Heliup Flybar Levers

The following is a review of the Heliup CNC Flybar levers.

Initially let's take a look at the flybar levers .....

The flybar levers are a direct replacement for the Align plastic levers. The Align stock levers very quickly got a bad reputation for the grub screws stripping the plastic thread. Being unable to tighten the grub screw to get a good bite on the flybar for worry free operation was common place.

The Heliup flybar levers alleviate grub screw problems entirely, the threads are very deep and there is more than enough torque that can be applied to get a vice like grip on the flybar. So, one problem solved but what else do these offer in way of improvement in flight performance?

The Heliup levers sit well out and away from the mixer arms, which means that it is not possible to create a static bind on the flybar mixer arms. Which is one less thing to worry about. Due to the ball link being further out away from the flybar these arms also soften the cyclic response across the entire cyclic range. This is because the ball has to go through a wider arc for the same level of cyclic movement. They also offer two diffeent positions, so you can make the response softer than stock or even softer than that. In my view this is excellent thinking from Heliup, the standard T-Rex has far more response than necessary on the cyclic, meaning that inner servo holes are more often than not used to reduce the cyclic response. With these arms you could get exactly the same response (by using a further out servo hole) or you can soften the cyclic response by keeping the servo hole positions the same.

In flight this softening of the cyclic is apparent and creates a slightly calmer T-Rex with very positive and progressive cyclic resolution. Heliup don't mention this in their technical data but I think it is one of the best things about these arms. On face value I was just expecting to get a fix to the stripping grub screw problem but instead I got a better behaved T-Rex with a nicer cyclic response. Plus should I want to I can re-introduce that sensitivity at any time.

This is very good design by Heliup and shows a good deal of thought has gone into the end product rather than just duplicating the Align part in aluminium. I for one am very pleased that Heliup put in the effort. Sometimes the simplest designs are the best.

Just to help illustrate the different postioning of the flybar levers here are some shots of the rotor head ....