Feeling guilty

[pgkevet]

About the state that Blitzy was allowed to get into in the barn.
Since it really is a high end heli of it's era it is cleaning up quite well.. the bearings are all japanese quality and have hardly suffered beyond a little cosmetic surface corrosion that scrubs off.
After cleaning those bearings I've coated the surfaces in silicone grease then polished that off: less is more..you don't want dust sticking.
The caphead bolts are mostly nasty and I'm working through still cleaning up parts and refitting with s/s where there's no concerns about shear forces on the bolts.
For the grub screws I don't like s/s - it's too soft at the cheap A2 grade one buys on ebay so they get cleaned or replaced like for like.
The engine is a mess externally..the backplate screws look like 4 tiny dollops of runny dog-poo although the bearing and crank doesn't look very corroded at all but while it's out the engine will get a complete overhaul.
I have a few problems there.. this setup has a cline regulator and it really doesn't want to come off the fuel nipple and if I force it any more it'll get damaged. They are hard to source now and I do have some spare innards but not a spare case. That means that I can't get at the needle seat flats to unbolt it so it'll have to get back-flushed and flushed through the needle area only. I plan on changing all these corroded engine bolts with s/s and the bearings to s/s - which is what i put in there 2 years ago so they've done pretty darned well since it has a fuel magnet and never gets drained!

I've been working at this about for a few hours each evening for about a week now and really only done the tail/boom/mainshaft and head.. engine came out tonight. If the new bearing ever get delivered with this weather then I'll do the engine next but it'll be a pig to get the clutch off. If no bearings then more on the airframe:

The manual clearly states not to disassemble the autohub but I figure I have no choice but try. It may end up with a call to Neil if I c0ck-up or find it impossible. And pull and check the shafts to the tail pinion gear. Beyond that it's mostly scrub the alloy parts clean and new s/s bolts.. but I need a new drive belt (the reason i had to auto and why it got neglected) and a new skid (the result of the auto) but I've been waiting for the dismantling to see if any other parts were needed. So far not.

Taking it apart as a clean heli would be fast..the time is in assessing each part, scrubbing it and measuring up for new bolts and some I've had to grind down to size from my stocks. Ckeaning up the fancy washers is the biggest pain..just stain from the caphead rust but those things are 0.48 each and at least 80 or so of them to be brass brushed.

This is teaching me not to neglect a heli again..

[KnifeEdge]

shame they didnt make a FBL head for this heli or an electric conversion. Nice kit I really liked mine :)

[pgkevet]

An electric conversion would be a doddle to do, too. Totally agree over the fbl head..can convert the one there but you lose an awful lot of aesthetics with the flybar hole empty..and waste height.
But none of the above stops it being an extraordinary piece of kit that you can still get bits for - or indeed buy new.
Think aston martin db5.. there may be more modern cars but wouldn;t you want one for the weekend if you could...

[pgkevet]

No post since thursday so no engine bearings. I made good inroads into the rest of the frame clean-up and no other parts needed apart from the skid and belt and i could do with a few more s/s bolts of a couple of sizes i didn't stock. Really not much i can do until those bits turn up so:
I've been having a thunk about wire routings... of the ways to hold wires to the airframe the neatest I;ve seen is the minAir clips that go over an M3 bolt head..but they aren't cheap. It'd be easy enough to cut pieces of ally drinks can and punch a spade terminal shape to trap under a bolt head..but I dont know that I'd ever be happy with the risk of edges chafing wires but the siplest slution i can come up with is that idea with the bit of alloy that bends over the wire being covered in heatshrink: I#ll experiment...if it works then the same idea might be good just to clamp around frame parts: as in when running wire around the bottom frame. It'd be a lot easier to clean than velcro...

[trillian]

I hate to think of an Avro suffering from neglect :sorrow: On the wire clamp thingys, I have not seen the MinAir ones but I have used lots of the little things with the bolt hole and rubber coated tab that you can bend around the wires, I don't know what they are called.

In my last emails with Neil (this was sometime late last year) he was talking about wanting to start making something new now. I don't know exactly what but at least it's a change from a year ago when he had no plans to make anything else.

I have consolidated all my favourite bits onto one Avro airframe because it just didn't make sense having two completely built up to fly. So the rotorhead on there now is the one I got with the 2nd one that I did a swap for. He originally had CY Stubz paddles and when I first flew it I was alarmed by how twitchy it was, it was almost scary. So I put some Rotortech paddles on with weights which I had been using on the 1st Avro and it's still really twitchy! I was over-controlling everything because just the slightest stick movement and it's already halfway into doing whatever I was gonna do. The head is using the same setup in 'stable' mode so I can only assume he must have built it using two 90 duro O-rings per side. For the moment rather than change the o-rings I have fitted some much heavier paddles so we'll see how that works (if we ever have flyable weather again).

[pgkevet]

The minair ones just push over the bolt head..but not cheap
What you describe is basically what i plan to try and make..except that thinking more about it I may go for a loop where both ends tuck under the bolt head or washer.
I'm trying to remmeber where I put my hole punch.. be way neater to punch a hole each end of the strap then snip half the 'hole' away otherwsie drilling them would need to be done as a stack clamped tight to end up neat

[url=http://miniatureaircraftusa.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=wire+reatiner&product_id=903]0389 Standard Wire Lead Retainer - Pack of 3[/url]

My blitz has quite huge radix? paddles on it and I [I]think[/I] it has mixed dampers as in one of each hardness each side? If anything it's too stable which is no bad thing with me flying it.. I'll also add a new fan to my list to fit gov magnets in .. it only has one in the current fan and a ragged hole the other side: or knowing me I'll add a second magnet and rebalance the fan 'cos I'm mean (or remove the one magnet and drill for two new ones..)

Still no idea when we'll get a postal delivery here.. the route postie takes is over the hill rather than the lower road and that hill road is a steep ice sheet...