MR Head Build

[Granpappy]

I built my Align four bladed head tonight.

The build is really easy and it only took a couple of hours in between watching the rugby.

The only advice I would give to anyone building one of these is after placing the four feathering shafts into the top half of the head, don't completely tighten down the 12 bolts that attach the bottom half of the head. The reason being is that once tightened down the feathering shafts are locked tight and if they are not seated in the right position, you will have a devil of a job stopping the blade grips from binding once they are are fitted.

The best bet is to leave the head bolts slightly slack, fit the blade grips which will allow the feathering shafts to find the right position, and then tighten down the 12 head bolts.

Another strange thing is that there are no dampers in this head and there is absolutely no movement in the feathering shafts, so I will be interested to see how she flies. Just got to fit it to the heli now and set it all up.

[trillian]

Looks good! The new SAB three blade heads have dampers and an arrangement that lets the feathering shafts pivot but most multi-blade heads are totally rigid and it doesn't appear to be a problem in most cases.

My Triabolo has no damping and it is super smooth.

[Granpappy]

That's a nice looking heli. I've just got to take the X50E out tomorrow to make sure all is good with the new ESC. Once that's done then the head will get fitted to the 500. I must remember to start with a lower head gain. Should be fun.

[myxiplx]

I had the impression that a lot of these four bladed heads were for scale builds where plastic blades will often be used. In those builds the flex comes from the blades themselves, rather than the head dampers.

They also tend to be running at a lower headspeed and in a far less stressful flight envelope than most models are designed for.

[Grumpy]

Another strange thing is that there are no dampers in this head and there is absolutely no movement in the feathering shafts, so I will be interested to see how she flies. Just got to fit it to the heli now and set it all up.

No different then to the standard 2 blade Align DFC head that used totally rigid plastic bushes rather than dampers. They fly fine.

[Grumpy]

That's a nice looking heli. I've just got to take the X50E out tomorrow to make sure all is good with the new ESC.

Good luck, I really hope it solves the problem. I know how frustrating these intermittent faults can be.

If your weather is anything like it is here you will have to wait until Sunday though.

[Granpappy]

Good luck, I really hope it solves the problem. I know how frustrating these intermittent faults can be.

If your weather is anything like it is here you will have to wait until Sunday though.

Thank you. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The weather is nice here but too many chores to do today so it will have to be tomorrow (Sunday).