Modernising an old Shuttle

[bald eagle]

Hi everyone, I've been browsing the forums for a while but now need to pick your brains. On the insistance of my son I've dug out and cleaned up my old Hirobo Shuttle that has been gathering dust in the spare room for the last 8 years with the intention of finally learning to fly it properly. However as it's old and out dated what are the best things to update on it? It still has an old mechanical gyro which obviously needs changing and the servos are all basic 148 futaba. What do you all advise? Can I also stick with the Futaba 35 meg radio for now? Also is anyone local to Thornton (Bradford) who would be happy to give it a once over before I crash it again!

Cheers, Bruce.

[jimmyhorns]

Part of the issue is going to be finding parts. I semi-retired my kyosho concept 32 for the same reason...

yes you can stick with 35Mhz although its best you fly at a club if you do.

The gyro will need out, and you will need at least a new tail servo.

I would recommend taking the engine out and running it 'in' again with a prop from a fixed wing of appropriate size, just so that you can get it running properly before you have to deal with the issues of the clutch e.t.c., the carb will need a good clean too.

[electricsceadu]

the shutle spares are still available
midland helicopters stock them
as for the airframe
replace the rx and tx battery and xtals
strip the engine down and make sure the bearings are ok and clean out any caster gunge left inside
re-assemble and fly
remember to set the engine on the rich side to bed the engine back in

if you wish to upgrade the gyro there are plenty to choose from new or used
the sparten or futaba gy401 are often sold on here and the bmfa used
if going new i'd go with the sparten or the futaba 520 and replace the tail servo
the futabe 9254 is a good choice and many use the align 620 or 650
if you want to replace the other servo's then the align 610's will do the job


if you want to go 2.4ghz that will cure the batteries and xtals

[bald eagle]

Cheers for the quick replies, I'll pull the engine out tomorrow for a once over, then see if it still runs ok ( it had been flushed of fuel and wrapped up before being stored). If that will fire up and run then I'll take your advice on the gyro and tail servo.

Bruce

[Pabs]

Loads of spares still available for shuttles, and so long as u have replaced the batteries and followed the above advise you can't really go wrong. When you get what you will evidentially realise is "the bug" then you can go splash out on 2.4ghz radio gear and more helis like the rest of us haha!

[Gav]

use a ball link for the rudder servo instead of the stock setup which has the rudder control wire poking through the servo arm directly. Normally the hole will wear on the servo arm and you'll get slop. Maybe it is ok on yours and fine for learning. But if you do remove any slop here it will crisp up the rudder control and get rid of wag. You could snip off the kinked wire through the servo horn and either crimp - solder if you can - glue (not very reliable) on a threaded adaptor to allow a plastic ball joint clip. Or a better mod is to fit a boom mounted rudder servo with boom servo mounts and use a carbon fibre rod with ball links either end to connect the rudder control. Sounds a bit of a fiddle but worth sorting the rudder linkage if using a modern gyro.


cheers
Gav

[electricsceadu]

i must be getting old as i forgot the rudder control rod (as all mine have been done years ago
the easy way to do it is to use a raptor 60 or 90 rudder rod and cut it to length the joiner is very useful in the raptor rod kit
i use the raptor 90 rudder rod trick on all my scale heli's

and for the rod supports use the sceadu or the sdx50 ones and you don't need to remove the boom to fit them
the raptor 30/50 and x50 ones fit (the trex600 ones should also fit) but you will need to remove the tail gearbox to fit them

and the other place to get spares is from eddie on ebay he has loads of second hand heli spares for sale