Scale Agusta A109
- Thread starter Tony
- Start date
Tony
Staff member
Once again, I have to give fran11784 a HUGE thank you as he has supplied a 600ESP kit for this fuse. I have had it since July trying to get things lined up to get the electronics for it before I even start building it. Nothing like having another helicopter hanging around lol. So it has remained in the box and I have not put one driver to it. I have looked at some of the parts, and they do seem like decent quality. So that brings me to today...
Today I made the order for 3 cyclic servos, a tail servo, motor, ESC and battery. That leaves the Gyro and Satellite receivers to go. Since I put the MAXX flybarless system on the Goblin, I'm going to use the Ikon2 from the Goblin on this helicopter and thanks to Geena I have the satellite receivers I need.
With these parts ordered and repurposing other parts from the Goblin, I will start to get this A109 built and ready for the air. I'm not sure if this will be a "winter project" or if I will build it quickly and get it in the air as soon as possible, just not sure yet. But, in a week or so, I should have all of the parts required to get it put together.
If everything goes well, I may start looking into other parts like a new head, blades and tail to make it look more scale. One issue is I'm pretty sure the A109 has a CCW main head and the 600 has a CW head. It's easy enough to reverse the motor and flip the One way bearing, but not sure if the fuse accepts a left side tail setup. I guess it's nothing a little fiberglass can't fix. But this is for the future, but something to keep in mind.
One thing that I'm not sure of is if I want to do a build "thread" where I just post pictures or if I want to do a build series (Article or video) on this helicopter. I would like to hear y'all's thoughts on this on what you want to see.
Not gonna lie, Kind of excited about this...
Today I made the order for 3 cyclic servos, a tail servo, motor, ESC and battery. That leaves the Gyro and Satellite receivers to go. Since I put the MAXX flybarless system on the Goblin, I'm going to use the Ikon2 from the Goblin on this helicopter and thanks to Geena I have the satellite receivers I need.
With these parts ordered and repurposing other parts from the Goblin, I will start to get this A109 built and ready for the air. I'm not sure if this will be a "winter project" or if I will build it quickly and get it in the air as soon as possible, just not sure yet. But, in a week or so, I should have all of the parts required to get it put together.
If everything goes well, I may start looking into other parts like a new head, blades and tail to make it look more scale. One issue is I'm pretty sure the A109 has a CCW main head and the 600 has a CW head. It's easy enough to reverse the motor and flip the One way bearing, but not sure if the fuse accepts a left side tail setup. I guess it's nothing a little fiberglass can't fix. But this is for the future, but something to keep in mind.
One thing that I'm not sure of is if I want to do a build "thread" where I just post pictures or if I want to do a build series (Article or video) on this helicopter. I would like to hear y'all's thoughts on this on what you want to see.
Not gonna lie, Kind of excited about this...
James M. Lewis
Armed Forces
I think a thread would be cool for the Forum and if you do a video consider You Tube, will definitely reach more people 
James M. Lewis
Armed Forces
Ouch! That's a bummer!
Rowdy
New Member
Hey Tony, Im thinking the 550x could be a viable option for this application. It is truly a 600 after all. Rotorhead, boom, Etc.. I would throw in an egodrift motor like the 4020HT, or 4030HT, Wound to 935KV. I have experience with the 4020HT in my 550X. It will run much cooler and the performance increase is night and day compared to a stock Align motor. I have no problem running 600mm blades on mine.
And then I didn't see the last posts and have no idea how to delete this lol
CloudyFlyer,
And then I didn't see the last posts and have no idea how to delete this lol
CloudyFlyer,
Tony
Staff member
You are correct Rowdy, the 550 is a 600 frame, electronics, head and tail. However the blades are shorter (550mm) and the tail boom is also shorter as well, so those would have to be replaced to fit inside the fuse. Thanks to fran11784 I have a kit sitting here that is made for the Agusta fuse and I should be able to start the build sometime soon if I can find time. And I'm running the 730MX motor in this helicopter.
And just for clarification, yes, you can use 600mm blades on the stock tail boom although the blades get a little too close for comfort, however it would not reach far enough back for the cutout on the fuse. And no need to delete your post, still good information in there! Thanks for posting up!
And just for clarification, yes, you can use 600mm blades on the stock tail boom although the blades get a little too close for comfort, however it would not reach far enough back for the cutout on the fuse. And no need to delete your post, still good information in there! Thanks for posting up!
Tony
Staff member
Day 1, the frame is together, kind of. I wanted to do a test fit, so there is no thread lock on this helicopter that I have put on. And for the most part, it did go together okay, with only a few issues so far.
First, instructions for this helicopter are pretty much nonexistent. You have to locate them yourself because the little step by step they have on their website (Phoenixtech) is very basic and misses a LOT of the assembly. But if you have built a couple in the past, you can get by.
These pictures are 1920x1080, so you can click on them and they will get much larger. I'm just uploading thumbnails here to keep the thread a little cleaner.
Again, I have to thank murankar for this amazing tool set. If I was using any of the other tools on a part that I will talk about in a minute, the result would not have been so good.
This was one of the bolts that I took out of the main shaft block. Doesn't seem like thread locker, but more dirt or corrosion.
Put the main blocks in and this is what we have. I do have to say, I like the matt finish of the frames, and they packaged them in a way to keep the outside that you see scratch free. The holes are pretty clean but definitely done to a price, but all in all, very nice looking!
Remember above when I said that I would talk about the tools and the result would not have been the same... The bolt below is in the motor block and I seriously thought the head was going to break off this bolt. I was almost sure of it. But that driver fit perfectly and with a little working back and forth, I finally got it out and this is what I was met with....
In the above image, see the bolt in the background that is still seated? This is what it looked like when I pulled it out. And it was just as tight. Remember, you can make these images much larger.
Front battery tray (backplate) and tail block installed. Lets see if a little "something something" triggers anyone here lol.
This is the shaft that goes through the frame and holds all 3 bellcranks that connect the servos to the swash. Yes, it is as dusty as it looks and it seems to be the same stuff that was on the 3 bolts above...
And finally after fighting with some shims, the head and main gear is installed. Unfortunately the mesh from the auto gear to the tail drive gear is very tight and it cannot fly this way. Just a little work to get it just right. The mesh on the conical gears though in the tail block are almost perfect. The horizontal gear needs to go to the rear just a blonde one to loosen up about 6 teeth that are meshing too hard. I may look into upgrading to the stronger gears rather than modifying the frame to slide the main gear forward, but we will see how that pans out...
I know I didn't get video, but with the wife having to get up in just a few hours to go to work, and just not having much time right now I am hoping this will do for now. Of course there will be much more to come when I have time to do a little more work on this bird, but I was itching to get it started.
First, instructions for this helicopter are pretty much nonexistent. You have to locate them yourself because the little step by step they have on their website (Phoenixtech) is very basic and misses a LOT of the assembly. But if you have built a couple in the past, you can get by.
These pictures are 1920x1080, so you can click on them and they will get much larger. I'm just uploading thumbnails here to keep the thread a little cleaner.
Again, I have to thank murankar for this amazing tool set. If I was using any of the other tools on a part that I will talk about in a minute, the result would not have been so good.
This was one of the bolts that I took out of the main shaft block. Doesn't seem like thread locker, but more dirt or corrosion.
Put the main blocks in and this is what we have. I do have to say, I like the matt finish of the frames, and they packaged them in a way to keep the outside that you see scratch free. The holes are pretty clean but definitely done to a price, but all in all, very nice looking!
Remember above when I said that I would talk about the tools and the result would not have been the same... The bolt below is in the motor block and I seriously thought the head was going to break off this bolt. I was almost sure of it. But that driver fit perfectly and with a little working back and forth, I finally got it out and this is what I was met with....
In the above image, see the bolt in the background that is still seated? This is what it looked like when I pulled it out. And it was just as tight. Remember, you can make these images much larger.
Front battery tray (backplate) and tail block installed. Lets see if a little "something something" triggers anyone here lol.
This is the shaft that goes through the frame and holds all 3 bellcranks that connect the servos to the swash. Yes, it is as dusty as it looks and it seems to be the same stuff that was on the 3 bolts above...
And finally after fighting with some shims, the head and main gear is installed. Unfortunately the mesh from the auto gear to the tail drive gear is very tight and it cannot fly this way. Just a little work to get it just right. The mesh on the conical gears though in the tail block are almost perfect. The horizontal gear needs to go to the rear just a blonde one to loosen up about 6 teeth that are meshing too hard. I may look into upgrading to the stronger gears rather than modifying the frame to slide the main gear forward, but we will see how that pans out...
I know I didn't get video, but with the wife having to get up in just a few hours to go to work, and just not having much time right now I am hoping this will do for now. Of course there will be much more to come when I have time to do a little more work on this bird, but I was itching to get it started.
James M. Lewis
Armed Forces
All I can say is both WOW & AWESOME!!!!!!!
good luck on the rest of the build 
Tony
Staff member
Yea, those bolts were pretty nasty, but they did come out and will be cleaned. I just wanted to get this thing fitted together.
One thing that I forgot to mention last night is the tail block. It doesn't quite fit the cut-out's in the frame and you kind of have to force it. It looks to be off by about a mm, so not that much, but enough to cause an issue. This will be fixed when I adjust the gear mesh with the auto/tail gear.
But last night, after the above post, I was doing a little cleaning up and I went to set the frame that I just built, up on the shelf in front of the fuse. Well, I think this helicopter has been talking to Murphy because I was sure I was well away from the ceiling fan, but this thing got yanked out of my hand and it was tossed directly into the right monitor on my rig...
anyone have an MSI MAG272C laying around?....
One thing that I forgot to mention last night is the tail block. It doesn't quite fit the cut-out's in the frame and you kind of have to force it. It looks to be off by about a mm, so not that much, but enough to cause an issue. This will be fixed when I adjust the gear mesh with the auto/tail gear.
But last night, after the above post, I was doing a little cleaning up and I went to set the frame that I just built, up on the shelf in front of the fuse. Well, I think this helicopter has been talking to Murphy because I was sure I was well away from the ceiling fan, but this thing got yanked out of my hand and it was tossed directly into the right monitor on my rig...
anyone have an MSI MAG272C laying around?....
Tony
Staff member
Well, it's been almost two months since the last update and I wanted to give a quick update on what is going on.
First thing, Heli Direct's customer service SUCKS! There was an issue with a shipment from them for a major component for this helicopter, and first, they gave me the run around. I contacted them and they were like "oh we will send them an email". Two weeks later I email them back after not hearing anything, and they are like "oh, we didn't hear anything back from them, let me email them again". Remember, there are so far NO emails from Heli Direct to me giving me any kind of update on what is going on.
Then, they tell me to file a claim with the carrier, and when I file the claim with the carrier, they say "oh, well lets wait as I see you filed a claim with the carrier".
Needless to say, I will never purchase another thing from this company until they get WAY BETTER at their customer service. I work in customer service, and we keep the customer informed on what is going on with situations like this. In my company, WE file the claims, and WE replace the item for the customer so the customer doesn't have to wait.
And yes, I have emails to back up the run around that I talked about above. Basically, I'm out over $300 because of this company and they could care less because they have my money...
First thing, Heli Direct's customer service SUCKS! There was an issue with a shipment from them for a major component for this helicopter, and first, they gave me the run around. I contacted them and they were like "oh we will send them an email". Two weeks later I email them back after not hearing anything, and they are like "oh, we didn't hear anything back from them, let me email them again". Remember, there are so far NO emails from Heli Direct to me giving me any kind of update on what is going on.
Then, they tell me to file a claim with the carrier, and when I file the claim with the carrier, they say "oh, well lets wait as I see you filed a claim with the carrier".
Needless to say, I will never purchase another thing from this company until they get WAY BETTER at their customer service. I work in customer service, and we keep the customer informed on what is going on with situations like this. In my company, WE file the claims, and WE replace the item for the customer so the customer doesn't have to wait.
And yes, I have emails to back up the run around that I talked about above. Basically, I'm out over $300 because of this company and they could care less because they have my money...
fran11784
Goblin 380 Supporter
I always want to rant about them, but I thought maybe it was just me. No way should you be the one to lose. They have that little box that says, "shipping protection" and I always uncheck it. BS! How about the famous marketing "up to x amount off". There's never one item that is up to what they say. Did you use PP? get them involved, no company likes a bad PP mark. I hope this works out for you Tony. Stay on them