This machine started life as a Century Hawk 30. It was my first collective machine, a present from my dad, and to be honest, I wasn't too fond of it at first. The magazines had been advertising it as the "bargain" heli, which was far from what I wanted. I was looking at the Nexus, which Tower Hobbies had done an excellent job of promoting. I, knowing nothing about helis other than what I learned on the LMH, thought the Nexus sounded like the best design. Having nobody flying helis locally to tell me otherwise, it was the one I had my heart set on.

From the outset, my desire for another helicopter caused me to have the wrong mindset towards the heli I had been given. I was constantly frustrated with it, placing blame on the "cheap" machine, instead of on myself where it was more deserved. Despite this, I slowly learned about heli setup and eventually got the Hawk into fast forward flight. Still not knowing enough, I had a poorly tuned pitch curve and a balky engine (Thunder Tiger 36), which caused the engine to die coming out of a stall turn. I hit the ground going a bit fast, had a boom strike, and the machine became unflyable. I put it on the shelf for just under a year while I pursued other interests.

When I decided to resurrect the Hawk, I also decided to upgrade it to a 46 machine to offset the power loss of the thin Colorado air. I rebuilt it much better than it was built before, but it still had quite a few setup and equipment problems. Most problems arised from the engine, though I also had a great deal of trouble with a defective CSM 540 gyro. My solutions to these problems can be found in the tips and tricks section.

My Falcon 46 has since been replaced by a Falcon SE kit. The SE model fixes nearly every gripe I ever had with the standard Falcon 46 kit. It has ball bearings everywhere it needs them, it comes with light blades and decent paddles (though I still run the MinAir whites), and the tail drive and control are much more robust. The newest SE version even comes with a torque tube tail and a sleek fiberglass canopy.

After flying this heli for about 4 years, becoming familiar with it, and comparing it to other helis in its price range, I've begun to like it a lot. Forward flight and hovering is by far the best I've experienced in a 30/46 machine. Very little forward stick is required to maintain fast forward flight, and the machine does not feel pitchy. Controls have a very strong bell bias, giving a very instant, connected control response. The controls are very solid and there is minimal interaction between them. The stock machine lasts very long if used only for hovering and forward flight. The machine is very lightweight at 6.5lbs for the 46, so it climbs very well and has plenty of power.

The stock Falcon 46 is really only weak if you start to do 3d aerobatics. To do these effectively and for more than just a few flights, all of the head parts need BB upgrades. The controls do NOT need BB upgrades in my experience, as they have low stresses and little movement. It will also need lighter blades and larger paddles to do 3d well. The wire tail drive does not lend itself very well to high speed backwards flight and heading hold gyros. These drawbacks are understandable considering Century's target market, though I'm a bit annoyed that they claim that it is the "3d king", as they should reserve that moniker for their SE model.

The problem in the past with 46 sized helis in the US is that there is not a great engine for them. There were 2 choices available, the OS 46FX and the Thunder Tiger 46H Pro. Both have carburetion problems, the Thunder Tiger having ones that are more severe. The OS apparently has some quality control issues as well. I don't think the OS FX 46 lives up to the rest of the OS heli line, as their SX 32, 50, and 61 are excellent engines. The Thunder Tiger, on the other hand, is exactly what you expect, a well constructed engine with major design oversights. Given enough patience, however, either engine can be made to run well. Tips on making the TT run well can be found in the tips & tricks section. The necessity to modify the TT46 has passed with the introduction of the OS 50SX, however. The 50SX is exactly what a heli engine should be, strong, reliable, and durable. Its the only engine really worth considering for this heli.

If you've done much online research, you might have noticed that Century products get slammed somewhat hard in the online forums. For years, people have had problems with the way Century designs their products. Century designs appear to be a blatant copy of other manufacturers, borrowing heads from the XCell, controls from the Shuttle, geartrain from the Schluter (I think), and tail Controls from the concept. People think that little innovation went into the heli on Century's part, and people tend to resent them for it. If you look at the heli closer, however, you'll see that things aren't quite a direct copy. Century does quite well at improving the designs they borrow, tweaking things just enough. For example, the Century head is an obvious XCell clone, but the ends of feathering spindle are threaded instead of tapped, so you never have to worry about getting your blades grips stuck on because the securing bolts have flared the ends of the shaft.

Overall, if I were to recommend a heli to a beginner, I would not hesitate to recommend the Hawk or Falcon. Most of the kits in this price range are pretty comparable, the real difference between them is how well they are set up. So, if there is a pilot in your area experienced with a specific heli, or if your local shop carries parts for one, that's the first one to look at, because in a short time, you can get that one set up very well.

Two main problems exist with the TT 46. The first, and probably the worst problem, is in the carb. The problem is very similar to the TT36 carb. If you set the needles for good hover and high end, then the engine is too lean at 75% and too rich at 25%. If you try to get rid of these lean and rich spots, you end up unacceptably comprimising full and hover. Some people will replace the carb, but I feel that this is self-defeating, as you end up with an engine priced much higher than it needs to be. My solution to this problem was to modify the low end needle with a file.

The second problem arises from a poor combustion chamber design. Its low deck height can cause preignition, especially with the high nitro fuels many heli pilots run. Preignition will cause severe shakes in the heli as well as overheating the engine. This problem was much easier to fix than the carb problem. First, high nitro fuels should be avoided in this engine. Because of preignition, they do not give extra power, and they will create very high operating temperatures. I currently run Cool Power 15% nitro. As a substitute for 30% nitro, I used a Hatori #444 tuned pipe for extra power. This smoothed out the engine quite a bit over the Century Hatori style muffler I had been using, I assume because it allowed the engine to breathe better. I have also heard that the KSJ muffler works well, though I have not seen it on a ship doing anything but hover. Even running a tuned pipe and low nitro, the engine will preignite if it gets hot. To avoid this, run the hottest plug you can find to allow the richest mixture possible. I found that an Enya #3 works best, the OS #8 a close second. It also helps to add a bit of oil to the fuel to carry away combustion heat. I like to use about 4oz per gallon of either Morgan synthetic oil or Klotz KL200 oil. These oils are not necessary if you are already running a fuel with high oil content, such as Cool power 12.5% heli.

First off, all of these mods, with the exception on the elevator servo mounting and tail control rod, are unnecessary on the Falcon SE kit. I leave them here for reference for anyone who happens to want to improve their Falcon 46 kit.

The first mod I made to the heli was to build the head the same way as an XCell head. This gives the heli a bit more control authority and smooths out the control inputs by making the heli fly more on the flybar. I flipped the bell hiller mixer around, put a 3mm self tapping screw in place of the small ball on the seesaw, and threaded a long ball into the conveniently placed "extra" hole on the seesaw offset plate. I then hooked the short pushrod to the long balls on the seesaw and mixer, and the swash to the short ball on the mixer.

Probably the most important modification I made to the Falcon was to add some hard dampers to the head. The bearings in the Falcon head are wider than it was designed for, and this extra width shifts the grips outward by about 1mm, generating some delta offset. This delta offset can drive a blade flutter if the rotor turns at the resonant frequency of the system, an effect known more commonly as "woof and poof". Using carbon blades with the stock (soft) dampers puts this resonant frequency between 1800 and 2000 RPM, a very typical place to run the headspeed during aerobatics. When the head of my Falcon would run up to speed, the blades would slowly start to go out of track and flutter. To cure this, I replaced the head dampers with KSJ502 hard dampers for the Ergo/Shuttle. Because they were not identical in size to the stock dampers, it was necessary to machine a collar for the feathering shaft with a 6mm ID and 7mm OD. This collar expanded the rubber, making it fit snugly in the head. After this modification, all signs of woof and poof have disappeared, and the heli is extremely smooth.

Many have complained about breaking starter shafts on the Hawk/Falcon. Century has made a hardened shaft to address this problem, but the fix is actually much simpler than that. The 3mm pan head retaining screw that holds the starter cone on is too long and bottoms out on the through pin in the shaft. This prevents the screw from tightening down on the cone. The solution is to shorten the screw by about 1mm. No more broken shafts!

You can minimize control interaction by mounting the elevator servo so its shaft faces forward. To do this, you will need to add shims under the lugs of the aileron servo to keep the two servo arms from colliding. You will also need a longer control rod to reach the elevator control. You can see this mod in the pictures above if you look closely.

In order to run 95mm tail blades, it was necessary to make a larger vertical fin to help them clear the ground. I bought some 1/8" fiberglass laminate (G-10) from Aerospace Composite Products, and cut out a shape that worked. I then used a Dremel to create lightening holes in the glass. I also made a horizontal fin so that they would still match. Be forewarned, the fiberglass laminate will eat cutting tools, so either get some carbide/diamond tipped tools or be prepared to replace them after this job.

This last mod is a bit esoteric. I added a carbon control rod to the tail in hopes of getting more positive tail control with the CSM 540. It turns out the the problem was not the linkages but with the gyro itself. The mod required a Central hobbies 1/8" pushrod with 2mm ends, cut to length. I then made a guide for the pushrod that would fit around the tail boom and keep space between it and the pushrod. Next, I took a 2" length of 5mm OD K&S aluminum tubing and drilled it out to slip over the pushrod, and epoxied it in place where the rod went through the guide. Lastly, I added a ball link to the tail control lever, dremeled out the necessary material, countersunk the lower front case retention bolt, and hooked the rest of system up. If nothing else, it looks good.