Rubber

[jander14indoor]

What kind of rubber, how much, did you lubricate it, when you say winds, do you mean actual motor winds, or winder winds?

We lubricated it. We got the rubber from Turnertoys. The 200 winds were actual motor winds (sad I know).

I got a mediocre 6th place at Regionals. The winner had a flight time of 49 seconds, with second place at 45. I don't recall what was third. Also my helicopter was really heavy, which may have been its downfall. The winner couldn't have been much heavier than 5 grams, while mine was about 8.
But oh well. This was my first year doing this event. I guess I learned a lot of lessons, though, which will help me next time.

Weight REALLY hurt you. That you got 20+ seconds isn't all that bad. Even 5 gm is too heavy by .9 gm or more.

What width rubber? Are you stretch winding, makes a big difference? If using near 2.0 gm of 1/8 inch wide you should get far more than 200 winds. If you aren't using at least 1.5 gm, you just plain don't have enough fuel in the tank.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[lllazar]

I stretch my 1/8 to twice it's resting length and get in an easy 800 winds. Shouldn't be too hard, just make sure you don't pull it back right at the start, pull a little at first, begin winding, and pull back gradually. You'll then slowly want to come back in as you finish.

[Kovu]

When we fly our helicopter it goes straight up to the ceiling and stays there for 30 or more seconds, the problem is when it falls it drops quickly. Anything I can do to help this out.

[kjhsscioly]

I stretch my 1/8 to twice it's resting length and get in an easy 800 winds. Shouldn't be too hard, just make sure you don't pull it back right at the start, pull a little at first, begin winding, and pull back gradually. You'll then slowly want to come back in as you finish.

we usually test our rubber to max, but we didn't get to with the 1/8th. We did test over a thousand winds without breakage, and 1200 on 3/32. When we fly we went with less due to stress issues in motorsticks.

[lllazar]

Ya, im sure i could do 900 with the 1/8, but im not going to risk my motor stick for a maybe 5 seconds of extra flight time.

Can anyone give me a concrete answer as to how to deal with having a LOT of winds left in the rubber when the copter comes down?

[thewinner]

I don't really think you can, except for using REALLY thick rubber, which is obviously not such a great idea. Having excess winds on the motor is caused by not having enough torque to keep the helicopter airborne, which cannot be helped except by making an ultra-light helicopter which is far less than 4 grams, or by using really thick rubber to increase torque, however this is also probably a bad idea as you will not get a lot of winds on it.

[lllazar]

You know, i don't think it's so much the problem that the rubber isn't providing torque, but rather that the rotors aren't spinning fast enough. And the biggest factor affecting that is friction - i tested the copter today using teflon washers and it came down with a lot less winds, and a lot more flight time.

[thewinner]

Really? In that case, I probably should try that soon. Currently I am just using one of those little glass beads with some lubricant.

[illusionist]

Really? In that case, I probably should try that soon. Currently I am just using one of those little glass beads with some lubricant.

What lubricant are you using? I'm using a tiny plastic bead...

[thewinner]

Just some random silicon (silicone?) based stuff I found in the garage.