Bad Align blades?

[Sao]

Setting up a club members Trex 600 Nitro last weekend and I just could not get the thing to track. Tracking was 2 inches out at its worst!

First I eyballed the head and got the set up close, tracking still miles out.
Then out came the levels and pitch gauge and set it up spot on with all links levelled. Still the tracking was miles out and the heli very unhappy shacking all over the place.

By now we have drawn a crowd of people putting their oar in as to what the problem is. Yes it's had a new main shaft and spindle put in along with a new flybar, brand new align 600 blades, new one way housing and new gears.

Quiz the owner on how he built the thrust washers
"Well I think they went back in the same way they came out"...
Ok strip the head down and discover he had built one side wrong, corrected it. Discovered the paddles were not spaced equally or lined up on the head and still the tracking is 2" out!

Finally borrowed a set of blades from Airwolfie (sorry about the nitro slime mate ) fired the heli up and the tracking is Razor sharp, so now we have identified the problem. The question that still bugs me is what exactly was wrong with those blades? The owner tells me he weighed them and they were spot on. But I suspect that the CoG was way off on the pair to cause it to track that badly.
Anyone else come across this with Align or other blades?
It really had me stumped for a while and was beginning to **** me off as I can usually sort out heli issues quite quickly and easily.

[Farmer Giles]

are they twisted at all ?? for bad tracking it must be the profile of the blade, even out of balance blades should track reasonabley well so it's how they are flying that's wrong IMO...

Were they a new matched pair, and not a set he put together from other sets?
Had they been crashed before ?

how were the dampers, they might be abit past it now if he's been using these blades for a while.

with regard to align quality, everyone gets it wrong occasionally, can he return them in exchange for another set ?

2p..

[daren]

Hang them together from a nail and see if one hangs in front of the other, this will give you a rough idea about the cofg.

[Sao]

are they twisted at all ?? for bad tracking it must be the profile of the blade, even out of balance blades should track reasonabley well so it's how they are flying that's wrong IMO...

Were they a new matched pair, and not a set he put together from other sets?
Had they been crashed before ?

how were the dampers, they might be abit past it now if he's been using these blades for a while.

with regard to align quality, everyone gets it wrong occasionally, can he return them in exchange for another set ?

2p..

Blades were brand new out of the packet and not twisted as far as we could see lining them up with known good blades.
The dampers are an unknown quantity as the heli is S/H but was flying fine before the crystal fell out a couple of weeks ago. Since been rebuilt with the new parts I listed above as well as a boom, tail blades and tail housing.

The bloke went out and bought a new set of 600D's and flew this weekend with no issues. I think he will be able to return the blades as they came from a well known good shop and are in mint condition and only a week or so old.

[BobJ]

Hi

Out of interest which Align blades were they, think the glass blades might not be happy at too high a headspeed and the new 600D's H60190 are very aggresive so more critical on model. The older (H60184) 600D blades are very good and not so picky!

Cheers
Bob

[mattie-lodge]

Interesting post this.

I put my 600n in a couple of months back and decided on a set of Align 600 wooden core blades to replace my beaten up Radix. It was the price that drew me to them so I thought I'd give it a go. Like you I had a tracking issue of about 1 1/2inchs out, so I adjusted the top links and got them to track. Went off and flew for about 30 seconds and there it was again. 1 1/2inch tracking issue.

So after doubting myself, I replaced all the normal things again (mainshaft, feathering, thrust washers ....you know the drill) but it still had the same problem.

I then put a trusty set of Radix on.....Bingo never missed a beat since.

So, concerned that I had still done something wrong, I sent them back they were then tested by somebody else. Exactly the same problem

The moral here is there must be a few 'duff' sets of these blades around.

[Sao]

Hi

Out of interest which Align blades were they, think the glass blades might not be happy at too high a headspeed and the new 600D's H60190 are very aggresive so more critical on model. The older (H60184) 600D blades are very good and not so picky!

Cheers
Bob

They were the new 600D's (H60190) I remember them having the 3D super Pro writing on them, the blades we tested with were a set of older (H60184) 600D's and the set he has on now that work are the older 600D's. For what it's worth it was an original Trex 600 with the old style swash and plastic blade holders but looks like it has had a complete new set of links on the head. I did notice one of the main blade grips radial bearings was a bit notchy but didn't think it would have made that much difference.
Edit: In hindsight we should have tried out the blades in question on another heli but at the time I was just happy to have found the cause so I could get on with flying my own helis :P

[bish]

Interesting post this.

I put my 600n in a couple of months back and decided on a set of Align 600 wooden core blades to replace my beaten up Radix. It was the price that drew me to them so I thought I'd give it a go. Like you I had a tracking issue of about 1 1/2inchs out, so I adjusted the top links and got them to track. Went off and flew for about 30 seconds and there it was again. 1 1/2inch tracking issue.

So after doubting myself, I replaced all the normal things again (mainshaft, feathering, thrust washers ....you know the drill) but it still had the same problem.

I then put a trusty set of Radix on.....Bingo never missed a beat since.

So, concerned that I had still done something wrong, I sent them back they were then tested by somebody else. Exactly the same problem

The moral here is there must be a few 'duff' sets of these blades around.

Matt if you blades came from andy RR then i tested them for him and they would not track i am sure andy sorted them for you never had anything but great service from RR.
So yes i have never had it before but those wooden core align blades?????????
Glenn

[mattie-lodge]

Matt if you blades came from andy RR then i tested them for him and they would not track i am sure andy sorted them for you never had anything but great service from RR.
So yes i have never had it before but those wooden core align blades?????????
Glenn

Hi Glen,

Andy fully sorted me out and I know there would never be any question of that.

I posted on this thread with ref to the align blades as there may be a bad batch out there and maybe people might be worrried about mentioning it. Having said this I sure there is a very small amount of these blades around.

I too have had nothing but great service from RR hence I saw no reason to bring the name into this thread

[Sao]

These blades were also from RR so maybe they did get a duff batch.