stangevil29

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I have used the pants on mine since the first flight. I fly off pavement however. If flying off grass they may get gunked up. A 30cc is just fine for this bird, mines got a DLE30. The tires are 4" I believe. The ones that came w/ mine are pretty hard but, I never used them. I put 4" inflatable Dubro's on it.

bradleyban

The Syssa 30cc will fly this plane awsome. No unlimited vertical but your typical how an RCplane flies type power. The plane itself is very well built. Only thing you might find annoying at first is the starts a strips on the wings will fly off on you at the start. Ijust went to my local sign shops and had them cut me out some new ones. Irun my wheels pants.

sdossett

Jim

I'm "pants on" all the time. My guess is the pictures you see here are those "Got To Fly It Now!!" variety. The pants actually take the punishment of grass field landings and patch with a little glass cloth easily.

I use the 4" dubro inflatable wheels, Sullivan and Dubro hardware EVERYWHERE else.

For as engines go...mines a Saito 180 4 stroke. Honestly, I'd rather have more power. But with 75+ flights, I report no bad habits from this bird. She's just starting to look a little tired.

Good luck.

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

Wow, thanks for the great responses, guys.

Strangevil, Glad you're using your wheel pants. Your DLE 30 is a great indicator. Lots of guys do the Ford?Chevy thing with the DLEs and Syssas. From all reports and indicators, they're both excellent engines with comparable HP. This is good news. I was pretty sure that it wouldn't require anything larger than the 30CCs. Did it require any nose-weight?

Bradleyban, One thing that seems universal on ARFs is their ability to lose their strips and stripes. I expect that I'll be inspecting and reworking some of the aesthetics on this one. I hate when they start unwinding during the initial flights. Even though I didn't cover it myself, it's still a bit embarrassing. Looks like the red base color seems to be pretty solid, from most of the reports I've read.

Sdossett, Good to hear from you as well that the wheelpants are used and that they hold up well. I noticed that you emphasized using DuBro and Sullivan hardware everywhere else. Not a real problem, as I'm kind of A-retentive in my hardware installations, and often use the same sources. I tend to default to Robart pin hinges, and I almost always use the Sullivan steerable tail gear.

A couple more questions:

Anybody have any opinions on how the included tail gear holds up?

Is anyone running servos in the tail, and is it set up to be able to install servos back there?

How big of a wheel could the wheelpants hold? I think I have a nice set of 4.5" Sullivans hanging around here.

~ Jim ~[8D]Wow, Thanks for the great responses, guys.

bradleyban

Ihave the supplied tail wheel assembly on mine and never had an issue. It's very well built.

My two elevator servos are in the tail and there are two spots in the back of the fuse built in for the servos. My rudder servo is in the servo tray inside the fuse with pull pull cables. No issues with this set-up at all. You have the options to mount the elevator servos up beside the rudder servo if you wish to aswell if you wanted to.

Ithink you could fit a 4.5"in the wheel pants they are actually quite big but you would have to cut out the opening a little bit bigger. Ithink the stock wheels are 3.5" but im not 100%on that.

cheers

Brad

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

Thanks, Brad.

~ Jim ~[8D]

stangevil29

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I have the elevator servos in the tail and it balanced perfectly w/o any weight added.

orthobird

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hi, i habe a da 60 on mine, and it flies super great. no added weight. both elevator servos are in tail. there is one giant scale servo in bay area that is for pull pull rudder.

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

Excellent, strangevil! Then I should be quite close with the setup I'm looking at.

~ Jim ~

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

Talk about the Twilight Zone.

I was reading through the thread, and when I got to page 45 or thereabouts, I found a post made by me. It was around October of 2009, and I said in the post that I had just ordered mine in. This would mean that I went to my hobby shop and placed the order for it. (???) I remember something along those lines, and if I placed the order, then I was ready to spend the money. But I read for more than a year after that, and nothing, not even a post saying what happened. I was just. . . gone.

I just wrote to the guys at RC Guys, and I felt that old Deja-vu when I did, like I'd done it before. I'm going to guess this occurred when the hobby shop was in the process of changing hands due to some financial issues, and apparently my order was never placed. I may never know.

Until I came across that, I had found myself wondering repeatedly why I never saw this RC Guys Super Decathlon ARF before this, because if I did, I would have ordered one in.

That explains that.

I'm selling a couple of smaller planes to make room (and money) for bringing in this Decathlon. This time, I'll order it direct.

~ Jim ~

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

I found out what happened. I DID order an RC Guys Decathlon back then, and RC Guys said they had it in stock. Two weeks went by, and they still hadn't shipped it. Plus, at that time, they hadn't yet resolved the covering issues, so it seems I opted to cancel the order and ordered another plane. Another plane, which turned out to be beautiful and had good coating, but poor handling and tremendously high wing loading. I came across an old e-mail where I told a friend what happened.

I've ordered my engine, a Syssa 30CC, and I have some of my glow birds up for sale to supplement the ordering of the Decathlon. I've sold a few things, so I'm halfway there already. With any luck at all, I'll have my very own RC Guys Decathlon on order within the next week or two.

Inch by inch. ;^)

~ Jim ~[8D]

WI53072

Ok time for me to get serious here. I have had a RC Guys SD sitting in my basement in its box since the summer of 2009. I have just decided that I am tired of fixing the plane I had been flying this summer. I am intending on going down to the basement tommorow after work and clearing my bench of a few odds and ends and taking out the SD and begining on it.

I am thinking the DLE 35 with the rear exhaust as a power plant. Any thoughts on this engine selection? I have heard good things about this engine. The other thing is thqt I am going to use different hinge material other than CA hinges. I am wondering hinge points or pinned hinges?? I may take some pictures once I un-pack it. I am already convinced I am going to have to replace most of the hardware as this is quite a bit older of a kit than the latest runs.

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

I just went and checked one out on a YouTube video. It's set up much like my Syssa. That's a good thing. It should work nicely. The DLEs have a good reputation, and that's right in the middle of the power range. I don't see any reason not to go for it.

I'm a fan of the Robart pin hinges, installed with epoxy. I did a 3-part video of how to install them on YouTube. Follow the directions and they'll last as long as the plane does. (That's a loaded statement, but seriously, they're super rugged.)

I don't know how much of the hardware you'll have to replace. I hear it's good hardware, but a bit lighter than some would like. I'm like you, usually with an ARF, if the hardware doesn't say DuBro or Sullivan, then it will before I'm done!

If you got yours in 2009, you may have some issues with some bits of the covering peeling. They were still working on that issue then. The red is pretty solid, from what I've read.

I'm going to do some hardware shopping today for mine (which I haven't ordered yet..). I'm going to be in the vicinity of a LHS, so any excuse is a good one!

~ Jim ~

WI53072

I will look for your video on the hinge installation. I love having an excuse to go to the LHS, too bad so many of them have closed over the past couple of years. I hope to have the SD done before the snow flies up here in Wisconsin, From what I have read they go together quickly. I have some Hitec 645's here from another kit and some DS821's. I am going to use the 645's on the rudder and for each elevator half for sure. I will do a mix in my Dx7 for the elevator halves and am considering the same for the ailerons. That still leaves me the gear ch to add smoke some day if I decide to. I am going to place my order over at valleyview rc for the DLE today!!

WI53072

Oh check that last statement, I will have the gear ch to use as my remote kill switch. So maybe the ailerons on 1 ch with a y connector and that will leave me Aux 2 for smoke!

bradleyban

Iwould much rather mix the two ailerons and then Y connect the elevators together. That way you can use flaperons if you wanted to. There isn't much mixing where you need only one elevastor half to move up.

WI53072

Great point Brad!! Thanks for the advice. That is exactly what I will do.

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

WI53072,

On a bird this size, using two elevator servos, you want to MATE them, if you can. Don't use a Y. I think the DX7 can do a Mate. Look up Mate the Elevator servos in your manual. If you can't figure it out, just call the Jr/Spektrum guys at Horizon, they'll walk you through it. It's not difficult. And take notes. I did, and I transferred the notes into my manual, and noted "Mating" and the page number on the cover. It's a great thing to know how to do with these radios, and guarantees the elevators will match perfectly. Use your Aux for the other aileron (manual recommends one of them), and you can program flaperons in. If your channels are limited, those features are more important. But you have a DX-7, so - let's see - yeah, looks like you should be okay with seven channels.

~ Jim ~[8D]

WI53072

Jim,

Jim Thanks a lot with the radio set-up suggestion. That makes a lot of sense! Tonight I finished up balancing another plane to be ready to fly this weekend. An electric RV-8 from H9 with an eflite power 52 installed. My first electric plane.

Tommorow I will finnish clearing off the bench and drag out the Decathlon. I watched your video's on the Robart Pin Hinges and will be doing that install method on the SD. I noticed on your Giant Super Sportster video that you used carbon fiber pushrods with ball link ends. I think it would be safe to say that you will be doing the same on the SD once you get building on itl What carbon fiber rods are those and what size ball links? Also, will you be using metal servo arms on the SD? I was thinking Hitec 645's on the control surfaces and a smaller servo for the throttle. What servos are you thinking of using??

Paul

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

Hey Paul,

You are right! I use the Sullivan 4-40 locking quick-links on the control horn end, and the DuBro 4-40 heavy ball-link assemblies on the servo end, and I use metal servo arms with 4-40 threaded holes.

For servos, I usually use JR ST126MGs, nearly an identical servo to the Hitec 645MGs. In this case, I have two Hitec 645MGs on the shelf from - ??? I forget, but they're NIB, so heck yeah, I'm using them. I'll probably use them on the ailerons, and my two JR ST126MGs on the elevators. I had one JR 8611A servo left, I think that one is perfect for the pull-pull rudder. I have a couple of mini servos, I'm looking at them as possible alternate throttle servos, maybe a choke servo too, though manual throttle works just fine with my Syssas. But, with larger planes, I try to stick with metal gear servos whenever possible.

The carbon fiber rods are from CentralHobbies.com, and I have a few numbers here. I ordered just one set this time, but I have some extra rod left over from the last time, when I ordered two sets.

http://www.centralhobbies.com/contro...e/pushrod.html

At the very least, you'll need one set, and an additional package of the 3/16" X 4-40 rod ends. But you might come up short on the rod, so I'd just pick up a second set, which will give you more rod stock and of course comes with the extra ends you'll need. If I figure I'm going to end up with a fair amount of rod overstock, I usually pick up another package of rod ends anyway, so I can use the leftover rod whenever I want to.


1 CHMPRS36T4 Push Rod Set - 36'' Rods, 3/16'' x 4-40 Ends $16.95

1 CHMPRE36T4 Titanium Push Rod Ends, 3/16" X 4-40 Pkg/4 $8.97

I try to find some fresh 45-minute epoxy to use for attaching the rods to the ends. Maybe I should make a video, but since I'm short on time, I'll tell you quickly how I make them.

I use a dremel cut-off wheel to cut the rods. I cut it very slowly, without pressure, so it won't splinter the fibers. It makes a nice, clean cut. I follow this by sticking the THREADED end into the rod and rubbing it around vigorously, roughing up the smooth interior of the rod. Just rub it around, don't wedge it or put too much sideward pressure on it, this is probably the only time the rod is vulnerable enough that you can cause damage to it. You're just breaking the smooth glaze so that the epoxy can have the best hold. You can also use a 4-40 threaded rod end, same thing. Make sure that WHATEVER you stick inside that rod, that you've cleaned it thoroughly with denatured alcohol. If you stick something greasy in there, it's the same as not washing the mold release off the Robart pin hinges. You're taking big chances on it pulling out. Attention to detail is always what keeps planes flying.

Next, I take a carbide "chew bit" that looks like little chucks glued to a drill bit, and I drag it around the the smooth (not the threaded!) end of the titanium rod end, where the glue will be used. The idea is that if it's rougher rather than smoother, you increase your surface area, and the epoxy will hold to it much better. I usually roughen all of them at once, so I don't have to stop during the job.

Before I glue the rod end in, I take the 4-40 ball-link and screw the end into it, leaving enough turns that I can adjust it some if necessary. I use a piece of small linkage wire and make sure the epoxy is applied well inside the rod, and then make sure the contact surface on the titanium rod end is well coated, with enough that I can be sure there will be no gaps inside. Then I slide them together, and give them a few twists.

While holding them together, I wipe the area off carefully, then I take a tab of masking tape and pinch it across the two, so they won't move while drying. Walk away and leave them for a good hour.

Immobilize your surface at center position. For elevators, I use two pieces of wood clamped front-to-back, holding the elevator in position. You get the idea. And of course, you've already installed your control horn by this time.

After the rod end has dried, attach the ball link to your servo arm, and WITH THE RADIO ON, position your servo arm to your preferred neutral position. I use the screw, to make sure there are no slip-ups (I hate to hear myself say, "Damn, I cut it twice, and it's STILL too short!).

SO, the radio is on, the servo arm is at neutral, and your elevator (our example surface) is locked at zero.

Roughen the smooth end of your next titanium rod end.

Take your Sullivan 4-40 locking quick-link, and screw the titanium rod end into it, again, leaving an extra turn or two for potential adjustment. Connect the quick-link to the control horn.

You can now swing your carbon fiber rod against the side of the rod end, and you have your exact measurement. Take another small tab of masking tape, and wrap the rod next to the exact spot. Use the cutoff wheel, and cut close to the masking tape, but not too close. I always use a flat file to square up the end after I cut, using small motions. It makes for a crisp end.

Okay, inspect the hole in the rod, and remove anything dangly with an exacto knife, followed by roughing up the inside using whatever (clean) 4-40 threaded item that suits you. Lay some waxed paper under the work area; it's going get a little messy with epoxy. Apply the epoxy in the same fashion as before, and this part is cool. Using one hand to guide the parts together, and the other to move the stick and pull the rod back so it'll slip over the titanium rod end. Slowly release the stick, and it slides together and holds the assembly in place.

I've been known to add a little sub-trim to make sure they're tightly together. Wipe away the epoxy that squeezed out, and wipe the connection clean. No tape is needed on this end.

Now, walk away and leave it for an hour or two. Don't worry, your batteries will hold up for that long easily.

Handy hint: The first thing when you return, remove the locking blocks from the surface before you test it!

I hope this helps. It's my own method, and I'm sure other guys have their own. So far, none of mine have ever pulled out.

~ Jim ~[8D]

WI53072

Jim any thoughts on RCGF engines? LHS has a 45cc I can pick up this weekend. I find mixed reviews on this engine. Otherwise I will stick with my original thought on the DLE 35. Thanks for all the info on the previous post. I am now on my way downstairs camera in hand to unpack the SD. I will check back later-later with some pics. Looks like I will be installing hinge points tonight!!!

Paul

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

Hi Paul,

I did research the RCGF engines briefly when I was deciding, and of course chose the Syssa. The thing I remember about them (at that time) was that there were a few "fixes" for various issues they had. I honestly don't know a lot more about them, but there are a good number of posts in threads that say "hard starting," and that's enough for me.

Right there I can tell you, neither the Syssas nor the DLEs have a lot of posts that say "hard starting" anywhere in them. Beyond that, I am without knowledge or any experienced-based opinion. Not saying yours won't turn out to be a rip-snorting powerhouse, abut sometimes it seems like taking a chance is a bad thing. A few days ago I said I was going to help a friend to get his gasser started. It was called a Turnigy, and he said it was cheap. Good thing. Tried for 5 hours, and no way was that carburetor allowing gas to pump through it. I sold him a used gasser I had on my shelf, and we had it bolted on and running in an hour. I guess I'm distrustful of "alternate brand" gassers now.

Gassers are supposed to offer convenience and ease of use, right? I would only buy an engine if you're sure it'll perform well. Also, 30 to 35 CCs will fly this plane beautifully, and it won't be heavy. I watched some of the videos of the 50CC powered SDs, and they seemed heavy, and they landed pretty hot. The heavier a plane gets, the hotter it's going to want to land.

Can't wait to see how things are progressing on yours. I was thinking about doing a build video on mine, as well as a photo follow-along. The video series would be about an hour long, maybe longer. What do you think? I think it would be my last video on RC. A Super Decathlon, though. . . how great would that be?

~ Jim ~

WI53072

Jim,

Ya know, My gut instinct says go DLE. You just helped me make the concious connection between my desire to save a few bucks and deep down what I know to be true of the DLE. I will go DLE.

I also agree, I am wanting this to land in a more docile fashion not in full out rocketship mode. This is my first venture into giant scale aircraft assembly/flying. I do believe you could really help out alot of folks with a RC Guys SD assembly video, especially those of us whom are experience pilots but just sorta so so builders/assemblers. One thing I have learned for sure in the years I have been at this, there really is no substitute for doing things right as often as you can the first time!! Build Photo's also do help as do the build thread information as people progress through their projects.

Ok so I unpacked the SD tonight after all this time. Mixed reviews. Everything but the cowl appear to be first rate. I took several pictures of it and forward those to Dan over at RC guys. I found great big cracks (several) in the cowl. I hope they will replace it. If not, I will be stuck purchasing a new one. This plane sat on a shelf and never was abused, so all I can conclude is that it was damaged in some portion of it's shipment here. I was surprised to find that the hinge pins were pre-drilled and pre-installed. Larger 1/4 scale hinges on the ailerons and smaller hinge pins on the elevator halves and the rudder. I have the larger Robart's I will have to make a trip back to the LHS this weekend for the smaller diameter hinge pins by Robart. So, I will continue later tonight with gluing in the aileron hinge pins and let them sit tonight.

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

Hi Paul,

I'm following your build with anticipation. Funny thing about what you wrote above; I was in the LHS and thought about grabbing a pack or two of the small Robart pin hinges, because in the building manual they looked like the small ones in the tail surfaces. I thought I'd wait until mine came in. I guess those go back on the shopping list.

That cowl sure looks like it was shipping damaged, but you're right about not knowing whether he'll replace it after 3 years. I can't BELIEVE you didn't open that box and drool over that big, beautiful gal for an hour or two when she first arrived!!

Oh, well, like they say; Hindsight is 20/20 vision.

Just looking at that fuselage in the plastic bag stirs the excitement over this bird.

Can't wait to see more. I'm pumped up that I'll be ordering my own this week.

I guess I'd better sign off. Going flying today!

Later!

~ Jim ~

bradleyban

You guys arn't thinking about putting the larger robart hinges in the tail are you???