formerlyknownasAWB

Has anyone built this particular model from house of balsa?

I just ordered it from Tower and should be here Thur. I'm a huge GP fan and am a little curious what I'm in for. I bought this more for the modeling aspect as opposed to its flight characteristics. I've tried to search the forums for this particular model but can only find posts about its larger brothers. I do fear that it will be severly under powered with the OS .10, and will problably use a .15 or close to that. I also went with this so I can use the micro flight pack from one of my flatouts that I smashed up.

Any input is appreciated.

fokker20planes

In the User Reviews I did a search in "find and review products". Type in "spacewalker" and you will find that 4 people have commented and rated this plane. It looks like a fun small plane!

formerlyknownasAWB

thanks 20

wow

I never knew about the review feature of this site. After reading the reviews I feel much better about my purchase and the House of Balsa product, now if it was only Thur. When it arrives I try to start a built thread for this little guy.

fokker20planes

Glad I could help. A build thread (and plenty of photos if you can) might convince me to try this kit. Would definitely like your input.

formerlyknownasAWB

You cant beat the price thats for sure. I wanted to try a new 3D like the Cap232 from great planes, but I was able to buy a plane and motor for the price of that kit.



I'll have plenty of pics when it gets here and do my best at a build thread.

formerlyknownasAWB

Getting a new plane is awesome.

It came today and think I got a solid chunk out of it. To start off on a good note all the parts are there and the cuts are very clean. The rods for the alerons even come pre-bent. The down side to them being pre-bent is that they doug into the alerons a little during shipping.

formerlyknownasAWB

After checking to see what exactly what was in the box the plans got rolled out. Only one sheet.

I'll also add that the directions are a little vague. and it is by no means a PT 40 kit. Make sure you prefit everything first.

Before you start glueing ribs I would trim the inside of the spar so everything is flush. I didn't do this and had to cut it off right before I started sheeting.

When you start sheeting the wing, the piece that fits up to the LE(the cedar dowel) should be sanded down to a point. this should save some time sanding later and helps give it a clean look. The only complant so far was that the sheeting wasn't wide enough for the space between the spar and TE. You should probably buy a wider sheet so one piece works, but I was impatient and used two half size sheets. not a big deal.

Edit: I would reinforce the R1 rib at this time to add strength to the dowel that joins the two haves.

formerlyknownasAWB

So here is where I'm at after tonight.

Wing 75% finished, only need to trim the wing tip and mount the alreons, join halves + mount servo. Fuse 2% finished - started test fitting the doublers.

Not sure what size servos the plan calls for but I have a whole micro(might even be sub micro) flight pack and am debating wether I want to use it in this plane. I will need to make some mods if I want to use them. and they will save me considerable amount of weight. Anyone have input on this?

and did I mention that it could be a difficult first plane to build only because of the instructions, but so far great for a second kit. Lots of fun and I still have most of the skin on my fingers.

fokker20planes

So far so good! Is the wing semi-symetrical?

mmattockx

Go with the micro pack, weight is crucial on small models like this and you will not regret it.


Mark

formerlyknownasAWB

thanks mark i was thinking the same thing. the aleron servo will be easy to mount but the elevator and rudder will require some mods. They should have enough torque right(Futaba)? I'll post the pics when I get there.

20 the wing is one piece (Edit: semi-symetrical). I didn't do this but I would recomend adding a doubler to R1 where the dowels are used, this would be underneith where the sheeting goes, to join the wing IF you are going with a larger than recomended motor.. The wing is also built with a little dihedral that I'm going to keep as is.

In post 8 you can see where one of the dowel rods goes and how the sheeting was just a little to short.

mmattockx

I have built a couple of OS15 powered hand launch planes that ran Hitec HS-55 servos with no issues. I did run one servo per aileron, though. I wouldn't think you will have a problem unless you put something really hot in for an engine.


Mark

formerlyknownasAWB

I think i'm going to stick with the one servo for the ailerons.

Can you mix servos with the micro receiver? Could I use a standard for the alerons and 3 micro servos for the rest? Would using a LiPo make a noticable difference also or doesn't really matter?

formerlyknownasAWB

need a break I think the fumes are getting me blasted. Not sure to say what I think.

The wing is just about finished only need to mount the servo. cover and glue hinges. I went with the great planes hinges the ones that came with didn't do it for me. There are a few things that you need to watch out for when building this wing, the rib that makes up the wing tip needs to be glued to the top trim of the TE. I didn't do this and the rib doesn't sit at the center of the dowel b/c I glued it to the bottom(rushing of course). No big deal though. I won't even tell you that I acedentaly beveled the piece that holds the aileron rod in place on the one half, that was fun to fix.

The 2 dowels that hold the two halves together is a little tricky. I marked midpoint of the dowel and tack glued them in. Test fitting here is a MUST. When everything is good I took the halves apart and used 5min epoxy to glue the to halfs together. There is no jig with this kit for the dihedral so I'll leave it up you to decide how you would approach this. Once the epoxy cured I used a thicker fiber that I had left over from my PT 40. see pics. For the most part the wing was a simple built. I would still have to say that for a first build you would have a very difficult time without help.

formerlyknownasAWB

The fuse is not for people with hands of stone or strong rubber bands. Here is where you really start to realize that its a dwarf. The fuse other than firewall and doublers around the wing setting is soft balsa. dont squeeze to hard around the crutches. The firewall is marked with a nice crosshair.

Question: look at the front of the fuse. This plane is built with the one side longer than the other. Seemed a little odd to me. Do they do this so the motor pulls to the left? I built it anyway and figure I can pack the motor out a little if I have to.

What do you think about tail mounting the elevator servo?

I'm close to a stand still thanks to Tower who forgot to pack the motor mount. I'll probably cover the wing later tonight.

formerlyknownasAWB

couple more

Digger-RCU

Greetings, I like the plane and your work. thanks for posting the pictures.
What engine do you plane on putting in this plane?

As for the off-set, many small, and big planes for that matter, have a little down and right offset to aid in stability across the power curve. A little down thrust offsets the increase of lift during high throttle (high air speed) situations, and the right offset apposes the counter that tend to make the plane want to turn left when you give it high throttle.

This is a perfect plane to talk about with the guys in the 1/2a forum. they would love the pictures too. Please think about posting in their forum here on rc.universe.

also, I would think that your single micro servo would not be a good idea for the ailerons. Maybe a little bigger. Something like an HS-81.


Good luck.

Randy (Digger) Birt

formerlyknownasAWB

Digger I would have probably done this build thread in that forum as it pertains to this size aircraft but I didn't even know about it.



What are your thoughts on servos for the elevator and rudder?

I'm putting an OS .10 in it. I was going to go .15 and probably should have. So I'll use what I have and can always go bigger later on. Its a vicious cycle - buy plane and motor, buy bigger motor, buy new plane for old motor.........

I also wanted to ask about the dowels that are used to rubber band the wing. you can or can't see that the hole in the fuse side and doubler don't match. I am thinking about adding a small third piece, depending on how much room I have, to add support to the dowel?

formerlyknownasAWB

do you think the weight difference would be noticable between modifying the wing to a bolt on(epoxy, bolts, doubles) vs. Using rubber bands? second would it be benificial to make it a bolt on?



The FUSE design around the motor is poor at best. No hard landing permitted. I clamped a piece of balsa with some plastic to the fuse in order to keep the fuse extensions square.

When you get to F15 I used rubber bands to hold every thing downbut make sure your over the crutch or you will crack the side. I left glueing these down to the end and once they were set, glued them all and hit it with some kicker.

formerlyknownasAWB

here is a pic of the instructions

formerlyknownasAWB

I didn't follow the kits instructions for mounting the stabs. They want you to preglue the braces and then fit in the horiz and vert stab.

I did the opposite.1st I fit the wing to the fuse making sure it was centered. 2nd measued wing tip to elevator and made sure everything was centered. 3rd pin down the the horiz stab and trace underneith. Epoxy the horiz stab to the fuse. I used CA from here on. I set the vert stab 90 degrees and set the braces. Wasn't to hard.

The hinges turned out awesome, much harder to explain then to actually do.

Still need to cover the wing, waiting on some servos and the engine mount.

is a sub micro servo ok for the throttle?

(Edit:I can't spell, can't type and my grammar sucks!)[sm=bananahead.gif]

Phlip

Nice looking kit, and good job! You're quick.

HOB makes nice kits. Instructions are a little sketchy, though. I built the PT-19 for .25 power and it was a fun build. You may have just sold me on this kit, too.

Phil

fokker20planes

You do build fast! Keep up the good work. Will you maiden it soon or wait for warmer weather?

formerlyknownasAWB

As soon as its finished I'll want to fly it weather permitting. I hope we get a nice weekend in Feb.

I still have a ways to go:

wing needs covering.
motor mounted.
rudder, elevator, and aileron servo need mounting.
Control/fuel lines
Canopy sheeting.
Fuse covered
landing gear mounted....

[sm=tongue_smile.gif]

mmattockx

I have ran a mix of micro, mini and standard servos off of a Hitec 555 with no issues. AFAIK, the only place servos get to be an issue is with the big torque ones that can draw more current than the receiver can handle. You won't be anywhere near that, so should be no problems. I've never used LiPo, so can't really say. You need to regulate them, which adds weight and another component to fail, and charging is more exacting, but they work for lots of people. My choice for flight packs now are 5 cell NiMH.


Mark