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littlerotors.com
Newsletter
20th October 2001
This
month has been another busy time for littlerotors. Promotion in one of New Zealand's
major ISP newsletters saw the newsletter subscriptions grow and grow. Hopefully
we'll have a few new fliers join our ranks because of it.
Ramblings:
The importance of good frequency was brought
home to me a few weeks ago at a Jet Turbine fly in at Ohakea Air Force base.
I went and got my peg and commenced flying when all of a sudden the little Ergo
just started going nuts! It was flailing around all over the show, I thought
for sure it was going to go in, when all of a sudden it stopped and resumed
hovering as if nothing had happened. Not knowing was the hell was wrong I quickly
dumped it on the ground and shut the engine off before it decided to go nuts
again. I stood there for a while wondering what on earth the matter was when
a plane in my vicinity smashed itself into the ground. The pilot of the plane
had got distracted and forgotten to get the peg. He became very apologetic once
he realised the situation and pointed out that the GY601 gyro in my helicopter
was alone worth NZ$900 and he was lucky it was in one piece. It could have been
much worse, the heli could have decided to fly into the ground standing behind
me... Watch that frequency control....
At
a fly in I was at last weekend I got to see a Hirobo Freya up close and had
a bit of a hover of it. What an awesome machine! Excellent value for money.
Some of the other guys there beat it around and never once did it seem to complain.
Very nice machine.
At
the same fly in I saw some crazy things. Both involving Xcells. I watch an Xcell
Gasser literally fall out of the sky into a mountain of scrub. Expecting a badly
damaged helicopter, I was amazed when the owner hauled it out of the scrub without
a scratch on it! He pull started it and brought it into a hover! Sheer luck...
Then, later on in the day, I watched an Xcell 60 death spiral to the death.
It hit soooo hard I just about felt it at the other side of the field. It was
the kind of thump that is followed by deathly silence... I felt for sure that
machine was destined for heli heaven. Lo and behold, the pilot lifted it out
of the ground in one piece! Busted boom, blades, flybar etc, all the normal
stuff was broken but it was certainly NOT a write off! I couldn't believe it!
Twice I've seen this particular machine smacked into the ground enthusiastically
and it's come away to live another day! My respect for Xcell machines has grown
further.
Articles
this issue are:
JR
Voyager 50 - It's here!
JR's
replacement for the tried and tested Ergo range is here. Here's what we think
of it. Click
here
Hirobo
Sceadu
The legendary Hirobo Shuttle after over a decade of service, is being replaced.
The Shuttle helped many a pilot get started in our hobby, will the Sceadu be
able to live up to the standard set by it's predecessor? Click
here
The
Squirrel and the TSK (Part III)
George's ongoing scale project, putting a Funkey Squirrel fuselage on a TSK
30 took a leap forward this week when the machine had it's first flight! Click here
Feel free to contact
me at simon@littlerotors.com at
any time.
Si
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