Q. At full power, why does my Hawk not come off the ground?

P. This is a very common occurance after a customer has crashed for the first time, has bent the feathering spindle and replaced it.

A. Most of the time, the 2 washers, that go inside the main rotor blade holders, at the end of the feathering shaft are reversed. In step #4 of the Hawk IV instruction manual, the M4x10 Flat washer must be installed first against the ball bearing. Next, the M4x12 flat washer in installed on the outside before the M4 Locknut.

What is actually happening when this is the case? By reversing the washers, the larger washer will touch the inside and outside race of the outboard ball bearing, effectively locking the bearing and locking the collective pitch at the threshold RPM. What makes this difficult to troubleshoot for the beginner is that on the ground at idle or off, the collective system is super smooth. Only when the main rotor head speed is above 1/2 throttle the centrifigal force from the main blades is high enough to lock the bearing.

Other reasons may be because the pitch is not set properly, the engine may be set too lean or too rich or not enough RPMs.[top]

Q. Why are the gears so tight on my helicopter?

P. When I try to turn my main gear, all the gears seem to be very tight, making it difficult to turn them by hand. Alternately, when I have changed my main gear, it again is difficult to turn the main gear in the helcopter.

A. Century uses a proven, dual gear reduction mechanism to deliver power from the engine to the main rotor head. When the helicopter is new, it is normal for the drive gears to be tight. Just wait for 4-6 tanks of fuel while the engine is wearing in to have the gears become silky smooth. Unlike most of the other designs in the market, where there are only two gears, the clutch bell and the main gear, our helicopter has four. The key benefit with this type of design is to reduce the loading on the individual teeth of each gear as there are more teeth engaged at all times.

Be carefull if you have changed the clutch bell, and installed a new lining by bonding it into the clutch bell with JB Weld. If the amount of adhesive is excessive the gap between the clutch and the bell will be too small. Use only a small amount and spread evenly on the liner.[top]

Q. Why does my counter gear seem to be warped?

P. When I spin the main gear the counter gear wobbles up and down.

A. This has been a question that customers have asked from the very first Hawk helicopter kit back in 1997. The short answer is, when the assembly instructions are followed and the counter gear assembly has no vertical play (by pressing on top of the metal drive gear and the shaft under the counter gear) the counter gear will have a high spot when turned and viewed from the side. This will not affect how the helicopter performs and will not contribute any additional vibration.

Even in the situation when the counter gear has a slight amount of vertical play, customers have flown their helicopters for years without incident. In step #10 of the Hawk IV manual, we very carefully walk you through the best procedure when building your helicopter. In the case when you have purchased the ARF assembled versions, we recommend that you check this before hand and adjust it if the gear wobbles excessively.

When the counter gear is sighted from underneath, when the mechanics are disassembled, you will notice that the gear turns perfectly true. There is zero lateral movement (the gear spins without moving in a left-right or forward-backward direction) which means that the more critical gear mesh is maintained the same and the gears will wear in normally. [top]

Q. Why does my PG2000 II Gyro not work with my Futaba 6XHS radio?

P. When I try connect my new PG2000 II Remote gain gyro to my receiver and servos with my Futaba 6XHS radio, the gyro does not work.

A. The Futaba transmitter default settings will give you the impression that the gyro is not working, the reality is that it will work with the following settings.

Gain Resolution on Gyro: 100%
Gear Ch#5 ATV (single percentage setting*)
ATV %	Gain %
10	80
20	60
30	40
40	20

*The Futaba T6XHS only allows one ATV setting (when the Gear switch is toggled the graphic arrow on the LCD display remains below the number 5 in the L/D position) on channel 5. Although the PG2000 II is capable of dual gain settings, the transmitter limits this to a single gain, which can be remotely programmed by changing the ATV percentage value from the transmitter.

Under some conditions the 10% ATV setting will not provide enough Gain on the gyro, to correct this situation, simply move the steel control ball on the servo horn further away from the center of the servo. The default setting for the Hawk is 10mm however can be increased up to 14mm.[top]