Moskito model helicopter

The Moskito with yellow painted rotors. I replaced the original stick on plastic covering after many hours use. These blades have been carefully balanced on a homemade balsawood 'seesaw' balance set up. It's amazing how accurate you can get with such a rig.

The Moskito model helicopters from Robbe have been a popular choice amongst heli pilots for some years. The ease of starting via the side mounted cone and general flight stability plus a high degree of ruggedness have contributed largely to it's popularity.
This example is my Moskito basic model, the bottom of the range but still an excellent model helicopter. This Moskito was my first helicopter and has proven a very good machine to learn on.

Home made GRP canopy made to replace the original vac formed cheapskate item. Decals from a RC car.

Home made plywood vertical stabiliser replacing the damaged (due to tail strike) plastic original unit

Several tail rotor strikes while learning to fly this machine have required the purchase of replacement tail rotor drive belts. The belts are standard steel reinforced toothed belts and can be obtained fairly easily either from model shops or general engineering suppliers. Replacing these belts requires some dismantiling of the model but it's not too much hassle. After many hours flying not much else has needed attention apart from a new silencer being needed to replace the Irvine unit which fell apart. The vertical stabiliser also got damaged due to tail strikes so I made one out of 1/8" ply which has proved better than the original plastic example.

The one thing I never liked on this model was the vac formed canopy which really wasn't in keeping with the quality of the rest of the model. Eventually I made a GRP one as shown in the pictures. It's not perfect, but it's a site better than the original. The cobra decals are from an old Mardave RC car by the way.

My replacement plywood vertical stabiliser (tail skid)

My home brewed GRP canopy.

For power this model uses an Irvine 46 heli engine (the old gold heatsink motor). This unit has proven a reliable performer in the heli providing it's fed with good clean synthetic oil fuel with a decent nitro content of about 10%. It also pays to replace glowplugs fairly regularly to avoid unexpected autorotations.
This engine is at the top of the recommended range of power units for this small to mid sized model heli. I really wouldn't like to fly it with a smaller engine though. The engine will fly the model on straight caster fuel but not well.

The replacement silencer for the broken Irvine original. This is a Kyosho universal silencer and works OK.
It needed some adaptation however.

Moskito basic model helicopter page two

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