FLYBAR EXI 450

Well, I did it.

I removed the ZYX Stabilization Gyro and the flybarless head, installed a metal 450 flybar head, and an Align GP780 tail hold gyro I've had laying around. Took me less than an hour to setup the mechanical head and to program the gyro. I took her out for a test spin. The gyro held, and she hovered somewhat controllable in a stiff breeze. The disc looked like it was tracking well, couldn't see so well in the darkening light. Dialed down the gyro to about 30%, I think. Need to work on the DR/Expo settings, check the tracking, but all in all I am pretty happy with it! I don't know why, but I was surprised the gyro worked. I didn't know I had one that worked, but there it is!

The original EXI canopy!

The sweet complexity of the flybar cage.

So complex, so simple!

Love that flybar!

I think the tail control lever on the tail was a bit too tight, and maybe it burned out the small tail servo while I set this up. I loosened up the control horn and since I found out it wasn't the servo but the orignial ZXY gyro causing the oscillation, I reinstalled the mini eMax servo. It's bigger and works well. I had to replace the aileron servo which was damaged, so I replaced both the pitch and aileron servos to match the Corona servo on the elevator. These are very strong quick servos. This thing is now rock solid. The system spun up nicely, was perfectly balanced!

I decided since I had one, and I think the other tail rotor head was a bit loose, I replaced it. Its nice and tight.

I am pretty psyched to have a flybarred 450, even though I don't enjoy flying these smalker helis. All I need now is a 700. Oh, and to learn how to reliably fly them!