MFA Sport 500/ md500e!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mattisdell1983]

Hey everyone, i have an 20 year old kit from "MFA"? Its old :) But it is really neat though to see how far they have come. They made 2 different setups for the chopper, the fixed pitch and the collective pitch, I have the collective pitch version. Anyone ever seen or had one back in the day???

[fordf1004x4]

There is one of these on the Portland, Or. craigslist for $90.

[mikmerl]

I remember those as well.Dont recall ever seeing anybody sucessfully fly one though.

Did you manage to get your to defy gravity? ;)

[jimmanyk]

My first heli around 1990, got as a fixed pitch, flew once, I was hooked. I bought the collective convertion kit a few weeks later, flew once having a heavy landing bent everything it never flew again! wobbles and vibrations. Damn metal chassis!.

[jtjeep75]

same thing here. My first live heli and man was it a handful , fixed pitch. finally wobbled apart but it was cool enough to keep me coming back for more.:YeaBaby:

[dave peers]

up had 3 2x fixed pitch and the bag of s##t called collective,
how ever the fixed pitch version ballanced n set up correctly ACTUALLY flew really well destryed 1 atempting to fly circuits b4 i was ready n sold the other gave the collective to a m8!
perchased a kalt cyclone smooth belt drive man they were good !

[Si_B]

perchased a kalt cyclone smooth belt drive man they were good !

Didn't stop you digging a few big holes with it though eh Dave ???:roll:

Cheers,

Simon

[dave peers]

yup ! wasnt the best in the west but still continuing n trying, we've all buried mor than a few in the past u included mmmmmmmmm barbed wire fence n a teddy bear in an auto, spring to mind
REAL bad luck that one.
any way nice to here u still doin a bit .
all the best to u n yours
dave

[Si_B]

Don't remember that one, but will take your word for it (too many crashes to remember).

Cheers,

Simon

[VRHC]

Check out the vrhc website for more details on the MFA500 I have five of them).

Joe www.vrhc.co.uk (http://www.vrhc.co.uk)

[HeLiJerSey]

I don`t mean to hijack this thread but I was at a work site and I was talking about my new website RC Helicopter products, I am in the process of building the site, open to the public.Anyway this guy comes up to me and starting telling me he has a old RC heli.

So he donated the whole heli to me. The heli is dusty as all hell. He gave everything an old Airtronic radio and the whole heli. I know nothing about this heli being it is about 15 - 20 years old. He claims he hovered the heli and got nervous and that was that. Where do I start. is there manual for this. MFA Sport 500 MK2 w/ servos and radio.

At the time was this only a kit and I am assuming you have to buy the radio?
Does it come complete?

Enjoy the pics. If anybody has advice PLEASE feel free. I would like to run it.
Hover the heli at least. I know they must have or had upgrades..I think

ENJOY THE PICS:cheers

[VRHC]

You will find a manual on the vrhc web site www.vrhc.co.uk (http://www.vrhc.co.uk).

It covers the collective version and the Mk2 was an upgraded (mainly materials) version of the earlier standard collective MFA sport 500. Let me know if you need more info.

Joe

[mattkaine]

I thought I would chime in here and let ya'll know what I have going on. A few months ago I answered an add on Dallas' Craigslist. All it said was

"Gas Powered Helicopter. Don't know if it is all there or not. $30"

I thought maybe it was a typo and after calling the guy found out it was $30. I just happen to be in Dallas and had some spare cash I could at least take a look. I have several Schluters circa 1982 I have been looking to find parts for maybe I would get lucky.

I show up and he pulls out a box of parts unassembled still in the plastic. Then he pulls another box out which is the Hughes 500 body kit also still in its protective bubble rap. I gave him the $30 and left before he could change his mind.

I get home and start going through the parts and find I am missing the motor driveshaft, its 2 bearing blocks and the clutch. But I did have the full Collective kit unopened. So I sat it back for another day. Then I found the one in Oregon and bought it on the spot. Once it arrived I surveyed and found it was only missing the fan, fan shroud, and motor pulley. All of which I have in the first kit. So now I am assembling everything. I tried keeping it as close to stock as possible but thought some mods were nec. for basic flying. After much thought I decided the original set up wasn't to my liking and decided to convert it to a CCPM head. Which turned out to be quite easy. I drilled the swashplate at 120 degrees and tapped with 2.5mm threads, I then used the ball link kit for the T-Rex 500. I had to move the mounting holes for the T linkages but not by much. I now have it set up very similar to the TRex 500. After careful consideration I decided I didn't like mounting the antirotation slider thingy at an angle at the back to avoid that linkage so I am mounting it to the front. I am having one milled specifically for this. I have the body ready for paint and hopefully I will have it up in the air in the next 2wks. As soon as I paint it I will post some pics. One other modification I made was after assembling the head there was a lot of vertical movement in the blade holders, because of the rubber bushings. I decided to replace them with some I made from PTFE(white 3/8" cutting board from Wally World) I had a 9mm hole saw cut out the bushings then carefully ground them down to whatever the actual hole size was. Worked great!! I remembered reading the hardcore 3d guys did this when the T-Rex 500 came out because they were blowing out the stock bushing after about 5 flights. Hopefully I will have a flight report in the next couple of weeks.

Sorry for the long post. Thought I would share that someone is still flying these old Birds.

[earlwb]

That is a cool story.
I had bought one of the MFA 500's many years ago from Hobby Lobby. I put in a FOX 45 engine and a Airtronics Radio system. I hooked it up to a mechanical contrivance that was supposed to let you practice hovering without crashing and breaking things. Anyway, after a number of attempts at flying and hovering, life got in the way and i stopped messing with it. I sold it to a guy and forgot all about it after that.

Maybe I'll get another one, one of these days, if I get lucky and run into a good deal like you did.

[hugooliver]

There is one on sale on ebay now, seems to be loads of collectors for those old flying bricks now.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MFA-Sport-500-RC-Radio-Controlled-Helicopter-/180923234559?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item2a1fdd78ff