450 Hi my fellow RC Helicopter Pilots

James M. Lewis

Armed Forces
Hope all are well during these trying times. Let me bring you up to date with me. As mention late last year was on a quest to scratch build a Sikorsky CH 54 now know as a S -64. Well everything was working out locating parts needed even drew up scale plans (450 size), until trying to find a transitional connector. This is for the main boom and smaller boom part to the tail rotor. That's when I hit a brick wall. Found a company in the UK but the shipping cost was not only high but cost way over the price of the part itself. About 2 years ago there was one on ebay and wish had bought it then. Haven't had any luck so this project is on hold and may never get started. So I've decided to concentrate on other things in the hobby. Enclose are photos of my 3 birds: Augusta A109, Clone 450 and Blade SR. The Augusta has been a slow moving project that I spent quite amount of time on. The inner frame has be beefed up, a special compartment installed to hold the battery under a custom yet to be built cockpit with scale pilot flying right seat. Landing gear is fix rather than retracts. This helicopter is FBL with a ZYX S-2 gyro and uses a 2200 50C lipo battery. Future plans include nav lights installed with it's own power supply. Hope to have her maiden flight this summer. So you can see this is a work in progress.
My 450 clone was a Hughes 300C I crashed last summer due to pilot error. Loved and miss that bird, the kit came from Germany. This 450 was completely rebuilt and tested with good parts and will be my sport flyer. No 3D stuff just simple flying nothing fancy. Plan on doing a lot of flying on this helicopter to sharpen and improve my skills. The 3rd bird in my collection is a Blade SR that I got on Ebay in parts about 10 years ago. This was my basic teacher that taught me how to built, repair and fly collective pitch. Knew nothing about Align, Trex or other brand name helicopters. Prior to finding RC-Help.com watch other videos but everybody had a different format. Tony's site had the best one to help me along. The fuselage is from the UK got from a friend. Kept faith with the Blade SR despite the poor reviews it received but learned a lot from others about it's short comings. The 2 features that stood out as problems were the 2 in 1 system (receiver/ESC) and tail rotor motor, which often went bad. Almost lost the bird in flight because of the motor that quit and also parts are hard to find. So rather than send her to the bone yard, will keep it as a display model. If I do fly her again they'll be short 3-4 minute ones.
Spending a lot of time on my flight simulator getting that muscle/memory down pat. To help me prepare have program increase wind conditions. Rather make a mistake here than on the flying field. Will be 73 years old in a few months and plan on flying many more to come.
 

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buel williams

Active Member
Hope all are well during these trying times. Let me bring you up to date with me. As mention late last year was on a quest to scratch build a Sikorsky CH 54 now know as a S -64. Well everything was working out locating parts needed even drew up scale plans (450 size), until trying to find a transitional connector. This is for the main boom and smaller boom part to the tail rotor. That's when I hit a brick wall. Found a company in the UK but the shipping cost was not only high but cost way over the price of the part itself. About 2 years ago there was one on ebay and wish had bought it then. Haven't had any luck so this project is on hold and may never get started. So I've decided to concentrate on other things in the hobby. Enclose are photos of my 3 birds: Augusta A109, Clone 450 and Blade SR. The Augusta has been a slow moving project that I spent quite amount of time on. The inner frame has be beefed up, a special compartment installed to hold the battery under a custom yet to be built cockpit with scale pilot flying right seat. Landing gear is fix rather than retracts. This helicopter is FBL with a ZYX S-2 gyro and uses a 2200 50C lipo battery. Future plans include nav lights installed with it's own power supply. Hope to have her maiden flight this summer. So you can see this is a work in progress.
My 450 clone was a Hughes 300C I crashed last summer due to pilot error. Loved and miss that bird, the kit came from Germany. This 450 was completely rebuilt and tested with good parts and will be my sport flyer. No 3D stuff just simple flying nothing fancy. Plan on doing a lot of flying on this helicopter to sharpen and improve my skills. The 3rd bird in my collection is a Blade SR that I got on Ebay in parts about 10 years ago. This was my basic teacher that taught me how to built, repair and fly collective pitch. Knew nothing about Align, Trex or other brand name helicopters. Prior to finding RC-Help.com watch other videos but everybody had a different format. Tony's site had the best one to help me along. The fuselage is from the UK got from a friend. Kept faith with the Blade SR despite the poor reviews it received but learned a lot from others about it's short comings. The 2 features that stood out as problems were the 2 in 1 system (receiver/ESC) and tail rotor motor, which often went bad. Almost lost the bird in flight because of the motor that quit and also parts are hard to find. So rather than send her to the bone yard, will keep it as a display model. If I do fly her again they'll be short 3-4 minute ones.
Spending a lot of time on my flight simulator getting that muscle/memory down pat. To help me prepare have program increase wind conditions. Rather make a mistake here than on the flying field. Will be 73 years old in a few months and plan on flying many more to come.
you go brother keep them flying no matter what the age I love it
 

James M. Lewis

Armed Forces
Thank you Buel for your words of encouragement. Flying and working on my birds have help to keep focus in this crazy and insane world. Also watching "You Tube RC videos" is in itself a hobby for me.
 

D.O.G.

Goblin 380 Supporter
Hey there James. First I like to say Thank You for your service :beerchug: That's some sweet looking birds you have there :).
 

James M. Lewis

Armed Forces
Thank you D.O.G. for your comments, I appreciate them and those who gave me feedback these past years. All you guys are like an extended family and I look forward in reading about your latest ventures. Am getting my birds ready for the spring and warmer weather. Thought about flying now but conditions are a little above my pay grade to chance it.
 

Geena

Staff member
Hi James, and welcome to RC-Help. That`s a nice looking little fleet you have there. I would love to see some videos of them flying, if you have any. :)
 
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