EXI 450 Sport

It's time to start getting my helis up and programmed into the iX12. Because it was on the table I decided to start with the EXI 450 Sport with its flybar system. I haven't tuned up a flybar cage in so long I had to go back and watch Bob White's CCPM Set Up videos from Helifreak.com. It all came back pretty quickly!

I decided to start the CCPM setup from scratch. Right away I started seeing problems with this cage, mostly that is was so loose that the blades moved several degrees with slack. I decided to give it a try anyway.

Gotta love a flybar system!

Blades balanced perfectly. 

Well, the short of it is that it wasn't controllable and behaved wildly in pitch change, eventually I just had to put it down. I hit hold and tried to auto down, but it just swung around, and slammed into the  ground so hard it bent the feathering shaft, broke one of the main blades, stripped a few teeth on the main gear, maybe a hint of bend I  the main shaft, but no other damage. In all my crashes, I have never done that. I checked a box that has a bunch of old heli parts and I found an unused Hobby King 450 Flybar assembly. I always replaced the nylon parts with metal, hence the metal one on this heli. But this one is solid and tight, so I decided to replace the loose metal one with this one

It is actually really nice, and for sport flying more than sturdy enough! It had it's own main shaft. It was pretty much square and level, a few tweaks and it's all set up. I wish I had done this before.

New blades, all ready to test. Got late so it will have to wait until tomorrow. I think its going to fly great, so much better control.