WILDCRASHWILLY

Box Car,

Looks like Force field has been bought by Amazingmagnets.com. I went online and looked at their selection and a large selection it is. I have a question for you. I was looking atthe 3/16 X 1/16 disc. If I make a hatch door for my switches which may be fairly close to my rx, (about 2 to 3 inches), will the magnetism be strong enough to cause any radio iissues on the 2.4 rx? This will be the first time I've considered magnets for this purpose. (Holding the hatch closed).

Thanks,

box car

At 2 to 3 inches I don't see a problem. I used the 1/4 x 1/8. I put the magnet on the bottom side of the hatch cover and flat head wood screws in the hatch for the magnets to lock on to. You can adj the screws up and down to get the best set. If you try using magnets back to back you might not get the cover off. When you get them you will see what I am talking about.. I use some of their magnets on my building table ( steel top ) very strong.
Ken

chrisp32

Can anyone give me some direction or advice on programming my 6EX for the two rudder servos. What is the best way to do that?

WILDCRASHWILLY

Crisp32,

I'm not sure as I'm unfamiliar with the 6EX. You might want to check in at the radio forum for that one.

I essentially spent the majority of the day finish sanding the Decath. Have it looking pretty good as far as being ready to cover. Did set the servos in the tail for the rudder and elevator, however, nothing really interesting to take pictures of.

I won't be able to work on it again until next weekend, but I do plan to order some batteries this week if I get a chance.

Two A123 2300's for the radio.

One 4.8volt 2000 Nimh for the ignition.

Three switches.

Also, going to order three more A123's for my Spoiler and an Edge 540 gas powered unit. One for the Spoiler and two for the Edge,,, all 2300's.

beepee

chrisp32,

How are you configuring the two rudder servos? If you have stated before, sorry, I did not find the earlier post. I guess there is more than one way to set up a two servo drive to a single control, but not sure how any would impact the 6EX.

Maybe (often the case) I am just dense.

Bedford

chrisp32

Sorry guys. I said rudder servo but meant elevator servos.

G8er

pretty standard solution http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXWB69&P=7

beepee

G8er suggests the Y-harness that is required. Once you plug it in, the servos move together and no TX programming is required. The servo tray provided gives plenty of room so that a reverser is not required.

Bedford

Nothrottle

My Magnum 180 gave up in my 2 yr. old Dynaflite Super Decathlon. I suspect it was too much burden. Mounted a brand new DLE 55cc last week after a major beef-up of the firewall, moved the rudder & elevator servos and 5-cell battery pack to the rear hatch area. The 180 needed most of our grass runway before lift-off. The DLE uses at less than 25 feet ! No add-on weight required. Wish one could order a new windshield, the original is badly fouled from nitro- methane.

Zor

You can also find a lot about the art of covering in a thread named "GreatPlanes SPECTRA" .

You find that thread by going to "Electric Sailplanes" in RCGroup forum.

If I can find a direct URL I will come back here and post it.

Zor

Edit .... I think the URL is

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1484799

I will come back again after verifying that it is correct.

Zor

The URL works fine and takes you to that thread to browse around within the thread. 125 postings up to now.
You do not have to read; just scroll and look at the pictures then read whatever you may find interesting.

Zor

22 Feb 2012 at 19:20 EST
Upon revising this thread I wondered how this post fitted in here.
It is complementing "box car" post #1400.

Zor

warbirdmustang

My Feedback: (21)

I think I am finally ready to start building mine, so I'm subscribed!
Bryan

dabrown

You can probably get a windshield here:

http://www.dynaflite.com/parts/gpma0510pl.html

I ordered some ribs, etc to repair mine and they seemed like they had all the items in stock.

Dave

Nothrottle

Thx Dave, $31.95. high profit item, lol. I think I'll paint the inside of the old windshield black and hide the gas fuel tank from public view.

chrisp32

What is the best glue to use for the windows I really don't want to mess this up.

Zor

chrisp32,

Formula SUPER rc Z 56
It is commonly used as it dries clear - flexible - for bonding vinyls - butyrate styrene - abs plastics and foam.

Zor

do335a

If you happen to get some smearing of the RC 56 glue or get it somewher that you don't want it on the plastic windows, leave it alone until it sets up. It's perfectly clear when set and has no more smell.

Once it's set, you can peel it off and there will not be any trace that it was there. If you try to wipe it off or clean it up earlier, you will find that the plastic has been etched and will always show that defect.

Try it for yourself on a few scraps before using it to glue in the windows.

chrisp32

ok will pick some of that up also what is the best adhesive for putting the cowl together? i tried epoxy but it actually broke apart at the seem fairly easy.

Zor

chrisp32,

Not knowing what material your cowl is made of ___

I glued together a cowl made of two parts of . . . what is it called? . . . ABS ?

I used the R 56 but first roughed up the surfaces to come into contact with 120 grit until they were really dull.

Looks still ok after two years; no sign of coming apart.

Zor

Edited 06 March 2012 at 09:55 EST to change what is it called? from APC to ABS

beepee

chrisp32,

The best step is to replace it with fiberglass. I put a bunch of hours in mine including paint and it survived up to the ultimate demise of the plane, but I was not happy with it. The wheel pants of the same material did better.

I glued the ABS pieces together with PVC pipe glue and fiberglass backing. Go lightly on the glue as it softens the plastic. Fiberglass cowl is MUCH more durable though.

Good luck whichever way you choose to go.

Bedford

WILDCRASHWILLY

Hi guys,

I have not quit working on the Decath, I have been side tracked the last couple of weeks with travel and installing a new standby gen on the house. Anyway,, I started to work on the Tail linkages last night and found that I had the wrong size rods on on hand to connect the servos to the elevator. I'm going to get some 4-40 hardware this week so I can get back on it next weekend. I did however, receive some HD ED switches and 2300 mah A123 batteries from Hangetime hobbies this week. I hope their not to much for the Hitec 645mg servos. This the first time I've used A123's. I bought a set for my Edge which has digitals which I'm told will be good but I'm not sure about the 645mg's as they are analog.
Anyone else run A123 on analog servos. I have used 6 volt nimh on 645's for years with no issues as they are rated for both 4.8 and 6 volt.

do335a

The best solution people have found for the cowl and wheel pants is to replace them with aftermarket good quality fiberglass substiutes.

If you keep the original ABS parts, thin CA will work well to join them. Then you need to fill the hollows and depressions to make them look like they are intended to be.

In my case, since there was already too much going into the project, I elected to fiberglass the cowl with lightweight cloth. It went on the outside. That worked out very well and looked great. Mind you, it was many additional hours of work.

One other mod. The instructions suggest gluing on the windscreen. I attached it with small screws to keep it removable.

WILDCRASHWILLY

Did a little on the decath tonight but not much. I have 4-40 rods and epoxied in a couple of sleeves with epoxy/microballoon mix. I'll sand smooth tomorrow. Also, took some pics of the 1650 Nimh that I will use for the ig. and the a123's that will be used for the rx. I planned to use two a123's and dual switches for redundancy, but, I'm thinking about just using one with dual feeds from the switch to the rx. Any opinions out there on the two bat or one bat scenario on this size plane? I only run one on all glow engine powered planes which I might add are smaller than this one. the largest glow I have is a OS160 on a spoiler 82-84 inch WS. On my gas with digitals, I use dual bats and dual switches.

Auburn02

My Feedback: (1)

Glad to see this thread is still going strong and people are still building the kit. I get compliments on mine whenever I bring it out (not often, sadly) but I'm my own worst critic and I'm constantly on the fence of tearing it down to fix some things and improve other areas. I have some fuel/oil damaged wood in the fuse, some coverage peeling at seems, a cracked windshield, and I'd really like to shed some weight off of it if I could. Part of that would include converting the G38 to electronic ignition, which rumor has it will shave about a lb of weight by itself. Hell if that's true I should do that FIRST, and I might fall in love all over again and save all that covering work.

But if I were to strip it I'd also like to modify the strut attachment with a more scale setup, maybe borrow some parts from a 1/4 scale Hangar 9 Cub, and possibly add a couple of extra touches like nav lights and such. Ideally I'd also change the wing attachment entirely, creating a bit of dihedral and adding the center window, but that's probably more than I want to tackle.

And of course if I do any of that major stuff, it'll be after I finish my Top Flite Corsair, so look for that update in a few years. I would like to convert the engine soon though to see how much that helps at least.

Zor

Hello WILDCRASHWILLY,

Are you not just parallelling two batteries via two switches ?

Zor

[email protected]

I received the Topflite Super Decathlon kit from Tower Hobbies on 29 February 2012 and have been working steadily on it ever since. The build is going along great with lots of help from the contributors on this thread. The engine is OS 120AX. Things on the to-do list include: Install aileron control rods and extension cable; Fiberglass tape the struts, wheelpants, ABS cowl and paint them; Paint cabin area and cover the fuselage; Add trim color pattern; Install windshield; Replace tail wheel with Ohio assembly on-hand; Reinforce landing gear with music wire on-hand; Install flying wires; Install receiver and battery; then the finishing details like weight and balancing, setting the control throws, etc. Thanks to all the contributors on this thread as their guidance has been invaluable.