mgosson

My Feedback: (8)

Got it.

Thank You

FinnSpeed

Some people here in Finland transport their F3A planes exactly that way - the tail or nose between the front seats of a hatchback. But if you can tilt the passenger front seat all the way forward, the plane could fit much better and won't disturb driving as much. This is the more common way here although most F3A people have bought station wagons...

SAB

mgosson, may be a typo but as you are tight for space the length of Caelus is 78" not 74"

mgosson

My Feedback: (8)

Ah, you are correct in catching my mistake. I reread the specs, indeed it is 78".
In either case, the Caleus at 78" is so long it's beginning to pose a problem if it will fit in my vehicle and factoring the height of the tail.

I'm not ready for a station wagon or a mini van...

Thanks for your input.

big_G

Get a used Tahoe. I can fit two 2 meter planes and all supporting gear, a cooler, tent, pop up and chairs. Last contest I hauled three 2 meter birds. I'm gonna sell the Tahoe and get a Suburban. If you intend on competing, you will usually carry a back-up plane.

mgosson

My Feedback: (8)

I've been out of pattern flying for almost 18 years and the last vehicle I did use was a Tahoe, perfect size vehicle for my use.

As a side note, I've constructed a spreadsheet with the most popular 72" size aircraft with all the recommended motors, escs, servos etc. The Sebart Mytho S 125 was really in contention due to the popularity and price.
I added the plane to my wish list on JR's site back in April and is was $699.00. I checked on Monday and the plane went to $830.00. Wrote a email to JR asking for clarification, was told that's the new price, sorry.

Minus lipo's the Caelus is $260.00 more than the Myto S 125

mgosson

My Feedback: (8)

I would appreciate another measurement if you fellas can help me out, again.
What is the length from the landing gear to the rudder. If I can fit the nose between the front seats, that's easy, if I can close the rear hatch is another story.

Thank You

underdw

My Feedback: (2)

66 inches

bem

My Feedback: (1)

mgosson,
You may also try the fuselage on the side in the car with both stabs unmounted (if the plane has easily removable stabs). That way you do not get any part of plane high up in rear window (that usually tilt forward and rob usable space/distance inside the car).
You can also try to lay the plane on canopy side tilted so it rest on one stab end and that way get it little lower in the rear.
And also check how if fits with little more diagonal direction on fuselage in the car to get some more usable inches in the car.

/Bo

mgosson

My Feedback: (8)

Thanks for the measurements guys, it helps.

mgosson

My Feedback: (8)

I have succumb...
After reading every post contained in this thread and learning what I could from all our input I finally decided to go ahead and make the purchase. I have pretty much followed everyone's lead on the components used.

I've been waffling since the Toledo about this bird and finally decided to part with the cabbage.


Here's my list.

Caelus V2 Lite
Gator-RC Flow-Thru Spinner
Himax HC6330-210 Pro Outrunner motor
APC 21x13.5E Propeller
Castle Creations Edge 80HV ESC
Caelus special firewall
Spektrum Servo A6220 HV Dig Low-Profile
Spektrum A6260 HV Digital Hi-Torque
Spektrum A5060 Mini HV Digital
Jaccio High Voltage Perfect Switch battery regulator
Gator F3A Battery Tray Kit
Secraft Wide Washer 4mm blue


Thanks for all your help,
I'm pretty certain I will have questions about the build going forward. It's been a long time since I built anything other than a foamie.

big_G

Welcome aboard!...All parts you listed will be great.

big_G

Just an FYI: I had moved the battery tray back a bunch in an effort to get the C.G. close enough to eliminate or minimize the need for rudder to down elevator mix for K/E pitch to canopy. Was not enough even with one ounce of lead taped under the rudder, so I moved the rudder servo to the tail, and removed the weight under the rudder. I was able to remove over half of the mix I had needed before moving the rudder servo. I don't now what else to move, I think the C/G can be further aft. I will measure the new C/G location and post it tomorrow.

mgosson

My Feedback: (8)

And so the building begins....
The Caelus arrived in a carton suitable for a Space X flight, the packaging alone must have cost $40-$50. This thing is big, I mean really big,it barely fit in my vehicle and I had to move the passenger seat far forward.

The overall quality of the plane is as others here have described, impressive. The paint work is exceptional and so far all the parts fit perfectly.

All I've managed to complete so far, is to hinge the control surfaces and install the elevator servos.
It's been a long time since I built anything so precise and gluing a foamie does not count. The completeness of the hardware pack makes it simple to use the supplied components without sourcing for something better. All the included parts will work perfectly for me.

As recommended here I chose to the Hysol adhesive to mount the control horns as opposed to conventional epoxy. The hinges were installed using a standard 15 minute epoxy.

big_G

News flash!...this just in:
A Caelus takes a first place in Intermediate class in District 6!. Film at 11....lol

mgosson

My Feedback: (8)

In my quest to complete the Caelus, with any luck I might have it completed by the second week in June. My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday and one of the first things that came to mind was a Falcon Three Blade with the companion spinner. I spoke to Mike at F3A yesterday and he suggested a 19.5 x 13.

I'm a hack pilot to begin with and would choose to fly slower and I believe the 3 blade would help. At the price of the three blade I would really like to avoid making a mistake. I read that Zippi is using a 20 x 12.5 and would like to know the real difference in speed and or performance over the 19.5 x 13

Any thoughts on this?

vatechguy3

My Feedback: (11)

The 20 will be slower due to the increase in diameter and reduction in pitch.

I use a 3 blade on my 40% IMAC plane. But have stuck with 2 blades for pattern.

Tony

mgosson

My Feedback: (8)

May I ask why you chose a 2 blade for pattern over a 3?

vatechguy3

My Feedback: (11)

2 blades are more efficent. I only use a 3 blade in IMAC due to the noise.

Tony

Dansy

My Feedback: (53)

I use 3 Blades just a question of style of flying....speed/motor/model....3 blades is known as the cheap contra....the most efficient propeller would have one blades with a counter weight like the one used in pylon, its just because of the parasite turbulence from multiple blades....still I like the 3 blades

You just need to try them, yes it become expensive....

mgosson

My Feedback: (8)

After reading every conceivable post, viewing every photo I could find trying to determine where to place the exit slots in the fuselage I finally made it happen. Not without the help of a colleague.

The biggest problem was this, the servo arm width is 40 mm and the rudder horns are 75 mm wide. This eliminated using the home grown measuring tool of calipers to measure the width of the horn and place the caliper over the fuse.

Here's what we did,
I used painters tape for this procedure.
Laid out a tape line that runs parallel from the rudder servo arm straight to the center of the rudder control horn.
I then placed a tape line from the center of the servo shaft down the side of the fuse and placed the intersecting tape line from the forward piece of the tape to the rudder horn. This gave me the exact line of where the cable runs along the fuselage, my issue was EXACTLY where does the cable exit.
This is where I needed help.

I placed a piece of music wire through the servo arm hole and attached a piece of string that would reach to the rudder. The music wire had to be long enough to reach over the top of the fuse,near the Tcan hoie. We pulled the string back to the rudder while holding the music wire in position and place a square on the floor and determined where the string began to make contact with the fuse and made a mark.
Took a dremel with two-cut off wheels stacked on top of one another and make the cut through the fuse.
The goal was to make as small a slice as we could to allow the wire to exit, and I think we did pretty good.

FinnSpeed

Looks very good to me and your method was almost the same I used with my Spark build.

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

I too use a string to find the line on the fuze that the wire exit should be located.

To find the exactly exit location, I make measurements of the full width of the servo arm (A), the length of the line if the servo arm is extended both ways to the fuze (B), the width of the fuze at the tail where the control horn is located, the full width of the control horn (D), and the length between point x, and y.

Then find a big piece of paper and draw the geometry of these measurements on it. I will in no time find the precise exit location :-).

joe wotton

Hi, does anyone know if the canopy seat is the zero datum line,I put a spirit level on mine to line up the wing and tail incidences and found the wings at minus 2 degrees anthe tail at minus 1 and a half degrees as supplied from the factory(model is version 1)
Just a little worried that I have the wrong datum line.
Thanks. Joe Wotton.

jetmech43

My Feedback: (9)

Canopy base is the datum