chaz42075

All. This may have been covered and I missed it. I bought this used ARF from a hobby shop already assembled and the "O" rings on the landing gear were gone and there was a zip tie in that location. I ordered replacement rings and installed them when they arrived a week and a half ago. Yesterday I took the camel to the yard for a run up on the new Saito 91 and all the rings were broken and laying on the workbench. Any fix for this? Bungee?? I would think a Zip Tie or Panduit Strap is too restrictive for landig gear. Thank you in advance for your help!!!

rallison

Chaz,

I had a similar problem, and per suggestions in this thread and other H9 Camel threads, replaced the o-rings with heavy-duty black elastic cord (purchased at JoAnn Fabrics) which I knotted on one end of the gear wire (where you would loop one end of the o-ring) and then stretched tightly* in the same looping pattern, finally tying off on the gear wire again. For safety's sake, do at least two separate runs so if one breaks you still have a bit of suspension. I look at mine every time I pre-flight. Also keep in mind it will loosen over time and need to be replaced. But mine has held up perfectly for a couple of hour's flight time (and ten or twelve landings) over the last month. The original o-rings definitely do not cut it.

Happy landings,

- Rick


*The cord is stretchier than the o-rings, so needs to be pulled tight, but not so tight as to eliminate all movement.

chaz42075

Rick,

Thanks, I am going to get some of that. Same O.D. as the rings approx?

Chaz

rallison

No worries, Chaz.

Yes; I bought two kinds, a round cross-section slightly smaller O.D. than the rings, and an oval cross-section a bit thicker. The thinner stuff was a bit too bouncy, so I'm using the thicker, oval kind. I don't have the packaging any more or I'd give the specs...

- Rick

pope61

Mustang Fever and Frets 24, just to let ya know the cammel had its
1st flight on Oct 4th 09.. The balance was at 3 .75 " Evolution nt 61
Nose into the wind a little rudder till the tail came up, no rudder needed
for the rest of take off. !4min plus flight a little less than a half a tank(a little brlow half throt)
Landing un-eventfull a little power on two wheel roll out, really no tendency
to nose over(short grass, dont know handling on longer stuff) but had a tendency
to walk on the main gear for a bit, but nothing serious. Good ground handling
for no tail wheel. Thank you fellas for the help and input that you gave me about the c/g
and wieght issues. Keep up the good work

Sincerly
Wes

frets24

My Feedback: (15)

Congrats pope61,

always good to hear of a good maiden.

ScottMcM

My Feedback: (66)

My new toys were just delivered....H9 Sopwith Camel.....and a Saito 90 radial I feel like a young'un at Christmas I've been wanting a WW1 Biplane with a radial since I started with this addiction.....uhh, I mean... hobby Can't wait to hear that baby purrrr

PfalzPflyer

My Feedback: (3)

Wes,
Glad to hear about the successful maiden flight. Getting the CG correct and the servo throws right is more than half the battle; the rest is just "tweaks". Sounds like you got it about right straight out of the gate.

ScottMcM,
Sure would like to hear that radial flying a Camel. You'll post some video when you get it flying, right?

Dean in Omaha

P.S. We had 4 of these H9 Camels at the Western Front Dawn Patrol last month. It looked great to see them lined up together on the flightline.
http://www.metro********.com/images/d-15.jpg

cedthered

Hi there, I had just unpacked my H9 Sopwith Camel from the box, and I must say, I am impressed with the quality of this kit!
I will be getting my Saito 90 radial on tuesday
What prop goes best with this setup?
Do I have to put in the lump of lead, or is the weight of the 90 radial enough?
Is there another way to do the rigging, as I do not want to rebuild the plane everytime I go and fly...
I am thinking of a few ways to mod the rigging as to made it a quick detach/attach system, but if enyone has done this, I am all ears.
The book says that the main-wing rigging is not required, but the tail is, I do not want to chuck the rigging as this looks cool, and ads to the whole scale look.

What glow system works best?, I am not really looking to put in a glow-driver as such, but merely a system to start the plane, as I believe the Saito runs quite well and reliably.
If need be, I will put in a system to light up the plugs at low rpm, but I would prefer not to.

Been looking through the threads to see answers to simmilar questions, but could not find satisfactory answers, or must have missed them, there are 24 pages of very usefull info, but unfortunately cannot seem to find what I am looking for.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanx
Cedric Pieterse
Uppsala
Sweden

frets24

My Feedback: (15)

You'll like ethe 90R3; sounds great with a Keleo exhaust ring. I'm using a McDaniel Glo driver with the guts removed from the casing and foam wrapped for placement reasons. Got a 2800Mah 4.8 subC pac on it. It is absolutely necessary to run a booster on the R3 or you will lose the lower left cylinder/flame out at low to medium speeds. imperitive to not be too rich on this engine to avoid flooding the plugs at speed but at the same time not too lean so it overheats. real trick to optimize the tuning. It's not really broken in for about 8 or 10 tanks either so keep your tach handy and retune/check tune for the 1st 10-15 flights. 13x8 or a 13x6 works nice on this one.

I've got everything shoved as far forward as possible except the two futaba standard servos @ elev/rudd and even with the 90R3 and collector ring in front of the fire wall and two bat pacs just behind (4xAA and 4xC)
I still needed @15oz of wieght up front. with the 90R3 theres no room for the wieght box so you have to work out some brackets.

I found that the supplied rigging was not essential up front and absolutely necessary at the rear (per inst) but that also "X" bracing was necessary at each set of struts and cabanes or over time the top wing began to shift to the rear and the incidence started changing between wings. These were easy enough to make from 2-56 pushrod wire. get yourself some fine guage wire to loop through the turn buckles on the rigging or they will vibrate loose. at the least you'll lose the t/b barrel; at worst the tail will crumble. just an "S" through one eyelet then the turnbuckle then the last eyelet will hold them well and makes them easy to re-adjust later

as far as transporting; if you cant fit it in together then you got no choice but to tear it down and rig it up each way. even with all of the fly wires and X braces I've gotten to where I can go either way in 10 min or less so it's not as bad as it seems. with the fly wires pre-adjusted and locked it goes pretty quickly.

Added:26 oct.

Might need to also mention that the 90R3 allows for scale only flight characteristics. Great level flight, but a bit sluggish on climbs and level entry on loops a no-go. Anyone else running an R3? similar performance or better?

gcshawkey

I used black elastic dressmakers cord for the main rigging, and made up some small s hooks at one end which simply clip into small lithoplate brackets...takes around 30 seconds to rig the mains this way. For the tail, I used 30lb nylon fishing line, permanently attached through the supplied fittings, and tensioned reasonably tight before crimping in place. I also changed the fixings for the interplane struts, as these little suckers are just waiting to fall off into the grass and be lost - I made a right angle aluminium "block" welded to the flat wing bracket on the lower wing, and tapped it for a larger screw, enlarged the hole in the lower tabs on the cabane, and the screw passes through this hole and into the threaded block. The top of the struts stay in place on the top wing when removed. This reduces all the assembly to just 4 x screws for the cabane top tabs into the wing ( which I do with the model flat and upside down on the ground ) and the 2 x screws mentioned above. I used c/f pushrods for the elevator, and lightweight closed loop for the rudder, and yet even with 12 x A123 cells inside the cowl, an onboard sound system and loudspeaker under the undercarriage area and a large 1000Watt motor it still needed noseweight adding!!
Mine weighs around 9.5lbs.... and has yet to fly.... looking at this weekend maybe[X(].

cedthered

Thanx for the info!
I like the idea of the 13/8, it is a strong motor at low rpm, and there is no need to rev it.
I will take your advise re the glow driver, can you supply me with more info re. this?
WOW! You still need lead up front even with the 90R3[sm=what_smile.gif]
Thinking of using miniature caribine hooks for the rigging, I can get small strong ones from our local hobby-shop. They sell a lot of train and boat stuff too.
Do I have to use the keleo?, it sounds very nice without the keleo and I think that i will get away with the noise regs at our club...
I am also contemlating making a custom cowl so that the motor shows a little bit, and for the exhaust pipes to get out. In this case i can make a slightly longer cowl, and move the motor forward to help with the c/g. I hate "dead" weight in an aircraft. If all else fails, i can still resort back to the original cowl, and use the lead, at least in this case, i will not destroy the original cowl with my experiments.

Or maybe i will get an overweight Snoopy to lean forward a bit....

Best of luck with the maiden on the weekend gcshawkey!

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

cedthered, you may want to check out your local bait shop/fishing supply, for snap links. Easy on/off of the wires. Here's an example.
http://www.psfishing.com/swivel-with...ink-brass.html

And DITTO the elastic cord for the landing gear, mines been on over two (2) years and are as good as new.

cedthered

Glacier Girl, the award for The Tip Of The Day goes to you! I was wondering if the carabine hooks were going to be stron genoug, but, the snap-links will definately be.


Gone fishing....
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pope61

Heres a couple shots of the first flight............

chaz42075

Nice pics Wes. What was up with the weather? Front moving in?

High in the low 40s here today = no flying for me. However this weekend we are looking at better flying weather. I will try for my maiden this Sunday, your shots were an insperation.

Take it easy!

pope61

Chaz yes it was chilly and windy
2 Degress C

Good luck on the flight like every body else said
get the c/g right and it will handle nice

let us know how it goes

Wes

gcshawkey

OK mines all read too, just finished her tonight, and hope for maiden flight Monday.
Just remind me guys of the best control surface deflections, and the best found COG.

cedthered

Nice looking plane, best of luck!
I just finished the engine-stand for the FA90R3 Saito, hope to run her in over the weekend.
How will a 13/6 prop pull her around?
I am also putting in a onboard glow system, that runs off a micro-switch on the throttle linkage. I would like to keep it sweet and simple, and try to avoid electronics where i can...

gcshawkey

Thanks.

drorso

Just got to the point where i found out my kit is missing too the brass fittings :-( Should have check it while reading this post a month ago...

I guess i will produce them as i have the material, rather than waiting for shipping from H9.

Other than that all is good, hope for maiden flight in two weeks,

Dror.

gary43

Has anyone put a smoke system on this plane?  I am interested in putting one of these together for my winter project and have been thinking it would be great with a smoke system but have never done one?

hotelbravo13

I can just agree with frets24 about Saito 90R3.
Engine sound and look are great. I cannot imagine a better engine for the sopwith.

In our club, we decided this summer to fly a whole squadron of camels. 20 pilots bought one and 8 bought a Saito 90R3 with keleo ring. Patrol flights are planned for next summer and 5 planes are allready flying in the field. One powered by 3000 W brushless, others by OS 120 and mine by R3. Compared with the crazy electric setup, flying with R3 is like i am one war late....
But keeping in mind that camel is ww1 plane, this setup is totally realistic. R3 power is not excessive for the plane, but i can fly easily at half throttle. Take off needs less than 15 m with no wind. Vertical climb is definetely not in R3 programm, but flying with this engine is just magical.

Hopefully is my car large enough to carry the camel fully assembled, so i don't need to install wings and riggings on the field.

With 8 saito enthusiasts, some team building was possible. One guy designed and prepared specific laser cut aluminium engine mounts. The aluminium plate is directly screwed on the original firewall bolts and 4 little columns give the right position and angle for the saito.
Propeller is Zinger wooden 14-5, a little less than 8000 rpm with a nice scale look.
My son designed and built an electronic programmable glow driver able to heat up to 5 glows from a one lipo cell. Using a 1s2p 4000 lipo, i can heat the three glows plugs for about 90 min. Engine doesnt really need glow driver in my experiment, but without, needle is quite difficult to set and iddle not so regular. With driver and 10 % nitro, iddle can be about 1800/1900 rpm as long as i want. And driver allows a simple and secure starting procedure.
The driver has two boards, one for electronics in the fuselage, and another with control leds and start button in the cockpit. 3 leds show the state of the glow battery, 3 other leds show the status of the glows (heated, cold, defective) and a button activates the system.

I needed 360 Gr under the cowl for correct cog and total weight is 4200 Gr without fuel, which is no problem for the plane. I allready made about 10 flights with this setup. No problem except landing that often results in tail pointing to the sky, nose in the grass [&o]
I tried slower and higher approach speed, but when the tail skid touches the ground, then plane begins to turn to the right. No way to control it with rudder. Probably something wrong in the landing gear, to be checked. No risk for the plane as speed is very slow, and quite funny for spectators

I cant wait to see and hear 3 or 4 camel/R3 flying simultaneously. certainly some nice vids to post in a cup of monthes.

Daniel

hotelbravo13

Here some pics

cedthered

Nice pics!
It is interesting to see the different approaches to glow drivers, as well as lead in the nose.
I have read here, and on other sites that some need weight and some dont. I still have to mount the R3 in the plane, so not sure I will need lead. I am moving everything as far forward as possible to avoid putting lead in the nose.
I am using a completely different approach to glow drivers. I made up a battery-pack from three 1.2V 3700m/ah batteries. I am using a channel on the receiver to drive a relay so that i can decide at the flick of a switch when to let it glow.

Started the R3 for the first time last weekend, and boy! She is a beuty to hear. The motor sprang to life with surprisingly minimun effort.
I had the glow plugs on for the first tank, as she was pushing a lot of unburnt fuel out the pipes, but from the second tank onwards i started to switch off the glow, she ran fine for a while, but because of the rich mix, died on one of the bottom cylinders after a while. By the 4th tank, i only used the glow for start.

Now to find a Snoopy....