6 - 12 inches off of ground only

I put a bunch of mods on my pic, flywheel main gear, steel pinion on main motor, pro tail motor, direct drive tail prop, titanium main shaft, 120 degree shaft collar, and some metal bearings for the main shaft.

My pic can only fly 6 to 12 inches off of the ground. It will not go higher than this. The pic seems to be responding to flight controls very well (pitch, roll, spin)although I can only fly about 1 foot off of the ground.

Any ideas as to what can be going on with my pic?

Gear ratio change?

I am doing 9 teeth on the steel pinion and 100 teeth on the fly wheel. I got the fly wheel from Helihobby.com.

[rdn1153]

Double check for binds in the main rotor section, sounds like you did a lot of work there. Also make sure your gear mesh isn't too tight, there should be some wink all the way around the main drive gear, don't just check/adjust at one spot.

The heli should still fly more than 12 inches off of the ground without having to spend all sorts of extra money on a seperate receiver,new speed control, motor, Lithium batteries, and battery charger.

How's the throttle? You should hear spin faster and faster almost to the top of the stick. Maybe you are not reaching full throttle. How'bout batteries? Fully peaked? Look at the 310 through the holes to see the brushes. Is it sparking a lot?

[JJ]

Hi Baseheadz. Was the heli flying Ok before? If so one of your changes most likely has something to do with it. Here are my suggestions:
The shaft collar - If you have clamped this tight to the top bearing it will cause drag in the bearings, there needs to be a tiny bit of up/down play in the shaft.
Gearing - you have seem to have lowered the gearing from 9/96 to 9/100, this would run a bit less current through the motor but it may now work less hard at lifting.Usually we lower the gearing to help with a fast motor like the Orion.

What is a better gear ratio:
9/96 or 10/100?

[JJ]

[ QUOTE ]
What is a better gear ratio:
9/96 or 10/100?

[/ QUOTE ]
Well that depends on the heli setup. 9/96 is the stock setup and a good baseline, 10/100 is higher gearing and will make the motor try to hover on less throttle. Better for smaller blades or less cells.

[rdn1153]

With a 10/100 ratio, the main gear will turn .1 revolutions (or 1/10) for every revolution of the motor.

With a 9/96 ratio, the main gear will turn .107 revolutions (slightly more than 1/10) per revolution of the motor.

If I did the math right, they pretty much have the same gear ratio.