Now if only my heli had a little light on it to tell me when to replace worn out parts. It is amazing what a little general maintenance can do for a heli. As I am sure you have heard me mention on the show numerous times in the last couple of weeks that the 7HV was due for a tune up. What exactly needs to be replaced can vary and it really just depends on what I find once I get the heli torn down. Well this last weekend I took advantage of having 3 days off from school and spent some time wrenching.
So to start I tore down the entire head on the 7HV only to find that the dampers were completely shot. You know the dampers are worn out when the hole in them is about 1/3 larger than the hole in a brand new set. While I had the head torn down I checked all the bearings in the blade grips as well only to find that a couple of the radial bearings were a little notchy, so they got replace as well. Lastly as I was looking at all the parts I realized that the head block and other parts had probably never been cleaned so I took the time to go through the entire head and clean the grease off of every single part. As you would suspect when I reassembled the head it was extremely smooth and everything was very tight just like it should be.
Each time I change the dampers and get a chance to fly the heli I always recognize that the heli flies noticeable better. Also each time I tell myself that I am not going to let the dampers get that bad again, but that never happens. Well this time was no different; it literally felt like I had an entire new heli. All of the slight bobbles that the 7HV had developed were completely gone and the heli is flying better than ever. This just goes to show that a little TLC every once in awhile can go a long way and make a huge difference inflight performance. Now I honestly cant believe or justify why I had put this off so long.
So if you have been putting off that general maintenance don’t wait any longer. I sure know that from now on as soon I notice that any of my helis has a slight change in flight performance I am going to get the worn out parts replaced and get it flying back to it’s potential. Now if only the weekend would come so that I can get back out there and enjoy this heli.
-Jessie