gear driven or belt driven tail rotor

[drewex]

can some one tell me the difference between gear or belt

[Aztek1701]

Hi,

A belt driven tail has a rubberised toothed belt that runs up the tailboom turning through 90 degrees as it does so. It loops round the tail output shaft sprocket and drives the tail.
A gear driven tail or torque drive generally has a crown gear at each end of a driveshaft that sits in the tailboom and is supported by at least one bearing. At the tail end the other crown gear turns the output through 90 degrees to run the tail output shaft.

In flight there is little to choose between the two.. A torque drive saps a little less power from the motor than a belt drive however its not as forgiving since if the tailblades touch anything it usually results in a broken gear somewhere in the system. Flightwise, it would take a real expert to notice a difference between the two but the torque drive is slightly more precise. It also make a lot more noise.

Hope this helps... Azzy

[drewex]

cool reply. Looks like im going to go with a belt driven since i am a beginner which i may possibly hit my tail here and there. ty

[BABY HUEY]

Azzys correct.
The belt drive is the simple and reliable method and the shaft drive is for ultimate performance.
If you have a boom strike with a belt most likley you just will need to replace the boom but a shaft drive will be destroyed. And they aren't cheap. This is something that I don't understand about the Helimax Kinetic 50. It's an entry model but they put a shaft drive tail on it. If you bend it you are going to spend $100 fixing a $200 Heli.