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!

A resurrected Lancaster build.

Over a year ago I started to build a 90 inch wingspan Lancaster and the build ended up going from disaster to disaster. First I lost almost all the build photos - then I found I'd screwed up the wing design. A word of explanation here - I started off with a very old plan that used foam wings and a ply/foam composite fuselage that used brown paper as a covering. I'm a difficult, grumpy old fart so that wasn't good enough for me!  I don't like using foam and I prefer to use conventional construction materials - I.E. Balsa and ply. SO -  I basically started with the full size out line that the plan provided and designed my own structure. Yeah - well - everything went OK until I decided I had to do a load test on the wing - of course I'd changed my mind half way through the construction and changed from a one piece wing to a fixed centre section with detachable out panels. Needless to say my bloody wing joiners failed and I destroyed the wing!! I did use a few strong words.

The part finished model then  hung on the wall at the back of the hangar while I thought about it and of course other projects came up and I mostly lost interest in the project. The 4 Saito 4 stroke motors I bought for the project just sat in their boxes - UNTIL  - I saw a 134 inch wingspan Lancaster  build thread on a Internet forum.  Now my model is only 90 inches but it did motivate me to get the bloody thing off the wall.

I took it down and promptly fell arse over head on top of it, that destroyed the remains of the wing and damaged the fuselage. I used a few very strong words. It also brought down the red fog and I vowed that no pile of balsa and ply was going to get the better of me. So I stripped the fuselage out - cut out the damage - and now I'm starting over again. So far I've replaced the fins and rudders which were broken off and repaired a thumb hole I put through the fuselage skin. I've started all over again with the wing and started to build a new revised centre section. This section will hold the inboard motors in their nacelles and the retracting under carriage. The outer panels will be detachable and hold the outer engines in their nacelles and of course the ailerons. I'm designing wing joiners using carbon fibre reinforced boxes and aluminium tubes.

A few photos of the early stages of the resurrection. The rebuild will continue on the Lancaster page as soon as I've done a bit more.

Knocked both fins and rudders off when I fell on the bloody model

Put my thumb through the skin as well

Luckily the fins and rudders were not damaged

Starting to build a new wing centre section - it will be bonded to the fuselage this time

Some reinforcing around the" thumb mark"

And a bit more work on the wing

This time I'm using dowels to reinforce the fin to stabiliser joins. I'll trim them off when the glue has cured.

It's Arrived !

My new/old Kalt Space Baron Heli' has arrived. I don't think there would be to many Space Barons around that are new and never been flown so I count myself pretty fortunate to have found this one. What's more it has an unused OS 32H engine in it and all the bits are there. The post man knocked on my door at 0830 this morning with a big box and a grin on his face - he's used of delivering  boxes of all shapes and sizes to me and I'm working on him - he shows some interest - and if I keep at it we'll have another convert to the hobby - I hope.

I've included a couple of photos of the new arrival and I'll include step by step build photos as I put it together. The photos and a description of the build, problems if any, and the set up and maiden flight will all be there as I progress.

New arrival with the existing Space Baron in the Background

All the components to assemble

I'm fortunate in that I managed to locate and download a complete manual off the Internet.

14th February UPDATE.

I've started a build thread page for this Heli as The NEW Kalt Space Baron to differentiate it from the second Kalt - the one I bought from the Tip and still intend to restore.

Some readers might also note that I have removed a couple of pages - I had to sort things out and rationalise my builds a bit so I've given some projects to other club members. I have no doubt they will see the light of day sooner than if they sit in the back of my hangar till Dooms Day !

Another Quick Update

For those who might be interested I've added some information to the Wirraway page - it doesn't seem like a lot of progress but I've worked my butt off to get that far - the joys of building a highly detailed scale model aircraft.

Of course like all scratch/scale builders I don't do it because I have to - I do it because I want to and it beats the hell out of sitting in front of the idiot box all day ! To my delight it also confuses the hell out of some people - they just can't understand why a 70 year old man wants to play with "toy" aeroplanes.  As I said to one bloke who sits in front of the TV all day and has a belly like a barrel - it keeps my brain going - it gets me out in the fresh air and I still have a social life - he just looked even more confused.

There is movement at the Hangar.

I've got around to sorting out a few photos and even made some progress on the work bench - as I mentioned in the last post - Gotta make room for that Vintage Kalt Space Baron which will arrive very soon. So I started by digging out some projects that have been gathering dust at the back of the hangar - I dusted them off - ignored the accusing looks - have you ever been giving an accusing look by a model project you have abandoned for months??? - brutal isn't it !!!

Any way - The Bird of Time was at the front of said accusing pile so I had a look at the wing panels - then I went away - had a cup of coffee and a smoke and came back to face my accuser. Result - I've finished the outer wing panels and started to cut back the inner panels and assess the damage - Photos of progress are on the Bird of Time page. Next is the the Wirraway conversion - coming soon.

Another Distraction

I just can't help myself. As some readers may know I've been struggling for months to restore a Kalt Space Baron Helicopter. Around 1972 vintage and recovered from the local tip. So far I've located parts in England, France and the United States - but the restoration is still only half completed. So - there I was desperately searching for yet more bits on eBay when - DAMN!! - some one has a complete Kalt Space Baron for sale - AND - it's never been flown - Brand bloody new!!! Then  - after picking myself up off the floor - well I'll be damned - it's in Australia - Sydney to be exact and the asking price is quite reasonable - Yeah - well - I just HAD to have it didn't I? 

A quick exchange of emails - some clarifications and I won the auction - IT'S MINE - It should be here by the middle of next week and I am going to lay out a red carpet for the deliver man. - well -I'll offer him a cup of coffee anyway. Photos as soon as it arrives.

All this excitement - and the impending delivery has got me all enthused again so I cleared off the building board - now I'll have to make some room and - Hmmm - I better get on with a few of the other projects - feverish work - much balsa dust and I've made some progress - even taken some photos as I worked.

SO - In the next week - in between updating the club website - I'll post some progress. I've done some work on the Wirraway conversion, The Bird of Time repair, built the wings (finally) for the Wittman Tailwind, recovered the Kyosho Trainer (after a hard landing when the bloody undercarriage fell off in flight) and made the rest of the ribs for the Fournier RF4. As well as that I've even dusted off the Lancaster,  maidened the Senior Telemaster and dug out the Mosquito plans - I know there is a half built fuselage here somewhere!. I even stumbled across the ply formers for the SR71!!

A few miscellaneous photos til I find out where I'm up to: -

Rebuilding the outer wing panels of the Bird of Time

I swapped out the Enya 60X for my OS61 4 stroke in the Senior Telemaster

And even dug out the Shrike Aero Commander to work on

Progress on the Wittman Tailwind Mainplane - more to come