MAXXED
09-22-2006, 06:59 AM
My Bell-Hiller upgrade showed up a few days ago, while in the process of completely rebuilding my tail boom assembly, but I couldn't resist installing it at the same time.
I followed the excellent installation instructions on Bladecprepair.com:
http://bladecprepair.com/man_bh_upgrade.html
Everything went together without any problems.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b239/airshop/Bell-Hillerupgradecloseup.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b239/airshop/Bell-Hillerupgrade.jpg
Make sure you also follow Bladecprepair's setup for the main rotor blades and flybar paddles:
http://bladecprepair.com/man_mr_setup_and_adjustment#zero
Before I go into my impressions of the upgrade, here's my current setup, which may differ significantly from others, and may be the reason for my experiences:
E-flite 4100 kv Brushless Main Motor
Thunderbird 18 ESC
Flat Bottom Plasti-Blades
CNC Swashplate
Dual Tail motors
3 Cell 1350 li-pos
First thing I noticed immediately was a tremendous increase in lift! :shock:
Just touching the throttle almost sent the Blade into my shop's roof!
Second thing I noticed is the pitch settings are very mild when taking off and hovering, resulting in a much higher main rotor blade speed.
I haven't tached it yet, but I'll post the rpm's when I get a chance to do it during the day.
I experimented by adding more pitch and slowing down the blade speed, but the Bell-Hiller head did not like it at all.
The Blade became unstable and hard to control.
This new setup likes higher blade rpm's to perform efficiently.
For those who want cyclic AUTHORITY, it's like a stock Blade CP on steroids. To say it has muscular command over the cyclic is an understatement.
It is much more sensitive to stick movements, but after a few minutes, you won't go back to the stock Blade CP rotor head.
Doing some hovering and testing outside made me realize that the extra muscle from the Bell-Hiller upgrade made the Blade much more wind resistant.
With the stock head, you're at the mercy of the slightest breeze as the cyclic controls would mush out and not give enough authority to react quickly enough.
The Bell-Hiller upgrade also made me realize how much pitch I had to give the stock rotor head setup just to get lift, resulting in much lower blade speeds.
The stock Blade head always had a mushy, slow response feel to it, but it's something you get used to.
I actually removed the flybar paddle weights in an effort to get faster cyclic response with the stock setup.
Using no weights on the flybar paddles with the upgrade made it almost uncontrollable, unless you have lightning fast responses.
I only installed one shim on each side of the blade grips, in front of the o-rings in the center hub.
I noticed there was a bit of endplay with the single shim on each side, but in a hover, the Bell-Hiller head had a slight bobbing action and vibration on the chassis, kind of like a bobble head doll.
After hovering it for awhile, the bobble head action went away. I'm assuming the o-rings loosened up a bit.
Putting two washers on each side would probably result in a more violent bobble head action.
The only thing I can think of that contributed to the major amount of lift with nearly zero pitch and the muscular cyclic controls is the new mechanical connection between the main rotor blades and flybar paddles.
I would recommend for those who are brand new heli pilots or learning to hover, stick with the stock Blade CP until you can hover.
This upgrade will overwhelm you.
For you hotdog 3D pilots, experimenting with high performance flybar paddles would allow you to do some amazingly insane things with this upgrade.
Sorry, I'm not nearly ready for that heart attack level yet. :lol:
I followed the excellent installation instructions on Bladecprepair.com:
http://bladecprepair.com/man_bh_upgrade.html
Everything went together without any problems.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b239/airshop/Bell-Hillerupgradecloseup.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b239/airshop/Bell-Hillerupgrade.jpg
Make sure you also follow Bladecprepair's setup for the main rotor blades and flybar paddles:
http://bladecprepair.com/man_mr_setup_and_adjustment#zero
Before I go into my impressions of the upgrade, here's my current setup, which may differ significantly from others, and may be the reason for my experiences:
E-flite 4100 kv Brushless Main Motor
Thunderbird 18 ESC
Flat Bottom Plasti-Blades
CNC Swashplate
Dual Tail motors
3 Cell 1350 li-pos
First thing I noticed immediately was a tremendous increase in lift! :shock:
Just touching the throttle almost sent the Blade into my shop's roof!
Second thing I noticed is the pitch settings are very mild when taking off and hovering, resulting in a much higher main rotor blade speed.
I haven't tached it yet, but I'll post the rpm's when I get a chance to do it during the day.
I experimented by adding more pitch and slowing down the blade speed, but the Bell-Hiller head did not like it at all.
The Blade became unstable and hard to control.
This new setup likes higher blade rpm's to perform efficiently.
For those who want cyclic AUTHORITY, it's like a stock Blade CP on steroids. To say it has muscular command over the cyclic is an understatement.
It is much more sensitive to stick movements, but after a few minutes, you won't go back to the stock Blade CP rotor head.
Doing some hovering and testing outside made me realize that the extra muscle from the Bell-Hiller upgrade made the Blade much more wind resistant.
With the stock head, you're at the mercy of the slightest breeze as the cyclic controls would mush out and not give enough authority to react quickly enough.
The Bell-Hiller upgrade also made me realize how much pitch I had to give the stock rotor head setup just to get lift, resulting in much lower blade speeds.
The stock Blade head always had a mushy, slow response feel to it, but it's something you get used to.
I actually removed the flybar paddle weights in an effort to get faster cyclic response with the stock setup.
Using no weights on the flybar paddles with the upgrade made it almost uncontrollable, unless you have lightning fast responses.
I only installed one shim on each side of the blade grips, in front of the o-rings in the center hub.
I noticed there was a bit of endplay with the single shim on each side, but in a hover, the Bell-Hiller head had a slight bobbing action and vibration on the chassis, kind of like a bobble head doll.
After hovering it for awhile, the bobble head action went away. I'm assuming the o-rings loosened up a bit.
Putting two washers on each side would probably result in a more violent bobble head action.
The only thing I can think of that contributed to the major amount of lift with nearly zero pitch and the muscular cyclic controls is the new mechanical connection between the main rotor blades and flybar paddles.
I would recommend for those who are brand new heli pilots or learning to hover, stick with the stock Blade CP until you can hover.
This upgrade will overwhelm you.
For you hotdog 3D pilots, experimenting with high performance flybar paddles would allow you to do some amazingly insane things with this upgrade.
Sorry, I'm not nearly ready for that heart attack level yet. :lol: