How do I identify a helicopter I picked up as a project in work. It seems like a pretty good deal. it came with a Ricco (sp?) 60 engine and a 6 channel transmitter with the recievers and gyro, but it has no body on it to help me identify it. It uses a single tube tailboom support and uses a belt to drive the tail rotor. It doesn't look like it ever had any rotor paddles, the control come straight off the swashplate and go directly to the main rotor hub grips. It does need some repair and I need to know what kind it is to get parts. Any help?

How about posting a picture. You have described many helis.

The engine cooling ducts have Hirobo on them if it' sany help. But, I've read that Hirobo made parts for many different helos. I'll see if I can scrounge up a digital camera.

It caint be that old if it has a belt driven tail rotor.

Sounds like it could be a GMP Legend with flybarless head. Does it have an octagonal boom, that is grey in color

You are right, it does have an octogonal tail boom that is grey. GMP Legend? Parts and manual still easy to get? This thing needs some TLC. Tail rotor blades, flight control rigging, reciever/transmitter battery pack, canopy, etc. I hope you're right, I'll do some more digging.

I hate to have to tell you this, but GMP is out of business. Parts can be hard to come by. www.phiheli has a hurricane that is loosely based on the GMP Legend (they bought the GMP rights). Some of the parts are still the same. I would not recommend a flybarless rotor head for beginner. A flybar make it more stable. You might be better off selling it and getting something more current.

What about cyclic lever links (the link from the swashplate to the scissor arm)? Will Kyisho links work? If they went out of business, who am I going to sell this thing to anyway?

Yes Kyosho links would work. Pretty much any link that goes on a 2 mm shaft would work. You could sell it on E-bay, you can sell pretty much anything there. Hopefully you can get your money back. This happens all the time, guys buy stuff that is old and you can't get parts for anymore. You could also try the classifieds or auctions here. Don't expect to get much though. I don't know how much you paid for it, but the transmitter and receiver may be obsolete too. The guys here will know this. On e-bay you can probably find someone who doesn't (like you didn't). So it all depends on your morals.