Other Main Blades

Some other blades that I flown and liked....

Funkey FG white hollow core 550mm

They were smooth and predictable blades, but because I was only running +/-10 back then, I always thought they were weak and was not loading my engine up enough. Very smooth in flips.

Funkey FG silver 600mm

Smooth blades, but wasn't that fast on the cyclic and the punch was quite weak with the stock raptor pitch window. I am sure they can do better with more pitch, but I didn't had the mechanics to fully exploit its ability when I still had them. Went through quite a few pairs of them and finish was always perfect.

Unforunately..this ugly photo is the only photo I have showing the whole blade...note the shiny new hatori #522, I was already using it back when the JK hatori and MP II was COOL, simply because it was the cheapest of the lot...

The World Models 550mm

EXCEPTIONAL PUNCH AND STRENGTH. Although many flyer who bought the blades later complained that theirs are not tracking and balancing, mine(I assume from first few production runs coz I got them the moment they were introduced) was perfect. It was white in colour and was quite stiff. It made my raptor 30 so good that I could flip at eye level back when I had the raptor 30, something which I wouldn't dare to do with even the raptor 50...with this blade, a tt36, a noisy hatori 222 and pro-glow fuel, it impressed quite a few flyers and I am talking about 60/90 size flyers...

Some unknown Brand CF 550mm I got from the LHS

I suspect its FG, though I was told its CF. The shop assistant who is a pretty good flyer used them also. Never crashed them to know how is construction like. Didn't fly a lot with them either. Worn the gel coating at the root area off and it exposed some black CF pattern, but they still look FG to me.

Linkage Ball screw

While changing the main grips on my raptor, I realised that one of the ball link screws is bent. The previous time I crashed was over a 100flights ago and since that crash, my linkage on the rotor head had never been the same length for the same pitch settings...which means....I have been flying with it for a long long time. So in conclusion, as long as your pitch for both blades are the same as the same stick position, your heli will still fly and track well even if the linkage ball screw is bent and the rod are of different lengths on both sides...

Cleaning a Thundertiger DV-II carb.

A while back, my tt50 in my plane started having some fuel delivery issue. The rpm was just not peaking, no amount of tuning help. At first I thought the engine was just simply worn out, but after another few flights, the engine started quitting inverted. Adding the baffle back to the muffler helped for another two or so flights, after which, it because impossible to tune. I tried flushing the carb, taking out the carb inlet nipple, a new plug, different fuel, took the engine apart, changed the main needle and idle needle, pretty much everything that can be done, except taking the whole carb apart...at one point, I was running 8turns out on the main needle..

The engine idle with good rpm and could go full throttle upright with absolutely no sign of tuning problem, but once the plane was inverted or verticle, the engine would quit.

Out of desperation, I took the carb apart BY FORCE. I had taken the carb apart a few times, but I always couldn't get out the assembly that holds the main needle. After some thorough study, I realise that the assembly had to be pushed out, not unscrewed or pulled.

How to tear that darn Carb apart??

1. Unscrew the screw that holds the carb rotor in. Basically its the screw in the photo with a big washer.
2. The carb rotor should fall off, take note of the little spring.

Unscrew the Main needle and take out the spring retainer that holds it.
4. Undo this little nut.

5. Push as in the direction as shown in the photo. Don't pull or turn, it doesn't work. Took quite a while to figure out that...BTW, it requires quite a bit of force because there are two rubber o-rings inside holding it, so PUSH.
6. DONE! Removal of the inlet nipple is kinda optional, I feel.

The design of the DV-II carb makes it extremely prone to being choked with dust and dirt, which is both good and bad. Good because less dirt enters the engine, bad because it is really troublesome to clean. Because of the design of the two holes as shown in the picture(the other one is on the other side....), no amount of cleaning or flushing of the carb will help if the carb is not completely disassembled. I found two whole balls of dust and fur trapped there. I took my tt36 carb apart and found two lump of similar fur-like dirt, just thinner and smaller. That would explain why my tt36 seemed to be suffering from lack of pressure with the hatori tuned muffler, to think that I thought my pipe was worn out...