Helis & Planes Compared

[Solitaire]

Very imaginative. Is that 2mm or 3mm CF rod and how did you join the Y, or are they just shrinkwrapped together?

[BTCat]

Feb 21, 2010 20:05:16 GMT -6 Solitaire said:

Very imaginative. Is that 2mm or 3mm CF rod and how did you join the Y, or are they just shrinkwrapped together?

Thanks Sol. It's 2mm or more accurately, 0.070 inch. I used to use it for my HBFP flybars.

The 2 pieces barely fit in the electrical connector. I crimped them and also epoxied before the heat shrink. I oblonged the connector. Even though you can't see it, there is about 1/4 inch of room to slide the connector on the stud.

[akent]

This has been a good read, BT!

Nice work on beefing up your plank!

Now get out there and fly, so you can move on to an aileron bird. You will go WOW. And yes, they mostly handle the wind 100 times better than most rudder steered planks.

I learned on a Sig Kadet, a 70" span .40 powered nitro plank. It flew very smoothly as long as there was little wind. My first aileron plank was a .40 sized Goldberg Falcon, built with a low wing. That thing blew my mind. I got to where I would probably fly it in a hurricane. I put 100's of hours on that.
That plank also cut off my pinky finger. A surgeon was able to glue it back on. It mostly works.

Anyway, I hope your weather lets you fly a LOT!
Best,
Kent

[19000rpm]

Those are some awesome struts BT. Nice repair on the wing tips too.

The old wing will come in handy if you ding the new one up. Unless you damage the same area you can cut out the spot on the old wind and come up with an almost seamless repair. But, you probably already figured that out.

When you're adding ailerons I suggest you make them 1 3/4" deep and at least a foot long. It would hurt to have metal geared aileron servos either. I haven't stripped the SV80's I used, but I think I might be pushing their capabilities.

[BTCat]

Well I got it in the air today! It was rather light winds when I started. Somewhere in the area of 5 to 7 with maybe a gust or two up to 10. I haven't been on the sim in almost 2 weeks and it showed. I was nervous on the controls and over corrected, but I kept it in the air. I was getting pretty comfortable with it. I was doing rough figure 8s. Then I made a mistake. Actually 2. I wasn't 2 mistakes high so I ended up stalling it and planting it. No damage. Just an extra wrinkle in the elevator that straighted right back out.

I took off again, but my brain kicked in. I had two thoughts in my head (first time for everything ;D). First, I was thinking, You dumb ass. You should have been higher." The second was, "You haven't been thinking about orientation. How have you been doing those 8s?" Well, the second one got me. When I started thinking about my stick moves as I was trying to line up for a landing, I dumb thumbed it and smacked nose in. Cowling shattered around the motor and packed it full of dirt. I didn't have any tools with me so I used that as an excuse to call it quits. I need to get back on the sim before I go out next time. I'm going to like this thing and it will be pretty relaxing to fly, but I need to work on the landings ;D

19k, twice the wing has slipped in it's saddle enough that the rubber bands have cut into the foam. Any trick to prevent this?

[19000rpm]

You have got to stop thinking BT it gets you in trouble everytime. ;D ;D I know, because I've done the same thing. You've got to trust the force. ;D

Make that 3 times crash altitude.

You can put packing tape along the leading and trailing edges along with packing tape in the saddle front and rear. The saddle area will take a beating over time and the tape helps. Also you can glue in some foam blocks on the underside of the wing to help keep the wing centerd. You can also add some CF dowel through the blocks into the wing and put some packing tape over the blocks and on to the underside of the wing to keep them from popping off too easily. Line the inside of the fuse in the area where the blocks touch with packing tape too to keep the wear down.

Remember, there is almost nothing that you can't fix on this plane with Gorilla Glue and packing tape.

[BTCat]

Be right back. I need to go buy more packing tape ;D

19, I taped up the saddle area on the Fuse the other day. I also taped that area on the wing, but I didn't extend my tape much past the rubber bands. I put it out a little further and we will see what happens. Maybe tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

My struts did great, kind of. When I planted it the last time, the white plastic strut mounts on the wing broke. Back to the thinking board. Sometimes weaker is better, at least until I stop banging the wingtips.

That cowling is a sucky POS, BTW. Very brittle. More tape!

[19000rpm]

They make the cowling sucky so you'll need to buy one everytime you crash. I think Horizon's P&L balances on cowling sales for all of their models.


I wonder if Parkplastics sells a SC cowl? They use tough plastics for their cowls.

Actually, I figured out that if you put packing tape on the INSIDE of the cowling when it's new it really helps. You'll get a lot more dents that you can push out rather than cracks after that. Sorry, forgot to mention that to you earlier.

Put the tape around the circumference of the cowl then down the top, front and bottom and then cut out for the prop and vents.

As soon as I saw your struts I figured you'd be breaking the strut attachments in the wings. I think it's worth replacing a few of those to have the better strut. Fairly soon you won't be banging the wing that much.

[r/c basher]

The only part that I broke on my super cub so far has been the cowl.

[BTCat]

Feb 24, 2010 15:37:31 GMT -6 r/c basher said:

The only part that I broke on my super cub so far has been the cowl.

Show off

[19000rpm]

HMMMMMMMMMM. I'm will not lower myself by saying the obvious things about youth versus middle age, blah, blah, blah...I've risen above that. Almost. ;D

[Gabe]

I have a small duffle bag that I carry my TX, tools, packaging tape (for quick fixes), CA glue and activator. More times than not I've saved myself a trip home by bringing those things.

Also, on the landings, I take my planes waaaaay out and kill the power about 100 yards out - I start my decent at the same time. It's really easy if you are only 5 to 8 feet off the ground when you get to the runway. There's no pressure to get down in a hurry. Also, spoilerons make it a snap to slow the plane down as well.

[19000rpm]

Feb 25, 2010 18:18:20 GMT -6 Gabe said:

I have a small duffle bag that I carry my TX, tools, packaging tape (for quick fixes), CA glue and activator. More times than not I've saved myself a trip home by bringing those things.

Also, on the landings, I take my planes waaaaay out and kill the power about 100 yards out - I start my decent at the same time. It's really easy if you are only 5 to 8 feet off the ground when you get to the runway. There's no pressure to get down in a hurry. Also, spoilerons make it a snap to slow the plane down as well.

Nice point Gabe. A good field kit is a must...Becomes even more important the farther your field is from home. I also carry 5min epoxy for repairs that require more strength than CA can provide.

My SUV is actually a rolling hangar. I've got the planes and spares and stuff for repairs in there 24-7.

Long final approaches are the best. Definitely with a new plane.

[BTCat]

Generally, I don't carry much because one field is less than 5 minutes from my house and the other I use is about 10 minutes away. I might start packing some repair stuff the more I fly planks. With the helis, generally, if I crashed the day was over anyway. I could see doing repairs to the plane and putting it right back in the air.

[r/c basher]

Im lucky, I have 5 fields that I can fly in that are all in walking distance so I dont carry anything else except whats required for me to fly.