F3C > Sylphide 2009

JR Heli Division - Sylphide 90 WC 2009

The JR Sylphide 90 continued as my primary choice for F3C for the 2009 F3C World Championships and US Nationals capturing 2nd and 1st place respectively. It is hard to change from what works and is proven, so only a few changes were made to my 2008 helicopters to get them ready for the season.

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New Fuselage

Thanks to u-neak | DESIGNS both my A and B helis are fitted with brand new, custom painted fuselages. They are without a doubt the nicest paint jobs I have ever seen, let alone owned! In the past I have done my own vinyl decal designs with clear coat, but these new paint jobs make my old fuselages look ancient. I worked with u-neak | DESIGNS by supplying my own 2D artwork based on my latest Super Gracy colorschemes. I wanted to have a similar look to the "SG" scheme that is included in JR's Super Gracy fuselage kits now, but step it up a bit more with effects and colors you cannot get in vinyl decals. If you are looking for the best paint job for your heli's canopy or fuselage, look no further. Call up u-neak to book a paint job

Some of my modifications to the Super Gracy fuselage:

• Low profile JR aluminum landing gear
• Gear legs concealed in fuselage with custom cutouts
• Naca duct shape intake for additional cooling (lower canopy)
• Lowered top vertical tail fin (reduce tail side area)

click to enlarge

New Rotor Head

The Vibe 90SG rotor head works great for 3D and F3C, so much so that JR has released the ASG90 rotor head, based on the V90SG design, but made to fit all 12mm and 10mm main shaft helis in their line. Previously I was using a hybrid rotor head, a mix of old and new Vibe, Vigor, and other parts. Now the ASG head can be bolted on, and has more programmable settings and dampening that it outperformed on the first flight I changed to the ASG.

I found the best settings for hovering, wind, and high speed flight as follows:

JR ASG Head Settings:

• 4x hard O-ring dampener (included in ASG head kit)
• 10mm long tygon spindle tube, centered (to act as pivot point)
• Flip bell mixer 180 degrees to "3D" setting as shown in ASG manual to get more cyclic rate and collective range
• Bell mixer balls: swash side-[outer] blade side-[middle position]
• Bell mixer pivot moved to inner delta mix position (better wind resistance)
• long ball on seesaw outer position
• 520mm flybar
• RotorTech F3C 90 paddle (40g)
• Large flybar weights 50% to 75% out on flybar
• RotorTech SG-F3C720mm blades
• Max Pitch +14 autorotaion
• Stunt mode Pitch -10.5, 0, +10.5
• Hover Pitch -5, 3, +10

Engine - Nitro Power

My favorite part of the heli- NITRO power. OS has once again improved on already great breed of 91 heli engines. The OS 91HZ features many internal mods and changes that allowed me to use the stock engines to power my F3C helis and perform on par with all the new electrics out there claiming 7+hp... The OS is now easier to tune and holds settings better than ever, and tolerates very high RPM runs. I have over 500 flights with no maintenance or replacement parts whatsoever to the HZ engines. Best part is, no charging!

• Gear Ratio: 8:1
• Blade RPM Hover: 1680
• Blade RPM Stunt: 2200 (loaded and unloaded)
• Engine RPM Stunt: 17,600
• Nitro power sound at 115mph: Priceless

A dual plug Viper Head from OMI is used to smooth out the mid range even more, and a Vibe 90 cooling fan and shroud is used in the Sylphide chassis to apply maximum cooling.

Servo Swap

Compared to previous years, I have now upgraded the CCPM servos to the JR8717 (8915 in some markets). This servo is very fast and strong. Some may argue this is not needed for F3C, but I found the instant response helps in all flight areas. Hovering can be more accurate, and aerobatics crisp.

JR now offers a new brushless motor tail servo called the MP80G. Coupled with the JR7000T gyro, the brushless servo added a finer feel and accurate gyro response. A small step better than the 8900G, but everything counts.

Top 10 Most important setup notes that make all the difference:

1. Heli must balance on main shaft at 75% fuel
2. Heavy F3C 720 blades + paddles, with 3D settings on rotor head
   (stable but agile)
3. Dampening set as hard as possible without wobble in hover
4. Effective cooling fan system
5. Dual Rate Hover - 50%
6. Exponential Hover - 30%
7. Pitch curve Hover - Very SHALLOW (non sensitive curve angle
8. Pitch curves - all linear. No bends or bumps on any curve.
9. RPM 1650 hover, 2100+ Stunt
10. Practice without changing setup too often

Installed Equipment

• JR 12X DSM 2.4ghz Transmitter
• JR 921 2.4ghz Receiver
• ReactorX dual regulator 6.8V bus setting to CCPM, 5.2V tail/RX
• Thunder Power 3300mah 2S Li-poly battery
• 3x JR 8717 heli servos CCPM
• 1x JR MP80G brushless tail rotor servo
• 1x JR 3400G throttle servo
• JR G7000T gyro
• REVMAX limiter governor system
• OS 91 HZ engine
• JR ASG90 Rotor head
• Rotor Tech 720mm SG-F3C blades (225g)
• Rotor Tech 105mm Tail blades
• Rotor Tech F3C Carbon paddles (40g)