What did you do with your 120sr today?

[44SkyHi]

A while back, I saw that HF member stevedurecki was hand-making fiberglass canopies for the 120 SR

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=246870

I finally ordered a couple of them, and they arrived this morning!

Right off the bat, I have to say that I love the shape of them.

Also... they are extremely light in weight. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, weight-wise, but they are far lighter than I had thought they would be. And at the same time, just from handling them, and very gently flexing them, it's easy to tell that they are going to be infinitely more durable than the flimsy stock canopies.

The finish on the outer surface is excellent. Again, I didn't quite know what to expect... but they are just beautifully executed, and super-smooth. A couple of days ago, Steve had PM'd me to say that he'd finished them, and that he thought they came out "A1 in quality". Honestly, in my opinion... that assessment is definitely an understatement. They are superb.

In fact, other than painting them, the only thing I'm going to "modify" on them is the location of the mounting-holes for the grommets. Because I have T-rex 250 landing gear on my 120, the holes need to be placed just a little further to the rear, so that the canopy will clear the front landing struts. Conveniently, Steve only "indented" the spots for the holes, instead of actually drilling them through, which will make it easy to just fill in the indentations with some CA, let it harden, and then sand it smooth.

Regarding painting these little beauties... I'm going to take my time with it. These canopies are much too nice to just haphazzardly mess around with. Once I've come up with a respectable scheme, I'll paint one myself, and use that canopy for everyday "practice" flying. Later on, I intend to get Browndog to do a professional paint-job on the other one.

Of course, that means it'll be a while before I post any "finished product" pics of these on HF... but I wanted to take a few close-up pics of an unfinished canopy today, and post them, so you folks out there can see what an excellent alternative Steve is offering.

I actually had very high expectations for these canopies. Turns out they are even better than I'd hoped they'd be!

Here they are:

[Howetzer]

Looks Promising Sky, be sure to show us when you get it mounted on the bird...it will be much easier to see the style when its on the bird.

[Jimbosteen]

I finally painted my Durecki canopy and thought I would share some pictures. Great job Steve on the glass work!…I hope you continue to create some more custom canopy’s for the new Blade models in the future. I would sure like to have one for my mCP-X!!

[stevedurecki]

Thank everyone for the kind words and great pictures. I need to find out how many people are interested in the mcpx canopy if I were to make one.

[megawhacker]

I flew two batteries today and between em I installed a new fly bar and tied links on with dental floss.

My SR120 is getting pretty old in micro heli years. Links pop off the fly bar balls way too easy and it seemed to have lost whatever ability to fly in the wind it once had. Well, I figured i had just flown it so much that the balls on the fly bar were worn down to where the links popped off real easy. Also, the fly bar was drooping and two of the very short rods connecting balls to fly bar had stretch marks.

I bit the bullet and spent another 5 bucks on the old SR120. Let me tell you it flies like a new bird. Mine is all stock, but it is simply amazing the improvement from replacing an old, bent, and worn out fly bar. I'm cheap, but even cheap has its limits and parts got to be replaced from time to time.

Oh, and I visited my local RC flying field today. First time I got to watch someone other than myself or my neighbor fly an RC helicopter. Mostly planks, but the helicopters seem welcome. I may have to buy a plank after today.

[Pfloyd]

I got this for my Double Horse 9053 Violation:

[44SkyHi]

Jimbosteen...

GREAT paint job!

[CarCrazy]

Looking good guys. Makes me miss mine lol

[themadnewfie]

Happy to report that my microheli swash came intoday

all in all i replaced the shaft / swash / tail / canopy (last one had lots of duct tape on it ..)

1. it runs quieter .. kinda suprising
2. Major TBE first flight out ... but got better each of the next coupple batteries i used
3. it is much more responsive .. boarding on twitchy .. but very nice
4. it required some manual trim adjustments (more than a few turns ..)
5. its not as easy to keep its nose down (if i fly the length of my yard trying to keep the nose down by the time i reach the far side the nose comes up on its own and it starts to almost back up ..)
6. i flew all my charged batteries (7) and the canopy is still in one piece
7. the new swash for sure helps you fly better in the wind .. we had 20+k winds here today .. and i was able to fly pretty well considering

[themadnewfie]

one last pic of everything installed

[douglas88]

i sold it

[3gunclip]

i bound mine to my new dx6i
i like a few things about the 6i and a few things i dont like all and all i better be happy it did cost real green this time

[officialsavage]

I crashed mine due to a wind gust. Cracked up the canopy and broke the battery mount again! But that made me order the astroid designs 120 sr battery mount. Hopefully it comes quick.

[rathat76]

I worked on hovering mine and made some ball link adjustments. I eventually cussed at it made a cup of coffee and ended with the mcx to feel like I could actually fly something.