geoffs crash and learn

ART-TECH   FALCON 3D

Pic 51-52

 

PACKAGING: - This heli comes as a RTF helicopter the package is moulded polystyrene and all components are held in securely.

The bottom section comes out to gain access to the helicopter, transmitter and all the equipment required for charging.

Also included is a full training gear set.

so what’s actually in the box?

1x RTF helicopter fully built

1x transmitter (requires 8 number AA batteries)

1x 240volt mains adapter

1x 12volt field cable (for charger)

1x e sky balanced charger

1x 11.1volt. 1300 mAh li-po battery

1x bag containing alan keys, tie wraps and training gear centre hub

1x training gear (rods and ping pong balls)

1x instruction book for helicopter

1x instruction book for flight sim

1x cd-r flight sim

1x flight sim cable

1x decal sheet (for your canopy)

1x check sheet from heliguy signed and dated by the sender.

THE STRIP DOWN: - Sacrilege I hear you all shout. Yes I know but this is heliguy and we need to have a step by step guide for this helicopter.

Pic56

STAGE 1:-The rotor head.

(Main blades and feathering shaft)

Remove the two main rotor blades using the alan key supplied.

Pull off the links to each blade holder

Remove the two screws from the blade holder and separate the holder; this reveals two cross head screws one either end of the feathering shaft.

Using two cross head screw drivers remove one of the screws.

You can now pull off the two bearings, one spacer and two rubber ‘O’ rings.

Withdraw the shaft through the head assembly, if you are going to replace the shaft hold the shaft in a pair of pliers or vice and remove the other screw, bearings ,spacer and two rubber ‘O’ rings.

Pic 80-75-72-65

 

 

 

(Fly bar and paddles and fly bar tube)

Loosen the 3mm grub screw on the paddles and remove the paddles from the fly bar.

Loosen the grub screws in each of the ‘L’ shaped control arms and withdraw the fly bar (beware between the ‘L’ shape control arm and the fly bar tube is a shaped washer), remove the link from the swash plate to separate.

Pic 71

(Collective collar and push rod)

Remove the links from the swash plate then undo the two screws holding the rocker arm to the collar (note the correct way the brass bush is fitted).

Holding the collar steady turn the bottom collar holding the push rod anti clockwise to unscrew the push rod from the collective collar(you will have to either disconnect the servo horn or move the servo down to totally unscrew the rod).

Loosen the grub screw in the collar and withdraw the push rod.

With a small flat bladed screwdriver push out the small plastic bock which holds the collar through the main shaft then lift the collective off the shaft.

Pic 81-82-83-87

 

 

(Swash plate)

Remove the links from the swash plate (3 No) and lift the swash plate off the main shaft.

Pic 88-89

 

(Electronics)

Disconnect all of the plugs from the receiver:-

Channel no                               Control

1                                                                                            left / right

2                                                                                            forward / back

3                                                                                            ESC

4                                                                                            Giro

5                                                                                            Giro heading hold

6                                                                                            Pitch

Remove the screws from each servo horn and remove the horn from the servos, then remove two screws from each servo and remove the servos.

Remove the gyro and receiver from the main frame assembly.

Pic 90

 

(Tail boom assembly)

Slacken off the small screw on the tail boom holder (this locates the boom to give correct gear mesh),

Remove (4) four screws from the holder these have nuts under the main frame so be sure not to loose these.

Remove the tail boom assembly from the main frame.

Pic 93-94

(Main frame)

Undo and remove the 17 screws recessed into the main frame, and the small screw holding the collective pitch arm.

Carefully separate the two half’s of the main frame the main drive gear, elevator arm and collective arm should stay in one half.

Pic 96-98

(Main drive gear)

Pull out the main drive gear from the main frame.

The gear wheel is held in place on the shaft with three collars with two grub screws in each, and two main bearings.

Loosen the grub screws and slide off each collar noting the orientation of the raised portion on each collar(raised portion faces bearings).

Remove the drive gear.

4 small screws hold the tail drive gear on to the main drive to remove the gear you need to remove these screws and gently prise the gear off the one-way bearing.

Pic 98-100-101

(Tail boom dismantling)

Remove the screw (2) then loosen the 4 screws (1) to allow the tail gear box to be removed from the boom.(see photo below) loosen the screws holding the vertical and horizontal fins and the servo mounts and withdraw them from the boom.

Note the tail gearbox end bevelled gear is smaller in proportion to the main driven gear.

Carefully prize off the tail end bevelled gear (might have glue on it so expect it to be tight) then tap the drive rod through the bearing, this gives plenty of shaft at the drive end to allow you to pull it through the centre and end bearings.

Handy tip……………………………………………………………………………..

To prevent the centre bearing from being displaced there are small dimples on the tail boom that hold the bearings in place carefully clamp the mid bearing position in a vice to stop it being moved during drive shaft removal and replacement.

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A little resistance will be found during removal and replacement of the drive shaft.

The drive bevelled gear is also push fit and can now be tapped off the shaft.

Pic 113copy -114 110-111-112

(Tail rotor dismantling)

The tail rotor assemble can be dismantled by removing the 5 screws holding the two half’s of the gear box together (don’t loose the small bearings inside the two half’s) then loosen the two grub screws from the tail blade holder centre hub and pull it away from the shaft.(if the grub screws have been tightened too much the shaft burrs making removal a little difficult).

Remove the tail rotors to reveal two hex head bolts inside, remove these to release the holder from the centre hub and also give access to the two bearings within.

Pic 107

So there you have now completely dismantled the falcon 3d to assemble the craft reverse the above procedures remember to use loctite or similar on the screws to prevent them working loose.

Well after stripping the falcon 3d down to the bare bones I’ve finally put it all back together again.

As the heli comes with training gear I decided to install it on the heli and try it out.

Weather conditions: - Very windy.

ok so spun it up to get it light on the skids the tail turning left so moved the servo until I got a steady tail without too much input on the stick.

Now up to speed and light on the training gear and its pulling left a lot and back unfortunately their is no facility to compensate for this on the link for the forward / aft on the transmitter so its all down to using the trim, after a few spin ups the heli seems to be trimmed up, so gave it a little more just as a gust of wind hit it, well it shot upwards but fortunately still under some resemblance of control I managed to get it down.

The heli responds very quickly to any inputs you make on the transmitter which in the conditions made it very hard to keep in one place, also the altitude was hard to keep stable too.

Although a slightly bumpy first flight this heli flew extremely well in these conditions all with stock fittings and battery.

I then installed an 11.1v 2200mAh 10c battery which I use in my walkera 36; well the difference the added weight made was quite astonishing, the heli was a lot more stable and easier to control and added a good 5 min extra flight time. So what would it be like with a bigger battery???.

Installed an 11.1v 2200mAh 12c into it. The extra weight of this did not really make a difference to the handling but the flight time was 2 min longer.

The extra flight time is taken from the time I got from the standard battery.

So to sum up the 11.1v 2200mAh 10c battery is the ideal one for this heli giving better handling in windy conditions with the benefit of a longer flight time.

NOTE

This heli shares parts with the walkera #36, the list below I have compiled using the measurements off the falcon and my walkera: -

Rotor blades

Blade holders

Collective collar arrangement

Swash plate

Main shaft (falcon shaft will need to be shortened slightly to fit walkera)

Landing skids (will need very slight mod to fit existing mounting holes on walkera)

Collective rod (from servo to collective collar)