Copter Doctor
Elite Veteran
Location: daleville/ft.rucker, al
| hey all!!
is anyone out there into scratch building!!! well i wasnt really into it until i decided i wanted to do an apache for my 30 size heli. well guess what? no one has one available so off to the drawing board i went. my experience building rc airplanes for many years helped quite a bit with drawing up plans, selecting wood and construction. after about a week, bam!!!! ah-64 apache was flying and looking for targets. even though it was stand off................off off scale, i thought it turned out pretty good. it has all working nav and strobe lights, and the 30mm cannon moved left/right as well as up and down from the radio. the stabilator was made movable but was not attached to a servo or pushrods for the first few flights. to my surprise, it turned out i did not need to hook anything up. the thing seemed to have a mind of it's own and moved up and down all by itself, with help of the wind and forward speed of course. the landing gear was made to work just like the fullsize 64 with shock absorbing struts. it is fun to taxi as well as run-on takeoffs and landings. i can even taxi it backwards just like i see them do with the fullsize.
well i was so pleased with the apache, i got carried away and built a 66-comanche too. then came a cobra and now an eh-101 is already underway although on the backburner until i catch up on some customer's helis.(too many irons in the fire) although the oh-58d was built from a funkey jet ranger with a shuttle inside, i had to do a bit of modification to the fuse and mechs to make it work. the mms(mast mounted sight) or "ball" was made from a plastic ball i got at a craft shop, dont really know its real use but it was perfect in size. it took some putty and sanding to get the shape and e.t look.
well if i have not bored you and you'd like to see pics of the apache and 58-d, email me at copterdoctor2002@aol.com i will post pics here as soon as i figure out how. the pics of the comanche and the cobra are in the works. if anyone has mike ellis' book on scale building and flying, he has a pic of my ugly mug in there with comanche number one. (long story on why it is now number one)
hope this makes many of you consider scratch building for future projects. the feeling of accomplishment you get has to be experienced to be believed.
emile
drive a rotary, fly a rotorcraft |
