Possible skid saver?

[Trex-Deanoo]

Hello all,

iv had my msr since christmas but have allready gone through 3 pairs of skids, they are becoming had to get from where i live but i have heard something,

Iv heard that if u put the msr skids in boiling water it makes the nylon more bouncy so could stand some more crashing, is this true?

thanks

[Ah-64A]

well i wouldn't do that, yes it will make them softer but the skids are not that thick as far as matterial. i have had mine since then and haven't broken mine, so i think alot of it is how hard you are landing. and trust me i land hard my self but i am getting alot better at it

[RocketSled]

I've found I tend to do more damage to the mSR now that I'm extremely proficient at flying it, than I did when I was starting out. I fly it outside pretty much exclusively, and I always find myself trying to get it to fly faster or bank harder with every flight. As a result, I have on occasion smacked it in to the ground at a fairly high velocity. Besides busted skids, I've also managed to split the canopy.

That all being said, the thing is rugged as heck. My lager helis wouldn't be worth repairing, in comparison to some of the crashes I had with the mSR that didn't need any repair.

You can't glue a busted skid with CA, the glue won't stick well to the Nylon and the joint area is usually really small, it'll just break again right away. But you can make a very effective repair with 5-Min Epoxy. The trick is not to try to just glue the ends of the joint itself, but to "paint" a layer of Epoxy all the way around the part, in both directions a little distance either side of the break. The cured Epoxy makes a "splint" of sorts, and spread (painted) over a larger area, it sticks strongly. I've never broken a skid in the same place twice by doing this. And provided you don't get too carried away with the Epoxy, the weight increase is trivial. The tricky part is that once you've painted the Epoxy on, you have to keep slowly rotating the Skid on all axes as the Epoxy cures or you'll end up with all glue blobbed in one spot. But it only takes 5 minutes for the Epoxy to get stiff enough it won't run, and then you just have to let it cure for an hour or so.

[RocketSled]

I guess I should also add that there are some aftermarket skids. I haven't tried them myself, so I have no direct experience, but at least some of the comments I've seen posted are that HD replacement Skids tend to be heavier than the originals, and they can negatively effect flight performance.

[upalm]

+1 for the 5-min epoxy approach. the stuff never breaks. oh, and how hard are you landing?
:-)

[ct420]

I read a lot about broken skids and blade grips. I just don't understand how so many are breaking these parts so frequently. I've had a few pretty nasty crashes with mine, and it still has all of the original parts on it with no cracks, chips, breaks, etc. of any kind.

I did significantly bend the flybar once when I flew full speed straight into a wall, but I just bent it back until it looked straight, and it flies just fine now

I'm sure something will break sooner or later, but it seems to me that the mSR can take some pretty serious punishment before stuff starts to break...

[Trex-Deanoo]

i must be a very good punisher then

[jaywhy]

I bought a spare skid piece with my initial purchase, just to be ready. I'm thinking that personally I would try a shoe-goo repair when the time comes...

The microflight TUFF landing gear looks interesting (http://www.micro-flight.com/#MSR%20Upgrades), what other options do we have? (Ditch the skids altogether and land on the battery? )

[Mojappa]

Quote: what other options do we have? (Ditch the skids altogether and land on the battery)

this is what i do. Broke my first one, replaced it and it snapped again on first flight, got snagged on carpet. Have been running skidless for a few months and can still land upright if i can keep it steady enough. It also seemed to bank better with no skids but i might have just gotten better at it.

[freewheel510]

Originally Posted by jaywhy

\(Ditch the skids altogether and land on the battery? )

Kinda reminds me of the U-2 reconnaissance plane. Has wheels out on the ends of the wings that fall off on takeoff. On landing, ground vehicles (i.e. jeep) comes alongside as the plane slows and supports the end of the wing.

For the mSR, maybe use fall-away gear on takeoff, and catch it when you're ready to stop flying?

[Varc]

Maybe get a Team Losi Micro-T truck and build a landing pad on top of it. Have somebody drive the Micro-T when your ready to land and see if you can catch the MSR with the Micro-T?
Sort of use the Micro-T as a chase vehicle?

[RaptorStorm]

I have the MIA tuff skids on mine.

I like them a lot, and they use rubber bands to hold the battery in place, so all the testing with different size batteries and everything, no biggie, rubber band them on. I use the 180mAh batteries from miniavaition, and it works out nicely.

[BarnOwl]

Originally Posted by RaptorStorm

I have the MIA tuff skids on mine.

I like them a lot, and they use rubber bands to hold the battery in place, so all the testing with different size batteries and everything, no biggie, rubber band them on. I use the 180mAh batteries from miniavaition, and it works out nicely.

Is there a lot of weight difference between the stock gear and the MIA?


Fixing broken skids:

• On the thin parts I use a drop of CA and then put shrinktube around it. Fixes it well, lasts and looks ok.
• On broken joints: Epoxy works but I find hot glue from a gluegun works even better! (more flexible)

[46uu]

Originally Posted by RocketSled

I've found I tend to do more damage to the mSR now that I'm extremely proficient at flying it, than I did when I was starting out. I fly it outside pretty much exclusively, and I always find myself trying to get it to fly faster or bank harder with every flight. As a result, I have on occasion smacked it in to the ground at a fairly high velocity. Besides busted skids, I've also managed to split the canopy.

That all being said, the thing is rugged as heck. My lager helis wouldn't be worth repairing, in comparison to some of the crashes I had with the mSR that didn't need any repair.

You can't glue a busted skid with CA, the glue won't stick well to the Nylon and the joint area is usually really small, it'll just break again right away. But you can make a very effective repair with 5-Min Epoxy. The trick is not to try to just glue the ends of the joint itself, but to "paint" a layer of Epoxy all the way around the part, in both directions a little distance either side of the break. The cured Epoxy makes a "splint" of sorts, and spread (painted) over a larger area, it sticks strongly. I've never broken a skid in the same place twice by doing this. And provided you don't get too carried away with the Epoxy, the weight increase is trivial. The tricky part is that once you've painted the Epoxy on, you have to keep slowly rotating the Skid on all axes as the Epoxy cures or you'll end up with all glue blobbed in one spot. But it only takes 5 minutes for the Epoxy to get stiff enough it won't run, and then you just have to let it cure for an hour or so.

Epoxy does not work and I wait 24 hours for it to cure with 6 minute epoxy.

[RaptorStorm]

Originally Posted by BarnOwl

Is there a lot of weight difference between the stock gear and the MIA?


Fixing broken skids:

• On the thin parts I use a drop of CA and then put shrinktube around it. Fixes it well, lasts and looks ok.
• On broken joints: Epoxy works but I find hot glue from a gluegun works even better! (more flexible)

To be honest, I'm not sure what "a lot" would mean here.

It is heavier, no doubt on that, it's easy twice the size, more sturdy. But I do not have a scale, so I do not know the difference.

[jaywhy]

"A lot's" not much for a heli that weighs like 25 grams! I would be worried about adding weight off-center of any axis without counterbalancing it...

[Trex-Deanoo]

Originally Posted by RocketSled

I've found I tend to do more damage to the mSR now that I'm extremely proficient at flying it, than I did when I was starting out. I fly it outside pretty much exclusively, and I always find myself trying to get it to fly faster or bank harder with every flight. As a result, I have on occasion smacked it in to the ground at a fairly high velocity. Besides busted skids, I've also managed to split the canopy.

That all being said, the thing is rugged as heck. My lager helis wouldn't be worth repairing, in comparison to some of the crashes I had with the mSR that didn't need any repair.

You can't glue a busted skid with CA, the glue won't stick well to the Nylon and the joint area is usually really small, it'll just break again right away. But you can make a very effective repair with 5-Min Epoxy. The trick is not to try to just glue the ends of the joint itself, but to "paint" a layer of Epoxy all the way around the part, in both directions a little distance either side of the break. The cured Epoxy makes a "splint" of sorts, and spread (painted) over a larger area, it sticks strongly. I've never broken a skid in the same place twice by doing this. And provided you don't get too carried away with the Epoxy, the weight increase is trivial. The tricky part is that once you've painted the Epoxy on, you have to keep slowly rotating the Skid on all axes as the Epoxy cures or you'll end up with all glue blobbed in one spot. But it only takes 5 minutes for the Epoxy to get stiff enough it won't run, and then you just have to let it cure for an hour or so.

wow, you have just summed up my mr expserience in a paragraph

when i started flying it i only broke a blade grip, but as it was new i didn't want to bosh it up too bad, but as the newness worn off i started flying it more like my 40, nose going vertickle hitting thre throttle doing stalls banks extreemme FFF but obvs not a cp heli so nt as ... possible

i still love the msr, its not the best for persice stuff but man it can do ALMOST everything else


if only eflite could make a collective pitch heli that was the same size as an mmsr/mcx. NOW THAT WOULD BE AWSUM!!

also thanks everyone for your help

[RaptorStorm]

Originally Posted by jaywhy

"A lot's" not much for a heli that weighs like 25 grams! I would be worried about adding weight off-center of any axis without counterbalancing it...

Well, let me state this:

I noticed a difference in flight performance when I went from stock battery to mini aviation 180mAh battery from the added weight of the 180mAh.
I did "not" notice a difference in flight performance when I went from stock skids to MIA Tuff skids.


Does that help at all?

And it is pretty easy to mess with the CoG. Just slide the battery up more or back more.

[SNOWFREAK]

I have also tried epoxy and it didn't hold. Getting tired of buying skids. I am in the the process of fabbing a skid out of super thin 1/8" aluminum tubing. Shouldn't add much weigh at all. Will post pics once completed and flight tested.

[RaptorStorm]

Originally Posted by SNOWFREAK

I have also tried epoxy and it didn't hold. Getting tired of buying skids. I am in the the process of fabbing a skid out of super thin 1/8" aluminum tubing. Shouldn't add much weigh at all. Will post pics once completed and flight tested.

why don't you use the MIA ones?