Hello,
I have just bought a new Hirobo shuttle plus and new MDS 38 engine and futaba GY240 gyro. I am gettign back into the hobby after an 8 month break. My last heli was the protech zoom/shogun electric which i could fly nose in and circit flying no problems, but this is now my first nitro heli. I do however have experience with nitro .40 size R/C planes, mainly with the MDS .40 engine. Im still waiting on radio gear.

My question is about engine break in. I have read in mostly all heli newbie guides that you can break in the engine either on a bench or in the model itself. But i cant find anywhere the proceedure for breaking in the engine in the model. Could someone detail how i go about doing this? Im also a little confussed about how to go about adjusting the main needle, is it a matter of spool up, spool down, adjust, spool up...etc?

Any help would be great!

Here is the new model:



Yes i know the paddles are the wrong way round...hehehe

Wayne.

Do yourself a favor get a set of Raptor paddles and ditch those hollow things.

To answer your question one would first need to know whetehr its a ringed or ABx (abc or abn) engine.

Mostly run them slightly rich (ringed a bit richer than that) for a few tanks alternating between hovering for 1 minute and landing and idling for 1 minute. By the 3rd or 4th tank start leaning a bit and flying around a little while still giving it periods to cool down. Check the backplate with your finger if you can't hold it there during initial breakin then back off the needle a bit. After the first few tanks lean it so the back plate is warm after landing. As you start flying it around you should not get it hotter than being able to hold your finger there for atleast 3 seconds. If its too hot to hold there you are running too lean.

Well here is the way -I- do it other will have there own method I am sure. I have based it on the break-in procedures from glow car motors.

1/2 tank just running - up and down on the thottle till it want to hover. No flying!
Cut it off - let it cool.
Second 1/2 of the tank - Light on the skids, hover, land, light on the skids, hover, land, repeat...
Cut it off - let it cool.
(This is a good time to check all the linkages and look for things "loose")
2nd and 3rd tanks - Hovering and some mild hovering FF (forward flight). No WOT (wide open thottle) shots.
(Now you MAY need to lean it out a few clicks)
4th tanks - Bursts into WOT for short period of time allowing the helicopter to hover (cool)
5th tank - Long WOT bursts

after that fly it... like you stole it!

Thanks for your replies guys.

OK, think now im going to take it out and bench break it in. Will give me something to do while waiting for my radio gear. Really helpful tips there though.

I think running it on the bench will also give me a feel for how the needle reacts to changes before running it in the model.

Im hoping this MDS will serve me well, i hear alot of bad things about them. I used an MDS 40 in my low wing plane a few years back. Only real problem I had with it was transitioning from idle to full power it would splutter as if too rich, im guessing the low end was too rich.

Gratz on the Heli. That thing looks SWEET. Good luck with her.

Thanks!!!

Just bought a brand new hitec eclipse 7 radio set, just finishing installing the servos and linkages. I cant beleive how much better the quality of this hirobo shuttle is then my zoom i had. No slop in any of the linkages not even the tail like i had in the zoom. Im well impressed.

Still need to balance the main blades.

Tried to start the MDS today, not much luck as i did not have an electric starter nor a proper glow ignitor (just an AA batery with bare wires). I gave up as the glow plug was not gettign proper power. I have now ordered everything needed and will breakin the MDS next week. Really looking foward to this, I will post pictures and video clips once she is airborn (as i did with my zoom last year).

Thanks guys,
Wayne.