I've owned a Gorham Cricket RC helicopter since about 1983 but it's been hanging up in my shop now for the last 20 years. I never really learned to fly it back in the 80s. Lately I've been messing around with FMS and finally learned to fly a little bit of rotorwing. I decided to drag the Cricket down and see if I could get it going. After hanging that long it took some work but came out nicely. I use an original OS-28FH heli engine I had and I installed a forced air cooling system pieced together with a Hirobo fan and a shroud I purchased off eBay. I had an original Futaba rate gyro that I installed to help tame the tail rotor. It works pretty good.

Thankfully, I had some odds and ends parts 'cause you sure can't find any around anymore! The 'copter was in pretty good shape to begin with. I did make one mod by putting a machined joint made of 6061TC aluminum in the tailboom just aft of the tailplane to allow replacement of the forward section with a short length of 1/2"-.035 6061T6 tubing. The tailboom tends to wear due to the tail rotor wire vibrating inside it. I did this because the original has a flared-end that accepts the tail rotor gearbox. Some of the hardware is stock kinda stuff and I found a source for replacement drivebelts (McMaster-Carr 70XL PN 6484K117 for $2.18).

Anyway, getting the 'ole Cricket flying was a nice holiday project! Here's some pics of my work and a little video of the monster in the air.

Some flying shots...
9-January-2005