Vortex - 3D flight Testing
Written by Ashley Davis Monday, 15 February 2010 13:00
This weekend saw the first successful 3D flight tests with the MicroHeli Vortex 200 PRO.
I had been suffering what I could only describe as a very sticky collective pitch response and this was hampering the flight testing. Initially I assumed stiff links to be the issue but as the problem got progressively worse it clearly wasn't this. Eventually the problem was tracked to the swashplate ball which is of aluminium construction. I don't normally lubricate main masts heavily and the action of the ball moving up and down the steel mast was causing aluminium dust to build on the shaft. This was then binding with the swash ball and causing a very stiff collective response. After cleaning all this up and teflon lubricating the main shaft and swash ball the problem was resolved and the Vortex finally showed me what it can really do. At this point the tail is not as good as I would like and I need to do some more setup/config but it was good enough to do a full 3D flight.
First impressions are a quick cyclic response matched to a non linear collective response. The collective pitch tends to come in strongly at full pitch but it is much softer around center stick. The machine tracks very straight indeed and the motor provides plenty of power for big loops and sports flying. In 3D there is little struggle from the motor to do tic tocs and such power moves. Overall it feels a little smaller to fly than the T-Rex 250 but this is not suprising because it is smaller. The machine is clearly fully 3D capable and is stable enough to not be too much of a handful when performing 3D. I will do some more work on getting the tail dialled in fully and then shoot some video and complete the full write up for the review.
( 2 Votes )
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
