brianfp_400

My Feedback: (9)

ordered my new pulse 60 yesterday from advantage hobby.....should be here middle of the week.

Reson7

My Feedback: (4)

Just read the entire thread again, I'm wondering, I didn't put the wing dowels in all the way until 1/2" was remaining I just cut off some to make 1/2" remain, I see there have been problems with this, is is now necessary to remove the dowels and put in some new ones all the way in???, also is it necessary to glue in 1 half of the wing tube into the wing halves????
These are really the only 2 problems I have come across, Is it absolutely necessary to do both things????

SkyPilot101

How much of the dowl was protruding before you cut it down to 1/2 ''? You do not need to "glue in" the wing tube, do glue the small anti-rotation pin into one wing.

Reson7

My Feedback: (4)

I cut off around 1/4", and yes the anti-rotation pin is in, If I remove the wing dowels I'll have to get some more from hardware store, HH does not have them seperately

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

My experience for around here, the hardware store dowels are not what I would call hardwood as they are not maple or beech. They are more like Philippine Mahogany or some Chinese wood?

The dowels at the local hobby shop are beech.

SkyPilot101

I'm guessing that you did not glue in the leading edge dowels yet! If you did, just go with it. If not, try to remove them without damage, sand lightly so they will slip in with a little resistance untill 3/8 inch is protruding, this will still be enough to engage the holes in the front bulkhead, and glue them in. The 1/4" loss is not a show stopper, IMHO. Like w8ye said, don't use run of the mill hardware dowles. If new ones are easily had, pick 'em up and do over.

Reson7

My Feedback: (4)

I glued them in with 30 minute epoxy a long time ago, I am going to try and use acetone to remove them, hopefully no damage will be made

SkyPilot101

You will never get them out without destroying the wing. You are good to go as is.

Salter

It's disappointing there are no Pulse models included with the Phoenix simulator.  Does anyone know a good alternative plane on the sim or is there a way of downloading a Pulse model?  I've tried the "low wing trainer" but it doesn't feel nearly the same to me as the Pulse 60 that I fly.  Thanks!

Reson7

My Feedback: (4)

I talked to Phoenix about a month ago, and it is said that a Pulse XT 60 model is underway

Salter

Excellent news, thanks!

braddock VC

I'm just about to repair my pulse 60, had a battery cock up and it dropped into a tree, two wing leading edges smashed over a couple of bays, and a few broken sticks in the tail.
While it flies just great, the fuselage isn't very strong, 2mm liteply all fretted out forlightness, my nose snapped off at the wing leading edge when doing touch and goes, I repaired it using triangular section balsa.
I ran my saito 125 in on it, 16x6 master classic, ideal match.
Should have it back in one piece for the summer, I was running the saito in for my 54" ultimate bipe but I liked the combination so much that I've bough a second hand 125 for it when it's repaired.

MercerAUST

Yeah, the plane has good structural integrity becasue it is well designed and well put together, but it is light weight and doesn't survive crashes well (compared to some other heavier built planes). I've had to replace the fuselage following a crash - the wings, tail and all other componentry were OK.

braddock VC

I liked the plane very much indeed, in fact I nearly bought another, they're about £180 if you shop around but instead I bought a 1/5th scale c/w cub from world models and I have an xtrawot to finish which is similarly sized but about 2 pounds heavier and I've vacillated between fitting a laser 200 vee twin, the saito 125 and settled on a dla 32 gasser. I've run out of space and have to get shot of those I don't use much, I threw out most of my damaged artfs but kept the pulse 60, I have all the parts to repair it but am finishing off repairs on my home built models, a 28 year old wot 4 mk2, original not artf, an acrowot and a flair fokker D7 when they are repaired then I'll turn to the pulse.
Sorry to go off subject but I need a plane that will really cut the wind and the Xtrawot is just the job take a look on www.chrisfoss.co.uk and you'll see what I mean.

brianfp_400

My Feedback: (9)

I maiden flew my brand new Hangar 9 Pulse 60 today (60 deg clear weather) and had a catastrophic failure/burn up of the CC ICE 75 ESC while in flight. I lost all motor and flight control and she nosed in and busted my new plane into a million small pieces. I was 5 min into a very lovely and uneventful maiden flight at 50% throttle when the burn up occurred and I lost all controls. It melted some of the covering on my plane and I’m lucky there was no big fire. The ESC had excellent air flow across it.

My motor, receiver, lipo battery, and 4 ds821 servos are all fine, and bench tested ok today, but the ICE 75 ESC looks like a piece of charcoal. I bench tested my entire system earlier in the week, and the plane ran fine. At that time my watt meter told me she was safely below top end operating specs:
- Drawing 45 amps peak current, wide open throttle
- Running at 875 watts peak power, wide open throttle

I know CC won't be responsible for replacing my new Hangar 9 Pulse XT 60 ARF ($230) , but hope they consider replacing the ICE 75 ESC and waive the $60 ESC repair fee since it was clearly bad. Here was a summary of my system set up:
- New E-flite Power 60 outrunner motor (rated 40-60amps and 1200 watts)
- Zippy Flightmax 20c 4000mah 6s1p lipo battery, fully balance charged
- CC ICE 75 ESC (Castle linked with latest software, factory settings, outrunner mode, brake off, BEC set at 6v)
- APC Electric 16 x 8 propeller
- Futaba 6ex 2.4ghz FASST receiver

hidaven

Dude, I think you better check that watt meter.....Im on 6s with a 15x8 pulling close to 1950 watts and upper 80's in amps! I'd bet the farm your over 1200 watts.

Lastly, learn a lesson here......Never and I mean NEVER use an internal BEC over 3s ESPECIALLY running digital servos.
At the very least you need a UBEC or external BEC (Castle pro or even better, dimention engineering)
But if it were me and I have the same plane, I use a seperate 1700mah LiFe pack plugged in direct (no switch to fail) into the rx. This way if the BEC, internal or external goes down, you still have control of the surfaces. Did you know that a BEC adds 6 extra failure points to the process?

Had far too many friends, myself included, have bec's go down from a thermal overload of the ESC. Not that a seperate rx pack is 100% error free, but a lot less to go wrong. Thats why most, not all, but most pilots with bigger planes opt for the seperate pack. Park flyers use internal bec's anything over 3-4s go seperate or even better totally seperate.

MercerAUST

I'm very sorry for your failure and loss.

We were having a disussion down at the strip last weekend about whether there were more crashes with IC or (comparable) electric powered planes. While inconclusive, most electric crashes were due to failed ESCs (where the rx and control surface servers were on the same circuit). This seemed mainly to have affected planes where the electric set up was more than 12 months ago, and when high ampage/reliable ESCs were at a premium price (eg people tended to operate right up to the margins of the ESC performance) and many did not use a separate Rx/server circuit. Most people building larger electric planes probably use a separate circuit now which avoids the risk of catastrophic failure due to main battery, ESC or BEC failure.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

Great thread with lots of good tips.

I ordered mine from Horizon this morning, and will use my unemployed 75 AX.

I'd love to do anything but mount the engine straight up, but it sounds like the alternatives might not be a good idea. If I can knock the blind nuts out of the firewall and do some redrilling, my favorite mount angle for a bird like this is with the cylinder down on the right about 35-40 degrees so that the muffler hangs underneath right on the centerline, between the gear legs. If I can do it, I'll post some pics.

As far as IC vs Electric crashes, I don't have a lot of electrics, and no real big ones, but this is my strategy:

1. I use Rimfire motors and Flightpower ESCs purchased from Tower. If something does go wrong, the warranty treatment is very good.
2. Whatever the size ESC recommendation for a motor, I go one size up.
3. I don't do anything special as far as air inlet on the nose, as there is plenty of room around the propshaft. I do make sure that air can flow past the ESC all the way to behind the wing saddle, where I put a whopping big hole on the top or bottom, depending on the aircraft.
4. I never put one in service until the motor/prop/battery combo have been amp tested using a ammeter. I set all my electrics up so that the maxiumum current on a fresh pack is less that the maximum recommended constant current for the motor.

I have no hesitation to use the BEC on any setup, right up to the max recommended number of cells that the ESC can handle with the BEC enabled. My biggest one right now is a small P-39 with a 4 cell pack, a 60A ESC, and a Rimfire 25.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

I gotta say, Horizon Hobby doesn't give you any time to change your mind. I ordered my Pulse on Tuesday morning, and it arrived this morning (Thursday).

Lovely kit, like everyone has said. Has to be one of the best looking airplanes around, but not with an engine poking up through the cowl. No way, Jose, Josh and John. Yucch [:'(][:'(][:'(][:'(]

Not only that, but if I were to mount my 75AX upright, it would put the carburetor spray bar ABOVE the top surface of the tank. OS says to locate the tank such that about 1/3 of it is above the spray bar. My experience leads me to shoot for 50/50- tank centerline on the spray bar centerline so that the engine will run the same regardless of upright or inverted, etc.

The ONLY way to achieve this, with the 75AX, was to mount the engine inverted, use a Sullivan 12oz round tank, and cut a lot of plywood out of the bottom of the fuel tank's house, so that the tank can be lowered to almost the bottom of the fuse. Note the new hole for the cap in the firewall. The supplied tank is too big for my engine, anyway. OS says 350 cc, or just under 12oz. The H9 tank is 15 oz.

The upside is that the installation will look very clean: just a bit of cylinder head poking through the bottom of the cowl, and the muffler making a clean exit on the left side, with no contact between it and the cowl. The spray bar and tank C/L are lined up, and by using a Sullivan push cable through the supplied tube on the left side, the throttle hook up will be easy.

Next step will be to reinforce all the joints from the firewall back to aft of the wing saddle with milled fiberglass/epoxy fillets, as I've chopped a lot of strength out of the structure to get the tank to fit.

I think Hangar 9 has redesigned the hatch so it can't fly off during flight. When installed, it is pushed to the rear so the magnets go into recesses formed by submerged blind nuts. Between them being recessed, and the dowel pin at the front, it can't fly off. To remove it, I have to slide it forward, using a good bit of force to break the magnets' grip, then lift up at the rear and pull the dowel out of the hole in the firewall. (Don't ask how long it took me to figure this out. [:-])

SkyPilot101

I thought the same thing about the hatch security, ...... untill it flew off! Don't trust it, secure it with a bit of tape, a screw, or whatever your fav method. H-9 does not carry a replacement hatch for the 60, you will need to buy the entire fuse to get a new one!

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

Sky:

Not only is it locked in the way I described previously, but the cowl fits beyond the front edge of it, so there's really no way it can come off. I tried to remove it after I put the cowl on, and I can't. I can't move it at all.

I completed the engine and fuel tank "engineering", including cutting all the various holes in the cowl, and I'll post a pic in a few minutes.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

I'm really pleased with this. I just wish the OS muffler wasn't so clunky looking. Next month, I think I'll get a Macs muffler for it, and a 2.25 inch Tru Turn 3 blade spinner so I can use a 12x8 MAS on it. That crummy plastic spinner that came with it won't even fit the prop blades on a 14 or 13x8- I'll have to use a Goldberg 2.5" for awhile.

SkyPilot101

Bob, mine is the exact same way, It still came off after a few months of flying, I use two small pc's of scotch tape to imobilize it now. I know the design look's secure, it's not!........BTW, your inverted engine install is NICE!

I too was a non believer of lost hatch posts when I first got this plane, I discounted the warnings thinking the hatch mount is secure, thought it was all BS....Guess What.....Now all I can say is Ask me How I Know.

jamesc43

My Feedback: (2)

Mustang Fever,

Your modified fuel tank configuration may prevent the hatch from flying off due to fit of the replacement fuel tank. From your description,
that sounds like the stock mounting configuration for the fuel tank hatch. The problem has alway been the original fuel tank would
slide rearward hitting the former in the hatch. The hatch moved vertically a little and that all that needs to be done for the magnets
lose their grip on the hatch. The hatch flies away and is difficult to locate afterward. I talked to Hanger 9 when my hatch flew off
and they told me that each hatch is made custom for each fuselage. Tie a large red streamer to the hatch for easier location when it
eventually comes off.

Mustang Fever

My Feedback: (2)

Sky: since I have a lot of red packing tape left from my foamie days, before I fly it I'll put a strip across the front, rear and sides.

Can't see having to buy a new fuse over something like this. Thanks for the tips.

I was digging through my spinner/engine mount/muffler box, and found this. The prop's a 12x6. I think I'd prefer a 13x8, but we'll see how this does in the interim.