Build Story
Hirobo/Northrup MQ-8c
Joe B.
Chapter 2 of 3
Mechanics rework
Sep 17, 2024
I have gotten the Hirobo Shuttle mechanics converted to SWM and the Align 4-blade head fitted. I had to make a new swash follower and modify the rotating swash to move the follower ball away from the rods, otherwise it was causing some binding and interference with the control rod.
The tail rotor servo had to be relocated. This is an ideal location as there is plenty of room in the LR fuselage.
Just waiting on some blades to be delivered and will weigh and balance them to complete setting the mechanics up with the BD 3x.
This Shuttle has been flown several times since the electric conversion, but, with a 2 blade head using a 6s 5000mah battery (not the one pictured). That gets me about 6.5 minutes of flight.
6 Comments
Looking good, nice to see you were able to keep the clutch
Very nice work on the linkage and the head setup, clean wiring. Top job !
Joe, I notice that the rods going to the feathering spindles are angled. Are you not able to achieve good phasing with a more vertical orientation of the rods?
Hi Michael, I have been trying to get them more verticle and use the phasing in the 3x, but since I am trying to adapt this head to the Shuttle SWM swash plate, there is interference with the swash follower. When they are set as the picture shows, I need very little phasing in the 3x and there is no interference with the swash follower. It's a work in progress...
Joe,
This is a pretty cool project. Great you has a platform to use. I noticed the RADS camera up on the nose for inflight blade tracking. You must add that as well.
Great project,
Butch
I think that's part of the instrumentation package from test/eval. Other images don't have it. I have gotten the FLIR platform worked out, just need to figure out the FLIR itself. The challenge is that this is only a .30/550 size heli. The nose datalink antenna is only about 25mm tall.