Turbine Heli guys??

[Turbine_Time]

I might have posted this in the wrong section just a minute ago. :)

Are there any heli turbine guys in here?

I'm just getting started and still pricing out a heli to begin with. I have my eye on a Dolphin turbine kit.

Rick

[cyclops2]

I see no reason why you cannot use a turbine that has the gearbox on it for use in a turboprop plane.

Turboprop engines are out there, do a web search.

[Turbine_Time]

I beleive you can. There are turboprop turbine planes. It seems like some pretty crazy overkill for any plane when you can swing a huge prop off a large gasser that would weight less than a turbine setup and burn less than half the fuel.

I was wondering if there were any other guys flying turbine powered helicopter?

[trashmanf]

Yes there are a lot. Keep looking around the forums (heli forums here) and look in the "gallery - helicopter videos" at the bottom of rcgroups forums. There's plenty of turbine info! what a cool idea....

[sycorax]

Hi Rick,
I am just setting up my first Turbine helicopter. I had this on my mind for three years. Once I had the money together it took me another 6 months to finally decide. Up to now, I only flew electric helicopters of Eco8 size and smaller. When I started, I wanted to build a giant scale helicopter, actually the Mil Mi 24 Hind from Scalecopter, but for a first model of that size and after several phone calls I dropped that idea after comparing the technical parameters like power, ECU software features, flight characteristics and so on. It took me a couple of weeks and finally I ended up with these requirements I wanted to meet:
- Good quality turbine trainer to get used to the bigger size
- Ability to reuse most of the parts of the trainer in a fuselage
- reliable handling
- 2 bladed rotor head with paddles ( I want to fly the heli, not fight it ! )
- most reliable rc equipment ( check out www.weatronic.de ! )
About the price I figured out, that the JetCat PHT-3 has the best pricing, since you always need an addional mechanics for all the other turbines. Also the exhaust might be a problem and adds costs.

I ended up with the Modellbau Bremer ( www.modellbau-bremer.de ) PowerCat which is based on a JetCat PHT-3 and features a 12mm rotorhub as well as Vario aluminium main and tail rotor components. Actually everything on this heli is machined from aluminium.
Also I ordered the new Bell UH-1D from XXL Modellhelicopter ( http://www.xxl-modelhelicopter.com/ ) which is prepared by Helifactory. Here are some pics of one of these: http://www.helifactory.com/modelle/bell205neu/bell205canadaairforce/index.html
I didn't chose a setup with the turbine behind the rotor mast on purpose because of the CoG . The new Vario UH-1D for example needs about 2kg weight in it's nose to balance. My setup is slighlty smaller, but there's no useless weight needed so it'll fly like a charme.

The nice thing about my setup is, that I can fly this season and build in parallel. During the winter break, I'll put all the trainer components into the fuselage and have a new heli next year. I can reuse most of the components of the trainer and I always can decide to put it back together. Overall including all additonal things you need ( tank system, fire extinguisher, turbine oil, servos, receiver ) I'll have spent round about 10.000 € once the Bell UH-1D is airborne. Using cheaper electronics ( at a loss of some security ) and directly going for the fuselage, you might save 1.000 € to 1.500 € .
Regards, Ralf