I was asked by Galtech Models
if I would be interested in building and reviewing a
new helicopter kit for them. Initially, I was quite
excited at the prospect of building and flying
someone else's brand new helicopter with all new
gear. However, when Galtech told me that it was a
Morley brand, I shuddered and wondered what I had got
myself into! I have only been flying helis for two
years, and to be fair, Morley was not a well heard of
and respected name within the industry. However, it's
not everyday that you're given this opportunity,so I
said I'd do it, and write a fair unbiased report on
it.
Well here goes........
The complete kit arrived, and
to my surprise, it was a Morley Maverick XR. The XR
version is a slightly upgraded version, featuring
longer wider blades, extended tail boom, tail support
kit, and carbon-fibre main frames. The XR is
recommended to be used with at least a .46 size
engine, whereas the standard kit will accept anything
from a .40 to .53. I was also sent five new Hitec
servos to critique as well.
On lifting the lid, the first
thing that strikes you is how well laid out the main
components are.
They have been placed on a sheet of cardboard, and
plastic sealed so you can instantly identify each
piece quickly. Under the top layer, are the various
bags of fastenings , ball links , and the tailboom,
canopy, undercarriage and main body pieces etc.
Having laid out all of the bits, time to whip off a
couple of photographs. Now to the manuals.....
My first impression of the
quality of the documentation is very good. I sat down
with just the instruction book and diagrams, and read
through the building process. The text follows the
photos accurately, and the diagrams are so clear,
that I was able to see how everything went together
without physically looking at the parts themselves.
This is a credit to Morley, as they've obviously
spent a lot of time in this area. The kit would
appear to be aimed at the beginner to intermediate
level, and most people in this category have had
limited (or no) building experience, so an accurate
easy to follow instruction manual is a big help (and
it's not written in pigeon English either!)
The undercarriage is the first
thing to be built, and it looks reasonably sturdy for
those inevitable hard training landings. The main
chassis base is attached to it and the model is then
built "from the ground up". This is an
unusual way of building, as most other models either
start with building the head first, or building
around the central side frames.
Engine and clutch:
Normally I like to run-in a new engine (both
aeroplane and helicopter ones) on the bench, but as
the engine assembly is used quite early in
construction, I didn't get a chance to run it in
first.
The 1st stage and tail
transfer gearing setup:
The motor is vertically mounted with the clutch near
the top of the model. The 1st stage transfer gear
comes off from here and its shaft goes back down to
the chassis base. From here, it drives the main gear
and mast,which goes back to the top of the model.
(Seems like a bit of double handling to me!). One
thing that didn't impress me were some of the
moulding lines i.e. there was excess plastic which
got in the way of things, which meant that the
components didn't mesh and join properly, so spend a
bit of time here getting everything in-line and free
moving.
There are 2 metal pre-drilled
angular brackets which basically hold all of the
mechanics square. They seem good and sturdy,but you
need little fingers to fit the washers and locknuts
in behind the frame! Setting the gearmesh between the
engine and the first stage gear was a bit of a pain ,
but it's worth spending a bit of time getting it just
right. I like to loctite most bearings into their
plastic recesses, so that they don't spin in their
housings, but the instructions don't comment on this.
You have to be careful when
screwing straight into the nylon plastic pieces, as
it's easy to over tighten them and to strip the
thread. One of the main things I didn't like about
the whole model is the use of brass bushes instead of
bearings in a lot of cases. I don't know how long
they will last, and I'd be tempted to upgrade all of
the bushes with bearings ASAP.
In all previous models I've
seen, the steel feathering spindles/axles have all
been 2 separate pieces i.e. one for each blade
holder. The Maverick has a one piece shaft, so I'd
expect to have to replace it almost every crash
unfortunately. I would have thought that the head
would come with thrust bearings, or at least the
upgraded XR version would have them. Neither have,
and with the weighted blades and higher head speeds
associated with sport/intermediate flying, I would
have hoped they'd be standard. Prior to fitting the
flybar paddles, I slid a 5/32 wheel collar over the
flybar to make balancing the head easier. The head
rotates anticlockwise, which is not what most of us
are used to seeing, so make sure you put the blades
and flybar paddles on the right way!
I really don't like these brass bushes. The ones in
the mixing arms have slop already, and if you tighten
them to eliminate the slop, the linkages bind. I'd
much prefer that they were ballraced.
The tail rotor needed a little
bit of balancing too. The tail rotor pushrod and
drive tubes are inside the boom and it gives the
model a nice 'clean' appearance. However, you have to
cyano the tubes inside the boom, so be careful or
you'll stick the whole lot together if you are not
careful! The t/r drive shaft is positioned along the
left side of the boom, but I don't like the tubes
crossing over each other in the boom as it's not a
straight drive, so must surely cause some
vibration/friction?
Radio installation:
Progress ground to a halt... I
was missing 2 brass balls. and after double checking,
they definitely\ were not with the kit. Luckily, I
had a couple of spare Concept 60 balls and these
seemed to fit alright. I suggest you operate all of
the radio gear and servos on the bench prior to
installing it all into the model, as if the control
arms aren't positioned properly, it's a real hassle
to adjust once they are installed. The collective
pitch mechanism is by means of a sliding swash plate.
The 2 cyclic servos are mounted next to each other in
a bracket, and the pitch servo moves this whole
bracket (and the swash plate) up and down. Quite a
simple system, but there are long lengths of pushrods
trying to flex, and the linkages and system is not
quite as 'tight' and slop free as I'd like.
One thing I didn't like, was
there was quite a bit of endplay in the mast
assembly- over 1mm (which doesn't sound much, but
seems excessive). No where in the instructions does
it say to fit a shim under the main gear to stop this
end-float, and at this stage of construction, it's
too late anyway as it's a major job to get to the
base of the mast now!
The receiver fits nicely within
the helis mechanics under the collective pitch
assembly i.e. right inside the model. Normally, I
like to wrap my receiver in foam and secure it to the
model with rubber bands and tape. In the Morley, it
is a bit cramped inside the mechanics, so I had no
option but to mount it with a couple of layers of
double sided servo tape. Not the ideal method, but
that is what the instructions actually suggest.
The battery mounts underneath
the front radio tray and the gyro fits on the top
tray. The front tray looks a little flimsy and it
would be an early casualty if you dig the nose in
with any forward movement. The instructions make no
mention of where to put the gyro gain adjustment box,
but there is a little cutout for it directly under
the motor, and it's secured there with double sided
servo tape also. The fuel tank is rather an odd
looking shape. This is because it fits just between
the main mast and the first stage drive. It took a
little bit of mucking around to squeeze it in, but it
has to be right so that it clears the moving bits.
Being so centrally located by the mast, the 'c of g'
shouldn't be affected much as the tank drains during
flight.
This kit came with a special
muffler designed for the OS46, that fits through the
frame. Surprisingly, the muffler wasn't supplied with
any gaskets, so I just used silicone rtv. The exhaust
has no other brackets supporting it. There are no
suggestions on how to make up a bracket assembly to
secure it, so I'll leave it as per the instructions
and see what happens (with vibration, and lack of
rear securing of it, the header pipe may be prone to
cracking?).
The canopy halves are made of
abs plastic, and they need a lot of trimming. The
instructions recommend using a sharp knife to scour
the canopy, then bending and breaking it, but I found
that a pair of scissors used carefully could make
quite a tidy job. The halves are joined together with
slow cyano. There was still a lot of sanding and
trimming required which was a real drag. I spent a
lot of hours getting the canopy just right, cutting
out cooling vents etc., more sanding etc. etc.(Being
realistic, as this is a beginners / intermediate
pilots model, it is bound to get knocked around a bit
and I'm sure the canopy will get damaged. For the
number of hours involved in making the canopy, and
the fact it will probably get bent, I'd seriously
consider buying the fibreglass alternative which
comes prejoined and would be easier to repair. )
I rubbed the entire canopy down
using a scotchbrite pad, some detergent and water,
and fitted the decals wet. The advantage of applying
them wet is that you can slide them around for a
while to position them in place accurately,without
damaging them. I then sprayed the canopy with several
light coats of Spraykote clear gloss to seal the
stickers, and it makes it easier to wipe clean after
a days flying.
Blade building:
Having had the luxury
(laziness??) of always buying premade blades,
building up a set was an interesting exercise. When
finished, you have the satisfaction of knowing that
you have a (pretty close to) perfectly balanced set,
and you know that if the model vibrates, you can
eliminate the blades as a cause. These blades are
also cheaper than premade equivalents, which is a
bonus as well!
Setting up and flying:
The instructions are not very
explicit here, and only say basically "set the
pitch curve up at 10 degrees top, 5 hover and 0 at
low stick" and that's all! There's no mention of
engine settings, head rpm, tail rotor mixing etc. As
this could be a beginners model, I think Morley
should've elaborated quite a bit here.
I ran the motor in and set the heli up on a test
stand. The model is only slightly larger than a
normal '30' size machine, so it seems to go really
well with an OS46, 10% nitro and Klotz oil. After 4-5
tankfuls on the stand the motors loosened up and the
mixture etc. is now about right (although still a bit
rich to be on the safe side). Initial hovering in the
back garden was incident free, but it takes a while
to get used to the model hanging left-skid low due to
the anti-clockwise head rotation. It looks like it's
continually moving to the left by itself, but it's
only an optical illusion! I like to have the engine
at a continuous 2 stroke in the hover, but with the
OS46 powering it, it's running quite a high head
speed. This makes it a bit sensitive to controls, so
I cut the control throws down a bit and 'softened'
the response with quite a bit of exponential.
The atrocious Auckland weather
meant that I couldn't test fly it for a month. Quite
annoying as I was anxious to see how it performs.
Finally, the weather improved (for about 2 hours!)
and I managed to venture into forward flight. Rather
nerve wracking as I was paranoid not to break it!
It's definitely a lot quicker than a '30', and is no
"slug" around the sky. It hasn't got the
sheer vertical performance that I like (for 3D stuff)
tho, but it moves along at a decent rate of knots all
the same.
With the head counter-rotating, all of the
revo./torque mixing is backwards. It took a while to
realise that, and made for some interesting
manoeuvres in the meantime! The model had some
strange characteristics though. As forward cyclic was
applied, it also tilted the disk to the right (and
vice-versa). For a novice, this could get you in a
lot of trouble as it's doing things by itself that
you didn't tell it to do.
This seems to be caused by the slop in the brass
bushes in the mixing arms, as different cyclic
commands were all getting mixed in together during a
cycle and the flybar paddles were slopping around and
doing their own thing also.This made for some hair
raising moments as it didn't behave exactly as it
should've.
It is possible to mix these characteristics out with
a computer radio, but the Morley is advertised as
being able to be flown with a basic 4 channel set
with 5 servos, so a novice would be struggling to fly
it. The solution is simple, just upgrade the brass
bushes to bearings, but the point is, you shouldn't
have to just to get it to behave itself.
Pro's:
Fun (almost overpowered!), affordable, and cheap
parts prices. Reasonably sturdy,easy to build (thanks
to excellent diagrams), upgradable.
Con's: Canopy
building is a hassle, brass bushes need upgrading,
thrust bearings should be standard (in the XR at
least), some cheap looking plastic parts,
instructions for setting up and test flying are too
brief.
Summary: The
Morley is an affordable way to start out with rc
helis. It is designed for the novice flier who
doesn't want to spend too much money getting into the
hobby, yet it is upgradable and (dare I say it) can
perform 60 size manoeuvres cheaper (if you crash
while practicing them!). It could save the cost of
initially buying a 30 size machine, then having to
step/trade up to a 60 when you want to try more
adventurous manoeuvres which require more power.
However, it is nowhere near as 'tight and crisp' as a
good Concept30, and would require quite a few upgrade
bits just to put it on a par with a Concept.
Basically, it's the same as everything .......you get
what you pay for. The Morleys only rivals in it's 46
size class would be the Schluter Mosquito and the TSK
Five-Star. Having not built or flown either of those,
I can't say how it would compare to them.
But, for what it is,and the
price, it's fun!
My thanks to Galtech for trusting me with their toy!
Steve Engle
Comments from
Morley Helicopters Ltd. From : Mr Bud
Boulton
Director of Morley Helicopters Ltd.
The test review is reasonably
fair but I do have a few comments to add.
Steve mentions on a number of occasions that he does
not like "brass bushes" and would prefer
bearings! The brass bushes are in fact phosphor
bronze oil impregnated bearings and are very hard
wearing and more importantly, inexpensive. It would
be very nice to ballrace everything but then it would
no longer be an affordable entry level machine. We
have sold several thousand Mavericks and very few
customers fit the ballrace upgrades!
The other point that is misleading is the problem of
end float on the main mast and having to shim it.
The end float can be completely taken out by simply
moving the mast stop collar up against the ballrace
as intended! The canopy does require building and
this can take some time, but then is probably a third
of the price of a ready made Concept or similar.
Steve also mentions that the feathering spindle is
one piece and that it will probably have to be
changed after a crash. He does not mention that it is
8mm thick and is less likely to bend than the very
thin ones used on Concepts, etc.!
I look forward to hearing some
more on the flying side of the review and am
generally happy with the review as long as people
keep in mind the relative cost of the machine when
compared to machines with higher specification.
The opening paragraph does not
exactly warm the reader to the Morley name but this
aside the review should be of interest to the novice
flier who is running on a low budget and wants to
make some progress and have some fun.
Bud Boulton
Northern Helicopter Modellers Club N.Z