Making my own training gear

From sticks and styrofoam balls... Good idea?

[jeffery]

Dowels and Ping Pong balls would work the best,


Regards, Jeff

[fab_chan]

2 or 3 mm carbon rods from your LHS or kite shops are lighter than wood, if you have lifting off problems.

[VJH]

I went with Fiberglass rods (3mm?) and ping pong balls. Works great, but occasionally they would vibrate at the same frequency as the small vibration on the blades, and shake things apart. Bumping up the throttle sometimes punched through this, and sometimes pulled the heli apart in mid air. But it got me through the training gear stage and now I go without. Definitely use something while learning.

I made mine from 3mm CF rod and four plastic balls. Worked a treat and didn't cause any nasty vibes. If it does start to vibrate, it shows your heli isn't properly balanced - these vibes you wouldn't be able to see normally - the training gear amplifies them.

funnily enough, mine are 3mm carbon with black plastic balls..

LOL I had an old kite so i took a pole out of it, split it in half and got some pracitse golf balls (bright yellow with holes in. The kite poles were a press fit into the holes in the balls. Works greate!

[dongle]

I used 4 pieces of 2mm carbon rod with a central joiner made out of 2 short pieces of thick walled nitro fuel tube - gives a bit of "bounce" for those harder-than-intended landings - oh, and of course neon pink ping pong balls just to make sure I could see them during recovery in the thick grass...