Airwolf'ed my Trex 500

[Andy_Ran]

For as long as I can remember, I have always been more a scale vs 3D fan, and to that effect I was drawn to the hobby years and years ago by the idea of having an Airwolf (amongst others)

Since I have been flying this time around, I set my self a target of no crashes for 3 months then I would go for it and Airwolf my 450....

I ordered the Fuse for the 450 only to be told there where non in stock and could not find another so took the plunge and ordered an Align Airwolf for the 500

The kit arrived next day from Midland. Upon initial inspection the kit was superb quality and looked awesome.

I had bought a Beast X mini from here as I wasn't 100% confident in the 3G Align I was running up to now. So this was fitted and got the heli flying smoothly. Then I was happy to start my build....

I spent the last weeks evenings getting the Airframe fitted and the retracts working etc and tonight its ready to fly

There are a few things I wasn't so impressed with and these are:

The Servo mount for the retracts, its pants...
The Boom is about 10mm too long and makes fitting the tail a bit tight.
The Wooden frame supports are fiddly and don't allow for easy in and out if needed.

I overcame the biggest issue of the frame mounting by fixing the airframe to the blocks then the blocks to the fuse. Using 2 fixings and not the single one as suggested.

Now I can remove the tail and then 4 screws/bolts and remove the entire heli from the fuse

Anyway here are a few pics





f

[r4nd0m]

looks nice though ... had the similar idea in mind ... which airwolf model did you use? did you take any pictures during the build process as I would be interested to see how things fit together ... in regards of the boom being too long what base did you use? 500 version, belt or torque tail drive? could you measure the space between scale/fuselage and blades as I have just fitted the DFC head and wonder if that would be a difference. how long did it take you in total to put everything together?

cheers
Sev

[Andy_Ran]

Thanks

Mine is a torque tube version. In the guide they have a belt drive. No idea if they are different lengths

It's an align fuse. Which I have since read is the same as the v3 heli artist. Not sure how true that is mind you.


I didn't take any Pics during the build, getting the retracts to work well was the longest part and took me about 4 hours! And the front still isn't perfect

I can measure the distance tomorrow for you

[Andy_Ran]

Sorry, in total it took about 10 hours but it was my first scale build

I have a nice heli artist eva n907ag fuse for my 450 to build up in a few weeks time I got of eBay. I will make a more detailed build of that.

[r4nd0m]

well I have just eyeballed the boom construction from my torque upgrade to the belt which is still intact and it seems that the belt is indeed a bit shorter in total, maybe that a reason then ...

[asomaro]

I built mine earlier last year (I used an align trex 500 esp which was initially flybarred but I changed it to flybarless - if you want to see my build pics and vids - the link is:

Trex 500 Airwolf pictures by asomaro - Photobucket

[Andy_Ran]

Well had the first flight today, first time i had flown a fuse'ed heli and it was a slightly un-nerving first flight. It was a little less unstable on hover and moved about a bit more than i expected.

After a few mins decided to land so flipped the retracts out and came down, then one of the back ones folds up a small amount so the tail blades just skim the ground and the main gearbox strips

Looking over your build Asomaro, your retracts are a much better design. I have today stripped the heli out only to find i dont have a spear gear, so its back to the shop tomorrow for a spare.

While the heli was on the bench i spent even more time redoing links on the retracts and its much better than before so fingers crossed the weather is nice tomorrow so i can have another go

[asomaro]

My kit came with great retracts but I was never happy with the carbon link rods and the axles, so I replaced them with steel which did not "twist" or flex as much. I was able to file small flats on the shafts which allowed the securing screws to hold much better with far less slip. The retracts were the hardest things to set up - took quite a lot of trial and error to get them right!

Have you got a metal guard on the tail? It is a bit of wire that extends from the bottom of the vertical rear tail fin. This helps to prevent accidental tail blade scrapes.

Good luck with your necxt flight.

[Andy_Ran]

Great idea on the metal rod. Shall pick some up when in the shop today!

Yes got the little wire, just didn't help

What settings are you running on your beastx?

[asomaro]

.....What settings are you running on your beastx?

I've not flown her for a while and I have not yet got round to upgrading to the v3 software, but the original set up was just in a sport configuration, with i/u 1 set as 100,95,90.95,100 and i/u 2 set up as a straight line 100% - in fact it was pretty much exactly the same set up as I had on the 500 before it went into the airwolf fuselage. All it needed was a little bit of gain adjustment.

Obviously the added weight makes a fair difference but she climbs well and blats around the sky pretty well! In fact I really ought to take her out for a bit of a blast.

Cheers,

[Andy_Ran]

Popped to the local shop and got some metal rod to replace the carbon, had to order the gear set as they didn't have any.

Will get the retract done tonight if i get chance then fit the new gears tomorrow once they arrive