Beam E4 Build Blog....

[Dashik]

I noticed the strategic withdrawal a few mins in Nice heli though and you did weill in the winds, I'l have had the unauthorised Air/ground interface problem if I had flown it in that weather.

Got to hand it to you, this has been a very well done build review. Give yourself a pat on the back. Its been a great read

[jiberjaber]

So the new red and black canopy turned up last night, but it was so late in the evening I didnt manage to get much done with it. So after work, I decided to put it on and take a few pics.

Many thanks to Rob Blake for supplying the canopy

The canopy comes in a mini version of the kit box.



Inside the box in the canopy well protected in bubble wrap and some accessories:

1 set of medium decals
1 strip of small decals
1 set of canpoy gromits
1 canopy rubber.



I havent fitted the caopy decals on either canopy yet. The gromets fit well and the canopy rubber was fitted inside the canopy the same as I did with the kit canopy.





I couldnt resist a flight, I have realy been tempted to head off down the field and fly both the knight and this but it is V Fest here this weekend and the town is rammed (90,000 people expected!)

Here are a couple of in flight pics in the garden.







Managed about 4 loops or so and then had to change the battery, I still haven't timed the flights yet.

[Boggy]

well done jason its almost dissapointing that this blog is coming to an end! you should be writing for mhw magazine mate. nice blog ive enjoyed keeping up with it

[jiberjaber]

I decided to have 1 more flight (famous last words) and after a few figure of eights, I was trying a few piros to see what the end stop bounce was like (there is a little).

When I first started to learn how to fly, it was in a 'back yard' where if you screwed up, it usualy meant a tumble in to either the bush on the left or a fence on the right. This resulted in an expensive learning experiance - about 30 quid a weekend!

Well tonight was no different from then. Instead of waiting till I got down the field, I was messing around with these piros and then managed to put it in to the hedge! The first crash of this heli.






Damage so far:

Blades,
Feathering shaft,
flybar,
Main shaft,
Upper & lower jesus bolt,
Auto rotation plate,
Main drive (tail belt) pully,
one way sleeve,
elevator servo arm.

So I am looking at an order of about 23 quid so far, obviously that is not the total repair bill, there are a number of spares in that figure as well as some blades to buy as well!

[Boggy]

bloody hell Jason!!! ive just posted a well done on the finish, im starting to know what murray walker feels like!!

look on the bright side though we all get to read the "repair blog"

tbh truely gutted for ya mate . it takes a strong man to resist a heli and charged battery sitting in front of himself

[jiberjaber]

I agree I knew I should have gone out and flew instead of in the garden! Never mind, I am a little sad, but not too sad Only a small chip on the new canopy so not all that bad

Rob and Andy are usualy very quick on delivery so I should be back in the air by the middle of next week.

I just need to source some blades now, I have some Align carbons and some non-named carbons so I think I might give them a go.

[rspblake]

Packed Friday nite and sent Saturday..

So looking at Tuesday latest knowing mR post LOL

Online parts manual is here!

http://www.rcheliaddict.co.uk/galler...php?photo=5212

[jiberjaber]

So all the required parts arrived today at work, so I carefully rode home with them on the bike and waited for the rain to stop whilst I cooked some tea ready to head off down the shed.

I ordered a few extra bits just in case I am in the deck in the future to reduce down time. I was supprised to see that the tail belt gear comes with the one-way bearing sleave and a new jesus bolt. These bolts seem very soft, I sheared both top and bottom ones in the mild crash I had.



I also ordered some extras while I was at it. The feathering shaft is a bit different from most 450 size heli's in that it uses two nyloc nuts to secure the shaft. So I needed another 5.5mm nut spinner. You can get the feathering shaft out without two nut spinners if you are crafty with a flat blade screw driver, but I am not too keen on that approach after using it to remove the blade grips after the crash.

These come ready coloured in "Essex pink" LOL



The rebuild was fairly straight forward, here's the blade assembly blown apart before I greased it all up and re-fitted it.



There is a thrust bearing and two standard bearings in the blade grips. Then there is a washer spacer and a conical washer which I thought was rather cute. This fits in to the o-ring dampers in the head. You can see this close up in the following picture.



The dampers are made from two o-rings either side of the head, there is a harder o-ring on the outside and a softer one on the inside. They do look slightly different (the harder one is wider) and they do compress differently so it is was easy to tell them apart.

When doing up the nyloc nuts on the feathering shaft, when they are tight, the blades are very notchy and almost too compressed. This was with just one thread showing out of the nyloc nut.

I do like at least 1 - 2 threads to show out of the nyloc nuts so I know it will hold. I got a nearly acceptable movement in the blade grips (i.e. very little notchy movement, but still a little stiff) when the bolt was flush with the nyloc. Not my ideal fitment, so I removed the nuts, added some blue loctite and re-assembled. I am hoping that when I spin up the head with some blades on the grips and dampers will seat properly and all will be well... need to keep an eye on that!

After sorting out the blade grips, fitting a new flybar I was ready to fit the new tail belt gear.

This was what I removed, I was supprised this broke in such a way, looks quite violent!



It was harder to fit the new tail belt gear for some reason, it seemed to take 30 mins to get the lower jesus bolt in for some reason.

So new servo arm on as well and we're ready for a new test flight if the wind gives out and it stays dry... maybe tomorrow night!

I also bought another thing for the heli. A new tail servo. I'll give the futaba one last flight ( I think - this may change) and then pop this on




On a side note, I have also been checking out what Trex upgrades also fit this heli.

Trueblood V1 dampers fit I confirmed tonight, mine are knackered so I didnt bother fitting them in permanently, just a trial fitment. Not sure what the conical washer will do with the truebloods installed though.

I also tried the Nix weighted tail blades. If the Nix tai output shaft is fitted and some suitable pitch leaver screws to attach to the Nix blades are sourced, this will also be a go'er. The actual Nix tail pitch slider and mech isnt such a good fit. Might be worth a look at for anyone with a broken Nix tail case (like me )

[jiberjaber]

So head sorted, main bearing in the one of the blade grips didn't want to seat properly, now seated I can get at least 1 thread on each nyloc showing - much happier!

Did a bit of gentle hovering and a few figure of 8's tonight in the garden. The pack lasted 5m40s to 10% battery and I put back in 1.916Amps, so I guess I am looking at 4.5 mins of flight per battery when I get out in the open.

[jiberjaber]

Well Finaly managed to get out to a field somewhere and fly in a bit more of an open space. I managed 2.5 batteries. On the second flight I got 4.5 mins out of the battery before it signaled down to 20% capacity. This was with some fairly rapid sport flying, loops, rolls, stall turns and general dragging around the sky. A couple of attempts at tic tocs.

On the 3rd battery it fell out of the sky from about 50m up. Total loss of control - very similar to the last couple of Trex crashes. Full damage report and pics later, but it looks like the skids and radix have survived. I think I will send the RX to Horizon to get it checked over.

[Dashik]

Ouch, thats a scunner, Ground 2 Pilot 0....

Its strange though, its great stuff while we fly and everythings fine but when we crash its just so depressing!

The Highs and Lows (pardon the pun) of model helicopters

Still, order some new parts smile nicely and rebuild it!

[jiberjaber]

Yeah - I have some pics of the damage and a list of needed parts





I managed to bend the main shaft a little, I think I might have to roll it on some glass to see if it is straight or not
((bottom shaft is a new one, top shaft is the latest victim)



I think the shafts are quite soft compared to the Align ones. As for parts, well heres the bits I need to sort. Some I have in stock, some I dont.

Upper and lower main shaft bearing
Antirotation bracket
Tail Servo (in stock)
Tail boom
Main gear (in stock)
inner blade grip bearing
Hard o-rings

The skids and radix survived, which I am over the moon about I have noticed something about the upper mixing arms which I need to check with Rob about to see if it is a manufactureing problem or a crash problem (from the first crash).

Off to place an order!

[Dashik]

Nah, if the shaft looks straight it probably is...........

Its amazing really, If I have a 'soft' crash everything bends. if you drop it there can be surprisingly little damage sometimes......

That shaft does look like it bent rather a lot though.

[jamiem]

id see if t-rex main shafts fit, with bends like that! never done one on my v2 anywhere near as bad as that. only ever a slight wobble. Im watching this thread with interest as i have a hankering for a new small machine, and its between a rave and a beam at the moment

[jiberjaber]

id see if t-rex main shafts fit, with bends like that! never done one on my v2 anywhere near as bad as that. only ever a slight wobble. Im watching this thread with interest as i have a hankering for a new small machine, and its between a rave and a beam at the moment

Unfortunatly the align shaft is longer by 3mm and has the holes in the wrong place, if I had a pillar drill then I might consider in though.