A few weeks ago at a DART launch, I bought my girlfriend a Mini “A” Heli kit. She selected it herself, and she has the knife and glue skills to make the build happen. She’s built two full airframes and a booster before, is very neat with every project she works on, and selected the kit knowing it would pose a complex challenge.
We’ve hit a snag in the instructions though, one that’s beyond our ability to figure out, as I’ll allow her to explain in her own words.
Passing the phone now…
Hello rocket peoples! I’m Shane’s girlfriend Mindy! As he explained above, I’ve hit a small snag understanding the directions for the Mini “A” Heli build, as they’re not very clear-cut. The directions state to “prepare lower body tube,” and to “measure and mark,” which honestly isn’t super clear-cut, and after some initial confusion, I THINK I’ve understood it, but wanted to make sure.
The directions state to mark the initial body tube at 12” and then 4” past the 12”, so there appear to be three sections on the body tube prior to cutting: a 12” section, a 4” section, and a 2” section, which on the directions page has an X on it. At first, I only cut the tube at the final 4” mark, to remove the X section, and then made my fin guide markings, and that’s where the confusion came in, as I hadn’t cut off the 4” section, and didn’t know why I’d marked that.
After some anxious reading of the directions and assurances from Shane that, if I messed up cutting the body tube, replacing a BT 5 tube is simple and cheap, and hoping I understood the not clear directions, I cut the remainder of my body tube at that mark between 12” and 4”, to produce two separate body tubes. I’m HOPING that’s what I was supposed to do, but I wanted to ask the experts before doing literally anything else with this project.
So please let me know if I did the correct thing, or if I messed up. Also if any experts have any tips for this build to make it go smoothly, that would be much appreciated! Photos are included of the tube, including closeups of the length markings I made on them to make sure I did it properly.
From Shane: Thanks in advance.
We’ve hit a snag in the instructions though, one that’s beyond our ability to figure out, as I’ll allow her to explain in her own words.
Passing the phone now…
Hello rocket peoples! I’m Shane’s girlfriend Mindy! As he explained above, I’ve hit a small snag understanding the directions for the Mini “A” Heli build, as they’re not very clear-cut. The directions state to “prepare lower body tube,” and to “measure and mark,” which honestly isn’t super clear-cut, and after some initial confusion, I THINK I’ve understood it, but wanted to make sure.
The directions state to mark the initial body tube at 12” and then 4” past the 12”, so there appear to be three sections on the body tube prior to cutting: a 12” section, a 4” section, and a 2” section, which on the directions page has an X on it. At first, I only cut the tube at the final 4” mark, to remove the X section, and then made my fin guide markings, and that’s where the confusion came in, as I hadn’t cut off the 4” section, and didn’t know why I’d marked that.
After some anxious reading of the directions and assurances from Shane that, if I messed up cutting the body tube, replacing a BT 5 tube is simple and cheap, and hoping I understood the not clear directions, I cut the remainder of my body tube at that mark between 12” and 4”, to produce two separate body tubes. I’m HOPING that’s what I was supposed to do, but I wanted to ask the experts before doing literally anything else with this project.
So please let me know if I did the correct thing, or if I messed up. Also if any experts have any tips for this build to make it go smoothly, that would be much appreciated! Photos are included of the tube, including closeups of the length markings I made on them to make sure I did it properly.
From Shane: Thanks in advance.
I love building little things like this, especially when there's a good excuse not to paint. I did a Sharpie job on mine.
