Expert advice required for Century Hawk Pro / Heli in general

[dam74]

Hi all. Not sure if this should be posted in Beginners or Setup. Recently I purchased a Century Hawk Pro helicopter off of eBay, which was probably a bad move. The price seemed quite reasonable, the pictures looked good and it was claimed to be "Ready to Fly". The parcel arrived about a month ago, and the box was a large packing style cardboard box reinforced and there were no visible dents. Now since I've recieved the package I've been doing research on the internet, buying various bits for it and practicising on simulators to try and get my confidence up with flying a heli.

This weekend I thought I'd be ready to take it out for a quick engine test and attempt at a hover before I look at joining a club. Well I purchased a few tools to try and help me setup the helicopter (set square, some bubble levels to mount on pitch guage etc). Started reading some guides for setting up the pitch on a helicopter and noticed that the blade readings between the two blades were about 8 degree out which I thought was a bit odd. So I measured them again and noticed something didn't look right around the main rotor yoke. The gap where the blade grips/bell mixer rotates on the main rotor yoke had a larger gap at the top at the bottom so it looked like it was bent. Later in the evening I decided to strip the yoke and removed the feathering shaft. This is what I found:





Now I had a look at the shaft and measured it, it's 5mm thick hardened steel. I tried to flex it with my hands and couldn't and then took to it with a mash hammer and it required a fair bit of force to bend it back into shape. Anyway it gave me an idea of how strong the item was.
Amongst other things there were a few other things that weren't quite right with the helicopter. One of which is a non-genuine pushrod that connects to the bell mixers, it was of inferior quality and flexes a lot.
On top of this the tail boom was bent like a boomerang aswell.

So I decided to send an email to the seller of the item as the item was clearly not sold as described, listing all of the things wrong with the helicopter (on top of the above, bolts, nuts, other bent shafts, etc etc).
He responded and apologised for the missing bolts and nuts and blamed the bent tail boom and feathering shaft on happening during transit. Just to recap there was no damage to the box. He failed to explain why one of the pushrod was replaced on the bell mixers (most likely during a crash that damaged the main rotor yoke).

While ordering some parts through Century UK I asked one of their reps about the feathering shaft and what the likelihood of one being bent during transit, with the blades detached. His response was "very unlikely and their would be a lot of damage to the rest of the helicopter".

So my question to the members of this forum is, do you think it lilkely happened during transit or do you think the seller is full of s*#t.

Thanks for reading.

Darryl

[sacko]

I cant see it being bent in transit, it has probably been crashed and sold on.

Personally id take that as a lesson, not to buy second hand helis off ebay

Go over it and just replace anything that looks rogue, loctite everything again etc but it doesnt sound like you have been stung too bad.

[Tosh]

Definitely crashed.
l`d go over the whole machine. Mind you l would on any second hand heli, crashed or not.

[Mike W]

sounds like he dumped it and never bothered to fix it ... how much you pay for it if ya dont mind me asking ?? my first nitro was a century hawk and dont matter what others say its great for learning on and pretty easy to set up as well ...theres alot better heli's out there now but if ya happy with it then thats all that matters ..TBH the spares prices aint that bad either for em ... oh and welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of heli's

oh and personally I would strip the heli down and rebuild back up .. .that way it also gives you idea of how it works

[simon1]

I bought a mini t from ebay a few months ago and there was a few things wrong with it that weren't declared, bent main shaft, flybar, cheap tail servo, when there shudn't have been, lost screws, must have threw it off a wall before sending it to me wasn't a happy bunny and wouldn't buy from ebay ever again, lesson learnt.

Sorted now though, doesn't sound like your heli is too bad

cheers
simon

[dam74]

Yeah, I gathered it had been crashed but I just didn't like the seller listing it as "Ready to Fly". There was no mention of things bent, bolts missing, nuts missing etc. When I sell things on eBay and I've sold quite a few things ranging from a few pounds to 3k I usually list the features of the item and if there is anything significantly wrong with it that affects the functionality then I will list it. For instance a Nikon lens that I sold recently had a few body scratches on it but I didn't tell the buyer as they didn't affect the functionality. However a bent tail boom and feathering shaft that created differences in pitch should be listed in my honest opinion, especially if the item is listed as "Ready to Fly". Perhaps I'm too honest and expect the same level of honesty in return.

As for the price, I payed 170gbp + 20gbp postage. So far I've probably spent about 30-50gbp in required replacement. Most likely closer to the 30gbp but I'm about to buy a flybar rod/shaft as I tried to remove the paddles and weights at work today and bent the rod/shaft as there were too many pits on it to be able to slide the weights freely.

After I found the bent feathering shaft on Sunday I decided that the best option would be to do a strip and full rebuild. At the moment all of the parts are in a plastic box and I purchased some normal and extra strong threadlock compound. I'll place an order for the flybar rod/shaft tonight and hopefully will get it for the weekend.

Cheers for everyones opinions and keep them coming. I know the damage isn't major to my pocket but just annoyed as to the fact it wasn't as described. Out of interest can you start a .30 (or any size) ic engine with no load with just the fuel tank attached and strapped to something to counter the torque. Fancied doing an engine start and run test before rebuilding it back into the heli to ensure he hasn't ruined the engine. I've stripped the front end and head/top end and looked at the piston and conrod. Looks fairly fine besides a bit of brown gunk sitting at top of piston. Few small (1mm) patches of rust on the side of the piston. Possibly due to the heli/engine sitting around for a while and not getting any lubrication. What do you guys reckon?

PS. I was originally intending to buy one of the electric helis as a starter heli something like the T-Rex 250 however I saw a few IC/Nitro helis on eBay for < 200 and thought I'd go one of those. Silly me

[Tosh]

PS. I was originally intending to buy one of the electric helis as a starter heli something like the T-Rex 250 however I saw a few IC/Nitro helis on eBay for < 200 and thought I'd go one of those. Silly me

Not at all. The T-Rex 250 would be an animal to learn on.
Personaly l`ve never bench run an engine.

[Defendersteve]

Ive also just taken up the hobby and have the sport version of the hawk.
Perfectly acceptable as a learning machine and cheap to repair.
Dont worry to much about the feathering shaft...you will need a few more of those in future believe me......even a slight bump will cause them to bend.

Dont spend to much money on tarty bits either....you will crash it again!

[Rob O]

I dont think it would be a very good move to run the Engine with no load , but you could stick a Prop on it and bench test it that way mate . Hope this helps and good luck with the heli and rebuild . Rob .

[moyesboy]

The discolour on the piston is most likely staining from the burned fuel rather than rust. if the motor turns and has plenty of compression then its probably OK to fly. yuo will read on here about engine bearings wearing out and failing but its not such a problem on the 30 size as the larger ones. you could change the bearings if you want just to be sure.

Don't bench run the motor. Wait until you have the heli back together. you shouldn't rev it up with no blades on either. Obviously it can tick over without turning the head.

Its an advantage to take it to a club and have an expert look at it before the first flight. however it is possible if you arepractical and confident to do it all yourself.

I recomend you read thoroughly everything at Raptor Technique all about yhe pitch angles and throttle curves and all. Its for raptors, .30 and .50 but the setup numbers will all be similar for your .30 size. There might be similar info avaiable for the Century Hawk.

Ask questions here, no matter how dumb, its almost 24/7 quick response help online!

[dam74]

Just a quick question. Will the Hitec HFD-08RD RX, 4xHitec HS-325HB Servos for cyclic, collective, throttle (don't think it's needed is it on electric?) and a Hitec HS-311 for tail servo suitable to use on an Align T-Rex 450XL HDE (with 420LF3200 motor and 25A ESC) kit?

This is a TX/RX and servos from the heli above and was wondering about the above kit and whether the servos would be suitable.

It also has a HLG 200 heading lock gyro with gain adjustment, would this be suitable for this size electric heli or would I have to get a smaller one?

Regards
Darryl