Willing to Swap Intrepid Parts for Observer Parts

[Gyan]

I'd like to turn my Intrepid into an Observer, Anyone willing to swap out their Observer parts to get an Intrepid? I've been waiting for a club member to get back to me about this but he hasn't, so I thought I'd try here. As a second option Chris, What parts would I have to buy to do this?

[PaulH]

The Observer uses the industrial tail gearbox, which is also found on the EB. If you don't have an Intrepid Gasser EB presently, then you might be better off just selling the Intrepid Gasser you have and buy a new Observer. You'll need so many extra parts that it may not be worth doing.

A few parts that come to mind that you would need to buy if you do not already have an EB: Industrial tail gearbox, longer tail boom, smaller pinion gear, 800 mm main blades, upper and lower frames, crossmembers between the frames, fuel tank (plummed a little differently), the entire gimbal assembly including isolation mounts to the frame.

[Gyan]

Paul the intention is to mount this in a scale fuselage remember? I only want to swap the items that I'll need to stuff it in there. Longer tail boom N/R. Gearbox N/R, I have a tank, I need a pinnion anyway, should I get a smaller one for the scale application? I'm running a 13 tooth now. Say a 12 tooth & have eng RPM @ 11,700 with headspeed @ 1560 ?

[PaulH]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. :oops:

Running a lower head speed means using longer blades. Unless the current bird is running 800's, the headspeed will need to be around 1650, give or take a little. Consider using the longer boom for that reason. The stronger gearbox is probably not necessary in a scale fuselage.

These are all of the Observer-specific parts that I can find on Bergen's site. Most them would be required:

C1000 Observer 12T Pinion $42.95
C1001 Observer 13T Pinion $42.95
C1011 Observer EB Lower Right Frame $31.95
C1021 Observer EB Lower Left Frame $31.95
C103 Observer Rear Frame Plate $31.95
C104 Observer Front Frame Plate $53.95
C105 Observer Front Frame Plate Bar $10.95
C106 Observer Front Frame Block and Arm Mount $10.95
C107 Observer Front Battery Tray $26.95 (don't need this?)
C108 Observer Rear Battery Tray $26.95
C109 Observer Engine Mount $27.95
C1101 Observer Upper Frame $31.95 (need two of these)

A rough guess would be $300 for everything necessary if the existing 13T pinion is used.

[Gyan]

Thanks Paul. I guess I would REALLY prefer if someone would be willing to swap parts. But if need be I may have to go this route. The fuselage I'm going to use won't accept 800mm blades. I'm going to have to use the 720's. SO I guess the 13T pinnion is the one then right? The stronger gearbox won't fit inside the tail cover but the regular box will with only the pitch lever coming out of it not looking scale. The full scale 206B Jetranger has the pitch change rod coming out of the center of the shaft, I doubt I can do that!

[PaulH]

Also, the real Jetranger 206B has the tail rotor on the port side. You'll have to rotate the gearbox 180 degrees, which also means having the pitch lever on the top instead of the bottom.

You could mount the tail pitch servo using a couple of boom clamps like people do on the TT Raptor.

Would it be possible to use a heavy wire, like the Sullivan Gold-N-Rod 0.063" cable? It's rigid enough that it wont be sloppy. You can tape the casing to the tail boom so that it doesn't stick out. Use the inner-most position on the tail pitch control arm and cut it shorter. Then you shouldn't have to much sticking out.

[Gyan]

Isn't the tail pitch rod above the boom on the Observer? & the blades are on the port side as well I thought. I've never heard of the Gold-N-Rod before. I planned on using the stock carbon rod. The 206B has a cover over the T/R torque shaft that is above the boom. The rod will go up there. Your right the pitch arm will be above the gearbox.

[PaulH]

The tail on the Observer is identical to the tail on the Intrepid EB. The pitch control rod is under the boom, as is the bell crank. The rotor is on the starboard side.

Flipping all of this over so the rotor is on the port side and the bell crank on top shouldn't be a huge problem. You'll probably have to reverse the blade grips, but that's easy.

Gold-N-Rod is used mostly in airplanes. However for this application I think it might be appropriate.

[cbergen]

The original belt drive Obs had the tail on the opposite side, but the TT Observer is on the same side as all the other heli's we make.

It can be flipped over as Paul stated.

[Gyan]

Thanks for clearing that up Chris cause I was sure I saw what I saw, but it was a belt drive. Paul I'll have to look into that rod it may be another option. Thanks