Helpful Hints

• Engine: A strong, good running engine is important. If it quits, it drops! The original .28's work great but may be hard to find. You can also use a modern .32 or .37 helicopter engine. Make sure to use a good fresh glo plug (enya #3 or a os #8) and 15% ~ 30% nitro heli fuel.

• Radio: The Cricket is designed to fly with any normal 4-channel aircraft radio. No special CCPM or other modern helicopter-specific mixing or features required.  However, we do highly recommend using a modern, robust, spread-spectrum radio control system to minimize interference, lockouts, and loosing control of your precious heli. The Cricket uses standard / medium sized servos.

• Gyro:  Today, gyros are standard on all modern helicopters. The gyro automatically compensates for both wind gusts and changes in throttle (main blade RPM) to keep the tail from swinging around. Some of the better modern gyros have a "heading hold" feature, which will always keep the nose pointed in the same direction, until the pilot moves the rudder stick! Back at the introduction of the Cricket, gyros did not exist at all. GMP did eventually make a gyro a few years later , and marketed them for beginners to help them learn to fly faster! The lack of a gyro made flying the Cricket a real challenge, as the heli's orientation towards the pilot would constantly be changing, and the pilot would have to struggle to keep the tail "in line". Unless you are purposely looking for that true "vintage feel", there is no reason why you would not want to install a modern gyro in a Cricket today.

• Rotor Head: GMP made a gold anodized "super custom" rotor head for the Cricket. How, exactly this was un upgrade (other than the gold anodized color) was a mystery to us at first. It's a nice enough looking piece, a bit snazzier in appearance than the standard plain aluminum head. Upon further inspection, we did actually notice a design difference in the two heads. If you look closely at the comparison picture of the two heads, you will see that the music wire "teeter spring" (part # 187) is a larger diameter on the gold head. We measured the smaller wire at .067" and the larger one at .078". We tested the gold head on your yellow Cricket and can attest that the gold head with the larger wire does indeed create a noticeable improvement in the Cricket's cyclic response. Another trick we did was to reverse the head block, so that the set screw holding down the wire is closest to the L-bracket, rather than on the opposite side. That way, there is less play in the "teeter spring" assembly. If cyclic response leaves something to be desired, consider flipping the head block, or possibly drilling out the "pivot pin" (part # 182) to accept a thicker .078" music wire.   

• Main Rotor Balancing: Since the rotor head is of an asymmetrical design, after you balance the rotor blades, you will also need to balance the whole assembly by the flybar (make sure to dangle the cyclic control rod and the ant-rotation bracket from the flybar control arm when you do this. Also, make sure to balance the blades chord-wise (lengthwise) before torking down the blade grips to the rotor head. Remember, the Cricket blades and not balanced chord-wise. They are solid wood and are not G.G. corrected. We do NOT recommend the the early single-hole rotor head / blade grip design for this reason....the Cricket cannot have articulating main blades.

• Flybar and Paddles- the old GMP/Hirobo shuttle fly bar and paddles are a direct fit. The earlier Crickets used wooden paddles with a slightly thicker airfoil section than the later plastic paddles. This production change was also accompanied with a slight shortening of the flybar itself- to 14-1/2 inches.

• Tail Rotor: GMP used the same tail rotor for many of their other larger .60 size models that will still fit the Cricket (cobra, competitor, rebel).

• Tail Blades: most any .30 size blades will work, you may have to shorten them up so they don't strike the ground.

• Tail Pitch Lever: the TSK ball bearing tail pitch lever (model 30v) is a direct-fit up grade to the plastic part.

• Drive Belt: buy a Mc Master-Carr 70xl pn 6484k117 for $2.18. Use a fresh belt, do not risk your cricket on a 25+ year old belt, even if it looks to be in good condition! A Black & Decker vacuum belt #bd710 will also work with a little width modification.

• Wooden Parts: After 25+ years, the original wood may or may not be in good shape. If you need to replace the wooden parts, we have a handy template and instructions here.