Convert Tempest to Flybarless?

[19trax95]

I have a tempest that has an extreme head on it, it was my fathers, and he had i guess set it up for FAI originally, then put the extreme hea on it for more 3d feel?

But anyway, I fly it now, and i got used to the 100% locked in feel of my gaui x3, and then when i fly the tempest i feel almost not as connected to the heli.

I was at a fun fly last weekend and a guy said that these are easy to convert to flybarless. He was syaing something about removing the flybar (duh) and all its related parts on the head, then linking the blade grips right to the swash. He said thats all id have to do to it other than putting a fbl unit on it, to make the heli flybarless.

Is this true, and if so, how exactly do i go about doing this? Thanks for any help

[Chuck Bole]

You would need a swash driver. If you search some old threads for MrMel E Stratus FBL
I think you will find some old threads about this. From back in 07 or 08. I'll see if i can find a few.

chuck

[19trax95]

I broke out the machine again and flew a tank through it but the transition from my flybarless machines to flybar is not something I'm happy with.

I had a thought. If I bought a flybarless head that matches the main shaft diameter, and made up some links, is there any reason this wouldn't work? I was thinking like an align 700 head. I know it's probably sacrilege to put an align head on one of these but...

So what's everyone's opinion on this? Or is there a simpler/better option that I'm missing.

[Chuck Bole]

I seen a guy at the St. Louis Funfly last month with a Mikado rotor head and follower on a fury. Looked like it flew fine.

Chuck

[19trax95]

Besides needing a swash driver, and maybe some beefier links, does anyone see anything that won't work with this setup? Maybe I'm missing something obvious.

[HELI_FUN]

I think it is a Tempest head

[HELI_FUN]

[19trax95]

Sweet. So I'm on the right path. I emailed a machine shop and asked if they could make a little spacer or collar so I could use a head off my X7 since I have a few spares.

But since it looks like all I need now is a fbl unit and a swash driver, I'll stick with this head.

Thanks for the pics by the way haha

[19trax95]

Well all the parts are ordered. I got a vbar off here and then a swash driver for an align 600n. It just so happens that the 600n also uses a 10mm main shaft, so I got their whole driver assembly instead of the $50 mikado one.

So hopefully I'll have this baby flying by the weekend since everything is coming priority. I will update when it's all together.

[19trax95]

Well here it is. All that I have left to do is clean up the wiring and finish setting up the Vbar.

[19trax95]

Well the initial setup is done. I just need to get it tuned in then setup the governor in the Vbar.

[HELI_FUN]

very cool, in the first picture it looks like you did not have the control link to blade grip strait up and down it looked twisted, but the pictures after that looked good, maybe you did not tighten the swash drive clamp down yet in the first photo. Also looked like the swash driver arms were a bit long angling out as it went up but as long as it does not touch outer swash when at 90 deg i guess your all good. Great Job, hope all goes well, thanks for sharing.

[19trax95]

The first couple pics I posted was with the original swash follower or whatever it's called. There wasn't a way to clamp that one to the main shaft.

The rest are the final version. At mid stick everything is 90 degrees and zero pitch. The pics are a but hard to show that though. I may go out and test fly today is this rain blows over in time.

[HELI_FUN]

Originally Posted by 19trax95

The first couple pics I posted was with the original swash follower or whatever it's called. There wasn't a way to clamp that one to the main shaft.

The rest are the final version. At mid stick everything is 90 degrees and zero pitch. The pics are a but hard to show that though. I may go out and test fly today is this rain blows over in time.

Oh that explains it, hope everything goes well. happy flying

[19trax95]

I went to fly it last night and was not successful. I couldn't get the aileron to correct the right way. Turns out I messed up and has channels 2 and 3 swapped. After I put those in their correct ports, it now works like it should.

So I'll test fly again either tonight or tomorrow and report back.

[19trax95]

Well I have good news.

The heli flys awesome. It is a totally different machine now. I got it mostly tuned in as far as gains go. It'll still need some work since I was taking it easy making sure everything was good to go, so once I start to fly it like I do my other machines, I'll get it dialed in.

[19trax95]

I have got it pretty well tuned in now. Had to make some minor adjustments to the tail settings, but so far haven't touched the head settings at all. I do need to turn up the agility a bit across banks 1 and 2 though since I set it a little soft.

But I flew it a bunch this past weekend at our fun fly and it performed wonderfully. It went from my least favorite to fly, to one I'll likely fly all the time, just with that change.

It will be even better once I get new fuel (picking up a case at ircha) since what I'm running is over 12 years old so I'm sure the nitro has gone away out of it a bit haha.

[explorin]

Did you steal my heli? I have the same paint scheme! But mine is a fury extreme...I've thought about converting it to fbl, but I like pulling it out like a relic of old times. I still fly it on 72mhz too!

[19trax95]

You didn't happen to buy that used, or live on long Island did you?

Reason I ask is my father painted a few canopies like mine and he even put those tribal type decals on some.

[Chuck Bole]

Good looking helis.. I have a E Stratus tucked away with i think the same color scheme on the canopy.

chuck