hello folks...

[ohiomike]

hi how ya doin...names mike...new guy...

anyhow...a guy at work recently sold me on helicopters...so i went and bought a blade cx2...pretty neat but after a week or so of flying it i'm kinda gettin bored with it...so here;s my thoguhts...

when i first started workin in aviation my first job was workin bell 47 tomcat conversions...so why not build on as a model...complete with spray equipment...

i think i can make a tail boom at work out of hinge pins...they are actually pretty strong and we;ve gotta really good welder to...the body panels are mostly straight so that should not be an issue...just not sure what to make it with...

i guess my problem is this...the mechanis of workin it all together...and logistics...do you decide engine size first then build from that...

i dunno...reckon it shouldn;t be to hard...just the logistics of never having done one before is kind of a big thing...

thoughts?

i'll see if i can find some pics of this...maybe some of you may have better ideas...

[ohiomike]

here's a mark II

i was thinking of one a littel more updated...but the cockpit is about the same...

[ohiomike]

mark V...this is more of what i was thinkin...

with a spray tank under the engine...and folding spray equipment in the front of the skids...

[chaos]

Holy smokes, Mike, that's quite an undertaking. I don't have anything worth while to offer, just wanna wish you luck on this project. I've scratch built a couple airplanes, but I didn't really have any idea what I was doing... just designed them based on looks. One flew ok and the other didn't. But all that takes is some balsa and a knife and glue and sandpaper. Building a heli is more of a machine shop deal. I don't have the tools or the savvy. I would suggest building a kit first, something like a Predator (which uses a torque tube tail drive). You would have something guaranteed to fly and you could practice on it, and possibly later on you could use the kit heli as a starting point for making modifications to build what you want.

[ohiomike]

actually i guess that is more a part of the plan...learning on a kit...how the parts interact with each other...

the machining and stuff really should not be a problem...i've got access to a machine shop...welding shop...composite shop...etc...

and sometimes i even have goof off time...so it should take several years to do i would imagine...

thanks

[Aztek1701]

Hi Mike,

Wouldnt it be easier to get something like a Hirobo Bell 47 and rework that to do what you want?.

Just wondering cos to scratchbuild a heli would be a BIG job and 99% of the constructor set has already been designed / evolved over the years so why re-invent the wheel.

Good luck if you go with it

Azzy

[ohiomike]

actually we were discuccing this at work tonight and looking at some pics i have of the one i worked...it probably will be easier...and likely be the way i;d go...

[Aztek1701]

Makes sense because it would be heartbreaking to spend 5 years scratchbuilding a model only to have it self destruct before it leaves the ground because something has been designed / manufactured wrong. Add to that the difficulty of getting parts (you have to make them) and you have a big risk. You have to wiegh this up over the convienence of getting pre-manufactured components that are known to work.

BTW, the machine you are proposing building would be a good one because I dont think anybody to date has built one like it, so it would be a one off and very showable because of it

Take care.... Azzy