Which belt for Outrage 550?

[SRH990]

Apologies if anyone has seen this post in the Outrage forum but no-one has replied and I'm trying to get it sorted for next weekend.

After rebuilding the 550 last week I re-fixed the original belt - which lasted 4 flights then snapped Skids have gone again plus, unfortunately, both main sideframes, snapped off at the back where they fix to the bottom tray. Again the belt decided to snap when I was pirouetting inverted, I lost the tail then saw the belt thrown out the back of the tail gearbox. I managed to hit throttle hold but couldn't get it in a position to auto down as I was too low, luckily head-speed was almost zero when it hit so the blades and flybar are untouched plus the new Fusono canopy only has one small stress crack.

I now have zero confidence in it because of the tail belt issue, can anyone give me a link to the recommended upgrade belt for the 550 as, so far, the original belt has lasted 30 or so flights and the supposed upgrade belt I bought lasted 2 1/2 flights so I would be grateful if someone can show me which belt is the one to buy.

Are the carbon sideframes any stronger than the G10 I've been using? The G10 seems a little brittle and stress fractures fairly easily.

Subsequent to this I have discovered it uses the same size belt as the RJX50, Logo 500 and Raptor 30 and the Raptor belts are definitely Bando and are marked as such, over twice the price of the stock belt but Raptor 30 belts snapping is a rarity.

[Ashley Davis]

Steve, Outrage did make some rather large **** ups regarding belts.......

The original black belt will last between 11 and 50-60 flights, reports general have them snapping at around the 40 flight mark but it does vary.

Outrage then announced a new belt which was supposed to be a bando 630XL........instead some people when ordering got sent a F&F synchronus belt and most of these actually snapped inside five flights, some people even had them go on flight no.1. This was an error based upon the belt supplier being asked for bando belts but actually supplying something else......something Charley Stephens the designer was pretty annoyed about as his spec had not been followed.

Outrage then resolved this issue and sourced the correct bando 630XL belt, this is an orange belt and it actually has bando 630XL written on the back of the belt. From the sound of things you got the F&F synchronus belt and were one of the unlucky early adopters of the new belt. I believe if you order an upgrade belt they are now all genuine bando 630XL so you shouldn't have an issue any longer. When you get your new belt check for the words 'Bando 630XL' actually written on the belt and if you can't find that then don't use it and contact your supplier.

[SRH990]

Thanks for that Ash, do you know anyone who stocks the Bando XL belt - Blink only list the original belt and fast lad show two belts but the 'upgrade' belt they sell is the non-Bando snap-quick belt.

[robgt]

I got mine from Blink and it is definitely the Bando 630XL.

Cheers,
Rob

[Tom Burgess]

Hightorque UK - Bando Drive Belt-630XL 629-630XL

[GravityKills]

BTW I have serious tail problems in my 550: It slips under load.
I have tried different tensions varying between "quite tight" and "very tight". Also, changing the belt (yellow) did not help.

It's easily reproduced on the bench: Take off the rotorhead, spin up the heli (using a governor - it maintains the same headspeed as in flight) and then use full rudder throw. What happens is that the belt gets slack on the upper side. It buckles up behind the tail pitch idler pulley, and starts to slip. It's clearly noticeable from a change in the sound of the tail rotor.
In flight, the same sound is clearly discernible when I do abrupt tail moves.

Any ideas? Looking at it the other way, does anybody do hard 3D piro stops with the 550 and does not have this problem?

[Ashley Davis]

yep, NEVER had this issue and I've owned two 550s, sounds like you have something odd going on there, I've alwasy found the tail to be incredibly powerful......BUT I am a left piro man, so right rudder is not heavily used on my machine except when doing chaos reversals.

[Ashley Davis]

Regarding other suppliers for bando.....don't go to RJX Hobby (Rossendale Models) to get one, they use two suppliers and it is 50/50 as to whether you get the F&F synchronus or the Bando 630XL.

[SRH990]

BTW I have serious tail problems in my 550: It slips under load.
I have tried different tensions varying between "quite tight" and "very tight". Also, changing the belt (yellow) did not help.

It's easily reproduced on the bench: Take off the rotorhead, spin up the heli (using a governor - it maintains the same headspeed as in flight) and then use full rudder throw. What happens is that the belt gets slack on the upper side. It buckles up behind the tail pitch idler pulley, and starts to slip. It's clearly noticeable from a change in the sound of the tail rotor.
In flight, the same sound is clearly discernible when I do abrupt tail moves.

Any ideas? Looking at it the other way, does anybody do hard 3D piro stops with the 550 and does not have this problem?

I'm not having a problem with a slipping belt either, they just snap Seriously, I've not had any issues with the belt slipping, I'm using a CSM720 gyro so stops are pretty quick, although maybe not as solid as the Spartan on my 700. I did dabble with larger tail blades but find the originals are plenty powerful enough 99% of the time although I have had a very occasional tail blow-out.

[GravityKills]

yep, NEVER had this issue and I've owned two 550s, sounds like you have something odd going on there, I've alwasy found the tail to be incredibly powerful......BUT I am a left piro man, so right rudder is not heavily used on my machine except when doing chaos reversals.

yep this doesn't happen in continuous piros. Only when doing abrupt tail moves. Unfortunately those are considered "cool" by the Finnish 3D style authorities so my heli must be able to do them, like it or not.

The acceleration / deceleration profile on the ds 760 is already dialed down quite a bit, but it doesn't solve the problem - the tail rotor simply generates more force than the belt can deliver.

By ear, the tail rotor sound drops about two semitones in pitch when it happens. That means 10 % less tail rotor speed, or in other words, every 10th tooth slips. Quite alarming, actually (and the belt itself is OK on the inside). And, the sound is exactly the same on the bench, so I'm quite certain this is the problem.

BTW I've had a couple of tail blow-outs too, in tight side-in turns.

I switched to 80mm carbon blades on Friday, but it makes no difference regarding the belt slip problem.

[Ashley Davis]

I run 95mm carbons and I do a lot of fast stops in my flying, can't say I've experienced this, I've not managed to blow it out either, had it just on the point of starting to go a couple of times but no actual blow outs.

[moonmanflyer]

Yep fitted a bando to mine and has been fine so far.
Run 82mm carbon tech tail blades on mine, and the only time i have had the tail blow out was when i really bogged the head up once, on the 92mm tails it was doing it all the time, the tail was just too powerfull

[GravityKills]

Thanks. I'll put on a pair of 95 mm blades and try again.

[SRH990]

My blow-out problems are also possibly attributable to running my Align 100A esc in governor mode, it's not the best.

[GravityKills]

My blow-out problems are also possibly attributable to running my Align 100A esc in governor mode, it's not the best.

at least that is rock solid in mine: Kontronik Jive 80 in governor mode, and an X-Era 4030 rated at 3.1 kW
It's a bit heavy, but still I hope there is a better explanation (5 % overweight shouldn't make the tail belt slip).