Joe_L

Now I feel stupid. I had bought this very assembly a week ago at my LHS. I installed it yesterday and being cheap, I reused the original tailwheel and it works great.

I've not had good luck with this plane. My first outing, I adjusted the idle mixture just a bit too lean and deadstick landed hard cross runway. That delaminated both gear at the first bend but was a pretty easy fix.

Next outing I mixed up battery packs and it died in an inverted flat spin on the first flight. Damage was minor, I had to rebuild the engine mount box. The ASP 1.20 now had a perry pump and it was running great! Turning a 16 X 6 at 9800 with great idle and transition.

Next outing, I was hovering over the runway and it drifted toward the pits and I froze because adding throttle would have pulled it closer. I tried to pull it around but it pancaked and ripped out the gear and firewall and delaminated the gear again. It sounds bad but it went back together nicely.

Next outing, a wheel fell off the first flight without me noticing and it dug in on landing breaking the plywood mount in half. Still not a bad repair but the gear was getting really ratty. This was the first flight with the cowl and it was not damaged.

Next outing yesterday, the gear gave out on the first landing and is toast.

I had ordered another kit over a week ago which hasn't arrived yet and another replacement graphite gear set from Graphtech.

I'm not used to this. I usually fly planes until they start wearing out and something gives which forces a crash. I'm a pattern flyer and grease my landings most of the time. This plane has humbled me.

..Joe

Boboeing

proteus X3,

Nice build !  Can you describe how you made the carbon fiber pushrods ?  Carbon fiber fabrication is new to me and I will need to lighten up the tail.

                                 Thanks 

proteus_X3

My Feedback: (16)

Boboeing,
Thanks for your compilments,she finished and waiting too maiden,but alas Sandy has trashed my field and I have no clue as too when I'll find the time to maiden her.....

I will be gald to answer any questions on building Carbon Fiber control rods,it's pretty easy to do.I buy my rod ends at .texas-hobbies.com/ they are made out of Stainless steel and CNC mechined very good quality ,thread size is 4-40 small ends are good for model up to 10Lbs the large ends for models up to 25lbs.I buy them in bags of 20ea. Carbon fiber rod size small 1/8 or .125" large rods are 3/16 or .187 I like www.goodwinds.com/merch/list.shtml Pultruded carbon fiber rods.

Building a CF pushrod is simple you need to buy JB weld or U-40 Quik Bond ,my personnel preference is U-40 Quik bond, quickbond.html ,but JB Weld works very well. A Dremel tool with a carbide cutting wheel and a small grinding cone,320grit sandpaper ,acetone and some rubber gloves and a mask.

1. Use the small Dremel grinding stone to ruff-up the inside of the rod end.
2. Cut the lengh of your carbon fiber rod you want, always wrap masking tape around the area and cut through the masking tape,remove the tape after cutting,you will have a nice clean cut..I highly recommend wearing gloves and a mask if you are cutting more than a couple pieces,caron fiber dusk is not good for you...
3. Next take the 320grit sandpape and scuff the CF rod that you will push into the steel rod end I going about 1 /2" on each side,clean rod ends and CF rod with Acetone.
4. I should mention that heat shrink is a great way to hold your ends together until the epoxy cures Radio Shack sell it cheap,mix you epoxy and apply it to the CF rod ends,now with your fingers "roll" the CF rod onto the rod end and work the epoxy in the rod end socket.next clean the excise epoxy off,but it's ok to leave some slide your shrink tubing over the rod end and over lap it onto the CF rod by 3/8 to 1/2".apply heat and your done,set you control rod down and don't play with for atleast 4 hours [been there and have done it,you will trash the rod it will move]

Well, I hope this helps and happy building Cheers:Rich

P.S. Nice screen name Bob Boeing! do you fly or fix? I'm a Aircraft Technician for United Airlines

Boboeing

proteus X3

Thanks for the info. Will be helpful.
Sorry to hear about your field. Our power was out for three days. TV may suck but sure beats sitting in the dark watching a candle.
Yourengine set upshould provide all the power you'll need and then some. I currently fly a Pacific Models Edge 540 T, with about the same dimensions an the Pheonix Edge 90-120, with a Saito 91 four stroke. It weighs a little over 8 lbs and makes a nice sport flier.I have another Saito 91 that needs a home and the Pheonix Edge looks really nice.
I'mex military (ours) and spent some time fixing and flying on C-130s.

Regards,

Martin

eldad007

I think this airplane is very semiliar to the phoenix katana 120
whta do you say about the katana 120 with CRRC PRO GF26I V2.
can you give me a tips about this airpkane.....

Boboeing

Anyone care to estimate how much weight up front , including the engine weight, that is required for this airplane to balance near the recommended CG ? Reason I ask is Im considering a Saito 91 Four stroke which only weighs about 20 ounces for sport flying.

Cpt Crash

My Feedback: (12)

Mine has a GMS 1.20 with a Pitts muffler and Xoar 17x6 prop, along with Graphtech CF landing gear. With that weight, I have the 5 cell NiMH at the rear of the canopy. The GMS is a heavy engine at 30 or so ounces. You can probably get away with using your Saito, but get a heavy prop (MA or other glassfiber prop) and plan on putting the battery under the engine box. You could also do a pull-pull rudder servo to take weight out of the tailcone.

Eldad, your CRRC Pro 26 is about the same weight as my GMS engine, but you have to add in the weight of the ignition module and battery. It will probably work, but it's a lightly built airframe; I'm careful with the throttle because it's easy to blow this thing apart with too much speed and power.

Boboeing

Thanks Cpt Crash.

Pull Pull rudder to lighten the tail is an excellent idea. Would remove at least 2 ounces from the tail which would probably translate to4or 5ounces less needed to add to the nose to balance at CG. Master Airscrew 15-6 K series prop onmy Saito 91 turns 9200 RPM and hauls one of my older 10 pound sport models with authority.

Cpt Crash

My Feedback: (12)

Bob, one other easy weight shift would be to move the throttle servo in front of the wing tube instead of putting it on the installed servo tray. There's plenty of space to do that, but I knew I needed weight in the tail with the porky GMS engine so mine's in the back.

estradajae

Hi Everyone

Do you think an MDS 148 will be ok in the power range?? or is it too much engine for the plane?

thanks!

Cpt Crash

My Feedback: (12)

Jorge,

The MDS 140 will probably work; according to the MDS folks it's the same external size as most 1.08 engines. At 835 grams/29 oz, it's lighter than my GMS 1.20. I'd prop it with a 17x6 to start with; if you overspeed this airframe, you'll do the walk of shame with the trash bag of despair, so be judicious with that throttle. Good luck. I'm really enjoying this airplane, and would replace it instantly if I crashed it.

estradajae

Hi captn.

Thanks... the external dimensions are also like the os 120. I got a inverted pitts that will do a gret job i guess. According to the manual of the plane it seems dificult to have such a short distance between the firewall and the prp thrust washer... how have you done it?

I have a 18x6 prop and a 16x8...i guess will start with the 18 prop. Im excited to get my christmas present!

Cpt Crash

My Feedback: (12)

As far as spacing the cowl, it slides back and forth quite a bit, giving you sufficient range to mount the engine. I used a Du-Bro anti vibe mount, so the cowl is slid forward a bit from the "stock" position. In the worst case scenario, with a very long engine/mount combo,you could epoxy mounting blocks to the front bulkhead and mount the cowl to them.

ryanbe15

so dle20cc, thumbs up or thumbs down.  

if thumbs up this will be my first gasser.  Could someone also please measure from rudder end to nose cone.  I have some space issues and can only store a length of 66.5 inches.  I see the manual states 62.6 but doesn't state how they obtained the length.

proteus_X3

My Feedback: (16)

Dle- 20 "Good"lots of power and very reilable enine.IMHO good choice for your first gasser.you will need to re-inforce enginge box/ firewall and plug re-drill holes for engine mount.I installed a EVO-26GT on mine so my set-up is a little differnt............On my Revolver 70" I have a Dle-20 and it works very well look on pages 3 and 4 of this thread for ideas on set-up and a great source of info on Larger Revoler page 150 on.

For your second question of total lenght of aircraft mine is 63" from end of tail to end of propeller. Cheers: Rich

ryanbe15

Nice thanks! Ok now to understand everything else I will need. I will need some kind of bat for receiver. Some kind of bat for the ignition and switches for both. I've started reading about the miracle switches. Also will the fuel stuff with the plane suffice for gas or do I need special fuels tank/lines/filters? I've been flying electric and am fed up with spending money on lipos / lugging a big 12 bat to the field.

Muddin_Mavric

I think the tank will work with gas but the stopper and fuel lines will not. I bought a whole new tank and lines made for gas. Also with gas you can get away with a way smaller tank for the same run time.

ryanbe15

I read folks were putting an 8 oz tank in this plane. How long could I expect to fly with an 8 oz tank? Cg for gas planes is done without gas in the plane. Correct?

Muddin_Mavric

I think i used a 8 oz. im at work so i cant check right now. I put the tank on the cg but still balanced it empty. I think i could get like 20-30 to minutes on a tank.

proteus_X3

My Feedback: (16)

ryanbe15

I recommend UBEC by Tech -Aero ultra-ibec price around $40.00 next question what type of radio are you using? FM 72mhz or 2.4ghz the reason I ask is because 72mhz is very subjectable to interference from CDI ignitions you could loose your plane, I would not recommend using a singe battery/ UBEC with 72mhz system.In the case of a 72mhz radio sytem use a optic swith and a 2000 m NMh batt for ignition. Mount your fuel tank under the wing tube. if you are going to use the supplied fuel you need a "Gas" fuel stopped color is red.I used a 8oz Fortitude gas tank www.redwingrc.com/index.php,I get about 15min if I run it dry,but I set my time for 13mins. Cheers: proteus_x3

ryanbe15

I fly spektrum and will be using an ar8000 with sat in this plane.  I'm familiar with lipos but looks like I will need a LIFe pack.  What size life would I need if I went with just one battery to power both receiver and ignition.

Muddin_Mavric

I run jr pcm on 72mhz and have no problems at all.

estradajae

I received my plane a week ago and I have done a couple of things.

I didn't want to make much since I haven't received the servos for the plane.

I did change the higes with robart hinges (I put this hinges on everything I have).

I installed the landing gear: First I wanted to use the stock wheels and wheel pants, but I got angry trying to use the wheel pants and I came to hate them!! while trying to drill a hole for the axle to go through on the extern part of ot, it cracked badly (this small bump it has there) but ok..then I tried to put the wheels inside it..and it was impossible without heavy modifications and so on...so I decided to not use them and put a bigger (4") wheels I bought from Hobby king (as a funny fact, the plastic rim is EXACTLY as the one in the plane...they must be the same supplier).

It may be a better choice since I fly on a grass field, and it has bumps and so on..so the stock wheels may be less than ideal, and surely the wheel pants would make taxiing less than optimal too.

The MDS 148 seems to fit well, and I'll use a GP engine mount since the one that comes is not long enough for the engine with the inverted pitss muffler. It also seems that I will only need to make a small hole to clear the sylinder head and a small hole for the muffler outlets on the bottom..nothing more, so the engine will be totally enclosed.

Because of the muffler, the engine will be about 1-1.5cm aprox. further from the cowl...I'll see if I put a wood ring on the cowl and then paint it to match, to make the spinner gap smaller depending on how it looks...

I definately don't like the quality of the spinner that comes with the plane...is flimsy, soft, and with other similar planes I have bought with similar spinners, the screws don't hold the spinner well after a couple of times the spinner is removed.
I'll be using an aluminium spinner, though I'll have to grind too much to fit a 18" prop on it.

By the way, my plane did come with CF landing gear (very nice).

The tail wheel springs are too soft as the other said, and if they don't work, I will be replacing them maybe with steel cables and make a mini pull pull there...what do you think?

I also test run the engine (it has been on the shelf for about 3 years NIB) and it ran pretty well but still needs loooooooooooooots of break in, it gave me about 7000rpm with a menz 18x6, and was sounding greeeeeeeeeat and pulling very hard. I think it will be a fun combination. Hopefully after a couple more tanks it will give me about 1000rpm more. I'm using 0% nitro on it as supposed.

Best regards

ryanbe15

Servo question time.

I've been reading through this forum and some say if using a gas engine (DLE 20cc) i MUST use digital servo's. Why is this?

Thanks to everyone for their responses, it has helped get me up to speed on GAS RC planes.