Radio Control Helicopters - 2004/04

140 MODEL AVIATION
IS WINTER OVER YET? Since I’m writing
this in November, I can only hope that there
will be a sufficient number of days (on the
weekends, because daylight is in terribly short
supply here during the winter months) when
the weather breaks enough for us Northerners
to get out and get a helicopter fix.
Even though spring has officially sprung,
we can get snow up here until May. If it isn’t
snow, then it’s that gray, damp, drizzly
weather that keeps us inside, hanging out in
the shop, looking for something model-related
to do. I don’t know about you people, but right
about now I’m really looking forward to a
whiff of nitromethane.
Every spring I head to an NHRA (National
Hot Rod Association) national drag-racing
event in Georgia, fly some helicopters with
some good friends, and visit my brother. There
I usually get more than my share of nitro
fumes. Those guys really know how to burn
nitro! Burning as much as 90% nitro for a mix,
they go through an incredible amount of it.
I remember when a nitro manufacturing
Dan Williams, 27 Treeline Dr., Liverpool NY 13090; E-mail: [email protected]
RADIO CONTROL HELICOPTERS
Keith (R) and Kyle Hazleton man the helicopter display at spring mall show. From left to
right are ECO 8, Concept 30—Yellow Aircraft Jet Ranger, Concept EP.
Jim Ferraldo flies his X-Cell Pro II after a
winter snowstorm. Helicopters need only
a little landing pad in the snow.
Bill Coffay hovers Kyosho Nexus. He achieved Solo certification
and is practicing for Intermediate wings.
Side view of Sceadu EVO 50. Push-pull control on elevator servo
is consistent with its other tight, slop-free controls.
plant blew up in the 1980s, driving the cost of
our nitro-mix model fuels through the roof. I
think we were importing nitro from overseas.
Guess where it was all going? They burn
something like 15 gallons of fuel per run. And
you thought your big-block O.S. sucked fuel?
A short time ago I received a packet of
information from a model club in Scranton,
Pennsylvania, called the Black Sheep
Squadron. Steve Kurimchak, the press
relations person at the club, sent me a short
write-up about the group and pictures of its
activities. Steve wrote:
“The Black Sheep Squadron of
Northeastern Pennsylvania enjoys helicopter
flying year round. Some advantages of winter
flying of rotary aircraft are no assembly
required in the freezing weather and easy
landing and takeoffs from a helipad you can
make in the snow with your boots!
“Electrics offer the advantage of using the
batteries as hand warming devices after
flying! Indoors helicopters can be flown
almost anywhere. And when the sun goes
down the lights come out for even more fun!
April 2004 141
This is the front-end view of the Hirobo
Sceadu EVO 50. A look at the Sceadu EVO 50 head—well constructed and strong for 3-D aerobatics.
skills, be recognized by the club for their
achievement, and be given a pair of cool
wings as well! The Solo level teaches mastery
of the hover and maintenance skills, the
Intermediate level adds forward flight skills,
and the Advanced level tops it off with basic
aerobatics.”
Steve included some pictures of the club’s
activities on and off the field, and I’ve
included a few in the column. It sounds as if
this group has successfully integrated a
helicopter training program into the club.
I know that many helicopter clubs
support the teaching of newbies, but I
don’t know of too many that have a formal
program for teaching helicopter flying
skills. Congratulations to you and your club,
Steve!
I asked for any club-related activities that
you would like to see published in the
column. This is your column too; not just
mine. I like nothing more than putting
something such as this in my writings. If it
will inspire a club to take on a particular
aspect of the hobby, such as a training school,
then it’s worth my time to include it. I think
readers also enjoy seeing what else is going
on out there in the sometimes lonely hobby of
flying model helicopters.
If you’re looking for a way to increase
your club’s size, there’s no better way than
to introduce a formal flight-training
program. You will fill the ranks faster than
you can believe with new, enthusiastic
members. Some of them will want to repay
the club for the training by becoming
instructors themselves. My fixed-wing club
has done this for roughly 13 years, and it
“Rotary wing aircraft are part of the daily
fun and camaraderie at the flying field. Most
pilots consider them a challenge and a change
from the fixed wings we also enjoy. There
are several knowledgeable rotary wing pilots
who are regulars at the field who enjoy all
kinds of flying vehicles!
“To make it even more interesting the
club has the ‘WINGS’ program of flight
instruction, where would-be helicopter pilots
can learn Solo, Intermediate, and Advanced
142 MODEL AVIATION
does indeed sustain the membership.
Hirobo recently introduced the latest
incarnation of its popular Shuttle Sceadu,
called the Evolution (EVO). It is available in
30- and 50-size versions. The following
details are from a press release. The EVO is
not an all-new helicopter, in that many parts
from the original Sceadu can be used in it. All
EVO parts will fit the original Sceadu.
The Sceadu Evolution uses a new plastic
formula for strength and longevity. A new,
larger fuel tank (from 350cc to 480cc) has
been incorporated for thirsty 50-size engines.
The cooling fan has also been increased in
size.
The rotor head has a new design feature
that allows smooth and stable hovering almost
hands-free, as well as the capability to
perform aggressive 3-D maneuvers. The
overall design is ready for any 50-size
helicopter engine. A third bearing block in the
engine drivetrain supports the engine’s power
output without early wear of critical parts.
The 50-size EVO comes with push-pull
controls on both cyclics and the collective
system, as does the 60-size Freya. The 50-size
version also comes with a constant driven tail
rotor system.
For training purposes, the EVO head has a
feature called the “Auto Stability” setting,
which consists of adding a couple components
to settle the machine into a docile, trainingmode
helicopter.
For the build-up of the kit we enlisted the
“newbie skills” of a fixed-wing pilot with no
prior helicopter experience. The rest of us
could put almost any helicopter together in
our sleep, so it’s getting hard for us to get a
fresh view of the assembly procedure. Bob
O’Neil, of the Rochester Aero Modeling
Society, was volunteered for this experiment.
It took Bob roughly 30 hours for the buildup,
which included the complete helicopter
and radio installation. That’s not too bad. I
remember my first time building up a
helicopter; of course, they have improved a bit
since then.
During assembly, Bob managed to get the
tail-drive assembly upside down and it
wouldn’t fit. It wasn’t a direct fault of the
manual, but a general point of confusion that
sometimes exists when upgrade parts are
included with a stock kit. He wasn’t sure
which way it went in.
Another pitfall for Bob was when he got
an extra twist in the tail-drive belt, just for
good measure. We didn’t catch it in the initial
look-over of the completed model. We found
it later, after the first flight, when we couldn’t
track down the source of drag on the head. A
few of us have done that at one time or
another, but I never have. Yeah, right. It’s a
typical newbie mistake that we should all be
aware of when checking first-time builders’
models.
An area of concern for Bob was using
Loctite in the vicinity of plastic parts. He and
many others have the idea that this adhesive
will attack any plastic. According to Loctite
representatives, only ABS and those plastics
of the styrene family are affected by Loctite
April 2004 143
and broken down. Almost all plastics used in
helicopters are of the nylon family, whether it
be carbon- or fiberglass-reinforced or Delrin.
We had to go through and add Loctite to some
critical areas before the first flight and some
after.
In all, Bob did a good job for a first-time
helicopter builder. I’m sure he’ll get more
practice as the rekitting and rebuilding
commences.
We liked the EVO’s driven tail assembly.
Although a beginner doesn’t really need it,
those who want to start “nutsing” around with
pirouetting and backward autorotations can use
this machine to their heart’s content.
The molded battery box is a nice addition
to any kit. It helps protect the electronics from
beginners’ knocks and tip-overs, up to the fullbore
driven-into-the-ground 3-D maneuver.
For the gyro, there’s a choice of where to
mount the sensor. There is a plate in the front
and in the rear of the model.
Hirobo molded a “keyhole” fuel-line pinchoff
right into the side frame. This is really cool.
Just pass the fuel line through the hole and
forget about hemostats or IV clamps to cut off
the fuel to the engine. That was a nice touch.
A 50 muffler was included in the upgrade
kit. This is not the case with later kits. I’ll have
more about this later.
The control system is very Bergen Intrepid,
as in the push-pull and collective arrangement.
This system has always been a favorite in a
non-CCPM (Cyclic Collective Pitch Mixing)
helicopter. It takes the slop out of one-sided
servo actuation and allows the servo to use all
the power for the system. Correctly applied
during design, this system can be virtually free
of control interaction.
Now for some of the things we didn’t like.
The many Phillips-head self-tapping screws
used in assembly of the frames were
reminiscent of my Concept days. They don’t
last very long, especially if they are
overtorqued. They can strip out the hole fast.
It’s not a showstopper, but for longevity’s sake
we prefer something more robust. We replaced
them with Allen-head bolts and lock nuts.
We also dropped the boom supports down
to the lower holes for a better mechanical
advantage. It wouldn’t be a big deal for strictly
a trainer, but this is a must for 3-D and
heading-hold gyros. We learned this from
Curtis Youngblood’s visit last summer. That
was the first thing he went for when evaluating
a helicopter’s airworthiness. The tighter the tail
support, the higher the gyro gain can be for the
wild maneuvers.
The other thing we didn’t care for, as I
mentioned earlier, was the way the upgrade
parts were included with the stock parts. This
happens often when there’s an upgrade
available for a kit. Confusion ensues for newer
builders when they are faced with which parts
to use in the build process.
I spoke with Jeff Green of Model Rectifier
Corporation, which imports Hirobo products.
The EVO kits were initially released by
MRC—not Hirobo. If you have one of these
kits, see the addendum from MRC about the
upgrades. In the later kits the upgrades are
fully integrated into the parts packages and the
instructions. Jeff apologized for any
confusion, but he wanted to get the EVO out
as early as possible. “Stuff” happens
sometimes.
In stock setup and form, using an O.S. .50
engine with the provided muffler, the machine
has a soft feel and a slower roll rate. We used
some FunKey blades and the stock paddles
for the head. In this form it will loop and roll,
but it does not have the agility of a machine
that is tweaked out for rocking and rolling.
We had the head set up in “Auto Stability”
mode, which probably accounted for the lack
of crisp response. It was a nice, solid 50-size
machine to fly. We haven’t had a great deal of
time on this machine yet. We may try
experimenting with the other setup mode or
different paddles to see what will happen.
I had the recent good fortune to fly with
Jeff. He used a stock machine with an O.S.
.50 and a FunTech muffler, and it looked as
though it was taking everything he would put
to it. Jeff wasn’t gentle with the model; rolling
tailslides, death spirals, and climbing
pirouetting spirals were in his repertoire that
day. The head was set up in “Auto Stability”
mode with the brass weight removed. He
pushed the machine hard.
For more information, contact MRC at
www.modelrectifier.com.
That’s it for this month. May your
takeoffs not exceed your landings. See you
next month. MA