Official RotorScale AS350 Alpine Yellow and Red 450 Size Helicopter Discussion Thread

[Bulldog]

I’m surprised at all of the trouble with the stock mechs. Maybe mine are an anomaly, but I’ve one had 2 issues. I had a bad tail shaft that was slightly bent. And caused a lot of vibration. Replaced it with an align part, everything was smooth. I also had a very stiff pushrod on the Huey and had to redo the pushrod mechanism. But otherwise my Huey, AS-350, and Airwolf were pretty much free of trouble outside of periodic belt tension adjustment. I did eventually get tired of that on the Airwolf and switched to torque tube mechs.

Pulled mechanics out , removed main rotor blades and removed tail rotor and shaft. Pulled belt out from around pully so I could spool it up and not have the tail belt engaged. Still a whole lot of heavy vibration. Pulled main rotor head off and checked the upper exposed shaft with a 1 2 3 block. Shaft appeared to be true and straight. Had a good phone conversation with another member from here who said I covered all the bases he could think of. I keep looking at it and say how the hell complicated can this be? Will just keep at it as I don't give up easily. I can tell you one thing, that motor is a source of bad vibration. I have a spare and spooled it up on my bench and then spooled up a 2820 XNova. The XNova you can hardly feel and the one in the Rotorscale will make your fingers num. This is where I'm at, if I get this all straightened out will post again. Would love to get these things flying good as I know they would be a real show stopper.

[DCORSAIR]

That's why I'm sticking with my scale Roban helis, not the best but at least they fly great and they fit my budget, Vario may be top of the line and all that, just way to expensive for my taste, yeah if your a builder and have deep pockets, Vario is for you, show up to a scale meet with Roban and you might get a hand shake, show up with a Vario and you they will roll out the red carpet, show up with a Rotor scale and you might be asked to leave...........

[Bulldog]

Like what is the point of even buying this then trashing the whole mechanics for another one? seems like a total waste of money. I would have gladly paid 500 bucks for this if they built it with superior mechanics. seems more like a money pit to me.

I went into this with the attitude that I was willing to take a gamble. May get it flying well or worst case have a nice shelf queen. A couple of weeks ago I was close to buying another AS350 and the MD500 but told myself to at least get this one up and flying before dumping any more money into them. Now very glad I held off. I discovered Viaro Helicopters I believe made in Germany. They sell scale fuselages and you buy the mechanics separately. Looked over their mechanics very well and there is a night and day difference. Became clear that scale helis are a whole different animal IMO. These helis cost multiples more than these Rotorscales.

[F106DeltaDart]

I’m surprised at all of the trouble with the stock mechs. Maybe mine are an anomaly, but I’ve one had 2 issues. I had a bad tail shaft that was slightly bent. And caused a lot of vibration. Replaced it with an align part, everything was smooth. I also had a very stiff pushrod on the Huey and had to redo the pushrod mechanism. But otherwise my Huey, AS-350, and Airwolf were pretty much free of trouble outside of periodic belt tension adjustment. I did eventually get tired of that on the Airwolf and switched to torque tube mechs.

[bpjacobsen]

Agree with everything here especially about the subpar mechanics. Been saying that for a year. If you read some of the reviews on MRC others mention this too. I just received a metal control arm and all metal slider unit tor the tail rotor assembly made by Tarot from Banggood. Have not installed it yet but am going to put the whole as350 project on the back burner. I also suspect a high frequency resonance issue as well. At this point I feel this thing will require a lot of time to get it right for lack of a better term. Got this in early July and would do it again. Love the looks of it and will get back to it someday with a solution. Ran into another guy in Wales who has the MD500. Issues with it and he solved them all by replacing the mechanics with an Align Trex 450.

Like what is the point of even buying this then trashing the whole mechanics for another one? seems like a total waste of money. I would have gladly paid 500 bucks for this if they built it with superior mechanics. seems more like a money pit to me.

[Bulldog]

FYI, in case anyone plans to purchase the tail grip/rotor assembly from the spare parts page, it shows metal arm and ball joint but it's not metal. it's exactly the same as what comes stock. I told them that and they said the photo was from the manufacturer. Well, do you not check these things? Apparently not. This is not the service I was accustomed to years ago. Or quality for that matter. Frankly, the mechanics on this are subpar. the rotor head sux and needs to be a dfc. I had to trim the fuse around the head to keep it from rubbing.

Agree with everything here especially about the subpar mechanics. Been saying that for a year. If you read some of the reviews on MRC others mention this too. I just received a metal control arm and all metal slider unit tor the tail rotor assembly made by Tarot from Banggood. Have not installed it yet but am going to put the whole as350 project on the back burner. I also suspect a high frequency resonance issue as well. At this point I feel this thing will require a lot of time to get it right for lack of a better term. Got this in early July and would do it again. Love the looks of it and will get back to it someday with a solution. Ran into another guy in Wales who has the MD500. Issues with it and he solved them all by replacing the mechanics with an Align Trex 450.

[bpjacobsen]

FYI, in case anyone plans to purchase the tail grip/rotor assembly from the spare parts page, it shows metal arm and ball joint but it's not metal. it's exactly the same as what comes stock. I told them that and they said the photo was from the manufacturer. Well, do you not check these things? Apparently not. This is not the service I was accustomed to years ago. Or quality for that matter. Frankly, the mechanics on this are subpar. the rotor head sux and needs to be a dfc. I had to trim the fuse around the head to keep it from rubbing.

[bpjacobsen]

OK so the tail blow out is not just me then. Yeah, it definitely lacks power for sure. I can just about do inverted but it requires almost full down collective stick. Not as concerned about that though since it is a scale heli. I just got back from the field and I lost power close to the ground and busted the skids. some cracking on the fuse where the skid goes in but minimal damage otherwise. Wonder if I need to run a ground wire from the boom like I did on my old 470? did anyone else experience this?the fail safe is set to no pulses so I'm pretty sure that kicked in causing the hard landing. Fortunately minimal damage and no gear damage since I was close to the ground. sux either way but whatever. I'm used to it.

[F106DeltaDart]

Hmm, why would they downgrade the esc?

I didn’t consider it a downgrade. The Governor is much better on the newer V4 ESC, and the Huey at least flies excellent on 4S. Instead of switching the ESC, you could probably just get higher tooth count pinion to bring up the headspeed more if desired.

[ridgerunner]

Hmm, why would they downgrade the esc?

The first batch of RotorScale 450s came fitted with the older version of the HobbyWing Platinum 40A 6S ESC. The newer batches come with the newer version of the HobbyWing Platinum Pro 4S ESC, which cannot handle a 6S battery (4S max). The older 6S version is no longer available, so that is the reason for the change. However, they kept the 6S motor (1800kV) so the head speed on the newer ones is now limited to just over 2000 rpm with a 4S battery which is too low for a heavy 450 IMO (it just barely gets off the ground and has very poor tail performance - it easily blows out with any large collective input). When I brought this to the attention of MRC, they shrugged it off saying it flies fine on 4S.

My recommendation is to replace the ESC with a ZTW Mantis 35A 6S ESC and use 1100mAh 6S batteries (thats what I did). The Mantis ESC is inexpensive, has a governor and works very well. Or you could replace the motor with a 3600kV unit and run that on a 2200mAh 3S battery.

MRC really needs to hire a heli expert to sort these things out before bringing them to market. A 450 running 325mm blades really needs 3000 rpm to fly right (especially with the low tail ratios used by Align and their clones - the mechanics in the RotorScale 450s uses a clone of the original Align 450 Sport). Note that I own all six variations of the RotorScales, but have only flown two of them so far - (the other four are still in boxes - yeah, I'm slow!)

[Bulldog]

Been flying my AS350 since yesterday and really enjoying it. It so cool looking up in the air. Even did some inverted, though I don't plan to do much more than scale/sport flying. Afterall it's a scale model, no point in beating it to death and risking a catastrophic crash. Anyway, I was wondering if this heli would work with a 1550 5s battery or an 1800 mah 6s? The listing on M r/c says 4s but the begininng of this thread says 6s. Is the motor and esc capable of handling 5 and 6s? right now I'm flying it with a 1500 4s and it's a little tail heavy since it drifts backwards when I leave it in a hover.

Someone at MRC told me not to fly this heli with anything greater than 4S. He said to trust him as he knew what he was talking about. Anyhow happy to hear you are flying yours and I hope to get mine up as well. From the couple of vids I've watched of this AS350 they do look awesome in flight. That one of the reasons I wanted one.

[bpjacobsen]

Hmm, why would they downgrade the esc?

[CM_Aero]

Been flying my AS350 since yesterday and really enjoying it. It so cool looking up in the air. Even did some inverted, though I don't plan to do much more than scale/sport flying. Afterall it's a scale model, no point in beating it to death and risking a catastrophic crash. Anyway, I was wondering if this heli would work with a 1550 5s battery or an 1800 mah 6s? The listing on M r/c says 4s but the begininng of this thread says 6s. Is the motor and esc capable of handling 5 and 6s? right now I'm flying it with a 1500 4s and it's a little tail heavy since it drifts backwards when I leave it in a hover.

To my understanding, the second batch came with ESCs that are 4S. My ESC says 4S on the side. I think the original batch was 6S.

[bpjacobsen]

Been flying my AS350 since yesterday and really enjoying it. It so cool looking up in the air. Even did some inverted, though I don't plan to do much more than scale/sport flying. Afterall it's a scale model, no point in beating it to death and risking a catastrophic crash. Anyway, I was wondering if this heli would work with a 1550 5s battery or an 1800 mah 6s? The listing on M r/c says 4s but the begininng of this thread says 6s. Is the motor and esc capable of handling 5 and 6s? right now I'm flying it with a 1500 4s and it's a little tail heavy since it drifts backwards when I leave it in a hover.

[DCORSAIR]

So how much experience do you have with scale helis?? Scale helis are alot of work and usually will never be close to perfect out of the box, did you balance your blades, tracking has to be dead on, the right headspeed is very important too, there is just so many things you have to get right before you can really enjoy flying one, sometimes you have to strip one down and rebuild the whole thing again and check tightness of all the bolts, tail blades sometimes can be out of balance as well, main blades way to tight can be an issue, tail blades to tight can be an issue too, when you say vibes, is your skids shaking?, head wobble?, the whole thing vibrating?, got a video??

Thanks for the response. Been in helis a little over a year now and this is my first scale. Pulled out the mechanics and noted several loose m1.5s. Purchased a good set of drivers, LYNX ball link pliers and had other tools already. Tightened everything in sight. To answer your questions, skids are shaking, head is wobbling and yes the whole thing is shaking. Am holding it in my left hand well above my head and controller DX8g2 on the bench. Replaced the main rotor head as it had a ton of radial slop and put in new swashplate, all Tarot. Removed the main blades and still have a lot of vibration especially if I hold it at an angle. Seems I can increase or decrease vibration depending on what angle I hold it. I did not balance the main blades so that could be a factor but vibration and noise is still severe without the main blades. Put it on the ground and spool up to maybe half throttle and you can see the tail vibrating. Was in contact with another guy who had the MD 500 and he had similar issues including a wobble he could never solve. Told me he finally gave up and installed his Trex 450 in the fuse and now it fly's great. I'm at this point now, I would love to get this thing flying well, even my neighbor is asking when I will have that cool yellow helicopter flying. Any suggestions or comments appreciated.

Your welcome, I'm down with the virus right now so my response may be slow, I just get up and read a few post and go back to bed, but I will try to help along the way, message me and well get to know each other and share phone numbers and then we can go from there, I will post what I can and what I know here but sometimes you get to many opinions and who is right or wrong. First thing, get the mechanics out of the fuselage and build some skids or something for it to sit on and is stable, next, take your main blades and get those balanced or replace them with better ones, tracking and balancing blades is a must, learn it first, it will save you lots of headaches, see I told you it is complicated., can you post pics on here??

[Bulldog]

So how much experience do you have with scale helis?? Scale helis are alot of work and usually will never be close to perfect out of the box, did you balance your blades, tracking has to be dead on, the right headspeed is very important too, there is just so many things you have to get right before you can really enjoy flying one, sometimes you have to strip one down and rebuild the whole thing again and check tightness of all the bolts, tail blades sometimes can be out of balance as well, main blades way to tight can be an issue, tail blades to tight can be an issue too, when you say vibes, is your skids shaking?, head wobble?, the whole thing vibrating?, got a video??

Thanks for the response. Been in helis a little over a year now and this is my first scale. Pulled out the mechanics and noted several loose m1.5s. Purchased a good set of drivers, LYNX ball link pliers and had other tools already. Tightened everything in sight. To answer your questions, skids are shaking, head is wobbling and yes the whole thing is shaking. Am holding it in my left hand well above my head and controller DX8g2 on the bench. Replaced the main rotor head as it had a ton of radial slop and put in new swashplate, all Tarot. Removed the main blades and still have a lot of vibration especially if I hold it at an angle. Seems I can increase or decrease vibration depending on what angle I hold it. I did not balance the main blades so that could be a factor but vibration and noise is still severe without the main blades. Put it on the ground and spool up to maybe half throttle and you can see the tail vibrating. Was in contact with another guy who had the MD 500 and he had similar issues including a wobble he could never solve. Told me he finally gave up and installed his Trex 450 in the fuse and now it fly's great. I'm at this point now, I would love to get this thing flying well, even my neighbor is asking when I will have that cool yellow helicopter flying. Any suggestions or comments appreciated.

[DCORSAIR]

Have you had any vibration issues or shaking with the Huey? I'm at a point where I have so much vibration and shaking that IMO this thing is not air worthy. I'm not the only one that faced this problem. Going to attempt to replace the mechanics with an Oxy 4 Sport. If I cannot pull that off then I'm at a dead end. With the new tarot rotor head it looks beautiful and will make a great shelf queen. Also noticed that the supplied motor is a significant source of vibration.

So how much experience do you have with scale helis?? Scale helis are alot of work and usually will never be close to perfect out of the box, did you balance your blades, tracking has to be dead on, the right headspeed is very important too, there is just so many things you have to get right before you can really enjoy flying one, sometimes you have to strip one down and rebuild the whole thing again and check tightness of all the bolts, tail blades sometimes can be out of balance as well, main blades way to tight can be an issue, tail blades to tight can be an issue too, when you say vibes, is your skids shaking?, head wobble?, the whole thing vibrating?, got a video??

[Bulldog]

Have you had any vibration issues or shaking with the Huey? I'm at a point where I have so much vibration and shaking that IMO this thing is not air worthy. I'm not the only one that faced this problem. Going to attempt to replace the mechanics with an Oxy 4 Sport. If I cannot pull that off then I'm at a dead end. With the new tarot rotor head it looks beautiful and will make a great shelf queen. Also noticed that the supplied motor is a significant source of vibration.

[CM_Aero]

Hi everyone, new here. FYI just received my rotorscale as350 about 2 weeks ago. The main rotor head was garbage. Had a bunch of radial slop and the blades just drooped. Long story short found a variety of rotor heads on ebay and Banggood. Purchased a really nice Tarot silver colored cnc head, not DFC and also bought their swashplate. Looks awesome and the blades are now about a quarter inch lower which IMO looks better as well. Have a tarot metal control arm and slider for the tail rotor assembly on the way as I'm not a fan of the plastic there. Been trying to fire up this bird now using a Horizon Hobby hc6250 flight controller I purchased about a year ago. Cannot get it to work for nothing. Updated the firmware in the FC and receiver but no better. Gave up on the damn thing and am trying to decide on a Bavarian Demon Axon or Ikon2 in aluminum case. I love the looks of this heli but dread the thought of crashing it. I waited a year for this one from MRC. Saw a couple of vids by guys in Utah and it looks great in the air. Right now I will be happy just to get mine in a hover. Hope everyone is well and having good luck with their rotorscales.

I had a similar head issue with my RS Huey. Replaced the stock head with the Tarot. Check out the Huey thread for more info. Still waiting to put the mechanics back in the fuselage of mine. I am one flight away from having everything dialed in.

[Bulldog]

Hi everyone, new here. FYI just received my rotorscale as350 about 2 weeks ago. The main rotor head was garbage. Had a bunch of radial slop and the blades just drooped. Long story short found a variety of rotor heads on ebay and Banggood. Purchased a really nice Tarot silver colored cnc head, not DFC and also bought their swashplate. Looks awesome and the blades are now about a quarter inch lower which IMO looks better as well. Have a tarot metal control arm and slider for the tail rotor assembly on the way as I'm not a fan of the plastic there. Been trying to fire up this bird now using a Horizon Hobby hc6250 flight controller I purchased about a year ago. Cannot get it to work for nothing. Updated the firmware in the FC and receiver but no better. Gave up on the damn thing and am trying to decide on a Bavarian Demon Axon or Ikon2 in aluminum case. I love the looks of this heli but dread the thought of crashing it. I waited a year for this one from MRC. Saw a couple of vids by guys in Utah and it looks great in the air. Right now I will be happy just to get mine in a hover. Hope everyone is well and having good luck with their rotorscales.