tail drive

[rbustard123]

Are there any advantages or disadvantages to having a shaft driven tail or is it better to have a belt driven tail

[SRH990]

A properly set up shaft drive tail will be more efficient than a belt drive, causing less drag and therefore giving slightly longer flight times with electric helis and slightly better autorotation performance. If the heli is a 450 size electric or similar it's a moot point anyway, belt is fine.

The big advantage of belt driven tails is that it's much more forgiving, touch a shaft drive tail on the ground and there's a risk of stripping gears in the drive chain, do the same with a belt drive and generally all that happens is the belt skips the pulley for a tooth or two then carries on working.

For a beginner belt drive is the way to go, this will be more forgiving and crash costs should be lighter.

[Ade_Law]

when talking about shafts and belts you really have to clarify it as there are 2 types of each commonly available.

first you have the 2 stage versions these are what the trex series use. with a geared first stage with either a belt or a tube in the boom.

the 2 stage belt is the least efficient of all setups. you have the drag from the first stage gears and the belt going round a small radius at the front and rear which also makes it draggy. You also have the gear stage that can strip when you put the tail in the ground at the end of a botched auto so its not actually any more durable than a 2 stage torque tube.

the 2 stage tube is probably the strongest tube drive but as its 2 stage you have the drag of the 2 stages so not as efficient as it could be.

the single stage tube as used on the MA stuff, Vibe 90, synergy N9. This is the most free running of the lot but also the most expensive and weak. theres a lot of strain on the crown gear and its quite expensive to replace.

the single stage belt is my personal preference. The levels of efficiency are close to a 2 stage tube drive its very very durable taking massive tail hits without loosing drive.

some say a torque tube is more accurate than a belt drive but i found that the gyro copes very well and doesnt actually give any better accuracy.

somebody did some power tests on a trex 500 belt and tube to see how much power they used at full right pitch. I believe there was only about 4% difference so we are talking tiny differences!

Ade

[rbustard123]

Ok right iv been looking at the honey bee king 2 carbon edition at http://www.heliguy.com/Electric-RC-H...arbon-edition/ but I have also fond the same heli in belt drive what wood be the best one to get?

[unwind-protect]

The king 2 /is/ belt drive. The original king was shaft drive, and they were a pain to get the mesh right.

If you're looking at spending that much money seriously consider the Blade 400. At least you'll have a decent transmitter that you can use on future helicopters.