Troubleshooting
Blades out of track
(includes
the 'woof' symptom)
|
Troubleshooting |
| Blades out of track | |
| standard first time setup |
Use the blade that you did not use to set the pitch with. If you did not use a pitch gauge or do not remember which blade it was, then it depends on how you want to affect the head speed. If you want more head speed, lower the high blade, if you want less head speed, raise the low blade. If you want to maintain the head speed, you have to raise the low blade and lower the high blade by the same amount. |
| going out of track in flight |
1. The flybar control arms (the 90 degree
arms against the see saw hub) are loose due to the set
screw threads stripped or the set screw was not on the
flat spots on the flybar. If the threads are stripped
just take the inside metal hub out then rotate it 180
degrees and re-insert it for a new set of threads. 2. Covering loose. If it's the heat shrink type covering, then reheat it to shrink it. 3. Bad blades, a)one flexes more then the other. b)the chordwise CG is too far to the back. Hang the blade from the bolt hole, it should hang straight down. 4. Spindle shaft bent. This will cause out of tracking problems as the shaft rotates. To check it take one blade off and turn the nut on the end of the spindle shaft while you watch the tip of the other blade. If it moves then the shaft is bent. 5. Thrust bearings installed backwards - <click here>. 6. Thrust bearings are damaged, look for missing or loose balls in the cage. 7. Your rpm is too fast. Keep it under 2000. For me, 1850-1900 is a good speed for 3D flying, 1600 for normal flight mode. Too high of an rpm causes the thrust bearings to become notchy. 8. Lube the rubber dampers in the rotor head using dielectric grease. This is 100% silicon that can be found at an automotive parts store. I have found this to be the most common problem. 9. Check the bolts in the top of the head that go into the see saw hub (the thing the flybar goes through) R30/50. 10. Head block may have become oval shaped where the top of the main shaft is. This can happen from a crash. See if you can rock the head side to side and see the main shaft move inside it. Also make sure it's not something simple like the head block bolt being loose. Do not over tighten this bolt as this could cause it to snap in flight. 11. Dan Kitching has a good idea to stop the woof n' poof that some have experienced on the 30's R30/50. Even if you don't have this problem, it's still an easy and cheap way to make a tighter control system. He glues the sleeves on the screws for each pivot point using epoxy. He used to have a diagram showing this but since then his website has gone down. 12. Lube the pivot pin in the center of the head block and also the rubber head dampers. 13. Check static tracking. Raj Patel has a good webpage about this. 14. Loose fit of the bearings in the blade grips. You can wrap electrical tape around the bearings or a strip of sandpaper. Another technique is to put baking soda with CA glue on the outside race of the bearing. R30/50. 15. I have heard of a Raptor 50 (600mm blades) being cured by using the upgraded metal pitch arm MPV0012 R30/50. The idea is that the pitch arm was twisting. Another idea is some pilots with the Sceadu helicopters have fixed their 'woof' problem by removing the brass inserts in the rubber grommets of the collective servo. This is probably changing the resounce frequency and is the reason it works. 16. Some have reported a sloppy swashplate was the cause 17. 0 Delta mod 18. Flipping the head to change to negative delta R30/50 Note: I have never had to do this to any of the Raptors I have fixed. There are thousands of Raptors flying with the stock setup that do not have a problem, so the design is fine and should not need to be modified. If you do flip the grip you should be aware that you will loose some cyclic authority and may need to install some faster paddles depending on your preference. Also it is just a band-aid fix as it does not fix the real problem. 19. Some have found tightening the blade grips so the blades can't pivot out as easily solved it. 20. Check for loose elevator A-arms. This is what I found on one of my friends Raptors. 21. Screw that holds the ball on the blade grip could be bent. Tip provided by 'Raffy' on the RunRyder forum. |
| Blades only out of track on one side | The flybar paddles are not aligned. Go to <this> page for info on figuring out what is wrong. |