300

[Greg Jackson]

Just did flight 300.  Feel like one of the warriors from the movie.  I oiled the motor every 5 flights and put tri-flo in certain spot every so often, did boto lube on the thrust bearings at flight 250 or 275. Is there anything I should do pretty soon?  It is flying pretty great still, but when I spoke to Rich L. he changed the bearings on his E7 after 370 something flights.  Just wondering if I need to do anything like that, even though it is flying better than when it was brand new.

[curmudgeon]

Just for my own education, was there something that prompted you to re-lube the thrust bearings, or did you just re-lubricate the thrust bearings (with Boto-Lube of course) as part of a scheduled maintenance?

[Chris Sexton]

Wow 300! Congrats!

I would do the normal stuff. Spin every bearing, listen for noise, notchiness. Check the preload in the head. I have to replace my dampers every 150 or so flights.




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[dpelletier]

Check the preload in the head. I have to replace my dampers every 150 or so flights.

How do you do that?

[Chris Sexton]

Check the preload in the head. I have to replace my dampers every 150 or so flights.

How do you do that?

Well checking pre-load was probably the wrong word. I meant check for slop in the dampers

Grab the blade grips and see if there is any lateral or radial play.  My N5c dampers were so bad, people thought I had a wobble head setup No in and out play, just a pivoting spindle

[dpelletier]

thanks Chris

[Greg Jackson]

I don't have any play in the head, so should I not worry about replacing dampers?  Also, I used Boto lube just as a precaution in the area open for application.  Don't know if it was needed but did it just in case.  Everything is still smooth as a baby's bottom.  So I guess just replace things if notchiness occurs right?

[Brandon Bartolomucci]

I wouldn't worry about dampeners yet if you noticed nothing and Yes if you notice a notchy feeling or sound and sometimes it takes pulling the main shaft out and feeling for notches in the bearings with your fingers. However at only 300 flights I personally wouldn't worry about it yet. Maybe closer to 4 or 500.

Chris' method for checking the dampeners is tried & true and I only wanted to add that another way you can tell that MAY pop up is if you haven't had any crashes but you start noticing weird vibrations or your blades start getting out of track in flight.


Regards,
Brandon Bartolomucci
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[Jean-Luc Bolduc]

I would regrease the pinion support bearing and carefully inspect the main blade thrust bearings for wear spots, replace if needed.

[Greg Jackson]

Matt wrote me when I asked him about this a couple of weeks ago and I should be good up to 1000 flights!  If the hell starts acting weird of course I'll do maintenance but I guess if it is flying well then no worries.

[Greg Jackson]

Sorry to bring this one up again, but I started researching for a question I had but didn't see the answer. 
So even though there is an opening in the main blade grips for lubing the thrust bearings, this is not something that needs to be done every couple of hundred flights?  Going to put some grease on the pinion bearing again when I get back in town.  Just trying to keep it well maintained to have fewer issues down the road.

[Brandon Bartolomucci]

You can add a bit after a few hundred flights if you like but really as long as you installed the thrust bearings correctly you shouldn't have issues. The proper installation (smaller inner & outer diameter on the outside by the blade root) prevents grease from being flung out in mass amounts during flight.


Regards,
Brandon Bartolomucci
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