BenG60

Here are the pics I said I'd post of it finished.

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

Wow!
That is a great looking plane. A+ on the finish.

qm40dego

My Feedback: (53)

Looks really good and fast........

mikegordon10

Hard to believe that there is enough room in the stinger for the two internal linkages. Are they both ball joints?

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Looks great! where in Nor Cal is there Q500 racing? Most of what I have heard/participated is warbird racing.

BenG60

Thanks for the comments on the finish and yes, they are ball joints. They almost touch each other and the fuse is about 1/16 or less just around the ball joints. We practiced at an abandoned air strip here in central California. There are a few guys that show up from the bay area. We will fly it tomorrow, will let you know how it flies.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Well I may have to just throw together a Q500. Don't have any .40 engines but I do have a Rossi .45 and Ultrathrust muffler. Used to race Q500 when I was a teen. I think I may have been one of the first to do a shoulder wing V tail. It was a modded Scat Cat. There were no electronic mixers back then so had to do a sliding tray setup. Could never get it to center so it was the first and last V tail. I have been wanting to build one for a few years now. Funny though, the warbird racers I have no are much faster then any of the Q 500's I've had in the past.

BenG60

Well the mh27 made it through four flights unscathed. Jacob flew it today. You would think 3/8 of an inch on ailerons would be enough for landing, but its not. Coffey and myself opted not to fly it, due to it being so windy. Hopfully in the morning it wont be as windy, and we will give it a try.

GSJames

Crow's Landing?

BenG60

Yes, we practice out at Crows Landing and again the mh27 came through unscathed. Coffey and myself flew it today, the cg was at 2 13/16 when Jacob flew it yesterday and it only took about a 1/16 of an inch of elev to get it to turn pretty tight. I felt it was too tail heavy for my liking. Coffey and myself flew it today so I changed the cg to 2 11/16 and turned the elev up to 3/32 on low and doubled it on high. The take offs are pretty good and pretdictable, the plane seems pretty fast, and as long as you keep it banked its predictable It really doesn't like level flight, but it does fly pretty good banked or through a turn. Now for the landings, after it starts slowing down you pretty much loose the ailerons, and need to start using some rudder. You also need to push the nose down as it looses more speed, you need a lot of elev to geet it to flair.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Not sure I would enjoy flying it like that. Sounds like the CG is still aft. I know that aft CG means fast but at a certain point it also means more corrections on the course and that is lost speed. I would not have beleived that 3/32 of elevator travel would be enough to land anything. My V tail experience ( mostly sailplanes ) tells me that at slow speeds they are less effective. Are you running any aileron differential? I have found that when differential is set up correctly the ailerons are a little more positive. Still wish there was some local Q500 racing. If there was I would have to cut some wood and melt some foam to get one together.

kommander

Actually there was a race in Woodland in September & there will probably be one in Sept. 2013. Quickie has changed in the last year, it now requires a spec engine which is the Jett 40 or 426 engine. The airframes are pretty much the same (mostly composite) except the minimum weight is now 3.75 Lbs. Right now speeds are around 160 mph. Bruce

DHULEN

My Feedback: (11)

Ben, just wondering what kind of epoxy do you use on your wood fuses. Because mine tend to yellow if I leave it natural wood. Its not my clear because only shows up on the natural wood. Just curious

Duane

HighPlains

My Feedback: (1)

Glad to see that Crow's Landing (the old Naval Air Station) is still being used. I did all my Formula One practice there back in the 80's and early 90's with the late great Jim Kelly. We also had a number of races there with lots of guys from southen California, and Washington state there. Hundreds of acres of unforgiving concrete about 5 feet thick.

BenG60

The plane is ok to fly, it's the landings that are a little hairy. For flying it has 3/32 on elevator and 1/8 on aileron. When you kill the engine, you switch to high rates, which are aprox 3/8 of an inch of travel on aileron. With some differential, the elevator is just over a 1/4 inch of travel. After the plane slows down some it does seem tail heavy, but when you try to get it to flair for landing it seems nose heavy. That's the best way I can explain it. Kommander would probably agree to this. The airfoil of the mh27 is pretty radical, most of the q500 that are out there like the cg between 2 3/4 to 3 1/8. We are still playing with this one, but it seems it may not like it that far past 2 3/4. It's still at 2 11/16 now. I'm going to put this plane away for Jacob to fly it in the next contest since he likes it so much. The finishing resin is z poxy, and then sprayed with automotive urathane clear. And yes, it will yellow some in time. I'm going to build one more, but this one is going to have a longer nose with a longer tail moment and a conventional tail for Kommander. It's going to stick out like a sore thumb.

luv to race

My Feedback: (1)

Ben,

Everything you describe about this plane, bleeds either "Tail Heavy" or the wing incidence is off... Here is the best advice: CG the plane at 2.5" inches.. Set the low rate elevator at 1/8"-3/16", somewhere between there... set the high rate elevator at 1/4"... and go fly it! Then just add lead weight to the tail as you think needed.

The ailerons are probably not cut deep enough into the wing. I'd bet at slower speeds the air loses contact with the wing as it moves past the high point. Thusly if you ailerons never see the air at low speeds. The only fix to that is when you lay up the next wing, try and build it so that you have 2" deep ailerons..

Good luck guys...
Randy

BenG60

Randy , when kommander had sam lay up this wing, he had sam put the ailerons out on the tips, 11 inches long and 2 inches deep. because the wing has some washout, aprox 2 tenths. that starts aprox 12 inches from each tip, I set the wing to the wash out, I dont know if this was right ,but we felt this was as good a place to start with as any. it very well could still be tail heavy

kommander

Duane, If you want a resin that is clear and doesn't yellow you might want to try Aerospace Composite Products E-Z lam. It comes with two choices of hardener 1/2 hr. & 1 hr.
It's kind of an all purpose resin and sands well.

DHULEN

My Feedback: (11)

Ok thanks

Duane