Maintenance tips & pre-flight checks

[Chris Currie]

Hello,

I've been on here a while back as a beginner(I still am), I seem to go on and off helis however now I am very keen to stick with it. I bought a logo 550sx about a year or so ago and finally got round to setting it up with the help of a friend. Only had a couple of short flights, but it's very nice and not as daunting to fly as I thought having came off a 450.

Anyway, the one thing that put me off helicopters before was component failure, a lot of this can be prevented through proper maintenance and pre-flight checks I suppose. Does anyone have a bit of a guide as to what to look out for, any particular areas which are maybe prone to early fatigue. Some pre-flight check lists would be handy aswell.

My problem is that I've learned most of my flying on the small blades, you know, the ones you crash heavily, pick it up and go fly again without much real care. Obviously I can't do that with the bigger ones, so just looking for a few pointers to start me in good stead.

Thanks
Chris

[gazmk2]

Me personally I do the following before a flight session;

From the top.

Blades-Check for crack, splits, weakness and damage around the root of the blade
Head-try and rock the blade grips to check the dampers are OK and the bearings/thrusts are ok in the blade grips
Links-check all links from servos to swash and swash to blade grips, make sure ball links are secure but don't bind etc
Swash plate, make sure the swash plate doesn't have excessive play and make sure it doesn't bind, also check the swash drivers (unless its DFC) are free to move but not lose and check the ball joint on the driver arms
Servos-make sure they are free to move, bolted in securely, servo horns are screwed in tightly, they are not damaged or weak and check the balls are secure
Tail-make sure the tail servo is free to move etc as above, check the tail can slide freely, no excessive play, physically grab the tail case and try to twist it to make sure it's secure, check tail blades for cracks and splits and make sure they are correctly tightened in the grips. Check the tail blade grips themselves too.
Drivetrain-mine has belts so I check them for splits, cracks and tension. Torque tube and gears need to be checked over for damage and wear etc
Wiring-check all cabling for damage, make sure connections are all secure and not able to come lose in flight, check motor and esc cabling
Frame-chack the whole airframe over for any damage, crack or splits in the carbon etc. Check everything looks as it should, I.E boom is straight, boom supports OK, skids not damaged etc

Lastly I will generally give the blades a spin to make sure the one-way is not broken or locked up and then just have one final look round the whole thing.

I'll generally check it over while i'm loading new batteries in and i'll also give it a thorough check over once i've finished flying too.

I've probably forgotten a few things that I do and none of these checks include things like checking your lipos or engine if you're flying nitro, rx packs, backup guards etc all of which will also need checking over.

The thing with these helis is your nice shiny £2000+ helicopter can be put straight into the ground by a 50p ball link that was too worn out so it's very important to check things over. I found a totally destroyed blade grip thrust bearing in the pre-flight checks that would of certainly put my heli in if I hadn't checked things over properly.

[Chris Currie]

Some great info there, will certainly help me out. Thanks a lot!

[hedge]

Great list above and when I first read it I realise that it coves pretty much everything I do before every flight. while reading it, it "felt like" a lot of work, reality is its probably 30s to a min once youve got your routine.