[Tower]

2nd flight
ESC mucho hot
Motor change out next

+ YouTube Video

[Tower]

The umbrella gear (vertical) is supplied with the kit. It is mounted on a special shaft. Two new bearing blocks are supplied with the kit. A brass gear is also supplied that makes contact above what you can see in the picture with the antirotation gear (Align). The only thing that can be adjusted here is the spacing between the two gears that I adjusted as I always do on my 450,500,550, and 600 helis - just a little play so they don't bind. There is some up and down motion of the Helaliartist assembly but you can see that a lot of the plastic gear is worn away.

Not sure what happened here. There is some wear on the align gear (horizontal) but that may be caused by the plastic gear as it wore away? 4th flight. The tail spins freely - no binding.

Update - I have heard now from another owner that I am not the only one who has had this failure.

+ YouTube Video

[Keyrigger]

It looks like to me that the gear had some vertical play or there was some flexing under load that allowed the gear lash to open up and then the load created when a turn is initiated caused the top gear to strip (as it is the powered gear). I have had a slightly loose belt drive slip when under full tail collective load and this may be a similar issue. There is only so much you can shim a gear until it becomes bound and as long as there was not binding, yet a reasonable amount of lash, that should not have happened. Hope you get some answers from the company.

Don

[Tower]

Originally Posted by Keyrigger

It looks like to me that the gear had some vertical play or there was some flexing under load that allowed the gear lash to open up and then the load created when a turn is initiated caused the top gear to strip (as it is the powered gear). I have had a slightly loose belt drive slip when under full tail collective load and this may be a similar issue. There is only so much you can shim a gear until it becomes bound and as long as there was not binding, yet a reasonable amount of lash, that should not have happened. Hope you get some answers from the company.

Don

Hey Don
Thanks. That is interesting. There is play in the system for sure. I understand RC Aerodyne is trialing replacement gears for the kit and hoping to have them on the market very soon. I heard from a gentleman on RunRyder who is doing the trial and had a crash - same thing happened to him.

[Tower]

Hi

Just heard again from customer service tech support at Heliartist. They are working on a replacement gear set for the Tiger and .... wait for it ........ Are sending me out a replacement Tiger

Now that is Customer service !!!!!!!!
Way to go Heliartist!

[Keyrigger]

Well done. glad to hear that they are making good on a major part quality issue that results in the crashing of a model. Enjoy.

Don

[Tower]

Heard again from HA yesterday. They are still in testing of the new gears. Nice that they are keeping me in the loop - that takes time and thought.

[Tower]

She was supposed to ship today!
Fingers crossed
New gears are in

[Tower]

Heliartist came through. A new kit arrived today from Flying Hobby. The new gear kit is inside (along with the old one). All the gears supplied are metal and replace a lot of the drive train all the way back to the tail rotor.

Quite something - a major redesign. Many thanks Heliartist!

I am currently working through build issues with a damaged HA MD500d with a 600EFL planned for inside - awaiting word from the distributer on replacement parts. I may put that aside and get back into Tiger build mode. Going to start from Scratch and put aside the original frames and bears. etc.

[Tower]

The tail transmission went together smoothly. I tried initially to install a couple of the supplied thin washers but they were unnecessary and made the fit to tight so they came back out. I lubricated them with white lithium grease. The weight difference with the steel gears is noticeable! The tooth count is the same as the plastic gears - when you scratch them it is shiny steel under the black coating. They turn very smoothly.

The gears alone
White Plastic - .2 oz = 6 grams
Steel - 1.0 oz = 28 grams

assembly
72 grams - oincreased to 95 g 2.5 oz - 3.35 oz