I've got the Heli Bug!

As regular readers will know I've had a Kalt Space Baron that I rescued from the dump and another that I bought new and complete. I've also taken delivery of a Hirobo Shuttle ZXX as well and I now have three nitro vintage helicopters! I've even been brave enough to get the ZXX running and very carefully begun to learn to fly it. That means I've had it fully tethered and managed to hover it in ground effect a whole 6 or so inches above the ground. Read - bathed in sweat and shaking like a leaf!

I've also managed to find a few more parts for the first Space Baron and I am up to the stage of fitting it out with engine and servos. The next step is to find the right clutch and cooling fan for it - then sort out all those linkages and settings.

My interest is in the vintage Nitro Heli's as they are fairly cheap to acquire and I enjoy the hunt for parts and getting the things flying again. To me there is a real satisfaction in restoring something to flying condition that no one else seems to want any more. To this end I'm starting a new Vintage Helicopter page on this blog which will detail all my efforts, trials, errors, mistakes and assorted disasters and I'm incorporating all the heli's onto that page. It might take me a few days but the separate pages for the heli's will all be moved to the one page.

Three Vintage nitro Heli's. At the front is the new Kalt Space Baron, in the middle the Hirobo Shuttle ZXX and at the rear the slowly progressing Kalt Space Baron that I rescued from the dump.

More, More, More!

I've done a bit more work on the Bird of Time while I'm waiting for some parts to arrive to finish the new Kalt Space Baron and some how I ended up at a garage sale and brought home a RC boat with a OS MAX SR40 rear induction with pipe. The whole thing is about 40 years old and needs a complete pull down and restoration - BUT - I am a glutton for punishment and it only cost me $5.00 !!! 

THEN at our last club field day one of our members become annoyed with one of his models and announced a FIRE SALE. No Bidders! So I offered $5.00 - mainly as a joke and to kick of some bidding offers - imagine my embarrassment when there was still no more bids and the member accepted my bid! I became the owner of a "slightly" used 3D model - no servos or electrics of course BUT with an ASP 108 2 stroke up front! The airframe is substantially complete and I took my prize home to put it back together - some photos soon.

No more progress on the Lancaster at present but I'm doing something with the Texan to Wirraway conversion and the new Kalt Space Baron as well as the older one that I'm restoring. Most progress in the last week or so has been on the Bird of time and it's getting near the ready to recover stage. There are some photos on the Bird of Time page along with a bit of comment on the repair status.

Finally - just to prove that I really am nuts I bought a Hirobo Shuttle ZXX Heli complete with servos, gyro, motor and fully setup and test flown by an expert! I might even learn to fly it without smashing it due to incorrect set up! Whether I'll crash it because of tangling up my thingers and fumbs is another question.

The Boat Hull. Some one suggested it might be a Dumas hull - don't Know??

Partly dis assembled OS MAX SR40 - a bit sad.

The "bits" that came with the hull

Another view of the hull. I've shown the model to a couple of people who know a lot more about boats than I do. In their opinion it's been a top class model in it's day!