Helidirect 500 Dampeners

Written by Ashley Davis Saturday, 31 May 2008 00:00

Dampeners

These are some shaped dampers for the T-Rex 500. Styled such that the outer wider ring fits in the usual damper space and the smaller diameter part inserts into the head. This effectively gives a wider but also stiffer support to the feathering spindle. The dampers are drilled to be a snug fit on the feathering spindle and as such they need some liberal greasing to allow the feathering spindle to slide through. Fitting was a little frustrating as getting both dampers nicely fitted flush to the head block was a bit of a fiddle but perseverance is required and eventually they were in.

Once in place the blade grip spacers and blade grips can be installed as normal. One thing I observed before fitting is that these dampers are pretty hard rubber and as such my expectation is some pretty stiff dampening for high head speed and hard 3D flight. The model these were tested with is the model I have fitted a scorpion HK3026-1400 and using 6S packs on a 15T pinion. So head speed is high and power at maximum using 6S 2500mah packs. So first lets compare to the stock damping, well here there is little similarity. The stock dampers are pretty soft and there is a lack of crispness to collective. The Helidirect dampers are very crisp and really liven up the machine. I will also compare to the Align damper upgrade which has the plastic tube and harder dampers. In this respect the collective crispness is quite similar with the Align upgrade actually being a little more crisp. However, this is where the Align design actually let's itself down. The Helidirect dampers give a progressive dampening, moves like chaos have a smoothness to them but when you want to slam the heli the dampers and collective are still sharp. The Align upgrade lacks this versatility and is just too hard and unforgiving making the collective over sensitive for moves like chaos where it doesn't really settle into the move and feels twitchy and over sensitive to collective around mid stick (in comparison to the HeliDirect dampers). Both the Align dampers and the Helidirect dampers have a head wobble at the end of autos due to the stiff damping and I wouldn't recommend either for sport fliers running a lower head speed (such as a 6S 500L motor on a 12T pinion). The HeliDirect dampers are well beyond 50 flights of full on 3D and showing no signs of wear, so durability / longevity looks good.

Pros

Cheap

Well machined and a great fit in the head and on the feathering spindle
Superb progressive damping

Cons

More difficult to fit than the stock dampers

Conclusion

Overall I really like these dampers and given a choice between stock damping, Align upgrade damping or the Helidirect solution I would pick the Helidirect dampers. The reason is that the stock dampers are too soft and the Align upgrade damper solution is not progressive and over stiff. The HeliDirect dampers sit right in the middle ground offering collective response for stick banging but also nice progressive damping for chaos, wall of deaths and smoother flying outside of the stick banging tic tock style. This makes the 500 easier to fly as the heli will settle into a chaos or funnel as an example and not feel really collective sensitive but equally will happily be banged through hard tic tocks or violent curtis flips. Longevity is good and as a damping solution the design is nicer than either of the Align solutions. Definitely recommended.

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