Hirobo Lama Pictures

[Googleplex]

Well, my Hirobo Lama finally got airborne on the weekend. Doesn't look the greatest, but considering it was a twisted and broken wreck when I inherited it, it think it turned out just fine.

Flys very nicely, tons of power without going to unscale head speeds. The windmill style boom really hisses in the blade wash and acts better than any fin in FFF :).

Specs:

OS 46 FSR-H, Hitec credit card 8ch RX, 4 x HS422, GY401 with 9254 on tail, 1700mah nimh RX pack. All controlled by my VERY battered JR X662 (would be a great radio if it had mechanical throttle trim like my X3810ADT, but does most things ok).

The doors are removed (they are hinged) due to it being a REALLY hot down here at the mo. I'll stick them back on in winter time :).

-Tim

[lazy-b]

Googleplex: Nice Scale Helicopter....how's your Huey Hirobo, is it done yet, Please post the Picture at Huey's Thread. Thanks

Ellion

[Googleplex]

Huey is done, I'm just waiting on a nice day to fly it. I had it at the field with the Lama, but it got too windy to safely test fly it. All the photos I took turned out horrible (very bright day), so I'll get some more and post them.

-Tim

[Gannex]

I am ashamed to admit that, only two months into the hobby, I am on my second Hirobo Lama. I saw my first Hirobo Lama while visiting a friend, in Australia, and immediately decided I had to have one myself.

I bought a simulator, and diligently learned the basics of the hover, both nose in and nose out, and decided I was really willing to make the effort to build, and learn to fly an R/C Helicopter. My hand was shaking somewhat as I paid over my five hundred quid for a Lama kit, then signed up for another hundred on the engine, and proceeded home to a dumbstruck wife, laughing children, and a shortage of tools, experience, and confidence. But every evening, I couldn't wait to get off work, to put together another assembly in this amazing piece of machinery. I felt like a concert violinist interpreting the wondrous work of a long-dead composer, so impressed was I at the vision of Sikorsky, to have even dreamed that such a machine could work, and at the brilliance of Hirobo, to have executed the vision so carefully that even I, a complete novice, could put the machine together.

Depositing my assembled helicopter at the local model shop for set-up, I found it hard to believe that, upon its return to me, the thing would fly. But fly it did! First in hops, later in steady hover, and later still, even moving around the garden, roughly in the direction I was willing it, to a safe touchdown. I was hooked.

And then it happened. I had been to lunch with my mum and my brother, and had taken a couple of glasses of wine. Work for the afternoon had been written off, so I decided that a quick flight was in order. I was wrong. The wind was up, just a little, and my confidence was up, far too much. After only half a tankful of nitro, I was buzzing around the old homestead like there was no tomorrow, when the Lama, which had other ideas, impacted against a plant-pot which some moron had left, a year or two ago, right in the bloody flightpath!!!!

So it was back to the drawing board, or more accurately the price list for Hirobo spares. It takes a long time, I can tell you, to figure out exactly which parts of a crashed Hirobo Lama you can use again, and which need to be replaced. The "replacement" list, however, in my case, grew to 400 pounds, only fifty less than a new kit costs. So that is how I ended up trekking back today to my hobby shop, to pick up Hirobo Lama Number Two, the Better Lama, or at least, I hope, the "better flown" Lama. Long May She Fly!!!

[Googleplex]

Shame to hear about the Lama. They are an awesome helicopter to fly, but they have VERY little splat factor. You screw the landing and it's byebye heli.

Mine when I inherited it had stripped the tail drive pinion in hover and had autoed from twenty feet to collapse the skids on impact. On a sport heli all would have AOK, but on the lama... Fortunately I had some time on my hand to reweld all the broken tail struts and plenty of spares for the transmission the Lama uses since it is the same as the UH-1B and S300 helicopters.

Still have to test fly my huey. Weather down here in Australia has been wet and / or windy :(.

-Tim