DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

I was hoping for the gears to have arrived this weekend but no. So I went ahead and did some assembly on my heli, some touch-up repairs on my son's heli, and did the frame mod to both so a larger battery can be put under the canopy. I also painted my FG canopy that I got from Heliproz.
sam

augerin2

Nice !!

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

The tail drive gears arrived today. I measured them and the Align part is slightly smaller in diameter than the HK part. When I installed the tail assembly there was not much mesh. I elongated the five holes per side (by a bit too much of course) and then reassembled. I pushed the tail into the fuse and wiggled it until I had a good mesh. (before this I could turn the tail rotor by hand and the gear would slip against the autorotation gear). I started the motor for the first time and all seems good now. I am just waiting for a landing skid and I should be able to try mine out. My son's is all ready to go.
I have given up on HK customer support, but then again I did not plan on it. The prices are so good I just figure that they're almost disposable.
Sam

augerin2

Hope you get your Heli in the air soon, as far as Hobby king goes that's why I stay with Align kits. I hate having to "fix" new things [:-]

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

I agree with you about the Align stuff. It's something I aspire to!
Sam

soneebee

the new align helis are far low quality than the old ones... they new ones keep on failing.... It might be align is getting too loose on quality control

gi1mo2

Well, I just finished my HK500GT build this evening, and took it up for it's first hover to make the final adjustments. It's big and heavy. Quite massive as compared to the 450. I have attached some pictures. I will have videos later when it's not dark outside :-)

Gilles

soneebee

the plastic canopy on that 500 is very brittle... its best that you get a fiber glass one..

gi1mo2

Thanks, and yes, I already have a spare FB canopy. One thing I for to get as spare is a main gear. I know i went through a few while learning with the 450. But, I hope the heli will not have some of the mechanical problems that have been reported (e.g. Tail separation...) and won't need it for a while. I have a few main shaft, feathering shafts, CF blades, etc.

gi1mo2

One more picture of my HK500GT. I read somewhere that the screws were soft, and I have proof. The screw to the tail sheered off the shaft just as I was 1 foot off the ground. Came down hard enough to break the landing gear, but no other damage than to the tail and belt. I have ordered an all metal replacement ($30).

Gilles

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

More setbacks.... I was spinning up my son's heli and one tail blade holder broke off. It could have been a loose screw but I did locktite every one. Also, his tail shaft is bent. I checked mine and it too is bent. I've ordered new tail shafts, new tail parts, and more tail drive gears. In order to try to solve the mesh problem between the autorotation tail drive gear and the tail belt drive gear, I have ordered some Align autorotation gears, which are supposed to be slightly larger than the HK gears, and some more of the HK tail drive gears, which are slightly larger than the Align gears. Hopefully between the two they will mesh. I've also ordered some longer vertical fins, which are supposed to help keep the tail rotor clear of the grass.
I'm also dealing with another problem with HK - I placed an order and although my paypal shows the funds went through the same day, HK shows the order pending and unpaid five days later. And I paid slightly more for the faster shipping. What a pain in the you know what.
When the parts arrive I am going to take every screw off the tail and rebuild from scratch.

gi1mo2

I have had a similar problem with HK about Pending order. I go online chat with them, give them the order number and they correct it immediately. I do it after 9pm my time, the time they are starting their day :-)

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

I'll give that a try. So far the Paypal email for them bounced, they have not answered the customer service emails I sent them, and the phone support line rang for a few minutes, treated me to some scratchy Asian music, and then hung up on me. I've tried chat, but haven't hit them at the right time I guess. I'll give it a try tonight.
Thanks
Sam

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

Thanks for the tip about online chat! I got ahold of them last night and the order has been fixed. I even placed another order. I'm going to try the 1600 KV motor and I also ordered some spare fuse sides so that if the combination of the Align autorotation gear and the HK tail drive gear work, I won't have to have the "tail case mod" any more. I can also do a better job of making the cut in the front to allow a bigger battery under the canopy if the sides are by themselves. The Algin autorotation gears arrived yesterday and they are about 7/1000's bigger than the HK, and much meatier.
Sam

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

Got some parts today and was able to test the mesh between the Align autorotation gear and the HK tail drive gear. When I slide the tail case forward to the point where the mesh is full but not binding the original holes line up. So I'll be putting the new sides on and using the stock holes to mount the tail case. Lesson learned. I'm hoping that the parts will arrive this weekend but realistically they'll get here early next week.

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

I spent the weekend getting both our helis set up and tried running them in the back yard, just to check for smoothness. My son's heli seems ready to go. On startup mine sometimes has a noise that makes me think the mesh between the motor and the main gear is not quite set correctly but I checked it and it seems okay. I ran mine without blades inside and it seems like the motor occasionally surges, especilally at low throttle settings. I've read that others have had some erratic operation of the Typhoon motors. The new 1600 KV motors should be here today or tomorrow and I"ll be installing them and resetting the throttle curves. I re-checked the mesh between tail drive and autorotation gears and once set, I used epoxy to fill the area around the holes where the tabs lock it in position, so this should set the tail case just right. The new longer vertical fins should also be here any day. Our instructor is planning on flying next weekend so we should have both helis in the air then, if I can just resist the urge to play too much with them before that.....

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

Got the longer vertical fins on today. I had added a small block of PC board (basically G-10 with copper coating) between the top of the rear landing gear mount and the fuse, to raise the attitude of the heli, bringing the tail a bit higher. Now with the longer vertical fin, it just rests on the ground when the heil is on a flat surface. I think that's perfect - keeping the blades almost an inch away from the ground. The Typhoon motor on my heli seemed erratic, especially at lower RPM settings, which I'm wondering might be a result of having to dial down the throttle curve so much in order to get the headspeed down. Our friend and mentor Jessie uses an Iphone app to measure headspeed. At any rate, the new 1600 KV motors should be here today and so I should be able to install them and use a new, more standard, throttle curve. Getting close!
Sam

soneebee

that heli seem to show a lot of problems.. less flight time more bench time...

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

To be fair, some of the problems are of my own making, and due to some impatience. There are some definite issues, but if you know about them in advance and anticipate them, I think that for the price of the heli and some replacement parts it is still a bargain. I won't know the potential of the helicopter for a while, but I think it will be a good platform to learn on, and a good step up from a coaxial.

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

The HK 1600 KV motors arrived today. Got them installed in both heli's, and adjusted the throttle curve to the starting point suggested by our instructor. Spun them both up in the yard and both nice and smooth starts, no erratice behavior. I think we're ready to fly this weekend.

fusebmx13

I don't see why everyone bashes these things. On every forum I go on, everyone is saying that align is so much better. That's not true. I have an align 250 and 450 v2 along with a exi 450 (same as the v2) and a 500cmt. To me, the quality of the align aluminum is almost worse than that of the exi or cmt.

And as far as everyone's problems, most of them are user error. I took every part of mine apart and locked every screw, made sure everything was solid. The only align parts i put on mine was a tail shaft (don't trust the stock one. 3 of my friends have bent their's on the first spool up) and a flybar (just because it's longer and i wanted a faster heli). Other than that, I have the hk aluminum tailboom mount and bottom plate on it, tru blood dampeners, kbdd paddles and tail blades, and a fusuno canopy. Mine flies great, no issues here. I have another one for spare parts too .

Jagzilla

I have one of these cmt's, and a friend bought one as well. The belt is definitely too tight as it comes from the factory. My friend and I both made the same mistake of installing it as it comes, and we both fried the bearings in the tail almost immediately. I then shortened the boom on mine.I repaired the heli with new bearings and a new belt. Got the heli to fly and on it`s third flight, the gear that runs the belt to the tail sheered all its teeth off. Heli went in, and was completely totalled. My friend was flying his, and guess what, the same gear stripped and his heli went in. I don`t know whether we weakened the gear when we innitially built the heli with the tight belt, but it does sound like others are having the same problem with the gear stripping. Anyway just wanted to warn anyone about this issue. Don`t build it with a tight belt!
Now I just orded the cmt with the torque tube. You can bet I`ll be checking all the loctite. You can belt I`ll be looking very closely at the gears that run in the TT, and I`ll replace them with Align stuff if I`m not confident in them.
From what I saw with my first cmt, I was really happy with the quality overall, and I believe the heli can be a budget alternative to an Align 500. Just needs a bit of attention and perhaps a few minor parts swaps to get it sorted.
Jag

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

First flight! My friend and heli-mentor took it for its first hover (good thing because I had the tail servo reversed - duh). I attempted myfirst hovers with it, went through about three battery packs. Before this all I've flown (heli's that is) is my son's Blade Coax. This is a whole different animal, but easier than the simulator! Thank goodness for the training gear he suggested I put on before I tried hovering! I did ok (IMHO) and look forward to getting a lot of practice. I told my friend I felt like I'd been handed the keys to the car for the first time! (and no it was not a model T). I kept the heli pretty close to the ground and still some of my "landings" were less that artful. The verdict on those new longer vertical fins is in - Awesome! I acutally was able to bring the heli home with no repairs or adjustments to be made. Just gotta fly! By next week my son and I should have half a dozen battery packs to share so I'm hoping we'll be off our training gear in a week or so.
Boy am I glad I overcame the desire to try flying it by myself!
Sam

gi1mo2

Excellent. My new metal tail gear for the HK500GT arrived and I will pick it up from the post office next Friday. If you have the plastic tail gear, you might want to take the blade holders apart, and locktite the screws to the shaft. Replace with stronger ones if you can.

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

I discovered that the training gear make the heli pretty susceptible to wind. Fortunately the training gear prevented any damage. I can hardly wait to get good enough to ditch it. Fortunately I made mine from some Dave Brown fiberglass pushrods and stryro balls covered in duct tape, so when I'm done I'll chuck the styro and still have the push rods for my planks.
Sam