Fun-Key Jet Ranger 700 Sport
 

Hi all,

it is time I got back to the building board so I can get a scale helicopter in the air. The Heli-Babies are nice but they are not scale, lol. Back when I had the AS350, the chassis was a minor modified Align 600EFL Pro. The new owner did not want the chassis so I kept it. It donated its head to the Heli-Baby that my wife bought me and the main chassis sat and languished until another ill-fated project nearly destroyed it. It was shorted to a 550 and sat for many more months. About two years ago, I decided to resurrect it as a 600 pod and boom once again. It flew very well but it sat on the rack with no flights put on it.

Earlier this year, I restarted the MH-6 build but it became very complex and it is waiting for me to get interested in a lot of wiring. The 518 Scale CH-139 was another major build that would be even more time consuming than the MH-6 so it was time for a change. I wanted a project that could be done on the weekends or evenings after work but COVID19 happened and now I have lots of time to work on projects but I wanted one to get to the fields this summer. I had already stretched an Align 550EFL to a 700 so it would be child's play to do the same to the unused 600EFL Pro.

I ordered a pre-finished body kit from Leisure Tech and waited for the ship to sail from the East as air freight was not an option at the time. It arrived a few weeks ago and now it was time to get serious about the stretch and the upgrade to a 700. I forgot that the blades are thicker so I had to order appropriate grips, oh right, bearings, sigh, and spindle shaft. Let's not forget the change to the ball links that required smaller balls to work with the Logo grips. The head is a hybrid of Align and Logo parts. To lengthen the boom, you actually have to cut a 700 boom down by exactly 34mm. The torque tube can be used size as but it was recommended to pin the ends as I will be running the blades counter-clockwise to match the original and the tail rotor will be on the left side per the original.

I have test flown the chassis a number of times and even with the heaviest of 3D maneuvers, there was only one momentary spike of 82A. It normally hums along at just over 12A. I will be using packs that fit inside the original chassis so I will have 3000 and 3300mAh packs for somewhat shortened flights of around 6 minutes, by my guesstimate. I am running Rotor Tech Scott Gray F3C blades and they are very nice blades to fly. I think they may not be in production any longer so I will be taking very good care of them. Painting is coming soon, though.

In moving the tail rotor to the left side, I needed to get the pushrod close to the boom and used the same method from my 550 Jet Rangers (may they rest in peace) to get the ball link to be on the underside of the pitch arm. I bought K&S servo boom mounts (second chassis needed it as well) and used the pushrod from the Align 600N boom. It's longer by 100mm or so than the 600E boom pushrod because of where they placed the servo. I used brass tubing as guides secured to the boom with electrical tape and cable ties. I cut a slot in the boom support belt to let the pushrod pass thought it. So that now has the chassis ready for installation. Take care.

Don

The electronics are as follows:
Motor - Align BL600MX 510kv (3300 Watts)
Gearing - 118t main and 10t pinion for a maximum rotor speed of 1600rpm
ESC - Castle Ice2 80A set to governor
BEC - Castle BEC Pro set to 7v.
Gyro - iKON V2 w/Spektrum DSMX remote receivers
Servos - Align DS-610 collective and DS-650 tail
Telemetry - Spektrum TM1000 for battery pack and motor temp
Blades - Rotor Tech Scott Gray 700 F3C with tails currently unknown
Battery Setup - 12S 3000-330045c packs with a 2S 2250 running the electronics.

Re: Jet Ranger 700 Sport
 

The body kit came in a few weeks ago and has sat patiently until yesterday. I am adding a full lighting package to this kit and will be setting it up with the same pulsing landing lights as the originals have. I may add strobes to the horizontal tail but that remains to be seen. I decided to go with the factory landing gear to make this a fast build, relatively speaking. I will be adding a full plywood floor to mount the landing gear to as well as any risers the chassis may need. I changed the canopy locating pins to match the layout from my old 550 Jet Ranger bodies as well as adding two additional guide pins for the front of the canopy/body joint to keep it in shape. I have salvaged the magnets from the old bodies and will be using them in this kit as insurance. I will also be changing the main shaft to one that is 55mm taller than the 550E main shaft that is in it now. I have two of these left from when I made them up for the CH-139. I'm off to get some fresh Hysol as mine had expired and was unusable. More pics will follow. Take care.

Don

Re: Jet Ranger 700 Sport
 

Looking forward to following this project.

Re: Fun-Key Jet Ranger 700 Sport
 

Looking forward to your build. Thank you for sharing and allowing others to learn.

Martin

Re: Fun-Key Jet Ranger 700 Sport
 

Looking forward to follow as well Don. I just finished one I got from Phil, mine has a Goblin 570 inside. :flyawaycrash:

Re: Fun-Key Jet Ranger 700 Sport
 

Thanks to all. I will be removing the head, tail rotor, landing gear, and boom supports and starting the chassis installation maybe as soon as this evening. I have now finished the installation of the alignment pins and magnets so this canopy will not come off of its own accord anytime soon. I also did some experimentation with Hysol compared to PL Premium and the results were very good. Hysol has a much better adhesion ability to fiberglass and is strong enough that the wood part I had attached to a piece of fiberglass broke before the glue could let go. The PL Premium held good but came off with the wood however, there was a trace of the adhesive left on the fiberglass whereas even 30 minute epoxy separated without leaving a trace of itself on the surface it was attached to. That was a great confidence builder as I had used 30 minute epoxy for some of the alignment pin placements. Anyway, forward we go. Take care.

Don

Re: Fun-Key Jet Ranger 700 Sport
 

I got at the stripping of the chassis before noon today and the install is going to be almost easier than any other one I have done. I will be putting a 5mm ply floor in tomorrow and then will be working out the size of the mounting riser I will be needing. I have worked out that the middle of the grips should be 4" (102mm) above the doghouse and it just so happens that when I put the long main shaft in, that is exactly where it will land the head. I am using a box from a HiTec servo as a spacer (funny that we look for the handiest thing that might fill the gap) and it is allowing me to work out many details. The tail boom mounted servo only needed a slight tilt to the left to clear the doghouse. It is barely visible in the rear screen window in the first picture.

The motor clears the canopy by 9mm so don't worry about using a 600EFL Pro chassis in the 700 Jet Ranger, it is a perfect fit. Shortening the boom brings the length on the long side of the installation range but it will look just fine. There is always some fudge factor an that is what I will work out over the next week as there is lots to do. The chassis width was a surprise fit in this body. It exactly matches the opening in the main body and there is lots of clearance from the canopy. I will be shaving some of the body back and installing fuel tubing so that the upper body will be centered on the chassis and the tubing will prevent vibrations from causing buzzing of the body.

If this was to be a scale build, I would take off the electronics housing like I did with the AS350 installation but I am not worried about putting a full cockpit in this one. It would not be difficult but not being able to make the doors open is a bit of a wet blanket to a full scale interior. I will be putting in the instrument panel so it is not a complete void. The main mast is nicely angled to match the original and I spent a lot of time today researching the heights of the body, main mast, and landing gear so that I will have a nice finished and fairly scale looking Ranger. I also went through some bags of scale Jet Ranger accessories and found inspection covers, a pitot tube, some spare antennae, and Jet Ranger III logos for the doghouse that I thought I didn't have. I will also be grinding off the hinge lumps and installing non-working scale hinges that I found I have lots of. Yay. Here are the pictures from today. Take care.

Don

Re: Fun-Key Jet Ranger 700 Sport
 

On the agenda for today was one thing, installing a plywood floor panel in the body. It is 5mm 5 ply and will support the chassis and the anchoring of the landing gear. I used PL Premium for this install and it is the first time I am using it in any application. To some, this is business as usual but I was used to either Hysol 9460 or 9462 for this type of installation. I used four sleeves of lead pellets to hold it in place. I couldn't just do only one thing today so I broke down and made up the adaptor plate out of 5mm plywood, once again, that will join the chassis to the mount, once I have finalized the dimensions. I am using the four spindles that remained from my second TOW Defender kit that became my MH-6 build. I used the original bottom plate of the 600 Pro as the jig to drill the holes and I will be making a riser that is about the same size as the adaptor plate. The floor should be cured enough by tomorrow morning to release the lead and start the design and measuring for the chassis riser. Take care.

Don

Re: Fun-Key Jet Ranger 700 Sport
 

Yesterday, I started the landing gear. I need to lock in the placement of their hardware so I can start planning how I will make the chassis riser. The gear is as close to scale sizes as you could get. The height is only a fraction of an inch off but the slope of the mounting area does allow it to droop a bit and that is what makes it a good base for a short skid version. I will be planning to add full length steel skid protectors once work out how I will attach the to aluminium tubes.

This is to be a sport scale build but I do like to try to keep it as scale as I can. The gear is based on 90 degree fittings and the actual gear are 11 degrees off of 90. I ordered a second set of gear in the event that my modifications didn't work out as planned but it did the first try. The extra set will be for the next Jet Ranger sitting in the wings. The pictures show the gear before modification and after. The height will be changed shortly as I have a Plan "B" for the fittings. If it is perfect, it will be Plan "A" for both builds. I ill be lowering the gear as they are too high for a short skid version. The lowest point on the body should be 1' off the ground which works out close to 2" scale. Take care.


Don

Re: Fun-Key Jet Ranger 700 Sport
 

More ongoing work to the gear. I finally used good old fashioned detective work to get the actual height and proper length of the skid tubes from pictures I have of an original Jet Ranger with me standing by it. I used my own height and landmarks on the Jet Ranger to show me where the skids begin and end. I used the Fun-Key hardware a bit different than they had designed but there are still four screws to be placed in the body mounted parts. I will be adding a riser under the front cross tube mount to raise the nose a bit more than it is. The gear will be cut 22mm (7/8") so the body will sit at the correct height. I you compare the gear in the pictures above to the last one, you will see how different they look. The second last picture shows the tools I used, less the cordless drill and MIPS hex driver, to shorten the tubes and mount the gear. Take care.

Don