Shuttle 30 help

[Matthew Horsell]

Hi All,

Last year i picked up a 2000 ish shuttle 30 from my dad, barely flown etc etc,

anyways i broke the engine in checked it over and even got a few flights of it politely described by my girlfriend bobbing round the sky,

last time i tried to fly her as i increased the power to lift of the engine seemed to spin up but i gained no lift, i checked to make sure no screws had come out from the main shaft as this had happened once before and as i powered up the pitch reveresed and it tryied to push into the floor..

Anyway this leads me to believe that it's probably the clutch or the liner. i don't have much expereiance with heli's i've been more into the planes before and was trying to work out how i tell if i need to replace the whole clutch or just the liner.

Thanks in advance

Matthew

[Lindsay Todd]

Pretty sure you can just replace the liner to the cluch housing. it can be a pain removing the remains of the old lining, a dremell rotary sanding tool helps. the new lining just gets epoxied to the inside. Also check the centrifugal clutch itself as they have been known to crack and stop working as the arms don't spread so does not engage with the liner.

Double check your throttle to pitch curve, it should not be spinning up the rotor head and producing negative pitch as a result of the clutch being worn. Usually the clutch pick up becomes higher up the throttle curve or starts to slip under load but dose not affect the pitch of the blades.

Linds

[Dave Bran]

The clutch on a Shuttle is a very reliable device, and it either grips enough to spin the rotor up, or it doesn't! It will NOT cause negative pitch on the main rotor no matter how worn.

Shuttles are not prone to lose screws either if they are assembled well!!

I assume this is a top start chassis with a hex socket into which you place a starter shaft?

How you tell the clutch is OK is this:-

Start the engine and get it idling with you or another person holding the rotor head (as you would anyway at start for safety).

Holding the rotor head firmly and pressing the legs down on a non-slippery surface so the body cannot spin, blip the throttle BRIEFLY............the rotor is being held so it cannot turn but you (or the holder) should feel the clutch bite positively.

Are you sure the Tx was correctly set for the model?

Buy or borrow a pitch gauge and check that the pitch is moving from at least seven degrees negative to ten degrees positive with the flybar levelled.

[Matthew Horsell]

sorry i think i may have confused things,

the negative pitch issue was a result of a screw removing it's self,

i've since fixed that but now suffer with the getting rev's but no lift.

the clutch doesn't show any signs of cracks etc infact if it was in anything else i'd say it looked okay. i'm just not sure in the heli.

Is it more common to have to replace the liner or do they come as part of a pair?

again this might be my inexpereiance with helicopters but i'm currenty running a linear pitch / throttle curve with a small amount of expo on movements not the throttle, to make it a little less twitchy

[Dave Bran]

You can buy a liner, or a complete drum/liner, OR you can probably buy a useable secondhand unit from Eddie's Heli Bits on EBAY, BUT, and its a HUGE BUT, I do not think that is your problem, at least from your description!!

Do you not have a manual?? They are essential, and the Hirobo ones are superb. You can most likely download one for your model, there is a "vintage" heli site that has most available.

It reads like you did NOT "fix" the heli when you replaced the screw!!! (though I'm struggling to think of one screw that would cause negative on both blades that you could run without a total head collapse)

Back to my previous post...............

1. CHECK THE PITCH RANGE WITH A GAUGE TO THE MANUAL

2. CHECK THE CLUTCH AS ABOVE (only to eliminate it for sure I feel)

I strongly suggest you go to www.Helifreak.com , navigate to finless Bob's Tech Room and do a bit of reading on pitch/throttle setups, blade tracking, etc, etc..............

Re: the manuals, as a pure engineering exercise I took a Sceadu completely apart down to the last nut, and built it EXACTLY as per the manual, with all dimensions as per Hirobo info................it flew perfectly with spot on tracking, swash setting, etc, etc, etc..............Hirobo (unlike from my experience Align) know how to make a manual, you should trust them!!

[Matthew Horsell]

Thanks,

i hit the heli freaks website last night, gonna go to my LMS and get a pitch guage and new liner (just incase) i've read the manual and the helictoper has flown, i've just been really busy this year not got much in at all.

i think i'll go other the whole heli make sure it's all setup.

i did have on last guestion and this is something the hirbo manual doesn't really cover.

Throttle curves as a new heli pilot am i okay to use a liner curve or would i be better off setting up a throttle curve in on my control?

i really aprreciate all the feedback

Matthew

[Dave Bran]

Curves, the DB way...............Keep it SIMPLE!!

The really important thing is ot get the heli lifting at the right point in the stick movement, and a decent amount of "linear" (in action) throttle control beyond that, while keeping the headspeed as constant as you can and at the right level.

While many use half stick for normal mode, this is not true for when you get into Idle Up, and I prefer to have it so the stick position does not alter when switching in and out of IU, which means my "lift" point is set ABOVE middle.

Liners are not that easy to change, at least, changing them is only a TINY part of the job............what IS then potentially difficult and time consuming esp to a beginner is to get the liner concentric and bedded in with the right gap to the clutch fingers so it does not grab and try to take your head or fingers off!!

Change the liner ONLY as a last resort!!

[Dave Bran]

Posted by Lindsay Todd on 19/06/2013 21:10:00:

Also check the centrifugal clutch itself as they have been known to crack and stop working as the arms don't spread so does not engage with the liner.

Was this with a Hirobo unit?? With their design, any cracking (though I have never seen this with Hirobo) I feel would weaken the finger against CF and allow it to move out and "grip" earlier giving drag (up to the point it would break and you would have no clutch at all or a jammed clutch).

Usually, with Hirobo the effect is that as the clutch lining wears to the point of slippage the fingers distort out under CF to close the gap. So if you renew the lining (thicker than before even when spun and abraded to make true to the shaft and concentric) and do not tweak the fingers back or renew that part the gap is now too little and the clutch will grab/drag. This I HAVE experienced before I started using a lathe to get the lining properly true!

My comments are based on owning currently flyable 3x Shuttles (2xZXX's and a Plus2+), 4x Sceadu's and a Freya.

[Lindsay Todd]

Hi Dave, yes was a Hirobo unit admittedly some years ago when I was more directly involved with heli's, my fleet only covers 2 Raptors, 30 and 50 and my good old Century Bell47G these days, I sold my Shuttle many many years ago. Linds