Specifications

26.6. Other problems
26.6.1. Heli twitches randomly in roll/pitch/yaw
This is probably caused by radio interference. See Section 26.5, “Glitching”.
26.6.2. Short flight times and/or not enough power
• For brushed motors: the commmutator may be dirty. See section on maintenance.
• Pinion meshing may be too tight. The pinion should not be firmly fitted against the main
gear. The motor pinion should be able to wiggle just a tiny bit without turning the main gear.
• Motor pinion may be slipping on motor shaft. If your motor pinion uses a setscrew, then
your motor should have a flat spot on the motor shaft so the setscrew will not slip on the
motor shaft.
If the motor shaft has no flat spot for the setscrew to bite, then you should make one with a
Dremel and a diamond cylinder point bit (#7123).
For the Piccolo using the stock motor (G280 or G310)and the plastic motor pinions, it may
be necessary to glue the plastic pinion onto the motor shaft to prevent it from slipping.
• Woodies may be trashed:
Most larger wooden blades are made of a hardwood leading edge and a balsa trailing edge
all shrinkwrapped together.
On hard crashes, the balsa part can be severely damaged but the blade looks fine due to
the shrinkwrap holding the blade together.
If you look closely you may be able to see the breaks in the balsa. If you can see this, then
the blade should be replaced.
26.6.3. Slight tilt to the right (or left)
This is normal. The helicopter will tilt slightly due to the thrust of the tail rotor.
26.6.4. Unstable hover or wobbling
• Your headspeed may be too low and you may be compensating for this by using more
main motor pitch which makes the heli motor bog down and the heli unstable.
• Your rotor head may not be firmly attached to the main rotor shaft. This usually occurs
when the hole in the rotor head is reamed out after multiple hard crashes. If the rotor head
is not fitting snugly on the main rotor shaft, it should be replaced. This problem is seen on
MS Hornets. because the E044 pivot support is fragile.
26.6.5. The blade tracking becomes worse at higher head speeds.
• On a CP Piccolo, this is usually caused by a broken pitch arm base (68211). Visually in-
spect the two thin "legs" which are between the arms and the tube. One of the legs may
have broken.
• The feathering shaft may be bent. Disassemble the head and put the feathering shaft in a
Troubleshooting Common Problems
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