Blade tracking

[Jeff0r3]

OK. Quick question as to see if anyone has had this problem. I got some Carbon Fiber blades. Everything going good. Tracked the blades. Got em mebbe half turn out from being perfect. So I said I'll fly this tank out and then I'll make that adjustment prior to the next flight. So I flew, everything felt good, got it pretty linear on this setup. So I fly some inverted, some tumbles, some nice easy forward flight, I'm no pro at all so I didn't push it hard at all. Anyways I bring it tail in for a hover and go down for landing and notice that the blades are not tracking now. I mean I wasn't even paying attention to that, but it was so off, that it caught my attention. So I'm not experienced pilot or setup man, so I called a friend that was at field to come look at it to make sure what I was seeing was right. So, I put the heli down and waited for him to come take a look. Only when he got there, the blades were tracking right this time. I am positive that the blades were tracked before and after, but after a nice 12 minute flight, they were not tracking, and I'm sure of it. I'm attaching a picture of the heli head area to familiarize what I use. Also this is a pretty standard Raptor 30 V2.

Thanks for any advice and help....

Jeff

[chaos]

Maybe it's an illusion but the paddles don't seem to be alligned. I can't explain why resting on the ground would fix anything. But if it does this again check the flybar and see it the paddles are tracking. If they aren't parallel then one arm of the flybar will tend to ride higher than the other and that will make one blade pitch more than the other. The greater load on one blade will throw off the blade tracking.

That's all I can come up with but as I say, I don't know why resting on the ground would fix anything. Maybe a ghost lives in your heli.

If you run out of stuff to check, put the pitch guage on the paddles and check allignment with the swash and each other, and make sure the paddle is locked down tightly.

[Jeff0r3]

Its got me stumped as well.. I went through it last night and i have a little slop here and there, but can't figure what it is. I took the long arm off and the short arms. Friend told me the linkage could be slipping where the threads were showing alot. But I adjusted them and centered them and didn't find any play what-so-ever. So in a few hours I'm gonna pack up the planes and heli, and I'm gonna get at it again.

As far as the paddles go, I may have a problem there. My area of knowledge when it comes to that is even less than setting up the rest of the heli. HOWEVER, I'm learning...

Jeff

[hawkman]

Double check the feathering shaft too....remove a blade...place a socket on the nut and rotate the shaft....watch the other blade...if it moves up and down then the shaft is bent....if its a slight wobble you can live with it...but ideally its better to remove the shaft and straighten it out....you can run it in a lathe at a slow speed to see where its bent....a tweak here and there will get it running true.

Check the dampers too...if they are worn then you could get a tracking problem.....worn dampers can lead to vibration which could destroy your heli.

If the dampers are worn....either replace or pack a washer or two between the blade grip and rotor head....this will sqeeze the damper once you tighten the feathering shaft up.

To check for damper play......just get hold of a blade grip and force it up and down.....look for obvious movement between blade grips and rotor head center.

Rob

[Daz(DJLFlapper)]

I am with Rob, I bent a feathering shaft and it threw my tracking out when flying. when I put the blades in the holder the bar resumed its in track position. so it would appear in flight and vanish most other times.
You wont get caught by it again. Yep feathering shaft, go get it.

Role it on a mirror. even if it is very slight it will make the tracking show out at certain times.and in at others.

[Jeff0r3]

Well guys I got off the phone with a friend and he said that i balanced my blades in the wrong speed. I don't know if this makes any sense and it may be wrong (BTW what exactly are dampers, I will check the feathering shaft at the field today, but not sure exactly what dampers are. Sorry I'm still less than a month into this hobby ). See I was flying in normal when I balanced the blades. Then I put it in idleup 1 and flew for 10 mins then came in for landing and blades were out of tracking. Then I landed the helicopter put it in normal mode. Waited for friend to come over then took off and the blades were back tracking normal. Friend told me to track blades in what I fly the most in. So this would make it show when I saw it but disappear when friend came over to check it out. Let me know what you think about that, and also what exactly would cause the feathering shaft to bend all of a sudden?

Thanks alot guys for the help!

Jeff

[Jeff0r3]

Well fellas, you were right. It was the feathering shaft that was bent...I haven't crashed or anything, it was just bent. I did have had a slight hard landing. And I found out what dampers were while I changed out that shaft. If it weren't for you guys, I never would have brought up that as a problem and we never would have thought to look at it. So thankyou fellas, and I appreciate the great advice again from a GREAT FORUM...

My next issues will be when I convert this over to a 50...Thats going to be a project I start on Monday. Again fellas Thanks for the advice.

[chaos]

Hey Daz and hawkman... thanks for the info. I haven't had the problem that Jeff had, yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time. And thanks to Jeff for posting the outcome. I was wondering what kind of ghost was inhabiting his heli.