jlkonn

My Feedback: (1)

And a wing.
The wing bags that came with V2 are a little heavier and better quality.

jlkonn

My Feedback: (1)

The thread "turned the corner" this morning to page 2.
If you got here without seeing the pictures I posted of the fuse
go back one page. They're at the bottom.
So...
What do I think of the plane so far?
I like it!
It is equal to or better than my first one in almost all respects.

Only two things need to be done on this one that were done for you on V1:
1- You have to glue the hinges in...NOT a big deal!
2- The gear legs were already drilled for the mounting bolts.
This one not. Again, NOT a big deal.

These things can go together VERY fast.
Off the top of my head what you will need to do is:
1- Mount the canopy (hardware included)
2- Mount the tailwheel assembly (hardware included)
3- Mount the servos and make up the pushrods (hardware included)
4- Fabricate and install the receiver/receiver battery floor (material included)
5- Fabricate a rudder servo platform (not included)
6- Fabricate a motor battery platform (not included)
7- Fabricate and install the firewall (not included)

That's all I can think of including #'s 1 and 2 at the beginning of this post.
I'm sure there's other stuff like the receiver switch, etc. but I think I've listed
the high points.

I'd like to add a little about the firewall. I heard someone complaining at the last contest about
some of these ARF's, not just the Sickle, don't come with a firewall. It can be a pain. Just look
back at my original build thread on Chris's website for my first plane. I really got bogged down.
I fault my modeling skill.
It would be hard for the manufacturer to include one.
There's just too many variables and a difference in motor length of 1/2 to 1inch would make whatever they
supplied useless because of the taper of the nose.
Also, preferred material comes in to play.
Now there are templates out there (thanks to Mups!).
I used carbon laminated end grain balsa for mine and BVM Aeropoxy.
I am not apprehensive at all about doing this one.

Well!
That's about it until the snow flies and I start putting this thing together.
Stay tuned!
And if you have any specific questions or pix you'd like to see ask away!
Later!

JLK

JFisher304

My Feedback: (2)

Any idea what pricing will be?

Mastertech

My Feedback: (31)

I picked mine up last weekend.

I've spent the last few evenings going over the airplane. Here's my observations so far.

The weights posted by Chris are dead on. Mine came up at 2268g this included all the hardware that came with the kit. (I admit I weighed the parts in the bags) Looking at the hardware I suspect a lot of it will either not get used or replaced. It's good stuff don't get me wrong it's just not my favorite method of doing things.

We pulled the wings out and they are VERY nice. I checked them and they're the same size dimensionally. They are straight as my digital meters confirmed.

The wing tube is tight in the fuse as it should be. I slid the wings on and measured from the tips to the tail and it's within 1/32". I think that's close enough.

I checked the stab tube in the fuse and found it to be loose, I've had the same problem with my Prolines are a few flights. I simply measured where the tube should fit in the fuse and then flowed some thin CA on the tube which tightened up the fit to perfect.

I then measured the wing tips to stab tips and just smiled. I couldn't get it any closer if I tried. Stab tip to wing tip horizontal is as good as it gets.

I then checked the wing incidence and found like everyone else that wing adjusters are going to be required. One side was almost .4 off from the other side. This is not unexpected nor an issue. We move wings anyway.

The rudder hinges are robart style and already glued in. The hinges everywhere else are CA type and not glued in.

One thing I noticed is the kit includes two control horns for each surface and some of the older pictures of this airplane show both being used with the clevis in between them. This kit only has cut outs in the surfaces for one. Odd.

The fuse appears to be straight and lite. The canopy is freaking HUGE but very lite, it is not pinned but there is plenty of hardware with the kit to do the job twice I think. I believe the canopy alone will take the longest to do.

The landing gear came with two holes drilled for the pants and two for the fuse. The gear isn't drilled correctly for the fuse side. The fuse has 4 nut plates installed for each gear leg in a square pattern, the gear has two holes drilled on the centerline. Why I don't know.

The finish on the wings and stabs is very good, much better than I could do and as good as I've seen on the better arf's out there.

The fuse finish is good. Not perfect but very good. To get great you'll have to spend a lot more coin, there is a seam but it's very minor.

So far I'm very happy to have my first elect Pattern Plane. I figure I got the plane, Pletty, Jetti, Batts and the spinning things on the front for less than the average ARF pattern plane price today.

Going to spend this winter getting it together. It'll be fun I'm sure.

Tim.

mups53

My Feedback: (41)

I think I heard around $1500 but that's not official. Mike

Velco

Hello,

I could not resisti after reading all things in this thread, so I pulled the trigger! Thanks JLK for very good info.

Today and tomorrow 15th and 16th there is Octoberfest at Lindinger with additional 10% rebate and free shipping within the EU so for 720Eur or 1000$ you get a composite bird! As I said, I simply could not resist! My 1st 2x2 F3A ship.

cheers

Mastertech

My Feedback: (31)

I've started the build on mine taking my time by design. I've never built an Electric pattern plane so new skills must be learned.

I came to mounting the motor and looking at it for a few days while glue was drying on other stuff I had a time figuring it out.

How to get the firewall marked for the motor when I couldn't get to either side to mark the spots for the bolts?

This is how I did it for better or worse.

Cut the whole in the front of the fuse, 2.5" hole saw.

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I then took a 3mm screw and cut it into 3 3/8" long pieces.

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I then screwed them into the mounting plates leaving about 1/8" sticking out.
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I then put the motor with spinner and backplate into the nose and centered it all up then took the firewall pattern and pressed it into the motor thus marking the bolts locations so I could drill them.

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It worked pretty well. I wanted the wires of the motor down and one bolt straight up, seems I miss calculated the size of the upper cooling hole. I'll make a new pattern allowing more surface for the upper bolt mounting. Once satisfied I'll transfer the pattern to the real carbon sandwhich plate and install it.

Tim

Mastertech

My Feedback: (31)

Final Firewall.
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42 grams


After about an hour.


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28 grams.

mirce

Velco, congratulation for new model...

Mirce

Mastertech

My Feedback: (31)

I got around to building the battery tray for mine this weekend. This was the last project for mine before being ready to fly.

I weighed the airplane with the first battery tray I built. It was built out of the honeycomb laminate. Total weight was 11 pounds 3 oz. Awcrap.

I thought for a while and knew I didn't know where the CG was going to be exactly so the battery had to be able to move.

I came up with a method tying the front and rear landing gear plates together with 1/4" carbon tubes that I could slide the batteries on.

I checked the CG and found it too far aft.

New flying buddy came over for a consult we then decided to move the tubes forward and tie them into the firewall.

This allowed the batteries to move just over 2 inches which should give me the correct CG range.








Best thing, it's 2 ounces lighter than the first tray.

Tim

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

Just to give you guys a head's up, that trim scheme is awfully similar to my Sebart Wind 110. It gets lost VERY easily in the sky, the blue and white and red just seem to silhouette in the sky, and it's very hard to see the wings and orientation.

Looks like a sweet plane though.

Velco

Well, both planes are produced at the same factory so no wonder they look alike . On the other side I did not have any problems with the colors on my red Wind110 so I do not expect any problems here either. And yeah, mine has arrived yesterday , he, he, he ...

rcpattern

My Feedback: (45)

I agree with Joe, the Blue scheme Winds can be tough to see on a bright blue sky day. The blue blends in and so does the white and there isn't a lot of red to really stand out until you roll inverted and see the entire bottom in red. I will say that as I've flown it more, I've gotten more used to it in regards of being able to tell what it is doing. It certainly isn't a high visibility scheme, but that can have advantages to as you can hide things if you know what to look for, but the judges done. Figuring out wings level was very tough at first as the wing is high up on the fuse and it blends in with the blue on the bottom of the fuse when viewed from the ground.

Arch

jarvis johnson

My Feedback: (15)

I will have to agree with Arch, the best color scheme for most condition, is the Yellow,Red and Black scheme

Mastertech

My Feedback: (31)

Looking at the weather report for the weekend I just knew we had to test fly my Sickle.

I went over the airplane several times checking and rechecking everything.

I called NFB and set up a time to meet at the field so he could set up the motor function for me.

Jeff did the motor setup and looked over the airplane and noticed a few items I needed to take care of before we flew it. Minor stuff but always good to have a second set of eyes looking.

Winds at 5mph or less,sunny and cloudless skies. No reason to hold back now.

Take off roll saw the canopy come loose, dang builder error, the canopy pin isn't engaging far enough. Run to the local Dollar store and get some packing tape to hold it on.

Second attempt, Take off roll is uneventful, rotate and the airplane heads to the heavens, about 5 clicks of down elev and 3 clicks of aileron and it seems to be flying straight and level.


Try a few rolls to check the CG and the roll to inverted and back are very easy and smooth. Looks like I have the CG pretty close. It's at the center of the wing tube or about 175mm from the leading edge of the wing.

The rear of the Batteries are even with the back of the rear LG mount. Turnigy 5,000 30c

Rudder is EXTREMELY effective. Caught me by surprise how little it took. Need a lot of expo.

The 45 up and down lines are pretty straight.

Time for some up and down lines. The airplane has a pretty evident pull to the canopy going up. I'd put about 3% down elev to low throttle in the setup and the down lines were fine.

KE showed pretty much zero pitch either way, later test flights will check this closer.
I've never had an airplane that didn't have some pull before. Kind of neat.

On inside loops it dropped the right wing and the left on outside loops. Elev half's were off a bit which should fix this issue.

Again builder error.

On powered up and down lines the fuse would take a pronounced skew to the left. Odd, I've never seen an airplane do that.

Landing was a breeze.

End of flight #1.

Jeff and I checked the thrust and found it to have a tiny bit of left thrust in it even though the spinner is centered on the nose ring. So theres no right thrust built into the fuse.

Jeff flew the second flight and he agrees it needs right thrust. He did some snaps and inside/outside loops and confirmed the wing dropping. He was happy with the first few snaps but we forgot to do any spins.

Need some more setup time in the shop before the next flights.

He likes it, so do I.

Looks like a keeper.

Once back in the shop I took the motor out and placed a shim to get some right thrust later back in the shop and now have 5/16" of right thrust measured at the prop tips.

Found the elevators off a bit from each other.

Tomorrow will bring another test/trim flight.

Tim

Mastertech

My Feedback: (31)

Well I just got in from the field, wife kicked me out of the house for a bit while she cooks.

Very light winds sunny and cloudless sky. Perfect for trimming.

I added 3% right rudder to high throttle mix and that fixed the pull to the left in the verticals. Arch advised this and it works well.

I think the only real problems at this point are my own making. I might have to add a bit of aileron differential as the fuse wobbles a tiny bit rolling in the verticals, might just be me.

The 45 degree up and down stay for a good amount of time so I believe the CG is correct, right in the center of the tube. Still no pull/push in the KE.

Still working on the throttle curve to get a more linear feel to it. Even with my banging the throttle around like an IC Pilot I still didn't use 3,000 ma for a complete Advanced flight with 4-5 extra maneuvers at the end. 4,000ma batteries would easily suffice if they can achieve the proper CG.

Slowed the ailerons down a bit and increased the elev throw a bit. The ailerons are very effective.

It's really starting to feel good, almost like my Proline.

The Spins are quite good rudder and elev only, stops pretty quickly, the snaps look good as well. I believe it is now time to have Jeff fly it some for the minor trimming issues if there are any.

Overall this airplane flies very well, with the wing in the center of the fuse, it takes some getting used to as most of my pulls were inside wing down.

Tim

Mastertech

My Feedback: (31)

Over the weekend Jeff and I went flying.

I had Jeff fly the Sickle and he agrees it's trimmed at this point. Still working on the throttle curve and brake a bit.

I really like this airplane so far, I'm learning the throttle response and still trying to find a good cruise setting.

This airplane does something I've never seen an airplane do, going into the rolls forget pulling a bit of Elevator. Just hit the ailerons and then a tiny bit of Rudder. It'll go through the first point almost on it's own. It has to be the easiest rolling airplane I've owned. I've found control settings that work in pretty much all flight attitudes so not having to use rates is a big plus for me as I hate hitting switches. At this point I've got about 20 flights on it and look forward to many more.

Tim

Velco

Tim,

all I can say I envy you . We got our 1st snow fall here today so mu Sickle will have to wait  for some nicer weather.

Thank you very much for bringing all these nice reports to us as it is all very encouraging! I hope you will post your final CG and throws.

Velco

shepga

I just received my Sickle yesterday. It's my first electric so I'm looking forward to the experience. I noticed the stabs are adjustable. Is there a gadget similar to the Gator wing ajusters that can be installed to set/adjust the stab incidence? How did you guys set up your stab. Please advise.
Thanks

Glen

Mastertech

My Feedback: (31)

Mine were already installed, I did have to find the holes through the covering. Mine did not have the set screws however. 4mm.

Tim

jlkonn

My Feedback: (1)

I use one of these:

http://www.aeroperfect.com/mu-9000x_usb.html

Not cheap but, in my opinion, well worth the money.
I plan on setting my Sickle V2 up with -0- degree on the stab.
.5 to 1 degree positive on the wing.
And a couple degrees down thrust and right thrust on the motor.
JLK

shepga

Ok thanks guys. I found the adustment area on the stab. Do either of you guys have some photos of your canopy installation method you could share?

Glen

jlkonn

My Feedback: (1)

Starting around post #23 on my build thread for the Sickle V1 here:

http://electric-f3a.com/smf/index.php?topic=52.15

Shows how I did that one.
I haven't gotten that far yet on the V2 so don't have any pix for that one.
I do plan on using the red canopy latch from F3A Unlimited this time though.
Sorry I don't have more.
JLK

tschmidt

My Feedback: (1)

Hey John!! Looking forward to seeing it!!

Todd

cmoulder

OK, I also pulled the trigger and got one of these. Very nice model at a more palatable price point for me at this time.

I am working - much more slowly than I originally expected - on a Pentathlon Evo and definitely won't have it ready to fly for the first part of the season, which I why I decided to get this one.

Mastertch, would you happen to have a 1:1 pdf scan of your firewall? That would be really helpful as this is the first electric and the first composite-fuse pattern model I have assembled. Also do you have some photos of the RX/rudder servo/batterytray and a wider shot of the battery tray to give me a better idea of the layout? Also, any other reinforcements to stiffen the fuse? Seems it will need something extra, but of course I want it in the right places with a minimum amount of material.

I have ordered the CF/balsa sandwich material for the servo/rudder tray and also the CF/honeycomb stuff from ACP Composites, and some BVM Aeropoxy to glue it all in.

The motor to be used is the Himax 6330 (Pletty clone) and CC HV85 esc, Futaba 9154 ailerons, 9650 elevators, 9156 rudder. Batteries are 3 sets of Zippy 5000 5s and a couple sets of Rhino 4900 5s, which are significantly heavier than the Zippy's....

Last night I weighed the fuse/rudder and canopy together and my DigiWeigh scale indicated 950.2 grams, so somewhere along the way it has lost about 50 grams of weight.

The canopy alone weighs 132.5 grams vs jlkonn's 160 grams reported in the first post, so there's one full ounce right there. I will be scouring the posts to see how to mount it securely to the fuse while adding as little weight as possible.