Hirobo Freya
Hakim Tung

Heli………………… Hirobo sst-eagle “Freya”
Where bought…… Cyberheli, Hong Kong
How much……….. US$615
Engine ……..…….. O.S. 61LX
Muffler……………. Hatori 666
Radio……..………. JR 10X
Gyro……………….. Futaba GY-502/S9253 combo
Servos ……..…….. Futaba S9204
Fuel…………………Weston 15% nitro competition

Accessories……… Bell-Mark twin plug head, RS header tank, Revolution base loaded antanae, Quick servo arms, Pegae start system, Miniature Aircraft 3D paddles, MS Composit 680mm carbon blades, Quick receiver strong box, Hobicco voltmeter.

Introduction…
My name is Hakim Tung and I live in the coastal town of Mombasa in Kenya (East Africa). I have been flying r/c planes since 1997. I entered the helicopter aspect of our hobby some six months ago when my flying buddy brought in a Hirobo Eagle from his vacation in Switzerland and we decided to try helis. This is actually my third attempt, the first two ending in frustrations and giving them up many years ago. Problem is in Kenya I would guess there are less that 10 r/c flyers (planes and helis) in the whole country (population last estimated touching 30 million).

I quickly ordered a Kyosho Nexus from Tower Hobbies and Futaba GY-240 gyro. It was a great .30 sized heli and does all the basic hover, rolls, loops maneuvers. The Nexus is easy to setup and repair which was ideal for me there being no heli flyers in my town and had to go through the whole learning process by ourselves. My Nexus crashed on its 168 flight after some 100 hours. I was really thrashing it around doing consecutive rolls and loops until one beautiful calm morning, it just vibrated itself to pieces during a hover and fell 200 feet down. Needless to say nothing survived. Nexus, R.I.P.

For my next heli I decided to try the just released Hirobo Freya. Looked good, relatively cheap .60 sized and the promise of cheap repair parts fit my budget perfectly. An e-mail to Stephen at Cyberheli secured me a great deal for the heli, gyro and engine for US$1,100.- Fantastic!

Opening the box….
The Freya comes in an attractive blue box with pictures and the usual blurb.Parts are packed in different bags according to assembly steps, but nuts, bolts, screws etc are mixed together in several bags which all have to be opened. Use a few containers to hold the different hardware during assembly. Nothing fancy in the packaging to get your juices flowing but strictly business-like. The Freya utilizes a plastic stacked frame design. All major components are made of plastic but don’t let that put you off. The quality of plastic used throughout this heli is outstanding and everything looks and feels solid. I spent many minutes just holding the pieces feeling and admiring them. Three cheers to Hirobo for including blades in the kit.

The Freya comes with 660mm wooden blades finished in white plastic shrink wrap. All that is needed is to cut off some plastic covering at the root end and epoxy the plastic ends. Even though basic, they are good enough for basic aerobatics. I crashed my woodies, see text below, and I’m now using symmetrical MS Composit 680mm carbon blades with great results. This is one quality product.

Building
I think the instructions are clear enough and apart from a few missing nuts and bolts everything went together perfectly. Make sure you use loctite or Ca glue where necessary and grease all thrust bearings. This heli is very easy to assemble so instead of giving a detailed review I will just highlight a few of the steps that I ran into hitches. Though nothing serious I think this will make your assembly a little bit easier. Remember that since this is a plastic heli so go easy on the screwdriver and wrench. You don’t want to strip anything!

Step 6 – Ca glue the small rubber dampers for the fuel tank to the frames before installing the fuel tank otherwise you’ll never get them to sit properly.

Step 7 – Do not install the landing gear until you begin the tail end as its easier to work on the heli.

Step 12 – DO NOT forget to grease the thrust bearings. Not mentioned in the instructions.

Step 16 – If this is your first heli utilizing the wash-out system, read the set-up instructions carefully. First send the radius block to the top of main shaft, tighten bolts slightly. Insert wash-out into the radius block pins and move the swashplate in all directions removing any binding. Final adjustments can be done when the heli is complete.

Step 18 – Install washers or change shimballs with steps on the top part of the X-Lever to remove binding once control rods are installed.

Step 21 – Again DO NOT forget to grease the thrust bearings.

Step 27 – Use flat washers when attaching the tail boom brace to body.

Step 28 – Use blue loctite on the M4x10CS clutch shoe bolts, engine prop nut and engine block bolts. This is not mentioned in the instructions.

Step 29 – I don’t know how others do this but I place the “button” type washers for the engine mount bolts on one side of the heli and then gently pull out the frame whilst pushing in the other washers on the other side. I then use a flat screwdriver pushing them into place.

Step 32 – rudder movement shown on the manual should be opposite.

Steps 34 ~ 37 – Do not adjust your pushrods according to the manual. The drawings are not to scale.

I finished my canopy by trimming it out, stuck the decals, lightly sanded it and applied 3 coats of automotive clear paint to fuel proof it. It seems to be holding out quite well with the nitro in the fuel. The tail fins are the skeleton type with decals covering the holes. They are quite flexible and tough and my vertical fin has already taken a beating and is still holding up well.

The GY-502 gyro and digital servo S9253 that comes with it is fantastic. You don’t have to use this gyro on the Freya but I got a great deal from Cyberheli. The Futaba GY-401 gyro at US$199 is good enough considering the price bracket of the Freya. The digital servo is fast and together with gyro really locks the tail. For the rest of the servos I used Futaba’s S9204 coreless servos with metal gears. These are gems with more than enough holding power.

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