kerwin50

Thats great , the post at the top of the page the guy has made several adjustments an is still not satisfied

av8djc

My Feedback: (4)

I just picked up one of these partially started. I've searched this thread and cannot find info on anyone going an electric conversion. Anyone know if this has been done and if there is any info on it?

I'm looking forward to flying this beauty. My task for now is to to post 1 and read them all to get up to speed before I ask more questions.

Thanks!

Dave

panagiotis.p

As far as I can remember, there is no electric conversion of the Eagle discussed in this thread. The only thing I can tell you is that this ARF needs a lot of weight in front to balance and fly well (at least mine). I know batteries are heavy, but so is an engine, the ignition, the betteries for it, the fuel, the smoke fuel, the pump (and I still need weight in front). If that helps.

av8djc

My Feedback: (4)

Yeah, the more I look at it the less I like the idea. Too complicated. I think I'll just get a DLE55 and fly gas for this one. I'm about to sell my last two glow planes and will never look back but I need to get back to some 120 size or larger airplanes that I can see better and would prefer electric. My largest electric now is a Bucker Jungmann 55" from texasrcplanes.com . The next step is an electric to replace my 15 year old Goldberg Extra that I just powdered. I'll go a little larger this time and will have a lot to choose from in that size airplane.

Thanks!

cmoulder

Another CEII hatchling!

Bought mine recently from builder Walter Chubb who had assembled the airframe. I put a DL50 in it with a Slimline Pitts muffler with smoke. The DL position on the firewall ended up perfect just by matching up the crosshairs on mount template and the firewall.

Fuel and smoke oil tanks located just in front of the fuse wing former, very close to CG. RCS mega smoker pump. Two 5s NiMH 2000-mahs for Rx, with separate switches into the receiver for redundancy. Separate 450-mah LiPo for the smoker. Using a Tech-Aero IBEC for ignition/optical kill.

Don't know how much it weighs, but gosh it has to be 19 lbs if it's an ounce!

The best part, CG ended up exactly at 6-1/4" with absolutely no changes in components.

Maiden perhaps tomorrow or middle of next week.

cmoulder

I think you'll be very happy flying it with the DLE55! I maidened today with the DL50 and it may be the perfect engine for this plane - plenty of power and not too much vibration.

I had broken in my DL and used it on 2 previous models, so it had no trouble turning the PT models CF 21x10 3-blade prop. On maiden, the model needed a lot of elevator down trim at high throttle, and at this point I'm going to assume it is a wing incidence issue. However, it landed pretty well in a good crosswind (10-12 mph) and did not show any tendency to tip stall or to require excessive down elevator when inverted, so I will to a simple little throttle-to-elevator mix to compensate for the climb... much easier than messing with the incidence or engine down thrust.

One thing's for sure: with its very short tail moment and small-ish, scale tail group, nobody will ever claim this model "tracks like it's on rails"!! Just getting it dialed in with the maiden plus 3 more short flights, but it looks like it will tumble and spin well. But I want to fly it a lot more in calm air to get familiar with high and low speed stall characteristics, coupling, KE performance, etc.

Today, it was clear that this plane has to be "flown" at all times.

av8djc

My Feedback: (4)

Sounds great keep us posted. I've a lot of other projects ahead of this one so I ordered the DLE55 a week or two ago and will wait for it to come. I guess the incidence issue is common. I'll do as much as I can to get it right while I'm putting it together. So why the 3 blade? Am I going to have ground clearance issues with the 22x10?

Dave

panagiotis.p

No, you will not have any clearance issues even with a 23 blade. Of course, it all depends on your landings, actually on WHERE you land. On asphalt, you will never have issues, on grass maybe. Always with a 23" blade. With anything smaller, you will first bend you landing gear and then touch the blade, even on grass.
I have tried a lot of blades on the CE with my DL50, from 20X10 to 23X8, always 2-bladed. Power is always too much for this ARF. It was designed with the Fuji 50SB in mind, (a HEAVY engine, almost 2kg) and a 20X10 blade.
As far as the incidence problem is concerned, after all my experiments, I would first balance the ARF as nose heavy as possible and then everything else. Remeber, it was designed with a 2kg engine in front, the DL weights 25% less.

cmoulder

Mine needs a bit of down elevator at high throttle, which suggests incidence or thrust line, not CG. But just a bit of elevator, and since the CE is not a precision flyer I am inclined to try a mix first, especially since it seems to fare well in all other areas. Well, at least as many areas as I dare to try in the first 4 flights. Doesn't seem to warrant much more effort than that.

True the Fuji is heavier than a DA/DL, but when you add a Slimline Pitts wrap-around muffler, I'll bet the weight is about the same - or pretty close - when taking into account the Fuji's lightweight side dump muffler.

I'm using the 21x10 3-blade because that's what I had on hand. Unfortunately the spinner I had for it was a 3.5", but I got a custom-cut DB 4" Vortec with DA drilling and lightened backplate and spinner cut-outs for just under $80 shipped.

Flying again today and the wind situation looks a lot better. Not horrible yesterday, but impossible to properly trim the rudder on this model.

panagiotis.p

I understand and I agree, it is more of an incidence thing than a balance one. What I suggest is trying to balance the ARF as nose heavy as the limits of Great Planes suggest, not outside the limits. Plus, another thing is someone's perception of "a bit of down elevator". Personally, I want my model to fly well without any mixes, at least fly straight without climpbing like an elevator when I increase the throttle more than 40%! (that was happening with mine) Yet yes, it is much much easier to try and fix it with a mix.
Still, with all these problems I have had with mine (and I do not assume everyone else did) this ARF is a real joy to fly, to see, to admire...

cmoulder

Well I had a blast today flying the stubby little CE, and made it through a very awkward deadstick that resulted in no damage.

I think it was caused by the smoke oil causing too much back pressure in the muffler, and a subsequent run-up on the ground seemed to indicate this was the problem.

The amount of down elevator trim for high throttle is really very small, so I just decided to fly the thing today and get used to it. I still haven't weighed it yet but I am discovering that IMHO it flies lighter on the wing than some reported earlier in this thread. I was also amazed at how little aileron and elevator coupling there is during knife-edge flight - I had been expecting a TON and it was just a skosh.

Anyway, my buddies Ace and Rog were there and made some pix for me with my camera. What a spectacular day for flying!

av8djc

My Feedback: (4)

Looks Great Bob! Glad the dead stick worked out ok. That 3-blade looks a little funny to me on an Eagle but I'll gladly do it on mine if I have ground clearance problems with the 22-10. My CE is a couple down on my project list so it'll be after the first of the year for sure.

cmoulder

Yep, I was wondering about the appropriateness of a 3-blade prop, but I looked through airliners.net and found that some full-scale Eagles use 3-bladers, with Extra-style spinners. However, I am thinking about painting the prop flat grey or white with contrasting tips.

allans

My Feedback: (11)

Excellent Thread . The discussion alone was very interesting and educational.
The plane is beauty. Your knowledge and skills exemplary - I would personally like to thank you for sharing it .

BYW was that photo taken at the beautiful Black Dirt Field in Goshen New York.

Some people call it the "most beautiful field in North America".

It looks familiar.


Allan

cmoulder

Well... BDS will be a very beautiful field again... next May! [sm=red_smile.gif]

I weighed my CE II this morning using a combination of spring fish scale (not terribly accurate) and a digital postal scale (very accurate). The fuse was too heavy for the digital postal scale, so the spring scale had to be used and indicated a little over 15 lbs, and the wings/cabanes were 4lb 1oz on the digital scale.

So it is safe to say that the model weighs about 19-1/2 lbs. With fuel and smoke oil added, take-off weight is around 21 lbs. It flies pretty lightly at this weight, and I could tell no difference at all in flight when smoke oil was added to the weight total. I am using a 16-oz fuel tank and a smoke oil tank that is slightly larger.

I started doing some mild aerobatics with it, and it does pretty nice slow rolls and is capable of some very good, slow inverted flat spins, but a bit wobbly in the wings until I figure out how much aileron it likes. As noted before, it does want to continue spinning after controls are neutralized, so I'm leaving plenty of altitude for recovery until I learn how to get out of them more quickly!

cmoulder

Disaster averted Sunday by having redundant power switches and Rx batteries!

The tray just behind the wing former - to which my Rx batteries were attached - came loose and the batteries were just flopping around during flight, tearing holes in the Monokote. One of the switch plugs came out of the Rx but the other was still there... otherwise the Christen would be a pile of sticks.

Got it fixed and re-covered already.

Whew, close one!

av8djc

My Feedback: (4)

Yikes[:-]

cmoulder

Dave,

When you start working on yours, you might want to do what I did recently and should have done as the first step, which is to make the cross brace in the wing saddle removeable so that it is easier to gain access to the front of the fuse.

I don't know what I was thinking earlier when I had to work around that thing to put the tanks and the fuel fittings up there!

cmoulder

I put a 2-blade TBM 22x10 prop on the CE 2, which I painted with Rustoleum gray and made some white tips, and it does indeed look pretty good!

Allans got a nice shot with the smoke on, with some smoke rings being spit from the Pitts muffler.

Will post pix later... something wrong with RCU server, which was down for many hours earlier....

av8djc

My Feedback: (4)

Thanks for the tip Bob. I expect my DLE55 will be in hand in the next day or two. I am trying to get my fleet up to snuff so I can get to the CE. Should be real soon.
Dave

cmoulder

I know what you mean, Dave. I've got a re-furbishment project partially complete, a pattern kit and a pattern ship engine swap all in progress at once, and also new pattern foamie on the way so I can practice on the rare nice day this winter.

Good luck on all your projects.

JustGoFly.com

Guys, I know it's been almost a year since a post has been made here, but I'm hoping you can help with some advice.
My Great Plains Christen Eagle II is flying fantastic, I love the plane and am really enjoying it. It is running a Zenoah G62 on a 22x12 prop. I moved the 2S 3200 LiPo behind the wind and that made landing alot easier and the plane is plenty responsive.

But I need to know a few things from posts I have read and lead me to concern.
1) Should I modify the center wing struts. Seems odd that they use small wood screws to hold the central aluminum frame to the fuselage. After a few flights two of the screws were missing, fortunately I saw it and stopped flying. More fortunate that I didn't loose the top wing. I put larger wood screws into the fuse dipped in epoxy first, and it seems plenty strong, but I am considering making an under support aluminum bar, tap it and use screws and lock nuts to hold that aluminum structure. Any advice ?

2) The stock left and right wing struts to not look very strong. Should I replace them ? Who sells a stronger replacement. I use 4x40 screws and lock nuts on these and have not had any problems but I do fly the plane with authority, and think I need more strength here. Maybe I should put an aluminum bar through and lock it into the top and bottom wings.

3) Are the tabs screwed into the wings, that the struts attach to, strong enough or should I do something to beef them up ?

4) Are the wires mostly for looks or do they add significant strength ? I already popped two of them. Any tips on the wires ?

I'm loving this bird, and very fond of Bipes. I have quite a few Bipes - not sure why I like them, except when you round the field and turn for approach, it looks so real - blows my mind every time. Plus if you blow off one wing, you can still land

Vinnie

theradioflyer

I was hoping to resurrect this thread with the last question asked. I too am wondering about the cabane struts and if they should be replaced and with what. I have a new DLE55 sitting on the nose but still no servos, batteries, optikill or anything. I do want to put smoke on it as well.

Blessings,

Jay

JustGoFly.com

No answer to share. I will look at the struts closely and see if I can drill for a steel rod to re-enforce.

For those long winter months with minimal R/C enjoy my video of one of the first few flights of my GP Christen Eagle.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwXdh0H2TtU&feature=g-upl&context=G254c9f3AUAAAAAAAAAA[/youtube]

I bought a SECOND same 29% CE as a backup - in case the first goes away. It's rigged to fly. I've got quite a collection of large 1/4 scale Bipes, Pitts S2B, Pitts Special, Hog Bipe, Twin Shark Bipe, Jung Meister Bipe, 29% Christen Eagles, 27% Pitts Challenger, 1/5 scale Waco, Sterling Stearman, and smaller Kyosho Stearman.

The S2B Pitts:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scg2-p0ukGo[/youtube]

And 1/5 scale Waco:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6ofjUHkolM[/youtube]

Challenger:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFNaN-1UyAQ[/youtube]

Vinnie

panagiotis.p

As far as I'm concerned, I NEVER had a problem with the small wood screws provided for the center cabanes. I took very good care when drilling the holes, taping the threads and waiting for the CA to fully cure before assembling the set, and that was it. It seems that the wood they screw in is really hard, mine at least.
For the struts now, yes, they are very sensitive, you could easily crash them to where they are attached to the wings if you over tighten the nuts. But, since these all are lock nuts, there is no real need. Same here, I never had a problem. I cannot tell what type of vibrations could loosen them, the low idle type or the hi-rev, but on my CE I have a very low idle that makes you think it's gonna break the rudder, and I push it hard when flying, so all kinds of vibrations and no problem with these. The wires are pure decor, I only flew with them on the very first times. Then, it would take too long to attach them (and remove them). Too long to wait before flying!