Tweet
Note I had made a setup error when I first wrote this so the flight report may be unfair.
Hopefully I can now try again.
However the RJX head and needed mods did apply..using the original align sleeve and dampers rather then the ones included and coating the manshaft with a very thin layer of CA and cutting it back cured all slop.
This will be a tad long..skip bits if you want
Heli
Trex 500 esp 510M servos 520 tail and 500L motor with el cheapo 3D blades.
RJX head
From hobbyKing. It looks nice and feels solid everything included apart from the long link to swash..but the link from flybar cage to swash on the original align head fits.
The dampers went in too easily and there is a touch of slop fitting on the mainshaft. I think bth those may be signficant to my flight report later and I;m going to have to attend to them. I hpe that the original sleeve will fit and trex500 dampers that I have here. To tighten the fit on the mainshaft I'll try the old trick of coating the shaft with thin CA in several layesr as it goes off and 'cutting' it back with the shaft itself. As it is there's 2-3 degress of slop
The only issue assembling the head was that one washer that goes under the thrust bearing was tight.. I didnlt realise and had read they shoudl snap in ..so ended up tapping it down. It would have been netter to have sanded it slightly smaller.. as it is may be in there permenantly.
BeastX
I elected to mount the thing on the top of the boom block. Anywhere else and access to the buttons would be a pain. That position is a nuisance with my predeliction for destroying booms and TT gears. The 500 is my beater heli and goes in regularly. We'll end up seeigng how well BeastX works with cheap mounting tape in due course.
Apart from a couple of silly erroros the installation was a breeze and the setup was by the booklet. I was very pedantic in the setup which made it slow.. especially since I had to build the head, didnlt know which hole to mount it with until done and also didn't therefore know whether swash links would be same length..and had to pull it again to get the swash level on etc.
It was set up with all standard defaults and I'm please to sy I didn't even have to track the blades..time well spent. I;dalso mounted the unit using a temporary spacer wedged againt the frame so it was exactly in line with the midline of heli.
Flight reports
I've never used FLB before and I'm no hotshot.. OK I can pull loops,flips. continuous flips and getting inverted circuits going well and happy to hit high stalls and multiple piros at the top, crude tick-tocks etc.
First takeoff in the drixxle back garden was uneventful. It lifted off clean with none of the vices I've heard about where fbls' throw themseles into the ground. It's lively in pitch respnse but sluggish in manoeuvering.
The weather improved and I went to the field:
Way, way livelier in pitch pumps, solid on the rudder hold with my default gain used on the quark before. Forward flight in strong gusts was OK with far less pitching up at the end of a run compared to a flybar BUT and turns were like flying through treacle and my first backflip was quite scarey..it felt disconnected waiting for the heli to respond and then it behaved vertically like a 401 tail gyro does sideways..tightening and whipping through the manoeuver.
I wondered how much of that might be due to the slop in the head and dampers. I increased from normal pilot to pro pilot and it was only a bit better. Noticeable forward flips were much neater than I usually do them but backflips still pitching up slowly. It felt like ti was going to be really hatrd to judge when to back off if I wanted to hold inverted. I grabbed height to try that. Still soggy and disconnected and when I did invert there was lots of delay in straighting out aileron.
I went to 'expert' mode. This is better.. and I ain't no expert.. still the same characteristics but quicker so more chance to get away with it. Rll rate seems slower than with the flybar though. Back to the notes I had along and my 4th and last pack that I'd brought. I turned the second (middle) gain down by 1/3rd and tried again.
This was a lot better and started to show some promise. I also realised that BeastX might make a better pilot out of me. It's like trying to skid or drift a car with active ABS..doesn't want to do it and flies much more in response to exact stick..none of getting away with sloppy stick-stuff.
By that I mean it doesn't like to be snatched into a fiip..prefers to be pulled tight precisely and follow its circle.. there is still a delay and I expected more instant sim-like responses. It did do a series of three continuous side flips but not as tight as I usually do but the tail head direction perfectly although with my skills and the wind we did go sideways each roll.
It was till soggier than i was happy about when inverted leveling it and I'm not that confident upsidedown to take liberties... so just some hovering and recoveries
I'm sure there's lots more tweaking that can be done and perhaps time to look at the PC interface (and sort the headslop).
First impressions
Perhaps still too early to make judgements but I'm not rushing into converting my fleet. I can see how this system would suit novice pilots but if one does get out of shape then recovery is also slower. And yes I did manage to bog the head and have the tail spin out on me in one snatched backflip where I wanted to see what aggression I could use..ended up downwind jinking off the treetop before I got it back.. and those trees were pretty far away (that was in pro mode)
When I recharge the packs I'll find out how much less they have been drained.. the power is there for sure.
Addendum one
One thing I noticed.. don't know if its common to other Fbl's.. When you use elevator then just the back servo moves up or down without the 2 front servos moving. I wondered if that might explain some of the soggy response too? On aileron the major movement is visible on the front servos..both of them.
Hopefully I can now try again.
However the RJX head and needed mods did apply..using the original align sleeve and dampers rather then the ones included and coating the manshaft with a very thin layer of CA and cutting it back cured all slop.
This will be a tad long..skip bits if you want
Heli
Trex 500 esp 510M servos 520 tail and 500L motor with el cheapo 3D blades.
RJX head
From hobbyKing. It looks nice and feels solid everything included apart from the long link to swash..but the link from flybar cage to swash on the original align head fits.
The dampers went in too easily and there is a touch of slop fitting on the mainshaft. I think bth those may be signficant to my flight report later and I;m going to have to attend to them. I hpe that the original sleeve will fit and trex500 dampers that I have here. To tighten the fit on the mainshaft I'll try the old trick of coating the shaft with thin CA in several layesr as it goes off and 'cutting' it back with the shaft itself. As it is there's 2-3 degress of slop
The only issue assembling the head was that one washer that goes under the thrust bearing was tight.. I didnlt realise and had read they shoudl snap in ..so ended up tapping it down. It would have been netter to have sanded it slightly smaller.. as it is may be in there permenantly.
BeastX
I elected to mount the thing on the top of the boom block. Anywhere else and access to the buttons would be a pain. That position is a nuisance with my predeliction for destroying booms and TT gears. The 500 is my beater heli and goes in regularly. We'll end up seeigng how well BeastX works with cheap mounting tape in due course.
Apart from a couple of silly erroros the installation was a breeze and the setup was by the booklet. I was very pedantic in the setup which made it slow.. especially since I had to build the head, didnlt know which hole to mount it with until done and also didn't therefore know whether swash links would be same length..and had to pull it again to get the swash level on etc.
It was set up with all standard defaults and I'm please to sy I didn't even have to track the blades..time well spent. I;dalso mounted the unit using a temporary spacer wedged againt the frame so it was exactly in line with the midline of heli.
Flight reports
I've never used FLB before and I'm no hotshot.. OK I can pull loops,flips. continuous flips and getting inverted circuits going well and happy to hit high stalls and multiple piros at the top, crude tick-tocks etc.
First takeoff in the drixxle back garden was uneventful. It lifted off clean with none of the vices I've heard about where fbls' throw themseles into the ground. It's lively in pitch respnse but sluggish in manoeuvering.
The weather improved and I went to the field:
Way, way livelier in pitch pumps, solid on the rudder hold with my default gain used on the quark before. Forward flight in strong gusts was OK with far less pitching up at the end of a run compared to a flybar BUT and turns were like flying through treacle and my first backflip was quite scarey..it felt disconnected waiting for the heli to respond and then it behaved vertically like a 401 tail gyro does sideways..tightening and whipping through the manoeuver.
I wondered how much of that might be due to the slop in the head and dampers. I increased from normal pilot to pro pilot and it was only a bit better. Noticeable forward flips were much neater than I usually do them but backflips still pitching up slowly. It felt like ti was going to be really hatrd to judge when to back off if I wanted to hold inverted. I grabbed height to try that. Still soggy and disconnected and when I did invert there was lots of delay in straighting out aileron.
I went to 'expert' mode. This is better.. and I ain't no expert.. still the same characteristics but quicker so more chance to get away with it. Rll rate seems slower than with the flybar though. Back to the notes I had along and my 4th and last pack that I'd brought. I turned the second (middle) gain down by 1/3rd and tried again.
This was a lot better and started to show some promise. I also realised that BeastX might make a better pilot out of me. It's like trying to skid or drift a car with active ABS..doesn't want to do it and flies much more in response to exact stick..none of getting away with sloppy stick-stuff.
By that I mean it doesn't like to be snatched into a fiip..prefers to be pulled tight precisely and follow its circle.. there is still a delay and I expected more instant sim-like responses. It did do a series of three continuous side flips but not as tight as I usually do but the tail head direction perfectly although with my skills and the wind we did go sideways each roll.
It was till soggier than i was happy about when inverted leveling it and I'm not that confident upsidedown to take liberties... so just some hovering and recoveries
I'm sure there's lots more tweaking that can be done and perhaps time to look at the PC interface (and sort the headslop).
First impressions
Perhaps still too early to make judgements but I'm not rushing into converting my fleet. I can see how this system would suit novice pilots but if one does get out of shape then recovery is also slower. And yes I did manage to bog the head and have the tail spin out on me in one snatched backflip where I wanted to see what aggression I could use..ended up downwind jinking off the treetop before I got it back.. and those trees were pretty far away (that was in pro mode)
When I recharge the packs I'll find out how much less they have been drained.. the power is there for sure.
Addendum one
One thing I noticed.. don't know if its common to other Fbl's.. When you use elevator then just the back servo moves up or down without the 2 front servos moving. I wondered if that might explain some of the soggy response too? On aileron the major movement is visible on the front servos..both of them.
Comment