Fun-Key MH-6 Little Bird Rapid Insertion Helicopter

[Keyrigger]

Hi everyone:

As a lot of you know, the TOW Defender's and CH-139's bodies were total losses and most of the mechanics from the 139 were also waste bin bound. I had the ok to build two new scale helicopters before the carnage ensued but now those builds are going to be the main helicopters of my fleet. I had purchased a new TOW Defender body kit two years ago after crashing at Helicopter Scale Masters and that came out for a short time to get worked upon until I found that I could easily repair the body. Some reworking of the wood interior and a few hard days of repairs resulted in the helicopter flying very well, indeed. Lots more work resulted in the final model that won Sport Scale at the US Nationals along with Pilot's Choice and CD's Award of Excellence at Watt Fest, 2015. Yesterday, I went out and about picking up some bits and pieces to get the mechanics up and running but naturally, during rush hour on a Friday while everyone is trying to get out of town for the weekend. That added about an hour to a two hour trip, sigh.

I have some parts on order that will allow me to mount the tail pitch servo on the boom, eliminating the 180 degree wrap-around that I had on the previous model. It will now have a straight line steel pushrod which should not flex under stress like the wire Golden Rod could do given the right circumstances. The main shaft and head appear to be in perfect shape and so far, the only parts that have been replaced are the tail shaft, main gear, and tail boom. There is still some paint on some of the assemblies but that will be repainted when it is closer to being finished. I am keeping the old body for sections needed to fill in holes in the TOW Defender body but I ordered a brand new 500D nose section rather than try and cut the TOW sight off and fill in the radar dome housing hole. At least I have three window sets for this build so that I can properly fill in the gap created by the indentation of the body and glass overlap. I hope to have this in the air by the spring or earlier and there might be some chance of it being ready for the US Nationals or IRCHA next year.

The model will be based on the MH-6 that is in the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester, PA, with it's claim to fame coming from the rescue of Curt Muse during Operation Just Cause. The museum's helicopter was put together by the US Army for the museum's display but was not the helicopter that it is representing. The original was lost in Operation Just Cause in 1989 in Panama while extracting Muse who was about to be put to death for broadcasting the truth about Noriega to the Panamanian people. The instrument panel is not complete as there were most likely instruments that the US Army had removed because of national security. I was also forbidden to take pictures of the interior of a Little Bird on display at Nashville, TN, while there to have a look a current one up close. I could take all the pictures of the exterior I wanted but I was politely asked not to take any instrument panel photos. Sigh. Here are some pictures of the full size along with the chassis and current body state. Take care.

Don

[byrocat]

Bummer! (No interior shots on the instrument panel....) That's going to put a crimp into the documentation package. To use the line from "Galaxy Quest" -- "Never give up, never give in!"

[Keyrigger]

I think you might have mixed it up. I have the shots of the MH-6 interior. It was the interior and multiple exterior shots of the TOW Defender from Israel that I couldn't get a hold of. I can document both of my remaining builds as I don't think I will ever start another one. Too much money to keep on building new ones as you never make a red cent selling any project, no matter what some say. Take care.

Don

[byrocat]

Sorry, but I was commenting on your last paragraph and the sentences: "I was also forbidden to take pictures of the interior of a Little Bird on display at Nashville, TN, while there to have a look a current one up close. I could take all the pictures of the exterior I wanted but I was politely asked not to take any instrument panel photos. Sigh."

[Keyrigger]

I was really tired when I read and posted that. Yes, that was a real bummer not being able to get so much as a single shot showing the instrument panel. I could see that the actual helicopter was an early to mid 80's vintage helicopter because of the opening on the upper fuselage that was covered in when they repurposed the Defender and where its exhaust exited. It's amazing that with all of today's modern helicopters at their disposal, the 160th SOAR's favourite Attack and Multi-purpose helicopter is still the round nosed 1980's vintage Hughes/MD 500D. In talking to the Ft. Campbell Museum curator, he told me that they have a huge building with lots of spares and helicopters on active reserve. He was sure that there were a few five blade head equipped helicopters in that storage facility but even he could not get inside to have a look. Talk about tight security.

Don

[Keyrigger]

Yesterday, I received a small package that had the boom mount inside. It is made by a very old company, K&S Co. Japan, that I used to pick up odds and sods made by them back in the 70's and 80's. I had no idea that they made products for helicopters but here is one. This boom mount will fit 20 to 22mm booms and has some pretty serious clamping power. I made up a dummy boom to trial fit the chassis in the old body so that if there was any issue, I could fix it quickly now rather than painfully later. The plan was to use a solid wire rod as the cable that I used before, even strengthened by being inserted into the standard Sullivan yellow insert, was far too flexible for my liking. Yes, it did work, but there were some moments where I knew that the cable gave way under stress. Once the boom mount and servo setup cleared all inside the fuselage, I mounted it on the new boom and found that an Align 550 tail pushrod was a perfect fit. I took some 5/32" styrene tubing, made three bushings, slipped them on the rod, and electrical taped them to the boom. There is little or no stress on the guides so they should hold up for quite a while. I needed one adjustment to the servo direction since the position of the ball on the horn was flipped 180 degrees. Tomorrow should be a good day for testing as it is supposed to be the warmest day of the week. If I get two flights in, I'll be a happy camper. Take care.

Don

[Keyrigger]

As it turned out, Thursday was even better for test flying. I gave it a go on Wednesday but the winds were near gale force and after a single attempt to lift off the ground, I abandoned the effort and put it off as destruction seemed to be inevitable. So back to Thursday, the winds were down somewhat varying between 16 and 27kph, which made for taking off and landing during lulls. It did, however, give me a very good indication on how well the adjustments went to the Heli-Baby and I do have to report that it seems to be flying and behaving better than it ever did thanks to a complete resetting of the Skookum. Which now brings me to the chassis for the brand new Little Bird. I had three sets of batteries charged and intended to wait for a friend from the club (Burlington) to arrive so I could show him the chassis in flight. Two flights had been extremely successful and the new tail guide was working like a treat. As light was getting near to failing with heavy cloud approaching, I felt that the flight was more important and that my friend was a bit tied up with a project at his neighbour's to make it in time. Up in the air it went and a foot off the ground, the motor stopped and the pitch reversed, slamming the chassis into the, fortunately, soft ground. All that ensued was a broken skid.

I rushed over to it to find the Skookum LEDs flashing red but nothing from the Spektrum remotes. They were solid. I did hear the rotor blades reset to neutral pitch and sure enough, the motor would spool up. I then wiggled the wires to all the remote receivers and one started blinking. Upon very close inspection, the black wire was damaged but not broken and the orange wire had some insulation cut but the wire inside was untouched. A regular poster on HeliFreak pointed me to Experience RC in Michigan and some very well priced heavy duty wires, according to reports he has come across. This fellow is a Skookum Field Support Tech and has helped me in the past. For the time being, I have replaced it with a new, tested extension so I am now waiting for some better temps maybe a bit later in the week. I had not set the flight logging on but only was using vibrations during the last 60 flights or so. I am now returning it to flight logging so I can send the logs to those that can actually see what has happened. At least I found the true cause before it was too late and my first hunch about links letting go or the swash driver loosening was only that.

On a better note, I did get a picture either during spool-up or just before spool-down. Friday was an expensive day but fun for me as I purchased most of the crew for the Little Bird body. These guys are eventually going to add up to around 2kg. Seems the average is around 333gr. each. I knew the motor has lots of power to spare so the addition (from the original two man crew) weight should not be an issue at all. I hope to get this underway soon but I am wondering just how far I need to go with the scale reconstruction. I have not heard back on the status of the door glass kit I ordered but that can come at anytime up to the point I need to install the front doors. I have decided to crew this helicopter as one that was used in Operation Gothic Serpent as no photos exist from the mission that the original helicopter was lost in. The basic assault helicopter remained just as this one will be outfitted as it wasn't until the early 2000's that the six blade head and four blade tail started to be retrofitted.  I also have some items coming to complete the outfit of the second pilot so he matches the one I have that is ready for installation. I have a third crew member in the car and one more to purchase. Have I gone nuts, you bet I have, but I want this to be a memorable helicopter that will stand on its own merits, not just a replacement for the lost TOW Defender. Enjoy the pics.

Don

PS: Bruce Willis is back in the Heli-Baby after being rebuilt and his cohort in crime is waiting on the next one for his ride.

[Keyrigger]

I have just finished another one for the outside bench. This helicopter will take 6 crew members to finish it off and currently, I have the pilot and three of the landing group done. There is some sorting out of these figures as some of them were not bought in the outfits they are in right now or in the outfits that they were in when they were part of the TOW Defender. I had bought a 160th SOAR pilot that had a very orangey look to him and when put beside Bruce Willis, he just didn't cut it. I had bought a third figure at the same time and decided to dress him in the pilot's outfit and then dress the orangey pilot up for fun in a spare desert three colour camo outfit. Now, it was time to switch things back as I needed to cut back on the figure purchases. Matching outfits for the helicopter crew were more important so those were ordered and should be here in a week or two. I will put the second helicopter crew in his uniform once, only. I do not intend to do him twice like I have done with the others. In the long run, I will have the option of putting Bruce in a modern US Army outfit but it would not be the latest 160th SOAR pilot's suit. I have put the old orangey SOAR into the US Army aircrew outfit that was left over from the MH-6's pilot. I am posting a picture of the two pilots so you can see what I mean. In reality, I could put the orangey one in the second outfit as he will have a cover over the mouth area and in theory, the face should never been seen again. Hmmmm, problem solved so now to implement it, sigh. More work with fidgety 1/6th scale clothing and accessories. Take care.

Don

[Keyrigger]

Yesterday, I got some real progress on the landing gear. When I went to the museum to get pictures and measurements, I felt I had the landing gear already done but it nearly didn't turn out that way. I had based my cuts on the TOW Defender which looked just fine to the eye however, those struts were actually too short. When I did an a conversion from the full size to the model, the landing struts were to be 4.3" at the front and 4.7" at the rear. I found that I had stopped the brass tube strengthener right at the spot that the gear sticks out. It meant that I almost didn't have enough material left of the original gear to make it to the floor anchoring spot. The front struts were left full length overall but with some shortening of the shaped strut. It turns out I only needed to remove about 1/8" from its overall length so I was lucky there. I added brass tube to the rear struts and will be taking the Hysol fairings right to the point of contact with the floor. The front struts will be treated to the same modification and that should prevent a repeat of the floor breakage that happened in Rochester. Take care.

Don

[Keyrigger]

More progress. I have the struts shaped and ready for more detailing and all sit on the floor with the same amount of weight applied to each one. Even the TOW Defender was not as solid on its gear as a result of too many rough landings. Holes have been made a lot easier to fill using packing tape on the outside with Hysol and glass cloth on the inside. I add a bit more Hysol on the outside, wait for it to cure, and then rough file it to get it close then sanding block and paper to finish. I also removed the dummy landing light on the doghouse as it is not part of this helicopter. I have a lot of panel line changing to do with the major one being the engine doors. They are a lot smaller than the ones inscribed on the body as it comes. This applies to every single one that I have seen and is not possible to change on the pre-painted kit without repainting the entire body. This is certainly going to be a slow process, that's for sure. Take care.

Don

[Keyrigger]

So, after taking some time off of all building, it is time to get back at it. The time off gave me the opportunity to work out exactly how I was going to patch in the holes and remove and fill in the boom appendages (there are five of them, sigh). I started with putting a strip of packing tape across the hole to be filled, taking some Hysol 9462 and laying in on a patch of fibreglass cloth, then sticking it on the inside of the body for each hole. I only had enough for four of the patches and have had to switch from 9462 to 9460 as the Fastenal no longer wishes to carry the stock and will not order it in small numbers. I found an RC jet supplier in Mississauga that carried the 9460 so it was time to try it out. I seemed to be one of the few that used 9462 as most used the other so it was a good time to try it out with this and the new CH-139 to finish. Only one patch was fully cured this morning so I will have to wait until after the meeting tonight to get the rest sanded down. The fuel inlet was not on this helicopter in the upper position as it is an option for newer commercial MD-500's. The first part of the patch was 9462 and once it was set, a layer of 9460 was placed on top and it has worked out well. I will be a long time before I am ready to prime as there is a ton of detail to put on like panel joins, lines, and stiffeners. All moulded on details are going to be removed except the round access covers on the tail boom. Those seem to be fine.

One of the tougher tasks is to lay out the panel lines. Since this is really a semi-scale fuselage, it makes it very hard to put the lines in the exact pattern they should be as even the most simple things like the position and size of the doors is wrong. There are some serious compromises that have to be done in order to pull off a reconstruction that duplicates the original close enough that only a full measurement drawing and a caliper would reveal the differences. Since those are not allowed by judges, the work has to be done very carefully as even their own experiences in full size can be brought to bear against you in judging. It is something that I will even bring to the table when I am asked to be a judge. I have taken so many pictures of the MD-500D/MH-6 that it will really take an exceptional model to catch me. So that is why I am taking so long to build this one and get it right the first time. Take care.

Don

[Keyrigger]

After the build technique meeting last night, I got back and did some serious sanding. All lumps, panels, and gear wear pads were ground off as they will be replaced with proper representations of the originals. The upper window should be a bit of a challenge but if it turns out as good as the larger exhaust opening, it should look great. There are more lumps to come off the canopy but I am taking that part slow as there is a large amount of planning and pre-finishing work to do before working on it in earnest. I took a bit of time to lay out the lines between the rear door and the engine doors to see how they look. It looks like I am on the right track this time around. With the other side being now levelled, laying them out there will really give me a good view of it all. Primer spraying will be a bit of a problem as it is really too cold out to spray and run back in, sigh. Take care.

Don

[Keyrigger]

More and more, this build is starting to take shape. I got the right side sanded yesterday and added the lines back in. There is one major line change to do as I had taken pictures of the original with a tape measure to show the distance from engine door to the rear door. That gave me the exact position of this main rivet line which is the firewall between the engine and main cabin. The engine doors need some reworking at the back end. They must be extended out with the inside being opened up leaving just a small amount of glass to support the added extension. The chin windows are being altered as the one side is very wrong in its shape. Some Hysol was added to the depression where the vents are placed. Those will be removed along with the lumps that represent the hinges. The rear door turned out to be quite a bit off from the real helicopter and the last photo shows how the bottom will be moved upwards, altering the floor of the main cockpit. It ends up being not much but every little bit of change helps it be a much more accurate model. Take care.

Don

[Keyrigger]

More work was done today. I started Friday night filling in the upper windows but covering in the upper openings with packing tape. A layer of Hysol was added and then fibreglass cloth on top of that. More Hysol was layered on the cloth and the waiting began. In the morning, I began sanding the now cured Hysol but I still needed to add more as the right side was very low compared to the right side. I am now waiting for it to cure so it was time to start prepping the canopy. The lumps that are supposed to be the hinges were removed and the landing light bezel was taken down so the external landing light can be put in it place over the old bezel. I am working out how to cut the door from the TOW Defender canopy (new one from the body I am modifying) so it will fit onto the standard MD500 canopy. The making of the doors will be a very time consuming job it will most likely take a couple of attempts to get everything in the right place. Take care.

Don

[Keyrigger]

This morning, I finished off the upper windows and I am quite pleased with the result. The way that Hysol can be used for the job of filling openings never ceases to amaze me. I also started the reshaping of the engine doors which will have a fairly large outlet size compare to any other 250 to 800 size MD500 out there. The exhaust will be a build all on its own as it will be a funnel shape at the back that goes into 2 somewhere inside. I will forego making the manifold as I do not intend to build an engine for this. Take care.

Don