Gregor99
Elite Veteran
Location: Western Wa
| Ya, I just moved from a 9t to an 11t. Skipped the 10t and went up 2 teeth. I had run the 10t before and dropped down to 9t to help address my blade tracking and head vibration issues. If you have any balance, or tracking issues, higher headspeed just makes it worse. A lower headspeed can mask these issues, or help them depending on how you want to look at it 
When I went from the 10t to 9t, it helped reduce the tracking and vibration issues quite a lot. But I don't like the feel of the slower headspeed. More bobbing up and down, plus the heli isn't quite as responsive to my inputs. Made me feel less connected to the heli. Now with most of my tracking and balance issues under control, I wanted go a back to the 10t. I had an 11t on hand and had been wondering what it would be like. I thought about for a couple days, then in a moment that I can only discribe as "channeling Fender" I threw on the 11t and took it out for a flight.
My first re-action.....WOW....lots more control, more connected and punchouts were serious, no bogging. The heli went exactly where I put it, tended to stay in one place much better in a hover and didn't wonder. Take a look at my hover challenge, that was with the 11t. I couldn't have done that with a 9t. I'm not that good.
Outside, the added headspeed makes it more resistant to wind and the feel of "being connected" just keeps getting better.
Its not all good though. The higher head speed brought out my tracking issues and a nasty vibration. So much so that the gyro was starting to re-act badly and most of the heli was only visible as a blur..... not good. This was with the half plastic head. I didn't really want to put the rest of the metal head on until after I was done with nose-in. By then, I had fallen in love with the 11t and didn't want to back to the 9t or even the 10t. I figured it'd also be good to get rid of all my balance issue now than mask them with a lower headspeed. I ended up putting the rest of the CNC head on and that completely solved my vibration issues. There's still a little bit of tracking issue, but I'm running the woodies and its managable.
The other problem is the drain on the power system. I have the 3800 so its going to pull more amps than the 3100 or the 3900. With the 11t, I've lost about a minute of run time, and the battery is warm at the end of the 7 minutes. But its worth it to me. The heli now feels much more like the heli's I practice with in the SIM and more like I imagine how a Trex must fly. It hovers almost hands off and does everything I ask it to without adding its own random moves.
I don't think I'd recommend it to everyone. If you were still in the over-correcting mode, it'd be too much. Plus there is question as to how much headspeed the woodies and plastic head can take. There is no diffinite answer. As a precaution, I glued the plastic part on the blades to the rest of the blade. Something I picked up while browsing around. Its supposed to help keep the blades from coming out of the grips. Also if you have ANY tracking or balance issues now it'll only get worse with an increase in headspeed.
The other negative side effect was on the tail. The added headspeed does give the tail more authority but it also brought out a nasty bounce that only occurs after an abrupt stop from a CCW piro. The bounce is so bad at times that it causes the tail to wag back and fourth 3 or 4 times about 10 degrees. Disturbing to say the least. The first time it happened was in the garage and I almost didn't get away with it. I've brought my gyro gain down from 70% to 50% which seemed to be the only way to address it while I search for the root cause. Even at 50% the tail still holds pretty well which it never would have done with the 9t. |
