Is Century Discontinuing the Hawk?

[907Heli]

I see that heli world has changed their website and now all of my Hawk Pro parts say preorder, like their not stocking them anymore.

Am I just being paranoid? The last thing I want to do is own a heli I can't get parts for.

[MotorRotor]

Originally Posted by Aksport

I see that heli world has changed their website and now all of my Hawk Pro parts say preorder, like their not stocking them anymore.

Am I just being paranoid? The last thing I want to do is own a heli I can't get parts for.

Could be just a result of them not yet being able to get their new site up to date.

How long have you had your Hawk?

[907Heli]

I have had it a couple years. I'm in the middle of converting it to flybarless. I need a few more parts though.

[MotorRotor]

Originally Posted by Aksport

I have had it a couple years. I'm in the middle of converting it to flybarless. I need a few more parts though.

By " a couple of years" do you mean only two years?

Mine was built in 2005 (9 years ago!). It has worn out a number of engines now and is still going strong.

[907Heli]

Yeah, I'm a noob. I've been flying the heck out of my Blade 400 and I really wasn't going to get into big helis but I came across this deal on craigslist 3 years ago. It was literally brand new built as a spare for a guy who was into scale helis. He added a couple upgrade parts like tuff landing gear and a better swashplate. I took my time getting it flying but I have been flying it pretty often the last couple summers. It's been slow though as I had to learn all about setup and there's not a lot of tech support on the Hawk. I had a servo wig out while on the ground playing with my rev limiter and it tore the tail completely off and bent up the head. I upgraded servos and decided to go flybarless so it's a whole new tuning setup coming up. I still have a month before it's really decent flying weather anyway.

I really like the way it flies though, really tame. I took off the flybar weights and jacked the throws up and now it flips and rolls and hovers inverted really well. This was the first heli I tried doing auto's with. It's a good thing it has the tuff landing gear lol.

I've got a question for you, if I wanted to stretch this to a 600, which model would I look at for the tail parts? Is it the same torque tube and tail boom as a G20?

[MotorRotor]

Originally Posted by Aksport

............I've got a question for you, if I wanted to stretch this to a 600, which model would I look at for the tail parts? Is it the same torque tube and tail boom as a G20?

Yes, it is easy to do a BASIC stretch for moderate aerobatic flights by simply using the Tail boom, torque tube, and the rear tail gearbox input shaft and coupler from the NX50. You would also need to change to the motor mount from the NX 50 (for mounting larger engines) and exchange the 13T primary pinion for the 14T unit to obtain a better gear ratio for these engines.

This would be fine when using 600mm blades at lower head speeds (below 1700). This of course will limit the response of the cyclic and collective.

If you want more aerobatic performance with higher head speeds, then you can add the 6mm spindle upgrade to the head (includes thrust bearings), a full metal swashplate etc.

Personally If you want a bigger heli, I would just sell the Hawk, and get their new Radikal N640 or E640. The differences in the helis would be like going from a Honda Civic to a Mercedes sports car.

[907Heli]

Cool. I was wondering which heli would be compatible. Now I see that the coupler and input shaft are the same for the NX and my Hawk Pro. Looks like all I would need is the boom, torque tube and tail control rod. About 50 bucks to stretch. That's pretty dang reasonable.

The idea behind it isn't to really make a badass 3D heli, I still don't have the constant drive tail even, but to make it sport fly even better. It's a fun heli, even more so since I put the Toki .40 in it. Now that I have the RJX head on it I don't have to worry about too much head speed, but I did put a 7100R receiver with rev limit on it. I think that with the new motor and 600 blades it would have about the same power as it did before but it would float much better and be easier to shoot autos with. I'm sort of building a fun heli that will be a great trainer for my brother to try a big heli with. I think a more floaty feeling with the larger blades would help. Plus the longer tail would help my CG. It seems like with the metal gear servos up front it's thrown my CG off.

I do like the N640 a lot, but I still don't like having only one or two places to get parts and the shipping is expensive. I've been looking at other helis like the TSA and Avant and Alees because Amain has free shipping on parts and almost always has them in stock. People keep trying to talk me into Align, but I don't want one of what everyone else has two of. The upside is if I throw a rock in any direction I will hit someone carrying low cost Align parts, even up here in Alaska.

I haven't seen much forum traffic around the 640's in quite a while. I wonder how many are out there and what issues there are. They were the hot topic for a while, now it's all about gassers. Were they a flash in the pan? Heli-world has cut back on the amount of options you can get with the 640. I was thinking about getting the combo with servos and blades but they stopped offering it. I just don't have confidence around Century. I had the same gut feeling about buying a cheap outrage and I'm glad I didn't. Honestly, if I didn't already own a Hawk, I probably wouldn't even look at Century. They don't advertise, only a couple places carry their line, most of those only carry gassers, they give the impression that they're on the way out.

Sorry for the rant, I'm not trying to say they have a bad product, I would really like to own an N640 and a G30V2 because I think they're awesome. I just can't get past this gut feeling.

On a positive note, the thing that keeps the 640 in the running is that I really want a 700 but don't wan't to pay for a 700 engine and all the fuel they drink. If the 640 really does fly like a 700 and have that presence in the air......I may still end up with one.

[907Heli]

One problem with being in Alaska is there's not many other pilots up here and nobody that's going to want to buy my Hawk. Plus the used market is pretty lean up here as well and mostly filled with Aligns.