Is this setup right?

[SaneAdam]

Yeh... that aint right for sure?! What is going on with the Flybar?! How is that even possible? It sounds and looks very unhealthy. Maybe take some more detailed photo's showing the head from both sides and different angles. Some shots of the servo's and that main gear....

[unwind-protect]

Having looked closer I see that this is actually a fixed pitch helicopter with Bell mixing system with balance bar, so you can ignore my comments on CCPM mixing.

I still have no idea why the flybar/ balance bar plane is so far out.

[Merlin]

I was thinking of getting one of these just to do some basic cam stuff with a keyfob cam, and it seemed to look pretty stable on some of the other vids, good size and battery life (though not a looker etc).. did you manage to improve things? and get things sorted with it..

I wonder if you could possibly put a bigger tail rotor on this heli to give it a bit more forward oomph...

[GrandFromage]

Guys - thank you all for the hints and tips. I've managed a major improvement by carefully bending the plastic tail. Looking at it from behind it was quite a way off 90 degrees from the horizontal. This helped with the 'copter from trying to the left. At the same time I pulled the main rotor arms to bits, rebuilt it, replaced the rotor blades with the spares and reset the servo's back to normal.
Result - push to the left on take off, but once in the air semi-controllable flight. It's a bit windy tonight so I can't really trim properly but all in all it's looking like this thing might be able to fly properly.

Thanks again for all the hints and tips.

[GrandFromage]

I was thinking of getting one of these just to do some basic cam stuff with a keyfob cam, and it seemed to look pretty stable on some of the other vids, good size and battery life (though not a looker etc).. did you manage to improve things? and get things sorted with it..

I wonder if you could possibly put a bigger tail rotor on this heli to give it a bit more forward oomph...

Merlin - I wouldn't bother. I had the same thoughts as you doing some basic cam stuff. I may have just had a dodge 'copter from the manufacturer, but I'll say this - the build quality is awful. When I originally took the 'copter out the box, linkages had fallen off, the plastic surround on the controller had come unglued, the balance bar was bent slightly. One other thing - the battery flight time is quoted at around 10-15 minutes. Whilst I was tweaking the various settings, I noticed that the battery life was no more than 5-8 minutes; much less that the quoted. Lifting doesn't appear to be great either. When I put the training set on, I noticed I needed another 15% on the throttle to get it airborne. The training kit weighs 32g. Spares seem to be a pain as well - my first time consumer advice with this helicopter - don't bother! Go for a more expensive branded product.

[Merlin]

Hiya.

and mannn it's a shame your having so much grief with this heli, It's about the only single blade FP of this size I've found around this price, but I have to admit the build quality and design from looking at the pics doesn't look too good, and not sure if the video is you too? but the way that main gear wobbles.. Oh my!. having said that to have all those issues with one copter does sound like the heli may of had damage before you recieved it, I'm in the process of returning one now (a GT strangely enough too) all the reciever board etching was scratched away and it just kept spinning out of the box..hmm..

but your description sounds like a good candidate for a case of buyers remorse and no worse feeling than that, Have you tried to get a replacement?..though they might not take it if you tweak too much.. but it's worth a shot, some places will just to avoid hassle.

My plan with this one was to, strip as much weight as possible from it, put a longer tail boom and larger rear rotor on it and possibly a respray. I noticed it's marketed as GT 9019 too and has falcon on the side as opposed to amax.

and yeah I find the battery life and size decriptions are always over exagerated, though sometimes the battery improves over several cycles. but I've yet to find a heli that actually does 10-15 full flight time:S.. though in one of the other review videos he says he got 14 minutes out of it.. hmm

eek, this bird looked like it could lift weight too.. hmmm.. mannn I duno what heli to get now, my budget at the moment is only £80 but need a large FP.. hmm.. sorry you've had so much greif with this one , I know how much that sucks:S... thanks for the info and for this post.. Hopefully you will find something more suitable and if I come across anything I will report back and let you know.


*Just in case you still need or want them, you can get spares for this heli in the UK from here* and there are a few places overseas you can get more, like canopy etc..

http://www.nitrotek.co.uk/spare-part...pter-3019.html

[GrandFromage]

Hi Merlin,

Giant Red Seven did make the offer of having me send it back and their tech guys would fix it but if they deemed it my problem I would have to cover costs. They only made this grand gesture after I posted the video on YouTube! However I have to be honest, since I posted the video it's been dinged a few times and they could argue that the damage (cosmetic) is down to me. My view at the moment is that "So what!" This is the first 4CH I've had and it's a good learning curve to rebuild something that doesn't work into something that works.

Thanks also for the link to the nitrotek website. Fingers crossed I won't break anything; the only thing that I've broken spectacularly well are the training kits! The central holder that the legs go into is cheap plastic and any knocks cause it to shatter. Probably replace it with a cable tie holder placed diagonally.