May 17, 2012

  • Thursday 17th May 2012

    Thursday Night: It was incredibly warm over the weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were 29C and the pool temperature rose to 25C by Sunday. I had several swims on Saturday afternoon at 24C and found it was very refreshing.

    On Sunday we met up with Donna and Chris , Donna's Mum, Mandy and Steve and Beccie and Antony at Maria's for a meal, then they all came back here for the evening and had a swim.

    On Monday we were supposed to go with Beccie to Benidorm for her PET scan, but Antony didn't go to work so he took her instead.

    We went to Jalon Tuesday lunchtime so I could get a hair cut and Beccie and Chrissie came to see Lou, who used to be Beccies boss

    Wednesday afternoon I was looking to see if a screw that had been found had fallen off the Jet Ranger, then I noticed that the wooden cradle which supports the helicopter mechanics was completely unglued. It had simply fallen apart, which meant I had to take it apart. When I looked at the wood it was obvious the glue used to make this base was useless to the exreme. I was also bewildered by the lack of any bracing. On the Hughes 500, the undercarriage braces the cradle, but this model has nothing, so it's never going to be strong enough.

    I decided to improve it so I made some formers to brace it and strengthened the undercarriage mounts because I planned to change the plastic under carriage. The model is supplied with a very flimsy unscale plasic undercarriage that is far too small and sags at the back, so I decided to buy some tube and try and make a scale one instaed to replace it.

    We had a hospital appointment today at Denia for 9-50pm, waited just on the hour then after tha we went to the Ondara Centre so Chrissie and Beccie could go shopping  and I bought the tube to make the new undercarriage.

    I was rather pleased with myself this afternoon when I succesfully made the new undercarriage. I wasn't really sure how I was going to do it at first, but I remembered seeing a some old pully's in a "box of treasures" that was left here and it turned out to be the correct diameter for the bends I needed to make in the aluminium tube to make the legs. I cut down a spare T Rex U/C to fit the skids and shapped the ends to fit inside the tube. It all went together really well but as well as enhancing the look of the model, the larger "scale" undercarriage will make the model much easier to land  here on the uneven ground.

    It looks so much better than before, it definitly looks more like a Jet anger now! The other exciting thing I discovered when I was looking at scale drawings of this helicopter is that the model is 1/12th scake and our homemade bendy dolls fit perfectly  in the cockpit!