freakingfast

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Think you would have done better if left alone .......Yup!

This happens to me from time to time. I'm flying a speed plane of some sort well over 150 and and someone walks up and starts yamerin in my ear or as I'm dead stick and setting up for my landing, thinking that my flight is over just because the engine is off he starts asking questions. My standard response "I'll talk when I'm down".

HighPlains

My Feedback: (1)

I think the drive to Crows Landing would take less time than repairs.

daven

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Standard speeds with the Nelson SS and Q40's was in the low to mid 180's.

Chris, don't go too crazy with the glass and glue. A little thin ca, and a layer or two of 1.4 oz should be plenty if the cracks aren't too bad.

ChrisAttebery

My Feedback: (15)

FF, He's a friend who's been racing for 30+ years. He's raced everything up to Giant Scale. I asked him for his input and I trust him. The plane was about 50' short of the runway when it happened. I didn't see THAT weed until I hit it. It was a loner that was sort of camoflaged against the rest of the weeds in the background. Sad part is that the field burned earlier this year. If it hadn't it would have landed in a thick cushion of weeds. Right now it's pretty bare and rocky.

HP, Yeah I know. The thing is if I can't fly it at my field on my lunch hour then I refuse to fly it. I just have to keep practicing. I'll buy another used airframe and beat the tar out of it when the time comes.

Dave, The cracks I've repaired in the past I just soaked CA into. This crack is full thickness and half the circumference of the fuse. I think I'll put a few strands of CF yarn right at the wing saddle and then use a patch of glass over the rest. What could go wrong? :^)


Seriously, when I bough this plane both stabs had been reglued on. The wing had several cracks that had CA repairs too. I knew it was going to meet it's end here.

RocketRob

My Feedback: (1)

Chris,
Bad timing but good times - (the 173mph)
I just cleared it w/ Rusty for you to join us Sunday[] Need to keep it small as the secret testing area 51 is on private property. If you are still up shoot me a PM just plan on a 2.5 hr drive each way

And Dave you are right about the session being for Whittier - Sometimes shakedown sessions can be almost as much fun as the actual races. And he says Hello - He thinks very highly of you!

FF, Roger on the fools that want to come up and flap their jaws while you are holding on to the plane by every bit of your concentration - like telling you about their .40 size trainer they put a .55 in can't wait your 60-120 seconds......

On painting I just use Top Flight Lustercoat rattle can, with the white primer it is very consistent and rubs out very nicely. Finish is tough stands up to abraision does not crack and chip like the hardware store paints. A couple of weeks ago when it was 109 in the valley, 101 in East Bay and seemingly "plenty hot" in SF, I took an afternoon off to rush home to paint the fuse and it blushed, must have been just under 70 in the city. This is the only downside I've noticed with this paint.
I sortof burnt my wife out after painting my Rafale with the HVLP gun and some kind of color/clear coat process that now I try to get away with rattlecans mostly when she is out of the house.

I'll try to remember to bring my camera sorry have no video equipment, and of course the radar gun.

I've never started the engine in the plane so some final testing is needed on Saturday

daven

My Feedback: (1)

Rob,

Ask Rusty about our heat in Muncie this past July.

3 planes lost in less than a minute, and all spectacular.

ChrisAttebery

My Feedback: (15)

Rob,

Thanks man that was really cool of you. Unfortunately I'll be in SLO for the weekend. [:@]

I was mostly curious. I know Rustly lives in the Hanford area. That's a serious haul for a day of fun. Some day when my kids are a bit older I'll start making more trips like this, but for now I keep to my field except for the T-34 races I attend.

I've used Lustercote on EDFs. I guess my boating days have shied me away from rattle cans for glow powered toys. The 60% fuel we used would eat anything short of Deltron.

Good luck this weekend. I think you're in for a great time.


Chris

RocketRob

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A Flock Of Ashleys

RocketRob

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It was a great day and well worth the drive, Got home last night exhausted, sunburnt, and a familiar ringing in my ears.
I was witness to some incredible flying, pristine planes and a great group.

The times through the trap ranged between 186 to 194mph and it was mentioned 200 was hit earlier in the morning before I arrived.

I did not get any times on mine as both flights were sorting out - I had never even started the engine in the airframe. First flight was more than a bit scary as I carried way to much rudder and starting veering right and once airborn neutralized the rudder to soon and almost snapped. It was running pretty good but inflight the spring which retains the needle was loose from all the R&R cycles and allowed the needle to close which gave me an early flameout. The landing was just as much a white nuckler, was high over the approach end and it was suggested I do a 360 but knowing I had about 3,000 ft of runway left decided to land long as oposed to risking a lowspeed turning snap. Hey what can I say, made sense to my microcontroller during the nanosecond of data process. So It flew past us about 15' and just kept on flying down the runway, just kept on flying and flying and as it became a red spec started to settle down. Ending up coasting off runway into the fine dirt/dust on the edges luckily missing the runway light[X(]

Flight 2 after changing the tip ground prop and adding some tension to the needle spring and cleaning all the dust/castor mix off the airframe was much better. Take off with a very safe rich setting and very little rudder was reletively a non event. Spent most of the flight trimming it out, and the landing worked out much better - well what do you expect with Rusty calling She covers ground very well[8D]

I've got a few things to sort out, but the plane flys well and I would highly recomend this airframe

Good Luck at Whittier!

daven

My Feedback: (1)

I love that white/green/black ashly above, is that Dougs'?

I wonder if having that pipe down the side of your fuze blowing makes your rudder more effective?? I'm betting it does..

Sounds like your getting things worked out. Man I wish I was going to Whittier next month...

ChrisAttebery

My Feedback: (15)

Rob,

It's good to hear that it made it back in one piece. There's quite a difference in landing these compared to anything else I've flown. It's too bad you didn't get to clock it, but you'll get the kinks worked out of it soon enough.

I've never heard of them trying to snap after neutralizing the rudder. That's new to me. Once mine leaves the runway I get off the rudder and elevator in a hurry. I've never had a problem there. As a matter of fact, once I made a mental reminder to preset the rudder and elevator I haven't had any issues taking off or flying her around. It's only on landing that I've had trouble. Our fairly short runway with relatively tall weeds (4-5') just off either end isn't very conducive to a plane that has a long flat glideslope.

Chris

daven

My Feedback: (1)

Yes, if you come off of elevator too fast it could snap, normally the tail will just swing to right and it will be fine though.

Another thing to watch out for, is switching to high rates too quickly after cutting throttle. I've seen these do snap rolls across the sky after a high rate elevator turn before its bled off some speed.

ChrisAttebery

My Feedback: (15)

You know, I've been toning my rates down lower and lower lately. I've got tripple rates setup on my 7C. They are set at 100%, 75%, and 60% of the recommended throws. I don't use High at all anymore. I use medium for launching/landing and low to fly laps. I think I only have about 1/8" of throw on low. The plane flies really smooth with this setup and I have less tendency to stall it on landing.

Here's a question for you. Mine is balanced at the back of the recommended range. I need about 1/32' of up trim on the elevators to fly stright and level at speed. Some of that could be from the stabs being broken off and reglued (before my time). When I kill the engine the plane needs a bit more up elevator to fly level. Is this normal or do I need more weight in the tail?

daven

My Feedback: (1)

If your at the backend of Rusty's range, I wouldn't go any further back. I know mine got a little squirrly landing with a rearward CG. My guess is the incidence is off slightly somewhere (most likely tail or firewall). You should be able to take off on low rates, I just like a little extra for landings in case of wind, triple rates is probably overkill...

My guess is that you need the extra up because yours is so heavy

ChrisAttebery

My Feedback: (15)

I know I don't NEED tripple rates. I like having them when I set up a plane because I can fine tune the rates alot faster. I base the throws off Dub's 20% rule. Originally I used 100, 85, 75. Now that I've got them when I want them I'll move them to the two position switch I normally use for all of my planes.

Hey, that wasn't nice! Why don't you just call it the fat kid and get it over with? [sm=cry_smile.gif]

RocketRob

My Feedback: (1)

Fatter kid here......
Mine carries about the same 1/32 up elevator trimmed for speed also. CG center of range @ 3.75" aft.

Dave - figures you like the Green and White one

I think you have something about the pipe thrust on the right elevator - Eureka.
Now any ideas why I need to use a lot of right aileron trim?
This one is baffeling me as the weight of the engine and pipe is on the right side and I have not added any weight to the left wingtip. Conventional wisdom would indicate it would turn to the right set up like this w/o any lateral ballance.....Unless Rusty's planes are such thorobread racing stallions they just genetically turn left.

diggs_74

When the plane slows down does it still require the aileron trim or does it start to roll back to the right? The reason I ask is that I've had a slight warp in a wing that caused a similar problem.. It would require the trim at speed but once the engine was off and it slowed a bit it would roll back the other way..

I blocked up the plane on the bench to zero the firewall and tail and then put an incidence meter on each wing just outside the ailerons.. Sure enough, I had about a half degree difference between the two sides.

Might be worth checking..

daven

My Feedback: (1)

I wouldn't worry so much about lateral balance, unless its ballooning or tucking in a turn when set at 90 degrees.

ChrisAttebery

My Feedback: (15)

Rob,

Mine carries alot of right aileron trim too, but mine is beat up and there are multiple repairs on the wing.

I repaired my damage from last week. I took a couple feet of carbon yarn, cut it into 2" lengths and shoved it into the wing saddle at the break. I also made a 1'x2' patch out of 6 oz glass and laid it down in the same area. It's plenty strong. The rest of the crack was just lined back up and CAed. I fixed the cracks in the wing with CA too. I found that one of them had a raised lip so I cut it open and reglued it so that it lined up smoother. I took it out today and got one good flight and landing. The elevator trim was off so I spent most of the fight getting it sorted out. I was also able to take some of my aileron trim out, so my wing fix did help. Once I trimmed it out it was smooth as ever.

On the second flight I got about 1.5 laps in and then the carb slipped out of the pressed in sleeve I made for it. I wasn't able to set up for the landing so well and wound up about 100' back from the runway and just slowed it down until it stalled about a foot above the weeds. No harm, No foul.

Tonight I'm going to pull the motor and glue the carb into the sleeve with LockTite sleeve retainer. If that doesn't work I think I'll start looking for a Q500 air valve to replace the carb. I know a few people have run them in the Q40 motors. They are probably alot lighter than the carb I'm running and I know that they won't give me the trouble I've had with this carb coming loose.

freakingfast

My Feedback: (3)

Congats on the maiden flight Rob! The scrary times are behind you now.

RocketRob

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for the help guys.
I assembled the plane to to review the final trim settings and throws and noticed I had a bit of left rudder preset. I was doing a lot of throw adjustment at the field and may have overlooked that and also have to do a bit of work to my rudder linkage. I don't think the slight rudder offset was the entire culprit.
I will block her up and check all surface alignmnet.

RocketRob

My Feedback: (1)

Yes siree had some twist in the wing from building up heat during the rubout.
Coaxed my 6yr old foster daughter to steady the fuse while I took the heat gun to the offending wing tip. To much the first cycle, back to square one the second, to much again. etc. etc and finally got her just right. The 6yr old lost interest about half way through the mission Kids, thats whats wrong with them today - No Focus

diggs_74

Sounds like you got it on the run.. Have you test flown it yet?

RocketRob

My Feedback: (1)

Actually got her out last weekend at a private airport in Wine Country.
Takeoff, flight and landing were glorious![8D]

On the previous maiden shakedown, Rusty helped me setup my throws and they performed perfectly.

I got pretty agressive with the elevator pulls - the thing looks like it changes direction in a 20' diameter at speed. Seems to exit the turn faster than the enterance - may be an optical conclusion relating to the change of direction?

All the otherguys could say was "stay away from the Hangers" and "thats the fastest RC plane I've ever seen"

Brought her home and tore her down for depot level maintenance. Good cleaning and inspection, a few mods and trying to shed some ounces.

Hey Chris, I know Sonoma is a bit far for you but Tracy may be another good option for our landing practice?
I'll be going out again in a couple of weeks w/Radar gun and videocamera.

Rob

daven

My Feedback: (1)

Congrats Rob, those first few flights on a new q40 can be fun

The best part, is that unlike quickies, you don't lose the exhiliartion after 100 flights.