CARS II

My Feedback: (7)

I found this comment on another thread.

Xoar 18x10 or Xoar 17x8x3 both work really on my 35RA. BTW, valleyviewrc will pre-drill and clocked per your preference.

I f this accurate then I will be experimenting with the Xoar 18X10

CARS II

My Feedback: (7)

I couldn't wait, just ordered a Xoar 18X10 prop from TH, I will report on the performance I get out of it.

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

Rich, the gear is already bolted into the Plane so a picture is not possible, the rod extended into the fuselage just past the first set of bolt holes, about an inch inside of the fuselage; I had to create/cut a grove in the Plywood Gear mounting block for the rod to sit in, then just bolted the gear and doubler down sandwiching the rod between the Plywood and the gear.

Planeclothes

My Feedback: (1)

Next?

[email protected]

My Feedback: (2)

I would consider using a prop reamer. It will better keep the hole centered. But now the spinner I for from them has the right seize hole, it just needed a little cleanup with the reamer.

CARS II

My Feedback: (7)

Plane
I had the same thoughts regarding the spinner, my solution since I wasn't going to buy a drill bit just for that was to use my Dramel with a grinding bit with a cone shape, came from the back to front ( there is where the extra material is ) and it only took a light presure to get the metal off ( very light )

Take a look at my post on page 7, # 165.

Planeclothes

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks CARS, I had completely forgotten about those Dremel cone shaped grinders, that worked. By the way, I had tried using a reamer but the only one I have is too small.

najet

It looks like I'll have to add about 3 ozs. of lead to the tail to get a 3.5" CG. Before I do is everybody pretty satisfied with the recommended CG? It'll be a bit of a pain to remove it later, if the weight proves unnecessary! Hoping for a maiden next week.

Thanks

[email protected]

My Feedback: (2)

I managed to maiden the Citabria today. I have to start at the beginning. first attempt, radio throttle ratchet broke. Second attempt, throttle servo motor died. Third attempt, replacement servo would now and then do something funny, still does but made the flight anyway. (Took a known good servo and tested the channel) 15 MPH cross wind, not a problem. Fly's well as expected. Need to mix in some down elevator with the flaps. Did not do any aerobatics, just trimmed and flew. I did notice on a slow fly by with full flaps that the elevators did not respond very well.
First landing, because of the cross wind the left wing dipped and hit just a little on the left landing gear and it bent about an inch. when I put it on the table I was surprised how easily I could bend it back. Now on my 50 cc Revolver to just adjust the angle so the wheels were straight up and down I had to clamp it on the bench and put my body into it for just a little bit of change. So I am convinced this gear on the Citabria is not tempered. I will be calling GP (Tower Hobbies) and talking with them about a replacement. I would suggest that anyone who has had a similar problem do the same. This gear is not worth keeping!
Oh yes, more problems. The most difficult nav light to get to has already burnt out. The tail light is not working and I will be looking at getting that taken care of also. At this point I am just a little fed up with it. Not so much for the workmanship or anything like that. But combine with the landing gear and all the failures I have had, I am cooked. On my second flight the wind came up from behind and lifted the tail as I started my takeoff run. I nicked the prop and it split. No replacement on hand. I am going to put it on the shelf for a few weeks and get flying time in with some of my other more reliable planes.

Planeclothes

My Feedback: (1)

That sounds bad. I personally would not have maiden a new plane with a 15 MPH wind, much less a cross wind, but I guess you were comfortable with that. Nav lights aside (that would be a distant option for me), there seems to be a real issue with the landing gear, and I have no reason to believe they are not all like that. I understand your frustration, I would feel the same way if it happened to me. Please let us know what GP has to say about the LG issue.

CARS II

My Feedback: (7)

Gutzmer

Sorry to hear that, this is suppose to be fun, you are doing the right thing by taking a brake from the build, I'm doing just that, it is always good to take a brake before you complete that last 10% of the build ( I find myself doing that more often ) This weekend was all about flying my Gee Bee Y 27%.

Thank you for taking the time to post your findings, it helps a lot, the elevator been blanked by the full flaps is one thing that is important to know before we use them, a question for you, are you using one inch as full flaps?

The landing gear has to go, I think we all agree to that, and a replacement be given to all the sold kits, as it is a defect on workmanship and that is cover by the manufacturer GP.

We, the Citabria owners are doing as much as we can to correct those imperfections on these ARFs and we do it with the idea to improve the kit ( to the benefit of GP ) like I said before.

Hey! Great Planes are you listening, I know you are, we can see that you are listening because this awesome Citabria, now then please get to work and first thing is to get the landing gear replaced with a stronger one, one like my Goldberg Sukhoy.

I will be writing to them soon, I suggest you do the same.

CARS II

My Feedback: (7)

My fix to the soft landing gear is going to be doubling the gear itself ( I'm going to go that way ) Yeap! It is costing me another $28.00 dollars but I just want to see if that fixes it by doubling it, I just had to go that way, the landing gear is going to be here by Tuesday but I won't have a chance to work on that till Saturday.

I like to thank all of you who reported the soft gear, because of your report some of us are looking how to fix it before we fly them.

Flyboywbl

I had to take a break as well. While installing the wheel pants, one of the blind nuts broke free from
the fiberglass and is just free spinning. I can't get to it with a pliers. I considered ripping apart the wheel pant so I stopped to take a couple of days to try and figure it out.

also the choke on my 35RA is so stiff that my standard servo can't operate it. I really don't want to buy another high torque servo. It's
so stiff that while moving the rod by hand, the nylon threads stripped off the ball link I had to cut (per the manual). I pulled the choke off and lubed it up. It's not as stuff but it takes a lot of force to pop it over the little ball in the carb.

i'm getting close though. All I have to do is mount the wing struts, cut the Cowel and figure out the choke servo issue.

i also bought a 20 inch prop, sounds like a bad idea. I might pickup an 18x10.

what size bolt is required for the spinner with the DLE 35 ? The one that comes with the spinner does not fit.


thanks

-Matt

CARS II

My Feedback: (7)

Matt

The bolt that came with my kit fits the 35 just fine, one of the guys here said he had the same problem, regarding the wheel pant blind nut , that is an easy fix, when I was assembling my pants I actually was expecting a nut to come loose ( that happened a few time to me before ) but it didn't.

What I would do is to, first get a small file or Dremel with a fine/flat wheel, now cut/grind two lines on the tip of one of the wheel pants screws, you are going to use this screw to tap the blind, now use an xacto knife and punch small holes around the nut, not just around it but away from it to allow the glue to sip in around for a more firm job, put some Vaseline or a small drop of oil in the blind nut's treads to prevent the glue from going in, now you can use thin CA or 30 min epoxy and make sure it gets in there ( push it in ) when dry use the screw to tap the blind nut to get it free of any glue that my have gone in the treads .

For the choke, I'm going manual with the pull/push cable accessible through the cowl air intake ( will post pictures next week )

[email protected]

My Feedback: (2)

i did talk to GP taday about the landing gear. They had only one in stock and are sending it to me. He also did suggest that the gear can be tempered in the oven at 330 for an hour and let to cool down slowly. But that is with an unpainted gear. so when I get the new gear I will see if it is tempered or not, but either way I will try this tempering method. I never knew that it could be done at such a low temp.
However, I think the best thing done is to make aware of this problem to GP.

Planeclothes

My Feedback: (1)

I think it's basically a design flaw, the plane is too heavy for this type of LG. Mine is not finished yet, but I am not sure I would try to fly it until something is done to improve or replace the LG. At 17+ pounds that's the same weight as my 55cc Edge 540 which has a CF landing gear that can handle its weight, even on hard landings. Hopefully, GP will eventually come up with a solution.

[email protected]

My Feedback: (2)

I don't believe it's a flaw. My Revolver is 20+ with the same type of gear and never a problem with the gear. CF is more expensive and a weight saver. It's all in the tempering I'm sure of that. And I plan in doing some testing on that.
however, once you get into larger type aircraft there is inertia that plays a bigger part. But that is not the problem here I believe. In a couple of weeks I will know a little more.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

My Citabria gear is very soft. I greased both of my flights on asphalt, and Had to bend them back to shape.. I went back out sunday but it was 20+mph, I turned around and went home and sealed My driveways... So no ones elses plane wanted to turn around after landing?

[email protected]

My Feedback: (2)

The guy I talked to at GP said you could temper the gear your self in the oven at 330 -350 for an hour or more and cool down very slowly. But you would have to remove the paint and then repaint.
I am going to also try that.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

Ill try it. that is no problem... Slow cool down, Say Just turn off the heat leave it in the oven, and Let it cool... ???????

Planeclothes

My Feedback: (1)

Please excuse my frankness, but I don't expect to have to remove paint and temper a landing gear when I purchase an ARF. In other words, if there is a problem with the LG, I would expect the manufacturer to fix it. I have been doing business with Tower Hobbies for many, many years, and I like most of their products, but in this case, there clearly seems to be a problem, which needs to be addressed by them. That said, I found this nice video with a couple of good landings and no apparent bending. Just wondering if the fact that it's electric makes a difference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEMCfPOB_7o

[email protected]

My Feedback: (2)

The guy I talked to tested the prototype. and when he suggested tempering the LG I said it was painted, so that was a problem because the protype was not painted. so we are in the early stages of revealing this problem, and it may take some time for them to know how to respond to this. Maybe they might want to see a gear that bends easily, I dont know, maybe they already have. I would be happy to send them mine, but we never talked about that. So when the new gear shows up I will test them both and see what I got. For some reason I have to believe they are mostly the same, even maybe this replacement.
I would also like to test the tempering method he suggested.
So how many of us are on this forum? How many have experienced easily bending gear? How many have not yet maiden?
This is exactly the info GP would be looking for. and I would also like to know.

[email protected]

My Feedback: (2)

Drdoom, I forgot to reply to your question. I have spent some time on line and not found much. But whay GP says is 330 for an hour or two and just let it cool as slow as possible, even over night.

CARS II

My Feedback: (7)

Gutzmer

I believe that all the guys that have flown the airplane reported a soft main gear and because of this I decided not to fly mine till I fix my gear, I will be more than happy see a fix soon but we know this is going to take sometime.

jwrich

My Feedback: (17)

Has anyone addressed the assembly of the wing to the fuselage at the field? I am working with this in my garage and this is the most difficult high wing airplane I have owned. The strut attaching point on the fuselage does not leave much room to attach the bolt & nut. Does anyone have a work around for this problem?
On a new plane, I always go through the assembly procedures to find the easiest & quickest way to assemble the airplane at the field. As you know, assembling the airplane at the field with the wing blowing is always harder. Here are a couple pictures of the strut connected to the strut mount, I use a 4-40 nylon locknut and a box ended wrench. Little help, these screws & nuts are very small to work with.





Thanks
Rich