WaynE Kinney

Hi,
I started out with these micro heli's a few months ago, with a Smarttech Aerohawk. Well, before i could even attempt to get off the ground the 3-in-1 board fried (like they do), which was very annoying.

By this time i had found this great forum and read alot about others having their boards frying and that 'going seperates' was the best option.

Well, i half went this route and got a hummingbird mixer board and a GWS PG-3 gyro. So i started my learning in trying to hover. The aerohawk was pretty unstable, the cyclic was very unresponsive and the tail would not stay in one place. But i kept going and did strugle to hover the thing in one place. I read on this forum that the aerohawk doesnt fly very well 'out of the box', and that the whole head assembly needed sanding and freeing up. I did this which greatly improved the cyclic response, but i was still fighting with the tail.

The hummingbird mixerboard had no mixer gain adjustment on it so i couldnt tweak it. I then ended up crashing the hawk and the fibreglass shaft shattered, and i decided to buy a bare bones hummignbird kit and install my electronics.

I was so impressive at the quality of the hummingbird over the aerohawk. I installed the electronics and gave it a test fly. It flew so much better then my hawk, but i still had the same tail problem, it lacked any authority.

I thought it maybe a power issue, so i bought a 1500mah 2S lipo pack. Now this did help somewhat, but only for a few minutes of the start of the pack. It then accured to me that it could be the tail motor not up to the job, so i bought a direct drive GWS system. This made a big difference but a was still getting tail drift when i increased or decreased throttle.

I then went all the way and bought like90 blades and head stiffner, johnston 250 motor, GWS 100 for main and GWS 50 for tail plus a CSM 200 head holding gyro. With this setup, the bird flys rock solid. I am at the point where i am learning foward flight and the like90 blades perform well indeed. So, my final setup is this:

Hummingbird VII
Johnson 250 main motor
GWS EDP 50XC Direct Drive tail with 3020 orange prop
Like90 Blades
Like90 head stiffener
GWS 4 CH reciever
CSM 200 heading hold gyro
GWS-100 for main
GWS-50 for tail
2x micro servos
1500mah 2Slipo for power

I have spent a lot of money on this so far, but at least i am now happy with the performance and can now go off and learn.

Hope this was interesting for some of you,

Wayne.

VinceHerman

Good post. This will be helpful to others.

More and more, I have been hearing this, through the various messages. It is nice to see such a direct comparison.

kagreen2k

I have a similar experience but I started out with 2 E_Skys. I got tired of parts availability and lack of parts compatibilty with the Hummingbird. I bought a Hummingbird with the Century Lightning radio, etc... I love the Hummingbird kit but the Lightning electronics are terrible. I ended up putting my E_Sky electronics into the Hummingbird and viola! I just finished my 2nd Hummingbird last night. It has separates:

Pixie 20P main ESC
Pixie 7P tail ESC
GWS 50XC DD motor (this is really the only way to go)
GY240 HH Gyro (wow!)
GW 4 channel receiver

On her initial flight (once trimmed), she flew beautifully. The tail was rock solid!

I only use stock battery packs. I have 4 of them and charge 2 at a time.

evil_nathan

Looks like seperates are the only way to go....

Same problems with the stock heli... blown mixer etc. So I bit-the-bullet and rebuilt it..

Dragonfly Heli: (Same heli as the Hummingbird, different name....)

-Graupner 6Volt Speed 300 motor .. I wanted the 4.8V motor like I use in my planes cos they ROCK, but was advised against it
-GWS PG-03 Gyro
-Aussie-made balsa blades (exactly like the LIKE90 ones)
-Carbon Fibre head stiffener
-GWS 100 Main ESC
-GWS 50 tail ESC
-GWS DD Tail kit
-Fiego 6Ch Receiver
-a few 1800mah 2S LiPo's

A WORD OF WARNING THOUGH!!!!

PLEASE make sure that you buy the GWS (or Pixie...) Main and tail ESC's WITHOUT BRAKES!!!!

The LHS accidently supplied a friend of mine with the GWS speedie that HAS braking (for gliders with folding props, etc) and it nearly tore his heli to shreds A quick trip to theLHS to get the non-braking speedie and it was back up in ther air without any problems at all.

This little heli flies like a DREAM now - and was WELL worth the dollars and effort to get it set up properly.

Oh - and another thing - Just watch your CG if you put a custom tail on (like the ducted fan) - you may need ballast at the front to get it balanced again. I'm using a AA battery for ballast at the moment, until I can find a better solution.

Nathan.

astrocyl

Same problem with my aerohawk, it's like the thoughest thing to fly in the world.
I did a lot of upgrades until I went broke......the heli behaves better but still coun't fly well.
Got to wait until funding comes before I resume...