AA5BY

Construction is finished and I'm starting to cover my self designed large scratch build. It was conceived to make use of a set of wings that were bought for $5. They were NIB balsa covered foam core tapered wings with about 1232 sq in.

The construction was chronicled on the scratch build section and now moving to this forum for any further discussion.

The completed plane has 97" span, is 68" long, has 1232+ sq in of wing and will weight right at 15lbs. It is fitted with a MLD-35 reported by Antique to be a little stronger than a DLE-30. It will swing a 19x8 prop.

The flight envelope desired is a slower flyer on the wing capable of slow aerobatics. The wing is mounted about 3/4" below thrust line in an attempt to balance with drag of stab and windscreen/turtle deck.

The design theme was an open cockpit design with a '30s look with round cowl simulating radial engine, rounded tips and open cockpit with three sided wind screen.

It was given a longer nose configuration to avoid adding nose weight and flaps. Balancing prior to covering is very close and it should balance with battery placement so the longer fore section seems to have paid off.

There has been some discussion at the field whether 35cc is enough for it. I'm confident that 35cc will fly a 15lb plane but beyond that confidence, am unsure of how much performance it will offer. Again... I'm just after slow aerobatics with no interest in speed, 3D or wild vertical.

Offered is a pic of the uncovered air frame.

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

Great looking plane.

I think it will fly it fine as long as you realize you can't horse it off like a normal overpower model. I scratch-built a plane that came out at 16 1/2 pounds, it flew fine in a Ryobi 31cc, I later put a 50cc twin in it, because I wanted to use a round cowl I had. I used a "Clark Y" airfoil on mine, it has 1128 sq in on a 88" WS.

AA5BY

Rich... cool plane. I like the move to the round cowl.

No, the plane won't be as nimble as my Ultra Stick Lite at the same wing area but 1/3 less weight.

I've really enjoyed the project and suspect you did yours as well.

AA5BY

The projected covering scheme as done in MS Paint.

tschuy

My Feedback: (1)

Beautiful airplane and some master craftmanship. Almost ashame the you will have to cover it.

Nicely done sir....

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

Looks good.

TomCrump

Nice work !

AA5BY

The project starts again after a couple of weeks of effort given to spring chores. Covering is underway, and admittedly I'm likely among the slower covering artisans. Ample breaks are needed to deal with the concentration it requires.

I've one roll of covering on, which worked out well to cover all of the red on the fuselage with a very small scrap left over. There is a forward section that got some additional two inch check pattern. The vertical stab and rudder also were covered. I've decided against the striped rudder. The forward check piece took three hours effort as a pattern was required as it seemed best to make it a one piece effort from one side of the underbelly tunnel around the sides and top to the other side of the tunnel. And... at the cost of the check pattern, mistakes could be costly.

It does feel good to have activity resume.

AA5BY

Unlike framing, covering is something I can't stay at very long. Others at the field affirmed the same for them. With the fuselage covered, it does give opportunity to work on details related to it to give breaks from the remaining covering of the wings and horizontal stab.

Effort this evening was on the wind screen, applying an aluminum frame around it and mounting it to the hatch along with the coaming trim. After the glue dries well to the inside tabs, some additional trim will be given to where it meets the deck.

TomCrump

Lookin' good !

AA5BY

A little more progress. The wings still have not been covered, but there has been progress on the plane. Radio gear is installed, stabilizers are installed and controls hooked up. Engine is fitted and cowl finished. The tail wheel needs the connecting springs installed, and the stabilizers need flying wires. And... it needs the fuel tank installed. I discovered that I'd used my last felt clunk so it waits finding a clunk.

AA5BY

With everything finished (except covering the wings) I had a few minutes to see if the engine would run. It started with just a few flips and idled fine but I've not yet gotten it to run good at all rpms... but admittedly didn't have a very long window to mess with it.

It restarts very easily and idles quite smooth, very smooth in fact given there was no wing mounted. Mid range and up suffers some missing and when more time is available, I'll dial more on the screws.

Of note is there is interference to the elevator servos at everything above an idle with the servos going hard over (one elevator up and the other down). My first thought is that it is not general interference to the receiver as the rudder and throttle servos were rock steady. The wing of course was not on so do not know if the ailerons or flaps would be affected.

It is possible that the servo extensions used on the elevators are in tune (resonance) with offending RF from the ignition. The rudder servo is the same Hitek servo as the elevators and as offered... was not affected. Another culprit might be metal to metal vibration at the rear of the plane, perhaps in the tail wheel or stabilizer bracing. We'll see.

AA5BY

It seems there might be a problem with the plug cap and will check it out tomorrow.

Of other import is the awareness that the 15lb goal is not going to happen. The plane weighs 12lb 5oz and the wings less covering, servos, horns, and push rods for both ailerons and flaps weighs 47oz placing it at 15lb 4oz. Servos, horns, control rods and covering are going to weight 12oz. So... the plane is going to be one pound over the goal and worse if balancing weight is needed.

TomCrump

I hope than you can locate the source of the RF.

Even at 16#, I think that the weight is quite reasonable.

AA5BY

Tom... Yeah, I don't think the one pound is a killer for this size plane and especially given the kind of flying the plane is intended (circuit flying with a bit of light aerobatics). Yeah, I hope the solution to the RFI is not too difficult to sort out. I'm impressed with the ease of starting and smooth idle and hope the bugs can be exterminated. I cringe at the thought of fitting another engine at this point.

From what I've read, others have solved there problems by converting to a RCxel ignition and I might do that if the solution is not found within the spark plug cap I'm about to go do surgery on. Others have reported finding problems there.

AA5BY

I found no obvious problems in the cap with no arching telltales. The braid was soldered well to both cap halves. So... I've ordered an RCexl ignition. I've several of them and never had a glitch with any.

The MLD-35 sure starts nice either hot or cold and idles very smooth. Ralph (Antique) claims it is stronger than a DLE-30. Will report if the change in ignition solves the problems.

TomCrump

Your problems could lay elsewhere. Metal to metal contact. RX stuff too close to the ignition. Long leads running parallel to the antenna. There can be a number of things that cause your problem.

I had a similar situation last year. I could find nothing wrong. As a last resort, I switched the model from 72 to 2.4. I know that I didn't "fix" anything, but at least I can now fly the model.

AA5BY

Hi Tom, Yes, there could be other reasons for the RFI. The antenna wire is running parallel to the servo leads albeit at the top of the framework just under the aft turtle deck while the leads are four inches away but the leads are only an inch from the pull/pull rudder cables. I've experienced RFI with antenna running close to the pull/pull wires albeit it got into the receiver causing problems with all servos. It would have been interesting to have had the wing on and note any problems with the longer leads on the aileron servos.

The Melody ignition that came with the MLD-35 has a poor reputation. And, the troubleshooting instructions offer a box of issues and say if any two of the conditions apply, suspect an ignition problem. And, three exist.... misfiring, failure to go full power and RFI.

As can be expected, I'm more emotionally involved with this plane, so have no problems being patient and investing in an ignition providing more confidence. I've several RCexl ignitions and have never had a glitch or any RFI problems from them.

In fact, my favorite flyer is an Ultra Stick Lite 120 powered by a Zenoah G-20ei. It suffered range issues when the antenna was run inside the fuselage near the metal control rods for rudder and elevator. It only had half of normal range when running and all servos would glitch near the half range point. To increase the range to normal, the antenna wire had to be routed to a horizontal stabilizer tip. After a year or so the ignition quit and was replaced with an RCexl. Some time later, I crashed and repaired the Stick and during the repair returned the antenna to the tube in the fuselage for a try with absolutely no range or RFI issues.

TomCrump

I hope the ignition solves your problem

I have one that I need to install on my G-62. It's my first RCxel unit.

AA5BY

Tom... the RCexl ignition came today, took about an hour to install and it appears to have solved all issues. The engine started easily, no longer has a miss, will now go to and hold full steady top rpm and causes no proximate RFI though it hasn't been ranged tested yet.

I also got the final fill/sanding done on the wings so they are ready for a covering session.

The bad news... I start a three week job site tomorrow and have a couple of more lined up following it... so I'll be covering in the evenings while listening to baseball.

In other news... I crashed my favorite plane Saturday... an Ultra Stick Lite. It happened during our semi annual fun fly. The wind was strong and only a couple of guys flew. I was careless and was playing kite with crow mode deployed and because it was the morning hour yet, I got into the sun, let it rare up, the wind flipped it on its back and you can imagine an inverted plane with flaps deployed. I didn't do the right things to save it... and it went in.

A year ago, the radio logs said it had 87 hours on it. The wing is in pretty good shape... don't know if HH still has a fuselage, but I've got a complete replacement NIB so will be pressing it in service and rebuilding or getting another fuselage for a back up.

TomCrump

Too bad about your Stick.

I'm glad that the ignition solved your problem.

AA5BY

Morning Tom...

I've no regrets on the USL... It provided a lot of pleasure over many years.

And... thanks for your comments on the ignition... I'm relieved those issues seemed to be solved and progress on finishing the plane can resume. I'm getting more than a little anxious now to see it fly and discover how it flies.

TomCrump

Get her finished as time allows. She'll fly great !

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

Interesting plane. Its good to see people actually scratch building unique and different planes in this age of ARFs. My bet is that performance will be quite spirited with that 35! 16 pounds should be no problem.

AA5BY

I appreciate the positive encouragement that it should fly ok. Although it is a self designed plane, effort was made to stay within the white lines of what is known to work so I fully believe it will fly. My hope is that it does reasonably well at aerobatics albeit not requiring fast speed.

It has been a fun project and without question there will be more scratch builds ahead. In particular, the wood, plans, wheels and dummy engine were acquired to build a 1929 Travel Air 6000. I became interested in doing it a couple of years back when seeing a full scale at a local fly in, in fact getting a ride and a few minutes of yoke time. It also is projected to be an eight foot span model.

I'm not critical of arfs except that they don't satisfy my desire to build.... but I fully respect that they fit the need of a great many (perhaps even most RC plane enthusiast).

As I've said recently... model aviation is a pastime to me... and arfs simply build too fast to provide much in the way of building pastime.