Gary Morris

March 14th, 2007

I just recently completed building the new updated for 2007 Eco 8 Royal from Ikarus. This is my 4th Ikarus helicopter, the other three being a Piccolo Fun, (2 of them), a Piccolo Pro (1) and now the Eco 8 Royal. The build went fairly well but there were a few snags I should mention. First off the parts bags should be labeled and organized better. A new builder would probably be overwhelmed trying to figure out which bolt, nut or screw goes where even though they do show pictures of the various parts they are not shown to scale. The pictures of the various linkage rods are the same way, they give a measurement but they are not to scale. If they were to scale it would be easy to just place the linkage rods over the plans to get the correct length, how simple is that? There were two parts which did not have holes drilled in them where there should have been holes, the tail boom was missing a hole for a screw to hold the tail rotor assembly on and there were no holes in the horizontal wing on top of the boom. This is minor but it still should have been done. The instructions should be better, there were several misspelled words and a few areas where more details need to be addressed. The quality of the parts is fair but not on par with other E-helicopter makers, i.e., Align. There is no auto rotation gear included in the kit, you have to buy that extra and that just shouldn't be the case in 2007, shame on Ikarus for not including those in the kit!! You also have to purchase a blade holder if you want to fold the blades back for storage. The included stick-on decals are very attractive however they are a pain to get on without wrinkles and bubbles. I could have used water and a drop of soap but I wanted to assemble this bird as if I had never build one before because there will be lots of new fliers buying this helicopter. The layout of the electronics could probably be improved, i.e, the location for the receiver, gyro and speed controller. I had to add a 6" extension to get the speed controller lead to reach the receiver back on the tail boom. There really isn't enough space to mount the receiver and gyro on the platform on the front of the boom. A simple solution would have been to make the platform larger or place a flat on the bottom so the gyro could be placed on it upside down. The new frame is very rigid once it's assembled. It comes it two half's and locks together using 12 or so steel Allen socket headed screws. The landing gear interlock into the frame when the two half's are joined and hold the landing gear well. This design for the gear is good and bad, good in that it's simple and fairly strong, bad in that it may be very difficult to ever change the landing gear to another type since the stock gear has plastic keys that fit into the frame.

Flying---So far I've only had time to do a test hover to adjust tracking and check trims, that went well with just a little tracking adjustment needed. I am able to obtain +9-9 pitch using the recommended settings. You could obtain more by using slightly longer arms on the servos. Finally what do I think? I think Ikarus needs to include the auto-rotation hub and bearing, blade holders, hardened steel main shaft and tail shaft and get there parts pricing more in line with other manufacturers. Time will tell whether this will be a good flier or not, the original Eco 8 required extensive and expensive upgrades to fly well, I don't know about the new Eco 8 Royal yet it's too early to pass judgement. In my opinion it's a real shame because this truly is a beautiful helicopter, had Ikarus spent another few dollars on the auto-rotation gear, hardened steel main and tail blade shafts and a blade holder they would be far better off.

Here are the specs on it;

AXI Brushless 28/20/8 Motor 1500 RPM PV
19 Tooth 5mm pinion
Jeti Spin 44
Hitec HS-225 BB servos including tail
Art-Tech HH Gyro
Battery PolyQuest 20C 4350 3-Cell Lipoly
Hitec Electron 6 receiver

Gary Morris

Gary Morris

Test Flight Completed, She Passes!

Today I took the Eco 8 Royal out for test flights, I fly out of a local soccer field behind a school. The winds were gusting from the west about 10-15 mph. I first did a range check and I was able to get 50 paces away before I started to loose radio contact. (Note: this was with the antenna collapsed and not extended) I then spooled up in normal mode and climbed to around 50 feet to do a test hover. I switched to idle up and flew some circuits around the field to get a feel for the controls. The Eco 8 Royal is very agile for it's size, it does get pushed around a bit by the wind but that is due to it's very light weight. I then did some full throttle climb outs, it has good power and climbs well on the recommended motor and battery. I then did some side in hovers with a direct cross wind to see how the gyro held. I did notice some tail wag and attempted to correct it but adjusting the gain. This did not help, it appears the stock steel push rod binds inside of the push rod holders. I am going to correct this by switching to a carbon fiber rod, a tail servo holder and ball links on the rear tail control arm instead of a clevis. This should eliminate all of the binding.
The suggested settings as far as pitch seem to work well, since the Royal isn't designed to be a 3D ship it does fly well as a sports flier and it will instill confidence in even a new flier since it goes where you tell it and it handles very well. On a rating of A-F I'd have to give it a B+. With a few corrections, i.e, auto-rotation bearing, hardened main and tail shafts, larger main shaft, enclosed swash bearings and blade holders for securing the blades during transit, I'd then rate it and A.
The Royal is a very attractive helicopter with some nice engineering improvements, the frame is totally new and much stiffer, the 120 degree swash is new, the battery compartment is excellent and has lots of room to adjust the CG. The landing gear are totally new and improved. The tail boom has been updated and appears much more modern. The tail boom supports are now carbon fiber and they do a good job of holding the boom. For a suggested price of $199.00 I would say that I would purchase the Royal if I wanted to use it for Sports flying.

Gary Morris

Trex SE V2, ESky 550 ESmart, Eco 8 Royal, Dragnous II, Falcon 3D, SE, Corona 120

Missileman

Thanks for the review.
I have the original ECO 8 with, of course, extensive upgrades.
It is interesting to see an upgraded model that doesn't require as much upgrading to make it a good flier. I like the looks of the canopy vs the original egg shell one. What is it made of?
I do really like my ECO 8 and would seriously consider buying the Royal. (wonder how much of the bling on my original will fit on the Royal?)

Gary Morris

All your bling will work with the exception of the frame and frame upgrades, tail blades and main blades. Everything else is supost to work. The canopy appears to be made of a a fairly light plastic.

Gary

Gary Morris

Either there isn't much interest in the Royal or I did a very good job of answering every ones questions before they even asked them.

Gary

credence

My Feedback: (2)

Gary, nice post.

I was contemplating the royal a while back when ikarus first announced it, but honestly, with all the competition out there now, the eco-8 is just an out-dated machine (indeed, it has been for a few years now). Even with the new frame and all, I can't think of a good reason to buy one over say a t-rex 600, swift 16 or even the new e-raptors.

I suppose the best thing it's got going for it is that it's a very light machine and can be flown on rather inexpensive power setups for it's relative size. Speaking of it's size, it's kind of in a size class all it's own, it's not really a micro, but it's not quite a .30 either. That was one of the things I loved most about it .

I loved my eco-8 when I had it, but unless ikarus made some big improvements to the rotorhead (which as far as I can tell they haven't) then the machine is only sub-par compared to some of the other options available now.

But, as you said, the kit is cheap(ish) for an electric of it's size, the power requirements aren't too steep, and it's a nice machine for someone into simple sport flying.

Gary Morris

I agree, it's unfortunate that Ikarus hasn't kept up with the times, but I have to say it is a very attractive helicopter that one can get flying on a reduced budget. For about half the price of a Trex 600 you can be in the air, granted this is no speed demon but it flies very nicely and it grows on you after awhile. It reminds me of my old Corona in that it's light, handles well in confined space and looks much larger than the 400 size motor class minis out there.

Gary Morris

credence

My Feedback: (2)

Gotta agree on the looks. I love the new canopy and body, they look super sleek.

One of these days I might put my eco-8 back into the air. Would be nice if ikarus decided to start selling a conversion kit for the eco-8 to eco-8 royal.

Gary Morris

Today at lunch I stopped by Hobby Lobby and picked up some carbon fiber symmetrical blades to try out, baring high winds, I'll give it a test after work.

Gary Morris

Gary Morris

Since my last post I've had a problem with tracking which eventually cause a near fatal crash. It turned out to be a gritty bearing in the washout arms. I replaced the bearing and installed FG blades and re-tracked them. It now flies silky smooth and maintains tracking. The Eco 8 Royal once trimmed and setup correctly flies very smoothly and precisely. Ikarus needs to think about including the auto bearing, hardened main shafts and FG blades as part of the initial kit. I know it would increase the price but it would be a far better helicopter if these came as standard equipment instead of upgrades.

Gary Morris

Missileman

The auto bearing at least. The ECO 8 is not leaps and bounds cheaper than other electrics and for the most part they include the auto bearing as standard equipment.

Gary Morris

It appears there is a flaw in the canopy holding design which can cause the canopy to come off in flight. The solution I made was to use some old canopy hold posts from a crashed Eolo Pro. I simply snipped the posts off and using shoe Goop I glued the posts to the existing ones except I glued them on the front end of the posts. The reason for this was so that when attaching the canopy with the stock setup you have to bend the post towards the front to engage the grommets. Now since the posts are positioned towards the front and they now have a ball on the end of the post it holds the canopy on very securely. Anyone who should purchase the Eco 8 Royal kit should make this modification to prevent the possible loss of the canopy and resultant damage to the rotor blades should the canopy strike them. The fix cost me nothing but maybe 15 minutes of work so it's very easy to do.

Gary Morris

Gary Morris

After countless hours of trying to keep my Royal in track and with the help of several folks on another board the Royal is now a great flier. As it turns out you have to turn the blade grips around from there suggested position in the manual. Ikarus has now issued a supplement to there manual and it can be found here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...hmentid=1345133

Hope this helps out others that have been struggling with blade tracking problems!

Gary Morris

skypup50

Gary

I ordered yesterday and was told today by Ikarus that thetracking has been resolved in the latest kits with newly designed blades and something about a pulley plate? Do you know anything about this? Thanks.