Propel "SPEED STAR" Helicopter

[zathros]

My local Radio Shack is going out of business and I picked up, for $32 bucks, what I consider my first "real" R/C helicopter.

You really have to read the instructions on this. There is an outside and inside model. Everything in the outside mode happens real fast It is amazing how fast this copter goes.

In the t becomes manageable, but requires 100% attention. This is the best copter I have purchased out of the 6 or 7 I have purchased through the years.

This is a single rotary wing helicopter, with a proper vertically placed tail rotor. The trim controls work excellently, it flies like a real copter. It does not have collective, which means the throttle power controls the up and down axis, but it's a handful the way it is, and taking high speed banked turns is fun, but stressful as all heck.

Here's the weird thing, you join the forum, (http://flightclub.propelrc.com/index.cfm ) and for 1 year all the parts are free, you only paid shipping. I thought, "Yeah, and $20 dollar shipping charges'. Nope, the whole main spindle assembly is only $8.00 dollars. That was the single most expensive part. plan to order all the parts that look like they would be hard to recreate, and with the other copters have, I believe I can convert them to this same style of helicopter. I will probably order double of everything. Apparently some of the blades I have are the exact same, so I am set on blades. I believe I can use some of these parts to make an Ekranoplan type W.I.G (wing in ground effect) craft. I have an aluminum squash plate on another copter that will fit this, and that will make this copter really super smooth. The remote control unit even has an LCD display, which shows how much you have trimmed it out, and much more. When I am done with this, it will look like a Bell Cobra attack copter, circa Vietnam. I will put proper blades on the control bar.

Anyway, here's some pics of the bird.

 

[blake7]

That looks like a very nice copter! Hope it flies perfect for you. I have not tried a single blade copter. I have been trying to fly co-axle blade versions myself. I heard they have a more stable flight, but they have problems outside with a little breeze. I have three sizes. Small one about four inches long, but flies great. Medium about 14 inches that I flew outside, which had the problem with wind. It has a fan on each side for fast side to side action. The last one is about 26 inches and has action figures. One is the pilot and the other sits on the passenger side with a m-16 rifle. I have not tried it yet due to bad weather. Good luck, and have fun zathros!

 

[blake7]

I just took some pictures of them so you could see what they look like. I have the most fun with the littlest one because I can fly it indoors. Again I hope you have a lot of fun with your copter!

 

[zathros]

You need one of those super still days, and a big wide open field, if you plant to get up to speed. The single rotor is a bit harder to fly, but probably only 10% harder, and that's only at first. It's the ones that also have a collective control that get interesting. there you set the throttle speed, and change the pitch to climb, and the cyclic to steer. This gives you and incredibly controllable helicopter though, and they can auto rotate from high altitude with no throttle, and land safely. They're expensive though. On one of my co-axials, I added the aluminum optional squash plate, and that made the copter so stable, as the squash bar is so rigid, the controls input it less, so it doesn't get out of shape. I am added crazy glue, the gel kind, behind the square battery plastic box, as they are not secured well, and I fried the board out of one of my copters because the header pin on that battery shorted on the inside, and most of these circuit boards aren't "diode" protected. The new circuit board was $24 bucks, but came complete with the two cyclic motors attached, and I id not want to lose the copter. I have taken the body off and made a bubble windshield. It kind of looks like the "M.A.S.H. copter. It took of a bit of weight, but I ant to put a Lego dude (maybe I'll make a paper one!!). I spent about 5 minutes doing this, which is why it is so crude. I plan to make a nicer one. I made the copter fly better though, not sure why? Setting it up again, a new board, and new squaash plate took some time,, but I was really able to dial t in and it flies superb. You can set it to a hover and if no one blows on it, it will stay still till the battery runs down, and it just goes straight down.in there, and run two batteries in parallel, so we'll see how I blow up this one! The blue piece is the new squash plate. This would fit on my single rotor. All these copters are coming from one company in China, and that's fine by me, because if spares are available cheap, and you can upgrade them, it makes them fun, as you can tinker with them.

 

[blake7]

She does look like a MASH copter or maybe a LAMA copter (see pic). Did you have any problems with weight distribution? If I tried to modify one I would worry about knocking it out of balance. You know a lot about a lot of things, which I believe is great because people should never stop learning something new. I heard that if I put a bigger tail rotor motor and blade on my outside copters that it will change its angle of attack to where I can fight some of the wind. I could put a bigger blade on the tail, but it would burn up the tail rotor motor. Are you going to post pics of the copter after you modify it to look like a Bell Cobra copter?

 

[zathros]

Here's the deal, if you make the blades, larger, you will burn up more current because the motor will have to work harder to make up for the extra drag. A bigger tail rotor is the same thing, except that motor is easier to change, you just have to make sure you have clearance. Also, you will have to make sure than the angle of the blades makes the copter to still be able to be trimmed in the yaw axis. This could be done by heating and bending them. One alternative might be adding another tail rotor or the same one that's out there. It will definitely be pushing more air.

As a helicopter starts to go forward, the center of lift moves outward and in front (if the blades are rotating clockwise, to the left, and forward. As the Helo picks up speed, the whole rotary wing assembly starts to behave like a disc, and it balances out. The retreating blade, in relation to the oncoming wind, loses lift, and this is what the tail rotor counters. Otherwise, the Helo would corkscrew.

Center of lift is easy, it is the center of the main rotor. Therefore, make sure, if you gently pick up by the balance bar, anything you add never causes the Helo to tip backwards.

If you ever get anything with blister pack, study it closely, there are many parts that can be used for cockpit glass., these also add structural rigidity, and you can cut the clear strips long, to line up with the mounting pins, and hand the light paper off of the plastic.

Anything don will affect something else. Bigger blades, more amperage. You could have fun experimenting with end tips, turned down, taped on. Make sure everything is exactly the same. The blade ends sometimes lose air at the ends, and it slips over the top, losing lift on the whole system. Also, I have done this many times, add small airfoils on to the flybar ends. They must be light weight, and be pointing straight, not up or down. Doing this really adds a lot of stabilization to the copter. It prevents the blades from going all over the place. It could help in windier conditions. Inside, you might want the speedier control. I have been experiencing with these, and they have their place. I need to lay a flybar down on something hot, to make sure both sides are flat, and perpendicular to the rotor shaft., and bend some flats, that would make locating the airfoils more consistent.

I worked at Sikorsky for 10 years, and I picked up a lot of knowledge about these aircraft.

 

[blake7]

WOW, its no wonder you know so much about helicopters! You have opened my eyes on things I can try out. I guess you can tell by my selection of copters that I am still new to flying helicopters, which is why I went with the co-axle blades. You should have seen the very first helicopter I bought five years ago. That one almost turned me away from trying helicopters. It was only $20 and about 3ft long, so I got ripped off. It flew like a flying saucer (spinning). It had a fixed main rotor blade on a shaft that went strait to the electric motor,and no amount of adjustment on the tail rotor corrected it because the main blade didn't tilt forward, back or side to side, or anything. It just looked good so the company could sell it. Still have it. Thought I could use it someday for the body for another copter of the same size. Maybe I could use some of the parts as well.

 

[zathros]

If you get good enough, you can use the controls of another copter, and fabricated the parts you need, and possibly convert it. It will be a one off. (I have one of those too, it was gifted to me). I started it up, it went straight up in an arc, and just bringing it it back down in one piece was pure luck. I never flew it again.