Walkera Lama 3 Guide - tips and tricks
Note: This is an unofficial collection of tips and tricks for the Walkera Lama 3 RC helicopter. It’s fully editable (read this forum post at RC groups) and contributions are very welcome. All credits go to the forum contributors at RC groups and other recources. Please respect the importance of keeping information useful and correct. Remember to read all documentation and seek advice from skilled pilots in real life. This document is only meant as additional help. Please be aware of that no contributors in this guide can take any responsibility, and the information here could potentially be wrong due to it’s open and editable form.
Content
Introduction to the Walkera Lama 3 RC helicopter
About the manouvring and flying characteristics of this helicopter
Recommended modifications / replacements
Parts that often gets distroyed:
Different versions of the Lama 3?
Online stores for parts and accessories
Lama3 as aerial photo/video plattform
Documentation information and links
About the guide
This guide is meant to gather and provide some of the information and guidelines from typical use and experiences of the Lama 3 helicopter. Everyone is encouraged to participate and share at the RC groups forums (read more below in Online forum). All information in this guide is a summary of some of the information from the forum. All credits goes to the contributors at RC forums, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge! The reason for this guide is simply trying to keep a short version of all the many forum posts (that is quite overwhelming).
PS: Sorry for my English, any lingual corrections in the guide is also appreciated.
Introduction to the Walkera Lama 3 RC helicopter
The Walkera Lama 3 is a coaxial helicopter that came on market in spring 2010. The Lama3 is the first coaxial heli that uses only one motor for both main rotor blades, and it’s also one of the first coaxial helicopters that is more capable of flying outdoors in “some” wind. Coaxial helicopters is known to be easier to fly (nice for beginners), but the Lama3 is known to be a little more difficult to handle than a typical coaxial helicopter, according to several forum users (it’s also bigger and more powerful).
Online forum
Most of the information in this document is gathered from various discussions and posts from rcgroups.com. A big thanks goes to all the contributors! At the time beeing, the most visited froum threads for the Walkera Lama 3 are:
“Official Walkera LM3 owner's Club - ALL ARE WELCOME”
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1184242
“Walkera Lama 3 - Flight Video & Review”
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1173880
Before taking off
Read the manual first, and as mentioned earlier you should really consult and learn from other experienced pilots in real life. Still, some additional advices is also provided here.
It’s higly recommended to read Bravos Lama 3 setup guide, see post #655.
Also, there are some useful posts showing Lama 3 setups, e.g. look at this video by Rolex to see how the servoes should function.
About the manouvring and flying characteristics of this helicopter
Bravo describing his first experience with how the lama 3 responds in post #533. E.g. he states:
“From my inspection and test flights so far the heli requires throttle reduction on left yaw to stop cork screw climb, and throttle increase on right yaw to prevent altitude loss. This all relates to its CP yaw design as you’ve already noticed”.
Maintenance and repair guides
General maintenance:
Before each flight, make sure to have a visual inspection of the heli. Check that all screws are tight, especially the blade screws - post #102 by xviper .
Other things you should inspect:
- Upper Rotor Blade Holder: Some have experienced them loosening and falling off. See post #427 by Robbok illustrated with images. Use loctite.
Change main gear:
How to change a main gear on the lama3, by Rolex. part 1 - post #63 and part 2 post #64.
Servos:
How to mount the left hand servo, by Rolex. Part 1 - post #330 and part 2 - post #332
Other information:
In post #85 xviper gives som input regarding setup of a lama 3 that doesn’t behave like it should.
I have problems, what do I look for???
Some posts that describes error seeking:
- In post#906 bravo describes some useful things to go trough when the heli is...
- In
Recommended modifications / replacements
Recommended to secure the lama 3 battery door - forum post #107 by xviper and video tutorial for battery tray fix in this post by rolex
Bravo47 wrote some Lama3 setting recommendations in post #635
Servos:
Some experience that the standard walkera servoes perform bad, and solved the issues by replacing them. Eg. this post,
If you replace servos, look at this guide by bravo, post #655, to configure (at least this certain type) right.
Landing skids:
If you are a beginner, you might concider using a training gear. But also more trained pilots prefer bigger skids on this helicopter to provide more stability in landings. Some examples:
Olivermc posted images in this post#851 showing 600 align landing gear.
Parts that often gets distroyed:
(and keep in mind when ordering spare parts)
- Blades
- Main gear (seemes to be one of the first parts blowing when the heli is taking an hard hit) - E.g. post #127 by Rolex.
- Landing skid
Different versions of the Lama 3?
- Walkera updated the lama 3 at some point in june 2010 with new reciever and ESC. E.g. see picture showing the new vs. old one in post #537 by xviper and rolex.
- Also olivermc wrote in post
Debated modifications?
Extended shaft: The Lama 3 is capable of handling more wind when using the wow hobbies version of the lama3 helicopter. This version is using an extendend shaft, separating the blades more to avvoid blade strike. But still, some users have experience problems with the Lama3, ending up with the extended wow3 shaft being the problem. E.g. see this forum post.
Online stores for parts and accessories
Listed alphabetically:
Lama3 as aerial photo/video plattform
This helicopter can lift small cameras, but it can be difficult to mount and control the heli with more weight. Here are some examples of videos captured with the lama 3:
Example #1, #2.
How to attach the camera?
It’s recommended to find a way to reduce vibrations.
Recommended cameras:
Documentation and other links
Walkera Lama 3 PDF Manual:
http://www.walkera.com/cn1/lm3/me.pdf
Picture of all Lama 3 parts (exploded diagram)
http://www.walkera.com/cn1/lm3/be.jpg
Walkera Lama 3 web page:
http://www.walkera.com/cn1/lm3/index_e.html
Other web sites to check out:
Introduction to RC heli flying at dream-models.com by Radd (note, this is a guide written for a fixed pitch heli, whitch carries very different characterics than the Lama3, so it’s not directly applicable, but still very much useful information)
[1]Provides the Lama3 WOW3 version with extended shaft