RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

If you decide to get a Saito, go HERE and shoot him an email asking for a price. There is not a better price to be had on brand new Saito engines. I got a brand new Saito 1.00 for $250 SHIPPED. If you do find a better price, please let me know. :)

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Ok, here are a couple of shots of the engine with cowl attached.

I didn't realize that my PVC cutting generated so much dust that it migrated over to the airplane :)

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Thanks for posting the pictures. The manual is a bit unclear about mounting a two stroke, but I was planning on rotating the motor 90 degrees CCW (as viewed from in front of the plane) and either having the muffler protrude into the cut out below the firewall or possibly getting a Pitts style muffler and just having it exit the bottom of the cowl.

Since the .46AX is on the list of recommended engines, I presume it would fit that way - but confirmation from someone who's done it would be nice. I know, I should probably just go out and buy the Reactor already!

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Tom,
I have a Phoniex Model Giles 202 with a Super Tigher 45 mounted as you stated. The motor and is mounted 45 degrees up from the bottom with the muffler right under the cowl. This looks good and gets the exaust and mess under the plane. If i were putting a 2 stroke on the Reactor thats how I would do it.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Thanks for the pics, Cmala. I too thought you were going to rotate the engine 135 degrees from vertical, putting the muffler directly under the plane. At least this way you won't have to worry about adequate cooling or fighting to reach the needles. :) If you ever decide to mount it at 135 degrees, it would be very easy, I think. The engine mount can easily be rotated 90 degrees, giving you the desired placement, and I suspect you can get a replacement cowl and simply cut it for the new engine location.

Erik

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Here are my best guesses on getting a .46 AX on the front of a reactor. Apologies for the quality of the images - the firewall image is from the Reactor manual .pdf and is taken at a bit of an oblique angle. The scales of the two images are about as close as I can get using the dimensions on the OS drawing and comparing them against the measurements of the engine mounting template from the Reactor manual. Both images presume the the crankshaft should be centered at the intersection of the index marks on the firewall and I'm not sure that's accurate. No guarantees these are accurate, just my best guess.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Damn Tom, that's really cool photoshop skills there! With accurate pics and 3-views, you could take a lot of guess work out of the engine fitment process.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Why haven't they upgraded the 225 to Karbonite gears or something yet I wonder...?

Ernie

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

This is gonna be a stupid question but I am working on my elevators and this is the first plane I have ever built with dual elevators. (hell, it's only the second plane I have ever built...) Can someone explain to me how I get the elevators to move together and still keep the push rods all straight and level? Right now I have to have one servo arm pointing up and the other pointing down.

I have a Futaba 7CAP radio but I do not think it supports dual elevators.

Thanks for helping the rookie.

Oh, I am moutning my 2 stroke with the muffler coming out the bottom. I will have to put an extension on the needle valve, and I plane to use a remote glow plug kit, but I am hoping that it will allow me to cut the cowling less.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

That's not a dumb question at all. :) Essentially, the servos have to rotate opposite of one another. As far as I know, there are a few options on how to achieve this. Let me preface this by saying I'm no authority on this subject, so make sure you do a bit of research before spending any of your hard-earned cash. :) One solution is to purchase a "reversed" servo. I don't know much about this option, but it is probably the one least likely to be used these days. Hitec servos, for instance, can be purchased from Servo City with reverse rotation. Another option is to use and in-line servo reversing device. This looks like a servo extension, but has a bit of circuitry included that reverses the direction of the servo. This is simple and relatively inexpensive, but not really adjustable for throw and centering. A step up from this is what is commonly called a match box. This device also goes between the receiver and servo(s) and includes a bit more circuity that allows you to fine tune throw and centering on the servos. Finally, a lot of modern computerized transmitters have the ability to utilize dual elevator servos. My Hitec Eclipse 7 calls this function "ailevator" but I think there are other names for it as well. You can reverse rotation, alter center points and cotrol end points individually for both servos. Oh, I just thought of another option. Hitec digital servos can be individually programmed by the user with their programmer. I hope this didn't confuse the issue even more. :) Do a bit of reading and I'm sure you'll be able to settle on a solution that meets your needs.

Erik

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Erik,
That was a good job explaining all of the options for split elevators. Im afraid since Celidon has a Futaba 7 Cap the reversing
y-harness my be his best bet. A friend of my has a 7 CAP and you can program the trasmitter to use 2 seperate channels but the trim didn't work right. He has since upgraded to a 9 CAP which does this function as your Hitech using ailevator or you can just program in a mix on the 9 CAP to get the same result. The 7 CAP is a great transmitter for the money but lacking this one function kills it for me because almost all of my planes use it. I had Futaba's 6EAX before I got my 9 CAP and that was my primary reason to upgrade.
I hope that I am wrong and the 7CAP can be programed for this but my friend never got his working right so he used the reversing y-harness until he upgraded. The only problem he experienced with the reversing y- harness is it got out of adustment pretty often and you had to adjust it with a adjustment screw built into it.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

I had the same issue but what I did, temporarily, was to use the mixing in the transmitter that is setup usually for ailerons to run the elevators. Now this means that if I accidentally hit the flap knob on the transmitter, then one of the elevators will move out of position but it allowed me to reverse one of the servos.

My longer term solution is to get a servo reversing Y harness that will connect the two elevator servos together and reverse one of them so that they will move the elevator the same. Doing this means that all your adjustments on elevator position now become manual to sync the elevator halves together. The ailerons aren't that big of a deal because they normally work opposite of each other anyway so if you don't have any mixing, a regular Y harness will work for your ailerons.

Hope this helps.

Craig

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Just how "bad" is it really to use one elevator servo on the Ractor? I know I'll get more into this as I find time to begin the build, but what provision do they give you to join the elevator halves?

I'm stepping up from a 4* 40 and a 60 size Ultra Stick, so I'm thinking I would still think it was a great plane...:-) I have the T6XA and am stuck with the above options as well.

Hey, IF I did come up with the bucks for 2 digital mini servos..... any possibility of programming them at the hobby shop rather than having to purchase a programmer?

Thanks,

Ernie

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

They don't give you an option in the kit to join the two halves together. They are completely seperate. I guess that you "could" join them together somehow but I wouldn't recommend it.

Just get two servos and get a servo reversing Y harness and you are good.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

join them and save weight and trouble! , use a CF tube in the LE

just my opinion

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Hey Erik, I bought a ys 63s over the weekend.(hope I made the right choice) I need to know what the part # for the muffler adaptor from performance specialties was. thanks Darin

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Congrats on the engine, Darin. I hope it brings you lots of joy. :) I'd suggest you call PS and tell them what you want. They are very friendly. The reason I'd call is because I never found the part on their website. All the elbows I could find fit ONLY THEIR mufflers, which have a larger inlet hole than the standard YS unit. I couldn't find a toll-free number for them....I used 775-265-7523. You could also probably write them a detailed note and fax it to them at 775-265-7522.

Hope this helps,

Erik

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

I was able to shift some things around and balance the plane without the brass prop nut. Actually, I was a little nose heavy before so now I'm closer to the balance point listed in the manual.
I'm also switching to a little lower pitch prop. I was running an 11x8 so I'm going to try an 11x7 and 11x6 to see what the difference is. Maybe with the reduced weight and better balance I will see some improved performance with this .46FX......we'll see.

I did check that price on a Saito 82 and it was $230 with free shipping so that's my next option when I see that this .46 won't do what I want it to. :)
Thanks Erik for the engine contact.

It's supposed to be in the 50's today and tomorrow but I don't have time to fly. Maybe the weather will hold out on Thursday and I can get a test flight in.
Craig

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Well, the engine is mounted and the cowling is almost right. I still need to cut a bit to allow for proper throtle linkage travel. My main problem is a glitch in the electronics. I have a jitter in one alieron. I am going to pull the electronics and test it all out of the plane to see if it is a wiring issue. My antena wire is running under my battery right now and some of my extensions are way to long so I may need to run shorter ones. I am debating putting my receiver under the canopy facing up instead of down.

Any suggestions?

Also, how do I post pics on this forum?

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

To post a pic, I think you have to reply to a previous post and then you get the option to post a picture.

I had servo jitter and it turned into interference at about 100ft with my transmitter antenna down until I re-routed my receiver antenna through the top of the canopy and along the outside of the plane. Then it went away.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

I have to admit, I haven't range checked my Reactor yet, but I'm a little nervous about these two reports of radio problems so far. I put my receiver in the aft section of the radio compartment and ran the antenna in the existing antenna tube. I suppose if I have problems, I'll move the antenna to the outside of the plane, but I really hope it's not necessary. I originally had WAY to much excess servo extension wire as well. I first used the recommended 36-inch extensions for the tail serovs, but was able to substitute 18-inch ones after seeing how much extra wire there was. Celidon, please let us know what happens after you shorten your extensions.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

Just FYI. I too used the recommended servo extensions and they were way too long. They are still in my plane though and I don't plant to change them out.....yet.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

LOL...get those puppies out of there! I saved a little over an ounce by shedding that extra 54 inches of wire. :) Actually, the extensions I had were heavy duty (22 gauge), so the difference might not be as dramatic with standard extensions. :) Seriously though, I doubt the extra ounce will make any difference at all....especailly considering the trouble to pull all those servos and change out the extensions.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

I had a Twist that had a tube inside to run the ant. through and it glitched like crazy. The tube goes right past the rear servos. I had to move the ant wire to the outside to get it to stop glitching.

RE: Great Planes Reactor GP/EP 3D ARF .46-.70
 

I had a twist 40 as well but never had any radio issues. I am using metal gear servos. I don't know if they could be causing the issue. I still need to get and install a servo reversing y harnes. My other Doh! was forgetting to pull the tank before drilled my linkage hole for the throtle. I drilled a hole in the tank. [X(] (what an idiot...) I am waiting for a replacement.

I will let you know tonight if I figure out the electronics issue.