|
Align EC-135
(450 size) Scale
Fuselage Review |
What a pleasure
opening the box
of the Align
EC-135 scale
fuselage. The
craftsmanship of
the EC-135
fuselage is
outstanding, and
scores ten out
of ten in my
books. All
accessories
needed to
complete the
build are
included in the
box.
|
Technical And
Designing Review
Of The Align
EC-135 Scale
Fuselage
|
The Align EC-135 fuselage is molded out of fiber glass, and weighs 260g
with all the scale accessories included. The front part of the canopy
can be removed for easy access to the battery tray. Four magnets and
three plastic guided pins secure the removable canopy in position. I
have to say that the canopy fits perfectly, and won't budge during
flight.
The plastic windows are preinstalled, accept for the two middle rear
windows. They can be fitted with the supplied CA glue, but I have left
my middle rear windows open for extra cooling of the ESC and main motor.
All the extra scale details like antennas, wiper blades, cable cutters
and horizontal fins are glued to the fuselage using the CA glue.
The supplied ply wood tray is used to secure the helicopter and landing
skids to the EC-135 fuselage with eight screws. The paint scheme and
quality is immaculate with plenty of scale like detail. The overall
design of the Align EC-135 fuselage very good and you won't be
disappointed.
|
Installing The
T-Rex 450 Into
The Align EC-135
Scale Fuselage
|
I
have installed the 7 LED Navigation Lighting System from
rc-lights.com on my EC-135
fuselage for extra scale realism. The navigation lights need to be
installed firstly before the helicopter can be fitted to the fuselage.
It is very important that you have a perfectly setup helicopter before
you install the helicopter to the fuselage. Any setup changes after the
helicopter has been fitted to the fuselage will be difficult.
The original T-Rex 450 canopy, landing skids, tail boom struts,
horizontal fin, vertical fin and tail rotor assembly need to be removed
from the helicopter before it can be fitted to the fuselage. After the
ply wood tray is fitted to the helicopter, the helicopter simply slides
into position from the front opening of the fuselage. Four screws are
then used the secure the landing skids and helicopter to the fuselage.
After the helicopter is secured inside the fuselage, the tail rotor
assembly needs to be refitted. Make sure that the tail belt tension and
direction is correct. The final step is to glue al the plastic scale
accessories to the fuselage using the CA glue. As with all scale
helicopter fuselages, the helicopter will be tail heavy. You can either
add some weight to the nose, or preferably move the LiPo battery
forward. I used 2mm ply wood to extend the battery tray so that the LiPo
battery position is as far forward as possible. This ensures for a
perfect CG without adding extra weight to the nose.
Installing the T-Rex 450 helicopter to the Align EC-135 fuselage is
fairly straight forward. Follow the supplied step by step instruction,
and the installation will take about two hours. The full scale EC-135
helicopter has four main rotor blades. So if you want to go the extra
mile, you can buy the
CopterX Multi Blade Rotor Head for even more realism.
|
Flying
the CopterX450
(T-Rex 450) with the
Align EC-135 Scale
Fuselage |
With my initial flight tests, I found that the ESC and main motor get
fairly warm due to the lack of sufficient airflow. Although the
operating temperature of the ESC and motor is very high, I personally
like cooler running electronics as it will extend their lifespan. I used
a small grinder tool to cut an opening for the ESC at the bottom of the
fuselage. During forward flight, the ESC gets sufficient airflow over
the heat sink, and ensures for cooler operating temperatures.
I
have installed a small 6V PC motherboard processor fan in front of the
main motor for extra cooling. This is not necessary, but as I said, I
like cooler running electronics. The small 6V fan and navigation lights
are powered by a single cell 780 mAh LiPo battery. I did some
tests, and the 6V fan and navigation LED lights use 0.03 Volts during a
six minute flight. Very power efficient. You can run them directly from
the receiver, but then you need a seven channel receiver.
Although the total weight increased by 300g, my CopterX 450 (T-Rex 450)
flies effortless with the scale ES-135 fuselage. Not only does the
helicopter look good, but it handles like a dream due to the extra
weight. It flies very stable and really looks the part, especially with
the navigation light switched on.
I know that all
R/C helicopter
pilots will love
the Align EC-135
scale fuselage.
I highly
recommend this
kit. Great
kit...Great
detail...Great
realism...You
will love it.
|
