basmntdweller

My Feedback: (9)

I flew my Hawk Sunday for the first time. Everything went well. I was looking it over a bit after flying and I notice that the spindle shaft/bushings is real mushy compared to my other helis. Is this normal for the Hawk? Would firmer bushings be better for hard aerobatics?

On another front, I have gotten to liking the driven tail on my Caliber, Is it worth putting in the driven tail option or the slipper clutch in the Hawk?
Thanks,,,basmntdweller

dlink72

I had a hawk III and the head was the same way. I recently got the hawk sport and the first thing I did was check the head and bushings, and it's doing the same thing. I've compared it to other heli's at the field and they seem to be much stiffer, but to be honest it doesn't seem to be a problem. I also have the carbon tail drive and it is an improvement over the wire and tube drive. Hope you like this heli as much as I do.

concept1

My Feedback: (2)

IT'S HIGHLY RECOMENDED TO GET THE BEARING UPGRADE FOR THE HAWK, IT'S ABOUT $22 AND WELL WORTH IT. if you need more cyclic responce you can change the ball links around, on the inner star, change to all long balls instead of 2 long and 2 short. get rid of the flybar weights also if you have them on. you will get some great performance from this heli if you take the time to understand how the head is tunable.

Jon

basmntdweller

My Feedback: (9)

I did the bearing upgrade and will get the carbon tube drive friday. Mostly just concerned as the spindle shaft has so much more freedom of movement and lack of rigidity compared to my other helis.
Any comments on the driven tail setup versus the slipper clutch deal?
Thanks,,,basmntdweller

Lift

My Feedback: (1)

basmntdweller,
Stay with the slipper clutch. Get someone to mush it down tight while you tighten the screws. It will hold great for mild aerobatic autos. If you want piroetting autos then you might opt for the constant drive upgrade.

As far as the dampening goes you will be fine with it mushy. But, if you need a tighter flip/roll response then contact Century and see if they have some stiffer dampeners. My Falcon dampeners wore out pretty quick. I put some new ones in earlier this summer and these are staying tighter longer. There may be some quaility control issues. Who knows. But, you could add some additional washers between inner radial bearing and the rubber dampener.

Just remember, the Century birds come REAL tame from the factory. A little deeper understanding of heli rotorheads and you will be able to tune the machine to your likeing. That is one thing about Century helis that kinda neat. Great machines for experimenting on. Can't do that with a Raptor or Sceadu as much.

syclic

bsmtdweller,

You will really like this inexpensive heli. You probably have noticed how stable it is with this softer damping. Because the target market for the Sport is the entry level flyer the head is set up to be gentle and stable (soft damping, weights on flybar and soft B/H ratios).

If you want harder damping, the best and simplest way to stiffen the damping is to remove the feathering spindle, add some electric wire heat shrink (from Radio Shack for $2.00) to the center part of the spindle where it contacs the rubber dampers. This will increase the 5mm diameter of the spindle inside the dampers. Now you will have similar damping to the Falcon with its 6mm spindle.

You can really tune this system nicely for any personal "feel". For faster cyclic response time you can remove the flybar weights, change the paddles (the new MinAir 3D units work a lot better then the KSJ ones), use 4 long balls on the inner swashplate star instead of two long and two short etc.

Another nice thing that belies the low price of this heli is that it is very reliable. It just always seems to be ready to fly.

CyberPilot

My Feedback: (2)

I've a question for you Hawk Sport or Hawk IV owners.

What servos did you guys use? I'm looking to buy some for a Hawk IV that I'm getting.

Thanks,
C.P.

syclic

This was covered a number of times on the "Century Forum" on RunRyder. (Do a search there and you will get some great info)

Someone made some good points, very much along the line of an article I read in the IRCHA mag a couple of years ago. Here is a summary.

Most servos that come with radios are of adequate torque/speed specs for use on a 30 size heli.

The most important quality of a servo is its reliability. A servo with excessive gear play or output shaft play will not cause your heli to crash. It will just increase the number of inputs you have to give it to guide it in a manner you wish.

But one that has a history of failure, will definitely mean you are at a much higher risk of crashing. So the #1 criteria is what servos have proven reliable, in helicopters. I have seen a number of servos that had a proven reliability record in airplanes fail dismally when used in helicopters. They could not take the higher vibrational environment and/or the much higher cycle of use seen in a heli. All servos are constantly working during the flight of a helii, while they get a lot of "slack time" in an airplane flight.

Here I can say that all servos can fail, but I have found the Futabas to have a far better record then the many others I have used over the years. There are many Hawks flown locally. They are all flown with servos from the lowly Futaba S-148 to the high end S-9250 digitals. They all fly well and have had no crashes due to servo failure.

Holding power, speed off center, DUAL BB supported output shaft and gear mesh accuracy are all items that are more important then the commonly seen paper specs of torque and speed.

So buy the best your budget will allow. If you can afford it, get a digital for the tail rotor. e.g 4 x 3001's and a 9253 would be better then 5 x 9202., of course 4 x 9202 and a 9253 would be better and the best would be 4 x 9250 and the 601 with its special servo for the tail but that would be a bit of overkill.

But remember, the Hawk (or most entry level 30's) will still fly very well with 4 x 3001's and something like a 240 gyro on a 3001 servo.