Jim Mahoney
Senior Heliman
Location: San Jose, CA U.S.A.
| Initial Look OverHello All,
After dinner I opened the Avro box or I should say boxes, a heavy outer, a single inter box, and at last the Kit Box. Very well packed!
The Manual is also very well written, and obviously by someone who has built a few helicopters. Now just because someone has built a bunch of helicopters does not automatically mean they build them in the right sequence, it just means they have built a lot of helicopters. The Art of writing a really good manual is not at all easy. To do it right the author must know the subject very well, must be able to organize the sequence of steps. Once the building steps are defined then the author would need to get the parts for a step and perform the operation again and again taking notes and then writing --- then give the parts to some bloke off the street and watching them to see how well they could perform the sequence. Going through the manual made me feel it was well thought out!
The parts are not only bagged but are put in a heat sealed sleeves - washers in one heat sealed compartment, the nuts in the next heat sealed compartment, ball bearings in the next heat sealed compartment, ... etc.
Real Labels are placed on each group of parts:
There is a table of contents at the front of the manual listing the order of building sequence steps, called Stages in this manaul - and the first 10 steps currently are:
Stage
1-1_______Clutch cooling fan
1-2_______Clutch bell assembly
1-3_______Clutch / crankshaft assembly
2-1_______Auto Hub
2-2_______Auto Hub / main gear
2-3_______Crown gear
2-4_______Crown gear / auto hub assembly
2-5_______Main mast / lower lower bearing housing
3-1_______19T pinion gear / drive pulley hub
3-2_______Drive pulley
As you might well guess Stage 1 group bag contains the parts for the three parts of stage, three heat sealed sections.
In the back of the manual is a Parts List which is organized by building stage just as the Table of Contents are, for example Stage 1:
Stage_____PART NUMBER______ITEM_______________KIT Qty
1___________AV-01-001_________Clutch___________________1
____________AV-01-002_________Cooling fan_______________1
____________AV-0312___________Skt head bolt_____________4
____________AV-03LN___________Nyloc nut________________4
____________AV-01-003_________Clutch bell________________1
____________AV-01-004_________Clutch liner_______________1
____________AV-122105_________Bearing_________________2
____________AV-01-005_________Lower collet______________1
____________AV-01-006_________Top collet________________1
____________AV-01-007_________Engine crankshaft nut_______1
____________AV-01-008_________L/H starter socket__________1
All of the extra lines were inserted because I can't use TABs or extra spaces to position text where I want it.
I think about the parts in order of building sequence then it is easy to find what you are looking for.
Blitz has taken a lot of care that parts are not damaged, e.g., the main shaft is enclosed in a type of thick expanding net to prevent damage.
See following post to learn of Old Mahoney's Mistake!!
There was one surprise, the tail boom Rear Boom Mount bolts onto the Main frame with just two bolts - all other tail boom mounts I have seen to date have four widely spaced mounting bolts. Since I see no problem listed on any forums and since Blitz has done a lot of testing then it must be OK but it is a surprise.
I may need to change the radio tray since I am using a 2.4GHz radio.
Mounting the servos is Not an after thought in the Avro 90! there support brackets, a bearing, servo output pinion, retaining plate, Eccentric cam, Grommet insert, grommet insert - buzz says you tighten the skt head bolts down, which you place a small drop of supper glue on the threads as it goes into the retaining plate. This is a Servo mounting system.
3mm Push rods!
Will enough for one day, I have a date!
Happy Flying,
Cherokee Jim Mahoney |
