Century MD (Hughes) 500-E

Today I decided to pull the Webra 61-P5 out of the Raptor and install a new OS61SXWC engine. I had the engine since last summer and planned on putting it in an X-Cell I eventually sold. I wasn't having any problems with the Webra after I put a dual glow head on it, before that I had mixture problems I couldn't seem to resolve. Anyway, I changed the cooling fan, clutch and pipe over to the 0S. I decided to install the new OS as a measure to insure reliability. Not many people I know use a Webra in their helis, I got a good deal on it but I just feel more comfortable with the OS. I was going to have to change pipes anyway, I had a Weston one-piece on the Webra and I can't use it in the Hughes 500E because I want the exhaust coming out the back of the heli and the Weston shoots it down through the floor.

I had a spare Hatori muffler that was perfect for my needs, it's a good sized muffler and I'm hoping it will be much quieter than the Weston which I thought was extremely loud and not as tolerable as the quieter, smoother sounding long mufflers tend to purr at idle where the Weston barks.

Here is the 61 mounted in the Raptor 60. You can see that big ass carb just clears the frame wiithout any cutting or grinding. I am anxious to test this engine and get a few gallons of gas through the motor. I may upgrade to the larger fuel tank meant for the 90 engines. The upgraded metal fan screws right on the OS and the Webra without any collets.

Here's what the new pipe looks like, I just cleaned it up with some Mother's Aluminum Mag Polish, made it like new again! I am making the exhaust duct back to exit the body it the scale position. The scale exhaust hole is around two inches in diameter and nearly a foot back.

The picture belows show the exhaust and some rivet detail I've added. The rivets are Vario rub on tyoe. You get 1200 rivets per pack and you cut them out in rows and line them up where you want them, peeling the backing and press the tape down and lightly burnish the rivets down to the fuselage. They are pre-spaced and pre gummed, you should handle it carefully until you get a coat of primer over it to seal the rivets. They were hard to get to stick to the carrier sheet, you have to burnish them to the top sheet to get them to stay on while you pull the bottom protective layer off exposing the rivies, if you don't some won't transfer... overall I still say it beats applying one by one with w syringe or supergluing individual PVC ones in place. This shot shows the rear former glued in place with GOOP contact adhesive. It works great! The white is actually SIG White Dope, the Goop dries clear. I dope the former in the heli and doped around the edges to further seal and fuelproof the GOOP. All the wood in the heli is triple coated with SIG White Dope, brushed on out of a can.

Above is a shot of the nose, I have all the rivets in place and the air intake and landing light tube that was a hack. The nose looks fragile with the thin strips of fiberglass but I am surprised how strong it is and it is flexable not brittle. It will be even stronger one the glass is laid in from behind. Once glued in place it would be very strong. I am putting carbon fiber strips down throughout the body to strengthen it.

The photo to the shows some of the carbon fiber I have added in the heli. The gaps are wood blocks epoxied to the heli. 4/40 blind nuts will go here and I will use 4/40 machine screws to hold the nose in place. The Century kit come with cheesy self tapping screws that will surely strip out after a few uses... I'm thinking about hinging the bottom rear of the nose to the bottom of the heli, this way I can simply unscrew the top and side screws and fold the nose down to work on it. The heli is quite large and I don't like the idea of having to access scres on the bottom.

This is the tail section assembly. It is basically ready for paint. The vertical main stablizer came assembled and the wood block was in place. ALl I had to do was glue the top horizintal wing and the left and right vertical fins. THe small fins are wood and were percut, I sanded them to give a more airfoil type leading and trailing edges. I glued these in place with 30 minute epoxy and super glue to talk it in. You can see the metal beacon bracket that I made out of some bar stock brass.

This is photo shows the carbon fiber tail rotor bracket. Normally one would put it on the bottom side but it won't work on the H500, there isn't room for it on bottom but plenty of room on top. Actually this is better because the tail linkage is now on top too! To make the heli more scale I flipped the tail 180 degrees. I will run a flex cable back to the tail rotor and post likely replace the 9253 digital servo with a 9250 that is just slightly slower than the 9253 but has a lot more torque.

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