Daniel Reese
Senior Heliman
Location: Urbana OH
| Sorry Ive been so inattentive! Shortly after getting things initially fitted and dressed up I got a new job and dont have nearly as much time to devote to this as I used to.
The ship is built with alot of changes from the stock configuration.
I changed the direction of rotation (in anticipation of mounting a 5 blade main rotor). Before, I had the helical main and pinion on there but I replaced them with a stock pinion and straight tooth gears then switched the blue & red wires from the ESC to the motor- presto chango, reversed rotation. To make it work though, I had to flip the washout base. To make THAT work, I had to press out the brass liner, hacksaw off the little extension bit off the bottom and press the liner back in. Then I had to flip the blade grips and the flybar cage. Once everything lined up it was done!
I am using the torque tube to drive the tail rotor and by reversing the main, it enabled me to flip the tail rotor to the correct side and I think I had to reverse the gyro..but Im not sure...I used a flexible pushrod to connect the tr servo to the tr bellcrank. It was alot simpler and easier than I ever would have expected.
With the mechanics tuned I mounted everything in the fuse but the fuse has had some extensive modifications.
I build this version to more closely resemble an MD369- basically a 500 E model but with some extra details: There are a few additional window frames in the front glass and "surfboard" on top of the doghouse; the surfboard looks like the roof of the doghouse extends flat out the sides and hangs over the back edge of the doghouse a bit. I used some sheet styrene and glazing putty to build those extensions.
I made a few antennas from round styrene stock and balsa for the fairings.
Built an outrigger platform for a copilot steerable spotlight and copilot steerable micro wireless video camera.
Threre are a multitude of lights on this thing- all of which are based on TRTJ's LiGlow lipo alarm for the 22v main battery. There are 3 blinking red strobes: on top of the doghouse, on the belly beneath the PIC seat, and at the end of the boom, on the vertical portion of the T tail, just above the tr housing. There are three marker lights: red in the left skid tip, green in the right skid tip and white at the top center of the T tail.
There is also a pilot switchable landing light in the nose, another on the belly under the copilot's seat and a third inside the cockpit.
The lipo alarm triggers at about 3.8v/cel; the strobes will stop blinking and the switchable landing lights will come on. They're super bright and can be seen from a long ways off even on a bright sunny day outside.
The holes in the fuse where the landing gear legs come through is handled poorly by TT. Instead of using those gaudy rubber grommets I made fairings that matched the reinforcing plates on the real heli - double stacked layers of sheet styrene epoxied into place. There is just enough give in the joint to allow for some flex when landing and islolation of vibration.
Still in the works is the cockpit "module". It will be a removeable unit that will link to the control servos of the helicopter. The cyclic stick, collective and anti-torque pedals will all move according to the inputs from the tx. Ive finished a fully functional prototype and only need to make the final version with all the detail bits (instrument panel, weathering, floor textures & all that).
On the drawing board for a future project will be creating a baggage box for the belly as seen on a few MD500s- the flight battery will be moved inside it when it's done.
Ive got the rotor and blades on order and they should be here in a few weeks. As soon as I can, I'll post pictures of what I have now, and then agian once the 5 blade main is working.
If you have questions still, just ask and I'll try to keep a better eye on this thread in the future. |
