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JR Voyager 50 CCPM
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In just over a month since I started flying helis, my JR Venture 30 can no longer sattisfy my need for more 3D.
Need more power, lots more. Hence. I've bought a JR Voyager 50. Fully loaded with a lot of "bling". I bought it
used off a Horizon Hobby rep (The North American JR distributor). This should be quite a step up from
the "measly" Venture 30. I say "measly" because for any normal beginner the Venture offers tons of power for
some basic 3D. I got to the point where I want to do continous flips without worrying about bogging down
the engine too much. The Voyager 50 offers great power/weight ratio which allows for some pretty extreme 3D.
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| Product Stats |
| Length |
46.46" |
| Height |
16.14" |
| Weight (no engine) |
7.75 lbs |
| Main Rotor Diameter |
52.64" |
| Servos Required |
5 |
| Engine |
O.S..50 SX |
| Gyro |
JR G500T |
| Governor |
Throttle Jockey Pro |
| CCPM Servos |
JR DS8231 Digital |
| Tail Servo |
JR 8700G |
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Now for pictures
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The Voyager with it's canopy removed (scuse the mess, working on another project at the same time).
You can clearly see the JR G5000T gyro.
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The after-market (bling) tail box. Standard Voyager tail box is made out of plastic. This one is all metal construction.
You can also seee the purple anondized tail slider lever.
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The metal swashplate and more purple anondized seesaw arms clearly visible. The flybar is also made out of metal.
You can see the G10 frame up close. G10 unlike Carbon Fiber does not induce static interference. The flybar seesaw is also made out of metal.
Most of these parts are all plastic on the Venture 30.
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The power plant of the heli. The O.S. 50 SX heli engine. Quite a bit bigger than the O.S. 30 the Venture had.
You can also see the dual carbon fibre boom supports. And the carbon fibre "floor" of the heli.
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The boom connects to the frame via metal tail boom holders, quite a different design than the Venture.
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K&S Muffer. This muffler is supposed to give the engine more power. I've seen this muffler in action on a Vigor 90.
The part from the rubber to the rear vibrates like crazy when the engine's running at full rpm.
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The Voyager 50 came with an unpainted canopy. Whoever painted this, did an excellent job. The semi reflective
"window" looks awesome.
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The heli is ready to run. I've added a glow plug remote and am planning to add a header tank to it too. I've purchased
a set of Carbon Fibre blades. Unlike most CF blades, these are white allowing for much greated visibility and I won't have
to worry about leaving the blades exposed to the sun, I hear the black blades tend to warp if exposed for too long.
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Below you'll find the programmed settings for the JR Voyager 50 in my JR XP8103 radio.
| Travel Adjust |
| Channel |
Direction |
Value |
Direction |
Value |
| Throttle |
H |
150% |
L |
76% |
| Aileron |
L |
115% |
R |
115% |
| Elevator |
D |
115% |
U |
115% |
| Rudder |
L |
130% |
R |
130% |
| Gear |
+ |
50% |
- |
52% |
| Pitch |
H |
115% |
L |
115% |
| Aux2 |
+ |
100% |
- |
100% |
| Aux3 |
+ |
100% |
- |
100% |
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| Servo Reversing |
| Channel |
Direction |
| 1 (Throttle) |
Norm |
| 2 (Ailerons) |
Rev |
| 3 (Elevator) |
Norm |
| 4 (Rudder) |
Norm |
| 5 (Gear) |
Norm |
| 6 (Pitch) |
Norm |
| 7 (Aux2) |
Norm |
| 8 (Aux3) |
Norm |
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| Sub Trim |
| Channel |
Trim |
| Throttle |
0 |
| Ailerons |
+10 |
| Elevator |
+20 |
| Rudder |
0 |
| Gear |
0 |
| Pitch |
+12 |
| Aux2 |
0 |
| Aux3 |
0 |
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| Program Mixes |
| # |
Mix |
Point-L |
Point-1 |
Point-2 |
Point-3 |
Point-H |
SW |
Expo |
| 2 |
Elev->Thro |
15 |
Inh |
0 |
Inh |
15 |
F-S12 |
Off |
| 3 |
Aile->Thro |
20 |
Inh |
0 |
Inh |
20 |
F-S12 |
Off |
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| Trim Step |
| Aileron |
2 |
| Elevator |
2 |
| Rudder |
2 |
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| Misc |
| Gyro Sensitivity |
Inh |
| Inverted |
Inh |
| Throttle Hold |
Inh |
| Modulation |
SPCM |
| Swash Type |
3 Servos, 120° |
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| ATS. Mix |
| Revo. Mix |
| Mode |
Up |
Down |
| Norm |
0% |
0% |
| Stnt |
0% |
0% |
| Acc. Mix |
0% |
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| Swash Mix |
| 3 Servos |
| Ailerons |
+50% |
| Elevator |
+50% |
| Pitch |
-72% |
| Expo |
Act |
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| Dual Rate & Expo |
| Channel |
Low Rate |
High Rate |
Expo |
| Rudder |
90% |
100% |
+30% |
| Aileron |
90% |
100% |
+30% |
| Elevator |
90% |
100% |
+30% |
| Input Selection |
| Aux2 Ch |
Inh |
| Gear |
Inh |
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| Pitch Curve |
| Mode |
Point-L |
Point-1 |
Point-2 |
Point-3 |
Point-H |
Expo |
| Norm |
27.0% |
Inh |
64.5% |
Inh |
89.0% |
On |
| Stunt 1 |
6.0% |
23.5% |
48.5% |
76.5% |
94.0% |
On |
| Throttle Curve |
| Mode |
Point-L |
Point-1 |
Point-2 |
Point-3 |
Point-H |
Expo |
| Norm |
4.5% |
39% |
55.5% |
65.5% |
75.0% |
On |
| Stunt 1 |
96.5% |
68.0% |
57.5% |
68.0% |
96.5% |
On |
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| Videos |
| Date |
Link |
Description |
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| Flight Log |
| May 9, 2004 |
First few flights since I bought the heli went pretty well. The heli needs some adjustments
to make it fly better.
- I need to replace the G5000T Piezo Gyro with the latest G500T Ring Gyro. I find that the old G5000T doesn't lock the tail very well in varying head speed.
- Buy Rotor Tech 600mm main blades
- Add a governor, perhaps Futaba GV1.
- The paddles are slightly misaligned which shouldn't be a problem to fix.
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| May 12, 2004 |
I've replaced the gyro and flies awesome now. Still running original main rotors, no ETA on Rotor Techs yet.
Bob from FliteCraft recommended against buying a governor at this point.
The ship flies great but still very pitchy.
I'm planning to move the paddles to the rear hole for more aggresive elevator and aileron response.
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| May 13, 2004 |
Flew few more flights today, I'm starting to get a bit more comfortable with it.
Few more flights and I'll move the paddles to the rear hole for more performance.
I still have problems where the engine overspeeds for short periods of time. I may get a governor eventually,
for now I'm just running the engine a little rich.
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| May 16, 2004 |
My first inverted hover today!! Still about 12' off the ground but it's a start. I've moved the paddles to
the rear hole but it still is not aggresive enough. Will try program the radio for more.
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| May 19, 2004 |
Todays flights were a little nerve wrecking. I had a receiver crystal failure which caused complete
loss of control. I was lucky enough to set it down with limited control, narrowly avoiding a crash.
I'm glad that I had digital servos and the failsafe kicked in keeping the servos from jumping around randomly
possibly kicking the throttle into high gear.
My heart skipped a beat when I realized that I was helpless for periods of time. A quick stop at my local
hobby store and a new crystal has been installed. I've also
picked up a set of Rotor Tech 610mm blades. Hopefully these will give me more forward speed and make for
better autos, which incidently is what I'm planning to practice next.
On a lighter note, I successfully hovered inverted today at 3' above ground.
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| May 25, 2004 |
Few more flights today. I replaced the reciver battery with a new one. The old battery did not want to keep a charge. I've replaced
the 2700mAh NiMh battery with a self built 2400mAh NiCad one. A bit bulkier and heavier but the heli needed a little more nose weight.
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| May 26, 2004 |
Nine flights in a single day, a new record so far. Quite windy today too.
I've had some weird vibration in the horizontal tail fin with no idea what's causing it. Will have to investigate.
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| May 27, 2004 |
Figured out the source of the vibration. It was caused by an oversized screw mounting hole in the tail rotor blade causing them to move
inducing vibration. A quick switch to Rotor Techs' carbon-fibre blades solved the problem quite nicely.
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| May 29, 2004 |
Our club had a fun fly today, flew some pretty extreme 3D, some very close inverted hovers and in the end, on my final flight of the day, I
dumb thumbed the heli into the ground during an inverted nose in hover. Repair Cost: $300 CAD including new Rotor Tech 615mm blades.
Details of the damage in the crash log...
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| June 7, 2004 |
Heli repaired, and over 15 flights since. I had some issues with tail vibration but solved it by replacing a slightly crooked
tail output shaft. My Throttle Jockey Pro came in the mail yesterday and it's installed. Haven't tested it yet, will do tommorow.
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| June 20, 2004 |
Flew another set of flights today, windy day, perfect for learning autos. With some "nudging" from club members I did
my first "test" autorotation. Gone up really high, then cut the throttle and descended for few seconds, re-engaged the
engine to go up and try again. Made my heart skip a beat for sure when the engine went into idle and I thought that it died.
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| June 21, 2004 |
Did my first full autorotation today, two of them. The day was windy again so I felt confident to try it for real.
The first one was perfect, came down smooth and touched down soft. The second attempt wasn't so good,
after a good descend, I hovered for too long and when I came down the blade speed was already too slow, the
heli wobbled hard but set down ok. I did some work on the heli, eliminated a lot of the slop in the head, haven't tried
flying with the changes yet but it definitely should give me a nice power boost.
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Crash Log
| Crash #1 |
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It happened again, a botched nose-in inverted hover took the heli into the ground.
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| Part Number |
Part Damaged |
Replacement Cost |
| JRP983067 |
Tail Boom |
$25.50 |
| JRPSG8101 |
Servo Gear Set |
$7.95 |
| JRP960009 |
Main Rotor Shaft |
$12.95 |
| JRP960068 |
Blade Spindle Shaft |
$8.75 |
| JRP970006 |
Double End Ball Link |
$8.50 |
| JRP970095 |
Double Link, Long |
$6.50 |
| JRP960022 |
Swashplate Link |
$6.95 |
| JRP980045 |
Control Rod 2.3x45mm |
$2.39 |
| JRP960066 |
Main Rotor Hub |
$26.95 |
| JRP996057 |
Flybar |
$15.00 |
| JRP997168 |
Universal Ball Link (10) |
$10.95 |
| JRP980043 |
Control Rod 2.3x36mm |
$2.39 |
| JRP970137 |
Tail Output Shaft |
$13.50 |
| JRP970098 |
Universal Ball Link (Short) |
$8.65 |
| JRPS8231 |
8231 Ultra Precision Digital Servo |
$145.95 |
| CHP266001 |
Rotortech CF Main Blades 615mm |
$189.00 |
| Total |
$491.88 + taxes |
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The spindle shaft bent into an "S", for comparison, the new shaft next to the the bent one.
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The flybar bent badly too. Chose to replace it rather than attempt to straight it out.
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Tail boom bent right at the boom mount, I almost missed it during damage assesment.
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The high cyclic hub has a set of screws broken off inside it. Impossible to remove, I had to replace the hub with a standard
hub because the high cyclic hub is backordered everywhere. I'll still give it another try to remove it.
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The bent main rotor shaft, it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a hollow shaft.
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The header tank ripped right off, which is sort of a good thing. The fuel line disconnected and kept the engine from tearing
up the clutch.
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The servos had to be taken apart and the internal gears replaced. Not bad, saving $400 in servos by replacing $8 in parts.
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