Indestructible RC Helicopter Skids
Fed up with the stock skids? not impressed by the weight of extreme skids? I wasn't so I made my own. I made them out of polymorph to give it extra "bounce" on those hard impacts. It features stronger joints to the heli frame - the weak point on the stock skids.
Update - added a battery mount, pics to follow later :D
Heres some photos of my first attempt, all in all I'm pretty pleased
- they aren't the tidiest mod I've ever done but they have a lot of
advantages over any other skids I've seen:
- Lightweight - no more than the stock skids
- absorb shocks - Have yet to damage the skids or heli from a bad landing ( let me tell you theres been a few bad crashes :S). The Polymorph is so flexible that no shock reaches the heli itself
- Customizable - I started off with the skids long and wide to give me extra balance. Now I'm a bit happier getting off the ground I've made it a bit smaller and less obtrusive
- Easy to repair/modify - I've not had to repair them yet but I have changed the design a few times - I even added a battery cage to stop that falling off as much. All you have to do is put it in hot water and mold away !!
- Cheap - I made this with £1-£2 worth of polymorph I got off of eBay, the beauty being I can reuse it when I've finished or change the design
Not really a lot to say about the process or materials - all you need is some polymorph and some patience. The molding is easy to do - just heat it up and shape it as you want, I used a big book to squash the struts to be square and rolled the skids to be smooth.
I wasn't very inventive with this design - I just wanted to know the concept would work but I'm already thinking of the next set I'm gonna make, including cross struts, tail support and battery cage :D
This is my design but I'd love to see other peoples ideas... or even suggestions of week points - I found last time my stock skids broke at the joining with the tail so this time I re-enforced it a lot.
http://www.heliguy.com/Forum/home-made-super-skids-t20579.html