Century Hawk Sports

[Nicolasgreening]

Hello All,

I am a new to heli's and I am looking at buying a second hand Century Hawk Sports heli.

I little back ground on me, I am a member of the Guildford model flying group and I have been flying fixed wings for a couple of years.

I have been practicing hard on Clearview and I am getting fairly good.

There is not a regular Heli presence at Guildford so I think I will rejoin the Hanworth club to get some help with set-up and learning as they are very helpful club.

Any advice on choice of heli and approach to learning will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Nick

[Ade_Law]

Hi Nick. welcome to addicts. It appears you have been reading rcgroups too much...

I would strongly recomend you do not buy a hawk sport. there are much better value helis out there. If you do a search you will see why i say this.

clearview is good value but your gonna get a bit of a shock when you move to the real thing.

be very careful when you choose a club make sure there is a good level of experience at the club. Make sure that the people your getting advice from do actually know what they are talking about :-)

Ade

Ade

[ChrisB]

My thoughts exactly

[SRH990]

I'd agree with Ade too, there are better helis around and yes, do the searching bit, try most of the forums!

[Nicolasgreening]

Thanks for the replys,

What would you recomend as a good first heli and just so I know why is the Century Hawk a bad place to start?

I would like a IC heli rather than a electric and is the saying bigger is better (more stable)?

Thanks again for the advice and I must say how friendly this forum is.

[Disc]

Ah the Hawk sport is cheap and for a reason.... Century stuff gets cursed here quite well

Basically there is a bit of slop in the swash plate/binding issues (unless sorted) lack of bearings etc Hawk Pro is better but I suspect not a lot....

(I will one day get one to see why there so bad )

Something in 50 size might be better easier to fly large rotor disc makes the machine more stable.

Raptor 50 titan or a Knight Sport now the Knight sport has had it issues sorted out.

I do not think any helicopter is 100% perfect they all have slight isssues but a raptor titan you won't go far wrong.

Knight sport lots of those been flown about and lot of flyers here of the Knight sport. Only seen 1 at our Club its been changed to a Titan.


What is your budget?

Knight sport around 189ish pounds

Raptor titan around 260ish pounds

[Disc]

You might want to watch this thread:

http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3762

[Gaza07]

I fly a hawk sport and have no problems with it at all infact im very soon gonna take my A with it,
THe raptor titan is more expensive than the knight but the titan does come with blades and silencer the knight does not which is fine if your already into 3d and dont need those items,
But if you do then you could prob add another 50 quid to the knight,
Not every one wants carbon blades and muscle pipes to start of with it just adds a lot of expense to the initial learning curve,
A mate of mine has brought the hawk pro and ive built that for him and i see no issues with it,
Every thing seems to work nice and smooth and feels nice and firm so for 140 quid inc vat blades and silencer i think its a good deal for a beginner and will also fit into a scale fuzz later if that is what you want

Flak jacket on

[Disc]

I fly a hawk sport and have no problems with it at all infact im very soon gonna take my A with it,
THe raptor titan is more expensive than the knight but the titan does come with blades and silencer the knight does not which is fine if your already into 3d and dont need those items,
But if you do then you could prob add another 50 quid to the knight,
Not every one wants carbon blades and muscle pipes to start of with it just adds a lot of expense to the initial learning curve,
A mate of mine has brought the hawk pro and ive built that for him and i see no issues with it,
Every thing seems to work nice and smooth and feels nice and firm so for 140 quid inc vat blades and silencer i think its a good deal for a beginner and will also fit into a scale fuzz later if that is what you want

Flak jacket on

You might need that flak jacket....

Like I said I might get a Hawk 4 to see why there so bad

I think the Hawk 1-2-3 had issues but Rev 4 is it really that bad as they say?

Or is it beacuse its a Century model

[Gaza07]

I think most of the issues from earlier version may have been sorted but im no expert,
But for £140.00 you get a heli that can be finished using pretty standard gear making it a cheap option for a learner

I think its just the century name that some people love to hate

[Nicolasgreening]

Hi Disc,

I think you have made my mind up my first choise was a raptor but I have seen lots of V2 30's on ebay that people have brough and found out how tricky it really is. Apart from the normal ebay issues and the problems with buy a second hand heli?

Thanks

Nick

[djtilko]

I have the Hawks in both 111 and pro versions, the 111 version is tougher and easier to work on than the pro version, but has a wire drive shaft that will give some bounce on stops! if you are piroing reasonable quickly! the pro is much better on cyclic and the tube shaft drive is much better, but costs more to fix than the wire one when you need to replace it! the other weak point as with ALL shaft drives is the crown gear will strip teeth of if you catch the tail in the ground, (tenner to fix) belt driven jobs aka Raptors are more forgiving in this area.

In the end you gets what you pay for, but Im pretty happy with both my Hawks, in fact the mk111 Hawk is my most often used heli, it stands me in at nowt, and when I prang it its very very cheap on repairs.

The Hawk Pro I have is now in a Hughes 300 body kit, which ought to really have the mk 111 mechanics instead but I got the 111 later and cant be bothered to swap it over as I am enjoying flying the mk 111 too much.

If I were you I would be considering very closely the New Hawk Pro 50 only 140 quid, and it will take the Hyper 50.

The Hawk Pro 30 is now only 130 I think?

Cheapest helis out there and certainly good enough to learn on.

Dave

[Disc]

Hi Disc,

I think you have made my mind up my first choise was a raptor but I have seen lots of V2 30's on ebay that people have brough and found out how tricky it really is. Apart from the normal ebay issues and the problems with buy a second hand heli?

Thanks

Nick

Had a Raptor 30....

There okay and it wil fly fine

[Ade_Law]

gaza, have you changed the tail drive? the engagement of the metal wire into the back of the front gear is lethal.

also, change all the bushes for bearings and its not bad. Just wish there was a way to let you loose that useless starter mechanism.

the pro fixes the bearings and the tail drive but not the starter.

the biggest problem is down to how the mechanical mix works. The main problem is that there isnt a counter leaver on the elevator linkage which gives you an elevator interaction that you cant tune out mechanically as you go through the collective range.

also because the elevator isnt a rocker like on the raptor an slop in the servo output shafts makes the elevator interaction even worse.

if your on a budget get a raptor 30v2 with an OS32 engine. through a bunch of 3001s at it. but spend the money on a futaba gy401/9254 gyro and servo for the tail rotor.

Its a fair chunk more to go up to a 50 like the knight sport as you end up putting better servos in it. and the engine/muffler costs more. but you get something that will do the book. Something to grow into rather than grown out of.

Ade

[Ade_Law]

buying second hand when you know what your looking at is a bit of a hit and miss affair. for every fair deal there are 10 which will bite you.

when your new to the sport its a total mine field.

Ade