My Hawk came in a plain white box, serial # 0006. Taken out of context
these two facts don’t amount to much. Both of
these facts will have a greater significance further into our analysis.
They are representative of Century’s intentions in
marketing this kit.
What is the Hawk? In a nutshell it’s a 28-36 size helicopter aimed at
the beginner but capable of expert maneuvers. More
specifically, it is an Ex-Cell shrunken head, a concept copy tail,
copy shuttle linkages, copy enforcer tail fins, and the frame
of the Lion Helicat. More on this later.
As I opened the box I found the parts bagged according to modular subassemblies.
Many shapes were recognizable as
a large number of modules are previously assembled. These include fllybar
carrier, rotor head, elevator lever, and main
gear autorotation assembly.
I was intoxicated by the smell of plastic permeating the air as I threw
the instruction manual aside and opened four
subassemblies at once. Realizing my euphoria I sought ventilation.
Regaining my senses I read through the instructions
and I was very impressed. Century’s grammar has improved dramatically
from their ads, which are infamous for their
abrasive translations. (E.g., pre built blades)
The instructions are geared toward a beginner and even show a four channel/four
servo set up that any plank pilot can
afford to try. The figures included show assembly sequences and part
differentiations clearly where as photos are
sometimes ambiguous. The manual even showed where optional ball bearings
could be used. There are 41 steps to
assembly. Each step includes an exploded view drawing which will end
any confusion on which parts are the correct
ones. Even the preassembled part’s feature exploded drawings for future
disassembly/reassembly. There are even
indications of where to use thread lock (blue). I wish they would have
included information on what needs to be greased,
when and with what? (Oil? or Grease?) I learned this from experience
but at the expense of worn out bearings and
bushings over the years.
Century is trying to produce and market a helicopter that is both economical
and beginner friendly. In order to make the
helicopter economical,
costs must be trimmed to the bare minimum. Century achieves this in
several different areas. The judicious use of
bushings in the control system saves money over ball bearings. On the
original prototype 24 ball bearings were used.
This was pared down to 19 for the production model. Ball bearings are
reserved for the tail drive shaft, tail rotor shaft, and
main drive shafts.
Here’s where the box comes in, it’s a lot cheaper to go with a no-frills
set up, at least at first. Every penny helps, and a
generic box is preferable to cost cutting elsewhere.
Of the 14 ball joints on the head, eight are metal (four of the plastic
ones are on the plastic swash plate) All of the plastic
ones are positioned such that they allow mounting of a metal ball should
the plastic one wear or shear.
Moving back to the tail, a traditional 2mm wire drive, which rides in
a brass sleeve, provides tail power. A single
aluminum boom brace ( a la Ex-Cell) with plastic ends ( a la Century
) holds the tail steady. Fins, horizontal fin mount, tail
push rod guides and canopy are ABS, this stuff is cheap (quality) and
therefore it is cheap (price).
The Hawk uses 3mm Phillips head screws for a large number of applications,
however all nuts are nylon locknuts. The
decals even forced me, a steadfast spray painter, to forego a custom
job in favor of the well-balanced factory scheme.
Besides, I can always peel them off later.
The tail is pure concept: blade holders, hub, shaft, pitch slider, and
gearbox. A tried and true design, ‘enough said. The
clutch, clutch bell, fan, and landing gear are also pilfered from the
concept with the clutch assembly having its roots in the
Heim mechanics of years(decades) ago.
The fin design is very similar to stock enforcer zr fins. The head is
pure Ex-Cell design from the washout up, but slightly
scaled down in size and with no thrust bearings. Another tried and
true design.
The Hawk uses 3mm blade bolts and an 8 mm shaft. The linkages are traditional
shuttle/GMP/Hirobo moving
swashplate mechanics from the servos up to the swashplate. The servo
layout is based on the shuttle as well. (But with
less flex.)
The aileron levers, elevator lever, washout arms, bell mixers, collective yoke,
fly bar carrier, see saw, clutch bell, starter shaft, and tail bellcrank
are all bushed. To operate slop free for a long time they
need to be lubricated regularly. Don’t worry about the clutch bell
being bushed, the only time there is dynamic friction is
when the engine is at idle and the clutch is disengaged. Just keep
the brass eyelet clutchbell bushings well lubricated and
they will last longer than you might expect.
Now that we’ve seen where Century has cut corners and/or plagiarized, we can look at their more original features.
For beginners and airplane jocks the cone start is invaluable and self-explanatory.
For helicopter pilots its durability
remains to be seen. The die hard can install an aftermarket concept
fan and use the Pegae wand.
The positioning of the engine allows easy access to not only the glow
plug but to the carburetor as well. ( You are using
after-run oil aren’t you?)
The Hawk includes auto rotation ability, which I feel is just as important
for a beginner as an expert. A beginner finds
himself/herself out of fuel, or with a bad mixture, causing the engine
to quit. Without an auto clutch, blade speed is lost
rapidly and even a hovering beginner can crash hard enough to cause
damage. With the auto clutch, the heli floats down
like a feather with plenty of head speed for a soft landing.
The fan design used in this kit (forward facing blades) develops its
highest efficiency with moderate to low RPM. Exactly
where a beginner running 15 % nitro, with a muffler, and hovering all
over the place, is likely to run. If the Hawk is to be
used with a high RPM engine, I would suggest a concept super fan, (rearward
facing blades), which develops its highest
efficiency at higher RPM than the stock unit. The shroud is molded
into the mainframe and the cooling duct fully encloses
the head of the engine for optimal cooling.
The gyro mount is under the main shaft which is great for beginners
who are likely to be using electro mechanical gyro
units.
The Hawk has a gear ratio of 10 to 1 and uses a two-stage drive train,
which traditionally has been rumored to be more
efficient than a single stage. Whether this is true is debatable, as
only a hand full came to market. (Schluter’s Magic and
Futura being two.)
With all this efficiency available, the Hawk makes use of it and stretches the
limits of a thirty size chopper with 550 mm blades and a 49.5" disk. Only the enforcer zr has a rotor disk this big OEM.
Tail blades are definitely K&S of Japan type, otherwise known as
KSJ. Tail rotor diameter is big, 9.3". Only the Ex-Cell 30
(9.4") and the Ninja (9.37") have bigger tail rotors, and the Ex-Cell
runs at a fraction of the speed of the Hawk’s. The tail
speed is high at 1 to 5.25, which benefits the beginner likely to be
running slower head speeds. Tail sensitivity will still be
promising even at slow main blade speeds.
The main blades are from Aerotech, fully symmetrical laminated wood
covered in heat shrink with a double cut sanded
tip. (The tip is cut only twice to simulate/approximate a curved tip.)
These are a cheaper version of the Erithacus sold by
Century, and they only have two laminations, one hardwood, one balsa.
Century’s Aerotech blades have several
laminations of hardwood and softwood. My set had identical cgs but
the weights were different by a few grams. I don’t
know if this is intentional, (matched CGS), but blades with identical
CGS can be balanced on a simple teeter balance,
adding weight on the light blade’s cg. This simplifies things tremendously
for the beginner, and makes things easier on
Century in terms of blade matching. The instructions show a simple
bolt balancer, which as long as the cgs match, will
suffice for a beginner. The manual says the blades are already balanced
but to check their balance after gluing the cuffs.
Mine were to out of balance to fly without correction.
The kit includes an engine mount for a 28-38 size engine, but an optional
46 mount is available. This conversion is only
recommended for intermediate to expert pilots because the power available
can be dangerous in the wrong hands.
The tank included in the kit is a little on the small side, having been
designed for beginners using 15 % through a muffler.
Using a 46 would cut the flying time to less than 10 min. per tanks.
The gyro mount is directly under the mainshaft, and
the gyro can be moved to the front so a larger fuel tank can be fitted.
The gyro mount under the main shaft is really only
needed if using electromechanical gyros. Solid state piezos will work
the same anywhere in the heli and is a better match
for a 46 with its high torque. Mechanical gyros in the front of the
heli can still detect the yaw rate, but it cannot eliminate the
effect that lateral motion has on the mass of the rotating
flywheels. This inertia skews the yaw rate.
There were not parts missing, and the quality of all parts was superior.
This is remarkable on an early sample,
(remember serial # 0006?) and in many reviews the authors describe
days, even weeks, agonizing over a few missing
or inadequate parts. Missing parts are even more frustrating for impatient
beginners. Century seems to have a good
quality control program, based on this one kit.
As a testament to the Hawks simplicity is the fact that I had assembled
the main airframe minus engine and radio in four
hours. Radio set up took about the same. The radio set up instructions
are very complete and insure proper set up if
followed to the letter.
Century’s ads proclaim the Hawk’s weight at 6.2 lbs. What a pig! My
Kit topped the scales at 5lb. 9 oz. which is lighter
than all but two 30 size kits on the market. (Shuttle 5.17lbs.;Concept
SRT 5.5 lbs.)
The Hawk is definately the least expensive chopper on the market, but
it is a great value and the perfect place to start
learning to fly. Replacement parts are very cheap compared to imports
and this plays a big part, post crash affordability.
Also you are assured parts availability since Cindy will stock the
helicopter and parts can be readily obtained from
Century through Als.Even if Century could not supply parts, suitable
replacements can be found from either Hirobo, Kalt,
Ex-Cell, or Kyosho for most assemblies, and aftermarket manufacturers
for the rest. (KSJ, T&T, H&H, etc.)
Well now for the real part of the review: How does it fly? I had to
wait several weeks for the sub-zero temperatures and
snow to subside before I could guage the Hawks performance.
I installed an RCD 8 channel Dual Conversion receiver on ppm/fm. Five
Futaba servos carry the load, and a Futaba 154
gyro holds the tail. A Sanyo 4 cell 1200mAh sub-c size pack powers
the whole mess. Everything fits with plenty of room
for more if you want to add a mixture servo or humongous battery pack
for example.
Speaking of radios, if you are a beginner, I have only one word of advice,
Stay away from channel 43. Mysterious
interference arises to snatch models right out of the sky. If you already
have channel 43, then get rid of it before it’s too
late. Don’t make me say I told you so. Now
back to the Hawk.
I was able to get a pitch window of 21 degrees. This allowed a normal
curve of -2 low, 5 mid, 9 high; a stunt curve of -9
low ,0 mid, 9 high; and an auto curve of -3 low, 5 mid, 11 high. Pretty
standard curves for a thirty size machine.
Starting the Hawk was trouble free, but beginners be warned: the fuel
tank is high and floods the engine easily. Route the
fuel line higher than the carb venturi and this won’t happen.
A remote glow plug extension is required unless you want to remove the canopy each time you start it.
Spooling up the Hawk revealed that the blades were in track. I added
some throttle and the Hawk was hovering with very
little trim input. Head speed was running about 1450 which converts
to 14,500 engine RPM. Right in the power band of
the Supertiger G34H. The Hawk also seems happy at this RPM in forward
flight and hover. (Tuned pipes and two speed
set ups don’t go well together. The pipes are tuned for one RPM and
at a lower RPM the tuned pipe smothers the
engine.)
This is a smooth helicopter. Just like the JR Ergo, the Hawk is a little
bigger than your average thirty size heli and it shows
up very well in the sky. The shape of the canopy is distinctive and
I did not suffer my usual disorientation problems in
forward flight.
The Hawk will have no problems with aerobatics as there is plenty of
cyclic authority. auto rotations will benefit from the
large disk and light weight of the Hawk. I left off the fly bar weights
and still had a stable hover in this gusty February
weather. I was impressed with the way the Hawk flew, plenty of power,
plenty of stability, yet full agility.
For $200 this thing is disposable. I will be ready for crash and smash.
.....I just returned from the February meeting, after
claiming crash and smash honors. My crash was due to and an engine
problem when the heli was only 30 feet high in
slow forward flight. The head speed was bled off steering and flaring
so the arrival was a bit rough but I was right where I
wanted to be, on the ground.
All of the upgrade parts that are commonly available for 30 choppers are available for the Hawk.
I just read James Wang’s review of the Hawk in Rotary and I am in disbelief of a few of his assertions. Apparently
he does not know which bearings come with the Hawk and demonstrated
this possible confusion of the facts in his
review. To use a larger tank James enlarged the hole in the side frames.
A better solution is to seat the tank lengthwise.
No need to butcher the side frames. I also don’t understand how James
uses +10,0,-10 in stunt mode with an ordinary
OS 32FSR on 15% with a muffler in a 6 and a half pound pig. I ran a
supertiger g34H on a pipe with 30% and could only
get 8 ½ use full degrees.
As there are no flying shots of James’‘ Hawk, I even wonder if he flew
it. It looks awfully clean in the still photos. It is no
wonder that Rotary’s integrity has been called into question. It seems
as if each reviewer has some affiliation with the
manufacturer. This is the clearest case of conflict of interest I have
ever encountered. The appearance of impropriety is as
damaging as the impropriety itself. Even in the total lack thereof.
I wonder how much James paid for his Hawk?
Yeah.......Right........paid? I wonder how much Century pays James
for his consulting? Who is paying whom? And for
what?
I didn’t get paid squat! The only time I’ve gotten something for free
is in the pilots raffle, where everyone gets something.
Does that mean I know what I’m talking about? No, and I’ll be the first
one to admit it, but I do have opinions which I will
voice shamelessly, and if I’m wrong, I hope you will correct me. (NO
......not in person.)
Thank You,
Chopper 97