I have a Raptor 50 V2 which was flying great until ...

I now get the tracking going out of alignment (4-5cm) mid flight causing terrible vibration. The heli will spool up with the blades tracking fine then whilst hovering it will start a huge wobble.

Im not sure if i bent something whilst practicing autos. The heli did bounce a little but it didnt look that hard a bump.
I replaced the feathering spindle last night to try and fix the problem. The first 5 min flight, hovering and circuits, was fine. The next flight it gets into the hover and the wobbling starts again. Once its on the ground it tracks fine. Other than the feathering spindle being bend what else could cause this massive vibration?

Could possibly be your dampers? Are you running the Red harder dampers or the stock blue/black ones? If your dampers are out of round/loose then that may be causing a vibration. Just a thought...

Cheers

Chris

wild guesses:
- dampers worn edit as mentioned one post earlier :-)
- a flybar paddle turning on the flybar
- a ball link cracked, so that it slides under load on the pushrod
- if you use the plastic blade grips: The screw that attaches the link to the blade grip may be bent and turn during flight
- check the blade grip bearings. Is there excessive slop anywhere? Does one grip get stuck under load?
- main shaft bearings OK? Does the whole rotor lean to one side?
- ??? why do I have this feeling I'm missing something that I should remember because it happened once to me before something "happened" to my Raptor..?

Do a search on rumpryder for woof and puff.
How old is the heli? it is normaly caused by a worn out, sloppy links, weak servos and overspeed at zero pitch.
hope the above is not your heli, but this is a well know problem with older raptors.
Derek

Northwest RC Helicopter Club

I have replaced the dampers for now. I will try some of the other suggestions if that doesnt fix it.

Im not sure how old the heli is as i bought is 2nd hand. The guy i bought it from did say the engine was still being run in but i dont remember him saying how old the airframe was. Hopefully the servos are fine (Align 610's).

Whilst changing the dampers i double checked the bearings were the right way around. I suspect one side had the bearings backwards as i had to turn it over on the table before putting it back on.

I will try it again on Sat.

Thanks for the help so far

just a thought check the washout arms as something very simular happened to my mates rappy on sunday one of the pins had come loose on the pivot joint.

align 610 are very good servos
follow this link, for woof and puff.
Troubleshooting - blade tracking

Northwest RC Helicopter Club

just a thought

this was happening to a rappy in our club and he found it was a prob with the flybar cage. check that everything it tight in that area, we used to call it the flappy rappy.
anyway hope this helps

lee

lts usually caused by slop but if all else fails do the grip flip mod.

I had a set of blades do this to me.

My 50 V2 had zero slop with new dampers but the blades would go out of track at different points.

A new set of (better) blades and the problem has never returned.

I currently use the Funkey Silver carbons from Rob (Evorc) and they have been the best tracking blades I have ever owned.

If you can borrow a set of blades it may save you a lot of fiddling if this is indeed the cause. I believe its is caused by the weights shifting slightly inside the blades.

Cheers

Mark