Update: This is almost as fun to fix as it is to fly. Determined not to wait for parts, I worked on 'rerounding' the damaged spindle with tools and 4/0 steel wool until I was able to get the bearings on it with a littl light tapping action. I know, I need to be careful not to damage the bearings as they apparently have to be purchased as part of a whole darn set, which of course is more $ than the average part. I don't think I hurt it any, but it looks like it did take care of [most] of the head wobble I was experiencing. Cool. Time for some power tests. I wanted to power her up mainly to see if the wobble was reduced or gone altogether, and to see if the battery/power was any better. Things ran more smoothly for sure, but I still couldn't get enough lift to get off the ground; better though. I decided I'd kill two (or more) birds with one stone, so I kept it running to run the battery down more to see if I could get a better charge afterward, and also to see if I could get the POTs back to factory. I think I accomplished both. The power drop off is still there, but it took more stick and this time I noticed a pattern. The dropoff seems to be caused when the tail rotor would kick in. If I used full left stick I could get almost to full throttle without dropoff. So I kept adjusting the TR POT until I think it's the way it was from factory. Come to find out, if CCW increases trim, it appears from the factory they had gyro gain almost topped out, i.e. top was at about 10:00 and they had it set to about 12:30. But TR trim appears to be set at about 01:35, or about half trim relative to its 10:00 top end.
I just kept running it and watching and a few times it did actually start to get light again, but not enough to lift off so I'm thinking the power issue is indeed the battery. I'd run it for awhile and try to increase power but eventually it would just drop out and I'd have to dead stick it for a few seconds to get it running again. Once I got it so that there was barely enough battery to spin it up I went and stood directly over it, and at low speed, looking straight down at the head button, I was able to detect a slight wobble. I'm not sure if that was just low head speed or if I indeed was seeing the effect of a slightly bent main shaft. So as not to take any chances, I decided to add that to the parts list to order. As a sidenote, I also noticed during this test that my tail boom was ever so slightly off center, starting right where it attaches to the main chassis. That was an easy tweak to get that straight again. I don't know if all of this was the result of my last hit (slid across the floor and hit the garage door, nicely embedding the main rotor in the styrofoam door insulation), or if it's cumulative damage from the three light crashes that I've had. The first two just seemingly dinged the blade tips but the door hit was the hit that really seems to have done the most noticeable damage.
You'll get a kick outta this...one of my crashes was totally deserved and wildly freaky...don't try this at home boys and girls. I got fed up one night early on with the fact that I couldn't get the darned thing to make up its mind what direction it wanted to go in my circle, so I said, "Gee, let's see what happens if I throw all of these REVO switches on the transmitter!" So I did, then gave it a little throttle. Ever seen a contortionist heli?! I have. It was one of those NOOOOO NOOO moments. But I was really surprised at how little damage was actually done. It flipped over wildly and ended up with both blade trailing edges pointing in the same direction, but I don;tthink it ever got the blades going enough to do any real damage. I had to move things back into place, but ina few minutes I was back to hover practice. I laughed it off but won;t ever try it again; lesson learned. Of course since then I've learned what exactly those REVO switches are for.
Anyway, back to the battery. It's still charging after about 75 minutes, so perhaps I'll get a good charge this time and be able to get more power...I'll let you know.
Happy Hoverin'