Roban 800 EC135 Red Bull Flying Bulls 1st Forray Into Scale Build Thread

The next step was to build a simple wooden sled to test the mechanics on. Since this is one of my first scale builds I wanted to test fly the mechanics outside of the fuselage. I wanted to add the lighting system, the audio system (once it become available), BEC, and everything else and work out all of the kinks while everything is easy to get to. Super impressed with the Unilight lighting system. Very bright, and easy to use, with some very easy programming software. Easy to get the landing light on a switch and be able to easily power up / down the lights when needed. Evan Sayres was kind enough to send me an STL file to print a shroud for the Fenestron to help replicate the tail behavior better. I also 3D printed some simple mounts for the BEC and lighting system components to allow airflow around them and make it easier to attach them. I also designed a basic holder for the capacitor backup system as well.

Once all of that was programmed and worked out it was time to setup the pitch and everythign else in the radio and fbl. That went very smoothly. Since the rotorhead is not terribly adjustable I spent a LONG time making sure the mechanics were as perfect as possible and the swash was very very very level. This paid off later. I added battery straps to the front of the sled, checked the CG, and triple checked gyro and control directions. I fliped the blade grips to allow for leading edge control as I felt like the geometry allowed more positive pitch in that direction. In the end I went with +11 and -3 degrees of pitch. (spoiler alert, I think I chose well).

Next up... the maiden of the mechanics.