Oh my Gords!

Well, more specifically how I changed the flybar!

I’m sure you all know what and where the flybar is - if not, read on and you’ll soon see

The flybar wasn’t significantly bent, but it was noticable so I decided I ought to change it. Not too many tools are needed - 2 allen keys (1.5mm and 2.5mm I think!?) and possibly a pair of small pliers. Oh yes, you’ll need a ruler too.

To make things easier, I removed the main blades and canopy.

Next, use a small allen key to loosen the grub screws in the paddles. Undo them enough so that the paddles can be unscrewed and removed.

Now, undo the grub screws that hold the flybar in the holder. Again, just undo them enough so that the flybar will turn.

Finally, remove the damaged flybar. If you cannot remove it by hand (as I couldn’t), screw one of the paddles back onto the flybar and use it to turn and pull the flybar out. Then remove the paddle again.

As they say in all the best maintenance manuals - “fitting is the reverse of the above”

OK! First of all, satisfy yourself that the flybar is actually bent by rolling it on a known flat surface, such as the kitchen worktop. Next, chuck the bent one in the nearest bin and grab your fancy new, straight, flybar.

Gently slide the new flybar into the holder until it is central - i.e. the protruding length is the same on both sides. Mine measured 65mm, but yours may be different? Tighten the grub screws to keep the flybar in place.

Next, screw on the paddles until they are fully on - don’t do the grub screws up yet though. You need to ensure that each paddle is the same distance from the holder. Mine measured 54mm, but whatever the measurement they need to be the same. Do make sure they are screwed all the way on as well.

Once you have the distance set correctly, you need to align them. This is the method I used, but there may be better / more accurate ways!

The paddles need to be horizontal when the cyclic stick is centralised. Turn on your transmitter and connect a battery - wait for the gyro to initialise. Ensure all the servos are in the correct position by moving the stick around and then centralising it.

Then, one at a time, adjust each paddle until it is horizontal. Check the settled position of the servos (as above) each time you adjust the paddle, just in case you have inadvertently moved a servo.

Next, tighten then check and re-check all 4 grub screws!

OK, all done! Re-fit your blades and go give it a try

It was Saturday, it was sunny, it was calm … and I had to work! How cruel is that!!

Well, I managed to get everything done by about 4pm so I was off into the garden

The first battery went quite well, I was managing to keep in the air for 30 - 40 seconds at a time, sometimes even a bit longer. I was quite happy with that considering I was flying in my smallish garden and still getting to grips with the whole “control” thing.

The second battery went on and off I went again. It only lasted about 1 - 2 minutes before the heli could barely take off? OK, maybe the battery didn’t get charged properly - no problem, I’ll try battery number 3. Umm, the same thing happened. Even worse, the motor then refused to even spin!?

I removed the canopy and noticed that the motor was so hot I could have cooked my dinner on it!!  Luckily, I had a new spare (from a very generous friend!) so I put that on sharpish. Oh boy, what a difference!! The head speed was noticeably faster and it sounded so much nicer - it’s funny how you don’t realise something is wrong/broken until you replace it.

So, back to battery 2 and off I went. I think my skills are improving, mainly because of the fact that I have not crashed into anything other than the ground for quite a while now! It definitely seems to be the confidence to lift off with conviction that has helped.

I can remember the first few days with my Lama, where the takeoffs were very gingerly, and slowly, done. I read a post on heliguy.com that said you need to commit to the takeoff and get to a height of 3 - 4ft, in order to get out of the ground effect. I managed that quite quickly with the Lama. However, the King does not seem to bounce quite as well (cheaply) so takeoffs have been too non-committal until just recently.

My current problem to overcome is over-correction. I manage to take off OK and the heli goes up quite nicely. Obviously I am then into controlling where the heli goes. If I can manage to react fast enough and smooth enough and with enough gentle care, I can manage to keep it with a 4 - 5ft square. However, it always seems to end up that I am swinging significantly side to side, front to back, etc. Sometimes I manage to bring it back under control, but more often that not it’s time to land, before I crash.

I thought I’d post a picture of my local flying zone (yes, OK, my garden!)

The fence to the left is where the Lama disappeared!

Although it’s small, it is quite well protected from the wind which means I can fly more often! I usually stand near to the bald patch in the middle (the slide used to end there!) and fly in the space towards the house.

I do, however, have to look out for the local wildlife:

The installation went very well and all appeared to be working OK on the “bench”, so it was time to test it for real!

For the first quick test, I went into the garden. Previous attempts to fly in the garden have resulted in the helicopter crashing into something very quickly, as I struggle to control altitude, attitude and direction. So I decided I would know very quickly if this gyro was going to be an improvement.

I got the heli all setup, head hold (hh) mode off and spun up the rotors. I took off and just as before, the heli gained some altitude and then headed in a direction that took it’s fancy! I landed sharpish and repositioned for the next take-off.

This time, I enabled HH mode and trimmed the tail until the servo settled. Up went the revs, up went the heli and … well, you could have knocked me down with a feather - it continued to point in the same direction Fantastic!! A few more take-offs confirmed that indeed it was not a fluke and the gyro was doing it’s job!

A few hours (and household tasks) later, I set off down to the field for a proper go There was a slight, fluctuating breeze that would normally have me landing a few seconds after take-off … but not today! I was able to take off and hover around for significant amounts of seconds before I needed to land. All the time, the heli generally kept true to the initial heading.

For a proper beginner like me, the head hold gyro has proved to be a worthwhile investment. It will allow me to spend more time practising the art of keeping a helicopter in one place for more than 1 second, without worrying about it’s general direction

I had the opportunity to buy an “as new” ESky 0704A head Lock Gyro and it arrived today. Below is a summary of how I fitted it.

First of all, remove the standard gyro and clean off any sticky stuff left behind.


Next fix the 0704A gyro to the helicopter. The blue face of the gyro points towards the tail, the attached wires exit from the top-right and the servo connection is top-left, when viewing from the rear of the helicopter. I used 2 sticky pads to fix the gyro to the platform vacated by the previous gyro and to the servos.

Connect the servo cable to the gyro with the black wire at the top.
Connect the 3 pin connector from the gyro to the channel 4 connector, orange wire at the top.
Connect the single orange wire from the gyro to the channel 5 connector, again, orange wire to the top.

Now it is time to bench test the installation. Turn on the transmitter and check/zero trims as usual. Ensure that the gyro switch is up / away from you (this is the standard, non head hold, mode).

Connect the helicopter battery and wait for the flashing red light to go blue and the tail servo to initialise. If it doesn’t, then recheck the gyro connections.

Check that all functions still work (right stick all directions), then check that the rudder (left stick left/right) operates correctly.

Enable the head hold function by flicking the gyro switch down / towards you. The tail servo should stay where it is. If it creeps either way, then turn off head hold mode and adjust the rudder trim until enabling head hold mode does not cause the servo to creep.

To check head hold mode is working, rotate the helicopter left and right - you should see the tail servo react.

Once you are happy that it’s working OK, tidy up the cables by fixing them to the frame with tie wraps (or your own preferred method).

The helicopter is ready for flying  

Well, the second set of blades didn’t last very long, so I ordered 3 more sets!

 With another set of blades fitted, I thought I’d check the pitch with my fancy (well, cheap actually) new pitch gauge. All seemed well!

After plenty of near misses and too many not misses, I decided it was time to find a larger flying area. I live in a small village and am lucky to have two large areas to choose from (cricket ground and rugby ground).

It was so much nicer to have more time to react to what the heli was doing! I’m not saying that I hovered or anything fancy, but I managed to take off and land with minimal crashing As Buzz Lightyear once said “This is not flying, it’s falling with style”

Unfortunately, my youngest son was unable to forsee where the heli was heading (wasn’t it obvious?! ), so I had to do an abrupt landing. Even more unfortunately, it broke the mounting for the vertical fin - so it was home time.

Luckily, I did have a spare mounting bracket (2 actually) supplied by the previous owner. Taking the rear rotor off to replace the bracket was slightly scary but it all went well.

Later on in the afternoon I headed out for another try.

I wasn’t necessarily trying to do so, but on one occasion the heli gained a reasonable altitude (3ft?) quite quickly … and all of a sudden the rotating stopped and it became almost stable !?

 3 feet?? 3 feet off the ground??? What was I thinking?!?! Get it down man, quickly!!

Thankfully, I managed to make earth and heli meet at a reasonable pace and nothing was broken. I don’t really know why I was so scared?! I had flown my Lama at 15ft+ before (very calm day!), but seeing the King that high was extremely nerve-racking!

Saying that, I managed to do it a few more times and it was starting to feel less scary - then came the landing too far. Nothing drastic, but the previously damaged fin finally snapped and flew off into the distance. I found the bit, but I didn’t have a spare or any means of fixing this one, so once again it was home time.

It may sound like a bad ending but actually, the surprise stability at 3ft has given me renewed hope that I will master this helicopter flying thing one day. Master … maybe that’s too strong a word …

Coincidence or fate? The Lama was grounded and awaiting repair so I was just wandering the HeliGuy forum reading all sorts.

I came across an advert for a used HoneyBee King 2 - off I went again investigating

The idea of having a larger size, Collective Pitch helicopter was very appealing and after getting the OK from the wife (sorry, you know what I mean!) I struck a deal

That was a few weeks ago and for 2 of those I was on holiday, so I haven’t really done much other than hop the King off the ground a few times … scary but fun!

I have managed to break the first set of blades, but I have a spare. I am also waiting for a pitch guage to arrive, so I’ll be ready again soon.

It was a calm summer day so I thought ”I’ll pop into the garden for a quick fly of the Lama”. Nothing unusual there …

 Set up, took off and hovered around in my usual semi-controlled state - oh what fun!

Seeing as it was so calm, I thought I’d go for a bit more altitude … up - down - this way - that way - still having fun.

Up we go again … oops, a bit far off to the right, a bit too near the neighbours garden. OK, don’t panic, just head left again.

 NO, I only said LEFT, not left and DOWN!! Before I could react, the Lama contacted with the bush separating our gardens and tumbled to the ground on the neighbours side. OK, I’ll just have to pop round and ask “can I have my helicopter back please” … and try not to feel like I’m 8 years old

The bush is quite thick, so I was surprised when I couldn’t see the Lama anywhere!? I looked on top of the bush, peered inside it and underneath it but the Lama was nowhere to be found. I tried spinning the rotors very gently and quickly to give me an idea of it’s location but nothing happened.

Then, even though it wasn’t near where I thought the Lama had landed, I picked up a stick and gently poked around in the fish pond … and out popped a little white xTreme blade

 I quickly extracted it from the pond, disconnected the battery and rushed back home.

 Long story short - the 4-in-1 was blown and both motors seized

The repair bill was only just short of what I paid for it initially, so it was re-assembled as much as possible and placed back in it’s box. It is currently awaiting funds for a rebuild!

Welcome to my helicopter blog!

I am a newcomer to R/C helicopters and R/C models in general. This will be a blog of my progress from complete beginner to … well, who knows

It was my birthday a short while ago and I was asked “what do I want?” - good question! I have always had a facination with helicopters (real and R/C) but always assumed that they were way out of my price range. That changed when I saw an advert from Maplin for a cheap 2 channel helicopter.

I’m one for investigating my options before buying anything, so off I went searching for information. It soon became clear that the cheap option was not the best way and I decided on an E-Sky Lama V3.

The Lama proved to be immediate, excellent fun and quite a challenge to control. I started off flying it indoors but on the occasional calm day I took it out into the garden, and even the local park a couple of times.

After a few collisions, I decided to change to the xtreme blades and flexi tail - both very worthwhile upgrades while learning as they are very much more resilient

Finding the HeliGuy forum has been a godsend - there is so much knowledge and advice there, it’s the only place to be!