randy racer

My Feedback: (3)

Rennie, bill thinks he will fly it this week for the first time. he has changed batteries and checked it over and thinks it's ready to go. when he lets me know how it flys i will let you know. i should maiden my QQ 102" tomarrow so wish me luck.

randy

Randy Brown

I finnaly got to test fly my 260 last week.. man oh man was i impressed

Only if this frigin wind would go away to get more in

bodywerks

My Feedback: (4)

Well boys, I have come to my senses and repurchased another 260. I already punched a bunch of holes in the canopy/hatch and bought the CF main and tail gear for it and have a set of carbon tubes coming. I am pulling everything out of my QQ Yak to get this thing in the air. The QQ was too flimsy in the air - you could see the stabs twisting in high stress maneuvers and the thing didn't track very well, IMO. I have done about half of my flights on the Yak with some of the Aeroworks boys and their 260 and flight performance difference is night and day! Harriers are better, snaps are better and the 260 tracks much better, and the 260's looks and build quality are FAR superior. It took me a while, but I have seen the light!
The plane won't be done for a couple weeks because I will be out of town this week, but I will already have the wings completely done by this evening and the rudder is already hinged, so it's just a matter of bolting stuff on...

John Murdoch

My Feedback: (11)

Haven't we been through this before?? LOL! Why don't you go ahead and start a brand new build thread for the 260. After all you've been through, I'd like to see how you're going to lighten this puppy up (after reading all your previous posts) enough to fly with your expectations at your elevation.

Good Luck!

sweetpea01

My Feedback: (10)

and the 260's looks and build quality are FAR superior. It took me a while, but I have seen the light!




I think that High Alt got to your senses.......glad you've recoginzed!

Bobby Folsom

Guys, this past weekend was the maiden IMAC contest for my 260. It flew great!! However, I didn't fly it very well because I have to relearn how to fly most of the maneuvors (sp)! The plane is so precise and tight!! This was evidenced by the fact that the judges asked why the 260 looked like it was vibrating after I did the snap roll! My caller (an intermediate pilot - I fly sportsman) noticed that after I bang the sticks to get into the snap, I just let go of the them and when the sticks went back and forth just a bit, the 260 obiently followed!!

The wind was 15-20 all weekend from about 40-45 degrees from the runway so I had to hold a lot of rudder to keep it tracking straight through the sequences. I'm glad we worked on mixing out the little bit of roll, elevator coupling that it had otherwise I would have been all over the sky worse than I was - that west Texas sun is murder (the contest was in Abilene, TX)!!

One othe thing, I had to replace the 2 battery flights packs plus ignition pack due to their old age so I am going to replace them (Duralites) with Fromeco stuff all the way. I'll keep you all posted.

Bobby

bodywerks

My Feedback: (4)

Actually, I'not doing much to it. I have obviously punched the holes out in the hatch to save a couple ounces and I have the CF stuff. Other than that I will not be using the landing gear cuffs or the plywood cannister hole/engine box covers and I may punch a hole in the firewall. Other than that, I will use the KISS approach on the equipment to keep that weight to a minimum. If the BME won't pull it around, I'm sure a ZDZ120 will. Up here, the plane flies plenty light at up to 28 pounds dry.
I have decided that I would rather sacrifice a pound or so to have a top-quality well built plane than to have what I had. I am not even going to weigh it until I am done, but I will deal with whatever the weight is and will be happy with 26.5 pounds or less

rcblimppro

My Dad got one of these and after the initial flights I was less than impressed. It flew just fine but did nothing that really stood out. After all the hype I was truly disappointed. The AUW was even close to 29 lbs.

My dad had a mishap with it and took the gear off. While I was doing the repair I tried to lighten it up a bit. I cut some holes in the firewall and covered them with ultracote as well as the pipe opening. I replaced the batteries from 4800s to 2700s and finally took the rudder servos out of the tail and put a single servo back where it belonged under the canoyp on a pull pull. By this time the airplane dried out some and now the AUW is 26 3/4 LBS and the CG is in the correct position.



This time around The 260 really shined. I was very comfortable with it from the get go. It did everything I asked of it and seemed to ask if that was all I had. I ran through the advanced sequence a few times and it looked pretty darn good. The snaps were very predictable both positive and negitive. The rudder is positive and made the roller a bit easier. All in all I think I need to take my beatings here as I was really quite wrong about " the 260 that could " as we now call it.


Shawn

bodywerks

My Feedback: (4)

Takes a man to admit he jumped the gun on judging this plane without first owning of flying one...ask me how I know!!!

sweetpea01

My Feedback: (10)

Definatly........the benchmark for future ARFS


Sam

lazy eight

My Feedback: (389)

Guys I,m looking at buying one of these birds how does the BME 110 due in this airframe. I have one sitting here looking for a home. Has anybody had any trouble with the planes coming apart or landing gear tearouts,engine box's coming off?

rcblimppro

I would say not. The one my father has had been in the rough at least 3 times prior to the mishap that finally pulled the gear off. When it came to me for repair it was relitivly simple. I replaced the gear plate and made a new gear cover. The 2 vertical peices that the gear plate attaches to were still in great shape. The trick is to remember that you simply cannot go offroading with any aircraft of this size.

Shawn

bodywerks

My Feedback: (4)

As for the BME, it is what I plan to put in mine. I had it in a QQ Yak and had to fasion battery rails for the Rx and ignition batteries so that they would be as far forward as possible. By that, I mean all the way up against the front of the cowl. I also had to run a heavy Tru-turn spinner and CF prop and it was still a tad tailheavy, like 1/4" or so. However, the tail moment on the Yak is 3" longer than this 260 and the nose is at least an inch shorter, so, ath the very worse case, it will be able to balance without adding "dead" weight, and you may be able to get away with a CF spinner and wood prop.

lazy eight

My Feedback: (389)

Does anbody have a AW 260 out there with the BME 110 in her. If so I would like to know how everything is working out for you. CG, performance, ect. I think a DA 100 would be the better chioce but I have the BME 110 just sitting here. Maybe I sould offload the BME and buy me a DA and forgo the GC problems but the light wieght of the BME makes more sence if it will balance with out to much hassle.

valdlaw

My Feedback: (2)

Mark:

My CG ended up at roughly 3.85....is this too far back or safe to fly? I'm always going to be carrying some smoke oil ahead of the CG.

Thanks.

Mark Dennis

My Feedback: (4)

It will fly but will most likely be a little hard to set down smoothly. I would try to get it a little farther forward if possible.

bodywerks

My Feedback: (4)

I am building one with a BME and almost had it done when I got curious about CG issues, so I dry-assembled it. I am shooting for a 3.5" CG so I propped it up as such and started placing stuff forward. In the end, I figured that one of my Fromeco 2400's (the ignition) would have to hang way off the front of the engine box, by like 5 inches and the two 2400 main batts will be mounted as far forward on the outside of the engine box as possible. My ignition unit is also as far forward as possible. Still, this has proven to be much easier to balance than my QQ Yak, which had ALL my batteries 6" off the front of the engine box and still was a tad tailheavy.
I must also note, though, that I am using a heavier CF prop and a stock 4" Truturn spinner, which total an additional 6 ounces+ over lighter options, and a CF tailwheel which saved an ounce back there, and only one rudder servo, which is even less weight behind the CG.
So, to better answer your question, you will be able to get the CG right without adding "dead" weight, but you will have to be creative. And the good news is that, while I had everything stacked on the plane, I weighed it and I will definitely be under 26 pounds! The scale actually showed 25 lbs, 10 oz, and that's with the aluminum tubes. I am picking up the CF wing tube today, which will knock off around 6 ounces, but the weight demon always shows its ugly face somewhere, so I gave myself a 1/2 pound fudge factor for foam, zipties, logos, etc.
I will have pics and the finished weight tomorrow evening/night!

sweetpea01

My Feedback: (10)

Let us know your flight report ........way up in them there mountains!

bodywerks

My Feedback: (4)

Okay, it's done with the exception of some radio fine-tuning. AUW is 25 lbs, 11 oz. Here are some pics of where the batteries ended up and the finished product. Time for bed! maiden will be tomorrow, hopefully...

lazy eight

My Feedback: (389)

Looks good! Let us know how it flys. I see the heads look like there is one fin thats black. Is that some new coating on it for better cooling? I have the same engine but mine does not have the black fin or mayby its just the pic and it looks that way. It shure is one light engine for its size for shure. Here is a pic of my BME on a project I.m building right now. I was going to put it on the AW 260 but I,m going to use the DA 100 instead because the BME balances out on this Pitts airframe perfect.

bodywerks

My Feedback: (4)

I painted the top fins black to get a more accurate reading with a temp gun.

Bob_S

Lookin' sweet nick! Let me know how it flies.

bodywerks

My Feedback: (4)

What up, dude? You need to PM me with your new number. Did you know that there is a flying field out there that is a bunch of grass in a corn field? There is a guy named Mikey that just maidened a 260 there and Wayne Geffon was there, too.
Anyway, I flew it today...friggin' AWESOME! Everything about how this plane handles is sweet, except for an aileron differential problem that I noticed. When I roll right it drifts left and when I roll left it drifts right?? I noticed it on flight #2 and found that the throws on my mid rates weren't exactly even - the ailerons went up about 1/8" or so more than they went down. So I fixed that and it still had the same problem. Has anyone else focused in this area? I am going through the plane this week to make sure everything is secure from the 3 flights and I will make sure none of the aileron servos are bad, because the roll could be a sign of blowback, too.

rzubiria

My Feedback: (14)

Hello All,

I would like to know if anyone had a tail heavy problem with the Aeroworks extra 260????? I am trying to balance the airplane as per the instruction. 3 1/4" back the leading edge on the wind tip. Whats tha maximum I can go???? I am flying Imac.

Whats the normal weight of the airplane???? Mine is 29 lbs.

Thanks,

Ramon

Bobby Folsom

Ramon, I have my AW QB 260 balanced at 3 1/2" back from the leading edge. I also have a DA100 with standard DA mufflers. Look earlier in this thread for exact details. I did have to add a rudder to aileron and rudder to elevator mix to get hands off knife edge flight. I also reduced the low aileron rate to give a nice roll rate for the Sportsman IMAC sequence. If I want faster rolls, I flip the rate switch.

It is a great IMAC plane and it gets better the more I fly it.

What engine, radio etc is your 260 have in it?


Bobby