even though it was beautiful, the landing gear was a weak link and soon it became a belly lander. After that, I don't think I minded putting her in every now and then. They are more squirrley then thier 40 or 90 size counterparts, so don't sweat it.

I actually find it relaxing to fly both heli's and planks, well, not relaxing flying heli's but you get the point. I think being forced to use all the sticks flying the heli's makes you a better plank pilot, plus at some fields it makes it easier to mix with the heli-hate crowd!

Although summer is coming to a close, I am looking forward to cooler days to come. Have to say that down south the worst thing about flying is all the dang gnats and skeeters that use your exposed skin as their dinner menu. Needless to say, bug spray is a must!

Till next time,

Mark

evdreamer

Glenn,

I made a lot of progress on the plane this weekend. Right now I am working on designing the wood supports. I am almost done with that. Then I need to choose where to drill holes for them. Later this week I will post some more progress pics.

Sorry to hear about the vibes in your B400.

Nick

J-MICHAEL

Glenn ~


Eh.... Sorry to hear about your B-400 giving you a headache... Are you sure your just not spoiled by the Trex 450 Pro, and the Trex 500 ESP though...??!! Yeah this weekend sucked for me also. I took the Logo hardcore right into the ground. Totally a stupid move, and way to low for a loop for sure. Not to mention I was running only the 5-cell in her instead of lately the 6-cells. I could have saved it by throwing in some negative pitch like I've done before, but I don't know what I was thinking ??? It's almost like I tried to stuff it ! Looked like a 9 coming out of the loop..... It was the LOUDEST crash to date with any of my heli's... LMAO... Gotta just laugh about it !

Here is the awesome part.... My last T-500 crash costed $160.00 as you remember, and this Logo crash went in MUCH harder and the damage is only $67.00...!! Gotta love those cheap $20-$25.00 woody blades ! Whew.... She'll get fixed for sure...

Here is the video of that going down :



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlZE0...e=channel_page



Mark ~

Thanks for the encouragment about the MFX... That's awesome you fly planes also !!! I'am about as green as they come with them ! I wish I flew a lot.... That's my big problem, is that I usually only fly once or twice a week and sometimes not even that. But I went overboard this weekend and got about 4 flights in with the heli's... So fun !

Hek, you know your addicted when......................... You get to the field and it starts to rain lightly, but fly anyway ! () No way I was going back home ! .... Heh...! I was trying to just work on a bit of nose-in stuff. I think today was the longest I held it there in that position... Only about 8 seconds, but that's a lot for me !



Nick ~

Cool you made some progress on the 540.... I can't wait until you get her up again, and maybe a video someday would be superb !

J-MICHAEL

That's good to know.... I took some preventative measures about the landing gear, and other areas by fiberglassing the crap out of those areas. Guaranteed never to break for sure in those key areas. Trust me, LMAO.... The plane is overweight because of it, but its my trainer....

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hey Glenn,

I can feel your frustrations. My advice (may not like it) is to make your stock B400 your blinged upgraded bird and your troublesome B400 your stock, to sit on the shelf heli. You said that the vibrations were there before you got all of the upgrades so things were already messed up somehow and your stock bird doesn't have the vibrations. Best alternative to more damaged mental sanity and CF booms!

Look at the bright side: how many of us can say we have 2 of the same just laying around for just this reason? Yeah I know, only the extremely addicted!

Mark

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

J-Michael,

Do you bring someone to take pictures 'cause those are some nice action photo's!

A Funtana-type plane as a trainer, huh? Your a braver soul than I! I would usually bring a plane to fly along with my heli when I went to the field, esp. since my battery supply only consisted of 3 lipo's. A gallon of fuel lasts a lot longer then 3 6-minute flights! But oh boy those 6 minutes can be extremely nerve racking. My favorite plane to bring is my twist, and it is a glow engine, so I get to have that cleanup period afterwards unless I'm lazy and just toss it in the car.

That's funny about the glassing of your funtana's landing gear, I bet that electric motor out front really gets it's exercise!

I think we've all done the "to fly or not to fly, awww, it's only a light drizzle" thing before. Heck, I remember some days when we used to wait under the canopies for the thunderstorms to pass so we could lose our planes in the clouds afterwards! But, not something I would try with my heli's. Well, maybe my blade CP but not my rex.

Mark

P.S. - Have you tried to limbo the soccer goals yet?!?

evdreamer

Mark,

I wonder why so many airplane pilots don't like heli flyers. I have read that it is like that all over the US. Luckily now that I am going to be an instructor for helis, more people are converting to helis at my field. I enjoy flying planes and helis also.

Jeff,

Sorry to see the Logo eat turf. Good to hear it won't cost too much to fix it.

I will try to get some video some day.

Nick

JPEE

Mark...............you have died and COME to heaven here on "are these blades for a cp pro" with us guys. We are a goodlot, and between us all their is even some knowledge to be had here too.

Jeff, sorry to see and hear the Logo got taco-ed. You were flyng so well too!


Glenn, this is kind of wierd with what I am about to say. There were several of us at the Sunday fly in the big fields you have seen me post. Well first I was flying the T-28 and I got a glitch or "something" and my plane had no controls, she was on her own for at 3-4 seconds and then came back just before crashing. Then Erik went up with his T-28 and the same thing happend to him TWICE!! Then Curtis went up with a 500 clone and while flying we all heard his motor stop then come back. We started thinking, thats to much of a coinsidence to have three of us all have the same problem. So then we thought someone that lives in the townhouse houses of to the side of the construction site my be JAMMING US! One of the guys is a geek and knows that stuff. He said next week he might bring some kind of meter we can run off a car battery that will pick up anybody throwing powerful jamming signals out. Again this is a a maybe.

One guys Blade heli 400 that has been crashed twice as his a noob. It has started throbbing side to side like a dog wagging his tail before lift off and there is some vibration too! Well I am the dude that rebuilt that heli both times and good old anal JPEE doesnt miss things very often, but she has some trouble going on. Tomorrow Tuesday I am going to look her over real good to see what might be the cause. Even with that going on, once you reached a certain rpm just before the skidds get light it smooths out????

Your issue sound confounding forsure. But you have addressed the fix in my opinion. You have yet to change the belt (did you look for one missing tooth? did you look for a hard spot on the belt that would make it lumpy so to speak? if you pop out the 4 screws on the tail drive assy and take out your main gears you can slide out the tail drive without splitting the cases. You will still as I recall have to pull the drive systems top bearing out of it frame for inspection too. You have done everything else but what I have mentioned.

Now Erik's bird has gone nuts. I flew the snot out of that bird Sunday and cound NOT get the tail to hold on my life. The whole heli is like flying a CP Pro, the sucker was everywhere except where I wanted her to be. It was just not a good 400 weekend forsure. For Erik, first I am taking another gyro over to see if thats it.

I'll keep you abreast of what I find you do the same please.

Nick, keep working on the plane, your getting close now.

ME: A buddy came over yesterday and we converted two more ATX computer power supplies with 12vt 18 amp output power supplies for guys chargers here. Heck HPeople has theirs on sale now for $50.00. It cost us $6.00 to $8.00 for parts depending on the ATX we use.

JPEE

JPEE

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the inputs....I'm going to sleep on it for a while, and cool down...that thing had me frustrated!![sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

Jeff,

Sorry to hear that you were doing some plowing in the field with the Logo...and I'll bet it did make quite a noise...but I'll bet it didn't compare to the Raptor coming apart....LOL![sm=omg_smile.gif]

Glad it's a relatively inexpensive repair...

Nick,

That is interesting on the plane/heli guys, I thought that was only at my field...all the more reason to join MHA next year, the all heli club...my plane guys are snobs...lol...

JPEE,

Maybe you glanced over it, but I did replace the belt, it's brand new, and had the tail drive out of the frames, brand new bearings, brand new speed up aluminum tail drive gear (which I think aggavates the issue, with higher tail speeds, but it did it before that upgrade).

But thanks for the input and ideas. I still think it's a tail blade balance issue, just not sure about how to accurately balance tail blades...

Mark,

The idea of combining the two has already crossed my mind... and it makes sense in more than one way...for example, I'm pretty much on borrowed time with the stock Eflite servos, I'm lucky I haven't lost one yet and had a crash because of it...and I already did lose the stock ESC....so if I keep flying it, it will eventually need roughly $230-$300 worth of electronic upgrades....as I have already done to the main B400....so am I ready to lay out that kinda cash on a second B400? Your idea makes good sense, especially since the end of the nice weather is not far off...a few more months, and it'll be freezing outside!

Gotta think more about it this week...

Question is, where does the stock heli begin, and end? What parts do I keep, and what do I swap? I guess I'd keep everything possible on the airframe, and install the ESC, servos, gyro, and upgrades all on the stock frame (which is about all that would be left, a frame, and tail boom!)....

I dunno, too late tonight to worry anymore about it...but your advice is well taken!

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

The issue with heli v/s plank pilots I believe has to do with flying style. At my field, the plane-only guys are an older lot and tend to leave around 11am, so the heli guys usually arrive around 10:30 ish. Most of them have nitro rex's 600 and 700, and so a good amount of $$ invested. I don't need to tell you the amount of concentration it takes when flying a heli, so courtesy usually leads to 1 heli flying at a time. I think the trouble comes when you have a plane guy wanting to fly when a heli is up, the plane guy doesn't understand that the heli pilot really isn't looking outside a very big area surrounding his heli, and most probably he is very fixed on the heli and what it is doing. You know you can't take your eye off it, not for a second to see what's going on around you, and plane guys usually don't get that. From thier POV, heli guys are just hogging the sky with their heli's flipping and flopping all over the friggin airspace.

Nick,
that's an awesome thing to help a newcomer come onto his own with your assistance. I think a lot more people would stay with heli's if they had some assistance the way many clubs have for newbie plane pilots. I feel that many of the smaller RTF heli's can be a hold back because it leaves the person learning on thier own, and unfortunately, frustrated on their own as well. Persistance, better RTF heli's, and help from boards and people like ya'll help to keep newcomers in the hobby!

Glenn,
Sleep is the best thing when faced with such frustration as you were having today. Better to face it with fresh eyes and strengthened determination! Might want to start small with the swap just to see if the tail issue can be remedied before committing to it 100% - I would just take the boom (and everything attached) from your main B400 and put it on the stock B400 and see if you get the same wicked vib on the stock heli. Then go from there.

JPEE,
I already got some great ideas from this thread. I have 2 puffed lipo packs and your post about taking the good cells and soldering to make 1 good pack just hit me like, duh! Why didn't I think of that? Yes, the solder is on the flexi tab but I hope I can get the cells removed. Didn't know about using a heat gun to release superglue to take apart the CP's boom from the frame, think I saw that somewhere in here. And I will definitely be trying out the EC3 connectors - I'm with J-Michael on hating deans, hate pulling those things apart - whoever said they loosen in time is full of it.[:@]

Mark

J-MICHAEL

Mark ~

You can call me Jeff.... We go by a first name basis around here ! [8D] Those pictures are just from my hatcam and using the Sony Webbie in which Glenn turned me onto as you'll come across soon in your readings. I've now also got 5 other guys who now have the Webbie also... I take still shots from the video then... Its all fun... The Funtana is my first real plane, and so I call it my trainer so to speak. Last year I got an Aerobird Challenger 3 for my first plane, but didn't care for the fast speed landings you had to do it seems. I now have two of those little jockey's now. My next plane was a Typhoon 2 3-D foamy and it did well, and still does but I need a few bucks in parts to get her back in the saddle. A new prop and a shaft for her. I pretty much got to start over since in the last 10 months I've only flown a plane about 5 or 6 times. So fun though...

The electric motor is the E-Flite Park 480 and actually stays pretty cool along with the Castle 45 amp ESC. I did however dremel out the cowling more underneath and in the front to allow for more forced air induction to help keep things cooler, although I do live in a cooler environment which makes it kinda nice.

Yeah, I've never been to that field where you saw those soccer goal's... There is 5 fields within a mile from my house, and my favorite one is only 2 blocks away, but was occupied by some soccer players. I just went to that smaller one to practice some nose-in stuff is all. But yeah, it will tempt me with those goalie posts !

The Webbie works great for my hatcam, and it sits right on the front of my baseball cap bill. Hardly noticeable unlike my other previous hatcam ! The video below was one of my Trex 500 flights from this last weekend, and you can see the Webbie does good. Only thing is with the DX7 the Webbie will crackle will interference if it gets within 2' of the chopper or the TX. With the DX6i the Webbie is fine. For some reason the DX7 effects it more ? Maybe a stronger signal going out ? Dunno... Eddie over on the Struggling thread, has both the DX6i and the DX7 with the Webbie and noticed that about the interference.




http://www.vimeo.com/6453068

JPEE

Glenn,
Sorry I missed what you wrote. I read you had changed some sutff but I guess in my skimming I miss ALL that you had done. Let me add, I would do as Mark say and I had dont this too from 440-1 to 400-2 just start moving parts one at a time until the problem is solved, or until your 400-1 becomes the stocker with a 100% parts switch from frame to frame. What else is there to do. While tha tmight be time consuming you are way past that now, now it is a solution at any time or cosr.

JPEE

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

JPEE,

I had some time at lunch, so I took a look at things, and started thinking...

I also noticed that when the tailshaft bent, it took out the new CNC pieces as well...the pitch control lever is ruined, one of the brass guide pins is gone...and the slider is all buggerd up, but I can file that and fix it...

Then I wanted to try something, anything, so I ended up putting the CNC tail grips/hub, and CF tail blades on the stocker...left the stocker all alone other than that...and took it out for a quick spin...

The result was not too surprising...no vibes at all....so it's NOT a tail blade issue, I can rule that out, so I was chasing my tail on that...which I kinda already knew/said, who balances tail blades anyways?? I never have, and probably never will....but I was desperate at the time...

So now, I'm still thinking...went to a heli website that talks about tail vibration, and he had a good point, it's worth checking anyways, he said to make sure the gyro gain is not too high, and the gyro is picking up the vibes, and turning them into big vibes...

Seems unlikely, but it's worth a shot...

Now I'm thinking totally out of the box with this thing....since I have pretty much ruled out mechanical issues, could this possibly be an electrical issue....ESC, or motor???

If the ESC was whacked out, and missing a pulse or MOSFET, I am wondering if that could setup a vibration through entire heli, and being amplified at the end of the tail boom??

I was reading in that same article that a nitro heli that isn't running right (too lean) can setup a tailboom vibration...

I dunno, but I'm getting some new ideas....

I'll keep you guys posted...

Glenn

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

It's slow here at work, so I snuck out...it's so nice to live .7 of a mile from home!

I basially just put the stock tailbox back on the main B400, to see where I was at....to my surprise, it has very little vibration, very similar to the stocker...now, let me add that I may have been making a crucial mistake here when doing this...I did make one more change...I installed a new tailboom support on the left side to replace the one that broke...more on that in a minute...

Anyways, I ended up then taking the CNC tailgrip/hub, and carbon fiber blades off the stocker, (which just flew fine) and installing it on the main heli...and it was very good...not perfect, but much better than I have had so far....

Then I went a step further, and added some tape (electrical tape, which I read is heavier, good for balancing) on one blade, and it made the balance worse...so I took it off, and put it on the other blade, and it was back to it's violent shaking...so I took the tape off altogether, and it was acceptable, but not great...still wanting it to be better, I tried some scotch tape, and it liked that, with one strip...and then added a second strip...and it got much better, very much acceptable...

So, the true test will be in flight of course, with the head back on...I'll know soon enough, weather permitting....I'm not going to get my hopes up just yet...

Anyways, back to the boom support....I had read in my Hostetler book about how if a heli is properly balanced, it would not even need boom supports at all...there would be no vibration in a perfectly balanced heli...

But, I am thinking that's great, in a perfect world....but it's not, and our helis are not 100% perfectly balanced....so I am thinking that without boom supports, a small, otherwise tolerable vibration can snowball into a huge, destructive vibration real fast....at least that's my thinking after seeing this thing...

Don't know for sure, but I'm workin' on it!!

Glenn

J-MICHAEL

Glenn ~

The Trex 450 SA also comes with the plastic boom support mounts, and cheesy type screw hardware. This is my heli is the SA. The first thing I got were the Microheli boom support mounts for her. But later, months later, I decided to put back on my stock Align plastic mounts back onto the Trex 450. My intensions were for trying to lose a smidgen of weight during that phase of when I gutted the 450 more for some more weight loss and such. Not much loss after the fact, something like 2 grams, but still did it...

After a few flights I realized how crappy the heli performed ! Tail wag issues, etc. etc. I put back on the CNC ones with the machine screws (replaced by RC-SCEWZ ) and wrenched them tight, and the heli was back to smooth flying... Just an experience I'd share with ya...

So then I had purchased the Trex 500 CF edition heli and it also came then with the plastic boom support mounts. EH...! Not going there I'am thinking, as part of the upgrades I did to make the 500 then an ESP version I went ahead and also ordered the Microheli CNC boom support mounts. I'd be curious for an experiment to take a set of boom support mounts off of a bigger heli and see the reaction. I'am thinking like the Trex 500 instead of the B-400 or Trex 450...? You know I'am gonna try right....?! [8D]

Now here is something that nobody has noticed with the Logo 10, and that is it doesn't come with ANY boom supports period...! Later on, they became an "upgrade" and you can get them if you wish now however.... I didn't bother since the Logo has ran smooth for me with no tail wags, or bouncing/vibrating tails. The deduction in weight from keeping them off appeals to me also. Enough, that I just eliminated the whole H-fin and mount also. Purely a cosmetic piece there in my mind.

The other surprising factor is that when I took the Logo from a full dive down full collective, the boom is still in perfect condition ! That was my worse crash to date by far, and I'am very fond of the Germans durability that they put into this heli. Gotta love it....

For the Trex 500 I even have that Microheli boom support brace to help cancel out any tweaks or twists, and helps supposively for vibrations also. You'll see this brace about halfway down my Trex 500's boom support rods. Only a few grams, and figure its a good experiment.










After that crash : Glad I had on the Align canopy instead of the plastic Logo canopy... The Align canopy didn't even get a grass stain on her ! [8D]

evdreamer

Glenn,

Good luck with the B400.

I just got back from flying and now have over a 1000 flights. My friend couldn't come to go flying, but the guy with the gas version of the Raptor 90 came. It looked like a good flyer and would be easier on the wallet than Nitro. He also brought an electric T-Rex 600. One of the photographers from one of the events I have been in came with his kid and another guy to the field today. All three of them were interested in joining the club and flying helis. It was a little windy, but I pretty much had the whole field to myself again.

Nick

rotarydoc

Hey guys,

Jeff,

Thanks for all the detailed info on tailboom supports! Never realized or noticed you had that brace on the 500 like that, or that the Logo has no supports!! [X(]

That Logo tailboom looks pretty stout though, only the Germans would over engineer the boom like that! Interesting the results in flight that you noted with different combinations...

Nick,

Congrats on your 1000 flight mark! I am noooowhere near that! It has sure paid off for ya, you are at a nice level of heli piloting now, and improving all the time....heck, even an instructor now...congrats!


Well, I think I have sucess!!

I came home from work, and slapped the head on the main B400, and took it for a spin....and no vibes!! Very little if at all that I could notice, the horizontal and vertical fins were vibration free...so that is good enough for me! I think the left boom support might be a bit blurry at times, but it is not playin' music like before!!

The upgrades make the heli night and day different (better) !!! The cyclic response is amazing now...reacts to every little input...no more mushy B400 feeling...and the tail is superb...nice holding, and very snappy!

I didn't get much time with it....kinda "breezy" as the weatherman likes to say...it has been for days now...one of the only things keeping me from getting more upset than I was over the weekend, it wasn't very good flying weather anyways, so I wasn't really missing much with the B400 down...

I have no real idea of what finally fixed it...I don't think it was any one thing...the boom support was an issue, for sure...but I also believe that the tail blade balance played a part as well...I know it has some effect, when I did the tape on the wrong blade, it shook even with both supports on and tight...

At any rate, I'm NOT GOING TO TOUCH it for a while....just fly it!

Thanks for everyone's input and support!

Glenn

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Hi all,

Glenn,
Glad to hear you got the vibrations out. I'm sure your just happy to have her back flying again with no worries. I would just keep doing the quick preflight checks and fly the thing! Maybe some nice weather later in the week.

Nick,
I love having the field to myself, sometimes when others are around I find myself getting a bit of the jitters because of the audience. But having other heli's to watch fly is a nice bonus. +1 on the 1000 flights.

I finally had the chance to take the rex450 with me this morning after work. I added CF blades by ThunderPower (I wanted to try them after reading a comparison on HF between them and the Radix blades) and new yellow tail blades from KBDD. I have to say I have gotten a bit rusty since its been at least 2 months since I've flown. The weather was a bit cloudy with some overcast, luckily no crash but a few close calls.[X(] I do love the look of the tail rotor - much more visible then black tail blades and the KBDD blades are a bit more sizeable so great tail control. This was the first time I have used CF, usually use woodies, and have to say the response is amazing and crisp. I'm sold!

Mark

rotarydoc

Mark,

Thanks....yeah, to say I'm relieved is an understatement! It really seemed to fly well, I wish it hadn't been so windy...but maybe this coming weekend will be some better flying weather...

Now with the new CNC parts, and hearing your reaction to the CF blades, you got me thinkin'!!

I think JPEE has had good luck with some very inexpensive CF blades on Hobby City's site if I'm not mistaken, might be worth looking into...I'm still not confident enough to go out with some $60 CF blades just yet....lol...

Glad to hear you got out and got some stick time in....and I imagine you were a bit rusty after two months...I get rusty after a week...but fortunately, it comes back pretty quickly...

Take care,

Glenn

J-MICHAEL

Glenn ~

I'am relieved you solved your problem with the B-400.... I sensed it was getting irritable (SP?) for you. This is when the "team" comes together, and helps keep ya at ease and maybe offer possible solutions. [8D] Sorry I've been away, I get so involved with everything everywhere !!



Mark ~

Glad to hear you got some "Rexy" time in. It just gets better even after a few more packs... It will come to ya. [8D]



Nick ~

A 1000 flights ! Yikes..... That's burning a lot of mah fuel eh...?! Congrats, you definately have earned your wings. Or would that be rotors ??! [8D]



Be safe guys,

~ Jeff

Aframomum

My Feedback: (10)

Glenn,
Thanks for the hobbycity reminder, I was looking at possibly getting some metal bearing holders for my frame and maybe even some metal tail parts. I forgot they had blades also. At less then $15 for CF I would definitely give it a go. I think spacers are needed for the 325 to fit the B400 and I also think the 325 actually measure 315 from bolt hole to tip, but don't remember hearing any complaints in flight characteristics, just positives.

Yep Jeff,
It was great to get out again with the rex. Just did some basic ovals and figure 8's but the sound of those CF cutting the air, esp in those banking turns was nice. I was especially pleased with how dead on the tracking and balancing came out, no adjustments needed. I definitely give CF 2 thumbs up and would recommend anyone who is questioning yay or nay to try them, esp. with the prices at Hobbycity you can't go wrong.

Mark

evdreamer

Glenn,

Congrats on the B400.

Mark,

I also use KBDD tail blades, but mine are orange. I also like the visibility of them. They also work better than the stock carbon blades for my 600. Good to hear you got out and flew some. I am like Glenn in that I also get rusty if I don't fly at least once a week.

Jeff,

I am glad I went with electric, because there is no way I could afford to fly as much with Nitro.

Nick