Performance on Lionel Helicopter Cars

It should go a lot farther than that, something is wrong.

tks, looks like I've got something to play with (work on) for the holiday

I saw the Lionel one at a local train display, it managed to make it about 6 feet high. I have the MTH helicopter car, and mine makes it almost to the ceiling of an 8 foot room.

Worked on it some this afternoon. Added a bit of oil to the propeller shaft, managed to get it up to 3-4 feet in height.

Tried my own from the an older set, flew up 6 feet pretty easy.

Swapped copters, about the same results.

Looks like the NYC version set version needs some tweeking. I'll give Lionel a call this week and see if they have any ideas.

Anyone else have some thoughts they can share??

I believe the newer launching helicopter items from Lionel suffer from the same train of thought as the small whistle tenders. Too much product safety.

I have two of the newer heliports and one operating flatcar and with all three I replaced the shiney, weak winding/launching spring with an older Postwar one, 3419-26, $1.75. Immediate good results.

Old springs are available from some parts dealers, also from junker cars mainly found under sales table at shows and meets.

tks, I'll pick some up. Had to figure something else was at work when the older ones worked so much better. A spring would be an easy fix!!

I have the Lionel Heliport which probably uses the same mechanism. Your statement that the helicopter "hopped up about a foot" would be a 'personal best' for my helicopter. I don't think my helicopter has ever achieved more then about 6" in altitude even with the mechanism wound to max. Most of the time the rotor blades just spin and the helicopter falls off the pad. It is now just a static display.

Earl

LOL Earl, might be safer for the user for sure, but a real terror for those plasticville people on the ground waiting to fly out!!!

My problem is always that the ceiling is too low. Guess they were designed for floor use!

Jon

Johnsgg1, thanks for the tip about swapping in a postwar spring for the one in the reissued Lionel heliport. I like the look of the heliport on my layout, but so far the best flights I've gotten were a few inches upwards and a few inches horizontally. If I'm lucky the helicopter will fly just far enough to land right next to the heliport. Most of the time it just hops up, then crash lands back on the top of the building, sometimes tipping over, rolling off the roof and falling to the layout next to the heliport. I admit that the crashes can be spectacular (like something from an action movie) but I'd rather have the helicopter actually fly. I'll try swapping out that spring.

As far as helicopter cars go, the helicopter launching car in my reissued Missile Launcher set flies much better, several feet up and several feet horizontally.
I find I get the best flights from the helicopter if the train is in motion when I trigger the car as it passes over an operating track section.

I'm going to try putting TMCC control on my MTH helicopter car so I can launch it anywhere.

I get much better flights with 2-rotor helos than with the single rotor versions.

Another trick I have had some sucess with is spray a small amount of WD40 in the spring. It lubes the spring and makes it unwind faster.

Tks Chuck, I'll give that a try too.

The Lionel helicopters are prone to breakage as to the tail and landing skid. I suggest if you want a helicopter launch this one instead:

Gyro helicopters

the ones under $20.00 were the best value.

Its got to be a bad day when you can't launch your Lionel helicopter more than a couple of feet. What will the neighbors say when they see such a poor showing but I'll be that the dog still loves it. Just goes to show, they don't make them like they use to! I'll bet that the missle launchers have the same problem. That is a more serious problem as it will leave your layout indefensable from an invasion!

quote:

I'll bet that the missle launchers have the same problem.

I pulled (stretched) the four launching springs on my TMCC 44 loco. It now launches across the layout, much like it's Postwar brethern.

Wow! Hadn't thought about the 44 Missile Launcher but I'll check it out this week. If I recall it launched ok, but more distance is always better when shooting those intercontinental missiles!!

quote:

and the car hopped up about a foot and then slowly fell to the side

If this is what happened, I think you have the works upside-down.

Launching the car about a foot would be awesome!

--jcr

Try this for some view of the original:

http://books.google.com/books?...in%20mass%22&f=false

I have fun doing it this way. I want to mount a keychain cam on heli and take video of it flying around layout. Sorry about the darkness, I need to add more lighting next time, but I believe you get the idea.



TEX
Steve

Sure, but I want to see the helo land back on the car when the flight is over.

The above flight was my first attempt flying from a flat car and over my layout. I received the little chopper for Christmas. When I fly it in the living room I am able to land on very small targets, so I think with a little practice it can be done easily. I have a couple of Lionel helicopter cars myself, but I think flying and controlling the real thing is much more fun. With these mini-copters being out for many years and improved on as far as stability and ease of flying, why Lionel doesn't have one on a flat themselves.....like a "vision line" helicopter car.

TEX
Steve

quote:

Originally posted by TexSpecial:
The above flight was my first attempt flying from a flat car and over my layout. I received the little chopper for Christmas. When I fly it in the living room I am able to land on very small targets, so I think with a little practice it can be done easily. I have a couple of Lionel helicopter cars myself, but I think flying and controlling the real thing is much more fun. With these mini-copters being out for many years and improved on as far as stability and ease of flying, why Lionel doesn't have one on a flat themselves.....like a "vision line" helicopter car.

HAY STEVE! What helo is that? You're pretty handy with it. Easy to fly? Or tons of practice? Both?

Pete

Good morning Pete. My son got it for me at Christmas. The mini copter is a Syma Model S107, 3 channel w/gyro, metal mini helicopter. He purchased it as one of those stands in a mall during Christmas. But I checked and if you Google Syma S107 mini helicopter, they are available at many places in the States. They cost around $20 - $25.



I had another mini some years back, but it would not fly easily and direction, hover control sucked. This new one is easy to fly and changes direction easily. Inside use only though because of wind. I practice in my living room, sending heli from one small target (piece of cardboard or a book) to another. After awhile you get real good at it. I'm going to bring my Lionel flat car down to the living room and practice take off and landings on it. As I said, I might try putting that little key chain cam on the chopper if it will lift it. Birds eye view of layout from the air maybe.
Take care Pete.

TEX
Steve

quote:

Originally posted by Dennis LaGrua:
Its got to be a bad day when you can't launch your Lionel helicopter more than a couple of feet. What will the neighbors say when they see such a poor showing but I'll be that the dog still loves it. Just goes to show, they don't make them like they use to! I'll bet that the missle launchers have the same problem. That is a more serious problem as it will leave your layout indefensable from an invasion!

At least they can't kill anybody now! My problem is the lead in the paint,I'm sure theres just as much lead in these chinese trains as there is in the old stuff. Darn kids won't stop chewing on them!

quote:

The mini copter is a Syma Model S107, 3 channel w/gyro, metal mini helicopter.

Thanks, Steve. I've had my eye on several micro choppers with the thought of making a video where it takes off from a flatcar, the train circles my 4x10, and the chopper lands back on the flat. As a RC guy I've been looking at more expensive "hobbyist" products. I had no idea that a "toy" would fly that well.

Pete

With your R/C background, you should get the 4 channel mini-helicopter then. Same size but even more control, especially fwd/reverse motion. I don't think the price is that much more. I just have trouble with hand coordination with too many stick actions.

TEX
Steve

I had a mini before, no gyro and it was very hard to get it to go specific places. Up and down were fine, but trying to go forward/back was tricky. I ordered one of these, maybe I'll have better luck with it. Amazon had it for $27 shipped, cheapest I could find it.

quote:

Originally posted by gunrunnerjohn:
Sure, but I want to see the helo land back on the car when the flight is over

Then re-charge the helo from the flatcar! I wasn't putting 2 and 2 together till I read your post but I had modified the "other" company's helicopter car with an LED to flash a beacon as it spun up.



Two metal semi-circular contacts are on the flatcar and two mating metal strips are on the helo. With some head-scratching perhaps something similar could be done by placing the charger electronics in the flatcar and metal-izing the skids. I'd guess some kind of electromagnetic assist at the last moment during landing could insure the helo skids contact properly.

quote:

With your R/C background, you should get the 4 channel mini-helicopter then. Same size but even more control, especially fwd/reverse motion. I don't think the price is that much more. I just have trouble with hand coordination with too many stick actions.

I've seen guys who can fly airplanes lots better than I do turned into sobbing droolers when they tried moving to helos. Not sure more control is better when it comes to those confounded machines.

Pete

Pete

The Gyros are so simple even a caveman can ....