Toolman
Senior Heliman
Location: London
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After seeing it at 3D Masters I bought a TZ-50 Standard as a low cost machine to take with me on holiday etc.
The first thing I have done is to strip everything down. I have to say that it was well constructed with all the bolts thread locked. The plastic moulded parts are not as slick as Hirobo or Raptor genuine parts, but the plastic itself seems to be good. An hour or so with scalpel & fine sandpaper had all the sharp edges smoothed out. The machined parts are also not as well finished, for example the main shaft shows rough cut marks on the ends. Not that it matters to the operation in any way. The swash plate has a tiny bit of slop but isn’t too bad. The bearing all seem to be good quality & well greased. The clutch, which I had heard of causing problems seems fine, though the lining though is made of a strange material. The rotor head is similar to the Sceadu, in fact the mouldings are direct copies. Except that the damper rubbers are a different size. The washers either side of the damper rubbers are very thin & the grips could contact the head. Finally the instructions are crap but then it is an ARTF & you could download a Rappy manual if you wanted.
I’m building mine with a few upgrades, a Quick UK swash plate and tail pulleys, which I had bought before I saw the kit parts. A genuine Raptor clutch bell & liner, Sceadu blade grips as the supplied ones are a bit rough & I happened to have a spare set of Sceadu grips from when I upgraded to Evo parts. I’ve fitted thicker washers between the head & grips and a longer spindle made from a Sceadu one cut down to 92.5mm. Finally I have fitted a threaded Raptor flybar & snot green paddles.
I am curious as to how many of these are flying in the UK?
Tim. |
