Left side of the Shuttle
Right side of the Shuttle. Note the swashplate
The Hirobo Shuttle is one of the most influential R/C helicopter design in the industry. In fact, after over a decade, the Shuttle is still going strong. I have yet to see someone who flies R/C helicopters don't know what a Shuttle is. They are everywhere! I think Hirobo claims the Shuttle is "the most sold R/C helicopter in the history of R/C helicopter" is with merit.
However, after most beginners attained better skills, they will complain that the Shuttle have a lot of slop in the control mechanics, and they usually dump their good old Shuttle in favor of other helicopters that have more precision. Recently, some custom parts houses see this, and produces several upgrade kits that makes a Shuttle more fun to fly. These kits ranged from major conversion like the ones from K&S (see my page for K&S Shuttle CCPM for more details), to just a parts collection like the Correct Shuttle CCPM kit to make the Shuttle flies better.
Correct is a upgrade parts manufacturer in Japan. Correct does not sell and advertised their products outside of Japan, so most people outside Japan does not know of their existence. Most of their product are for Hirobo helicopters, and are very high quality. The conversion kit that featured here consists of a lower swashplate frame, two L mixers, two metal plates, one elevator arm, and some pushrods, all machined in aluminum. The packet only consists of just seven major parts.
Installation of the kit consists of several steps. First is to take out all pushrods from the three swashplate control servo. The pitch arm also has to go. Replacing the void of the pitch arm is an elevator arm secured by two mounting plates on each side of the mainframe with the control arm of the elevator servo now filled the place of the old pitch arm. The swashplate has to be taken out, and change the lower part of the swashplate to the one supplied with the kit. Lastly, the pushrods have to be assembled according to the length as detailed in the instruction. The total time that took me to install the kit is about two hours, and during the whole process everything went smoothly, and there is not one hole that needs to be drilled. The swashplate control servos now have their different functions, with the pitch servo controlling the elevator arm (12 o'clock position), the elevator servo controlling the 4 o'clock position, and the aileron servo controlling the 8 o'clock position. The installation is so neat that now there is not a pushrod that needs to be bent to clear other pushrods as with the case of the original Shuttle.
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Left side of the Shuttle |
Right side of the Shuttle. Note the swashplate |
After installing the kit, the Shuttle transformed into another machine. Handling became very precise and predictable. Control feelings are very direct, and reactions to controls are extremely fast. With the conversion, it feels even better that my Shuttle RG. I now use it to practice my F3C maneuvers, and since parts for Shuttle are dirt cheap, I dare to practice about almost anything, and the positive control seem to take my commands very well. It was money well spent.