saqueeb

i just picked up a reactor and i am going to use a saito 72 fo rmy engine and i was thinking of going with HS225's for the alierons and futaba 3152's for the rudder and elevator.

would you guys recomend this setup? or should i go with all 225's on all conrtols?do i have to use the 225mg's? or will the standard 225's be ok? i just want it to balance correctly and not have to add weight.

ALSO, what servo extension sizes are really needed......i dont want a ton of extra wire if i can help it.

thank you guys i am excited to get her in the air!

Dave

wyo69cowboy

My Feedback: (2)

If you use 3 standard size servos in the tail, you might end up tailheavy. I did use a Hitec 5485 on the rudder; used 225mg's all the way around for the rest. I don't remember exactly, but a 6-8" extension would probably suffice to the tail servos. I would definitely go with MG servos, both for the size/deflections of the surfaces, and for the vibration from glow power. Control surfaces are pretty big!

saqueeb

what size engine did you use, and where is your battery located?

thanks,
dave

wyo69cowboy

My Feedback: (2)

I started with a piped OS50FSR, wrecked it, bought a new fuse and put in a Saito .82. Used a 1200mah 6Vnimh pack, placed under/over tank area. I also bought Graphtech carbon tube and gear, and used a 9g throttle servo. All up weight was 5lb 10oz with that setup. Plane flew very nice with that setup.

saqueeb

Got my reactor flying today. I am unable to make it do an elevator, when I pull back on the elevator it just seems to want to nose over and dive, what am I doing wrong? To much throw? Not enough?

Thanks

wyo69cowboy

My Feedback: (2)

Might be a little nose heavy...how does it fly inverted? I generally roll inverted at about 1/2 throttle and see if/how much the nose drops. On my 50cc Reactor I currently fly, it takes just a very slight push inverted. It won't elevator straight down either, unless there's a bit of a breeze. To get a vertical elevator with no breeze, you can do a spoileron mix on the ailerons to assist. There's quite a few neat little mixes like that to really tighten up some of these maneuvers, like an aileron to elevator mix for down aileron with down elevator (super tight waterfalls ). I need to play around with some of these myself [8D]

saqueeb

when i roll inverted it wants to dive towards the ground pretty hard ( this is with a full or at least half full tank of fuel). but on my CG machine it says it is balanced, even a touch tail heavy with my CG @ 4 7/8". so is it still nose heavy? or is the cg machine more of a guide to get you flying?

wyo69cowboy

My Feedback: (2)

That tells me it's pretty nose heavy; I don't remember the factory recommended CG, but it might be conservative. You can experiment by moving it back gradually, if you can move the battery or other components to assist. It will fly precision and land a little faster/more nose down with forward CG; better pitch authority/better 3D to the rear. Try an inverted elevator too to see what it does...

saqueeb

i already have my battery in the rear of the plane, the only think i can think of is the Dave Brown aluminum spinner is adding quite a bit of nose weight, but i have always been told to never run plastic spinners on a 4stroke....i guess i can add a littel more weight to the rear and see it that helps.

so ideally when i roll inverted what am i looking for? hands off flat level flight? small amount of push?

current setup:
Saito 82
Dave brown aluminum 2 1/2 spinner
14x5 zinger
futaba 3152 in tail (3 of them)
Hitec 225mg in the wings
hitec 81 on throttle
no wheel pants or cowl yet.
battery just behind the last opening on the bottom of the fuse, cg @ 4 7/8" (manual recommends cg @ 4 3/4")

wyo69cowboy

My Feedback: (2)

I'm suprised it isn't tailheavy with the standard servos in the tail, but maybe try a flight or two without the spinner. I scanned thru this thread looking for a picture of my spinner, but didn't find one; I used the Great Planes electric spinner clear blue with aluminum backplate. Despite this supposedly being a no no with a 4 stroke, it lasted a good long time.

I try to get all my aerobatic planes to fly inverted with just a very slight push to hold level; this isn't too tail heavy, but gives me decent results for the rest of the aerobatic realm...I did find while scanning thru mention of a few guys having CG at 5.5" back from leading edge...

rc airplane nut

My Feedback: (5)

Is your battery a 4 cell or 5 cell? I haven't had any problems with mine with a Saito 82 and a plastic spinner. Can't help ya with CG, cause I'm still working on it with mine. (can't remember where it is now anyway)

saqueeb

I'm running a 1600mAh 5 cell 2/3a size pack it comes in at 116grams. Maybe I will have to try the red spinner that it came with.

Uncas

My Feedback: (1)

Nose Heavy
I have just started flying my Reactor. Saito .82 engine. 225BB's all the way around. The thing is very nose heavy. I have a 4 lb hammer I am thinking about attaching to the tail. I have moved my 5 cell battery to last (third) bottom opening closest to the tail. I would put it further back if it was more conveinient. I am now putting lead weights in the tail. This is my first 4 stroke and I am on a steep learning curve...Everything is rattling loose. The muffler comes loose, the fuel lines come off, the engine bolts come loose. The cowl stays off until I get things under control. The tank is too high for an inverted engine. I lowered it 1/2 inch, which is all you can get but it is still 1/2 inch too high, but at least fuel is not pouring out of the engine any more.

Flight
From what I can tell so far the plane flies almost as light as my profile. Very gentle. I can slow it down to a crawl. 3D is tough since I am so nose heavy; however, things look promising. I though it might make a good small pattern ship but I think it is too light and floaty for that.

zxxflyer

My C.G. is wayyyy back.. I am at about 5.75" now.
MY battery has been switched to a lipo and installed in a hatch I made in the tail.

I will have to upload some pictures if I haven't already.

ameyam

Hi Uncas,

I am surprised at the learning curve on a 4C. Its almost the same as a 2C unless you mess with it. Try the following-
1) I dont have a Saito, I have a FS91S2 in the same airplane, I think the engines are likely to be similar. It comes with a threaded muffler pipe and an additional nut to lock it. Thread in the muffler pipe all the way in, then a turn or two out till you get the muffler position you want. Then use the locknut to lock the pipe's position. It wont move after that.
2) If the mounting bolts are coming loose, put an oversize washer on the FRP mount first (I think 5mm), then the standard washer (I presume its 4mm). Then put a spring washer (its a ring washer split in one place to form a spring effect). On that install a standard nut and tighten all the way. Then on top of that put a nylock nut. This arrangement will never come undone on its own. The spring washer is key, you can deform the mount while tightening and the nut still wont slip. The nylock nut prevents the assembly coming apart even if the primary nut becomes loose
3) If the fuel lines come off, use small wire-ties to secure the tubing to the nipples. Cut off the excess wiretie
4) I am surprised you find the tank too high. I never had any problems with my 91.
5) Check thay you are looking at the CG with no fuel in the tank. If you still have it nose heavy, open up the fuse side corner of the lower most open panel in the rudder. There is a groove in the wood inside, it will easily accomodate a couple of lead weights with epoxy. Thats what I did. Once you are done, use fibre tape over the cut and use a heat gun or iron to shrink the covering there tight.

This is a great airplane to fly. Its nice and easy slow flier and you can venture into 3D easily with it. If you want to do pattern, set to low or medium throws and it will do whatever you want. Get it close to correct as recommended by manual and it will inspire a lot of confidence. Dont fly too fast, it will flutter. Just be careful at landing, the LG block is prone to breakage, causing the LG to rotate and shatter the fuse. After I cracked my fuse on a heavy landing, I reinforced it with furniture grade ply from the cockpit side. It gained weight but became a dream to fly

Ameyam

saqueeb

well i almost lost my reactor on saturday. i came out of a simple snap roll and it would not stop rolling to the right. the plane was a long way off the run way and i was sure i was going to lose it in a corn field, bu t i was able to climb high, and then hold in about 25% left aile and down elev in order to keep it level, once it was back on the ground i discovered that the right servo (Hitec 225mg) had locked in the up position at the max throw of my low rates. it will no go up, bu thas no response on the down stroke. if i turn off the power i can mover the servo its full range of motion and it does not seem like it is the gears. i'm guessing the motor, or control board.

has anyone encountered this with the 225mg's before? will hitec replace it, it is only 2 months old. with about 20 flights on it. what other servo should i use if not the 225mg's? this is the first hitec servo i have ever had go south on me in flight.

wyo69cowboy

My Feedback: (2)

Hate to say it, but I've experienced the same issues with the Hitec 225mg's. I've had at least 3 or 4 go bad, just like yours did. Gears weren't stripped, the board or pots just seemed to go bad and it would quit working. I've switched over to Spektrum A5040mg's for a good mini size servo with good torque; problem is, they've been out of stock for quite some time. FWIW, the Hitec 5245mg minis have a better reputation; the digital circuit board in them doesn't seem to have issues...

saqueeb

so then the question is should i just pull both of my aileron servos ( 225mg) and replace them with full size Futaba 3152 digitals that i have in the elev and rudd already. those 3152's have never failed on me and i have then in 2 other planes also. if i remember correctly i can put full sized servos in the reactors wings right? just need a little trimming to make them fit.

wyo69cowboy

My Feedback: (2)

The wing might not have the depth for full size servos; you'll have to check and see. Plane was designed for the minis; I personally would find another mini you're happy with. Futaba makes a nice mini (9650?? maybe), as well as others. Point is, 5 full size servos vs 5 minis is somewhere around 5oz difference. For 3D, wingloading is key, so I try to keep things light, and component selections is one of the few things you can do easily to save weight on an ARF...

saqueeb

i hear what you are saying, but the difference between the Fut 3152 and the hitec 225mg is only 0.45oz, and since i'd only be replacing 2 it would add up to just under 1 oz to change to the much stronger and much more reliaeble 3152's. the plane balances perfectly with the current 3152's in the tail, if i would have gone 225mg all around i would have had to add weight to the tail. saito 82 up front.

i'm going to go to the LHS in a couple hours and i know i can get the 3152's for $19.99 all day there (he runs a special on them all the time) which is much less then the $25-$35 for the 225mg's i'll probably go with the 3152's unless he has a similar mini servo near the 225mg pricing.

in the end, 1 ounce more over the wings should not cause much of a difference inflight charateristics if you ask me.

now i just need to find out if the 3152's will fit in the wing.

thoughts?

saqueeb

if the 3152's wont fit in the wing then it is between the futaba s9650 and the hitec 5245mg.

any thoughts one which is better. they cost about the same.

wyo69cowboy

My Feedback: (2)

I've not heard much about the Futabas, but when I do, it's usually good. FWIW, the Hitec 5245's are the recommended servo in Extreme Flight's 60" series, which is nearly identical in size. I now have their 60" Extra and am using the Spektrum A5040's...

ameyam

225MGs are notorious for this. When I got my first Reactor 46, I ordered 6 225MGs from Tower. But when the first conked off even before we finished installing it, we chickened out and used 3010s instead. Since then I have thoroughly tested the remaining 225MGs but no one is willing to take them off me and I havent had the need to put them in an airplane

Ameyam

saqueeb

I went with the hitec 5245mg's hopefully these wont jut randomly die on me.

ameyam

What TX are you using? If it has the servo test feature, you can run the servos through their range continuously back and forth by using it. Do that for half an hour to 1 hour, then check for locked or overheated servos. Thats about all you can do. Then hope for the best

Ameyam