rgunder

Hi Art!

I have been discussing engine options recently with a customer who believes that this is a solid 50cc airplane! The more I think about it, the more I think that he is right.

I personally am partial to electrfying my Pitts with the PJS 18000 (http://www.visionhobbies.com/1148378.html). With a 10S pack, the motor will put out 3.8 HP, but it may be too heavy. The next engine on my list is the DA-50. I hear nothing but good things about the DA-50.

Of course, either choice requires that I find the time to finish my build.

Rich

agertlof

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks for the engine input on the ST 3000 I know that I have flown a CAP 10 B wieghting 18 LBs with it swinging a 20x6 prop @ 7800 rpm. Does anybody have a good idea of what the plane will weigh when done? The other option that I have is a converted Husky 62cc chain saw engine with cdi I just thought that that would be over kill, since I want to keep the finish weight down.
Art

mkras

There is an earlier post from the designer with the spec's on his prototype.

chrisF test pilot

If I remember correctly 14-16 lbs is what Bernard said. I agree Rich, this is a perfect 50cc airplane. I have a friend with a GP Patty Wagstaff Extra with a 50 and it weighs just over 14 lbs, he loves it. I was thinking the ZDZ 50NG, a tad lighter than the DA and have several friends flying ZDZ and have heard nothing negative about them. I am currently finishing up a 24% CA Extra, cant wait to get started on the Pitts though..

Mike Emilio

I just filled out the order for these plans. The previews of them really look superior. This is truely excellent work!

I hope he sends the DWG or DXF files though. I'm an AutoCad user for 15 years, and know from experience that PDF's cause nothing but trouble for me. I have access to a 42 inch color plotter so printing is not a problem at all.

mkras

Mike,

It is my understainding that the plans are only distributed in .PDF format. I had some trouble getting them plotted when I took them to the UPS Store (operator error). One of my club memebers has access to a drafting plotter and we had no problem printing them. Just be aware that the plan sheets are wider than a standard plan sheet 40 inches vs. 36 inches. Be sure to turn off all of the scaling and automatic sizing functions in ADOBE before plot them and you should not have any problems. As a check of horizontal and veritcal measurements, the firewall is 9.44 inches in diameter. They also do not distrbute a cut sheet so you may want to print some additional copies for templates.

Hope this helps. BTW everything I have cut so far has fit great. I hate to say this but i'm actually looking forward to the end of flying season so I can spend more time in the workshop.

Mike Emilio

I use an HP, 42" color machine so printing is not a problem.

On page 1, bbt wrote that he would make the DWG and DXF files available to anybody, but I guess times change so I'll have to work with whatever he sends. It's such a dynamite design!

I'll definitly take note of that firwall dimension 9.44. If it's not printed at the proper size, then it would be safe to say that any available parts might not fit, and that would be bad.

Thanks for that "heads -up".

Mike Emilio

MKRAS . . .

Got the plans, but I'm getting frustrated and having alot of trouble getting the plans printed out. Could you possibly provide a step by step on how you finally did it?

When you configured the plotter settings, what was the page size that you set. Two of the PDF's say "A3 paper". ISO A3 is 330 x 483mm. But it doesn't work anyways. ( I have a 42" wide roll of paper in the machine)

The tiled PDF's just want to continually print out a bunch of individual pages. Is it printed straight from Adobe? All scaling in Adobe was set to "None".

If only I could bring it into AutoCAd . . .

Can proof sheets be printed, fit to page somehow, for 8 1/2 x 11? before blasting out half a roll of drawing paper?

Has BBT or Rgunder posted something anywhere, on how to print these out?

mkras

Mike,

Sent you a PM

Mike Emilio

Thanks MKRAS . . . did all that you suggested . . . no luck.

The local Kinko's couldn't do it either!

I'm now told that earlier versions of Reader do not have this feature. But the latest commercial Reader Ver 7 does. I check the Adobe site and sure enough it shows the printing of a tiled PDF starting at Ver 7. It's one of the selections under print scaling. There's also another program they have called Adobe inDesign, $700.00 US !!

http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca...nts/Tiling.pdf

So now the search is on for some reasonable shareware that will print this out.
Geez . . . these files are just not user friendly . . . Even 250-300dpi TIFF images would be ok. . . .

But I'm determined because it's a real good size Pitts !!!!!

Hydro Junkie

I loaded my set onto a 3.5" disc and took it to a local blueprinting shop. Since they deal with these kinds of plans every day, they had no problem printing them out. That might be an option for you as well

Mike Emilio

Hydro . . .

Already did that as stated in the post above yours.

I've since been on the phone with 2 other print shops that declined the job. They tell me that tiled PDF's are too problematic for them, and mostly that they are not geared up with the software, so they just don't do them.

bsheridan2002

i've been working on the fuse and i can't quite figure out where to attach the tail wheel support the it isn't visible on the plans, nor in any of the photos i've seen. Can anyone help?

dubya_o

My Feedback: (1)

Mike Emilio,
Search the web for a trial version of Nitro PDF. I used it to trim the border off of the top and bottom of the plans leaving them at 36". I too had trouble getting even blueprint shops to print the original 40" wide plans. Most shops can do the 36" wide stuff. Since then I used this program to cut out and copy individual formers, ribs etc to separate pdf documents. Now it will be easy to print out individual templates when I get ready to scratch out my next Pitts.

Wally

rgunder

Mike Emilio,

If you set up your HP plotter settings to use a custom paper size of 40" x 128", set Adobe's print scaling to none, and auto rotate and center, the plot should come out just fine. These are the settings that I use on our 42" plotter. There is some room around the edges, so I have been printing copies 36" wide paper rather than 40" without any difficulty. I will try to make some screen shots tomorrow if that will help.

I have not had a chance to add the option to the web site, but I have sold paper copies of the plans to some customers who have had difficulty with the printing for $25 plus shipping. I should have that and some updated kit options on the web page in the coming days.

rgunder

Turns out that I had time tonight to make the screenshots. This is for a 42" wide HP 500 (see the attached PDF). I hope this helps.

bbt

bsheridan2002,

The tail wheel support should be glued with Epoxy on the bottom/rear of the fuse sides (S1).

See details below.

Hydro Junkie

BBT, do you have any pictures of your Spirit? I would love to see some "in flight" shots if you have some

Mike Emilio

Tried your settings Richard. It appears we are using the same HP plotters with the exception that ours includes the latest HPGL2, and software.
Anyways, no matter what we try, we cannot get these files to print. Set-up image attached, everything matches yours. You can see by the pre-view image, that even though the paper size is huge, the PDF insists on the seperate tiled sheets.
Everyone here has been trying to figure this out, to no avail.

From reading the previous posts, it now seems that I'm not the only one with printing problems. Three outside print shops totally refused the job. A forth said bring it over and we'll try it. . . . After almost 3 hours, they couldn't print it either , , , but made alot of scrap paper.

I suspect that with all the files that you have sent out, a very small percentage of folks will get lucky with getting it printed.

I've been getting a bunch of PM's from guys saying that they can't do it either, and basically to let them know when we figure it out.

As a suggestion, TIFF images at about 300dpi will alway have a 99.9% sucess rate. It would also give the user the option of printing out individual parts easier.

agertlof

My Feedback: (2)

I might be a little slow and I can't say that I know much about plotting but why are you using the A3 tiled plans insteat of the full sheet plans. I know that I was sent them in both formats.

Mike Emilio

We set-up using the custom paper size of 40" x 128". We even tried going up to a full 42" x 130". The plotter is an HP Designjet 500+HPGL2, 42", full color.

From other print shops that refused to take the order, the general concensous was that tiled files are historically natorious.

bbt

Emilio,

you've got an Email on sympatico.ca [:-]

Cheers,
BB

Mike Emilio

Thank's BB . . .

The files work excellant!
Prints are made. I'm going to spend the next few days studying them.

rgunder

Mike Emilio,

I am happy to hear that you were able to get the prints! Just out of curiosity, were you using the tiled sheets or the full sheets? The instructions that I provided were assuming that you were trying to print the full sheets. I am not aware of any way to print a tiled file on one sheet. Sorry for the confusion.

Mike Emilio

I tried both. I suspect that there might have been some sort of corruption during the email transmission.

Great support from BBT!

I'm going to study them more closely over the weekend.