Feb.16th, 2002
It was a beautiful day today (65 degrees and 7MPH wind) so I went flying. I ran a few tanks of gas through the new OS61-WC engine on a bare Raptor 60 frame. It was very rich but ran fine after I leaned the mid needle about a half turn. I don't like the tail rotor, befor when I had a carbon pushrod it was great, the little 9253 was holding like a champ. Now I have a flex cable driving the scale tail and I'm getting some movement in the tail that I shouldn't be getting. This was the first test of the 180 degree flip I did on the tail rotor gear box. It is now on the left side of the boom rather than the standard right side. The new Hatori pipe sounds really good, much quieter than the Weston I had on the Webra. I think I will take the 9253 off the tail and put a 9250 that is now on collective on the tail. It is digital and is .10sec speed @ 76oz torque or more. I will replace the 9250 with a more powerful 9402 Coreless that I had. I think that will improve the tail, I plan to get some graphite powder and dry lube the flex cable so slicken it up some too. I don't want or need any tail rotor issues with the scale ship.
Above is a shot of the heli after the first coat of primer. I also taped in the glass to check out the overall look and fit of the heli. all assembled, It's going to look great!
Over the last week or so I have trimmed the landing gear strut fairings where they join the skids. I added steps on each gear strut (steps are carbon fiber pushrod scraps) and some same antennas (vario accessories) in the rear of the heli. I also assembled the tail section and bolted the tail fin assembly to the boom with thin plywood blocks bearing blind nuts on the inside of the tailboom. It should be very strong, I don't anticipate and problems with it. I've drilled holes on the top of the skids just behind the front legs. I will run my wiring down inside the fairing and have it enter the skid via the hole and then run the wire up the front tip of the skids. Just like the scale 500's I'll have the left skid with a red light and a green light on the right skid. I'll use Goop adhesive to hold the lights in place.
Below are a few more shots of the heli. The windows are just taped in at this point, I will glue them in after final paint is done. The windows were clear. I didn't want or like them stock. I tried RIT DYE and it sucked. Maybe I did it wrong but I wasn't happy with my results so I went to my hobby store and bought a can of Window Tint over in the RC Car side of the store. I sprayed 3 or 4 thin coats on the inside and it looks great. I wanted it very dark as I didn't have room for a scale interior. Besides the dark glass just looks better to me. I guess I'll paint the modified skids with some black paint, I wanted to powdercoat them but the glue is a problem during the process so I'll paint it. I am going to shoot my color over the primer with a Touch Up Gun and a compressor. I used a spray can for my primer coat as seen in thes pics. I have to do some filling and sanding anyway so this isn't a critical coat. I used Rustoleum Perfect Primer in flat white, it was about $2.50 a can. I used a whole can on the heli, that was two light coats. I want to fix some pinholes and other small areas and prime again before I shoot the color.
I have my decals in hand for the project. They are on clear vinyl and are 4 color process. They are made of 3M UV resistant 5 yr. outdoor fade resistant so they shouldn't fade. The tail numbers are being cut on silver vinyl this week as I couldn't get silver ink on the clear 4 color pieces. With any luck, I'll have them before next weekend. I don't need them jet. Iam still a few weeks away from completion of the paint. I have to finish out the primer and body prepping and then shoot the base color (yellow) and let it dry a few days before doing the blue, then the red, etc.. I won't get in a hurry now, it will be worth the wait.r
