Century CNC Head Block

The following is a review of the Century CNC Headblock upgrade. First let's look at some photos of this upgrade item.

Build Quality

As can be seen from the pictures this is a CNC aluminium head block and is a direct replacement for the stock plastic head supplied in the Swift kit. Unusually this upgrade is not coloured purple like most of the other Swift CNC upgrades. Having discussed this with Century there are plans to produce upgrade parts in silver rather than the usual purple.

In terms of build quality this upgrade is of the same excellent standard as seen in previously reviewed CNC upgrade parts. Everything is finished nicely and there are no rough edges or bad fitting components. The upgrade consists of two separate parts, the first being the head block itself and the second being the anti-rotation pins that locate into the slots in the washout assembly.

Comparison to the stock part

Century have chosen not to directly copy the stock plastic part for this upgrade. This is a different approach to that taken for the other CNC upgrades that Swift Tuning has reviewed. The stock plastic part is an all in one part in that the anti-rotation pins are glued directly into the bottom of the head block itself. In this CNC upgrade the anti-rotation pins are mounted in their own small bracket which bolts directly below the head block on the main shaft.

Build

Construction of the CNC head block is very similar to the stock plastic part that this replaces. For this installation I chose to use the new steel feathering shaft. This feathering shaft does not have the centre ball. The stock dampeners press fit into the CNC head block. The feathering shaft fits through the dampeners and the blade grips etc are bolted to it. The flybar seesaw fits into the CNC head utilising the same bearings as used for the stock plastic part. The only real difference in this head to the stock plastic head is that the anti-rotation pins are on their own hub which is secured to the main shaft using a set screw.

 

Flight Testing

Given that this is just a CNC head block I was not expecting to notice any significant difference in flight performance. A CNC head block is not about improving flight performance it is about strength. Whilst a plastic head block may be entirely suitable for a 4S Swift running with 515 mm blades it is a completely different story when you start looking at running 600 mm blades and 6S packs. This upgrade has been introduced for a reason and that reason is to handle bigger blades, more powerful motors and larger packs.

So, did I notice any difference? Well, unsurprisingly I didn't but I did feel more comfortable with running some of my high performance motors and larger blades on this new head block.

I have in the past had various helicopters with plastic head blocks. Most notable was the Raptor 50, which after some abuse (3-D), I noticed that the holes for the dampeners had become oval shaped. Since those experiences I have only ever been comfortable with metal head blocks. They are much more capable of withstanding the huge forces placed on them by aggressive 3-D flight.

Conclusion

This CNC head block is significant in that it is part of the evolution of the Swift. The Swift 620 SE has recently been announced and I'm sure this head block will be a stock item on that machine. For those that are running 4S I don't believe this upgrade really offers anything other than good looks. For those who are running higher performance machines with larger packs, more powerful motors and crucially longer blades this upgrade is much more significant.

This upgrade is nicely machined, nicely finished and does the job for which it was designed. Therefore as an upgrade item I would not recommended for those running 4S standard Swifts unless it is for aesthetic reasons. However, for the aggressive 3-D flyer running bigger blades this upgrade is one of the essential parts to ensure that the machine has adequate strength and rigidity to deal with the blade forces involved. Certainly I feel much happier with this on my machine than the original plastic head.