S.A.N.T.A

i have a mini funtana and a funtana x100 and my landing gear ripped off on both of them. the mini ripped of on a windy landing i have a video. and my 100 ripped of mid-flight. i reinforced everything. this was just for the rc community but i am getting tired of it.


if you want the video ask. ill try

oh how long should my flight time be using a park 480 motor and a eflight 3 cell 11.1 volt battery pack flying 3-d.

octanehuffer

Lets see. My mini Funtana gear ripped off first flight. My Funtana 90 ripped off flight 3 or 4, and has come off 3 times in 50 flights. With the last one being the last straw I built the heck out of the gear and it shouldnt happen again. I havnt flown the Funtana's in 3 years(and may never again for quite awhile, even though they are ready to fly)

sdstick06

Reinforce the gear block inside... peel back the covering on the outside and glass the block in.

I have developed some wingtips for the Funtana X50 that turns it in to the plane it should have been... it flys smooth... and very locked in with the new wingtips... much less tendency to drop a wing

Now with my new wingtips the Funtana is very enjoyable to fly

somtimes ya just gotta do a few extra things to these ARF's

nitro wing

My Feedback: (1)

Its common knowledge and general practice that the area is reglued with thin and then thick CA or a fillet of epoxy,same as the firewall or other suspect areas,takes a few minutes.There is nothing wrong with the design on these aircraft.
It simple preventative maintenance.
I have had the gear fold on one older Funtana model,my very first ARF.
I've owned about 15 ARFs since and not one has come apart in any way.I dont reinforce them or add a bunch of structural braces or glass anything.Just a quick once over as I put it together.I fly them hard too.If you find a fillet of soft glue,scrape it off,so the glue can penetrate.
This goes for all ARF's,cheap or expensive.

S.A.N.T.A

i understand its common knowledge because i did reinforce the firewall and landing gear when building/assembling them however even if i make a "hard" landing i should not have wheel cowlings protruding up and through my wings. here is my video i know i know its a hard landing but it was a regular flyby when the wind cause a sudden but harsh loss in lift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN9F5_kpMBo

beachflier

I do not think you can blame that on a poor design or assembly. I would call that pilot error.

FYI I have the X100 and my gear is currently off do to a hard landing. The hard landing was caused by elevator hinges breaking on one side 2 feet from landing

opjose

Not enough data.

It will also depend upon the capacity of the battery pack you use.
It's "C" rating.
What prop you will be using.
The AUW of the plane.
And your flying style.

Given all but the last, an estimate could be made that might be good enough to set your timer to.

S.A.N.T.A

i know its pilot error but you try flying a light weight electric in 25 mph gusts. plus the wind caused a sudden loss of lift. w/e i just got out some hard spruce to reinforce the gear. ill be flying by tomarrow.

rmenke

My Feedback: (13)

S.A.N.T.A.

Yea, landing was a little rough, but my AJ Extra or Katana MD would have survived with no damage, no question. My first electric balsa airplane was the mini-funtanna, hyped as the best ever. I gave it away after 3 flights or so as pure junk and went back to my foamys. Guy I gave it to flew it once and passed it on. It now has home made alm. gear that stays, how heavy I don't know. Products like this should not be passed on to the public, I will remember the mini-funtana for a long time to come right along with the Cadallac Desiel by GM. Never bought another GM product after that one. ENJOY

beachflier

S.A.N.T.A

The error was flying that plane in 25 mph gusts....

theradioflyer

I never ripped the gear off of my Funtana until the time there was nothing left, BIG crash ( my fault, stupid thumbs) I do now re-enforce my landing gear blocks by coating them with gorilla glue, very effective.

S.A.N.T.A

the day started with a 2 mph breeze and it wasnt until i got into the landing pattern that two weather fronts meet and caused come nasty windshear. im not upset ill rebuild my undercarage but the next crash im giving up and going to my funtana x 100.
NUMBER 1 rule

NEVER BABE YOUR PLANES the all end up in splinters or confetty

OkieTrucker

The first thing I was taught 6 months ago when i started flying was land INTO the wind, which looks like what you were trying to do on the first attempt, but then circled and landed with the wind, ergo, pilot error. We all make stupid mistakes, especially new people to the hobby like me, you cant blame the plane, or the kit or anything but yourself for this one.

Rocketman_

By now you may have noticed that 3D models are purposely built to be light in weight and there is just not enough structural material in the fuselage to make a bullet proof landing gear. And that's just the way it is.

You can add your own glue, plywood, balsa, fiberglass and epoxy. During repairs, some guys glue their landing gear block back in with white glue so that it breaks out cleanly on the next bad landing and can be easily repaired.

I have an old Katana that has an "L" shaped aluminum beam running across the width of the fuselage to which the landing gear block and the aluminum landing gear are bolted. While this looks bullet proof, my belief is that it will pull all the guts out of the fuselage on a bad landing because all that armor is still bolted to a light weight structure.

Your landings will improve with experience.

-StephenSampson-

it cant have just ripped off in mid flight. you must have done a lot of structural damage before and not noticed it, or it didnt rip off at all it just fell off because you didnt put locktite on your landing gear bolts. always use locktite! so many people ignore this small thing but it makes a huge difference. metal to metal, always locktite no matter what. there are different colors for different strengths and applications

blue- anti vibration
red- anti vibration, heat resistant, semi-permanent
green- good luck getting it off....green is used for holding cylinder walls or something in place in car engines. there doesnt even have to be a thread for this to attach and it will not melt until such a ridiculously high temperature. four stroke mufflers dont even come close to melting this. i use it a lot with a whole lot of force after running your engine it will usually loosen but i would not recomnend using it if you might want to reposition your muffler.

i dont know your skill level but if your not the best flyer use nylon bolts for your landing gear. if you have a rough landing they will be the weakest point and will simply snap. keep a few extra bolts and this will help you, one guy at the field uses these on everything and never damages his landing gear block. worst he does is snaps the bolts....i think he broke a prop once to but replacing 2 bolts and a prop at the field beats packing it in for the day and going home to repair. personally i use stainless steel bolts and never had a problem, but i dont land hard.