Hitec 5065 Servos on the Trex 450 Sport

After a recent hard crash that took out two of the Align DS410 servos on my Trex 450 Sport, I decided to upgrade. While I could have just replaced the gears, I had seen a poll on a heli forum that showed that up to 30% of pilots using Align's DS 410 have had problems. My stock servos had served me well for 170 flights, but I figured it might be time to try something different.

From what I had read, the Hitec 65MG's have been the tried and true workhorse for many 450 pilots but the 5065's were the digital version of this servo and I chose to give them a try. All I can say after a dozen or so flights is WOW! Great little servos, really quick, smooth and the Sport now hovers better than ever.

As far as installation, they went in with a minimum of alteration. I had to do a slight amount of filing of the frame sides to get them to slide in but once fitted, I was able to use the stock servo nuts for mounting. One word of caution though, the Hitec servo arms are longer so be sure to trim off any excess length on the right side forward servo arm as it will interfere with the rotating main gear if you give full cyclic and full collective at the same time. Only other difference between the Align and Hitec servos was that the wires on the Hitec are a little shorter but I had no problem routing them inside the frame and to my receiver that I have mounted under the gyro tray.

Over all I'm very pleased with this upgrade. I also changed out the tail servo to a Futaba S9257 which I'll cover in a later post, but the changes have made a tremendous improvement in the stability of the Sport. If your considering making a change from Align's stock servos, I highly recommend the 5065's

Learning Nose In Hover

Learning to hover your RC helicopter with the nose pointing at you is commonly referred to as "nose in" and is very important for a beginner to learn. Eventually, you will will want the control inputs necessary for nose in to be instinct, not requiring any conscious thought, but In order to get to this point, you will need to develop muscle memory so that your brain knows automatically which direction to throw the cyclic stick.

I found the trick below to be very helpful in developing this muscle memory. You visualize the rotor disk and look for the low area. Then to bring the heli back to a level state, you put your cyclic stick under the low part. For example, if the heli is leaning forward you pull the stick back to prop up the forward leaning disk. Same thing if the heli is pitched up and leaning back, push your stick under the rearward leaning disk and the heli will start to pitch forward, leveling itself out. This works the same for side to side lean as well as any other position in between. Just put the stick under the low part of the disk.

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You will find that after many hours of simulator practice, you will no longer need to think about the low side. Your brain will begin to automatically make the correct movements without thinking about it. It's at this point that you are ready to give nose in hovering a shot with your real heli.

Programmable Flybar Paddles

The main reason I added these Proto programmable flybar paddles was for their florescent yellow color which helped improve my Trex 450 Sport's visability.

I found two manufacturers for these paddles. One was Gorilla Gear priced at $17.98. The other being the Protos brand made by MSH which I purchased for $4.99. From what I could tell and by what I've read by other users, the 2 brand are basically identical, so it's not hard to see why I chose the Protos. Both come with brass weights that you slide into the paddles. After sliding them in I took a pin and pushed them all the way in as they wedge themselves into the end of the bored hole so as to not fall out. If you need to remove the weights there is a small hole on the outboard side of the paddle that you can slide a pin into and push them out.

First off, I weighed the paddles and found them to be only slightly lighter than the stock 450 Sport paddles. They have a different outline but the end airfoil shape seems to be the same. I did find that the Protos paddles screw on farther than the stock paddles by 3mm. This shortens the overall length of the flybar by 6mm.

I tested the paddles without the weights added first and found them to be a little to quick for my taste. If your are doing serious 3d you would probably like them. I found them to suit me best with the full weight. Finless bob says they are perfect for his flying style using only half the supplied weights, so to each his own.

The bottom line is that I really like them over the stock paddles. Not only are they easy to see, but they truely are programmable to your flying style, depending on the amount of weight you add to them.

How to Loop Your RC Heli

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Trex 450 Sport Wiring

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The above diagram shows the typical wiring for a Trex 450 Sport RC helicopter. Take note of the following items:

• The gyro pictured is the GP780 but would be the same for the older GP750.
• The Aile and Pitch servos are interchangeable in that either can be placed on the left or right forward servo position and can be connected to either "Aile" or "Aux1" on the receiver.
• Be sure all servo plugs are connected to the receiver with the black wire connected to the negative bus as indicated by the minus sign on the side of the receiver.
• The yellow signal wire should connect to the receiver so that the plug aligns the yellow wire to the signal post. This is the post labeled with the symbol.