500 size Sikorsky HO3S-1: 3-blade tail mod

It is said that a scale project is never truly finished.. After flying my 500 sized Sikorsky HO3S-1 for a few years, I was finally able to address one of my primary gripes with the project, and add a correct 3 bladed tail rotor to replace the old Align 2 blade tail. To do this, I used a Gaui X3 tail unit, an aftermarket Trex 500 clone tail gearbox, and a bit of 3D printing.

The major issue was that the Gaui tail slider wasn’t compatible with stock Align parts, as it used a circular slider. I found this aftermarket unit and with a bit of re-engineering, was able to get it to work with the Gaui tail: .

The pitch links on the Gaui were also way too short. So, I designed 3D printed longer tail pitch links that fit the bushings from the stock parts (stock pitch link is the small black part in the final photo).

Tail blades were microhelis Blade 180 main blades cut down to size and reshaped. I completed a few test flights with the new tail and so far it’s worked great! No change to its excellent flight characteristics.