Lifespan of helis

[moyesboy]

what is the average lifespan of a helicopter design inb terms of beign able to keep it flying?
including upgrading it to v2 or whatever.
I don't know how long raptors have been out. you can still get v1 spares and convert them to v2/titan etc.

Some designs have fallen by the wayside. some companies have gone bust. when that happens you can't keep flying the model - except vety carefully.

New to helis I'm quite suprised at how fast new stuff comes out, and how fast it goes out of fashion. Once its out of favour there is only awhile before its not worth people stocking spares. I guess there are a few years left in the raptors yet though.

how important is it to consider the product longevity with a new heli such as Knight 3D, RJX extreme, trex600 etc?

[Rotorhead]

what is the average lifespan of a helicopter design inb terms of beign able to keep it flying?
including upgrading it to v2 or whatever.
I don't know how long raptors have been out. you can still get v1 spares and convert them to v2/titan etc.

Some designs have fallen by the wayside. some companies have gone bust. when that happens you can't keep flying the model - except vety carefully.

New to helis I'm quite suprised at how fast new stuff comes out, and how fast it goes out of fashion. Once its out of favour there is only awhile before its not worth people stocking spares. I guess there are a few years left in the raptors yet though.

how important is it to consider the product longevity with a new heli such as Knight 3D, RJX extreme, trex600 etc?

Depends, some helis have changed a lot, so much so they are really new designs, eg the concept series eventually became the VR series, night and day.

I would say about 7 or 8 years for a sport heli, probably 2 years for a competition one is the most you can expect before its practically a new design.

[Ade_Law]

i dont seem to last much over a year on an airframe. normally by then its a bag of bolts and all it will need is one good smack.

sure you can refurb them but its not normally worth it.

a good example of this is my old raptor 50

the last crash wasnt too bad, did a frame, skids, boom, belt, main gear, spindle and mainshaft

throuble was... due to excessive flying time. ALL the bearings needed changing, clutch lining was low, clutch had stretched, pinion was worn, start shaft was worn. frames were worn around athe bearings, ALL the balls AND links needed changing and the engine was decidly worn.

so really if you fly regularly its not going to be a concern if you cant get parts for something in 2 years time.

Ade

[moyesboy]

but then surely you can sell your old rappy on ebay as "had about only gallon through it, never crashed etc"

The knight looks ugly with the std canopy. Does the 3D have a plastic canopy in the new shape?
I wonder about the align design and how it flies.
I think the RJX extreme looks great but its expensive and I wonder if the spares are available now, and if they will be available in the future.

I guess I should go visiting and have a fly of some of these helis.
I have only flown my 450 and my rappy - nothing else. Our club has a rarely flown 3DNT, a few concept 30s and 30 and 60 raptors. Nothing new.

[Ade_Law]

3d now has the new shape plastic canopy on it.

if you ever find yourself in my part of the country your more than welcome to have a fly of mine. On buddy box if you wish.

Ade

[mchristyuk]

Moyesboy,

The larger established manufacturers are pretty good at looking after older machines in terms of spares. Hirobo, JR and MA all still supply spares for models that in some cases are 20 years old..

A good well designed machine should have a reasonable shelf life of about 5 years without needing a complete re think (Vibe, Millenium, Fury, Scedau, Eagle).

I'm still flying my original Vigor CS which was the first in the UK.. I think its around 6 years old now. Still all original apart from Clutch shoes and a few bearings.

Cheers

Mark

[Rotorhead]

I thought this was more about design lifespan rather than maintainance lifespan, ie the length of time between the first version of a model and the last version, before the model is dropped and a completely new design is made to replace it.

eg shuttles and sceadus, the shuttle is more or less finished as a line, with only minor alterations every so often, and has been replaced by the sceadu line.

[mattydred]

the real/full size r22 i had my first lesson in on wednesday can fly for 2200hours from brand new. after the first 2200 hours of flying it has to have a total stripdown and rebuild. after the rebuild it can fly another 2200hours and after that it is scrap.

[Steve]

Shuttle mechanics are popular in scale machines - they're very compact.