Smokey

My Feedback: (16)

Im installing an OS 46fx sideways on the plane. Am i suppose to center it on the crosshares located on the fire wall? IF i do so, the cowl seems to be real high and does not look good. Does anybody have pictures of their installation. Thanks for the help.

Smokey

jmupilot

Smokey I took a few pictures of my engine mount this morning. Mine is mounted so the enginge is centered on the marks scribed on the firewall. The piece of wood you see under the upper mount is there to space the engine out just a little so the prop thrust washer is clear of the cowling. I dont fly mine with the cowling as it seems to over heat to quickly.


Pete

Smokey

My Feedback: (16)

Thats exactly what i did with the engine mounting. How does your cowl look installed? Mine looks like its angled too high up and it does not look right. If i try to follow the slope of the top of the fuselage with the cowl, the engine should be mounted maybe over 1/2" lower for it to look alright.

Smokey

jmupilot

Smokey, I just slipped my cowling on and it lines up OK. The crankshaft is in the center of the cowling cutout for the propshaft to go through. I did notice what you were saying about the slope of the rear deck. Mine to looks like it does not follow the line of the fuse exactly, but if you'll notice the rear of the fuselage slopes upward on the bottom too. The cowling appears to center itself on these two lines, top and bottom. Put the wings on and check it out, it look a lot better.


Pete

Smokey

My Feedback: (16)

Okay i will give that a try and report later. Did you balance yours with or without fuel?

Smokey

jmupilot

I balanced mine with empty tank. With the retractable nose gear it didnt take much added weight to balance. I have the Flight pack battery in the nose above the retract. Retracting the gear moves the CG slightly rearward on the balance rack but I see no changes in flight attitude.

Pete

davidsai

hi guys just crusing i found your tread see my long ez with engine and other deatiled pictures at www.cybul.com on the aereomodleing tab of my family web site
bye for now
regards

david

Bumstead

My Feedback: (2)

As a tip, add a washer under the bottom two engine mount bearers so that the prop has "down-thrust" at the rear.
Opposite to down-thrust in a tractor set-up. The prop should seem like it would lift the nose-(it should)

jmupilot

Hmmmmmmmmm, Mine required a shim under the top engine bearer, I took the bottom one out. See the pic's in the first part of this thread. It climbed at full throttle and when trimmed for that it would require lots of up for landing. After adding the shim it just flys like a normal front engine plane. They must all be built a little differently. Probably has a lot to do with lack of information in the instructions, ie... what angle does the front canard go in relation to the wing. I know mine could be moved in the slot provided about 5 degrees difference. Also the balance of the model, do you balance with full tank or empty tank for the postion shown? I balanced mine empty, some did it full and I think one even went with half a tank of fuel. After getting th first few flights over and trimming things out its a really neat little airplane. Maybe a little more comparison for the newbies so they can get it right the first time. I'm going to fill my tank and see where it balances with nose gear up and down and post it. I haven't checked it since i changed the motor to the OS LA 46. I know its about 5 oz's lighter than the OS46FX is, same prop and muffler though. I'll see where it is now because it's really flying great now.


Pete

Smokey

My Feedback: (16)

Bumstead....Can you tell us how your plane flew before you added the bottom shims. I just want to know what to look for on the first flight. Since jmupilot installed the shims opposite of yours. Just finished mine with a sideways mounted 46fx. 6lbs 11oz

Smokey

jmupilot

I just did some balancing test on my LongEZ. Here's what I got: Empty tank with gear down is 16 3/16 in from leading edge of canard wing
Empty tank with gear up is 16 1/4 in from leading edge of canard wing
Full tank with gear down is 16 11/16 in from leading edge of canard wing
Full tank with gear up is 16 3/4 in from leading edge of canard wing

This is about 1/2 to 1/4 inch in front of the CG recommended in the instructions. I figured that the canard to wing placement on the fuse may vary some with our models. Its just a reference point on mine. Maybe we could measure from the landing gear, or find a point that will be the same on everyones.


Full tank ready to fly weight is 6 3/4 lbs. I found that cycling the nose gear up and down only causes the nose to rise and lower on the Great Planes balancing machine about an inch. I didn't see any changes while in flight. I still do not have the cowling on the plane yet. It has a OS LA 46 with 11x7 APC pusher prop and a Magnum XL 40-50 Pitts muffler. RPM is in the 11,700 range on 15 % wildcat fuel.

Anyone else care to post thier Stats.

Pete

Smokey

My Feedback: (16)

I asked AK-Models whom i bought my long ez and he said to balance the plane WITHOUT fuel.

Smokey

jmupilot

There ya go. Firwst time I've heard anything about balane from anyone. Glad I did mine without fuel, Stands to reason that after a flight its going to to be almost empty anyway. I think the CG on this plane is very wide anyway. I know from speaking to a lot of Model manufacture's that they all show a well forward CG for the shear reason that it makes the model more stable. I have found that I can shift the CG back on most of the planes I fly and they are fine, just a little less forgiving if you get too slow or use too much elevator throw. I remeber talking to Bubba Spivey of Laneir about the Giant Stinger's CG and he flew his with the CG almost 5 inches behind where it was shown on the plans. But he owned the CO and had an endless supply of kits.


Pete

jmupilot

BUMP Anyone flying thier LongEZ's havent seen any activity on the threads.

Pete

davidsai

Hi Pete Good Morning

I tryed to fly mine a coupleof months a go and it stalla and crashed rigth after lifting off the runway so i fixed the brojen wing and winglets. so today i will go at it again, i think i kifted or it lifted to early so i will let it run all the way to the end of runway 140 meters and then will let go up. will see what happens

regards
david

drone pilot

Just finishing assembly of my Richmodel EZE. Balance point is given, but no throw measurements for elevator or ailerons. I assume 1/2' up / down for elevator and 5/8" for ailerons. How good a guess is that? There is no information on flight handeling in the "so called" build manual. Any suggestions ?

davidsai

Hi Guys i just came back from flying site, the plane took off no more than 4 or 5 ft on the air then it just dove and crashed i will rebuild but its turning to be a pain, the cannard slip and slit the fuselage on one side, tehe nose fiberglass unit will have to be repaired and the side fusekage where the wing ties to it it reaped so it will be a few weeks before i am on the air again.

bye for now

kids vacation is on so iam off to the capital no flying for at least a month

bye have a nice july

david

my web site is running and the videos on board videos are there

www.cybul.com

jmupilot

David, Sorry to hear the luck you've had with your LongEZ. I see you fly from a paved runway. Is there any chance you pull up to soon and stalling the LongEZ? I know models accelerate much more quickly on pavement. Its really easy to over control the steering often resulting in a fast pullup to avoid running off the runway. But the LongEZ requires a good amount of speed to fly. Might I suggest that you tame the nose steering some and let the model build more speed. I know I struggle every time I go to a club that has a paved runway. I fly from a grass runway and it takes about 150-200 ft of takeoff roll for my LongEZ to get flying speed. Hardly any up elevator required to take off, it almost just lifts off on its own. I also have a lot of Expo(70%) on the elevator so it's really soft around the neutral postion on the transmitter. What amount of throw do you have on the elevator. Mine is about 1/2inch in the down position (up elevator on a canard/ back stick), and about 3/8 inch in the up position (down elevator on a canard/ forward stick).

Don't know what kind of radio you are flying, I fly a Futaba Super 8, but a trick I learned from the jet jockeys is to use one of the knobs for taxi steering and the left stick for highspeed takeoff runs. You do this by plugging the nose gear servo into one of the channels that uses a knob(I use channel 8). Then mix this channel with the rudder channel. Set the mixing so that the knob moves the nose gear a lot for taxiing on the runway to and from the pits. Then switch the mixing in before take off to reduce the amount of travel on the nose gear for a smoother take off run. You can taxi with the rudder stick if you want, it just takes the whole runway width to turn around. I use it on any of my models that require a lot of airspeed for takeoff. The Expo feature could be used on the LongEZ because there are no rudders, maybe your first option. The other plus is that you can center your nosewheel easy by the knob(Ch8). I mark the center of this channel on the ransmitter knob so I can set if back to Zero before I take off. Just be sure you dont bump it during the flight as it can be a quick exit off the runway upon landing if its way off.

Hope you get it back to flying shape soon.

Pete

jrf

My Feedback: (551)

David:

Please excuse me if this question is insulting, but do you know that the elevator on a canard works in reverse? When the elevator goes down, the nose goes up and when the elevator goes up, the nose goes down.

The situation you describe sounds like you might have the elevator working the wrong way.

Jim

drone pilot

Jim, My Rich Model Long Eze is just about ready for the first flight, but need a little info. The instructions for this plane are almost usless, they did give the CG, but no measurements for the control surface throws. I have set 1/2" up / down for elevator and 5/8 up / down for ailerons. Think that is a good staring point? I have always heard canards good point is that they are pretty stall resistant, but now I wonder..Cliff

jrf

My Feedback: (551)

drone: I don't have mine here to measure, but that sounds like a good starting point. Set up low rates at 2/3 of those numbers just in case. Mine was very pitch sensitive the first time I flew it.

Jim

drone pilot

Jim, Thanks for the input, "it never rains in southern California", but it does in Oregon.... Hope to get airborne this weekend if weather co-operates. Will post results.....Cliff

Bumstead

My Feedback: (2)

About engine thrust line. From the back of the plane the thrust line should be about 3 degrees UP.
The plane needs alot of roll out to get the canard into lift, don't rush the takeoff.
And, it will lose lift on landing sooner than a tractor as there is no prop wash.
The anti-stall of a canard is great if you are at altitude, sucks if you are landing.
Balance EMPTY, as with most planes, a little nose heavy at takeoff is fine as fuel is
consumed the Center of mass will shift rearwards.
Keep the speed up on final and grease it in.
I "load" my wheels by making the wheel collars bind a bit on the mains. then the "off-field" roll outs
are a little more infrequent.

jrf

My Feedback: (551)

Since the tank is behind the CG, balancing it empty will result in the airplane being tail heavy with the tank full, (at takeoff) and the center of mass will shift forward as the fuel is consumed

It would be best if the instructions told you whether to balance it with the tank empty or full, but of course they don't. Balancing it with the tank full will result in a more stable (noseheavy) condition, but looking at these threads, it seems that people have been able to make it work either way. I balanced mine with the tank half full on the theory that it is better to be off a little than off a lot.

Jim

drone pilot

A lot of things to consider......re: fuel tank full or empty for CG. I 'm almost tempted to move the tank forward closer to the balance point, there is enough room. I have another pusher and the tank is quite a bit further away from engine than in the Eze. I don't experience any fuel flow problems as long as engine has some draw and the press is up. Will try running on ground with it in fwd position and see what happens. If it works, there whould be little change in CG as fuel is used.... comments?