Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

Stock combo kit, V1, no mods. First time I built one myself. What an education. Without Finless Bob and his videos at helifreak.com, I would have been LOST.

Pretty straightforward build- only made a couple goofs that I had to go back and correct. Silly stuff like trying to set the head up with the throttle stick at the bottom. Duh. (Fixed wing pilot, figures.)

This series is known for spinning the one way clutch drum and the tail rotor cuff bolts shearing off. I JB Welded the former and ordered some really strong replacements for the latter from McMaster-Carr. If anyone needs a couple, shoot me a PM. There's 50 in the bag.

Had to size a lot of the links, as they were way too tight and made the servos complain a lot.

Will be locating that monster Castle ESC up front on top of the plastic electronics bay, as the CG is tough to get on these, and it's critical to keep the pack to ESC wires as short as possible.

I've ordered a Zippy 2S3P 2100 Rx pack that will fit into one side of the bay, and the Rx and the power supply for it will fit into the other side. You can bet the Futaba 2.4 antennas will be poking out the front, 90 degrees apart, one upwards and one downwards, because, brother, CF absorbs microwaves. If it didn't, they wouldn't be using it on stealth aircraft.

The flight packs will be 4000 6S 25-50C Turnigy Nano-tech.

My second CP heli. The first one was a 450 Blue Ray. Good bird, but too small. It vanished against a tree line and augured in. I don't think I'll have too much trouble seeing this one. I've watched a lot of video and read a lot of opinions on this bird, and the consensus is you can almost hover it, walk away, smoke a cigarette, come back and it'll still be there. That's what I need. Regardless, I plan to get an airframe kit and put it together against the day I damage this one. Maybe two or three. I can use the practice.

This really is fun, and I don't have to do any sanding.

More later.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

I located the electronics as follows:

ESC on top of the plastic bay, where the Rx pack is specified to go by the instructions. It will get better air flow here, and this location will really help with getting the CG.

Rx power supply on one side of the plastic bay, and Rx pack on the other side. (I don't have it, yet, but it will fit in there nicely.)

Rx on the lower right side of the outer frame. This is the only location I could come up with that allows the antennas to be at a 90 degree angle, and not end up getting smushed by the canopy, or blanketed by something that's aluminum or CF. Nicest part is that all the various leads are more than long enough to reach it in this location.

Gyro on the bottom plate, almost directly underneath the rotor mast. Supposed to be the best place, according to what I've read. With no glow engine or fuel tank in this area, it sort of cried out to me.

I balanced the blades using a Heli Max balancer. Worked very well after I tack glued it down to a glass work surface so it wouldn't move around.

Waiting on battery packs and a flybar lock so's I can set the pitch accurately.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

I wonder if I'll ever be done buying tools for this beauty.

I have a blade balancer, digital pitch gauge, the #500 flybar lock, and I just ordered a swashplate leveling tool from hobby king.

I've flown it several times, and it's very resistant to the wind and quite stable. At first I thought I had tail wag problems, but now I realize it's a cone shaped oscillation about the rotor mast, as my swashplate is not level and I know the main blades are not tracking together.

I did go ahead and remount the gyro onto a piece of 1/8 steel plate I cut from an old wrench. Sticky tape under the plate, and four little pieces of sticky tape in the corners only under the gyro.

The packs I got are the Turnigy Nanotech 4000/6S, and a 2100, 2S/3P Zippy Rx pack.

As mentioned earlier, I located the ESC up front on top of the plastic electronics mount, and this made the CG very easy to get: with the pack assembly even with the very front of the plastic mount, she balances right on the flybar.

This picture doesn't show it, but I cut a 5/8" hole in the top of the canopy, about even with the rear of the ESC, so that air could go in there, past the ESC, and out the hole on the bottom of the canopy that the factory provides.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

I've been flying it now for almost 3 months, and I'm really pleased.

It's stable as a rock, and will hover hands off in no wind conditions.

I had to do a number of things in the fine tuning category:

1. I used the governor feature of the CC 120 esc to set normal head speed to 1500, and idle up to 1750. The bird doesn't like head speeds between those two points.

2. I'm getting about 9 minutes hover/slow fly time on the 4.0 nano packs, using a Quanum telemetry system set to alarm at 22.2 pack voltage (under load). I bought a Thunder AC 6 balancing charger, as none of the cell balancers I had was doing a good job.

I'm finding this heli a lot easier to learn on compared to a 450. Things happen slower.

I'm impressed with the quality and value of this kit. I would definitely build another Align kit.

Tinkman

Wow, that thing is a beast!
Nice build. Thanks for sharing...

Joaquin

rollingball

I am curious to the term "tail rotor cuff bolts shearing off" are you referring to the tail grip bolts that go into the hub?

I am also an owner to a V1 F3C. Very nice flying machine. I have decked it out some with some durability parts and some other neat stuff. I have yet to break that out after winter break. Have to reprogram the Castle esc to the TX and install the rotor rpm ranges. Castle ICE recall program.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

Those are the bolts. Here's the link to the reports: http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=295533

rollingball

Thats good. I rather spend 20 bucks now. Rather than having a problem and replacing the entire aircraft.

rollingball

Few pix. First is my very first maiden flight and downloading the Castle info. Second is some of the bling, such as the KDE thrusted bearing blocks and third bearing block/ main shaft extender, along with a G Force lipo rail extender, for that just perfect CG. Third is a SPS switch. Yank that red plug and power goes to the ESC. No sparks.

During the build, I took every bearing out and greased them with a tool called "The Greaser"

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

Tell me about that SPS switch.

rollingball

Two sites for you: http://shop.rc-electronic.com/e-vend...11&c=764&p=764

USA Retailer: http://www.hkm-models.com/Emcotec%20Switches.html

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

I like it. Afraid I'd end up with too much length in my bat to ESC wiring, tho. Maybe not. Have to sit down with the heli and think it through.

Thanks a bunch.

rollingball

I've noticed you have your esc in the front. Reason?

Think my sps filled the gap between the battery wires and esc. Have my batt. wires coming from the center of the tray.

Have to watch the ripple factor. Castle has a cap pack for and designed for our cheap hobby king packs.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

CG. They want to be so tail heavy, that early on I planned how to locate everything in front. I also have the gyro almost directly under the main shaft, on the bottom plate.

rollingball

I'm been wanting to upgrade 2 of my helis to FBL. I started with the TR450 Pro. I ordered the new DFC head for it and some Align 325 FBL blades. Absolutely a cool piece of hardware. Low and clean. I ordered a 3GX system, I'm still in the process of getting that from Ebay. Been a mixup in the order. I received someone else's merchandise. Anyway that is being worked on. While that is going on I bought another 3GX along with another DFC head for the 700 F3C, along with some CYB 690 FBL blades.

Going to make an already low profile heli look even better. I choosed the 3GX over the others. All have their pros and cons. Just like all the Castle controllers I have in service. I'm dedicated to a specific companies products. I have had excellent customer service from both.

Some other news going on, I have, what I call, retired a Align TR500 heli. It dated by todays specs, been around for many years, and not worth upgrading it various parts. Not worth the trouble of trying to unload it. So the next best thing to do is to acquire a nice fuselage for it. My choice, The Bell 222. The color is carbon gray and white. Schemed like AirWolf. Since mine is not black and white, I call it GrayWolf. It does have the side armor but no belly canons. Still cool looking.

Have a lot of tinkering to do to rig up the retractable landing gear and to bolt the airframe up, along with the FBL tinkering with the other 2 birds.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

I think my next project is likely to be a 700E FBL. grandrc.com has a setup where you can spec which servos, motor, esc, blades, and FBL system. I'm gonna go with the stock Align stuff on it, but I've read so many good things about Beast X that I'm gonna give one of those a try. It took me almost a month to get the GP 780 gyro right on my F3C, and about 5 minutes to get the Quark right on my son's 450, so I'm not very impressed with Align's electronics.

I had thought a lot about a 450 FBL, but the winds around here are more or less a daily fact of life, and 450s just aren't a lot of fun to fly in such conditions. Each flight seems to degenerate into a "crash avoidance" session.

rollingball

I ordered my F3C from Grand RC. I already had the Align servos, all around and a GP 750. I heard it tough to get a 780 right, so I stick with the 750s. So all I needed was the airframe, motor, esc and blades. At the time I ordered a Hercules Super BEC to power everything, it is hooked to the main batteries, along with KDE bearing blocks and third bearing block.

I have several helis in the Custom build WL at GRC. All V2s and FBL, 500, 550, 600Pro. Some accessories such as KDE Bearing blocks. And KBDD tail blades and of course DFC heads.

Somewhere in GRC redesign. My info was lost. So my next heli build has a 10%off code avail.

Very Cool.

Figure the 450 and 700 are top of the line V2s. Should be able to dumb down the 700 to have it fly like a flybar or a wild beast.

rollingball

Some more heli eye candy.

OOh, shiney objects!!

I also had to buy updated blade grips. I'm a bit behind on the updates on the F3C. Just a tad.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

I've probably got over a 100 flights on my F3C, and I've noticed some looseness in the blade grips- not the thrust bearings, but the ball bearings that allow the grips to change pitch. Tiny bit of clearance if I rock the grips, as if those bearings have worn, or were maybe never that tight to begin with. Doesn't seem to be getting any worse.

Any thoughts? Is there a better bearing set that I should be looking at? I can't figure out from Align's book or their website which bearings I should get for the grips, and I don't think I want theirs anyway.

rollingball

My preferred bearing company: http://www.bocabearings.com/search.a...0700E&Feature= OR http://www.rcscrewz.com/product_info...oducts_id/3729

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks, guy. Have you used any of the 10x19x5 radials?

rollingball

I have so little time at this hobby. That I wear nothing out. My packs die of old age and little use. Which I go for the HK packs, so throwing them away does not hurt so much. However I do pack decent grease into the bearings on all new builds I do. With a tool called "The Greaser" and some high speed bearing grease. Think I got the combo at HeliPro South. I found that Align bearings usually come with the average of just a coating of grease in them to nothing at all. I have a particular RC car with a bearing that supposed to self destruct in short order because it is too small for the application, last a long time.

Align uses a drop of green lock tight on the end bearing. I use a micro torch, heat the outside of the grip and use the spindle to get the bearing out.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

It turned out to be temperature related- since the warm weather got here, I can't detect any play. On cooler mornings, there's a little play before I fly, but afterwards none.