RDJeff

My Feedback: (11)

Hi sandal,

My thought is that with this diesel and a large propeller, and a 4 oz. fuel tank, the plane should have quite a lot of duration. If I use a large battery, and either extend the nose or move the wing back a bit, it should balance better. I'm picturing long, lazy climbs to altitude!

skylark-flier

Hey Jeff, my own Butterfly is somewhat overpowered - runs on an old OS .26FS and that's enough to do loops & rolls - she can climb at a 45 degree angle. 98% of the time I'm flying with 1/4 throttle - 4 oz. fuel tank regularly gives me 40-60 minute flights. Your .09 diesel should run it just fine. Sandal's right though - don't expect a whole lot of "high-performance".

Pic: Butterfly climbing at full throttle with .26 four-stroke and just cruising at 1/4 throttle

DGrant

My Feedback: (4)

I've got mine about half done. Wings are done except for fit/finish/final sand, tail feathers done ready to shape and mount, Fuselage is getting the wing-saddle tonight...

I've got a Magnum.30 four-stroke going in it.. I've been aware of these being tail heavy from past experience(I built one 27yrs ago), and I'd rather hang some usable weight out there if I can. I planned the engine mount so I can swap the engine easily for the now stand-by OS 25FP two-stroke.. which I might try too, depending on how the Magnum runs.. but I'm hoping for some extended flights as well. These little four-strokes just sip fuel. I've taken some pics along the way, just haven't posted anything yet..

Nice to see a few Butterflys going though.. I waited over 3yrs to start this plane and now its goin on.. these are great classic kits.. I can't wait to fly it again.. it will take me back to another time.. haha.. cool stuff.

And.... those are some great pics and video... Nice job there! glad I checked this site today.

skylark-flier

Welcome to the world of Butterflyers !! With that .30 powering her, you're gonna have some great loooooooooooong flights. Yeah, there are quite a few Butterflys still in the air - many of them quite new.

Quigleywins

Hi All I'm in the process of a rebuild I have the wings near finished ,only the front of the wings to cover. Tonight I cut the first Side of the Fuselage ,the longer one. In the morning I will cut the second. Its a while since this monster flew .Its been on the repair pile since I lost her for three weeks in winter a few years back. . Yours Paul T

Quigleywins

Well great week end. I had the wings clap hands around 300 meters off the ground on the Butterfly. Very little of the front left .
That rebuild,thats in the shed, is on the must finish this week list Now, as I have trouble sleeping with out a butterfly in the shed that flys. Sad that all the time I been back flying I've always had a butterfly in flying condition..I'll let you know when one is back in stock. Yours Paul T

skylark-flier

Ye gads, man!!! We MUST get you a Butterfly that doesn't applaud. My own spent most of yesterday in the air. First time in years, I actually had to change-out the onboard battery - it got THAT low.

KLonsdale

Condolences for your loss

Quigleywins

After I posted that report I went out to the shed and took the covering of both wings. The damage is small to the wings. There is very little damage to either side.There are 4 ribs to be cut the top spar can be joined as it always under compression and will take the repair, The lower spar is out already. the LE and TE are not damaged,neither of the top striners on the wig. The second wing only has the LE broken between the last 2 ribs.It's hard to belive so little damage. I know I was at around 350 meters up (GPS fitted) I did expect nothing to be saved. Yours Paul T

littlegnome

My Feedback: (1)

Glad there was so little damage.
I finally got back to the butterfly and was able to repair (hanger damage) the elevator, It was never covered. also in the last two weeks I have built and joined the wings. I have a Church trip to get ready for and the trip itself. I will get back to it (the butterfly when I get back. Paul thank you for continuing to post on this thread. Also the others as well. It has been a long recovery for me since my last post (another back surgery and a total knee replacement) Glad to be back flying and building. Wednesday will be our clubs last indoor session this year and we still have melting snow on the flying field.

Quigleywins

littlegnome There may be a commection between Knees and butterflys get my knee repaired in May. Yours Paul T

skylark-flier

Paul, that definitely is a repairable aircraft - just gonna take a little bit of time (also glue, balsa, spruce, red-eyes). Sounds like she'll be back in the air rather soon, and that's GOOD!

Littlegnome - super-good to see you back in action. Yeah, melting snow - know it well. I flew one day, 2 weeks ago, and the next day we had 6" on the ground. Day after that, I flew again from bare grass. Go, figure. One day I'm out flying with a short-sleeve shirt, next day I'm bundled up like a snowman. I'm ready for spring - DEFINITELY!

Hey, remember Groundhog day? Got this from a friend - agreed 100% with the sentiment.

Quigleywins

Have the sides cut out for the first one I ever had so it will not be long. I always take one ,have a fly before anything else,Great way to start the day. I will go with a real paint job this time had enough of the covering coming off after a few years. They are hard to smash Yours Paul T

Silver Flyer

My Feedback: (4)

I built a model called the Butterfly II about 1980, still have it and fly it occasionally with OS 25 long relaxing flights. It has a bolt on tail feathers and 2 piece wing with 1/4" steel rod in the middle with anti rotation dowels in the root ribs, held together to keep from sliding apart with a rubber band around two screws. I just updated it to 2.4 Spectrum radio system. Never had a problem with the wire gear but it was a little hard to balance, had to mount servos way forward. This time just added bigger 6V rx battery under the tank and moved the servos back to where the plans called for.
Is the model discussed in this thread the same as the Butterfly II ? Thanks, Floyd

Quigleywins

Silver Flyer It's always good to here from anyone that has or have had a Butterfly. As to he balance I moved the motor forward about an inch or so and have used the following motors over the years.OS 15 .OS 20. Both 2 strokes then the OS 26 FS and the OS 20FS the motor I love best is the OS 26 FS When the rebuild is back it will have the OS 26 FS.Just a pleasure to fly ,just not made to do tight loops.Live and learn.Yours Paul T

skylark-flier

Hey Floyd! Yeah, with a few minor changes (mine is the original Butterfly from even earlier) your Butterfly sounds just like mine. The main difference between yours and mine is the bolt-on tail. Mine also has tricycle gear, but that was added specially for a specific job she had to do when she was built - she had to carry a camera & air sensor gear.

Here's my lady, as she flies today:

RDJeff

My Feedback: (11)

Well, I finally managed to get mine in the air!

I built the plane with 2" of extra fuselage length forward of the wing in order to avoid any problems balancing with a light engine. I also added spoilers and rounded out the shape of the tail surfaces. The engine I installed was a PAW .09 diesel. I still had to add a couple ounces of lead to the nose to get it balanced right. I wanted to cover the plane with transparent orange covering, but couldn't find any locally, so I went with solid red on top, and transparent yellow underneath, thinking that it would show up as orange.

When I went out for the maiden flight, I wound up breaking all the cylinder bolts on the engine due to over-compressing. No maiden flight today. The bolts are an oddball English size, so I elected to swap out the diesel for an Enya .15 r/c glow that I had in my box of engines. I was able to remove all the lead with this engine.

This time the maiden flight went smoothly. It was a very calm evening at Tanacross airfield, and I was able to get in a couple of 20 minute flights. The little Enya pulls strongly, and idles happily for as long as I need it to. The color scheme worked out brilliantly too!

buzzard bait

Really nice, and your assistants look happy too. It's too bad about your PAW; I'm surprised since it looks like it was side mounted, which is supposed to be a good way to avoid hydrolock. On smaller diesels I like to back off the compression when starting and sneak up on it. If I find an engine seems to require too much compression to start, I've found it means that the ether needs to be replenished in the fuel. I add John Deere starting fluid from the spray. It's 80% ether. That instantly restores the good starting qualities and I can start with less compression.

You probably know the Eric Clutton, aka Dr. Diesel, is likely to have those screws and he will probably get them to you quickly.

Anyway, the Enya is a nice substitute. Don't they sound great on idle? I have a PAW 09 and a couple of Enya 15s and I like them all.

Jim

area66

I started my Buterfly yesterday and I have a question; what will be a good choice of servo for this bird ?

Quigleywins

I'm only putting in a reply as I love Butterfly's and I know you will and will be around this thread for a long time so welcome area 66 now to your question about servos. I have 3 Butterflys Zero flying at the moment,but when in use I always use JR 821s or the Spektrum 821s and on throttle any thing that's going as it will have little to do in any of the 1/2 hour flights you have. now you will get better advice from others but I have only use this series of servos and they have never failed me yours Paul T
Good to see you on the first post a photo. That's a great start Keep it up. Lots of reports and photos.

groundstrike

ok. had the kit about a year or so and haven't started it yet cuz my shop is a mess. wanting to start it but would like to know opinions on a few points:

1) polyhedral. cut in half or leave it alone? build wings with or without outer or inner dihedral(?)

2) how much nose extension and down thrust? any right thrust? want electric power, what would be best setup?

3) lighten up fuselage for less tail weight?

4) want ailerons. would like flaps. opinions?

any input would help. close to 27 years ago I started building a Senior Kadet. have still never flown it but am now converting it to electric and probably chose the wrong motor/battery setup. would like to avoid that this time! rank beginner; have a hobby king bfg 1300 that i've crashed and repaired too many times to count (it's just too damn fast) and want a floater. not a sailplane in particular but something that acts like it wants to be airborne.

will try to post pics as i build but this may take a while. hopefully not 25 years like the SIG!

pete

sebo

follow the plans for building wing and dihedral....they are that way for a reason......designed that way for good flying...follow the plans for the thrust too.....someone else may be able to help you with the electrical setup

buzzard bait

GS -With the dihedral you can take the plane very high and not worry about stability. If you reduce dihedral and add ailerons, you may have trouble getting a nice steady flight at high altitude. That's why model competition thermal soarers have dihedral and not ailerons. If you keep the dihedral, what would be the point of the ailerons?

DGrant

My Feedback: (4)

I built mine exactly to the plan, Including the landing gear. I couldn't ask for a better flying plane. Mine has an OS FP.25, I ended up adding 3/4oz. to the nose to balance... just for good measure, as it probably didn't need that.. but yeah.. all per plan... Here's a few pics...

sebo

That's a really good looking plane.
You must be a fantastic pilot.
I could never have landed on the table as you have done.
How did you stop the roll?