Chase, the Zerby Derby character.

[Keyrigger]

Hi all:

A couple of years ago, we received an email asking about the availability of a club member to fly a helicopter in the production of a children's program called Zerby Derby. The first two seasons flying sessions were mostly made from the few times the supposed pilot was able to keep the helicopter in the air or land without smashing the helicopter to pieces. I took the challenge up and wound up using a spare helicopter (they never needed it for that season's flight recording) to get used to the helicopter and to do any tweaks to the AS3X system. I used my DX18 for day one, forgot it for day two and used the DXe factory radio), and my 18 back on day three. I had such a good time but regretted not asking to be contacted if they ever stopped the series and wished to dispose of the models. Well, I finally was able to track down the original manufacturer of the bodies and asked about purchasing one. No problem as he owns the molds. It did take a couple of months in between his day job building special effects set pieces to get the plastic (some form of polycarbonate) and do the pull. I asked that if it was a lot of work to set up for one, that a second pull be done. These are vacuum formed shells and once it is working right, more is child's play.

I picked it up last weekend while he was delivering a job to a place in Scarborough. Luck be it that the Don Valley was closed and accidents were everywhere. What should have taken 30 minutes, took 90 minutes and most of that was getting from the 401 and Victoria Park to Sheppard, three blocks west of Vic Park. We had a great chat and I did a lot of work the first evening, getting the body assembled and put on the chassis. The rest of the nose took most of Sunday as I worked out how to hold it on with magnets. I used 36 micro rare earth magnets in a ring to hold on the nose and so far, it hold while I test hovered it in my indoor test area. I have been working on the first nose and once it is up and running, I will do up the animated nose which will have both eyes controlled by a sequencer setup on my DX-18 and iX-12. I'll base it on the one that I used for the TOW Defender sighting system.

The original eyes were ok but there was a lump in between them that was covered by many layers of electrical tape. It really looked bad in close-ups and you can really see the tape stand out in the photos I took of the one I flew in the show. I think I am on version 4 of the eye bridge (or nose bridge if you wish but none of them had noses, lol). If the weather holds tomorrow, I will paint up the body and get it ready for the yellow tape and the logos on the side. I plan to buy a colour laser printer tomorrow so I should have it ready for the fun fly in Virginia all next week. This should get some attention as those two eyes do demand a close look and a good laugh. Take care and see you all soon.

Don

[Keyrigger]

A few more pictures showing the final eye configuration. The edging you see is what was there on the originals. I thought that standard nitro fuel tubing would be the right size but it was very small in comparison so that is windshield washer pump tubing. Apparently, it is a bear to keep in place but so far, it is staying put with no glue at all. I am planning to use Shoe Goo at the join when it is finally put together. Take care.

Don

[Keyrigger]

So as you see, Chase is up and in the air. I was able to test fly him before heading to Virginia and that was a good thing. I had heard some vibration resonance but just put it off to that. It turns out that there was some interference between the body and the swash plate that I didn't notice before. A few simple trim cuts with a pair of bent scissors and all is good. He got a lot of attention down there in Virginia where I was surprised at the number of people that knew of the show and some had seen his predecessor but had not seen this version yet. Either their children had grown out of the show or it might have been cancelled from their station. Here are some pictures of it semi-finished as I have since done some modifications to the lower boom and found new material for the yellow stripe that really fits and sticks fantastic. Take care.

Don

PS: Look at that grass he is sitting on. That's our field!!!!