jetblast96

Hey again everyone,
Got a tiny bit done, painted the cockpit area. Looks like a good shade of gray, should go well with any color scheme I choose. Also, I went down to the hobby shop and found that they didn't have any landing gear I could drill my own holes in that would give me any gain in prop clearance. However, I did get differnet wheels. (This is all necessary because I'm using a 13X6 prop). I originally got 2-3/4" wheels for the plane but now I realize that a great way to increase my prop clearance is to use bigger main wheels. Besides, the runway at my club field is awful. I hate more than anything when my plane gets into a small hole in the ground and kills the engine or flips over from getting caught. The new wheels are massive; 3-1/4". If this still doesn't raise the ground clearance enough I can buy a new landing gear online but I don't think I'll have much of a problem. As far as balance (heavier main gear now), the engine that I chose is an ounce lighter than most .46 2 stroke engines, and having just added 2-3 ounces, I just essentially balanced the plane. If it gets too nose heavy I specifically chose a large receiver battery so I can move it around to balance. So anyway next up is finishing the hatch then I think it's on to covering!

Stay tuned!

crazy nick

My Feedback: (29)

Lookin good!, You should be covering before me. I've really been slackin.

jetblast96

Got some more work done, the hatch is almost finished. Just need to finish sanding the sides smooth with the curve of the fuselage.
Also, I'm going to order taller landing gear. I mounted the stock landing gear with the 3 1/4" wheels and put the engine and propeller on; the clearance was about 2" and when the plane is level to the ground (for touch and go's, landings, and takeoffs) the propeller is less than half an inch off the ground. And I fly at a very rough grass runway! The Dubro super strength .35-.61 landing gear gains an inch of clearance; the stock landing gear is 3.5" tall and this one is 4.5" tall. I'll also be able to drill my own holes.
Finally, one more issue: I heard people complaining about the pushrods but I was curious as to why. Upon not finding any metal pushrods in the package besides 10 or so 6" pushrods, I looked in the manual and found that they use nylon tubes with the metal pushrods at the ends! Tiny nylon tubes? As pushrods?! I'm sorry, that sounds crazy to me. The tubes will flex like crazy and have a ton of friction in the pushrod housings! What should I do? Buy real metal pushrods?

Anyway that's all. See pictures to know what I'm talking about

Stay tuned and I'd like to hear from you all about the pushrods!

Cyberwolf

My Feedback: (4)

I disscarded the factory pushrods and replaced them with some great planes metal ones.
Useing Nyrod or anything like it is a big no no in my book.
Not only will it flex it also grows and shrinks with the weather temp change's.
A person is always fighting trims and such, IMHO metal is by far the best way to go and a person can use either solder links or fast link connectors to hook it up,
or get the full size dia metal rod that can be threaded to 2-56 and leave a full thread so a clevis can be attached.
As a rule I will use fast links for a no slop hookup and there next to impossible to come loose. I use a short piece of the metal rod to drill out the hole in the servo arm that will make it the perfect size for a no slop fit.
That brings up another item when useing metal pushrods only use a good plastic clevis, I have had the metal one's jam nut come loose and wear the threads out to the point of stripping , Locktight might solve this but I never tried it. Besides I may want to change it at some point.
My hats off to you young man that was a very good pickup on your part, you would be supprised at how many build to the book and use the supplied hardware provided, then can't understand why the aircraft went in under a hard G pull up. Never be afraid to question whats in the kit for hardware, alot of the time I junk it all and replace it with a better grade of items.
From what I can see your plane is turning out as good or maybe better than some I have seen with so called experenced builders putting it together. Keep up the good work.

Red B.

Plastic pushrods are quite O.K. if mounted properly. They need support at regular intervals and one should strive to leave as little of the inner plastic pushrod exposed as possible. For example, do not cut the outer sleeve flush with the fuselage side, instead let it extend backwards as close to the elevator and rudder horns as possible. The exposed part of the inner plastic tube should have a metal pushrod inside.
Unless you are flying in climate conditions with severe variations in temperature and humidity trim changes will be very small. I have built and flown a a couple of SSEs over the years and all of them used the supplied plastic pushrods without any problems whatsoever.

maynardrupp

Everyone around here has at least one SE. We use a SIG Kadet landing gear and 3 1/4" tires. The gear mounting plate is a weak spot. Brace it well. I will put a carbon fibre belt on the outside of the fuse in that area for stiffness. I don't think you will see it under the covering. Make sure you add an extra strip under the top turtle deck stringer. The stock one bows badly when the covering is shrunk. Cut the hinge slots before you put the triangular shape on the elevator and rudder. We all add some sort of wingtips. Don't even think of using bolts to hold the wings on. That fuselage isn't braced for that in this area. Lots of stories on other SE threads here about wings pulling off when bolts are used. We use a tie wrap between the stock hooks. My hooks are just screwed and epoxied in, but if you can still get access to the inside of the root rib, I would install 2/56 blind nuts. Another problem area is the push/pull rods from the servos to the tail. I bought carbon fibre tubing. It is very stiff. I put that inside the outer guide tubes to keep them very straight when glueing them in. I then used that carbon tube for the pusrods. You must put a short length of aluminum tubing over each end of the carbon. One has to go on after the rod is installed. I CA them on and the unthreaded part of the threaded rod also. Just run the threads into the carbon tube about 2 threads. Because the servos are very near the bulkhead where the tubes come into the radio area, make sure you elongate the hole for the elevator guide tube and don't glue it to that bulkhead. This allows the tube to move sideways as the servo arm tracks in its arc. We never take the wings off. The SE fits in any normal car, (mine is a Volt), fully assembled. Here is a picture of my 2 year old SE. I am using an OS 55AX and an 11-6 APC prop. I also have floats for the SE with another gear pad just shead of F-4.

jetblast96

Hey guys,
A quick update: just ordered some more parts such as landing gear hardware, more sandpaper, pushrods, etc. Going to finish the hatch once my order arrives (need the sandpaper) then it's on to covering! I'm also going to mount the engine shortly, it will be interesting since my carburetor is in the rear of the engine but I found a position where it has full throttle movement and the clevis doesn't hit the firewall at full throttle. I can't use a screw lock with the cable, even though it would give more clearance, because the throttle arm moves right to left 1/8" when moving from idle to full throttle and it puts too much stress on the throttle arm/cable from the movement. If the carburetor weren't so close to the firewall it wouldn't be a problem. The left to right movement has to do with the idle needle's position; farther away at full throttle and closer at idle/ slow speed.
By the way, do you guys have any techniques on how to make the engine centered and straight on the mounts? Or do you just eye it?

That's all for now, stay tuned!
Mike

jetblast96

Hey again,
Another order came today in the mail. I now have more 80 grit sandpaper so I can finish off the hatch. My new landing gear also came (Dubro glass filled super strength gear) and as you can see form the pictures, it is absolutely huge! There is no way I'll have any problem with prop clearance now. Added a little more weight but I feel that I'll still be able to go vertical, especially with the fa62a. The landing gear was unfortunately pre-drilled, but the holes don't interfere with where I need to drill. Do you guys think I should fill in those holes before I drill my own? If so, waht should I use? Anyway that's all that's been going on, hope to be ready to cover by the end of Winter break.

Mike

crazy nick

My Feedback: (29)

Wow! Landing gear is an understatement. Use the holes in the landing gear and drill the landing gear mount. Epoxy dowl into the old holes in the lgm. Thats what I was recommended on here.

jetblast96

Happy holidays everybody! Over the past few days I've been working on a bit of ARF-type assemblies; mounted the engine (looks like a hotrod with it!), fixed the problem with the throttle pushrod, mounted the new gear, finished the hatch, and started to carve the curved pieces between the horizontal stab and fin. Some pictures below. Notice a quality increase? A free camera came with an online order my dad did and it literally doubles the specs of my 6 year old camera .
Just one problem arose: with the taller landing gear, will the plane have trouble standing on its 3 wheels? I put on my engine, wings, stacked the tail surfaces on top of the stabilizer mount, and placed the battery in the middle of the radio compartment. When doing this, the plane was like a see-saw (witth the fulcrum at the wheels) even with all the counter weights. I'm a little afraid that the plane will be more unstable on the ground, especially with a full tank of gas. Should I find a way to move the gear forwards a bit or wait until the plane is properly balanced and covered? I'm kind of scared the plane will be very nose heavy, with a big 4 stroke mounted far forward, big heavy wheels, and an aluminum spinner. I really don't feel like buying new wheels and all to balance this thing out but I guess I may have to...
Anyway that's all, have a great holiday everyone! Hope you all get fun toys for me, money to support the build! (I'm broke now, still need to get the receiver and servos!)

Stay tuned!
Mike

dash008

My Feedback: (1)

If the axles are right about at the leading edge of the wing with the plane in a flying attitude, it should be right.

jetblast96

Dash, the axles are about 1 1/2" behind the leading edge it appears... 2 1/4" ahead of the CG as well. The landing gear can easily be pushed forward, there is enough room to drill another set of holes without compromising the gear's strength so I'll see how easy it is to throw the plane over once it's fully built and balanced, with a full tank of gas.

Red B.

As long as the landing gear is at the position indicated on the plans everything will be fine once you get all equipment mounted and the balance point (C.G) in the correct position. There is no need to move the landing gear forward. In fact, this my cause ground handling to become worse instead of better.

jetblast96

Hey again guys,
Hope your holiday was great. Just did a ton of sanding and carving today; finished the fairing blocks and added the fillers between the stringers. Also spent a lot of time cleaning up the wings with filler and sanding. Should be all ready to cover once I finish up the sanding! What do you guys think of a yellow and white scheme? Anyway that's all, stay tuned!

Mike

crazy nick

My Feedback: (29)

Looks really good! Very clean build compaired to my hack job. It looks like you took your time and paid alot of attention. I think yellow and white would look great. Keep up the great work!

jetblast96

Hey guys,
Been pretty busy lately, sorry for the lack of updates. I finally decided on a color scheme, what do you all think? Ordering the covering shortly.
Hope you guys didn't give up on the thread; I prefer not talking to myself on forums lol hopefully I'll get the build back into full swing when I get the covering.

Stay tuned and let me know what you think of the color shceme!
Mike

crazy nick

My Feedback: (29)

Looks great Mike! Like the scheme too, looks like candycane lol! What covering company you going with?

yel914

Looks good Mike, but I'll add that from my experience the red and white will become a pink blur from a distance. I think the top and bottom are just too similar to see a difference, but then, my eyes aren't what they used to be. Nice progress on the build.

jetblast96

Lol that it does! I'm using ultracote

wildlifeguy

My Feedback: (5)

I agree with the response about your color scheme.  While nice, it will be hard to see the difference in the air and will affect your visual perception and reflexes during maneuvers.  

wildlifeguy

My Feedback: (5)

Here's a picture of the one I just finished.

jetblast96

Thanks a lot, wildlifeguy, that color scheme looks really cool too. I'm surprised you had an easy time balancing, I guess I don't have much to worry about. Just the landing gear dilemma... I have holes marked in case I need to move my mains forward, looks like I can safely move it an inch forward in case it is still a see-saw on the main gear with the weight on the plane.
Also, I may or may not use nylon bolts, I beefed up the fuselage where the gear is though. Just dumped some epoxy on the seams between the mounting block and the fuselage sides/former and put scrap square dowels in there. I also may add some diagonals.
And about the pushrods, I totally agree with you about the alignment and the use of metal pushrods. There was a lot of friction for the nylon rods inside the housings and I realized I won't be able to securely bend them to reach the clevises.

Hopefully I can get covering soon, haven't heard from my friend so I may have to do it myself
Mike

wildlifeguy

My Feedback: (5)

I wouldn't consider moving the landing gear. As long as the gear is in the same location as indicated in the plans, it becomes a center of gravity/balance issue. With my plane balanced, there is not even the slightest tendancy for it to "see saw" on the main landing gear. Your engine will be at least 4 ounces lighter than mine, so I'm not sure what the issue may be unless you forgot to check it with all the flying weight on the plane. I described the location of my radio equipment in a previous post.You may want to try a preliminary check of your CG before covering if you are worried. First, make sure all control surfaces are attached; they will add plenty of tail weight. All servos are behind the spec CG including aileron servos and all pushrods other than throttle. Your battery pack and receiver can just about butt up against the servos,well behind the spec CG. One thing I considered before being pleasantly suprised with the balance was to add a hatch on one of the bottom fuselage cutouts behind the radio compartment for the battery pack. Of course, moving the servos to the back is an option, but I didn't want to deal with that level of modification. Unless you included some modifications that addedsignificantweight to the nose, I don't think there should be an issue with balance.

Good luck and keep us posted.

jetblast96

Hey guys,
Had a lot of free time today (finally!) and also happened to stop by my local hobby shop and picked up 1 roll of flame red ultracote and 1 roll of light gray ultracote. They only had 1 red so I'll get my second online with my order of radio gear. I decided to give covering a try and did it myself for almost 7 hours wow it isn't as hard as I thought it would be, just very time consuming. I covered the fin, rudder, and both wing halves. They look really good, a tad sloppy in places (especially under the top layer in places, I forgot that those areas will show up in light... oops) and overall I'm actually quite happy with how it's all looking! I'll cover the fuselage, ailerons, stabilizer, and elevator with the second roll. I am also going to paint the gear the same gray as my cockpit area.
I also realized that the weight of the covering is what will hold the back of my plane down on the ground; how could I forget that 90% of the covering is behind the CG?
Anyway let me know what you guys think of my covering job

Mike

SeamusG

Gray on the tip of the fin - Ultracote will easily stretch-n-shrink around the end. Next time leave about 1 1/2" - 2 " of slack (finger hold). Use a trim iron on high or a standard iron at 330 degrees (give or take). Hover the iron just above the film (I mean within a hair) and pull the film down and over the corners first. Then pull and stretch away from the corner toward the center. You can easily overlap the side film by 1/4" with no seams. Your seam will be tight and most importantly fuel proof. Let the film cool and use a new or just sharpened blade to cut as Ultracote's "cutability" turns to crap after it's been heated that much. I usually create a tip "cap" of film - stretch-n-shrunk around all sides of the tip - 1/4" down the sides. Then the side film is just flush cut at the tip - this works great for tips that are basically flat like the SSE.

The wing stripes - since you chose to align the stripes so that the seam between the red and gray is without structure (seam not on the cap strip) you can create a panel of red / gray / red before you apply the film to the wing. Using a big chunk of class, lay out the pieces with 1/4+ seam. Seal the seam (no backing paper on the film) with a low heat trim iron - be light with the touch to avoid wrinkled overlaps. Once the whole seam is "low temp'd" go over the seams with a standard iron on normal heat - 250 - 270. Let the seams cool and the panel will easily pull up off the glass. Then apply the 1-piece covering.

The scrap backing - save the big chunks before you wad them up - great transparent paper - one side is easy to mark with a Sharpie - use to create templates for future covering projects!

pics 1/4 - panels for the bottom and top of my SSE
pics 5/7 - tip of my LT40 fin - I"cut-in"the plane with bits of covering before Ido the fields
pics 8/9 - the finished wing using the panels in 1/4.

HTH