Balancing components
<under construction 8-6-1>

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What components need to be balanced on a Raptor 30/50/60? The answer, everything that spins :) Well almost, the main things that are usually the source of vibration are the rotor blades and the fan/hub. Other things to check are the main shaft, tail shaft, start shaft, and even the engine crankshaft. Before I get into the specifics of balancing I feel I must be honest and tell you that in general I don't balance anything except the blades initially. If I see some vibration in flight, then I start checking things like the fan hub, start/main/tail shaft. Nice thing about the plastic 30 machine is you don't have to be as accurate and can get away with just plug-n-play. The 60 class does require you to spend more time with getting everything just right and I do a little more checking during construction of the Raptor 60 then I do with the 30/50.

Main Rotor Blades

Typically I just bolt the blades on and fly it. If I see a vibration then I deal with it. I have found most of the wood blades work out fine and I have not had to adjust any of the carbon blades at all. Now this is on the 30's and 50's. The larger the helicopter the more the balance counts. As for checking the balance that can get complicated.

Simple way: click go to Dream-Models website <here>

Complex way:
For the complicated way I use a Koll Rotor Pro blade balancer and a digital scale that measures in a 1/10th of a gram. The first step is to check for a weight difference. If there is then I get some lead to add to the lighter blade. You can use lead shot in a bullet, that is what Mr. Koll showed me that he used. Now you have to find if the chordwise and spanwise CG's are the same on both blades or not. If they are the same then place the weight at the CG point. If these are carbon/fiberglass blades then flatten the lead and CA glue it to the blade (roughen the surface first). If these are wood blades then drill a hole at the CG point and insert the lead weight in it. Use baking soda to fill the hole and drip thin CA glue in it. Now if the CG's were off you have to figure out where to place the weight to bring the CG's together. This is where it gets tricky sometimes. In some cases you have to change (add/subtract) weight on the other blade to move its CG.

Fan/Hub
using high point balancer <mention threads causing offset>

Main/Tail/Start shaft
using minimal equipment <mirror>
using best equipment <dail point indicator>