FiddleSticks Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 Hi Guys! Last year at the Southern Model Show in Headcorn my little lad found himself a little electric copter in the bring and buy tent near the entrance. £10 with controller but the lipo was dead and there was no charger. For a tenner and the smile it brought to him, it was worth it so i invested in the battery and naturally forgot the charger. Doh! Due to my stupidity it flew a a few minutes at home on the new battery, nearly took his eye out and then sat silently for another year. This year I got around to remembering the battery and bought another battery for it and a charger. It flies well! Or at least it did until I crashed it and bent the shaft. No problem my son trusts me to fix things, it's a lama, century sell replacement shafts on ebay for their airwolf / lama range so ordered the replacements - not realising that their lama was different to this one and it didn't fit. Whoops. Nevermind, I have one of their Airwolf helos that i'll keep that for so not a big loss. Took his lama to bits and in a weird twist of fate, managed to completely straighten the hollow shaft by shoving an old precision philips anti-slip screwdriver from real robots magazine toolkit (2002-ish) down the hollow shaft which was an exact size for the screwdriver. It straightened up beautfully. The irony is that despite having just 3 blades left (one broke off), this screwdriver will undo the tiniest of screws that smaller precision screwdrivers simply cannot get undone - Odd I know but i swear by this screwdriver! Anyway having shoved this screwdriver down the whole length of the shaft with a small hammer helping it, it miraculously straightened up his helo's hollow shaft perfectly. No more wobbling at the top rotor and it flies lovely once more. My son is pleased but until i can fly it well, he's not wanting to try it (he's 8 and has no idea how helos work - nor can he concentrate long enough to understand it lol). So.. having escaped that disastrous crash by the skin of my teeth and getting his whirly bird sorted, i hit ebay to see what parts i could find for it in preparedness for future woes. Oddly no parts but another identical (ish) helo did turn up - ideal for parts - and despite increasing my bid 3 times to ensure i won it, I bagged it at just £1.20. Yup, you read that right, i got RC helo and controller for £1.20. Brilliant, i can chop it for parts i thought. Better still it actually arrived without going missing! Flew brilliantly too.. until i hit the fridge a couple of times too many and then the same thing - bent hollow shaft. Trouble is it flew.. i can't bring myself to break it for parts. So, last night, overly confident in my previous success, the screwdriver went downthe hollow shaft for that one too only somehow, the bloody screwdriver is now slightly warped itself and the shaft didn't straighten up. Tried hammering it down (with the warped part up), tried rolling it between two thick flat pieces of MDF, still can't make it perfectly straight. Thing is, it did fly really well and being a cheapskate, I wanted to make the most of my £1.20 helicopter and have some enjoyable flying from it without risking my sons. Everyone loves to hear of the bargain of the century and my £1.20 helo was going to make me a hero in RC folklore for decades to come.. and most importantly at work lol. The problem? I still can't find parts. Nor can I identify the maker other than the year 2006. It also has a weird 3 point swashplate which is operated by just two servos and a pinch of black magic. From my ventures across Google, it would appear to be a Colco Lama 3 or 4 - I think but i'm really not sure. The transmitter is the same as the old Futaba Skysport 4 but just has the word LAMA on the Futaba name badge bit. There is literally no identifying marks on either of these helicopters to help me work out who made it and where i might get another hollow shaft that fits it. Please Help! I've included pictures below! The main bird (My sons one - the £1.20 one which i need help with is in pieces at present but almost identical) Ths side panel on the whirlybird: Under the cockpit: The Skysport 4 clone - front and back: I know i could just keep the £1.20 bird for spares but as I actually won a working helo for such a low price and it was a good flyer i'd prefer to repair it if possible and have a bit of fun with it. Any help appreciated! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryW Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 If I'm right it's a Century UK Lama...Link for parts below https://www.centuryuk.com/Spares/Earlier-Models/Helicopters/Century-UK-Lama-And-Airwolf-CX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul De Tourtoulon Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 A shame, I binned mine last year when cleaning out,,,😨 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Hearnden 1 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 On 19/12/2023 at 11:54, Paul De Tourtoulon said: A shame, I binned mine last year when cleaning out,,,😨 I did exactly the same. I even had spare bits with mine as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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