4 bladed head- does it need a FBL unit

[stunks]

Was thinking of putting a 4 bladed head on a Trex 500 and was going to get the align 4 bladed head, my question is would I also have to add a FBL unit with the 4 bladed head or would it be a case of add the head set it up and go fly?

[tomatwalden]

If you're removing a flybarred head with a gyro, then yes, you'd need a FBL controller otherwise it'd be very unstable to fly.

[trillian]

You can fly without a FBL controller, it's just that the heli will always start to drift one way or another so you have to keep correcting. The bigger it is the less it drifts or gets affected by the wind. A 500 will be a bit of a handful but you can certainly try it. As long as all the basic setup is good, level swash and good C of G etc. it may not be as scary as you might imagine, but it will be a lot more work flying 'no bar'.

[dave j]

I would go with a fly barless controller

[DFC]

I have put my FBL TREX PRO 500 with GT 5 gyro in an align Hughes 500 fuselage (see my post in the Question Forum yesterday).

The Hughes 500 with an align 4-blade head with Spin semi-symmetrical blades and the GT 5 worked very well and it's lovely and stable. Didn't have to change any gyro swash settings. However the tail rotor/ gyro system was an issue as there seemed to be a conflict with the align ESC in governor mode. Have put on 550 tail blades and fitted a Castle ESC with the governor gain turned down to the low setting and its now perfect. My problem is knowing whether or not the feathering spindles should be as loose as they are in the main rotor head.