Ely.Q Vision 50 Ultimate

Written by Rob Turnbull Friday, 09 January 2009 16:10

Article Index
Ely.Q Vision 50 Ultimate
Tail assembly
Mechanics and Head assembly
Servos and Finishing off

This article is an in-depth build article of the Ely.Q Vision 50 Ultimate helicopter kit.

 

 

Equipment

The equipment that I will be using for the Ely.Q Vision 50 Ultimate build is as follows:

Engine:	OS 50 Hyper Max
Exhaust / Muffler:	MP5 50
Receiver:	Spektrum AR7000
Collective / Cyclics:	3x Futaba S9451's for eCCPM
Throttle Servo:	Hitec 6965 HB
Gyro:	CSM 720 with Align DS620 Servo
Electric power:	Perfect regulator with a Revolution 3000 mAh 2S2P pack
Transmitter:	Spektrum DX7
Main rotor blades	600mm SAB Carbon Blades / 600mm Torsion blades
Tail rotor blades	95mm V Blades
Extras:	Sullivan crap trap inline fuel filter, Quick UK exhaust gaskets, K&S fuel line clips

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First impressions

The Vision 50 Ultimate comes in a nicely designed box including pictures of the pilots who have put the model through it's paces in development. The kit comes almost completey unassembled, with just the swashplate and , strangely, the fuel tank pre-built. Despite the fact that everything else needs building from component bits, it is actually a very easy and straightforward build, and goes together pretty quickly.

The instruction manual is in four languages (a common feature with European based models) including English, Italian, German and French. It is basic on overall instruction considering the assembly required, but if you have an idea how these things go together, it's easy to follow and the diagrams are pretty clear. However, one or two are a little cluttered due to all the bits being assembled in that step.

Here's some shots of the box and an example of the manual.

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The kit comes with a plastic bleach bottle canopy, a black screen to cutout and attach and a decal sheet of stickers in two colours.

It is a mainly carbon reinforced plastic helicopter which helps to keep the weight down and a low parts count to help make building and maintaining the heli easier. A metal headblock which runs an overslung floating flybar is designed to be easily modifiable to become flybarless. Ely.Q have bought the floating flybar system patent and have improved on it's design. In other areas, there are several parts that can be used from Raptor helicopters on this heli which makes it a great transition model in the market it is squarely aimed at - current Raptor pilots wanting to fly an up to date helicopter with minimum outlay.

Each step of the build has it's own numbered bag noted in the manual and contains only the parts required for that step.

Before starting the build, it is worth checking the Ely.Q website as they have identified a few items that could cause an issue in the kit. I have only encountered one issue which was with the tail bell crank lever. Download the latest manual in PDf version too, while you're there.

Having done that, lets get started!

Build notes

Through the build, dimensions are noted of all bolts and bearings. Bolt sizes are noted in a pretty obvious manner (e.g. M3x12 is a 12mm long M3 bolt) but it's not so easy with regard to bearings, so all bearing sizes are noted as Inner Diameter x Outer Diameter x Depth (ID x OD x D).

Bag EQ5000

Fuel tank

The fuel tank is one of two parts that comes pre-assembled. I chose to use it exactly as supplied so for me this step was complete by removing it from the bag. The only thing I wondered about was the clunk line, which for 3D flight looked like it may prove to be a little short when getting to the end of the tank, but not by much.

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Bag EQ5001

Tail guide pulley assembly

The plastic pulleys are fitted with a bearing and just need the pin and sleeves fitting. Slide a pin through and push one blue collar onto the pin on each side of the pulley, keeping the pulley centred on the pin.

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Bag EQ5002

Landing skids

The skid tubes are a nice loose fit into the skid struts which makes them very easy to assemble and once they are in position they will be locked securely in place with grub screws.

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Fix the end caps into the ends of the skid tubes using a drop of CA glue. The caps are ridged slightly to help with secure fitting.

Next, slide the skid tubes into the skid struts and loosely fit the grub screws. These will be tightened down when the skids are attached to the frames so that the struts are correctly spaced apart. Safely store the four screws that will be used to fix the skids to the frames for later use.

Bag EQ5003

Lower frame assembly

The lower frames are assembled side to side, as is usually the case. The carbon re-inforced plastic moulded frames have the fan shroud for the engine built in, around which runs a ridge that lines up the two halves correctly when connecting the two halves together. The fuel tank sockets are also moulded in and don't need rubber grommets to hold the tank in place. The front fuel tank socket is not fully enclosed which should help to make fuel tank removal easier.

Fit the previously assembled tail belt pulleys into the vertical slots in each sideframe. They are a push fit.

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Next, fit the plastic cross member bolts into the hexagonal slots in one of the side frames and put the fuel tank in place - with the fuel tank moulded nipples sitting in the sideframe mouldings. Fit the two sideframe halves together making sure the ridges in the fan shroud area are lined up correctly.

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Fit the radio tray in place ready to screw the two halves together. There are five screws used in each side of the assembly, four on each side are fitted into the hexagonal bolts, the fifth screw is into the lower front moulding on the radio tray.

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Bag EQ5004

Cooling fan assembly

The fan is fitted to the engine with the fins on the top side (not underneath like a Trex600). Push the fan onto the hub and line up the three mounting holes. Threadlock the three M3x6 button head bolts in place making sure the fan is fitted flat onto the hub.

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Half fit the clutch bolts into the top of the fan hub to use as leverage when tightening the fan hub down onto the engine.

Remove the crank shaft washer from the engine if it is fitted - it is not needed as the equivalent spacing has been machined into the fan hub.

Add some threadlock to the threads of the crank shaft and then screw the fan hub onto it. Lock the crank shaft in place using a locking tool of some sort either in the backplate or in the carburettor hole (not a piston locking tool through the glow plug hole!). Tighten down the fan hub using the clutch bolts fitted to the top of the fan hub as leverage. Remove the clutch bolts from the fan hub and then secure the crank shaft locking nut onto the crank shaft with threadlock (making sure it is nice and tight!) and finally, fit the clutch and tighten the clutch bolts down using threadlock.

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Engine mount assembly

The engine mounts are drilled differently to each other which means that each one is intended to be used on one specific side of the helicopter.

There should be three holes at the bottom and on the outer side of each engine mount (the side that will face the sideframe it is being attached to). One of the mounts has two extra holes drilled into it on the front face (when they are positioned ready to be fitted to the helicopter) which can be used to fit a governor sensor bracket to.

The engine is fitted to the two holes in the middle of the mount on the front face.

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Slot the engine into the sideframes and position the bolt holes so that the top mounting hole in the frames is aligned with the top emgine mount hole.

Fit the special washers onto the M3x14 cap head bolts and fit them through the relevant holes to secure the engine mounts to the sideframes. Use three bolts on the right hand side of the helicopter (top, middle and bottom) and two bolts on the left (top and bottom), as per the pictures. Use threadlock on these bolts when fitting.

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Skid assembly fitting

Now we fit the skid assembly to the helicopter. It is attached using four M3x18 screws which should be fitted using CA glue.

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Now level up the skid tubes in the skid struts and tighten the grub screws down onto them to secure them in place. I ended up with 50mm between the back edge of the rear skid strut and the end of the cap in the skid tube.

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