Twister Sky Lift Chinook

[Alan B]

Hi

Reading Chris Hornby's review made me smile   I know the feeling! I bought one of these for my girlfriend as she wants to partake in the hobby and for some strange reason she has a thing about Chinooks

I fired it up in her living room on boxing day and trimmed it as necessary (as space permitted) and it seemed ok. A day or to later the weather was calm. So I took it out into the field behind her house to see how it performed with plenty of space. Brought it up into the hover and noticed it liked to fly backwards. Banged in some forward trim and started gently moving forward. Then there was a slight gust of light wind and up she went upwards and upwards and behind me to about 50 feet .  No problem!  turned nose in and full stick forward - why is this heli going north when I want it to go south ? It Started heading for the house and the drive - backwards in the light breeze that just came up Hmmm!  Decision time Do I do a Chris Hornby(missing in action!) or take a chance! Cut the throttle dropped rapidly down to 10 feet and wacked the throttle back on - great! then my girlfriends Land Rover just jumped out in front of it.  It clipped the front bumper and landed. Result one chipped blade and one of the rear wheels fell off.  The Heli that is !

So for this model I would suggest if you want to fly this model on a calm day and do not want to be caught out with the odd gust of wind, is to set the trim at centre and adjust the swash plate so that you have forward motion at hands off. You can always trim back for hover.

I would say due to its large body size its very susceptable to any side winds. However it looks good and is good fun to fly.

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Well done Alan,

As you say, it has to be flat calm to fly outside 

[Former Member]

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[Simon Robinson]

I agree, it has to be a calm day. I took my blade cx2 out and had a good flight until a randon custed of wind caught my chopper on landing and damage the blades. It takes someone with a big wallet to take that risk!

[Flanker .]

How nice to read such an honest review! Well done! We have all made stupids, but not many would write them down for all to see.

Viz wind and twin rotors a good trick is to make a new boom from carbon tube, this reduces the weather cock effect and makes life a little easier.  

[Bill Wood]

Recently bought a Twister Sky Lift and on first try it would only go astern even with full forward trim. Looking at the swashplates they were all out of kilter with the trims at neutral. Don't see how it could've been  "flight tested" more than half a second.  This required adjustment of the linkages which means removal of the body. I was scratching my head at first over removal of the front legs until I realized that they just pull off. The low battery warning light needs to be removed and of course the two horizontal securing rods. 

After adjustment I can just get it to hover with full forward stick so more adjustment is needed. Also the average house room is not big enough for practice. I will have to wait for a flat calm day outside. That could be a long wait!

[Alan B]

Hi Bill

If you are careful you can quite easily disconnect the linkages with the body on.  In her models case it took a couple of full turns to get the settings I wanted.

Al

[Jeff Hall 2]

My model was so poorly trimmed full cyclic just wouldn't hold it in the hover!

Having flown heli's for 10yrs I should have checked everything before flight but the statement of 'Test Flown' suggested it wouldn't be required.

I decided to strip the entire machine down and rebuild - I found both cyclic servos loose in their mounts (Screws not tightened) and then both swashplates pointing in completely different directions - requiring all linkages to be reset to level the swashplates at neutral stick/trim.

The result of this trimming is it flies much better but still wants to go fwd and I am needing large amounts of aft cyclic to hold it - I suspect the smaller 800mah battery pack requires re-locating to correct the CofG - Something I will be experimenting with soon.

In short I think its a fabulous model - Just a shame mine and others seem to have missed the Test Flight stage of build or maybe JPerkins want to sell spares when all the beginners try to fly an un-trimmed model with zero experience??

Jeff Hall

[Chris Hornby]

I placed a 1000Mah lipo from BRC (20c) which fits the tray exactly, and only makes the heli marginally heavier. I have a feeling it was this size that was originally intended. Anyway I now get about 7 minutes flight time and as I bought 2 I am hoping to have a little more time in the air when we meet for our indoor session on Wednesday.

I also got talked into buying a Twister Storm which at less than the price of the skylift has got to be the bargain of the year. For that you get a 450 size fully 3d capable heli with all servos, gyro, lipo and charger. I have flown it a couple of times after getting it set up by a heliguru and so far no crashes, but definitely a different beast from the Skylift.

 Chris

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Yes I've used similar packs Chris but I think it's important to let the motors cool between flights (which is why I think Perkins went with the smaller pack) to avoid risk of burnt out motors.

[simpson j]

Chris can i change to 2.4ghz spektrum dx6 mode 1 how ? twister sky lift

[Chris Hornby]

Hi John

The only thing you need to remember is DO not set it up in Heli mode use a fixed wing (Acro) mode.

Unplug the 35Mhz RX and plug in the AR6000 as follows

Plug your roll servo into the Aileron socket on your AR6000

Plug your pitch servo into the Elevator socket

Plug the lead marked "rudder" (yaw) into rudder socket and throttle into throttle.

Thats it.

Now switch on and check that left aileron stick pushed left tilts the swash plates left and vice versa. If not reverse aileron channel  on TX. If it makes the swash plates move forward and back, you need to swap the servo plugs over with elevator.

Now check Elevator stick down (up elevator) pushes the front of the swash plates up and vice versa.

If not reverse elevator channel  on TX.

Now spool up the rotors until the heli gets light and check the rudder direction, If it is wrong (nose goes right when stick is pushed left) then reverse rudder on TX

Now you should be all set.

Chris

[Simon Robinson]

I own a Blade CX2 with a 2.4ghz radio set which come with the heilcopter. If I got another 2.4ghz RX for my Twister Skylift, can I use the same radio set? As I see the control are the same or so I believe?

[the unmagnificent man]

Hi all, I am a fixed wing flyer but have a question about the Twister Skyhook. How easy is this heli to fly?

My mate at work is thinking of buying one and he has no experience of flying anything whatsoever. Well unless you count the electric heli that ended up in a tree on its first attempt at flying last year, but that wasnt a contra rotating blade heli.

I am unable to offer any help to him but hope some of you can give a few pointers.  Thanks for any help.  Al

[Simon Robinson]

It is an easy model to fly. However, but I will say that as I have flown my first helicopter; which is a Blade CX2 to the moon and back regarding flying hours. You will also need a large space (indoor) to fly unless you are only trying to master your hovering skills.

One thing to remember it is basicly it's two helicopters as it's a twin tandem rotor helicopter. So if you haven't got another experance in flying a RC helicopter, if you crash it the spare bill will be alot higher thatn a normal single tandem helicopter! A replacement shell when I last checked cost £29.99. The blades are the same as the Blade CX2 which you can pick up a pack of 4 lower blades for £6.99 and that's the same cost for the upper blades too. I am not sure what the other spares would cost but I would say for your friend to check out Sussex Model Centre website to check the prices to see if it falls within his budget?

 Best thing to do is to go to a shop which have them in stock and ask if they can show you the thing flying in the shop.

I am still trying to master mine and have it flying breifly as I have still got to trim the helicopter. But at the moment I am still flying my tursted out Blade CX2!

 Hope this helps and I am sure other people will post their views.

 Regards,

Si

[Chris Hornby]

Simon. I am not sure if the receiver in the Blade is separate from the mixer/gyro/esc unit. If it is then you should be able to transfer the 2.4 rx over easily. Still using the Skylift gyro etc. unit.

If it is one of those 4in one things with the RX incorporated, then I should think there may be problems.

[simpson j]

The new blade cx2 receiver is separate it is not a4in 1

[Simon Robinson]

Cheers, I shell have a look into it when I have a free moment and I will keep you informed.

[Keiren Bradburn]

I had a similar experience with my skylift in my living room when I was setting it up for the first time. I connected the battery befor turning on the controler,and instead of just flicking and trying to start up as Chris Hornby's did, mine just floored it and smashed into the roof putting two small holes in the ceiling from the top of the rotors and leaving lots of black curcular scuff marks from the rotors. Whoops... Mum wasn't happy

[Former Member]

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[Simon Robinson]

Well my Skylift is still not flying as I can't seem to get hold of a undercarriage mount from the from wheels. Part number 6601926, I can't find it on ebay or at Sussex Model Shop.

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Simon - the shops might have to order it in from the distributor J.Perkins - but Perkins do a delivery within a few days. You could ring Perks' to see if they have it 01622 854300.

Their website says it's in stock. Pop the part no in the search box.

[Simon Robinson]

Cheers Dave, I will check that out and hopeful get it back in the air soon.

[Sam Hounsell]

I wish to purchase the Skylift, where would anyone suggest be the best place to purchase? I will be buying online of course.

Thanks 

[Simon Robinson]

Hiya Sam, I have found that Sussex model shop is really friendly and are well priced. If you search them on the net you will find the website. However, you can always check ebay?