Background
Throughout the years, a lot of people have asked me what is the best helicopter that money could buy. I have been giving them different answers through the experience that I had with my machines. On September 2001, during the World Championship in Muncie, I finally got one machine that I think is the best money could buy -- How about the Eagle EX machine that Manabu Hashimoto used to gain his second consecutive World Championship title in Poland? I got exactly that! Now a bit of history about this machine.
The Eagle series is the top performance helicopter of Hirobo and it helped Manabu Hashimoto gained two consecutive World Championships, which is a record not achieved by anyone else at of today. On August, 1999, I was present at the World Championship in Poland and saw the outstanding performance of Hashimoto with his Eagle to gain his second World Championship title. His Eagle featured some very unique parts that was not available at that time. Later, this Eagle version was released by Hirobo as the Eagle 99 WC, but some part of this Hashimoto Eagle are not mass produced due to the prototype nature.
My machine is the primary contest machine that Hashimoto used in Poland, at that time was labeled the "H" machine. Hashimoto actually have two identical machines in Poland, and the other one is labeled the "K" machine, and is being used as the primary backup. After Hashimoto won the Poland World Champion, the "H" machine laid to rest as display in the Hirobo Museum in Japan, while the "K" machine was used for flight training and later damaged in a crash. In 2001, before World Championship in Muncie, Mr. Kurogawa, the mechanic of Mr. Hashimoto, took the "H" machine from Hirobo Museum, and update it to include the DTDS system, new electronics liked the Futaba GY601, new servos, and a new Black Shark body, and did a complete rebuild for the upcoming Muncie World Championship as a backup machine for Hashimoto. (Hashimoto used Freya EX as primary machine for Muncie WC)
Actually, during the WC, I was in the same hotel as the Hirobo team, in fact in rooms at the same floor. Some nights, I would go to Mr. Kurogawa's room to help him check and maintain all Hashimoto's helicopters. In fact, every night, Mr. Kurogawa would completely disassemble every machines that Hashimoto flew during the day, down to the screws, and check all parts to see what need to adjust or replace, and reassemble every machine again for the next day. Suffice to say, Mr. Kurogawa's job is not easy task, and I offered my helping hands one for friendly gesture and also wanted to learn from Mr. Kurogawa's "secret techniques". For some nights, I could get my hands on the venerable "H" machine that won Poland WC. (Mr. Kurogawa would keep the most works on two Freya EX that Hashimoto used for primary contest machines with himself, so I could only get to touch on the backup machines most of the times.....) While helping Mr. Kurogawa doing his job, I found that the "H" machine was a mechanical beauty, with all parts working absolutely smooth with no slop. The quality of the "H" machine stayed in my minds during my stay in Muncie, and I told myself I would try to do the same thing with my Eagles once I was back to Hong Kong.
I always "nagged" Mr. Kurogawa to custom build me a "factory spec" Hirobo Eagle, but he was too busy to do so. During Muncie WC, the Sept. 11 incidence happened, and everyone worried that they might have problems bringing their machines back. Mr. Kurogawa offered to sell me this machine, together with a Futaba 9Z WCII radio as a complete package, because first he worried that he might have troubles bringing all the things back to Japan and second since the F3C rules had changed he did not need the machine again. As a result, I took up this offer and paid quite a hefty sum for it.
Inside Mr. Kurogawa's hotel room in Muncie was the "H" machine, fully prepared by Mr. Kurogawa for me. Mr. Kurogawa had replaced the original Black Shark fuselage with retracts to a completely new Black Shark fuselage with landing gear. Mr. Kurogawa explained that he decided that he would not use retract landing gear again in the future due to their inherit vulnerability during autos, and told me that I could have the old fuselage with retracts if I like. I chose the new fuselage because the retract fuselage was very battered, and the new fuselage had a flawless paint job that would take finger prints when touched on it! Mr. Kurogawa carefully explained all the details of this machine to me, and later went to a field for Hashimoto to demo flight this machine for my acceptance. Under Hashimoto's hands, this machine performed flawlessly. Later, Mr. Kurogawa carefully packed it in a big box for me to bring back to Hong Kong. To my luck, this machine came back with me to Hong Kong in one piece without any damage.
So what is the difference of this machine compared to "garden variety" Hirobo Eagle II? I'd say a lot. First in parts, this machine features these prototype parts that is not being sold, as follows:
Together with this Eagle, Mr. Kurogawa also sold me Hashimoto's Futaba 9Z WCII transmitter. This transmitter was actually used by Hashimoto himself, and featured some modifications by Mr. Kurogawa. Of notice is that the gimbals of this transmitter was extra smooth, which I had not seem in all other transmitters. Later, when back to Hong Kong, I showed this transmitter around to my friends, at first they saw nothing difference in appearance, but all went wordless after they moved the gimbals. One friend of mine actually begged me to take the cover off the transmitter to see what has been done so that he could duplicate that, of course I turned him down. Further, some controls have been modified. Of special is that Mr. Kurogawa mentioned that the transmitter had special software, but up till today I did not find any special or secret pages with my transmitter. I trust Mr. Kurogawa would not lie to me, but I did not see any difference.....
In my opinion, the parts above is not what makes this helicopter special, but what makes this helicopter special is first its history and second its workmanship. It is after I own this helicopter and check it out in detail that I doubt myself if I know how to assemble a helicopter! Every part of this Eagle is smooth as silk, without slop! To illustrate how smooth it is, in one occasion I took this Eagle to the field, and sat it aside without mounting on the main blades. A gentle gust of wind blew the tail rotor and it spinned, making the main rotor spinned liked there was no friction! Mr. Kurogawa did told me that this helicopter has been in over 200 flights already, but due to their constant change in parts and maintenance only the carbon frame itself lasted that long time. Aside from the special parts, the main frame mechanics is just an Eagle WC DTDS, but why so smooth?! I do not dare to take it apart, afraid that my tinkering would take the smoothness away!
Being the owner of several Eagle EXs, I could more or less anticipate what this Eagle would handle in flight. However, to my astonishment, it is a completely different machine in flight. Hovering was rock solid, and during pirouettes the old problem of a lot of correction has to be made on the cyclic to hold the Eagle in position had gone away! Everything was so predictable, and correction was easy. With this machine, I felt I had upgraded my hovering capabilities! The engine exhaust note was very different than "run of the mill" OS61s, in that this sound more like a 2 stroke motor cycle engine, with very solid exhaust note.
Once this machine was in aerobatics, then the true colors of this Eagle showed. On aerobatics, the flight speed was fast like a bullet, with ample power reserve. I had to lower the throttle to cope with the flight speed, afraid of crashing it <G>. Pressure was tremendous, and I was shaking while flying it. This machine flew like it had a much bigger than 61 engine installed, and continuously scream for speed. Everything executes with precision, except myself who was fidgeting with my fingers. I especially liked to see this machine in rolls, because with the fast speed and the Black Shark fuselage its like a dart that rolled itself in flight with sharp precision. The machine constantly feeding back that its myself who could not handle it, not that it could not deliver what I wanted to do.
I told myself I had to learn from this machine a lot, first its construction, and second to improve my fingers so that I could command it to perform. To own a machine with a unique history as the World Championship machine is like a dream come true to me. Thanks to Mr. Kurogawa for selling this machine to me, cause a lot of technical secrets is with it, and Mr. Kurogawa is risking his neck to leak these secrets to outside parties. I now own in my opinion the ultimate machine that money can buy. For those interested to know how much I paid for it, it cost me US$8,000-.
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Hashimoto machine safely arrived home |
Hashimoto & Kurogawa's signature on tail fins |
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Prototype SSR-V rotor head |
Immaculate paint job on Black Shark fuselage |
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Immaculate paint job on tail fin |
Canopy cover |
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Hashimoto's signature inside canopy cover |
Kurogawa's signature inside canopy cover |
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Canopy cover off showing mechanics |
Close-up of special engine mount |
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Close-up of special OS61 engine |
Close-up of special aileron lever |
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Hashimoto's license number on tail |
Prototype SSR-V rotor head, in black |