Radio Control Helicopters - 2010/03

HELLO AGAIN, helicopter people. I hope
you are doing well as this late winter/early
spring issue hits your mailbox. Yep, the
winter that most of us have suffered through
is almost over.
This year has been an even better one for
indoor electric-powered models. I just got my
hands on an Align T-Rex 250SE. Jeff Green
at HeliWholesaler sent me one to try.
After the machine was assembled, I
discovered what all the hype over this little
helicopter was about. Keep reading; I will
write more about the 250.
It is prudent to take time right now to make
sure your outdoor nitro-powered models are
ready for the upcoming season.
Many nitro-flying pilots have only a
background in electric flight. They may not be
aware of some important things to look for
when storing nitro helicopters during the
winter. Nitros have additional issues of
concern when you revive them for their spring
flights.
Following are some things you should
check before you hit the flying fields.
1. Fuel lines can become damaged and
crack during inactive periods. It is smart to
replace the fuel line each season.
2. Take apart and inspect your fuel filter
for debris that may have accumulated during
the previous flying season. If you use muffler
pressure to the tank and have a fuel magnet
pickup, this is especially important.
3. Remove the muffler and inspect the
cylinder, piston/ring, and liner for carbon
buildup, scratches, or other damage. If
damage is present, install a new ring and liner
before starting the engine.
4. The bearings inside the engine usually
become worn during the season and tend to
March 2010 99
Andy Panoncillo’s helicopter performance thrilled the audience at the Vincennes University
RC Mini Air Races. He’s shown with Vincennes Marketing Director Brittany Baxter.
The new 250SE T-Rex comes with a
beautifully painted and finished canopy
that will attract attention.
8. I change my receiver batteries every
year, because batteries lose performance in
time. You may be able to get a few years on a
pack, but with all the vibrations involved with
our machines, it makes sense to start every
season with a fresh pack.
9. Check the condition of dampers in the
rotor head. These rubbery parts keep the rotor
disk stable and in track. In the worst case,
with worn dampers you may have a midair
tailboom strike that can destroy your entire
helicopter in a split second. Ask me how I
know that. Ha! Ha!
10. Pull the tailboom off of your helicopter
and do a critical inspection of the torquetube/
belt-drive system. There is much stress
on this area of the model, and you can often
find cracks, tears, or other areas of wear that
can be hidden inside the tailboom.
11. Check all gears for mesh and broken
teeth.
12. Inspect all of the frame members and
twist things slightly to see if you find cracks
anywhere. Fatigue cracks can show up in the
frame anytime. These can cause radio
interference and wire chafing if not identified.
Some pilots don’t take helicopter
maintenance seriously. These are usually the
people you see having unexplained crashes
and problems at the field.
We invest a lot of time, money, and effort
in our beloved hobby, so please don’t be lazy
about servicing your machines. Keep them in
top flying form for your own sake and the
safety of everyone.
As I write this, there is still a lot of indoor
flying activity occurring. Let’s continue the
discussion about the little 200-size
helicopters.
The 200 class of micro helicopters is
heating up. Several models can 3-D the same
as their bigger 450-size brothers. The parts of
the 200-size helicopters are amazingly small,
but modern machining tolerances and
manufacturing techniques allow them to fit
precisely, which makes the models fly better
and last longer.
hold raw fuel that can gum up during the
winter. It never hurts to replace them. An
engine with new bearings runs much
smoother, with more power.
5. Change the glow plug and start the new
season with a clean one.
6. Check all the ball links on the model for
fit. Some will be too loose and some may
even be too tight. If you can easily pull a link
off the ball with your fingers, chances are that
it is too loose.
Ball links wear rapidly on 3-D machines.
The tail-rotor ball link is notorious for
becoming too loose and surprising pilots
when tail control is lost during flight.
Sometimes loose links on the swashplate will
pop off during hard 3-D maneuvers. That is
never pretty.
7. Look closely at all the wiring that runs
to every device on your helicopter. Pay
special attention to areas where wires go
around edges of the framework.
It is common for wires to chafe against the
frame edges. You don’t often see the hidden
area of chafing until the helicopter starts to
glitch or worse.
03sig4.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 1/25/10 12:29 PM Page 99
The T-Rex 250 I received is the SE
version. It came with everything needed to fly
except receiver and battery.
For testing, I installed an Align 3S 850
mAh pack. I had to make two new canopy
holes to accommodate the large battery I
installed. I thank Andy Panoncillo, Ben
Parrott, and Jason Russell for their expert help
in getting the model set up properly.
The included heading-hold gyro has a
single button that you push to set the
parameters. When the 250SE was spooled up
for the first time, it had a tail-wag issue. There
are two sets of tail rotor blades included with
the kit, and the problem went away when the
long ones were replaced with the short ones.
Normally I don’t get too crazy when flying
a new helicopter, but this 250 felt so good that
I had to flip it over into an inverted hover on
its first flight. We were flying in a tiny space
where the model’s diminutive size helped with
the comfort level.
Surprisingly, the micro T-Rex can gain
speed fast, enabling it to fly over as large an
area as a 450. It can be maneuvered more
tightly as well.
Pirouetting flips or Tic-Tocs can be
performed in confined spaces. Basically any
3-D flight with the 250SE can be done in
roughly half the area in which a 450 can do it.
That makes it nice for pilots who have small
indoor venues in which to fly.
The T-Rex’s disk loading is higher, so
some maneuvers are not as crisp as you might
be used to when flying a larger helicopter. The
vertical performance and thrust produced is
actually shocking. When I pulled the
helicopter up into a vertical position and
jammed in some collective for a long
Rainbow, I think a few pilots at the venue
were surprised by its capabilities.
The tail control felt good; however, you
can overdrive the tail-holding capabilities by
throwing too much collective pitch at it.
Because of the higher disk loading, the tail has
to work much harder than on larger models.
This does not cause a problem; it is just
something you have to get used to when
transitioning to a smaller-framed helicopter.
If you have thought of trying a micro-size
machine, I highly recommend the T-Rex
250SE. It may be tiny, but it’s huge on 3-D
capability.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn how
good the model had become. It is astounding
how far the micro electric side of our hobby
has come. Thanks go to Jason Krause for
designing such a fine machine.
That will be all for this month. I hope you are
getting some useful information here each
time. It has been a couple of years since I took
on this column-writing job and I still get
excited about doing it.
Thanks for checking in, and I will be back
here next month.