NIX tail rotor assembly
Overview
The following is a review of the NIX tail rotor assembly supplied courtesy of www.flying-hobby.com.
First some linked documentation :
Exploded Diagram
Manufacturer Documentation
This assembly is a complete replacement for your existing tail rotor assembly, including the blades. The main body of the unit is formed out of black plastic with the rest of the unit being metal. The slider mechanism is probably the smoothest tail slider mechanism I have ever seen. On other systems, you can get an occasional rub here and there, but this thing is just silky smooth. That instills confidence in the unit right away.
The blade grips are machined metal and has a nicely polished silver finish.
Here's some shots showing the unit.
The tail unit in it's box
The supplied blades (plastic)
Tail unit
Tail unit
Tail unit
Tail unit
Tail unit
Tail unit
Tail unit
Tail unit
As you can see, it looks very nice, is well presented and is certainly a well made unit. The smoothness of the output slider is something to take note of - I was surprised by it at first. The plastic blades were a bit of a shock to me though as I am used to flying with carbon tail blades now. I wasn't expecting there to be any blades in there at all, so finding some was a bit of a bonus, although as we'll see later, perhaps not.
Ordinarily, you think of a tail unit upgrade to be a complete metal unit, but this unit only seems to have the metal parts where they are absoluttely needed. Weight is an all important factor on the Trex and a little saving here and there can go a long way.
Fitting
To fit the tail unit to the heli you need to undo the 5 bolts on the outside of the unit to allow you to fit the tail belt onto the pulley of the output shaft. The two bolts nearest the front of the heli are used to mount the vertical fin, so have that handy for when you start screwing the unit back together again.
Once the unit is fitted and belt tension set correctly, I fitted the supplied plastic tail rotor blades and it was ready for flight testing. A very easy, non fussy installation. (The following pictures were taken after I had fitted my carbon blades to the heli).
Tail unit fitted
Tail unit fitted
Tail unit fitted
Tail unit fitted
One final thing I did before flying was to spray the slider with a teflon spray (PTFE based lubricant) - this is just something I do on my helis moving head and tail parts these days.
Flight test
The flight testing has been carried out over 10 pack cycles so far using a combination of the Futaba GY401 and the HDS-577 digital tail servo from Ashtek Electronics.
I have been flying some gentle 3D (flips, loops, rolls, pirouettes, etc) and some not so gentle 3D (pie-dishes, forwards hurricanes, inverted backwards hurricanes, tic-tocs, chaos, rippers, etc).
On the first pack, I wasn't happy with the tail as it felt a little unresponsive. I decided that I would swap out the plastic tail rotor blades and use my trusty carbon ones instead.
From the second pack on, the tail felt awesome. Every command given to the tail was applied immediately and precisely. The stops are accurate, pirouettes are super smooth and the acceleration of the pirouette from zero to full is superb. I felt very much in control of the tail movements throughout the flight.
A few packs in and I moved on to some harder 3D moves to see if the tail would hold solid, and it did, no matter what I threw at it. One test I like to perform to check a tails holding power is a sideways vertical descent (death dive), where the helicopter is falling vertically with it's left hand side facing the floor, for example, and scooping the heli out before it hits the floor. This tail held solidly, even in windy conditions!
This is not entirely down to the tail unit as a good gyro and servo setup have a big part to play, but if the tail is poorly setup or liable to having play or slop in it's linkages, the tail will struggle to hold firm.
Conclusion
The unit is very well made, looks great and flies very well indeed.
I had not heard of this brand prior to receiving it for review and was unsure what to expect from a mainly plastic tail unit. But I have to say I am truly impressed. When matched with the right electronics governing the tail, this unit will handle everything you can throw at it and still come back for more while always having this super smooth operation.
The only downside in my opinion were the tail blades. I feel they would be better to leave them out of the box and just supply the bolts instead. When you get to this level of tail unit, there's no point spoiling it with cheap plastic blades. Carbon is the way to go for true tail authority.
When all is said and done, I have no hesitation in recommending this tail unit. Your task will be to try and find somewhere to buy one!
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