The Bonus Build

[hpiguy]

Well, since getting into planes and flying the sport cub for a while now, I've been wanting something larger and heavier to deal with the wind better. The wind always picks up at the club around mid day, and throw the SC all over the place. I thought hard about a carbon z cub, but by the time I buy the plane and batteries it gets very costly, and has short flight times. I did not want nitro either. So after lots of conferring with the guys at the club, and getting to fly one of these a few weeks back, I decided to go over to the dark side, gas power! Just so happens I just got my ten year bonus at work. Most of it is still in the savings account, but I figured I'd earned a nice new plane, and you only live once so what the hell. I pre-paid for it to get the color I wanted (they sell out fast) and picked it up at Joe Nall to save on shipping. They call this a 3D trainer, but it will not do full 3D, and it's a high wing trainer, so it's more of an acrobatic trainer. It's very docile and forgiving, and just floats in for landings. BUT, with the 35 it has unlimited vertical, takes off in about one plane length, and will hover below half throttle. I also get long, long flight times compared to a large electric, somewhere in the 20 minute range. They also include pre-cut wood for most of the plane should you stuff it, that's a nice touch IMO. This will be a slow build, as I'll be getting some help from club members (there are four of these flying at my club, so I'll have lots of support, a major factor in my decision) on certain things. Anyway, here's the build list, and pics.

Pilot RC Trainer 90 ARF
90" span, 60" fuselage once motor, tail feathers, and prop are on. Had to remove it from the box to get in the truck for the ride home from Joe Nall. Picked up a wing bag also.

New Futaba 10J for control
Futaba S3071-HV servos x 5
Fromeco Badger power switch
Tech Aero ultra IBEC for regulated ignition power and optical kill switch for the engine
DLE 35RA 35cc rear exhaust engine
miracle RC prop drill guide
Turnigy nano tech 2100mah LiFe packs for plane and radio
Dave Brown lite flite 5" wheels (love me some bush plane style)
Xoar 19x8 prop (not pictured)
Jersey Modeler fuel can / pump setup with storage tote (not pictured)

Engine size for scale

 

[EeePee]

Dayum you got a small hand.

Is your name Luke?

 

[hpiguy]

Looks cool Luke the yellow black and red.

Thanks!

Dayum you got a small hand.

Is your name Luke?

LOL that's what she said. :mrgreen: I think that was a typo.

 

[hpiguy]

Finally getting back to this one also.

Started by finding the center of the fuselage, and driving in a T pin to use to measure off of to get the horizontal stab set right.

Once you've put the stab in, and measured and bumped it around to get it right about 47 times, mark it and trim off the mono kote.

You then need to mix up some 30 minute epoxy. It was at this point I realized, I have nothing to mix it with. So I went over to my local Ace and they gave me a paint stick. I tried to pay for it, but the guy wouldn't have it, said go build your plane, good luck. This is why I always hit my Mom and Pop Ace before any of the big box stores. I simply took an xacto and scored small sections for mixing / applicator sticks.

Once you get it all mixed up, coat everything well, and put the stab back in, measuring to get it centered once again.

Now is the perfect time for a break to let the epoxy cure without being disturbed. You guys know me, beer 'n pizza time.

Once you're well hydrated and full, we can move on to the vertical tail fin. Go get a cheap plastic carpenters squre, and do this to it.

That way, once you've trimmed the mono kote from the fin and got your epoxy in place, you use it in this manner to ensure your tail assembly is square.

That's it for now, gotta go get a MTB ready for tomorrows ride. Gonna come back and try to get the elevator, rudder, and tail wheel installed tonight though.

 

[hpiguy]

Got the tail completely finished up. That's the most time consuming, should move faster from here.

Got the tail wheel mounted, measured, bent and installed into the rudder. Cut for the control horns and epoxied them in place also.

All done, hinges are drying now. That's a four foot work table for scale.

 

[hpiguy]

Got some more done this evening.

Got my rudder and elevator servo locations cut, and mounted the servos, labeled the wires at the other end while I was at it.

The kit came with servo clips to keep the wires together, nice touch for the vibes on a gasser

I'm running these for all 5 of my servos, and I made sure to use the rubber grommets and metal eyelets on this build

Next, I got the ailerons mounted and glued the hinges, and mounted the aileron servos.

Got my throttle servo mounted up

The kit is marked for a DLE 30cc engine, and the 35cc I'm running is a bit different mounting wise. But, the top two bolts line up, so I used that and got the bottom two marked and drilled and checked the fit. Everything lines up, but I'm going to have to space the engine forward a bit, as the muffler is hitting the firewall bracing on the bottom.

That's it for today. I don't lack much though, a few more hours maybe. Getting excited! :mrgreen:

 

[hpiguy]

Got a little more done tonight.

I had read to use this stuff for my muffler gasket, and to hold the muffler bolts in place also.

One bolt between the standoffs and firewall, and a bit of trimming and muffler fits fine now.

I trimmed and cleaned this up a bit more after this shot

And finally a friend (thanks Ralph!) gave me a tip to thin out some epoxy with alcohol and coat the firewall and cowl. It will make it fuel proof and reinforce anywhere I had to trim to clear the muffler.

Gave it a few coats, tomorrow I can finish installing everything and get this ready for the air this weekend!

 

[hpiguy]

Got a little more done tonight, won't be long now, I can smell the pre-mix! :mrgreen:

I opted to go buy a saw and some small stock, and epoxy in mounting platforms for most of my gear. Maybe overkill, but I prefer this method.

Got my Tech Aero Ultra IBEC mounted up right next to the ignition, as far from my RX as possible

Connected everything up and tested with my new radio, RX, and all my gear...

So that I could start installing and mechanically zeroing my linkages

Got my fuel dot, power switch, and ignition warning light installed...

Power on...

Ignition on, green means go. Ignition can be killed from the TX, a must for any large fuel model IMO.

All that's left is to mount my ignition, landing gear, engine, drill and mount my prop, clean up my wiring, and install my AMA sticker. I'm excited and scared shitless for Saturday morning all at the same time. I called and talked with our safety officer at the club (he's the one that helped me decide to go gas, and let me fly his), and he's going to inspect it and fly it first. This is a large, powerful aircraft that could seriously injure someone or worse. And excited as I may be, I'm not taking that lightly.

 

[hpiguy]

Starting to look like an airplane now. Cut the location and mounted my landing gear, mounted my IBEC and ignition, engine is mounted, made my choke and throttle linkages and fuel line ran. Had they not shorted me on tygon fuel tubing, I'd have been done tonight. Didn't have enough to run my vent line. Gotta grab some big zip ties, fuel tubing, mixing oil, and one of those ratcheting cargo bars for the bed of the truck tomorrow to haul this beast around. :mrgreen:

 

[STANG KILLA SS]

you can tell how long someones been in the hobby by if they call covering, "monocoat" (i do) that's all there was back in the day.
now everything is actually covered in oracoat or ultracoat. or a cheap chinease covering.

jelly of that 35RA!

 

[hpiguy]

LOL, yeah, I always do that. I've only been flying for a bout 10 years, but I've been around the hobby on and off for longer than that.

Thanks, can't wait to get some tanks through it tomorrow provided I wrap up the build this evening.

 

[hpiguy]

Well, she's as ready as she'll ever be. Ready for a kick ass day with my first giant scale bird tomorrow. Beer for scale of course. :mrgreen:

 

[hpiguy]

No maiden today. This build was two firsts for me, first giant scale, and first gasser. So I had some of the long time guys at the club inspect it, and there were some things that could be done better, and one that needed fixed ASAP on a gasser. That being a metal throttle linkage connected to a metal carb linkage, that will generate RF noise, not good.

Some of the guys at the club gave me the stuff to fix it, and couple other small items to improve some things. I can't say enough about having a great club to belong to, great guys, all of 'em. Should all be good now, so hopefully tomorrow. Got a guy gonna buddy box with me to make sure it's trimmed and the CG is right, radio programming is right, kill switch works, etc. It's a big plane, swinging a big prop 19x8 that could really hurt someone or worse, so I'm taking it seriously. 

 

[hpiguy]

Well, I tried to be as safe as I could, but not safe enough it appears. Sometimes. life just gives you lemons. We did a post crash analysis, and it appears the spark plug backed out just a bit, which would have created a lot of EMI, and the RX lost signal, and in she went. I tightened that plug as tight as I was willing to into the tiny aluminum head, not tight enough I guess. I'll strip the next SOB before I let this happen again. I'm just glad it wasn't around people at the time. Still sucks, but oh well, I'll wait for them to come back in stock and try again.

On a side note, she flew awesome for almost 2 tanks. TONS of power with the 35, unlimited vertical, level flight at 1/4 throttle, yet nice and docile when you slowed her down. I'll build another one for sure.

Airframe is a write off, as is the throttle servo, and battery, wings can be fixed. It appears everything else survived, considering it went in nose first, that's pretty impressive. I actually thought the motor had been thrown clear, but it was just buried under everything in the cow pasture.

 

[rcjeepbuilder]

That's a bummer, but if you built it once you can do it again and this time im sure it will be even better.

 

[hpiguy]

I didn't build this one, it was an ARF, but thanks though. Gotta wait for them to come back in stock before it can be replaced.

 

[hpiguy]

Just thought I'd post a little update;

Turns out the crash wasn't my fault at all. On the advice of another club member, I picked my most durable aircraft (my sport quad) and put the radio system from the gasser in it just to rule out a radio issue since it was a brand new system.

It flew fine for a few outings, then last week less than 75ft away from me, it simply dropped out of the sky. It wasn't just a brown out or signal loss, it's as if the system unbinded itself mid air, as shutting everything down and powering it all back up doesn't fix the problem, I still have no radio control link with the aircraft. So now I have a new radio system that I have zero faith in, great.

 

[Natedog]

Updates man! Bummer about your plane, I'm thinking about flying electric foamy after couple years playing with Blade mini coax copter.

 

[hpiguy]

Nate, all part of flying buddy, but it did sting a bit. I actually ended up selling off all the gas stuff to a couple friends of mine as I didn't join the RC club this year. I've been doing RC for over 20 years, and these days, I'd honestly rather go for a bike ride instead. I do still have my sport cub and a pusher glider as well as quads a helis if the urge hits.

 

[Natedog]

Thanks for the update, I bought a Hobbyzone Mini Apprentice S and have been de-stickering and paint prepping it. I can't wait to fly it! Love riding too, glad you're enjoying your fitness and entertainment all rolled into one!
Mini Apprentice S RTF (HBZ3100): HobbyZone