Please

Pretty please

Choppa,

Gladly, but first let me shed some light into the subject.

Ever since I started designing and manufacturing helicopter kits, beginning with the free flight models, every design I have come up with has generated a great level of interest, as well as some skepticism from various folks. This work has also paved the way for new developments, my own as well as from other companies and individuals wanting to join the fun.

Every new design I have produced has riden on cutting edge technology at time of development, but technology changes so fast that by the time the kit is out, new equipment may be out on the market and sometimes the equipment that the original kit called for may be obsolete by the newer and better epuipment that may be available at the same time the kit is released.

Take for instance the the Robin kit. Much like the Piccolo, when I designed that particular model I was working with a balance of current technology, materials and costs to produce an entry level kit. Technology changed and MS came along with the Hornet, a newer helicopter with roots of previous micros but aimed to use better battery and motors. Along these lines it was natural for me as an OEM, as it's been for Ikarus, to take our current micros and enhance them to keep up with changes in technology, primarily better batteries, which is a major defining factor in obtaining longer flight times, as well as the interest of people, which is also very important.

Although I have made many enhancements in the past years to my original Robin prodruct, as we've moved along the wave of interst and the trends in micro flight, I felt that the time was right to produce the House FLY H300 model and make use of popular and inexpensive equipment, like GWS components. This was early last year and and thus the Stock House FLY kit we are currently producing.

In view of the fast changing technological advances that are made constantly and new available and more robust and better battery motor technology, I decided to make the House FLY a Series realizing that at some point, I may want to offer a High Performance House FLY (already in process) or 1/2 size HF , "Fairy FLY" in the future.

Well, the future come fast, and currently we are offering the High performance House FLY enhancements, already, (Wood Blades, Pinions, suggested new motors) for those looking for this high performance from thre stock kit.

Somewhere along these lines of MIA's House FLY Series, lies the MIA's Fairy FLY , TM's, along with our other micro heli models and components MIA pioneered and produced. I will be happy to show folks the new developments, as a full package, when technology is more feasible and avaible to use with the more diverse and dynamic miniaturized models MIA has in focus, after all that is why I elected to call my company MIA Micro-FLIGHT.

Currently, our Fairy FLY prototypes use heavily modified equipment and some components which have been originally designed and developed to work with this particualar size. Unfortunately, this is too much labor intensive for the average modeler to ask him/her to do if we were to put out such a kit on the market and I chose not to put out anything out until there is a basic inexpensive RC package that we can start with.

We are already big time on options and flexibility with our models, this is what identifies MIA best, as a dynamic micro helicopter company and role model.

While on this Subject:

Look at the Huge wave of interest the House FLY generated since its coming out of MIA's drawing boards, last year. Many skeptics but also many supporters. The stock kit flies a bit marginal with the stock components, understandable, but nevertheless flies!. That is all we wanted to do with the stock kit and leave the options up to the comsummer. Although our focus has been all along to provide what customers want. We now have better baterries, and motors than we did at time of the HF first design conception and have designed the blades to go along with this new technology for those looking for higher perfromance to the stock kit. Look for my other post on the House FLY High Performance options and web site updates.

The various options avaible with the House FLY are being fulfilled by people of all levels of interest, beginning with basic modelers, training with stock HF tethered or with small typical cheapper NiCad but limited batteries. People purchasing our other enhancements like our wood blades and suggested new motors for higher performance and record breaking flight on a single charge. Tinkeres like yourselve and others doing similar contraptions to explore the possibilities, while others micro helicopter companies or interested independent entrepreneurs are probably taking notes on the trends that MIA along with supporters are making, to make their own variations.

To me, personally, this is all flatering and it shows, interest. When there is interest, there is inspiration, when there is inspiration, there is a purpose, when there is purpose there is continuation. This has been my vision since I started MIA Designs and MIA Micro-FLIGHT. It has all fallen into perspective and micro helicopters are more and more interesting than they once were before and more people are joining the fun.

Stay tunned!.

Mario
www.mia-micro-flight

Hi Mario,

thanks for the explanation, much appreciated just wanted a peek at whats coming round the corner. I can understand your reservations at showing to much to soon especially after some of the scepticism of the HF, which I think highlights peoples impatience more than anything else as you know your self

I am glad to see that you havent taken the slamming you have received personally, every pioneer has too many critics, just look at the heretics of the dark ages Sceptics are rarely any good at anything themselves anyhow.

But you have got me curious and I would love to see some of your progress with your 1/2 size HF but at your desrcetion of course, I didnt mean to be pushy

Of course the major setback with being on the cutting edge is its expensive, like westechnik gear, £45 a servo !! etc. only for the commited enthusiast or the big walleted.

I am quite a cautious modeller in some respects and I dont like shelling out hard earned cash unless a model has gone through its teething period and I can learn from the mistakes of others as well as my own, the tinkerings of yourself, Johnk and the like are showing that your house fly is looking to be a definite winner, but like everything its a question of evolution. Although if I can build something my self I will, and if not I consider it money well spent to achieve my goals.

I cant believe the leaps and bounds this hobby has taken in the last year or so (or more, I started with RC ic planes 10 years ago but put it all down after 3 years and got back into because of the pixel webpage about a year ago)

You do right to take pride in what you have achieved and your inspiration to others is obvious, me included, Respect

Also cheers for the help on the firefly, I do wonder if I showed the pickies to soon as its not fully working yet and have had emails asking how to build one, which is nice but I am reluctant to offer plans for something that I havent proven to myself yet, catch 22 I suppose.

When did you first start doing micro RC helis then ?
Do you know Alexander the Pixel man and what he is upto these days ? I heard of video with a pixel looping have yet to see it though, not on his site that I can find.

One thing that did occur to me and you to probably is that RE no's are chord length x airspeed thus the smaller we go the higher the head speed needs to be to maintain efficeincy, is that right ? Johnk's mails seem to confirm this anyhow.

A couple more things, can you recommend any good reading on moulding technics and what are the formulas for the following speed you mentioned in my firefly thread ?

Anyhow, look forward to seeing the pickies of 1/2 HF Fairy and will keep you all posted with my own fumblings

Cheers
Paul

"The stock kit flies a bit marginal with the stock components, understandable, but nevertheless flies!."

Sounds good enough to me

If you produced a model that is the same size as the Pixel and flew only but a minute I WOULD buy it for almost anything under $1,000! (motor, speed control, gyro and RX). When I first started looking at the Pixels (over a year ago) I wanted one so bad I would've paid almost anything. Now this was even before the Piccolo(heard Alex helped on it?).

Post a picture!


Chris

Less expensive equipment is not far away. There was some dialogue on the indoor/slow-fly board during the last few days. The CEO of GWS - I forget his name, mentioned that his company was looking to produce a 3gram servo. I would guess with a linear output.
It is possible to make similar servos yourself. You need a HS50 servo, strip out the amp. and motor. Then you need a 2K linear pot. Its a fiddly job, and at the end of the day it involves the purchase of a servo.
I have 6 WesTech 2.4gram servos and a couple of 2.4 gram JMP receivers without a home. However, I have no facilities to machine parts I am building a very small Heli, 10 inch rotor. The carbon tail boom with motor,gearbox and rotor weighs 3.8 grams.
Have built a flybarless head, using a Piccolo alloy centre hub, a Hornet tail hub and Whisper tail blade holders. The frame is 1mmC/F sheet. the only part I am stuck for is a swashplate. If anyone (Hi Mario!) can offer one built or unassembled, or some guidance on how to make on I would be well pleased.
Regards to all,
Trevor.

Hi Trevor,

I have been working on my own swashes like the one shown below. But you can also make one like the one on the front page of my web site by making a homeade lathe out of a power drill. Its pretty easy to do if you start looking for a way to do it, you can see ways to make a crude lathe. It has worked for me in the past before I had access to machines.

Bill

wasn't it a mosquito before?

Bill, if those parts are CNC'd, how come none of the holes in them are centered?

John,

That part is done by hand along with the bending of the arms

then i think it's time to get some new eyeglasses......... or some new hands.

Tony, The holes are centerd, It just the way the light hits the different surfaces that makes them look off. The first ones, the lightning holes were off by .009 and there were 4 run that way. Also the one screw hole was off by roughly the same. The CAM program we were using BobCAD was going nuts on these parts. We had to tweek the G-code to were it was off and doing that tricked the machine into doing what it was supposed to do. But with the new style ,, they are dead CENTER. They wernt done buy hand ,, they were CNCed. Go to the other post and you will see them being cut.

BTW- Id put these swash plates against any other out there, and these were my first. Machining is not my profession although I do do some. I make aerospace display and military prototype models from scratch for a living.

Bill

hohum

yeah it was nice to see that foto of CNC in action, cheers Bill.

Anyhow, looking forward to seeing Marios 1/2 size HF when he posts his pickies, and getting the formula for the following rates.

Hey Walt, I read somwhere you got a 3.2" inch span rotor heli on the go, short flight times you say, but hell I would love to see that too

anyhow

.009" off? i don't think so. look at this picture and tell me that the holes are only .009" off. the large hole in the arm is almost broken through on the right side :


c'mon Bill, this is NOT an optical illusion due to the the lighting or the angle of the camera taking the picture.

John ,

That was the first set as I said ,, BTW- There is only .020 of a wall there ,, them minus some for the chamfer,, YES .009 off. This is why they only weigh in at 2"""GRAMS"""

Now if you would like ,, I can drive over to your place and show you and you can even pull out your calipers and take notes if you wish and even weigh them.

Bill