Specifications

The ECO 8/16 training gear is about 1 inch longer and 3.25 inches wider than the stock

ECO 8 landing gear. This can hold either one or two battery packs and requires no modific-

ation.

Both the ECO 16 landing gear and the ECO 8/16 training gear use the ECO 16 skids

(67917) which are wider in diameter.

• The control balls on the plastic swashplate (67701) have been known to break off on ex-

tremely hard crashes. You may want to upgrade to the aluminum swashplate (67707) im-

mediately. Also, the aluminum swashplate can be configured to support 120 CCPM which

offers better control than 90 CCPM.

• The stock main rotor shaft (67535), the stock feathering shaft (67509), and the stock tail ro-

tor shaft (67550) are very soft and bend easily in minor crashes.

If this happens, I highly recommend replacing them with the hardened versions: 67940,

67942, and 67941 respectively.

• I don't recommend using the mechanical mixer, because electronic mixing works much bet-

ter than the mechanical mixer. If you do choose to use the mechanical mixer anyway, you

will need fairly strong servos because the mechanical mixer needs a lot of force to move it

around. Probably HS-81s are not adequate for mechanical mixing - you need at least HS-

85BBs.

• The stock wooden main rotor blades are fairly durable and are very good for beginners be-

cause they will survive minor crashes. I would recommend using the stock wooden main ro-

tor blades for as long as possible - definitely while learning hovering in all orientations.

• Pg 6: The tail drive belt pulley (67702) may wobble because the hole is not drilled exactly in

the center of the pulley. This usually does not cause problems, but in some cases the hole

is very out of center, and the tail belt may slap against the tail boom as it spins up or while

it's flying. In this case, it is advisable to replace the tail belt pulley with a new one that is

hopefully better, or replace both pulleys with the Voyager E rear belt pulleys (060860), or

replace both with aftermarket aluminum pulleys ( PMP ATPS).

• Pg 6 and 13: It is best to prethread the setscrews (67574) into the plastic pulleys (67702)

before mounting the pulley onto the shaft. This will reduce the chance of stripping the

setscrew hole. You should use a small nutdriver (Wiha #263 or similar) to tighten the

setscrews.

If you accidentally strip the hole, you can repair the hole by using the CA trick mentioned in

the general construction tips section.

• Pg 8: If the aluminum skids (67563) are difficult to fit into the undercarriage cross member

(67562) try using a hairdryer to heat the cross member until it softens slightly, then slide in

the aluminum skids.

• Pg 9: When building the pitch compensator, the manual does not mention the arm (67591)

has a TAPERED hole for the pin. If you try to force the pin through the narrow hole instead

of the wide one, this may cause damage to the arm.

• Pg 9: The two collective pitch compensator arms (67591) will rub against each other on a

stock ECO, which is bad. You should put an M2 washer between each arm (67591) and the

hub (67590) to increase the spacing between the arms.

• Pg 10: The flybar seesaw (67610) usually does not seesaw smoothly on the rotor center

unit (67639). This flybar seesaw needs to move very smoothly on its pivots otherwise this

will cause vibrations when hovering.

Helicopter Construction