Bill Diedrich

Glad to hear you fly from a hard surface, as the nose gear on it's sister ship, the "Angel" disentigrated on the third flight and I fly off very short grass,
I also found that the plane tipped quite easily in a mild breeze. I have since converted mine to a tail-dragger and really enjoy the flight characteristics of
this plane, it's my 2nd favorite plane to carry to the field every trip along with my Modeltech "Dragon Lady".
Check it out: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10...m.htm#10792085

Bill D.

H5606

Well, I have access to a hard surface runway but it's further away from home, so I regularly fly from a grass runway most of the time...

I rebent the main gear and raised the nose gear so the entire airplane sits lower to the ground and has a wider than "stock" track; I hope this will reduce any tendency to tip...

I'm considering a Du-bro nose gear substitution.

I was wondering what kind and size of prop you're using on your Avistar .46 powered "Angel"?

Thanks for the link, Bill!

H5606

Thanks, Greg!

Bill Diedrich

For the Avistar .46 I am using a Master Airscrew 11/7 on 15% nitro. The stock nose gear looked to function great as far as shock absorbing but
I found on our well manicured and close cut grass strip it wanted to bend back a bit too much and as I stated on the 3rd flight it just totally desintigrated
on touching down, don't think I came in too hot or hard on it either, but the strut I replaced it with worked excellent, just couldn't get rid of the tipping over
onto a wing tip, hence the reason for the tail-dragger conversion, wasn't to difficult to do. I have even thought about purchasing the "Blade" but it is a low
wing instead of a mid wing like the "Angel & Sprinter". Good luck with the Sprinter if it flies anyhting like the Angel you'll fall in love with it.

BTW I like the personalized touches you added, they look great.......

H5606

Thanks for the detailed response, Bill.

H5606

Because of the concern over the nose gear fork being too brittle, I stuck it in hot water like Top Flite used to advise doing to their nylon props to hopefully condition it and relieve stresses. The motor mount has a gummy texture and was too narrow for the Magnum .46 case, so I opened up the bearer spacing with a bandsaw and cut off the excess length. While I was in the area, I opted to remove the nose wheel pant for anticipated rough field operation and painted the wheel hub to match the a/c.

H5606

Additional mods I made include:
-adding another hinge point to the elevator halves for 3 each side instead of 2.
-adding some ply doublers to the fuselage servo tray to give more bite for the mounting screws.
-substituting #4(?) flat washers for the stock black plastic collars that are supposed to be used with the control surface screws (horns).
-substituted a couple easy connectors.

1st Flt 7/11/12

I was anxious and rushing to fly on a club meeting night at the field before sunset. After removing the cowl, I ran a bit of fuel through the new engine and was satisfied after a restart that I had enough consistent power to fly even though needling was sensitive. Takeoff took a lot of back pressure to un-stick but once airborne, I put the nose down and established a conservative climb attitude. I flew mostly straight and level with low bank angle turns until the engine quit. I was at the downwind end of the runway and had a little more altitude than I wanted, so I performed a descending 360* and found out how much altitude and speed was lost at 270* when the left wing dropped right now! I let go of everything as it was too low for recovery. Surprise - this airplane snaps easily! Because of the tall grass before the threshold of the runway, embarrassment was limited to a bent nose gear strut and the fork didn't break. I straightened it and flew a couple more flights that evening but the engine continued to degrade in consistency.

freddy s

My Feedback: (33)

Just a couple of pics of my now well worn Sprinter.Presently running a Saito .80 4 stroke,13/6 apc,15% powermaster.

stuntflyr

Hi H5606,
I used the very odd break-in procedure on the instruction sheet and have no problems with my Magnum 46's. It's almost as if the manufacturer thought the liner was soft, or tolerences off a bit and it needed all castor for break-in! On an ABC. They were 49 bucks and I bought two, so broke out the Fox 35 fuel and said what the heck, I'll do it.
I run 22% oil by adding 4 to 5 oz of castor, (as I do in everything I run lately as they're all Classic Pattern OS's), and use 10x6 props.
Over propping them and running them with too little oil might be a problem for the little Magnum. I changed over from those terrible little black Master Airscrew S2's and went to APC's and they really sing and produce way more thrust.
Mine are used on these two models, son's BH Speed Air 40 and Dad's RCM Trainer 40, about the same size as your, ah, ahem... Super Sphincter!
Chris...

H5606

Thanks for your input on the Magnum .46's, stuntflyr.

After thinking through the first flights, I decided to recheck the fuel tank for leaks. I'm using a 3-line system with a Hangar 9 fuel dot. So far, I can't get it to stay put; it just keeps popping out. It seems like it needs some channel for the o-ring to pop into that isn't there... What's the fix for this?

Back to the tank - when I finish assembling a tank, I pinch one line while blowing in the the other until my face turns blue, then pinch the other line and hold both for a reasonable period, then release one line and listen for the rush of escaping air. When I pulled the tank out, I discovered fuel on the outside of the tank - clue #1. The fuel tank compartment isn't fuel proofed - fuel stains were evident there - clue #2. I did my quick fuel tank check and it was weak. I suspected the stopper and after submerging the tank, saw the tell-tale bubbles while blowing. So, I tightened the stopper on the BH supplied tank until it sealed. I did the best I could cleaning up the interior nose with some K2R. I remember now, the first of 3 clues should have been the air bubbles I noticed in the fuel line of the uncowled engine I did for the first flights.

I have a half-dozen flights on the airplane at this time. The sensitive needle problem seems to be gone. The engine is beginning to exhibit nice running characteristics with ample power on the break-in prop - a 10X6 APC. I'm running Omega 10% w/ some added Sig castor. I've blown both muffler gaskets the engine was supplied with each time finding the tell-tale black gook trailing from the engine compartment. I'm going to try running without a gasket to see if what works on other brands of engines works here and switch to an 11X6.

To freddy s, it looks like you're very comfortable with this airplane as an "engine rat". Have you or anybody else that is familiar with it seen the snapping tendency at low airspeed or when pulling hard on the elevator?

H5606

Pictures of trim removal from the wheel pants and fabrication of 1/16" plywood doubler rings used to support the fuel dot in the cowl and outboard portion of the main gear wheel pants around the wheel collars. i.e. I didn't like the wheel pants to be solely relying on the cantilever attachment to the axles.

H5606

As much as I didn't want to, before pulling the backing off, I decided to cut down the number of letters on the right wing panel so...

freddy s

My Feedback: (33)

To H5606,i have definetely found that if elevator and or ailerons throws are to large or if you pull to much it will snap hard.And just to mention it mine looked like yours at one time to,but 4 yrs.and many flights have taken their toll.Still fly it regularly,am very comfortable with it and its fun.

H5606

I like the way it tracks when at speed, however, I plan to explore slow flight characteristics as the engine breaks in. I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this trait. I'm really surprised that just at a glance, a shoulder wing airplane with plenty of wing area, constant chord wing, long tail moment, and moderate weight would exhibit this trait... Down elevator seems overly sensitive and K.E. requires some down at #3 of a 4-point as it pulls toward the canopy.

I know its just a band-aid and don't even know whether it will work, but I'm thinking of installing some tri-stock (stall strips) at the root area of the leading edge to propagate the stall from the root. Or maybe just learn to fly this type of airplane? If nothing else it will keep me on my feet! I think at a minium I'll reduce elevator travel.

Bottom line - so far, I'm having fun with it!

H5606

Shortly after the last post, the erratic engine operation I thought was solely related to the leaky tank began to worsen. It became frustrating enough to remove the cowl and fly it until the problem was resolved. I finally pulled the HS needle seat and found a piece of what looked like clear plastic fouling the carb body. I don't know if it came from the tank but I removed it and put it all back together and operation is now what I consider optimum.

I mixed in some down elev with rudder to help tracking during rudder input on rolls. The main gear is way too far aft in this design and results in terrible take-off performance - the airplane needs a good head of steam to rotate and when it does, it doesn't transition but rather leaps abruptly into the air. Likewise on landing the airplane's nose comes down as soon as the mains touch. I went ahead and made a new gear plate and moved the main gear forward 2.5 inches as shown in the pictures. I tried to remove as much of the original gear plate as I could by drilling some lightening holes. I sheeted around the new plate and used some Piper yellow Monokote to cover the affected area.

I swapped the receiver with the battery to bring the CG to the mfg's aft limit of 90 mm back from the LE. Half reverse Cuban 8's are nice for turn-arounds when no down elev is needed when rolled onto it's back. Now, take-offs are more like a trike should be - nose comes up and holds attitude while the airplane lifts off...

H5606

Was going to go flying recently but decided to take a closer look at details. Ended up adding the nose gear wheel pant after all - had to do some additional massaging to allow pant to seat lower on gear fork and made sure airplane sits absolutely level by adjusting nose gear length - checked CG thus suspecting I've been flying slightly nose heavy. Moved Rx aft to area next to throttle servo and airborne pack to area behind rudder/elev servos. Mfg manual says CG should be at 80 mm. Set up airplane with level attitude in 3-point stance and confirmed with my own "CG Machine" (3-quarter ply base with pencils inserted into it to support airplane) that center of gravity is now between 80 and 90 mm. With tank dry, airplane now sits on tail when the tail is pushed down figuring this element lays to rest any concern the main gear was not moved far enough forward. Hoping this is alright. Content that fuel will move CG forward for take-off...

Elevator trim looked faired previously; see what happens next time it flies.

Bill Diedrich

I see you still have the Sprinter, I stripped the covering off the Angel and recovered her this year
haven't had a chance to fly her since dong the recover, but am very happy with the way she came
out.

Bill Diedrich

Acouple more pics of the Angel

H5606

WTG Bill - looks great!

What's the covering, graphics, and paint used for the recover?

Would like to see before pics too if possible...

Bill Diedrich

I'll check to see what the dark blue spray was but the covering is all monokote yellow and Corsair blue,.
graphics were done by Callie's Graphics, yellow paint was Top Flite Lustercoat, pin stripping was some
I had on hand. Will see if I have some before pics this evening.

Sure wished I could get my hands on the Spinter, was my first choice when they became available, but when
I ordered it they were out of stock at the time.