Raptor 30....to flybarless or not to flybarless, that is the question?!

[nobbycopter]

Looking for a bit of advice. I've got an old Raptor 30 (with an OS32 engine as well as an OS37 which I'm thinking of putting in) which had an untimely meeting last September with terra firma (brain fade...) and it's been sitting there ever since waiting for me to repair it. I've got all the bits but not had the inclination to repair it. I do quite fancy getting a FBL head for it and converting it for a laugh as I loved flying it as it was set up to be really tame for learning.

So are there any cheap FBL heads for it as I don't really fancy paying out £119.99 for a TT one, if so what else do I need (got DS610 servos, FBL controller and larger RX battery etc.) with it (if anything) Who has converted theirs and what did you use and was it worth converting?

[KevDavies]

On my Raptor 90 im using Spartan Vortex, Align 610's, and a 5000mah ni-mh battery. With an Outrage head (Also have an outrage 50 head on my Knight 3d, which will fit a R30)

I can recommend the outrage head as it seems really well built and can be had for £30 off ebay.
The 610's you have will be fine as im using them on a 90 and its perfectly fine. One thing you will find is youll be on the inner most holes on most servo horns to get the correct resolution for the fbl unit. But that aids the torque and speed of the servos so its win win LOL

i say get it done! And why not throw a 50 engine in there whilst your at it?? over power the beast (I have a redline you can have for £50 if u want it)

[trillian]

I recently converted a Knight 600e and all this will apply equally well to the Raptor; One way to do it is find a pair of Ely.Q metal grips because they will fit straight on to the Raptor headblock, they use the same feathering shaft etc. But if you use the Ely.Q headblock as well you won't have the extra bits sticking up on top where the flybar used to be. You may even be able to use the Raptor grips just by extending the ball link bits so they extend to roughly the centre of the main shaft. The only things you need then are a swash driver and finding link rods the right length from the swash to the grips as the stock Raptor ones will be too long.

The thing about the Raptor is that since the flybarred head has the flybar on top, the main shaft is longer than if it was an underslung flybar, soooooo if you use something like the Outrage head it's gonna sit a good bit higher than what might be ideal (unless you drill another hole for the Jesus bolt a bit further down on the main shaft).

Some time ago there was a Raptor 50 for sale with an RJX FBL head in a shiney polished ali finish that was beautiful.

If you want to go the Ely.Q route I'm pretty sure I have a spare headblock and some plastic grips (and I have used the plastic grips as well and they worked just fine, they just need something to adapt from the 2.5 or 3mm where the mixer arm used to be to something a ball link will go on and on mine I used some Robbe flybar control balls... however, what might work and would be an easier and more standard solution would be the Compass Knight ball link fittings. I'll see if those will fit the Ely.Q grips because the Ely.Q has a grip arm spacing that gives you quite good geometry. You may also be able to use Compass Knight grips if you can get the links on the servos arms far enough in but Kev was not able to get the right geometry with the Knight grips.

The Ely.Q solution looks like this;
ELYQfblheadmod.jpg

[KevDavies]

Sheryl the outrage has 3 holes for jesus bolts, so you can raise or lower to your hearts content. If you use the highest hole in the headblock the blades will be back to normal levels

[Sheldrake]

Hi i did this and love it! Used it for the GWR too.
used the TT head despite the cost and it works a treat. Mind you I am a slow learner and just starting first circuits!
good luck whatever you decide.

[Dan22]

If you want to go the Ely.Q route I'm pretty sure I have a spare headblock and some plastic grips (and I have used the plastic grips as well and they worked just fine, they just need something to adapt from the 2.5 or 3mm where the mixer arm used to be to something a ball link will go on and on mine I used some Robbe flybar control balls... however, what might work and would be an easier and more standard solution would be the Compass Knight ball link fittings. I'll see if those will fit the Ely.Q grips because the Ely.Q has a grip arm spacing that gives you quite good geometry. You may also be able to use Compass Knight grips if you can get the links on the servos arms far enough in but Kev was not able to get the right geometry with the Knight grips.

The Ely.Q solution looks like this;
[ATTACH=CONFIG]68514[/ATTACH]

Looks familiar Sheryl...
Works really well on my Raptor too!

Dan.

[nobbycopter]

Cheers for the replies!! I've bought an RJX X-50 FBL head from Hobbyking and an feathering shaft and main grips from eBay. Grand total for all of them is £55 approx. Will have a play when all the bits get here and hope to start repairing/upgrading the heli in the meantime.

[nobbycopter]

Just got a few of the head bits in today. Things like the thrust bearings, O rings and washers are on order from various different hobby shops around the globe due to crap stocking of the parts in the UK

[Andy from Sandy]

When I ordered my RJX head for my Raptor 30 it came complete. I didn't have to buy anything extra. I am not sure why you have gone and ordered a feathering spindle and thrust bearings? What are the o-rings that you have ordered for? Even the supplied links are long enough to go from the head to the swash.

Now out of stock but this is what I got

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...0_50_Size.html

Once I had converted mine although it flew really well but the collective cradle is not very good when alls said and done. With the model powered up it is very easy to twist it. When your model was flybarred all the corrections were being applied above the swash. Once you go flybarless all of the corrections are being applied by the servos and that free play in the collective is going to show up.

As standard the raptor has trailing links, so the swash goes down for positive pitch. With the FBL head I converted to leading grips and so now the swash goes up for positive pitch.

[nobbycopter]

When I ordered my RJX head for my Raptor 30 it came complete. I didn't have to buy anything extra. I am not sure why you have gone and ordered a feathering spindle and thrust bearings? What are the o-rings that you have ordered for? Even the supplied links are long enough to go from the head to the swash.

Now out of stock but this is what I got

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...0_50_Size.html

Once I had converted mine although it flew really well but the collective cradle is not very good when alls said and done. With the model powered up it is very easy to twist it. When your model was flybarred all the corrections were being applied above the swash. Once you go flybarless all of the corrections are being applied by the servos and that free play in the collective is going to show up.

As standard the raptor has trailing links, so the swash goes down for positive pitch. With the FBL head I converted to leading grips and so now the swash goes up for positive pitch.

That was the one I wanted but as you say they're not in stock so I got this one...

http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store...ain_Shaft.html

As it's only parts I bought all the various other bits according to the RJX FBL manual.

I'm only really doing this for a laugh and...well just because really. Might look at making a CCPM conversion kit, again more as an exercise than to make it fly much better. That'll be once I've got my CNC router up and running though!


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