Spiro

I was doing a little maintenance this evening and I noticed the gyro (futaba 401) had slid a bit on its foam double sided mounting tape. Closer inspection showed the tape was still stuck well to the underside of the gyro, but no longer sticks at all to the crutch! Apparently this tape, which seemed super sticky when first applied, is not up for the long haul.

Does anybody have any suggestions for other gyro mounting techniques? I love the vibration absorbing foam tape the gyro came with, but I cant have it coming loose on me. I don’t know if fuel residue crept around the firewall and caused my trouble. If so, I don’t know how I could avoid the problem in the future as I keep the chopper very clean with a thorough Windex and wipe down after every time out…

Help! How do you mount your gyros!

Spiro

Here are some pics of the location in case anyone was wondering...

Spiro

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Spiro

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Charlie

Cover the wood (where you are putting the gyro) with lots of ca glue, that will give the gyro tape something to grab on to, or you can glue a hard peace of smooth plastic on the wood and stick your gyro to that (either way should work).

Joe K

My Feedback: (1)

Make a paste of cornstarch and rubbing alcohol, and put on the wood leave it on as the alcohol drys out it will suck the oil out of the wood then, do what Charlie said.

Spiro

Thanks for the good ideas. I will give that a go tomorrow and let you know how things turn out.

Would a smooth plastic surface or a rough CA surface provide the best grip for the servo tape?

Spiro

Spiro

I cleaned off any remaining oil as recommended and glued down a small square of the LMH fuselage scrap. This gives me a good smooth surface for the servo tape. A couple layers of tape later and now the gyro is firmly attached. If/when this happens again I can just easily clean off the plastic square and slap down some more servo tape.

I put six tanks through this evening and the gyro stayed put. That’s some 75 minutes in the air and a few more between tanks for all you electric guys out there. Ahaha, aren’t you wishing you went gas now J And the best part is when it was all over I had this nasty, goopy, slimy, sticky, dirty, gritty, dripping helicopter that took forever to clean inside and out! Oh wait, that still sucks. Better forget that last part…

Thanks for the input,
Spiro

Mini Boy

Spiro:

When I get done flying (still hovering) my Corona for 8 packs (80 minutes plus), I just put the heli ON the back seat of my Suburban, go home and plunk it ON the dining room table. No paper towels, rags, beach towels or blankets needed. LOL

Please bear in mind that my gas/battery comments are all in fun, and the controversy will go on forever. It reminds me of a similar argument in childhood days when the kids across the street had Lionel electric trains and I had American Flyer. We constantly tried to prove that each of ours was better. Actually I know a lot of reople who do the same with Ford and Chevrolet!

Whether you're flying with gas or electric, it's better than not flying at all!

Happy choptering,

Russ

Spiro

I couldn’t have put it better myself, miniboy. Happy flying!

Spiro