Helipro Blackhawk
Roughly 25 years ago it was standard advice to newcomers to R/C helis to be told to stick with a 10cc or 60 size machines as any thing smaller was just too twitchy. Then practical 40 size helis appeared so the advice was don’t go below 40 size machines, the Hirobo Shuttle first appeared with a 25 size and Kalt released the Barron 20 so the advice was again downsized. Today’s batch of small electric R/C choppers have probably reached the bottom limit.
I leaped at the chance to review the latest compact size electric R/C heli onto the Australian market. The Helipro “BlackHawk”. This machine arrives fully assembled including the brushless, outrunner motor, requiring only to have the radio gear and the Electronic Speed Control and the Lipo battery installed, and have the decorative stickers applied to the body shell.
An IC version is also available that uses the same general mechanics, but has a 12-size glo motor hanging out front. It would be possible to convert an electric BlackHawk to an IC BlackHawk, if not altogether practical.
The instructions outline 3 sets of equipment comprising ESC, servos, gyros, and batteries, depending upon your flying style, from mild to all-out extreme 3D, take your pick.
Basic Control SetupHigh Performance Setup
- 4 x JR DS-382 Digital Micro metal geared Servos
- 1 X JR G490 Tail Lock Piezo Gyro and a JR NES-810g Tail Servo
- 1 x MGM TMM 4032-3 Heli Brushless Speed Control
- 1 x EVO 3700 11.1v 3c 3700 Lipo Battery
Extreme Performance Setup
At 770mm main rotor Diameter the Blackhawk is a little larger machine than the currently popular Align T-Rex.
The main frame is made from several fibreglass side plates and moulded nylon spacers that support the 5mm main rotor shaft and the tail boom.
The 120 degree CCPM swashplate has all balls including the main center ball, on a common plane, this is to eliminate any geometric irregularity throughout its operating range. The outer section (non rotating) of the swashplate has provision for 90 degree CCPM as well as the 120 degree. The prevention of rotation of the outer part of the swashplate is accomplished by a ball being captured in a vertical slot in a moulding that is one of the chassis spacers. The rotating inner section is driven by links from the washout mixer. I have been often asked what is the purpose the washout system and why was it so named system. Its purpose is to permit the swashplate to move up and down to achieve collective pitch but still permit cyclic controls to be actuated, which is achieved by the tilting of the swashplate. Some early collective machines had a split flybar that allowed the paddles to take on a positive angle just like the main blades. I can’t recall which manufacture came up with this type of mechanical mixer that allowed the flybar paddles to washout to 0degrees regardless of the main blades collective pitch.
The main rotor head is all-metal with an under slung flybar. The main rotor blade grips are glass-reinforced nylon and have leading pitch arms. I have found that leading pitch arms retain more accurate blade tracking.
The drive for the main rotor is by a pinion to the main drive gear that is fitted with a one-way clutch for autorotation. Close below the main drive gear is another slightly smaller, narrower gear that is fixed to the main rotor shaft, maintaining tail rotor drive for control during autorotations. Meshed with the lower gear is a pinion gear on the shaft that also has the front pulley for the tail rotor belt drive.
The combination of G490T gyro and a NES810G servo provides awesome control of the tail. The tail-control servo boom mount is designed to take a micro servo (like NES382) but by removing the plate the standard size NES810G servo can be mounted directly to the plate mounts. (See picture)
I was immediately impressed with the quality of the ball links. Even with the number of ball joints on the control system, there is minimal clearance and very low friction.
A small indication of the eye for detail is shown in the aerial tube mounting. On the BlackHawk the tube just clips into mounts rather than being threaded through small loops, a small issue you might say but it sure makes later changing of receivers much easier.
The MGM Easy 40 Electronic Speed Control has a 4 amp BEC to power the receiver and servos; one of the 3D pilots had concerns that the high power digital servos were taxing the BEC. So a Dualsky voltage regulator was installed, this regulator can be set for 5volt or 6volt operation will operate from 5.5volt to 23volt input. This switch mode regulator has a rating of 3amp continuous and 5amp at a maximum 10% duty cycle
Whenever you use a separate BEC (or separate Rx battery) it is necessary to shut down the inbuilt BEC of the Speed controller. This is simply achieved by removing the positive lead from the plug that goes into the throttle socket of the receiver before the separate BEC is plugged into the normal battery port of the receiver. For regular heli flying the Easy 40 BEC proved perfectly adequate. A wild “3D” exponent might require the separate BEC.
I have used the JR 382 coreless mini digital metal geared servos and these superb little servo are a perfect fit in the mounts supplied.
E-Flite Power Meter
The growth of electric flight for helis and fixed wing has spawned a new range of essential instruments like the E-Flite Power Meter. This small black box has a liquid crystal display that shows Voltage, Amps, Watts, mhA, according to the mode selected. The Power Meter is supplied with leads ready to take your system’s connectors. I have installed the “Deans” style connectors as they are directly compatible with the battery and ESC in the review BlackHawk and would only require adaptors to suit other connector types.
The Power Meter has 4 modes of operation:
- Volts that displays the battery voltage
- Amps displays the current being drawn
- Watts is the energy being consumed e.g. Volts x Amps
- mAh can be used to measure the amount of energy being drawn from or put into a battery.
I use the popular Swallow charger and the mAh readings varied only slightly from the Power Meter. Please note that if the Power Meter is used with a 1/10th C charger such a wall plug charger, it will read the total quantity of power supplied to the battery, not the power absorbed by the battery. However it will give a good indication of the mAh need to peak the battery if used with any peak detection fast charger, however even then you must read the meter as soon as the fast charge finishes as most peak detection chargers drop back to a trickle rate which will then be read as additional charge input.
Hangar 9 Digital Servo & Receiver Current Meter
The previously mentioned servo current draw brought to my mind another couple of meters this time from Hangar 9. The first is their “Digital Servo & Receiver Current Meter”. This unit allows you to check the flight battery voltage by just plugging into any vacant Rx servo socket into the charging socket. By plugging it between the battery and the receiver the current draw of the whole system can be determined, or between the receiver and a servo to check each individual servo’s current consumption. The maximum current a servo can draw is when a servo is stalled. A great little meter, particularly for troubleshooting.
Checking via the charging lead does not apply a load to the battery, plugging into a spare Rx socket loads the reading with the radio system. However it must be kept in mind that these meters must be used by comparing readings, with earlier readings.
The second is their “Digital Variable Load Voltmeter” this meter is probably a more day to day unit to check the status of your flight battery pack. Connect the meter either directly to your battery or it is probably more conveniently to the charging lead. While connected you can vary the load to one of 3 settings .5, 1 or 2amps the LCD shows the new setting momentarily then returns to showing the no-load voltage. Pressing the load button applies the selected load. Hold for enough time to enable the voltage reading to stabilize.
Flying:
Whilst I have been flying R/C helis for around 20 years I have never aspired to the “3D” scene, I enjoy scale type helicopter flying. So I won’t risk the BlackHawk in my hands but will use an expert evaluation from a 3D expert at a later date.
To my feel, the BlackHawk is at its most comfortable with head speed of around 2200rpm and it draws around 15-16 amps at hover at that head speed. The cyclic controls at that head-speed are what I would describe as very well coordinated.
An aspect of the BlackHawk’s flying I liked is the “rock steady hovering”. I have set up several 90size Hirobo Eagle Freya machines for customers, that had hovering characteristics that would permit stable hover at just 20 to 30mm unlike most 30-50 size helis that are much happier at 20-30cm, I had attributed that to the machines size. The BlackHawk has that characteristic, shooting my size theory to pieces.
One issue that is as important to the R/C heli flyer as the flight characteristics of the machine, is the customer support with backup such as spare parts. I have seen the very substantial stockholding of parts that OMP has on the shelf for the BlackHawk so a BlackHawk owner should have no concerns about parts supply.
Conclusion: An exciting new R/C Helicopter with smooth flight performance, and first class customer backup.
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View the Black hawk 500 Review
