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Fenestron building and flying the smaller 1/6 & 800 sizes

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Chapter 1 of 1

H130 II Grand Canyon gold edition

Jun 3, 2025

I began with the H130 Fenestron from Roban last year and continue tests on the second one using HDT-3M belt drives. This year the Grand Canyon gold edition got a RAW 580 imbedded inside the HSM8 and using the same concept as Roban by lowering the initial belt drive. I used their components but instead installed a 6mm wide 390 primary belt & 1800 secondary belt using pulleys. The two stage reduction (like Roban's) is perfect to get full control on head and tail ratios. Single stage IMO is out to lunch. I originally used an Align 22mm tail boom and tail case but found it unsatisfactory and now have all SAB components I designed. I rebuilt both the H130 and currently doing the H145. A bit of back pedaling but works better with the 13.8/1 main ratio and 10/1 tail. It's not for beginners but the result is a noise free, reliable and maintenance free conversion that is a delight to fly.
As for flying, I learned from Peter Luke HK to set it for low head speed. I found the sweet spot for mine at 1050 rpm, tried as low as 866 (the lowest I could keep it in the air lol) and 1250 which is not as pleasant.
The current configuration is:

RAW 580, Egodrift Eclipse 4230EC-420, XDFly 195A, iKon2 using my special scale template and external governor, X20/TDMX with telemetry and integration.
Mass is 9kg (20lbs) with a pair of 4100 (not 5000 or 6000, I even tried 3300 for 6 minutes lol) packs good for 7+ minutes on the stock Fenestron & main blades. CG is NOT dependent on pack size. I have a third H130 nib ready when I finalize this configuration. I'm also building a Vario H145 1/6 with similar drivetrain for the 10 blade conversion as proof of concept. It's a long process that will bring me to build the Vario H135 1/6 too. Finally I have a 600 size Gazelle that will use the 8 blade Vario Fenestron set clockwise rotation. That will be most likely my last one before I get on to the Vario MD902 Coanda effect tail. I have plenty of projects to keep my imagination busy lol. But back to the Roban H130 I enjoy a lot, and gather some flying experience. I'm into orientation flight, something overlooked by many. It's my main focus, I build to fly. This version is finally capable of side slipping against the torque. Meaning it "almost" flies like a standard tail lol. But it's still quite tricky and requires quick reaction in more than calm wind conditions. That's the real fun of it lol.

Chapter 1: H130 II Grand Canyon gold edition
Chapter 1: H130 II Grand Canyon gold editionChapter 1: H130 II Grand Canyon gold editionChapter 1: H130 II Grand Canyon gold editionChapter 1: H130 II Grand Canyon gold edition