RAPTOR NEWSLETTER #5 Feb. 25, 2000 Hello Raptor owners: Here is our Raptor newsletter number 5. This is published by Ace, the distributor of Thunder Tiger products in the USA. The purpose is to keep the Raptor owners updated on what's happening. We will be sending this out by email to everyone who is on our tthelihotline email list. Please pass it along to your Raptor friends. Starting now, we will also install all the Raptor Newsletter on our web at www.acehobby.com We will probably stop sending out individual Newsletters in the future, because the subscriber list is getting huge. The web will be more efficient in posting new Newsletters. (1) Many have inquired about our Raptor 60 helicopter. The good news is they will be here later this year and the price will be very affordable. It will perform as good as, or better than the Millennium and the X-Cell SE, but at less than 2/3 the cost. We have already shown to the press the engineering drawings of our Raptor 60 at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair in February. The Raptor 60 follows the same design philosophy as the Raptor 30. The model will be very easy to build and maintain. Mr. Taya used injection molded glass-filled nylon sideframes. The single axle rotor head design is similar to the Raptor 30. The canopy is very streamline. You will like it! Mr. Taya and his 3-D demo pilot, Mr. Yamaguchi, will come to the IRCHA Jamboree this August at Ohio to demonstrate the new Raptor 60. The kits will be available by then. (2) We have been testing the new optional CNC machined metal and carbon upgrades for the Raptor. We are extremely happy. The metal swashplate and metal washout unit have no freeplay. The metal elevator arms and the flybar control arms are carefully engineered. The carbon landing gear struts are modeled after our Imperio landing gear set. These parts will be on your hobby shelves at the end of March. Picture of these upgrades can be found in our newest ad in the March/April Rotory Modeler magazine and also on our web. The upgrades include: PV0092 Precision metal swashplate PV0095 Flybar stabilizer control arm set and metal Bell-Hiller mixing arms PV0096 Metal washout assembly with hardened sliding mixing base PV0097 Elevator-fore/aft cyclic (elevator) control lever set PV0098 Metal aileron L-type lever set PV0099 Carbon tail boom PV0100 Carbon horizontal and vertical fin set PV0101 Carbon landing gear struts and skid set PV0103 Carbon tail boom braces PV0102 Quiet, large expansion volume muffler PV0104 Aluminum frame posts PV0105 CNC machined 36 size squirrel cage metal cooling fan The following accessories are already available: No. 3800 Raptor blade holder No. 3801 6 mm hex starter extension No. 3803 Remote glow plug extension No. 2000 Electronic onboard digital rotor tachometer No. 8000 TG-8000 piezo gyro designed by Mr. Taya (3) All three optional rotor blades are now in stock. They include the carbon graphite main rotor blades custom made in the USA by Vic Cambell of the famous V-blade Manufacturing. The multi-lamination wood blades are manufactured by Yale to our specification. They are all 550 mm long from the blade hole to the blade tip. The Yale wood blades are available with a square tip or a swept tip. They come balanced and ready to use. These extra-hard wood blades are designed for all out 3-D flying. We recommend these optional wood blades for practicing 3-D because they are stiffer than the stock wood blades and they cost 1/3 the price of a pair of carbon blades. (4) We still have some new style low speed mixture screw for the Thunder Tiger TT36 heli engine. This modified low speed mixture screw will help reduce the rich spot at the 1/3 throttle position. Thunder Tiger 36 engine owners in the United States can receive a free low speed mixture screw by sending a self-addressed-and-self-stamped envelope to: Free TT36H Low Speed Mixture Screw Request Ace Hobby Distributor 116W 19th Strret Higginsville MO, 64037 TT36H engine owners in other countries should request through their country Thunder Tiger distributor. Thunder Tiger will send a batch of free low speed needles to distributors around the world. Please remember the TT36H engine requires at least two gallons of fuel to fully break in. After that, the engine will transition much smoother and you will also find the needle setting become less critical. Customers in other countries needing needle or tech support can contact Thunder Tiger directly at tiger99@ms2.hinet.net (4) The plastic ball links on the Raptor are tight when they are new. We recommend taking a small pliers and gently squeeze the plastic ball link while the ball link is on the steel balls. Only squeeze a little at a time. Check the tightness after each squeeze until the ball link moves freely on the steel ball. Do not make the ball links too loose. The link should move smoothly on the steel ball, but if the pushrod is moved to a horizontal position, the pushrod should not fall down by its own weight. After all the ball links have been "tweaked", move the pushrod by hand to confirm the throttle and tail controls, the swashplate and the paddles move smoothly. (5) Each time going to the flying field, add a drop of oil in the moving parts before the first flight. The necessary spots include the swashplate ball, the sliding washout base, bearings for the seesaw and flybar, bearings in the tail rotor pitch slider, and bearings in the main rotor gear. (6) Please check the fuel pickup line inside your Raptor fuel tank every two months. After few months of use, the nitromethane in the fuel can make the line soft and soggy. Change the inside line every few months. For 3-D fliers, if you replaced the stock pick up line with a thicker silicone line, please make sure the clunk will reach the bottom when holding the helicopter upsidedown. (7) The proper tail rotor belt tension is that you should be able to squeeze the belt with your fingers and cause 1/8 inch inward deflection on both side. (8) Every few weeks please check all the screws to make sure they are not loose. Many screws and bolts are screwed directly into the molded plastic parts. Plastic can expand and contract with temperature change. Oil and fuel can also change their hardness. It is a good practice to add a tiny drop of CA glue to each screw tip when putting together a new kit. (9) Please clean the model after each flying session. Model helicopters hover close to the ground, the engine exhaust and oil film on the model can mix with sand and dust to create an abrasive compound that wear out moving parts. Carefully wiping off the model will also help spotting any loose item or damaged part. For instance, the BK0025 tail pitch fork can build up a hairline crack if the tail rotor blades have contacted the ground in a rough landing. If this is spotted during cleaning, then we have avoided a potential future mishap. (10) The polypropylene canopy used by the Raptor can be painted. The canopy must be thoroughly washed with hot water and soap first. The canopy is then primed using a spray primer designed for automotive rubber bumpers. Then, the model can be painted using any paint. Decals are applied after the color paints have dried. A clear varnish must be added afterward. We used polypropylene material for the canopy because it makes the canopy almost indestructible. The paints will flake off after a crash, but the canopy usually will not crack. (11) To increase the cyclic control rate for 3-D flying, move the steel ball to the outside hole on the washout arms. This idea and the pushrod lengths for 3-D and beginners are shown on our 3-D Pushrod Setup drawing on Ace's web page www.acehobby.com (12) The topic of scale fiberglass fuselage is still been discussed at the meetings. Thunder Tiger factory is busying manufacturing the upgrade parts and the testing the Raptor 60. A fuselage for Raptor 30 is still on their agenda. (13) The Raptor ARF is featured in the new March 2000 Rotory Modeler magazine. A how-to setup article for beginners and 3-D hot dogging written by Tom Scully will appear in the May 2000 Model Helicopter World magazine. The Imperio 60 will be reviewed and shown on the front cover of the June 2000 Model Helicopter World magazine. Enjoy your flying! If you have some good tips for the Raptor, send them to tthelihotline and we will share them in the next Newsletter. Anyone who desires to stop receiving the Raptor Newsletter please email us, we will remove you from our list. At Ace our goal is make sure that you enjoy your Raptor RC helicopter at anytime, all the time. tthelihotline@yahoo.com ===== Thank you for contacting us at Thunder Tiger Helicopter Hotline. Our goal is make sure that you enjoy your Raptor RC helicopter at anytime, all the time. Dr. Rap tthelihotline@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com