v6goose

Hey guys...

I have two projects on the go right now, one of them being a The World Models (TWM) 27% Ultimate and the other a barf-bash - [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8454945]Hangar 9 F4U Corsair.[/link]

This project will borrow the DL-50 from my Mustang project and will be my number one flyer this coming summer.

Why did I buy this model? Because its cheap. Yes I have a list of things that need to be done to bring it up to scratch, but thats how most ARFs are.

Right... lets see whats in the box...

v6goose

Everything appears to be in good condition even though UPS left it on my doorstep for a day!

It is very complete and while I will be replacing hardware I don't think is up to the task, it does feature heavy duty couplers, a spinner, even a pilot!

The cowl is perfect and very light, I am impressed thus far...

My wife and daughter gave me half the money for this kit which allowed me to save for the servos. Which incidentally cost more than the plane!

Thats it until the servos arrive which should be any day now.

I welcome your thoughts, comments and experiences...

Cheers

Goose

v6goose

Slow progress tonight...

A very expensive little box turned up

I opted for Hitec servos throughout:

[ul][*] HS5625's on ailerons & elevator[*] HS5245's on throttle & smoke[*] HS7965 on rudder
[/ul]

Thanks Scott for your advice.

This package hurt as it cost more than the plane! But what can ya do?

I'm glad I didn't buy the expensive ones!

v6goose

I pulled the wings out to begin and yes the covering is awful. I expected it, allowed for it and worked on it for an hour with a heat gun and covering iron.

This is not the first time I have dealt with Chinacote, but it is the first time that applying heat created wrinkles and bubbles rather than remove them. [X(]

v6goose

I decided to use the supplied servo horns as they are very stiff GRP and feature a tiny bearing for the clevis hole.

The down side is that the bolt pattern doesn't match any servo horn that I can see, and I tried Hitec, Futaba and JR!

Drilled my own, 4 bolts, Loctite and nylock nuts did the trick. The rest of the mounting hardware is standard Hitec supplied.

More soon...

Goose

v6goose

Tonights effort was to create another three wing servo assemblies.

I also decided to replace the supplied metal hinges with Robart hinge points which I will Gorilla glue in using the 'wet' method.

More tomorrow...

Cheers

Goose

v6goose

Not much tonight, finished drilling the ailerons...

More soon...

Goose

v6goose

I glued all the Robart hinge points into the ailerons tonight using the Gorilla glue and water method.

I will attach the ailerons to the wings tomorrow night.

Cheers

Goose

PS: Anyone out there assemble and fly one of these who is watching?

v6goose

No progress made over the weekend, [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8401594/tm.htm]other projects[/link] consumed all my time.

Back into it late this week.

No-one else building/built this plane?

Hmmm.... [sm=confused.gif]

Cheers

Goose

v6goose

A little more forward progress that cost 3.5 hours...

More oddities to report... When I placed the servo in the hole in the wing, the supplied mount pokes through an open bay in the top of the wing [sm=confused.gif]

I had to remove 2mm off the mount and the same off the standard servo horn showing how thin the wing profile is.

Pic two shows the tiny bearings in all the control horns, I like that.

Pic three shows that they make a nice setup.

Pic four shows my first (with this kit) Chinese screw failure.

Thats it for tonight, I'm wacked...

Cheers

Goose

garthk

My Feedback: (5)

Looks like they've changed it since I built mine 4 or 5 years ago. My aileron servos aren't in covered bays, they just hang out in the breeze. The long servo arms/big surfaces seem to be hard on servos when combined with vibration. I've had an aileron and elevator servo die already (HS625MGs). Reinforce the firewall/engine box area! Turned out to be too wimpy for my fox 3.2. The cabane struts also need extra bracing/reinforcement (triangle stock, also double or triple up on the flimsy ply they attach to). Unless they have updated this in your version, mine just didnt hold up under the violent snaps and spins I expect out of an Ultimate! Of course there are the glue joints where they tried to build the whole model with a 1/2 oz bottle of CA. I replaced most of the screws for wing and strut attachment with hex head for ease of assembly and because the cheap chinese screw heads strip from repeated assembly/disassembly. On flying make sure engine connections are tight and dont run out of fuel, it glides worse than me flapping my arms. Once you get these things sorted, it is a hoot to fly and puts on a great show!

v6goose

Hey Garth...

Are we the only two owners of this thing?

Thanks a lot for your comments and suggestions.

I bought HS5625's for mine as they are the best I could afford... afford being the key word.

I am going to add your comments to my worksheet and learn from others experiences.

Got any pix/video of yours?

Cheers!

Goose

garthk

My Feedback: (5)

Notice the way my aileron servos are mounted. In the other pic you can see where I put some triangle around the cabanes, negative G's seem to flex the ply that the cabanes attach to and it tries to rip the top of the fuse apart. If building it again I'd do something to stiffen on the inside as well. Don't have any pics or vids of it in flight yet. I'll see if I can borrow a camera next time I fly it. A few other thoughts I had looking it over:
This was my first big gas plane and I quickly learned that anything that can possibly vibrate loose will. One of the first flights a wheel vibrated off, fortunately I had a paved runway to land on and all was fine. I filed the axle flat where the set screw of the wheel collar grabs and used locktite of course. Cowling screws backed out too. I threw away the cowling screws it came with and went with #4 cap heads and that solved it. Some fuel tubing will keep the small ones on though. A 32oz fuel tank will fit if you are interested in extra long flights or not worrying about fuel. Use the blue gas compatible tubing (cant remember the brand) as it won't harden with age. I sealed all the covering seams with a q-tip and thin CA and it has held up well with a piece coming loose only occasionally 5 years later. The wheels that came with mine were cheap soft foam that went flat under the weight of the model, so I went to some du-bro 3.5". With the firewall I'd probably buy a sheet of light ply and cut out a piece to laminate behind the one it comes with, and reinforce with traingle stock behind that in the engine box. I pinned mine in place by drilling several 1/8" holes in the sides of the firewall and inserting hardwood dowels. Use CA here, epoxy softens from the heat of the engine.

v6goose

Hey Garth...

Excellent, thanks again for sharing the info.

In your second pic, isnt the triangle stock simply glued to the covering over the foam? Did this actually help?

I will be reinforcing the firewall as you suggested, I like the idea of another lamination.

Cheers!

Goose

garthk

My Feedback: (5)

I think we may be some of the few with this model, but that isn't a bad thing! On a flight line full of Edges and Extras, the Ultimate looks almost defiant. the HS5625's should do you right. I don't think it is the fault of the servo. Both times I have had a failure it was on the ground doing preflight checks, and not during flight! They failed in such a way that I think as long as the phase of flight wasn't critical, I could have landed it safely although it would have been a handful. You might want to screw down or epoxy the pilot too, I think mine lasted 2 or 3 flights using the self adhesive it comes with. Now he just flops around inside the canopy. Thinking of taking him out and installing a camera.

I can't wait to see your smoke system in action. I never installed one in mine but you could change my mind!

v6goose

No, I think your right!

Thats one of the reasons I bought this plane is to be different.

I'm putting a [link=http://www.litepilots.com/]Lite Pilots[/link] pilot in mine and will secure him good.

A good friend of mine has a large Extra and his pilot 'died' from a particularly violent outside blender with 3D rates on

The camera would be a great idea! Let me know if you do this and link me to your vids.

Re Smoke: Neither have I, but I figured it would add another dimension to this plane [8D] I may reduce the size of the fuel tank to around 16oz and install as much smoke tank on the C of G as I can... details to come as I figure it out.

Cheers!!

Goose

garthk

My Feedback: (5)

the triangle stock is glued to the balsa sheeting that covers the foam (i cut away the china-coat of course) It seems to be adequate and spreads the load although a better still solution might be to use a steel threaded rod laterally between the struts where they bolt to the ply, or silver solder some additional bracing. Anything to keep the strut from flexing under negative G's. In fact I think I will do this on mine so I won't have to worry about it holding up.

v6goose

Cool. I will have a look at it during the build as well.

Cheers for the heads up.

Goose

v6goose

Tonight was all about the stabilizer and rudder.

Here we go again with those Chinese screws... #2 bites the dust while trying to screw it into the stab joiner.

The rudder is not glued yet, but I managed to finish all the hinging doing a much better job this time around.

That is a 150mm (6") ruler at the bottom of the rudder for size...

Cheers

Goose

sdstick06

Try the Great Planes Performance Series Ultimate 1.60 ARF.... it is of very high quality, flys extremely well, I have a 46cc on mine but most are using 50cc engines and loving it. It is one of the absolute best ARF's I have seen in my 40 years of RC. It also is a very straight build with no need to replace any hardware or modify any part of the airplane.

v6goose

Hi Sdstick...

I did look at this plane when I started out for an Ultimate but decided I wanted bigger which effectively dropped it out of the race.

I have no doubt the quality is way better than mine, the old addage of you get what you pay for applies very much so here.

Yours looks great!

Cheers

Goose

v6goose

Only one small update from the weekend if you can call it that...

Pic 1... Left is the supplied 22oz tank, on the right a Dubro 16oz tank. My buddy Scott runs the DL-50 in his Extreme Flight Extra and gets 10min flights, landing with 1/4 of a tank in reserve. Good enough for me.

This will allow me (hopefully) to mount two of the Dubro tanks base-to-base in the appropriate place and have all my fuel and smoke oil right on the C of G.

Pic 2... A little test to show you what happens to Gorilla glue when you use the water method for hinges... its cheap, easy, sets rock hard and I'm sold.

Cheers

Goose

sdstick06

Thanks Goose.... I am rather proud of it.... and dearly love flying it.

Actually the GP Ulty is larger then the WM....

World Models Ulty
Wing Span : 63 in / 1600 mm
Wing Area : 1420 sq in / 91.6 sq dm
Flying Weight : 13 - 15 lb / 5900 - 6810 g
Fuselage Length : 66.5 in / 1690 mm

Great Planes Ulty
Wingspan: 65" (1650mm)
Wing Area: 1446 sq in (93m2)
Weight: 12.5-13.5lb (5440-6120g)
Wing Loading: 10-22 oz/sq ft (58-67 g/dm2)
Length: 72" (1830mm)

sdstick06

Here is one little tidbit of info you will love. I ordered a 33% 100cc Ulty from Aeroworks a while back. When it arrived it said World Models on it... and it also had an Airborne Models sticker on it. Come to find out TWM was making the Ultys for Aeroworks. World Models do make good stuff... you just have to change the hardware and reinforce some of the structure. I do like my GP better though... It was an easier build and it flys better. I have been flying Ultys for 22 years starting with the Goldberg kit. You just can not beat an Ultimate in my humble opinion.... but I have only been flying for 41 years so what do I know?

SDS

v6goose

Great stuff and very interesting.

I had heard the TWM making Aeroworks before... there was some funny conversations in RCU regarding which was better!

Maybe it was the cost that changed my mind rather than size, cant remember now...

Thanks for your input!

Goose