2 minute read
Millwater Motors
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From time to time, we will bring you something quite different from the usual – and this month is one of those times.
Millwaterian Chris Ball has recently retired from a hugely successful career as the inspirational designer, founder and owner of Image Loudspeakers – among the highest of high fidelity in sound reproduction, few in the world come even close. Chris’ principal hobby is building and flying model helicopters, where he applies his highly professional engineering skills to perfecting the assembly of these semiscale motorised marvels.
We asked Chris about the time taken to build the AS350 Squirrel featured here, which is an exact replica of the fullsized US$2.4m Aerospatiale original. He told us, “Over 4 years, with a bit of a break, between two and three thousand hours.” His workshop is a virtual cathedral to engineering technology (scaled to size, of course), where each component is manufactured and assembled with the skilled precision of a brain surgeon.
Talking to Chris, the all-consuming enthusiasm for his hobby is palpable. Every nut, bolt, rubber seal and decal is
specifically made to fit: some parts are manufactured by a guy he knows in Brazil; artwork that Chris designs himself is made up by a lady in New Mexico. Some of his 12 helicopters are quite small and it’s where Chris started his model-making around eight years ago. “The smaller the helicopter, the harder it is to fly,” Chris added, “and I learned a lot from crashing in the early days, so I choose when and where to fly the bigger ones nowadays – and mostly avoid unnecessary repair costs.”
We talked briefly about his days as a Porsche 911 SC Sport owner before returning to scale model engines. “The AS350 Squirrel has an outrunner motor, where the outside of the motor rotates; running off a 44.4volt lithium polymer battery source and drawing anything from 30 to 80 amps, which gives me between 6 and 8 minutes flying time,” Chris told us. He explained his 18-channel touch-screen remote controller, demonstrating control of the various helicopter servos and lights. All flights are first simulated on computer, time and time again before actual take-off. “If I get it wrong on the simulator, it doesn’t cost anything,” Chris concluded with a smile.
