Mach1Latus

My Feedback: (3)

I just maidened my bunny last Monday. It only needed one click of down elevator for trim. I didn't push it too much, due to a combination of jitters flying my 1st 40% and taking it easy on the engine while I break it in.

I went with a minimum # of servos and 2 cell batteries to keep it light. The batteries seem fine, after 4 flights I only used about 800- 900 mAh out of each pack.

I am using a 50oz tank and after a 12 min flight I was almost out of gas, is this normal fuel consumption of a 150 class engine? The engine is still set a little rich though.

Does anyone make a fiberglass cowl insert to baffle the engine for this plane?

I'd like to give a BIG shout out to Tom at wildhare this is one fantastic plane. The pocket hinges move like they are on roller bearings, and save you a lot of build time, no hinging or sealing the hinge gaps.



All up dry weight 37.75 lbs

ZDZ-160 Super w/ in cowl mufflers
2 Fromeco 2600 mAh for the receiver
1 Fromeco 2600 mAh for the ignition
2 Smartfly HD regulators set at 7.0 volts
Smartfly Power expander sport
Futaba 138DP PCM receiver
Fromeco Wolverine switch for the receiver
Fromeco Badger switch on the ignition

8 Hitec 5955 servos
2 per aileron
1 peer elevator
2 on the rudder

2 FMA digital servos for throttle and choke (they are rated up to 12 volts)

MPI 20 ga. twisted wire extensions

as722

My Feedback: (1)

Awesome, best of luck with it.

Albert

krayzc-RCU

My Feedback: (31)

run a loop around your vent line i bet you are leaking fuel on the down lines. i can run 15 min and only use about 2/3 of a 50 oz tank at the most.

nice field and plane

RC51

My Feedback: (1)

I just maidened mine as well. Fantastic flying plane. Tom really needs to keep this model around for a long time.
DA150
6 5945s on wings
2 5955s on elevator
3 5955s on rudder
5200 Fromeco LiIons with reliaswitches


Doug M.

Mach1Latus

My Feedback: (3)

Krayzc

thanks

we fly in the middle of a onion farming valley, the nearest tree is the beter part of a mile away. the only thing to hit is our shed and the ground ( both have been hit).

I have a loop on the side of the motor box, but it might not be high enough.

I started mixing, it looks like about 2-3% rudder to elevator, and about 4-5% rudder to aileron. I hope to finish the mixing this weekend.

stephen

bodywerks

My Feedback: (4)

The loop needs to be behind the tank, so that on a downline, it is "above" the tank. Plane sure looks purdy and that weight is impressive!

Magne

Stephen.
Nice plane.
Interesting to see that you are only using two 5955 servos on the rudder. Do you find that this is sufficient?
How many degrees of rudder deflection do you have?

Regards,
Magne

gdavisjr

My Feedback: (51)

Sounds like you're either losing fuel on the downlines as others suggest or are simply running too rich. I typically use a 50oz tank with 3W and DA 150s and land at about 15 minutes and still have almost a 1/3 of fuel left in most cases. Again, this is varying throttle quite a bit--not a lot of full throttle flying, only primarily on uplines. Again, ZDZ may vary a little, but I wouldn't think by that much.

Have the same plane, flys great!

Mach1Latus

My Feedback: (3)

bodyworks

I was very happy with the weight. This was the first plane that i have built that came within the advertised weight.

I will re-rout the vent line so that is above and behind the tank.

Magne:

the two 5955 have 666 in-oz of torque at 6 volts, I am actually running my regulators at 7 volts so I should be in the neighborhood of 800 in-oz. with this setup the rudder has plenty of authority in knife edge, I can do a knife edge loop with ease. I have over 50 degrees of throw.

gdavisjr:

I will be leaning the needles this weekend, hopefully that combined with re-routing the vent line will give me longer flight times

Stephen

bodywerks

My Feedback: (4)

I agree. two 5955's or 8711's are plenty for this plane, or any 150cc plane under 38-39 pounds.

zzw26n

My Feedback: (45)

RC51 ,



How do the Cuffs attach to the Landing Gear?

thanks, zz

RC51

My Feedback: (1)

I attached mine by drilling and tapping a 4-40 hole into each landing gear leg. The instructions indicate that they can be glued or screwed on.
I also added a strip of split neoprene tubing around the top edge of the fiberglass to prevent it from rubbing a hole in the ultracote, plus it looks good.

RC51

zzw26n

My Feedback: (45)

Nice Job RC51 .......... the Cuffs really stand out nice.

Mach1Latus

My Feedback: (3)

Magne

It looks like the jury is still out on using the two 5955 servos on the ruder. I put another 5 flights on the plane this weekend and occasionally I would have ruder authority problems. Most of the time I had plenty of ruder doing a lot of knife edge maneuvers, but occasionally i would roll into knife edge and only have enough power to maintain level flight.

I think this is a mechanical problem but I'm not sure yet. I'll keep you posted.

BTW

I put the vent line loop above and behind the fuel tank, and leaned out the carb a little. I can now get a 15 min flight with some fuel left in the tank.

I used silicon caulk to put my wheel cuffs on

This plane makes me look real good


Stephen

Mach1Latus

My Feedback: (3)

Magne

It looks like 2 5955 are not enough on the rudder. While 2 will give you plenty of rudder authority at slow speeds, I can only maintaine level knife edge flight at higher speeds.

Stephen

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

http://www.troybuiltmodels.com/servo_testing.htm

This explains what happens to the 5955 after they heat up. Seems that 333 oz-in turns into 156 oz-in after the first heavy load on the rudder. The 8711 don't have this effect so much but the gears are not as good.

Nice looking bird.

why_fly_high

My Feedback: (19)

Did you put your 2 rudder servos in the tail with push pull or are you running pull/pull. I have 2 8611A's in the tail of mine and have no issue with the rudder. Knifedge, rollers, snaps, never have a soft rudder feel.

Dan

Mach1Latus

My Feedback: (3)

Dan

I had mine setup in a pull-pull.

Joe

I didn't notice any fade in power. At slow speeds I would do 1/2 a KE loop and at the top reverse the rudder and do another 1/2 KE loop in the other direction, and keep doing this as long as I wanted, well at least until I got high enough to do a nice long flat spin.

Where I had problems was at 1/2 throttle or higher I would roll into KE and could only maintain level fight. At the higher speed the 2 5955s didn't have enough power, and I was running them at 7.0 volts for more power.

Stephen

randy racer

My Feedback: (3)

i have two 8611a's on a swb self adjusting rudder tray and it's ok but three would be better i think. it's ok at lower speeds but just a little weak on high speed .
i posted these pics on the other thread but i can't help doing it again. pics are by gordon boulton and i think he did a great job.

randy

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

I didn't know that any Smart Fly regulators could be set at 7.0V. I am running a couple of the SF Turbo Regulators myself and I can't get it above 6.5V, which is what I run my 5955s at.

DKjens

Mach1Latus

My Feedback: (3)

They made me custom regulators that can go up to 7.2V

Mach1Latus

My Feedback: (3)

I would like some recommendations for a power system for this plane. I lost my first plane a week ago due to a power failure, it was hard to talk about it before but now that I am going to pick up the replacement plane at UPS today it is easier to talk about.

You can see my original setup in post #1. I plan to keep the same setup but I may change the power system.

When the plane went in I lost all radio control, before the flight I checked the batteries with my 8 ball batt checker I had 7.10 volts at 1 amp load and 7.05 volts at 1.5 amp. Fromeco says to recharge at 7.0 volts at 1 amp. I may have pushed the batteries too far since I was using 2x 2600 packs on a 41%. Another possibility is that one of my aileron servos jammed before the crash and caused a large current draw that brought my batt voltage down very quickly.

I am thinking about a two receiver system with two smartflys to guard against a servo jaw messing up my power system, what do you guys think?

Stephen

why_fly_high

My Feedback: (19)

I am sorry about your loss. I can't give you feed back about your set-up or the smart fly stuff but what I runn is very proven and been used for quite some time by me and other.

2- Fromeco 4800's
2- Fromeco Regs
2- Receivers

I started with the smaller pack as you did but was concerned about the amp draw being too much when all the surface move and the battery is neearing time to recharge.

Dan

randy racer

My Feedback: (3)

sorry for your loss Stephen, i would go with 2 5200 fromecos, 2 regs, and a smartfly power expander. i had a aileron servo lock over last week but it did it when it was on the ground thank god. funny thing is it locked over when i shut the power off not before. i never have seen that happen. i have had a bunch of trouble with the 8611a's and should throw the rest of the ones i have away but replaceing all of them at one time cost to much. i am switching over to the 5955tg's as i can.

randy

Mach1Latus

My Feedback: (3)

Randy

what I am worried about is if a servo jams in flight. It could overload my power system and I would lose radio control.

Now the question is, is this a reasonable fear or am I just paranoid now?

Stephen