pippy

Hi Verne, you are right that the tray is held in place with a servo screw into the ply on both sides. I have this arrangement on my Nuance which has in excess of 300 flights with no problem. By making the tray removable I can easily get at the undercarriage section if I need to. As you can see the tray is made from carbon fibre nomex sandwich which is very light but I did have to reinforce the "leg bits" by pouring some zap glue into this area.

TonyF

My Feedback: (92)

I finished assembling my new Episode last night. I can't wait to fly it! It looks really good. With absolutely no real effort to keep thing light, the weight without a motor battery is 3,709 grams. This will make it easy to hit weight even with larger packs. Equipment is the Brenner Contra unit, Neu F3A motor, Castle HV80 ESC, 2s 730mAh R/C battery, Spektrum AR7610 RX, JR 9411HV servos on ailerons, JR 3711HV servos on elevators and a JR 8911HV on rudder. Lots of places I can pull grams out if I want.

Here are a few pics of the model and the installation. BTW, some may have heard about my garage fire. Well, I'm happy to say that the rebuild made my shop a lot nicer! Fully insulated, painted, tile on the floor and all new tables. Sweet!

TonyF

My Feedback: (92)

More pics.

TonyF

My Feedback: (92)

More.

TonyF

My Feedback: (92)

Again.

TonyF

My Feedback: (92)

Just a couple of notes on the build. Watch where you put the rudder control horn. Mine is a little higher on the rudder then it should be and I had to be very careful not to get interference with the elevator pushrods at the full throw of the rudder for a stall turn. All of the pushrods are .070 carbon rod with the links CA'd to the rod. I really like this system as it is very light and very easy to build. Cheap, too! I started using these when I saw Chip doing it. I have over 1,000 flights on the Onas and 610 flights on the Nuance with these pushrods. Yea, there's no adjustment, but if you do it right you never need to adjust anyhow.

I also did the rudder servo mounting a little different then stock. I used the supplied parts and the tie wrap deal, but I mounted it all to a piece of 1/16" ply. I then mounted that assembly to the fuse using 4 small sheet metal screws. I can now remove the whole deal from the fuse. I really like having the servo back there and using a pushrod instead of cables. Maybe I'm doing cables wrong but every now and then I get one to slip pulling the rudder off center. That never happens with the pushrod. I also used regular hinges with a long wire through all of them so I can take the rudder off if needed. Every other hinge is the CA type supplied in the kit.

Anxious to get this flying!

vbortone

My Feedback: (2)

Hi Tony,

Looks very nice. Are you keeping the metal gears? You could save some grams by replacing with nylon. I did that in my new plane. I didn't like the slop of metal gears. I didn't do it on the rudder servo. Looks like we could use 8411 gears on that one. Please report to us when you get chance to fly it.

rgreen24

My Feedback: (6)

Very nice Tony, what caused your garage fire?

mups53

My Feedback: (41)

Nice work Tony.
We've sold a few of the Contra setup Episodes. I think your's is the frst one that's ready to go.
Nice looking work area too. I'm working out of a closet sized room now. Tight is an understatement. Mike

TonyF

My Feedback: (92)

I had a LiPo fire while charging. I was in a hurry to get to a club meeting, forgot it was on charge and left. It was an old pack I used to charge off of at the field. It was on an older Orbit charger without a balance plug. So I made a whole bunch of errors. Fortunately the house was undamaged. And now I've got a bright, new, shiny workshop! Though I don't really recommend the process.

I've not been bothering to replace the metal gears for quite some time. I really can't tell any difference in the air. But it would save some weight if I need to do that.

Looks like it will be next week before I can really fly it. The weather here is bad and this weekend there's a contest in Hemet I'm attending. I might be able to get a flight or two on after the contest flying on Saturday and Sunday.

BTW, I have templates for the motor mounts if anyone needs them. I used the carbon plate Brenner supplies with the soft mounts from Budd for the front mount and the rear is again what Brenner supplies. That has worked great for all my Contra mounts. No need for anything more expensive.

rcairbob1

Ok guys I finished my Episode two nights ago. Due to the large amount of snow I will not be flying it soon. The kit was easy to build my plane will make weight easy but for now I have all my strongest landing gear and large RX pack installed. Still its only 1 1/2 oz. over. Can wait to fly it but that is after I come back from FL.

rgreen24

My Feedback: (6)

Thanks for,sharing your misfortune/ fortune about your lipo fire. Should remind all of us, that this can happen to the best of us, fortunately for Tony, he got a sweet workshop out of it, knowing me I would not be that lucky.

Nice looking episode as well Bob. I will be coming to Hoffman Estates this year, think its been about four years since I made the last one

mups53

My Feedback: (41)

Hey Robert I'm looking forward to having you at our contest again.
F3AUnlimited will be sponsoring the event.
Bobby brought his new Episode to our club meeting last night. Besides the obligatory smart allick remarks about the top wing it was very well accepted.
I have to admit the planes looks have grown on me and now I kind of want one too.
He commented that it was far and away the best plane he's ever had to assemble.
I also showed our newest offering. It's the Secraft Transmitter trays.
We are scheduled to have them for sale in about 3 weeks. The interest in the tray was amazing.
Mike

rcairbob1

Great Bob look forward to seeing you. We should have around 25 plus flyers it will be a great time...Until we meet .

Jet Katt

Hi Guys, I finished my Episode three weeks ago, however, the weather in Texas has not cooperated for the past 2 months, so I only have 6 trim flights on it. So far, the plane flies beautifully, however, I did notice that when performing a half reverse Cuban 8, the 45 degree upline is fine while right side up, but when I rolled inverted to complete the other half of the 45 degree upline, it pulled pretty hard to the canopy. Rudder sensitivity is not a problem with the stab fences installed as per BJ Park. Rolls are very nice and it slows down very nicely for landings. I running the NEU F3A engine with Futaba Radio and Futaba S9151 servos for the ailerons, S9650 servos for the elevators, and JR 8411 for the rudder, mounted the BJ stock way. Ready to fly she came in at 4800 grams with Sky Lipo 4400mah 10S pack. I can't wait for the weather to get better here in the North Dallas area so I can continue with my trimming.

Stuart Chale

Duh Moment!

I received mine on Monday and have been able to start working on it. I alway like to get the plane sitting on its legs first so I installed the MK tail wheel and have been working on the main gear. I had to open up the fuse a bit to alow the gear to fit which I assume is normal. I have also learned not to keep that fit too tight or cracks will develop around the gear from less than perfect landings. While mounting the wheel pants I had to insert and remove the landing gear several times. I found it to be a pain to hold the strap with blind nuts in place while mounting the gear. This would likely be even more of an issue once the battery tray was in place
On my last plane (Valiant) I solved the problem by gluing the blind nuts into the landing gear. I was about to do that to this plane as well when I realized that you can just glue the ply strap with the blind nuts to the bottom of the gear. As I said DUH! No problem slipping it into the opening that I had already cut.

I am sure everyone else already figured this out.

Some pictures below of my wheel pant mounting as well. I have always used NMP aluminum axels and did so on this plane as well. Wheels are 2 1/4 Dubro lite wheels. The wheel pants are just a little too small for the 2 1/2" wheels that i would prefer.

Stuart C.

rgreen24

My Feedback: (6)

Mike, that transmitter tray looks like a work of art. Is it light?

mups53

My Feedback: (41)

Very light and extremely well made.
We should have them listed in a few weeks. I think youll be impressed. Mike

mups53

My Feedback: (41)

Oh and it has a heater for winter flying available as an option. It works off of a lipo pack. Mike

OhD

Do you roll left or right? Try rolling left. The right thrust will help hold the nose up. You might also try moving the cg back. Hope this helps.

Jim O

Jet Katt

Hey Jim...how did you know I rolled right? I didn't know that the direction of the roll mattered. I currently have my C/G set at about a half inch forward of the BJ's recommended C/G of 275mm from the rear of the canopy. I sort of figured that the C/G was the culprit. As soon as the weather gets better out here, I'll take your recommendation and move the C/G to the 275mm point.Ron S.

PeterP

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jet Katt

Hi Guys, ....... So far, the plane flies beautifully, however, I did notice that when performing a half reverse Cuban 8, the 45 degree upline is fine while right side up, but when I rolled inverted to complete the other half of the 45 degree upline, it pulled pretty hard to the canopy.

Just another suggestion. Balance your elevator throws - not by measurement but by feel. Ensure you get the same radius turn with the same amount of stick input if you are either pulling or pushing. Then set your expo to get the same response and feel when small amounts of inputs are applied. I havent flown a model after I made these changes where throws and expo are identical in both directions. Less expo in down elevator will certainly reduce that heavy feel whilst inverted. Please note I have assumed your CG and incidences etc are close to the mark.

Jet Katt

Yes, thank you Peter! That sounds like a good idea, as well. Another friend here in Texas suggested that I program less expo for down elevator, in the first couple of trim flights. I'm glad that you suggested that because I had actually forgotten about it. Guys, I appreciate your recommendations. Ron S.

vbortone

My Feedback: (2)

I do 1-2 degrees more down than up. I guess that net effect is similar. .

PeterP

I do 1-2 degrees more down than up. I guess that net effect is similar. .

True to a point but I would doubt you would feel that much difference if you are only just leaning on the stick if you are already running moderate rates of expo by simply adjusting your travel volume alone. If your transmiiter allows look at the servo output and see how much difference there is when applying stick input similar to what you would use to maintain level flight while inverted.