I seem to have just massively improved the stability of an E-Sky Co-Comanche with a simple, cost-free modification.
From new, it was prone to circling (clockwise) while maintaining a heading, or hunting backwards and forwards. I think the former is known as toilet-bowl effect. Either is a bit like a ball-bearing on a curved dish.
I've also got a LamaV4 which does this really badly. Both have play between the stabilisre bar and the top rotorhead. The LamaV4 has more play (it's been crashed a bit...). By comparison my Blade CX2 behaves very well, and has an allow top rotorhead with very little play on the stabiliser bar. Given a stability problem, and the function of the stabiliser bar, these facts seem related...
I went to my LHS (308 Hobbies) looking for an upgrade inner shaft and rotorhead, to see if this fixed the problem by reducingthe play. They didn't have one in stock, but suggested I could use a hairdrier to to tighten up the rotorhead on the stabiliser bar.
I did this on the Co-Comanche. [Removed stabiliser bar & upper rotor fixings. Gripped the stabilier bar with some pliers, and carefully(-ish) applied heat with hairdrier.]
When I finished, it was some effort to reinstall the stabilier bar, as it's now quite a tight fit. There's very little play. Possibly less than with the aluminium rotohead on the CX2.
Co-Commanche stability has been massivly improved. It doesn't seem to exhibit the previous problem at all. One one occasion it seemed about to, but damped the oscillation to nothing on its own, and in one cycle.
As part of a rigorous testing regime, I can confirm it was even controllable when completely plastered...
I'm really pleased with this, and can't wait to try it on the LamaV4 which has the problem worse.
Nice to get some good advice from the LHS, too.
From new, it was prone to circling (clockwise) while maintaining a heading, or hunting backwards and forwards. I think the former is known as toilet-bowl effect. Either is a bit like a ball-bearing on a curved dish.
I've also got a LamaV4 which does this really badly. Both have play between the stabilisre bar and the top rotorhead. The LamaV4 has more play (it's been crashed a bit...). By comparison my Blade CX2 behaves very well, and has an allow top rotorhead with very little play on the stabiliser bar. Given a stability problem, and the function of the stabiliser bar, these facts seem related...
I went to my LHS (308 Hobbies) looking for an upgrade inner shaft and rotorhead, to see if this fixed the problem by reducingthe play. They didn't have one in stock, but suggested I could use a hairdrier to to tighten up the rotorhead on the stabiliser bar.
I did this on the Co-Comanche. [Removed stabiliser bar & upper rotor fixings. Gripped the stabilier bar with some pliers, and carefully(-ish) applied heat with hairdrier.]
When I finished, it was some effort to reinstall the stabilier bar, as it's now quite a tight fit. There's very little play. Possibly less than with the aluminium rotohead on the CX2.
Co-Commanche stability has been massivly improved. It doesn't seem to exhibit the previous problem at all. One one occasion it seemed about to, but damped the oscillation to nothing on its own, and in one cycle.
As part of a rigorous testing regime, I can confirm it was even controllable when completely plastered...
I'm really pleased with this, and can't wait to try it on the LamaV4 which has the problem worse.
Nice to get some good advice from the LHS, too.
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