Microheli belt tail. 'Any other needed upgrades?

[trillian]

I am helping my neighbor with a 180CFX and he's only just learning now, hovering a bit. He got a load of ali upgrade parts which he has not yet installed, but my take on it is that if he might crash, then may as well fly the stock plastic parts and replace them when they break.

But... the Microheli belt tail seems like a good move to me, knowing how fragile TT's can be on small helis.

Anyway, I told him I can install the belt tail for him but thought I'd ask here if anything else needs changing or even if the Microheli tail, cool as it looks, may not be a good move?

Any and all advice welcome

[barryorbik]

180 cfx

Trillian, It is well worth seeking out some Lynx servo savers, as the 180 will break servo gears in even the most 'gentle of crashes', and supplies of servo's and gears are getting short. I had not heard about a tail belt option, but it sounds a very good idea, as we are forever changing the tail gears, mainly because we fly off grass, and the tail blades invariably end up catching the grass, either on take off or landing. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen a 180 go into a mad pirouette because the tail gears fail when the blades caught the grass on take off!!

Barry

[trillian]

Thanks Barry, I will relay that to him about the servo savers. And it looks like a very cheap item, so would appear to be a total no-brainer.

I've never got on with these tiny helis myself - I never really had a place to fly them. I had a 130X briefly and grass was its arch nemesis! Now the smallest thing I
have is the Beam 450.

[Mikej]

The thing that made the most difference for me was when I fitted a "proper" FBL unit rather than the eFlite flight controller - the more recent flight controller may be better...

It's not what you or your friend want to hear, but I sold both of my 180CFX'x because they were so expensive to crash (bought one when they first came out loved / hated it so sold it, missed it so bought another a year later loved / hated it). The problem is that they are very fragile and parts are expensive - neither is ideal for a beginner. They can fly very nicely, but can be pretty quick as well - this was me as an experienced heli pilot - could get expensive for a beginner.

When I decided to sell my second one, I took out the FBL and replaced the eFlite controller, I thought that I ought to do a test flight to make sure that everything is OK, the skids caight in the grass on take off, flipped over immediately and did almost £50 of damage (new canopy, skids, feathering shaft, maingear, servo arms, boom - some bits were 2 in a packet, but you have to buy both hence the price. Parts cost the same as bigger helis, but because they were built to keep weight down bits broke easily hence the costs...

[barryorbik]

To summarize the 180CFX is not one of E Flights most robust machines, and not really a beginners training helicopter, as even when well set up it is pretty skittish. We used to pylon race MCPx's at our site with up to ten in the air at the same time. Needless to say mid-airs and CFIT's were the order of the day, and the race went on until all the batteries had expired, or only one MCPx was left flying. Great fun, and most of the casualties were easily fixed with broken blade links, snapped tail tube, or at worse skids, and a set of blades. The canopies were replaced with paper versions, as they were also regular, and relatively expensive casualties, so in practice the MCPx's were a good real life alternative to the simulator, and usually pretty cheap to mend.

[trillian]

Thanks for all the input on this, I will relay this to him. I have installed the belt tail. The belt is kinda tight but maybe it will stretch a little bit. I don't like working on anything so small and fiddly. He also has a Blade 500, but needs to start on the sim for a while.

Back when I started (I didn't really get going until late 2008), the heli I learned on was a Raptor 30. But I had spent a long time on the sim first and we just didn't have these micro helis yet.

[Mikej]

If he wants to start on something small, the current "King of the Industructibles" is the is the XK Innovations XX K110. It really is strong and flies well for a micro-heli. Parts are very cheap (but only available from abroad), generally when you crash it, you just pick it up, sit it back down on it's skids and fly it. Occasionally the mainshaft gets pushed up and you end up with lots of positive pitch and no negative - but you just push the maingear back into place and fly.

[hedge]

So the mh belt is fragile. If you do the TT mod you won’t break one. Also servo savers are easily done you simply slice the back of the current servo arms and refit screw till snug then back off 1/8th turn. I still fly my 180 never broken any tt or servo gears. As for the rest good luck :-)

Recommend you read this
Taming the Blade 180 CFX

TT mod
https://images.app.goo.gl/uTYnpAoWJWW7A6PA8

Old 250 skids are nice but there are a few stronger alternatives to stock. Note the new all one piece 250 skids may not fit

[hedge]

oh and if you dont already know about it this is a useful set of instructions

https://www.horizonhobby.com/pdf/BLH...ttings_QRG.pdf

Ignore the first half (gains) for now, the second half of the instructions is servo adjustment mode and swash level. If you do the "free" servo saver mod or buy the lynx ones then you will be frequently centering the servos. BTW if you do buy the lynx I recommend not using the additional o'ring around the servo horn, it can be so tight as to not save the servo!

also dont tighten the servo mounting screws and rubber plate too much, less is more here as the servo tabs will fracture and break literally 2 finger snug, fly and then snug up again - of course have the check as a pre flight.

on the gains the cyclic response is useful if you turn it down it helps slow things up - along with the instructions for the expo and dr "taming of the blade".

I 100% agree with barry tbh get an XK110 if your learning and if you've learned and you have the space (and like micros) get an oxy2 its in an absolute league of its own. me I fly the 130x, 180cfx and oxy2 as and when the mood takes me