Hirobo Dauphin Electric Conversion

[F106DeltaDart]

A few months ago, I came across this beautiful bird for sale on RCgroups and decided to pull the trigger, with the intent of converting to electric. While I was back with my family at Christmas, I borrowed some time on my dad’s milling machine, and created a motor mounting tray that would hold the motor and clutch stack in place of the .90 nitro. Based on some info I pulled off Runryder before it went down, I decided to go with a 10S power system, driven by a Scorpion 4035 500kv motor, and a 130A HW ESC. Also added in a Castle BEC pro to power the servos. Based on the some of the things I’ve heard over on the scalerchelis forum, I decided to try the Bavarian Demon Axon out on this model.




I got in a quick first flight at Helis Over Apache Pass in April after finishing up the setup. Initial impressions were good, but the tail was definitely sluggish.

Since then, I changed out the Analog tail servo for a KST X20 1035, changed some gains, and flew again at Warbirds Over Lake Benbrook this weekend, and it flew great! Still needs a bit more tuning, but it was fun to perform some mock water rescues with the field partially flooded. A friend got some awesome shots from the event:








Next, It’s time to do some more tuning, and start adding all of the Coast Guard version details. Planning to redo the doors/windows config to make it more accurate to an MH-65A, add the hoist, searchlight, and the other fun scale goodies! Stay tuned..

[icepirate3]

Wow, that looks GREAT!! A hoist would be a very cool addition and would make for some very fun water ops!

[F106DeltaDart]

Wow, that looks GREAT!! A hoist would be a very cool addition and would make for some very fun water ops!

Thanks Icepirate! I love how it flies. The hoist will definitely be fun. I just need to find a friend to drive an RC fast boat to intercept, and maybe a HITRON gunner leaning out the side, ready to shoot the engine LOL.

[DaleP]

I still remember doing hot refuels on these during my time in. Beautiful looking model!

[F106DeltaDart]

Finally getting back to this project. I’ve had the Dauphin flying for around a year now, and it has been excellent. I finally decided to bring it back to the bench to start on some detailing. Planning on correcting the door/windows shapes, repairing some fiberglass damage, and adding the hoist, searchlight, and landing light.

First on the list is the window shapes. The chin windows are too short on the stock model. On the full scale MH-65A, they extend all the way to to the avionics bay:





The model also has two separate windows on the left side of the aircraft. The full scale only features the forward window, and has a lower cutout added.

After a few minutes with the dremel, I was able to extend the forward windows and add in the lower cutout.





Next will be filling in the aft window. Also, the hoist, searchlight, and landing light kits are on the way from finescale modela. The difficult part will be trying to match up the original paint..

[F106DeltaDart]

Just got the hoist kit put together. Inside, it is using a 1/10 scale RC truck winch re-strung with braided fishing line. Searchlight and landing light will be next.

[Signwiz]

Beautiful machine , miss mine horribly !!