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We need more info to help.

When you say Penaud design, how close are you following the original concept?
-Are you trying to use feathers for blades? Probably not compliant with the rules, and probably not strong enough.
-Are you just using the layout? Rotor on top and bottom, but conventional materials for blades?
-What are your construction methods & materials?

When you say 'crumpled mess', what's crumpled? The motor stick? Rotors? Does the crumpling happen during flight or after hitting the floor?

What type of rubber are you using? FAI TAN Supersport? Office rubber bands? Something else?

The more details you give us, the better we can answer your question.

Thanks,

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

I am just using the layout with conventional materials for the blades. And when I mean crumpled mess it just flies for a couple of seconds and then falls back down.And the rubber bands are the FAI. Here is what im trying to figure it out, I circled the part I dont understand.

Kovu wrote:I am just using the layout with conventional materials for the blades. And when I mean crumpled mess it just flies for a couple of seconds and then falls back down.And the rubber bands are the FAI. Here is what im trying to figure it out, I circled the part I dont understand.

That is a fixed rotor. A helicopter has 2 rotors, one fixed, one free. The free spins by itself and the fixed spins with the motorstick in the opposite direction.

And I believe freedomflightmodels came out with a helicopter kit design to the 2010-11 rules. That's great, but I believe in making your own design you can control many aspects (such as p/d ratios) which may be important in having a longer duration.

Thanks for the information I feel so stupid right now. Hopefully now I can get something to work, my whole design was backwards now with a couple of fixes it should work, too bad I have to wait until after thanksgiving break.

it's fine a lot of this stuff can be rather confusing.

What size rubber would you all recommend? I'm using 3/32 right now but I haven't built my design in entirety so I'm yet to see if that will produce enough torque.

3/32 didn't provide enough energy for my helicopter, but that may just be due to poor construction and too much weight (i don't know the final weight). Later this week I plan on testing with 1/8 inch rubber

Hey Jeff, I don't want to seem rude, but could you please post a few detailed pictures of your demo helicopter in the image gallery please?

Hi... I too am having trouble mounting my motor-powered rotor to my motor stick. Most of the designs I've seen have either a hollow motor stick that houses the rubber band or two thinner sticks w/ the rubber in between. Is it possible to mount the motor on a single, solid stick? It seems like it wouldn't be due to balance issues, but I'm very new to this.

I have experience with wright stuff motors, but I'm just not getting the niceties of the copter motor :S The pics that have already been put up in response to similar questions are not helping.

What length would be suitable for the main body of the helicopter - i feel like shorter but not too short would be best, there are no limitations as far as i can see on the rules sheet.

TreeGirl_Yesteryear3 wrote:Hi... I too am having trouble mounting my motor-powered rotor to my motor stick. Most of the designs I've seen have either a hollow motor stick that houses the rubber band or two thinner sticks w/ the rubber in between. Is it possible to mount the motor on a single, solid stick? It seems like it wouldn't be due to balance issues, but I'm very new to this.

I have experience with wright stuff motors, but I'm just not getting the niceties of the copter motor :S The pics that have already been put up in response to similar questions are not helping.

yup, the solid stick is a pretty common method. Here's a good demonstration of how it works:
http://freedomflightmodels.com/images/c ... 0Large.jpg