Ernie Misner

It's the gopher holes or dead stick landings that worry me with most stock gear mounts.

wjcalhoun

Well guys
I had the R70 out today in perfect conditions. DLE20, 14x12 APC prop.
I ran opposing courses with the Eagle Tree GPS instruments on board. Straight and level.

I had a max of 118.5 mph down wind, and 100.5 upwind, averaging 109.5 mph independent of wind.

I'll have to retune the needles for my next prop - a 14x13.5 APC.

Max g was 5.6 in the Z (vertical) axis.

This bird can move.

microdon2

My Feedback: (47)

Agree with WJC - if you're on a paved runway and never have a rough landing the stock gear will probably be fine. But I land on grass - tough, stubborn, un-even Yankee grass - and I don't always land perfectly (though I'm usually pretty good). Or, as Ernie mentioned, with a dead stick you can't always afford perfect. Especially in slightly windy conditions. Last year my friend and I were flying our Revolvers in a paved lot. Was slightly windy, and his Rev 59 came down a tad hard, then bounced up about 4 feet, then down semi-hard. Stock gear and wheelpants - right through the wings. He reinforces now.

u2fletch

My Feedback: (1)

Just got my first Revolver 70 for Christmas. Quite excited about the plane especially when I saw the number of folks running DLE 20's in them. I have a couple of XYZ 20 clones waiting for testing, so the Revolver 70 will be the platform of choice. BTW, Got the XYZ motors from Valley View and they look great. Walbro carbs, and Valley View included some trick extension arms for the choke and throttle plate. These arms perfectly line up with the holes in the Revolver firewall with an inverted engine install.

Anyway, did the elevator servos in the tail mod with a little twist. Measured the opening then used my home built CNC router to make custom fill plates for the servos. Turned out great.

Jeff

wjcalhoun

Jeff:
A CNC router - that is a cool man toy. Home built yet!
Are you an engineer or computer science guy?

That is a very nice solution for the aft servo mounting problem.

u2fletch

My Feedback: (1)

Installing the beam mounts for the XYZ 20 and determined that the upper bolt holes are going to line right up with the upper portion of the engine box. So I decided to make a firewall extension and a couple of supports to help strengthen the whole area. Should tie together the loads between the engine mount and large forward bulkhead. May add a couple side support ribs out of lite-ply as well.

The new support bracket was machined out of 1/4" ply. Fit was perfect, gotta love CNC. Was interesting to note the right thrust built into the engine box when I was modeling the area in my CAD program. Got a little concerned the spinner might be off, but the centerline markings on the firewall account for the cant of the engine mount. Whew!

VictoryRoll

My Feedback: (2)

Well guys.... not good news...again![]    Received my new set of wings for the Revolver 70", and THIS pair is the exact same as the LAST pair.  The distance from wing root to servo bay is different on both sides, and the exact same measurements as the original pair !

ahicks

My Feedback: (2)

Well Don, the only thing I can say is if you can get through this, the plane is a blast to fly, and worth it? I've been flying since God invented shirt pockets, so I've experienced my fair share of planes, and this plane has to rank right up near the top of anything I've flown when it comes to pure fun factor. The speed envelope the plane flies well in likely the widest?

Best of luck! -Al

lopflyers

My Feedback: (12)

+1

wjcalhoun

Don
Agree with Al - ahicks - on the speed envelope comment; i had not thought of it in those terms, but he is exactly right. This plane is well behaved at 18-20mph on slow approach, and it fun and predictable at >100mph.

Aileron rolls at 100mph on low rates will make your head spin.

microdon2

My Feedback: (47)

And with a little headwind you can do a low-and-slow inverted pass that looks like it's barely hanging there. Very stable plane.

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

I agree. The Rev 70 is a smooth flyer from slow to fast and one of the things I really liked about mine was the plane lands so silky smooth it is unreal. I have one in the box, but I was thinking about popping another 30cc plane together before messing with the Rev 70 and maybe letting it sit for a while. The thing is I have everything I need to build the 70 except the DLE 20 which is no big deal to get it on the way.

So many choices in the RC world - what a shame! [8D]

VictoryRoll

My Feedback: (2)

I agree guys, whole-heartily. It is why I decided to go with the Revolver 70... great plane to fly, and why I want it so bad. As mentioned, I am contacting GP later today and hope that I can get them to measure the wingroot-to-servobay distance before shipping the next set out.

VictoryRoll

My Feedback: (2)

Hiya U2fetch,

I was wondering if you could give me (us) the dims of those cutouts, as I plan on doing the same with rear-mounted servos. It is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Don

u2fletch

My Feedback: (1)

VictoryRoll, here is the DXF file of the servo mounts. You should be able to get any dimensions you need from there.

[link=http://www.fletchware.net/Download/Revolver Servo Mount.zip]Revolver Servo Mount[/link]

wjcalhoun, yes, my background is Computer Engineering although my real job is commercial pilot.

Here is a link to a website that has pics and info on the router I built:

[link=http://www.buildyourtools.com/forums/index.php?f=8&t=2411&rb_v=viewtopic]Home Built Router[/link]

VictoryRoll

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks so much @u2fletch !   Greatly appreciate you sharing them with me.

RoyR

Well, I have an update on my Lemon Revolver.

I had written Support telling them the wings they sent me had the same defect as the ones I sent in. They answered and again offered to replace them. They said they had taken a set of wings out of a kit and examined them and saw no problem and would exchange them. By then I had already installed the aileron servos and was ready to fly. I use ball links on the aileron and had to adjust (reverse the left one) to make it fit on the plywood reinforcement on the aileron. If I look I can see that the wings don’t match, but after first flight It didn’t seem to make a difference in the flying.
So I am happy with their support. It’s just the quality control that upsets me. I wrote them back to thank them and tell them that. I also explained again the problem and how they can check for it. Just looking at the wings you can’t tell anything is wrong. But measuring the servo cutout, the left wing on both sets was ½� farther inboard which would put the control horn just inside the plywood reinforcement on the aileron if it was mounted correctly.

For Ernie: I’m slowly breaking into electrics. This is the largest electric I have as of now. I have an EMP 5065 and running 6 cells. That is plenty of power as it has speed and can climb vertically until I pull back the throttle.

This morning I went out and put my 4th flight on the Revolver. I’m getting the feel of it pretty quickly. There was no wind and when I landed I had to keep my speed up. It landed beautifully, but I didn’t want it to run off the end of the runway, so I turned it. It wasn’t going that fast, but when I began the turn on the runway the gear came off.
There is no real damage, but that is pretty upsetting to have to do repairs this soon.

Yes, I know some of you have warned about the weak landing gear, but I suppose I have to learn the hard way. Yes, we have a paved runway, I landed smooth, the gear just isn’t stressed for lateral force. (it will be the next time it is in the air)

RoyR

I will say on both sets of wings I had, it was the left one that was wrong. Once I had the servos installed the right one alligned up correctly on the aileron and the left was just off the reinforcement. check my pictures.
But you can tell the correct distance is around 12 1/4" for the good one. (that's from wing root to the inside of the cutout.)

lopflyers

My Feedback: (12)

Hey RoyR, I'm also switching to electrics. I just bought a 71" AJ Slick to be powered by a big Scorpio on 6S.

orthobird

My Feedback: (1)

hi, flew my revolver last week again.  i am the only using the saito 125.

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

Can you or anyone else describe to me what is meant by "the reinforcement" on the aileron? I though the ailerons were made out of a single piece of stock from one end to the other. Are you stating that there is some plywood put in the aileron at a certain spot for reinforcement? I just don't recall anything like that on my last Revolver and I never had an issue.

This one is off about 3/4 of an inch and if it is somehow missing a point of reinforcement that would not be acceptable to me, but if it is no big deal and does not have anything special for reinforcement I don't plan to call in a support ticket.

As always, any help is much appreciated.

VictoryRoll

My Feedback: (2)

Here are some images of the wingroot-to-servobay issue, along with canopy misalignment:

BTW, the canopy misalignment is an easy fix... just elongate the holes in the firewall, vertically (12 o'clock).

RoyR

Yes, there is a semi-circle of plywood glued flush on the aileron (and all the other control surfaces) to mount the control horns. When I mounted the right wing the control horn lined up in the center of the plywood. This picture is the left wing, which was aligned wrong. I traced the plywood onto the paper and it shows where the plywood is located. You can see I used ball links, and when I put the link on the other side of the control horn I was able to get the screws in the plywood. It isn't exactly centered now, but structurally it works. Also looking at the bottom of both wings on the airplane, it's not quite symmetrical.

RoyR

It appears from your pictures that it is the same as mine, in that the Left wing is the one that is wrong. The right having the cutout in the right place to align with the aileron. Somebody must have goofed in the factory, making the left and right wing jigs off.

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

Oh, I know what is meant now. Most planes that don't have horns that go all the way through have thin plywood for the wood screws to hold.

Here are my wing measurements:
Right Wing:
Trailing Edge 12 3/8 Leading Edge 12 1/4
Left Wing:
Trailing Edge 11 7/8 Leading Edge 11 3/4

I took out one of my old Revolver 70 wings and measured the bay and it measured: Trailing Edge 11 7/8 Leading Edge 11 3/4 which compares to the Left Wing measurements above on the new wing.

I don't have a right wing from the old Rev to measure so I don't know about that one. I am wondering now if most of these planes are off some and these newer ones are the worst of the lot. So it would seem that the 12 3/8 (long bay measurement) is the incorrect measurement, but I did not measure the reinforcement block to see if it aligned while I was down at the shop.

As long as my horns will line up on the block then I don't have an issue with them being off from the wing root. The only real issue I have that I don't like is the wing pin on the right wing (left if facing the plane) won't fit without filing the fuselage.

The more I think about it, the more I think I will give GP a call this week and give them an opportunity to get this corrected.