March.17th, 2002
I have finally finished the paint and decals. I still have to shoot two more coats of clear over the whole heli to insure everything is fuelproof. I got the last decals on, I had a friend of mine cut them on his vinyl cutter. They look great andso does the heli.
I've been working on the wiring and have made an electrical box that contains the navigation light computer and the battery for the lights. I have wired in two switches that controls power to the lights and the other switch turns the seachlight on an off.
I placed the mechanics back into the heli today to check fit of te electrical box, on board tachometer and the exhaust extension. Everything is going to fit, I see where I need to place the tach unit and the box so everything is neat and easy to get to. I did have to move my remote glow plug bracket to the higher engine mount bolt to provide clearance of the glow igniter but that wasn't a problem to do.
I wired the landing light into the nose piece and used so servo extension cable connectors to make a quick disconnect for the light. I also have one for the seachlight that mounts on the belly. I have test mounted it and I'm just waiting to get the last clear coats on before I install the searchlight.
The glass was glued into the canopy with GOOP. The nose fit the body very well before I put the glass in it, since mounting the glass I've discovered it is much more work to install the nose piece. It fits, but it is extremely tight.
I weighed the heli today with everything in it except for gas. It weighs just over 14 lbs. I don't think the new OS61SXWC engine will have any problem pulling the heli.
Here are some pics:
