New to Me Aurora

[3drcbuilder]

Hello All

Return to the hobby after a eight year lay off, Started the return with an Align 600n FBL. But, ran across an Aurora that I thought was a good deal. Just got done going threw the helicopter and doing the initial set-up on the Icon. The helicopter does have a Compass flybarless head. I have to original head also. Thought I'd share and show some pictures.

[Jason Bell]

You're going to enjoy it! Hard to get away from a nitro that flies so well.


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[Tommy2396]

Originally Posted by Jason Bell

You're going to enjoy it! Hard to get away from a nitro that flies so well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Without a shadow of a doubt, just can't find any reason why I should sell mine.

The Aurora N is simply the best model heli : ) You want to put a rigidcore FBL head on it.

Looking forwarding to maidening the Mostro soon however I doubt it will be as good as all rounder as the Aurora N. Simply awesome machine.

[3drcbuilder]

Thanks for all the encouragement, Everything right now is a pretty steep learning curve. New Futaba 14SG to learn to program, FBL controllers (Icon) to figure out and Lipo batteries and chargers.

Being a Retired Coast Guard Chief Engineer the mechanics are not difficult to figure out and you can tell by it's design that this is an American designed and produced helicopter. Everything makes sense in it design and set-up.

I actually got it in a hover today and am tying to figure out a bit of a tail way and a slight rotation to the right. Gone back through my tail set-up and smooth out a few things but the problem is still there.

On the last flight I noticed that I was loosing some head speed as the pitch was increased. So I may also be fighting a tune problem. Engine is a OS 91HZ-R and the needles are at the initial settings. Pretty sure I'm way on the rich side which I think could cause some tail gyro issues.

On the last hover a played with the gyro gain going 10 points either way and not noting any change in the tail wag. But, I think I need to get the engine tune a little better before the gyro is going to work properly.

Thanks In advance for any suggestions.

[Jason Bell]

Originally Posted by 3drcbuilder

Thanks for all the encouragement, Everything right now is a pretty steep learning curve. New Futaba 14SG to learn to program, FBL controllers (Icon) to figure out and Lipo batteries and chargers.

Being a Retired Coast Guard Chief Engineer the mechanics are not difficult to figure out and you can tell by it's design that this is an American designed and produced helicopter. Everything makes sense in it design and set-up.

I actually got it in a hover today and am tying to figure out a bit of a tail way and a slight rotation to the right. Gone back through my tail set-up and smooth out a few things but the problem is still there.

On the last flight I noticed that I was loosing some head speed as the pitch was increased. So I may also be fighting a tune problem. Engine is a OS 91HZ-R and the needles are at the initial settings. Pretty sure I'm way on the rich side which I think could cause some tail gyro issues.

On the last hover a played with the gyro gain going 10 points either way and not noting any change in the tail wag. But, I think I need to get the engine tune a little better before the gyro is going to work properly.

Thanks In advance for any suggestions.

Not too sure on what you may have, but if you have one of the Avant one way bearings, most customers have switched over to the Tsubaki one way bearings. It may be slipping, causing the headspeed decay that you are experiencing.

Richness will affect the tail too, but not too drastically. If you haven't already, I would switch over the tail grips to leading edge control also, I preferred mine this way.

[3drcbuilder]

I've been only filling the fuel tank to just over a half tank, I went out to try and do some adjustment on the motor and nothing seem to change anything. Run it down to a 1/4 tank playing around with it, snapped it up into a hover and started hearing a funny sound like a popping noise, I think that sounds lean seat it down and as soon as I come out of the throttle the engine quit.

I laid the helicopter over and shot the engine with the heat gun. 265 degrees, figured she cooled 20 degrees getting the temp gun out.

Well, I went through the entire helicopter with all new fuel lines but I did not take the tank apart. Time to check it and this is what I found.

[Jason Bell]

Originally Posted by 3drcbuilder

I've been only filling the fuel tank to just over a half tank, I went out to try and do some adjustment on the motor and nothing seem to change anything. Run it down to a 1/4 tank playing around with it, snapped it up into a hover and started hearing a funny sound like a popping noise, I think that sounds lean seat it down and as soon as I come out of the throttle the engine quit.

I laid the helicopter over and shot the engine with the heat gun. 265 degrees, figured she cooled 20 degrees getting the temp gun out.

Well, I went through the entire helicopter with all new fuel lines but I did not take the tank apart. Time to check it and this is what I found.

That looks like the OMI fuel magnent? Probably the element got sucked up through your fuel line, and filter. I've used the Lynx MOAS unit before to prevent this issue from happening. The stock clunk from Avant works fantastic as well.

Sorry to see this though, it's not fun to go through.

[3drcbuilder]

The little wad of pink $hit above the filter holder is what's left of the filter. Black tubing basically crumbled in my hand.

Looked in all my old junk airplane parts boxes and I find everything I need to completely rebuild the fuel tank including new tubing, stopper heavy pointed clunk and fuel line. Rebuilt the tank and pressure tested.

Reset the needles to starting setting and fire it up. Take it outside and fire it up. (It's Dark) Throttle up and she comes up on the governor, Now she sounds like she spinning 1900 RPM.

New test flight tomorrow.

[Jason Bell]

Originally Posted by 3drcbuilder

The little wad of pink $hit above the filter holder is what's left of the filter. Black tubing basically crumbled in my hand.

Looked in all my old junk airplane parts boxes and I find everything I need to completely rebuild the fuel tank including new tubing, stopper heavy pointed clunk and fuel line. Rebuilt the tank and pressure tested.

Reset the needles to starting setting and fire it up. Take it outside and fire it up. (It's Dark) Throttle up and she comes up on the governor, Now she sounds like she spinning 1900 RPM.

New test flight tomorrow.

Right on! The Avant black tubing is really nice as it is super flexible, but it comes with needing to be replaced often. If you use it again, I would suggest every 3-4 months.

[3drcbuilder]

As stated in my last post I went through the fuel tank and correct the fuel line issues. I also went threw the entire tail control system smoothing out all the links and checked every pivot point and fulcrum. I also complete the trailing edge to leading edge control swap on the tail and reset up the tail in the Icon software.

I test flew the helicopter again today and the tail wag is reduced by about 70%. But there is some wag still present. I'd say the wag is about an inch and half.

The tail servo is a Align ds650. I confirmed the setting of the servo in the Icon software of 200HZ and 1520 pulse. The servo is not new but appears to be working normally.

I have notice that there is about 12 degrees of slop in the tail drive system. What I mean by this is I can hold the head stationary and rotate the tail blades from a 12:00/6:00 position to a 1:00/7:00 approximately 12 degrees of movement. I tracked this movement back through the drive system and the movement is located at the bolt that goes threw the constant drive and the bottom of the main shaft. This is a 3mm bolt.

The main shaft is not the original Avant, I know this because it is not the original pin and lock bolt arrangement. I presume the main shaft was changed to match the Compass FBL Head.

Question? Could the slack be causing my tail wag.

I guess it's time to order they Avant FBL Head and shaft

[3drcbuilder]

This week I ordered a bunch of parts for the Aurora including a new Rigid Core FBL head, the 4 mm constant drive insert and base and the AV000801 Pin Pack.

The AV000801 pin pack did not have the 4mm Jesus pin in it and the Rigid Core head kit did not include the 6mm x 10 Set screw.

The UP-Date listing on the Avant website lists the Part Number for the update as AV000801. Also a replacement main shaft comes with the set screw. But, does not come with the Rigid Core head kit main shaft.

I have a local hardware store that has a good assortment of metric fasteners, hopefully I can find a set screw and a pin.

I am just a little disappointed that with all the parts I ordered that I'm short these two items and they are Items that stop me from doing any further set-up and flying the helicopter.

[Jason Bell]

If you can PM me your order number from CX, I can chat with Avant about this for you.

[3drcbuilder]

This order was from Amain They had a pretty good sale going on and I stock up on some parts. but, the pin kit did match the part number on the Avant forums.

I went to the hardware store I spoke of and they did have the 6mm x 10 set screws but they did not have the pin in anything but a roll pin. I picked up a couple of 4 x50mm bolts which have a 22 mm smooth shank. I figure I can cut the pins out of the smooth shank of the bolt.

Oh god, I'm talking metric.

I have another order coming from Carbon Extreme with some other odds and ends but I did not order the pin kit with this order.

[B.R.C.]

So your the one who bought the last rigid core head. You lucky sucker you beat me to it.

[3drcbuilder]

You mean this one?



Which ended up looking like this.



Plus adding al these to convert it to a 4 mm pin. and a new swash just to top it off.

[B.R.C.]

Yes I was just about ready to go fbl on mine and saw the price at work went home to buy and it was gone oh well I guess I will wait a bit longer. It flys pretty good with the flybar any way.

[3drcbuilder]

Need a Little help, still chasing a tail problem. Remember this was a used helicopter when I got it.

I read the instruction several times and the one thing I don't see specified is the distance for the ball from center on the tail servo.

The wheel on my tail serve 20mm from center to center ball, this seems to be a lot to me. I thinking the 20mm distance is giving me to much mechanical gain which is inducing my tail wag.

[B.R.C.]

yes that would cause it i forget what mine is off hand. most of the time your gyro will give you a distance to start with.

[enrico]

I read somewhere and can't recall exactly where, when you switch to the fbl from fb, you need to shorten the distances at the servo wheel. In my case I went like this, original instructions said between 12 to 14 mm from center to outermost possible position. I did around 10.5 mm in all my servo wheels. The one thing you have to make sure is that you maximize your travel to 100% mechanically. If not, move to the outer zone in your ball link location.
Also, The setup in the short pushrod from rudder servo to bell crank is very important. Make sure servo wheel and bell crank are both parallel to each other and also that the bell crank is located exactly in the middle so you can have 50/50 movement to each side. once there, leave it alone and all the rest of adjustments on the tail will do in the long pushrod. Not an expert, but been fiddling with two auroras already for too long!
One other thing I did was to flip the blade grips so the connect at the leading edge of the blades and not as the original instructions state at the trailing edge side of the blade. Once I did this mod, I was able to get far more movement. I haven't been able to fully test but I was having constant blow out problems with the tail, and that was with the FB version! Complete 180 and 270 degree pyros! scary at first but now I've been practicing in the sym pyro hovering just in case I loose control of that tail again!

Hope this helps. I'll report back tonight how it go ... Got a FB and rigid core FBL to test flight today!!

Enrico

[Jason Bell]

Originally Posted by 3drcbuilder

Need a Little help, still chasing a tail problem. Remember this was a used helicopter when I got it.

I read the instruction several times and the one thing I don't see specified is the distance for the ball from center on the tail servo.

The wheel on my tail serve 20mm from center to center ball, this seems to be a lot to me. I thinking the 20mm distance is giving me to much mechanical gain which is inducing my tail wag.

I would suggest 17mm or even 15mm for this. 20mm is much too far.