Airbourne in Japan

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i've been trying to get my aerohawk to fly for about a month now without any success. i must admit i am a novice, which doesn't help, but even when moving off a plie of boxes to get it away from ground effect, it usually strikes the boxes with its main rotor or tail on it's way down. it did fly off to the right side once, but into my chest of draws, so i'm not sure about that. now the tail rotor has stopped working - maybe a new motor ? any advice gladly received.

Super-Hornet

Wakarimasen..

Try to switch between main motor and tail motor to see whether your tail motor spin or not. If so then tail motor ok but could be your tail esc portion is dead.

Super-Hornet

Airbourne in Japan

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thanks, just found this advice - will try it....do they really fly ????

helisfreak

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all helicopters fly.... Check to see if u got the right connection... between the main and tail... .. check ur main motor brush...

frakkar

Definately flies until pilot input ends the flight.

heli_fly

Douglasbirbeck,

Keep with it. The stock aerohawk really does fly - and pretty well once you get the hang of it. I am new too, and it has taken a while to really get the hang of it, but I can hover fiarly well in my basement now. This isn't an easy hobby to learn, but each time you take another step forward, you are hooked even more. Just keep practicing and make sure everything is balanced and trimmed properly. You'll get it.

Good Luck,
Hel_fly

Airbourne in Japan

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hi,

well the tail motor is cooked, so i've ordered 5 more from raidentech ($5 each). i was thinking to go with 2 cell lipo battreies to see if this will produce any more power (mine needs it)...is this okay with the aerohawk electrics ???

tahustvedt

A 2 cell lipo pack is perfect for the AeroHawk. I fly with 2s1p E-Tec 1200 and it's awesome with the stock AeroHawk.

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

update - just got the tail motor replacement and it simply lept into the air - hooray, now i can really learn to fly this thing - guess the motor and batteries needed breaking in or something. definately impressed and could have saved some $s on buying a brushless eco 8. but i can definately learn on the aerohawk and probably save some cash on repairs to the eco. on with the fun!!!

thiswillfly

Just got mine flying too, awesome. All stock items. (Did buy the smartech steel main shaft but as it arrived slightly distorted put the original shaft back on).

Had to make 2 new pushrods to get swashplate exactly level, sanded down head parts so it bearings are totally free and got everything balanced and true. Certainly worth a few hours effort - heli now lifts straight up and is very stable and controllable. gettin about 30 secs flights after 4 or 5 attempts.

couple of things though. the tail tends to gently oscillate up and down. is this normal for aerohawk?, and can it it be fixed?. maybe the rotor blades are too loose or too tight?

also, when the batteries are gettin low'ish, I can still maintain height but the tail motor starts speeding up to max. and the servos glitch slightly. it seems as if the reciever is losing power before the motors ?. is this also normal for aerohawks?. I would have thought the motors would lose the power first (until you cannot maintain height) before the reciever became affected.

just 2 slight niggles from what has become a very pleasing aerohawk experience.

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

hi,

the tail on my aerohawk doesn't oscillate ! the tail motor does get erratic when the battery gets flat. time to swap batteries. just to make you slightly sick if you bought yours in the UK, they're about £200 + there and about half that price from hobby lobby in usa or from hong kong. your tail motor will probably clap out soon - spare ones from raidentech in the usa are only $5, but the shipping from this company is a bit expensive - i bought 6 & the shipping was $17. have fun

Airbourne in Japan

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mixer board has died...out comes the credit card !!

Airbourne in Japan

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just read that you can use a piccolo light mixer board in the aerohawk. does anyone have any info about this ? unfortunately helihobbies are out of stock, so i'll probably get an aerohawk board from hobby lobby. is the piccolo board better quality and more durable ? (my aerohawk is only a couple of months old)

thiswillfly

just come across this pcb GWS PHA/01, price $52 at :-

http://www.allerc.com/heliparts.htm

not sure how compatible this would be for an aerohawk ?, but if it does work, would be a good low cost replacement. May also be better quality?.

Any ideas folks?

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

hi,

been practicing recently with the 'hawk outside instead of in my bedroom (summer) and have made the discovery that wacking the throttle full on it will actually sometimes get into the air. i can control the tailswing sometimes when it gets a reasonalble distance above the ground but the right stick is something i never use so far. any advice anybody - how to progress - practice practice practice ???

ger87410

yap, just practice.

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

hi,

well i've been practicing for a while off and on and a major improvement has been going outside - more space. i've now found that i can control tail rotor swings somewhat and have found moving the right stick forwards helps in getting it up in the air in a more controlled manner. now all i've got to do is get the hang of the hover. the lipo battery is well worth it. more practice. are bigger helis as difficult (i've got a brushless eco 8 to put together in the winter) ?

joren

Indeed, the tail is swinging when power comes down. There is still a lot of power left to hover. As soon as the battery gets weaker, the tail is glitching left and right.
Where do i find the steel main shaft for the aerohawk. Thanks.

Airbourne in Japan

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you could try raidentech, hobby lobby or helihobby, they all do heaps of spares & upgrades. happy hovering !!

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

my aerohawk is back to skimming along the ground, so i reakon that the main motor is wearing out. i have a couple of stock motors spare, but was thinking it could do with more power. i was looking at helihobby's upgrades and brushless motors for the aerohawk and was thinking that the 410 brushed motor would be ok.

i am interested in fitting a cheap brushless motor though, to save replacing motors and for extra power, but assume that the esc on the board can only handle brushed motors. anyone know about this ??

JohnY2004

Use a Johnson 250 motor with 9 tooth pinion.

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

where can you order a johnson 250 motor on the web (i live in japan), any idea ??

SMaric

There's a lot of info at RCGroups about Brushless motors (& ESCs) being used with Aerohawks

Aerohawk

You can get a johnson motor from www.like90.com
It is a great motor. Provides much more torque to the blades and battery lasts longer. This motor is as must to replace the crap stock motor which sucks the battery power.

My aerohawk flies great. However I have spent alot of money on it since new. Firstly, I blew the stock gyro/speed control board (which everyone seems to do), so I decided to go separates which consists of GWS ICS50 & 100 speed controllers, CSM 200 lightened heading lock gyro, stock GWS 4 channel receiver and 7.4V 1800mah Lithium Ion battery.

Lithium batteries are a must over standard Nicad and Nimh batteries. They last so much longer. However they are not cheap.

I have also installed a CNC aluminium swashplate. The stock plastic swashplate balls kept breaking on me.

She flies great now!

It took me several months however to learn to hover. I can hover at eye level now! And perform left/right fore/aft movements.

Just keep at it. Its all worth it with alot of time and moderate amounts of cash.

It is the best RC hobby.

Cheers
Alan Harper
Brisbane, AUSTRALIA

JohnY2004

I installed the aerohawk stock motor on my jabo2. On the first 5 packs of batterries, I could hover no more than 2 feets above the floor on the fully charged batteries. After the 6th pack, I can only hover a few inches above the floor. I have no clue what caused the aerohawk stocks motors deteriorate so quickly as this's a second aerohawk stock motor on my jabo2.

I ordered a couple of the johnson 250 motors at www.balsapr.com. $1 each or $8 for 10.