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| I recently acquired the Hirobo Sceadu 50 to compliment my heli fleet. |
| Kit impressions: The kit comes nicely packaged with all the parts bagged and labeled for the assembly sequences they are used in. The parts quality is excellent. Even though this is considered a 'plastic fantastic' type of machine all the rotating parts are ball bearing supported and the fit of all the parts themselves is supurb. I got one of the last kits to come with the 570mm FRP blades. I also bought from Altech the DTDS tail drive and 3rd bearing block for $39. The future releases of this kit from MRC/Altech will have the DTDS and 3rd bearing block standard but not include the FRP blades. The buyer will have to furnish their own blades. The instructions are written in Japanese and English with excellent illustrations to guide you. At times the Japanese to English translation leaves a bit to be desired but it's nothing big. Altech also includes supplemental instruction sheets as well as an addendum with corrections. Pay carefull attention to these. The stickers can be a pain if you're not carefull. Once they stick, they're stuck. Trying to lift them will ruin them. Be carefull when placing them! I put my kit together over four days. Everthing goes together in a logical order and there's no need to deviate from the instructions. Hirobo and Kyosho probably have the best instructions for their helis. There were no missing parts in my kit. I broke the engine in prior to installation in the heli. This will allow me to do real flying sooner rather than spend time with break in. There are no real items that stand out in the build process on the Sceadu. It was a fun heli to put together. Heli Specs: Height: 17.25" Length: 47.25" Weight: aprrox 7.5lbs Rotor dia.: 50.5" T/R dia.: 9.75" Equipment: Radio: Hitec Eclipse 7 Tx/RCD Supreme 8 Rx Servos: HS-605 (collective & cyclic), HS-525 (throttle), S9253 (rudder) Gyro: Futaba GY-401 Engine: OS 46 FX-H Muffler: stock 50 size muffler furnished with the kit |
| Flying the Sceadu: 2-27-02: Even though the temp was around 15 degrees I couldn't wait to test fly (well, hover, actually) the machine. I fueled her up then took her out in the driveway and fired up the OS46. Since it was already broken in it started right up. Right away I noticed how smooth it was. There were no shakes or vibrations. Those FRP blades are nice. She lifted off just past half stick. I was immediately struck by how responsive it was. Just thinking of moving it produced the desired result. Much different from my R60 or Nexus. After about 10 seconds I set her down. The landing gear on the Sceadu (like the Shuttle) is rather narrow and makes it kind of tricky. The wider gear on my Raptor and nexus has spoiled me. I spooled her up again and hovered some more. The tail is rock solid with no drift. After a few more set downs and lift offs the tank was near empty. One tank was enough to get the feel for her. I am going to try again tomorrow to get some test hovering in. 2-28-02 A bit breezier today. I noticed the Sceadu was a bit more sensitive to the wind in hover. I tried to 'dial' out some of the sensitivity with the hover pitch trim but was only moderately sucessful. I got more comfortable with the the heli. It still is a responsive machine but she was solid in the hover. It takes a little more concentrated effort to set her down but that was most likely due to the wind and it being a new ship for me. I did notice the fuel in the tank splashing around at idle. When the tank is full this isn't a problem but at 1/4 tank it's enough to cause the engine to intermittently run lean and speed up. I moved the throttle trim down a bit and this seemed to help. I may consider a header tank though to help this situation. Plenty of power from the engine. No signs of it bogging down. I did get two tanks through her and was quite pleased. I really want to take her out and fly some circuits though. 3-6-02 I was able to take out the Sceadu today. I hovered for a little then started to do some circuits. Very nimble little heli. Quite different in feel from the Raptor 60. Much more economical on fuel than the R60 as well. But that's to be expected. I didn't do any wild stuff just some figure 8's and oval patterns. One thing that was very appearent was in the approach to land; the head speed remains very high all the way through touch down in NOR mode. I tried adjusting the throttle curve to 35% and even 25% at 1/4 stick but the head speed still seems a bit high. It seems that you have to really plan your approach and not carry a lot of forward speed into the landing. As it is now it takes a long time to get the head speed to bleed off to prevent an overspeed rpm condition. I would have like to do more but I only got through a half a tank before the muffler halves came loose. Same problem I had with my Shuttle ZX from years ago. You would have thought Hirobo would have fixed this by now. 3-10-02 The weather turned nice after several days of wind and rain. I had fixed the muffler by installing a locknut with loctite to the threads (belt and suspenders) on the muffler bolt. I also used Ultra Copper sealer between the two muffler halves for a better seal. Once again the heli was smooth. I got more adventurous and did a few loops. At first they were tight but I made them larger. Control of the heli is good and the tail is solid. When doing a stall turn as soon as you release the rudder it stops. Plus the Sceadu is really fast in FF. I fiddled with the hover pitch trim and hover throttle trim to try to tame the head speed but it just seems like it's too high. That rotor head is really moving. The transitions from foirward flight to hover really show the rotor rpm picking up. The pitch and throttle curves seem to match up very well but I think I'll need to switch to some 600mm blades. I initially thought the OS46 would not be as powerful as people were saying the OS 50 is but the 46 does have a lot of power. I'm looking at some FK 600mm blades or some Zigsaw 600mm carbon fiber blades. The guys flying with the OS 50 have seen the need to go to these longer blades and I see I may have to as well. All said, I got two good flights on the Sceadu today and I was very pleased with it. 3-12-02 A very good day to fly with light wind. The Sceadu was flying very nicely. I was able to do some mild aerobatics. Loops, stall turns and a few rolls. The tail response is very solid on this machine. Most likely due to the GY-401 and S9253 servo combination. The head is still overspeeding though. It's really noticeable on descent as well in the ST1 and ST2 modes. I have the 600mm blades on order and they should be here tomorrow. Full power climb outs are good. The 46 produces a lot of power and seems well suited for this heli. I'm flying with the full weights in the paddles. I'm going to take some out and see how she does. Circuits are fast since this machine really moves along. It's noticeably quieter with the belt drive on the tail and I haven't seen any signs the belt is slipping. All the links, bolts and nuts are still tight. And no problems from the muffler. I managed 3 through her today. 3-23-02 Today was a very good day. Even though it was a bit breezy I got three flights in. And due to the economical nature of the OS46 these were quite long flights of at least 15 minutes. I was landing with about a 1/4 tank still left. I did lots of loops today and even got her inverted. I'm getting a better feel for this machine with every flight. The 600mmm blades are working fine and the 46 is producing just as much power as ever. I even did some 540's and sideways pirouettes as well. It has a very fast piro rate with the 401 gyro and 9253 servo. The wind didn't seem as bad today with this machine either. I am getting the knack of flying it with the wind, which is a good thing. the battery also held good for those three flights. I was initially worried about the capacity with using the 401 and digital servo but things seem to be OK. 4-27-02 It's been a while since I've updated this and a lot has happened. The big news is my original Sceadu is no more. I was having so much fun I became disoriented during some inverted manuevers and plowed the machine into the runway at very high speed. Although very few parts flew off the machine was very badly damaged. The sideframes broke just above the forward strut mount. That along with the other damage made me decide to order a new 30 size kit rather than just order replacement parts. It was more cost effective to do that. The new kit arrived a few weeks ago but I haven't had much time to put it together. I think you can tell I really like the Sceadu enough to replace it with another. I was doing things with this machine I had not yet even tried on my R60. That was mostly due to the small size and nimbleness of this machine. I plan to get the Sceadu back together soon. I now have the pinion gearing from the 30 size machine to play with so I can experiment with different combinations of blades/gearing/motors. Stay tuned for more updates as I go along. 6-3-02 I have put the replacement Sceadu together and have been flying it quite a bit. It's just as sweet as the first. The Sceadu is a very smooth machine. It is very nimble and quick. The motor has been running flawlessly and I typically land after a ten minute flight with at least a 1/4 tank remaining. I've heard of people complaining of poor T/R response with the stock blades but I can tell you the T/R response is great with the stock blades. I've been doing inverted stuff with the Sceadu and even though my skills may be limited the machine's capabilities are certainly not. In a hover the Sceadu is rock steady. There's no shake, wobble or any hint of vibration. |
| Sceadu Links: Hirobo Technique: Greg Tackas' excellent site with tips, manuals, phots and flight logs Ken Bryant's (Volkul) Sceadu page; lots of good Sceadu and Freya information MRC/Altech's home page; the US distributor of the Sceadu and other hirobo products littlerotors.com; a good web site with Hakim Tung's review of the Sceadu plus other great heli stuff |
| Sceadu 30 or 50, what's the difference? Sceadu 30 Sceadu 50 30 size fan hub 50 size fan hub 30 size motor mount 50 size motor mount 9T pinion gear 10T pinion gear 30 size muffler 50 size muffler 550mm wood blades no blades furnished (use 600mm w/OS50) DTDS drive system 3rd bearing block |
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| My Sceadu 46 in flight |