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Mikado's rotor head upgrade for the LOGO 20 electric heli

 

To answer the needs of those wanting to use more cells, Mikado is slowly evolving the LOGO 20 electric helicopter. An upgrade rotor head was made available in 2002 and my LOGO 20 has had one since 9/02. It is basically a LOGO 30 rotor head and was labelled 100/70. The assembly went fine - the only question that I had was the purpose of the second set of washers (thin brass ones) for the thrust bearing. They are to be used if axial play is present. The noteworthy changes that happen with this head are: 14 mm blade grips - washers for blades were needed 4 mm blade attachment bolts longer 450 mm x 4 mm flybar larger blade grips add about 28 mm to rotor span! larger bearings in blade grips, mixing arms larger thrust bearings are a flat disk with radially orientated roller bearings that ride between two flat washers. The thing I liked the most was the beefier mixing arms with larger bearings placed further apart. I noticed right away, even though it was flown at the slower of the two rpm settings (around 1620 rpm ), the heli definitely had crisper cyclic response than with the stock head at slightly higher rpm - and that was the point of this exercise. Now there is the possibility of longer blades, boom, and a larger motor. For now I am only thinking of the likes of a larger Pletti, which might also be handy for drag racing. The cyclic response is definitely better. Rolls feel quick enough and flips seem easier.

I showed an experienced "glow-associate" the play in the head and he said, "there's none - just the little bit from the servos", which is how I felt about it. As I said, I like the beefier mixing arms on the blade grips, with larger bearings spaced further apart. The two head speed settings were tached at 1620 and 1800 rpm. I spend a lot more time at the slower head speed now and don't seem to mind it. It's hard to judge how much installing the new servo gears on a couple of servos would have improved a bit of "pitchiness" that existed before, not to mention whatever else I did during the rebuild after a crash, BUT... the heli just flies noticeably better now. It's smooth, but responsive, even at 1620 rpm - I always used to fly it around 1800 rpm. I'll try the longer (500 mm vs. 450 mm) 4 mm flybar for this head next time I order parts, just to see what it's like. I have set my timer to 5-1/2 minutes instead of 6 and I guess this is to be expected with the larger blade grips making the blades effectively 614 mm now. There is noticeably more power (larger rotor head diameter), which has given me the confidence to try some combinations of looping/flipping maneuvers that I never would have "felt my way" through except on the sim. Having a little more power and quicker cyclic response let me work on smoothing out my flips and stationary rolls. I was able to do each of these maneuvers 4 times in succession and it was me, not the heli that limited further reps. I'm starting to think that this is the way to go with a 24 cell Pletti setup. Although this upgrade is available now, there will be a stock version of the LOGO 20 with this head in the future.