Len Todd
Posts: 206
Score: 100
Joined: 7/16/2012
Last Login: 6/19/2013
From: Baldwin, MI, USA
Status: offline
|
You will love flying that plane. I put in 30% expo to de-sensitize the elevator. The plane will jump off the ground and you want to go easy on the elevator and power for take off. When landing, the plane will slow right down and seem to float. I found that I have to give it some throttle and very small elevator inputs to keep it from stalling on a landing, so the expo helps on landings too. If the plane turns out tail heavy, you will first notice it most on the landings. You will end up adding more throttle to compensate for the tail's dragging low. If you have the CG right, it will come in fairly slow, yet level. Do not come in too fast. Also, this is where the expo on the elevator helps. When landing, after you are on the ground, if you have too much up elevator, the plane will tend to come back up in the air. So, ... Don't add the full up elevator to keep the tail down on the ground too early. Make sure you are slow enough to stay on the ground. Kind of a learning curve here.
I am a rookie. I started flying this year in May. But, I fly every day and also pilot 450 Helis and 11 other planes. I had an experienced Giant pilot there as a spotter/coach when I started out flying with this plane. That helps greatly, especially if you get caught in a cross-wind landing situation in front of a large airshow crowd. etc.
The DLE 111's factory settings on mine were a little rich. The high speed jet was very close to good. The low speed jet was 1/2 to 5/8 turn rich. But, ... I broke it in using the factory settings and I am now gradually leaning it down on the slow speed jet. I may need to fatten up the high-speed jet if I lean the low speed jet any more. So, ... I am going at this very slowly. When you get it right you will know. It is a very responsive and powerful engine. If you go too lean, the power will start to fall off and the engine temps start to go up. I am currently at one full turn from the bottom on the high-speed and 7/8ths turn from the bottom on the slow speed jet. I think it is still a little rich on slow-speed and spot on for high speed.
I did not need to install any baffels inside the cowling. The top of the cylinder seems to be the hotest spot running at 205 - 255 degrees F. But I am running rich. We'll see where this goes after I install the plane's telemetry this winter. My DX8 transmitter came with telemtry sensors for temp and battery voltage readings on my transmitter. You can also add the optional RPM sensor and have that on the transmitter also. All this shows up on the transmitter's main screen so you can veiw the planes operating parmaters quickly at a glance. I was going to install this initially. But KISS over-ruled that decision.
I ran a tygon tube from the undocumented tube barb on the front of the carb (diaphragm cover) up into the fuselage. This helps to stabilize the engine a bit. Apparently turbulence inside the cowling could be a problem. If you call Hobbico on this they will tell you that this line has to go back to the fuel tank to pressurize it. That is wrong!. I also plugged the smoke nipples in the muffler with small screws and permatex. I like to KISS. So, for now, no smoke, yet. They were spitting oil in the cowl. Hobbico suggested to leave them open and just ignore them ( and the mess too, apparently.) I stuck with a manual choke rod dropping out the bottom of the cowl. I had a servo on the choke initially, but I found that it was not simple enough for KISS. So I went back to a manual choke. The servo would have to be a hi-torque rating to move that choke consistently.
I used a Dubro fueling port only to have the outer O-Ring in the port's valve fail in flight and then the engine started sucking air. So, I had to replace the O-Ring and, ... I took the line to the carb off the fuel valve. (one of the valve's two lines went to the tank and the other to the carb. This valve was designed to keep you from blowing the carb line off the carb during fueling by isolating the carb line when the fueling nipple is inserted. But that design introduces the potential fault that I experienced.) This winter I'll probably put in the fuel dot that I now have. But, I will still keep the carb line isolated from the fill line. The point here is isolate the carb line from the fill line. KISS
Spectrum believes there is strength in numbers. Many of their receivers have the main receiver and then added remote receivers. The remotes are designed to allow you to orient the remotes' antennas in a different orientation. This way, you have a better chance of not losing the transmitter's signal into the receiver. With this type of setup, you also have redundant receivers, etc. I have flown my plane out at least a mile from me and no signal losses have been recorded. The Spectrum 9210 receiver/power distribution system has three receivers. If one is not working at power-up the plane will not arm the power. If one fails while the plane is flying, it isolates the bad receiver and still has two more to fly with until you shut it off. With three receivers you can orient the antennas in six directions at different angles and place them in different parts of the plane, etc.. So far this thing works great. It also isolates the servos' main power from the receiver circuits and distributes the power to the servos w/o putting excessive load on the receiver, etc. It has two 10 amp power regulators and uses two independent batteries and will isolate a bad battery by itself. It can be run off one battery. But, two batteries give you redundancy and it selects the best battery to use at any given time. It seems to spread the load over the two batteries very evenly. It also regulates the power system to 6 VDC or 7.4 VDC so you can use regular or high voltage servos. I am running HV servos at 6 VDC and it gives me all the servo power and speed that I need. This AR 9210 receiver/power distribution system also has plenty of ports so you can run rudder, throttle, two gangs of Aileron Servos, a Kill Switch and separate elevator servos via a transmitter mix, all out of separate ports and still have a port or two left.
For ganging the Aileron Servos, I used SmartFly's Equalizers. I could not figure out how to get a gang of digital Hitec servos to act correctly on a Y. I suppose maybe if I was into programming servos it is possible. But the Equalizer II made it very easy. I have not even had to program them. I just plugged in the two servos, with the current meter in servo A's circuit and turned them on. Then I used the linkage on servo B to get servo A's current to 0 Milliamperes when on and at neutral position. When at the full-up and full down the servo current on a is at or very near zero. So, ... I did not have to do any programming. They worked out of the box, so to speak.
I did have a Hitec Servo fail with the left Aileron in the partially up position. It froze solid and the other one in the gang could not overcome it. Hitec's turn-around time is about three weeks. Hitec indicated that the servo's Amp had failed. But it was mechanically locked in place. ?? However, they sent me a new one, to arrive three weeks later. I recommend getting some spares. Also, program your simulator to introduce some plane component failures. You may just need the practice. Some of these failures are recoverable. But, you need to know how to recognize and respond to each. I landed mine with the left Aileron locked in the ~ 1/3 up position.
For the kill-switch I used Smartfly's Fiber Optic switch. I have a separate battery for the ignition. (I also have a carbon fiber throttle linkage.) I was going to use a BEC and not use the third battery. But then I started thinking, ... The ignition's RF/electrical, noise can travel back to the receiver via a BEC. So I went with a separate battery. To get a shut off, Smartfly has two components linked by a fiber-optic cable. This precludes an electrical connection back to the receiver via the kill switch. The thing works great and I do not even have a manual switch on the ignition. Once you turn on the AR 9210, and it locks to the transmitter, the ignition circuit is energized. Turn off the transmitter or receiver and the ignition is shut off. Press the kill button on the transmitter and the ignition is also shut off. (I used the Trainer Button on the DX8 Transmitter for a kill switch).There is a very small amount of battery used if the Kill-switch and receivers are left connected to the battery for a long period of time. I happen to charge my three LiPos out of the plane. I have had a LiPo battery catch fire. (Another long story!) I do not want to risk the plane by charging the LiPos in the plane. So, ... When I am done flying for the day, I take the batteries out for charging. BTW: I am using 1000 MAH 2S LiPo Spectrum Receiver Packs( two for the AR 9210 and one for the ignition). They seem to discharge very evenly. However, I am going to replace them with 2000 MAH LiPo Receiver Packs. The 1000 MAH batteries are good for three flights, ... maybe four and but then I feel I am "pushing it" too far. I would like more flights per charge. I'll probably use one of the 1000 MAH's for the electric fueling station, parallel the other two for the ignition, and then add two 2000 MAH new receiver battery packs next spring.
Don's Hobby shop has a nice electric fuel pump for the fuel station. I use one of my other plane's LiPos to run it. I got tired of handcranking the fuel for this baby. It does use a lot of fuel. Good thing it is only gas and oil and not 20-30% heli glow fuel.
Long post. But no one around seemed to have recorded this type of info for us. So I did it here. I littleraly spent days reserching this. Good thing I have some RF background as an Amateur Radio Operator, and lots of experience with electrical engineering, etc. Otherwise this could have been a nightmare doing and also later when crashing, etc.. Enjoy. LenTodd@att.net
_____________________________
33% Extra DLE 111, DX8
33% Extra for 3D, DX8
Hide Signatures
|
Search This Thread
Printable Version
All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> Profile and Fun Flying Planes >> OMP - Ohio Model Products Support Forum >> Extra 300 100cc 
Extra 300 100cc - 
Does the DLE 111 fit inside the cowl with out any cutting to allow clearance for the plug wires.
