THUNDER TIGER E325 Mini Titan ARF Assembly Instructions Manual page 8

thin Mini Titan canopy would hold up to that so I sat it in the sun for a couple of hours. I have since
flown the Mini Titan quite a bit and haven't had any of the decals peel up.
When I was done I had a small pile of parts left over. After examining the manual I found that step 5
shows where to mount the small horizontal fin and battery tray extension. I also found some screws
and nuts that I never did find a purpose for. I suppose these are spares thoughtfully provided by
Thunder Tiger. If anything fly's off during my trim flights I'll know where the screws were supposed
to go.
When I felt I was ready to start test flying I went over the helicopter from nose to tail. I was looking
for anything that might be loose or installed incorrectly. I like to go over all the self tapping screws to
make sure everything is tight and as slop free as you can get with plastic parts. I also check all
critical bolts for locktite such as the spindle bolts and randomly loosen a few screws checking for
thread locker. I found everything tight and thread locker applied where it should be.
I also took a few minutes to double check that all the controls were moving in the correct direction
and not binding. When I was done I went ahead and programmed the speed controller. The included
instructions are more than adequate and I had no problems. (Note that earlier I had reversed the
throttle channel, this seems to be the case for most speed controllers on the market) When
programming the ESC I used the following settings: standard battery protection, standard timing, no
brake, quick throttle response, non governor helicopter mode.
The last thing I did was to attach a battery, install the canopy, and check the balance point. This is
pretty simple, pick up the helicopter with two fingers on the flybar, close to the rotor head, and with
the blades straight out front and back. Proper balance is the key to consistent trim when transitioning
between upright and inverted flight. Balance, when combined with careful flybar paddle alignment,
can help you prevent pitchyness in fast forward flight even with a sensitive control setup.
Battery Information
I've heard lots of good things about Flight Power batteries so I contacted Flight Power USA to see
about getting a few packs for this review. I spoke with Clint Aiken, the helicopter team manager for
Flight Power USA, and told him what I was working on. Flight Power kindly provided 2 packs. An EVO
25 2170mah 25C 3S LiPo, and an EVO LITE 18C 2500mah 3S LiPo battery pack. Great Planes is
distributing these great batteries in the United States. They are backed by Flight Power USA for
technical support and warranty coverage and even 50 percent crash coverage.
During flight testing with the Flight Power packs and two other brands, the Flight Power packs
consistently ran 20 to 30 degrees cooler and the 2500 pack lasted several minutes longer than any of
the 2100 mah packs I tried. RCU Author Chuck Dowd did a complete review on the Flight Power
batteries.
The 2500 EVO LITE pack weighs within a few grams of the 2170 battery but at 18C vice the 25C of
the smaller battery we predicted a little less punch in flight. This was not the case at all! The 18C
EVO LITE pack produced the same in flight performance but with longer flight times. If you are
looking for new batteries don't hesitate to give either of these a try.
Smile for the camera!
A proper bench setup and a careful pre-flight inspection
minimize surprises during your trim flights. The Mini Titan was
no different and there were no surprises as the helicopter lifted
smoothly into its first hover. Well there was one surprise. The
warped blades that I wasn't happy with seemed to track very
well.
I spent my first three battery packs making sure the helicopter
was properly trimmed, that the gyro was properly set up, and
just getting the feel for the helicopter. My first impression was
that even without flybar weights the Mini Titan was extremely
stable in the hover. I found out pretty quickly that the cyclic
was too sluggish so I knew my first tweak would be to move the
washout arms to the outer most setting. (see photo at right)
The second day out it was time for a little thrashing about. The
Mini Titan handled everything that I could throw at it. Tight flips,
large loops, smooth rolls, funnels, tail slides (this is how I test