Bell Bloke
08-11-2008, 04:19 PM
This weekend I what with my girl being away seeing her folks in Portugal, I decided to get back onto the circuit again.
So I rammed my ‘Smart Car’ full of Wren Predator, Electric Bell 47, generator, jet fuel, charging gear & sandwiches and off I went to the Stonehenge Scale Helicopter meet.
As per usual for any scale flying event in this country ‘England’ it was wet and very, very windy! But us Brits are made of tough stuff! Generally we will fly in anything…… If we say its looking a little rough up there you can bet your life there is a cyclone on the horizon and gale warnings on the radio.
However, although we will fly in anything……we won’t fly anything in anything!!
Flying an old Raptor in a gale is OK but not our most treasured scale machines least of all a Wren turbine powered, 4 bladed, monster scale heli, no,no,no! Well there’s always one that will have a go isn’t there.
And before you start, for once it wasn’t me. No I was too busy tent pegging down my little Smart Car in an attempt to stop it blowing away to worry about ‘Flying!!’
No, to my utter amazement the large Heli being carried onto the flightline in these nasty windy conditions was none other than Martin Briggs Wren Turbine Powered Augusta, a beast of a machine with lovely detailing and……………………a 4 bladed head no less! :D
Well I thought, he’s not going to fly that no way…….he’s obviously going to pose it on the flightline for some photos for the magazine. The next thing I hear is the engine light-up and wind-up. I thought, ha ha, he’s started the engine by mistake, how embarrassing!! Then the rotors started turning……..Oh dear I thought, he’s either drunk or flying for a bet or something. Then it crossed my mind that he might just brave a hover for a few seconds, you know for the cameras, and then later on pretend that he actually flew?
But no…………with a roar and whoosh of the Wren engine ’Mad Dog Martin’ hauled it into the air and scorched off!! Well you could have knocked me down with a low flying wind carried runaway Gazebo, that was the last thing I expected. What followed next was a flying display that left me dribbling cold, wet BBQed hamburger from both of my stuffed little cheeks.
This Helicopter flew like it was on rails!! Every move every turn every run was a sheer delight to watch.
The sound of the 4 rotorblades biting into the air and the roar of the engine on every pass was completely hypnotic to a sad helifreak such as myself.
Meanwhile ‘Mad Dogs’ entourage stood close by, mopping his brow occasionally to remove the rainwater from his eyebrows as his flying routine continued.
And as I watched I was quickly overcome with a mixture of emotions.
The first was Patriotism, yes…..here was an Englishman, one of us showing the World how it’s done!
Then I felt a certain sense of Pride, yes….. here was an Englishman, one of us…..maybe we were related? Distant blood cousins! YES!….A relative a distant long lost nearly, maybe, but not quite blood cousin, flying against the odds man and machine in perfect harmony….
Next I felt admiration, which was then followed quickly by a feeling of Inadequacy, duly followed by Envy and then Rage, and before Martin had landed his machine I’d already let the tyres down on his van!! What?? Why did I do such a ‘Dick Dastardly’ thing??
Well, I was in my way doing him a favour, you see I felt that what I had just witnessed was perfection, and so the balance had to be redressed. Letting down the tyres on his van made his day less than perfect, and thus saved him from having any kind of mishap with his most excellent machine, so he should thank me really……
Anyhow back to the point, not to be out done I removed my PicoZ from the boot of my car, teatherd it to the roof rack and hovered it for several minutes. That should give ‘Him’ something to think about I thought. And as ‘He’ circled his van scratching his head, I was clearly not wrong.
Later on while Martin was looking for a tyre pump I thought I’d take the opportunity to ask him about his model and get him to send me some pictures of it since I forgot my camera. He was only too pleased to help and so here is the info that he emailed me today about it.
So in his words, take it away Martin.
Quote:
'Thank you for your kind words about my scale helicopters.
I've attached a few photo's of the models that I took to Rollstone and a
brief description below.
The second photo is of my Robbe/Schluter Schweizer 300. This is powered by an
OS 91 SZH which drives the main rotor, via revised gearing, at just about
1000 rpm. It's rock steady at that but still very 'chuckable' and the
auto's are brilliant, especially the scale, roll-on type.
The first photo is my Robbe/Schluter Cuatro is powered by a Wren 2-stage turbine, which drives
the 1.8M Robbe 4 blade head. Again, the standard transmission ratio had to
be modified to achieve the desired rotor speed. That speed had to be fairly
specific, and reasonably constant because it has to suit the turbine, the
rotorhead and the V-Bar that controls it. Fortunately, with small
adjustments to the throttle and pitch curves, that constant head speed is
surprisingly easy to achieve and I'm often asked "Have you got a governor on
your Wren?", which of course I haven't.
The third photo' is where the Cuatro is now. It's shown here in its
undecorated state, which is generally how all my models get their
'shakedown' first flights. By the time that you saw it on Sunday, I had
added a little decoration, mainly to assist in orientation. You imagine
that a large model like this would be easy to see but it quickly uses up a
lot of sky and soon looks very small. However, it's due be taken out of
service for spraying in the Careflight medevac colours. The fuselage is
Graupner's Agusta 119 Koala, With very few modifications to the original
woodwork, we were able to fit the Wren/Cuatro, I had some custom exhausts made (a
true work of art), which exit through the rear side windows, not scale I
know, but the only practical solution.
Flight performance on the V-Bar controlled 4 blade head is good, using just
standard commercial blades, i.e., nothing specially weighted. As with all
my V-bar equipped models, this one is a little 'different'in the hover, but
in forward flight, it's smooth and predictable in both pitch and roll - just
like having a flybar!! I have tried it without the air sensor but it felt a
little 'nervous', compared to with, so I never fly without. Not bad when
you consider that without the V-Bar it would be unflyable.
The forth photo is my intended scheme for the Agusta.
The fifth photo is my Hirobo Bell 47G. This is powered by a TAS 24cc
petrol engine which Hirobo modify for use in all their petrol models. 1.8m
again and 1000rpm headspeed again. This photo' was taken at a motor racing
track day (sponsored by Renesis, who develop Mazda's rotary engines) where I
was asked to entertain the crowds when the track was quiet. This is one of
my favourite models and one that I would not like to be without. This has
got to be the best value for money when it comes to large scale helicopter
modelling.
I hope this is what you were wanting. Let me know if not.
Regards
Martin
And there you have It the magic formula to scale success and most impressive too!
by the way when it flew on Sunday it was painted and detailed, the pic below is an old one.
I feel a bit guilty now for letting his tyres down, hope he doesn’t visit this forum at all.
Anyway signing off now, all the best Bell Bloke.
Ps, I didn’t let the side down so I flew my Wren Predator in poor conditions too, but it’s not multi blade and it’s not scale either so maybe it doesn’t count. I did however bring the wrong transmitter for it and so had to quickly do pitch throttle curves on the spot for 2 sets of blades. Took me only 7 mins to set it up, not bad eh?
After that it went like a missile in the strong wind....but not being scale it doesn't really count.
So I rammed my ‘Smart Car’ full of Wren Predator, Electric Bell 47, generator, jet fuel, charging gear & sandwiches and off I went to the Stonehenge Scale Helicopter meet.
As per usual for any scale flying event in this country ‘England’ it was wet and very, very windy! But us Brits are made of tough stuff! Generally we will fly in anything…… If we say its looking a little rough up there you can bet your life there is a cyclone on the horizon and gale warnings on the radio.
However, although we will fly in anything……we won’t fly anything in anything!!
Flying an old Raptor in a gale is OK but not our most treasured scale machines least of all a Wren turbine powered, 4 bladed, monster scale heli, no,no,no! Well there’s always one that will have a go isn’t there.
And before you start, for once it wasn’t me. No I was too busy tent pegging down my little Smart Car in an attempt to stop it blowing away to worry about ‘Flying!!’
No, to my utter amazement the large Heli being carried onto the flightline in these nasty windy conditions was none other than Martin Briggs Wren Turbine Powered Augusta, a beast of a machine with lovely detailing and……………………a 4 bladed head no less! :D
Well I thought, he’s not going to fly that no way…….he’s obviously going to pose it on the flightline for some photos for the magazine. The next thing I hear is the engine light-up and wind-up. I thought, ha ha, he’s started the engine by mistake, how embarrassing!! Then the rotors started turning……..Oh dear I thought, he’s either drunk or flying for a bet or something. Then it crossed my mind that he might just brave a hover for a few seconds, you know for the cameras, and then later on pretend that he actually flew?
But no…………with a roar and whoosh of the Wren engine ’Mad Dog Martin’ hauled it into the air and scorched off!! Well you could have knocked me down with a low flying wind carried runaway Gazebo, that was the last thing I expected. What followed next was a flying display that left me dribbling cold, wet BBQed hamburger from both of my stuffed little cheeks.
This Helicopter flew like it was on rails!! Every move every turn every run was a sheer delight to watch.
The sound of the 4 rotorblades biting into the air and the roar of the engine on every pass was completely hypnotic to a sad helifreak such as myself.
Meanwhile ‘Mad Dogs’ entourage stood close by, mopping his brow occasionally to remove the rainwater from his eyebrows as his flying routine continued.
And as I watched I was quickly overcome with a mixture of emotions.
The first was Patriotism, yes…..here was an Englishman, one of us showing the World how it’s done!
Then I felt a certain sense of Pride, yes….. here was an Englishman, one of us…..maybe we were related? Distant blood cousins! YES!….A relative a distant long lost nearly, maybe, but not quite blood cousin, flying against the odds man and machine in perfect harmony….
Next I felt admiration, which was then followed quickly by a feeling of Inadequacy, duly followed by Envy and then Rage, and before Martin had landed his machine I’d already let the tyres down on his van!! What?? Why did I do such a ‘Dick Dastardly’ thing??
Well, I was in my way doing him a favour, you see I felt that what I had just witnessed was perfection, and so the balance had to be redressed. Letting down the tyres on his van made his day less than perfect, and thus saved him from having any kind of mishap with his most excellent machine, so he should thank me really……
Anyhow back to the point, not to be out done I removed my PicoZ from the boot of my car, teatherd it to the roof rack and hovered it for several minutes. That should give ‘Him’ something to think about I thought. And as ‘He’ circled his van scratching his head, I was clearly not wrong.
Later on while Martin was looking for a tyre pump I thought I’d take the opportunity to ask him about his model and get him to send me some pictures of it since I forgot my camera. He was only too pleased to help and so here is the info that he emailed me today about it.
So in his words, take it away Martin.
Quote:
'Thank you for your kind words about my scale helicopters.
I've attached a few photo's of the models that I took to Rollstone and a
brief description below.
The second photo is of my Robbe/Schluter Schweizer 300. This is powered by an
OS 91 SZH which drives the main rotor, via revised gearing, at just about
1000 rpm. It's rock steady at that but still very 'chuckable' and the
auto's are brilliant, especially the scale, roll-on type.
The first photo is my Robbe/Schluter Cuatro is powered by a Wren 2-stage turbine, which drives
the 1.8M Robbe 4 blade head. Again, the standard transmission ratio had to
be modified to achieve the desired rotor speed. That speed had to be fairly
specific, and reasonably constant because it has to suit the turbine, the
rotorhead and the V-Bar that controls it. Fortunately, with small
adjustments to the throttle and pitch curves, that constant head speed is
surprisingly easy to achieve and I'm often asked "Have you got a governor on
your Wren?", which of course I haven't.
The third photo' is where the Cuatro is now. It's shown here in its
undecorated state, which is generally how all my models get their
'shakedown' first flights. By the time that you saw it on Sunday, I had
added a little decoration, mainly to assist in orientation. You imagine
that a large model like this would be easy to see but it quickly uses up a
lot of sky and soon looks very small. However, it's due be taken out of
service for spraying in the Careflight medevac colours. The fuselage is
Graupner's Agusta 119 Koala, With very few modifications to the original
woodwork, we were able to fit the Wren/Cuatro, I had some custom exhausts made (a
true work of art), which exit through the rear side windows, not scale I
know, but the only practical solution.
Flight performance on the V-Bar controlled 4 blade head is good, using just
standard commercial blades, i.e., nothing specially weighted. As with all
my V-bar equipped models, this one is a little 'different'in the hover, but
in forward flight, it's smooth and predictable in both pitch and roll - just
like having a flybar!! I have tried it without the air sensor but it felt a
little 'nervous', compared to with, so I never fly without. Not bad when
you consider that without the V-Bar it would be unflyable.
The forth photo is my intended scheme for the Agusta.
The fifth photo is my Hirobo Bell 47G. This is powered by a TAS 24cc
petrol engine which Hirobo modify for use in all their petrol models. 1.8m
again and 1000rpm headspeed again. This photo' was taken at a motor racing
track day (sponsored by Renesis, who develop Mazda's rotary engines) where I
was asked to entertain the crowds when the track was quiet. This is one of
my favourite models and one that I would not like to be without. This has
got to be the best value for money when it comes to large scale helicopter
modelling.
I hope this is what you were wanting. Let me know if not.
Regards
Martin
And there you have It the magic formula to scale success and most impressive too!
by the way when it flew on Sunday it was painted and detailed, the pic below is an old one.
I feel a bit guilty now for letting his tyres down, hope he doesn’t visit this forum at all.
Anyway signing off now, all the best Bell Bloke.
Ps, I didn’t let the side down so I flew my Wren Predator in poor conditions too, but it’s not multi blade and it’s not scale either so maybe it doesn’t count. I did however bring the wrong transmitter for it and so had to quickly do pitch throttle curves on the spot for 2 sets of blades. Took me only 7 mins to set it up, not bad eh?
After that it went like a missile in the strong wind....but not being scale it doesn't really count.