rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

Here's one I finally got around to finishing.

Span = 21"
Length= 9.5"
Weight = 6 1/4 oz.
3 channel = A,E,T

It came in a little heavier than I wanted, don't they always. I hope it's not too heavy. As usual this thing has parts from a few forum members. Thanks to Bipeflyer for the plan, AJC for the backplate, Skaliwag for the throttle sleeve and "the other Andrew" for some battery parts and advice. I haven't flown it yet, it's supposed to rain/snow untill Tuesday here[&o]. Here's a pic w/ my built and rebuilt and rebuilt and rebuilt HW to get a size compairison.

ajcoholic

My Feedback: (10)

Nice!

AJC

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Looks GREAT RAGMAN! If it doesn't fly so well at 20,000 feet where you live, then send it on down to me at 000 elev, and I'll let you know how she turned out.

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

Hey Darren, Nice job man, thats the last plane I built and flew, except mine has a peewee.020 on it and its a rocket,,90 seconds of kneeknockin fun and it went out of sight on me one time on the second flight, its time I pull it out again and give it a toss.....Rog

Bipe Flyer

Looks good Darren! Let us know how she flies.

mr_leffe

Looks like you had to add a little nose length to counter-balance that "Big Block" you have on there.

Andrew

Darren --

It's looking pretty sharp -- bet it's a good flyer. Sounds like your weather has been about like ours -- we seem to be stuck in the middle of a month long monsoon. Keep us posted.

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

Welp the weather stinks, her's a couple of picks of the "guts".

Japanman

Looks great!
What servos/flight gear are you using?

J.M

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

HI JM,

Servos are GWS Pico. RX is a Plantraco DSP4. The battery pack is a home made job from' Radio Shack aaa nicads. Fuel tank is a small eyedrop bottle. I could have shaved some weight by using 1/3aaa batteries but I was inpatient and couldn't wait for them and the thing was a little tail heavy as it was. I think if I were to build a second one I could probably get the completed model right at or a touch under 5oz with four channels.


Darren

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

Well It's back to the drawing board. Essentialy this thing is a POS. It's too heavy and flies like crap. The only bright side is that Skaliwag's .010 sleeve works prfectly and I could not be happier with it.


Over and out.

Darren

Bipe Flyer

You probably need to come in under 6oz for it to fly well on the .010. Smaller servos, lighter covering and a smaller battery. An .020 might pull it around all right.

ptulmer

My Feedback: (5)

Darren, that battery pack you made weighs over 2oz, right? I've used [link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?&I=LXFD64&P=V]these (<- click here)[/link] to make packs that weigh 1.2oz. That should help you shave about an ounce off!

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

Yea I hear you Bipe, that's exactly where I was going with this one. I'm going to shop around for a Pee Wee .20, slap that on and do away with the throttle aperatus and servo. It was tail heavy as shown in the first pic so I ended up loping a couple inches off the tail moment to get 'er to ballance. I don't like to dink around with them too much after there covered, that's why I'll save this airframe for a .020. I had heard that the .020 Pee Wee isn't much more powerfull than the .010 TD even though we're talkin twice the displacement. Anyone know what the real skinny is on this. I've been watching for a good ebay deal on a .020 TD but as you all know they really arn't to be had at a reasonable price.

I'm putting a new one on the building board for the .010 now. You are right about a couple of things that made the first one heavy.

1. Lighter batteries- I used a homemade pack of Radio Shack AAA NiCads (OINK!) What do you all think about a 50mAh pack made from 1/3 AAA. Do you think I would have enough capacity to run a three servo A/E/T operation?

2. Lighter covering - I was out of all my real light stuff so I used econocoat on the first build. (again OINK)

Additionaly I'm going to even have a bigger problem with the CG if I use lighter batteries. I'm going to have to lighten the tail moment substantialy. I was also thinking of moving the wing saddle back a touch. As for servo's I'm already using GWS pico's 5.4 grams each. I heard that there are lighter servo's out there but are the any good?


Any and all input is appreciated.

Rrragman

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Darren, if only I had a nickle for all the planes I've designed that had too short of a front end.[&o]! The plus side is that sliding the wing back is pretty easy if you have a flat top side to your fuselage. The other way to save weight is to cover the plane with colored cellophane and go with as much pull/pull linkage as you can possibly rig. I would think that a 50 mah pack is about as light as you can get, the trouble is you will probably have to engineer your own charger to come up with an over night charge rate of 5 ma. Remember the threads about modifying wallwarts with an inline resistor?

Bipe Flyer

Here's a link to a simple constant current chager I made for charging small packs overnight.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=1635060

I use a little 120mAh NiMH packs that only weigh .5oz for my .010 stuff.

BuzzBomber

My Feedback: (4)

I haven't bothered to find a way to do a 1/10C charge on the l'il tiny GP160(1/3AAA nimh) packs I use in my Ladybug and other things, but they seem to be holding up to a 100ma charge on the Triton just fine after about 25 cycles. On the Ladybug, I get about 4 flights of 6-8 minutes before the voltage gets low enough for me to worry about. The pack is only powering 2 HS55s in my plane, so I'd expect maybe ~20 min. of flying time between charges in your application.

Bipe Flyer

The 1/10C charge is supposedly only necessary for the first couple of charges to break the pack in.