rollo

The Project:

Crashed and abandoned a Mini Funtana left unclaimed found it's way into my garage. This plane just needs some TLC from someone to put the wind under its wings. [sm=50_50.gif] The idea is that since I am not into electrics we are going to upgrade this baby and place a .25 for some really fast flying fun. [>:] This additional power will probably lead to further demise but hey I am sure it will be fun to capture the process.[sm=thumbup.gif]

Current Damage
As you can see from the pictures the damage is not very severe. I suspect that someone just didn't have the expertise, time, or energy to fix this baby up. I have a little of all so why not put another toy in the bank.

Estimated Cost
The estimated cost for this build is around $250.00 including the electronics and engine.

The Plan
To document the rebuilding of this aircraft along with the maiden flight.

I will obviously take comments and suggestions along the way. This should be fun!

roc_kie

I'm looks like a fun little project. Keep us updated on the progress!

R/C Foolish

My Feedback: (6)

I took a brand new Diamante25e and coverted it to a 30 4-stroke. These little electrics are greaqt for the small golw engines. There really is no supply of small size ARF's. A little reinforcing in the right places and you will be good to go. You always hear of people converting to electric but not the other way around.

Good Luck,

R/C Foolish

SMUGator

It doesn't look too bad, really. There are enough formers and enough of the sides left to get patterns. The fuselage is just a box, so it won't be too hard to rebuild. Looks like the cowl will need some fiberglass with microballoon dressing. If it's really crunched, it might be lighter to build it up out of balsa like we did on the little Pitts.

Tom

jkwynn

My Feedback: (1)

TeeHee,

"upgrade" to a .25. You gas flyers are silly. Definitely strengthen er up, dont want it to shake itself to pieces.

Sneasle

I am working on rebuilding a crashed one myself as well. If you interested, I will post pics of mine as I go along as well. Mine was given to me with a crushed wing along with the very front of the fuse smashed badly. It had already been crashed once before and repaired, so I am working around that repair at the same time, which makes it interesting.

Please post a few pics of the front of the plane in general. I was missing a lot of the wood from the front and am basically rebuilding it by trying to follow the fuse lines and match it up with the cowl.

You can buy a new cowl from advantagehobby.com for $6, free shipping.

rollo

Thanks for the tip on the new cowling Sneasle. That is probably the easiest fix and it will keep the weight down too.

As for the front end pics, that's what is currently represented in the pics; however, if you need or want specific shots from the side etc. just let me know and I can do that quite easily for you.

At this point, reading post of others who have done conversions the biggest issues is the CG being too far forward. My thought is that strengthening the formers at the wing points and toward the back will help move it back some.

Absolutely, would love to see other peoples work and compare notes.

rollo

I found a link to the assembly manual that is provided by the manufacturer. http://www.horizonhobby.com/ProdInfo...075-manual.pdf

[link=http://www.horizonhobby.com/ProdInfo/Files/EFL2075-manual.pdf]Mini Funtana Manual Link[/link]

This will help set up CG and provide an idea of how they set up the aircraft.

Sneasle

Ya, pics of the front are good, specifically of the wood from the firewall back to the first full former. Most of that wood was missing from what was given me, So i am having to use the lines of the plans to flush out the repair. I have no idea how the gear block was designed, so if you can post pics of it, it would be greatly appreciated.

Here is a link to my Photobucket album with my funtanna repair pics. If you look you can pick out the ones where I have gone in and started the repair.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ol195/Funtana/

SMUGator

I haven't looked at the manual to see the stock set-up, but if the rudder and elevator servos are over the wing, you could move them back to the tail to balance without adding to the total weight.

Tom

Sneasle

Nope, those servos are located in the tail already. Pretty far back actually.

A question along those lines.. Any thoughts on servo's for this plane? The cutouts are designed for stuff the size of HS-55's, but I don't think 55's are going to be strong enough for this after it goes glow. I don't plan on doing a whole lot of 3d with it since I doubt I will have the power too, But I would like it to be a fast sport plane, so servo's that can take and hold a full deflection at max speed would be good.

rollo

Sneasle: I like the pictures that you have of what it's suppose to look like. They will be great for reference. From the pics it looks like your repairs are coming along really well. As far as the gear area. That's been completely wiped out on the aircraft I am working on and the amount of epoxy indicates it had been ripped out numerous times. The manual had some good pictures and may show the gear box as part of the installation of the gear.

Servos
I was thinking of using normal servos and enclose the rudder and elevator servos toward the back probably creating an access panel in the under belly. They may have to be inline and shifted left and right to fit properly but this can be done.

For the ailerons I was pondering the idea of creating a bell crank system like is done in the Top Flite Corsair.

A micro servo to power the throttle should be adequate. I don't have the equipment yet so this will be the work in progress that I will be posting.

jkwynn

My Feedback: (1)

I'm sure this is old hat to you guys, but dont forget to seal up all the cooling holes to keep the goo out.

Sneasle

By normal servo's you mean standard servo's? Standards will be WAY too big for this. The Futnana is a nice flier, but weight is always the enemy. If you are not going to use the mounts already built into the plane, then I would recommend HS-81's. Anything larger would be too large of a weight penalty. This plane will not fly well with a lot of weight I am told, even if you over power it.


I will need to work out a cooling solution more later. If I go with a side mount for the engine, I will go muffler down and might build in a little exhaust ramp into my firewall. It all depends. I need to find an engine mount first that will give me the length I need for this.

bluestratos

I have not crashed mine yet but did burn out the motor and speed controller so I upgraded to a high performance outrunner engine, speed control and larger Lipo pack. I have yet to fly it but the thrust is incredible! I thought it was going to pull out of my hand when I did the first test run of the engine. The new direct drive outrunner is a lot heavier but the battery pack was repositioned to slightly aft of the old set up (I made a removable battery tray for access to the wing bolts). I normally fly giant scale but the mini funtana is a nice deversion.

Best regards,
Randy

Sneasle

Nice. Let us know how it flies.

rollo

Yea standard is what I was implying. I've build mostly 1/8 scale planes so this is my first mini. Thanks for pointing me to those hs-81s I will be using those for sure then.

Sneasle

Ya, I would recommend those if you aren't going to be putting them in the tail. Keep in mind the weight you will be putting on the nose of this plane though. I think I remember you saying you were going to use a .25. Keep in mind how heavy that will be plus the weight of the fuel tank. You might need to move the servos back to their stock position to help get the plane to balance. You really do not want to have to add lead to the tail of this plane. You need to remember that it balances correctly with a 400speed and a lipoly in it, neither of which is a lot of weight. Think how much a .25 engine and 4oz tank for it will weight, and all of that right at the nose.

There isn't much room int he main compartment because of the wing rod, so you would be hard pressed to put the tank there in a way that would still allow you to move the wing around.

You also need to have the CG mobile enough so when you move the wing you can shift the CG. Best way to do that is to balance it out with motor and fuel in the front and servo's in the tail and then use the receiver battery for fine tuning.

Just my $.02

rollo

I believe I will stay with my same plan of putting the rudder and elevator servos back behind the canopy with an access panel.

Along the wing line, I will have two servos to drive the ailerons and throttle. If I put the battery / receiver in the area of the canopy that should move some of the weight back plus keep things easy to get to since it pops off. The other interesting addition is going to be a tail wheel.

Probably use this weekend to shop for parts and get started.

Sneasle

Should be interesting. I still worry about the balance with a .25 on the front. I would suggest you try and balance with engine, tank, and radio gear before you cover, just in case you need to move stuff around a lot.

I plan on putting a tail wheel on myself, along with a few other... semi secret mods... which I will share later...

Any thoughts on what tail wheel to use yet? Mine has the skid glued on nice and tight, and I want to replace it with a steerable wheel.

lilhachet

My Feedback: (2)

I have one of these planes and you might want to rethink a 25. A good 10 screemer will make it go like hell.It onlt weighs 24 oz.

SMUGator

I'd go with Sneasle on this one and mount a couple of the smaller Hitec H-81 servos in the tail for the elevator and rudder. Keep in mind that I'm not talking about the microservos that we use on the throttle and retracts in the 1/8 planes but rather the servos that we are using for the control surfaces on the little Pitts. Maybe thats what you mean? When I hear standard servos, I think you mean the ones that we use for control surfaces on the larger planes. That may be the source of confusion here.

Tom

rollo

Well after further inspection, the rear frame has taken some pretty good hits itself and I am going to have to rebuild probably 3-4 formers past the canopy toward the tail. With this rebuild I am going to completely sheet the back area essetially removing the holes they used to make the plane lite. This will help strengthen the plane and since I am going with a .25 the weight should not be too much of a problem.

I have changed my mind about putting the servos inside and will be mounting HS-81 Servos into the standard location at least in the tail area.

I took a look for a tail wheel but haven't come across anything yet.

For those 3Ders' out there, I plan on using this as a fun / sport plane.

Sneasle

Alright, good idea.

You will need to put larger gear on it for prop clearance with a .25

Also, might want to add some triangle stock and/or tail braces for the rudder/elevators. This plane is not made for speed, and I get the feeling you might try and go WOT at some point. While a beefed up wing can take it.. a stock wing probably could with a CF tube... the tails feathers wont.

SMUGator

I hate to keep bringing up the little Pitts build, but you could probable use the same tailwheel we used on that one. Or we could build on from scratch.


Tom