Westland Wessex

[Spitfire]

On another forum I frequent I have come across a chap who has scratch built a Wessex body over a stock electric model and made some astounding drive train additions to make it all work within the scale body.

This is what he started with .... Its a T-Rex 600 CF (carbon fibre )



Then he's fabricated his own scale body around it ...





Made one off drive gear boxes to transfer the tail drive up at the Wessex tail angle



To end up with this .....








And the proof of the pudding ......

[Xplumberlives]

WOW!

What a talent, it looks just like the ones I used to fly around in!

[Jigsaw]

[Spitfire]

Then blow me if he doesn't upgrade it to a non stock 4 blade head to make it more scale like - instead of the 2 blade with fly bars.
4 blade heads with no flybars are notoriously difficult to fly in a model.....

2 Blade head close ups



With 4 blade head





Love the castoring tail wheel

[Lucas1860]

Fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Howslo]

If I tried to fly that, I'd end up either trimming those hedges, smashing it against the shed, or taking my own head off! Amazing!

[Spitfire]

Tee Hee ... I've smashed many a garden ornament ... plant pot ... solar light.... and decapitated LOADS of plants with my helicopter .... a 4 foot spinning disc of carbon rotor blades has one hell of an inertia when spinning at several thousand revs
One solar light was SO destroyed I never found ANY of it ... at all

[Gaz]

Wow! That's impressive!

Just about getting to grips with my helicopter now, not ready to film it just yet though

[Stigish]

Wow, thats superb .

I'm sure my garden would end up just like yours SF. I just couldn't trust myself with something like that.

[Spitfire]

Wow! That's impressive!

Just about getting to grips with my helicopter now, not ready to film it just yet though

What've you got??

[Gaz]

Wow! That's impressive!

Just about getting to grips with my helicopter now, not ready to film it just yet though

What've you got??

I've got the little 3 channel chinook that I fly round the house, terrorizing the dog

And



Syma Alloy Shark, best £30 I've ever had spent on me! It had been modified slightly when I got it, I don't really know about them very much but I think the servo and receiver were uprated, anyway, it has great range on it. Jost gotta learn to fly the thing now

[Spitfire]

Ah - a contra rotator - that's cheating

My Eolo is a standard set up brushless motor - 6 channel radio - with gyro.





Battery shown is an old NiCad - I've moved on to lightweight LiPoly now - half the weight - twice the duration

Great fun to fly - if quite difficult ... Contras are good as you get no real tail torque

[Xplumberlives]

AND it has it's OWN decking landing pad!

[Sooty655]

Ah - a contra rotator - that's cheating

My Eolo is a standard set up brushless motor - 6 channel radio - with gyro.

I'm not clear why a contra rotator is cheating but a gyro isn't - they both make it easier to fly than a real one.

I continually get people telling me the bow thruster on my narrow boat is "cheating", but I can't find any rule book to say so.

[Spitfire]

Ah - a contra rotator - that's cheating

My Eolo is a standard set up brushless motor - 6 channel radio - with gyro.

I'm not clear why a contra rotator is cheating but a gyro isn't - they both make it easier to fly than a real one.

I continually get people telling me the bow thruster on my narrow boat is "cheating", but I can't find any rule book to say so.

I think the modern expression is 'trust me' ...... Contras are just contras from the off - the torque effect just isn't there - at all - where a gyro is basically heading hold - but it has to be set up - and managed in flight - and the tail rotor is very powerful and very effective - so if you want to change heading you have to 'fly' the tail - the gyro doesn't do that for you - this then changes the orientation of the rotor disc for 'aileron/elevator' movements - all this goes on ALL the time. You can also set up the gyro to be switched into 'tail following' as you fly through translational lift into forward flight .. so there's something else to think about and control.

Let's put it this way - I bet I could fly a contra out of the box - but a contra pilot couldn't fly my heli without tuition. So 'easier' is very much a relative perception.

I rest my case your honour

[Xplumberlives]

But could you fly the real thing?

[Spitfire]

But could you fly the real thing?

Oh yes - Have spent a happy 90 minutes in the Culdrose Sea King Simulator a few years back - did circuits and bumps at Culdrose - then a landing on the back of RMS Argus like they used to do in Krypton Factor - but properly - not an approach like a fixed wing but a hover parallel to the ship then a 'slide' sideways over the deck... funny thing there is he tells you to watch the superstructure of the ship and you find that your hands and brain adjust to the ship's rise and fall without you realising it
Then we landed on an oil rig in the North Sea ... that was fun .... then over to JFK for an approach at night over New York - I remember the 'running rabbits' looking spectacular.
Then through the valleys in Snowdonia and the git in charge set up a Nimrod coming down my valley the other way Evasive action WAS taken
We had engine fires - with real smoke pumped in the cockpit ... engine failures ....instrument failures ... all good fun.
Finally back to Culdrose for auto rotations - they were very hard ... the final flair with the collective was amazing ... when I'd landed he said 'You can extract the collective lever from under your armpit now!' I'd yanked it so hard

He said I was well above average and only totaled 3 Sea Kings - the rest of it was fine

[Xplumberlives]

I've flown around in lots of Wessex's and having taken control of a Royal Navy example managed to make those in the back sick within a couple of minutes!