Posts: 576
Joined: 8/7/2003 From: Orange,
CA, USA Status: offline
The Telemaster #2 is now fixed and almost ready to fly tomorrow. Another Greg Covey quicky 3 inch engine mount has been crafted and glued in place. Rain is predicted, that is good, the air is heavy, heavy weight on the wings is good. The guys on another related thread have installed bomb bay doors in their kits, perhaps they have something. This baby need some weight.
I saw a guy driving a small car on the freeway this summer, he removed the seats and was carrying a small pony inside. I sort of feel the same way carrying the Telemaster. It fills up my medium size SUV, the good thing is that it doesn't eat much.
I personally feel that if you can master flying a tail wheel floater with precision, you will become a better all around RC pilot. The next flight objective is to avoid making an emergency landing in the field bordering the make shift cement runway. What could be worse than scraping cow poop off your plane, then, your shoes.
My new motto, keep the poop off the shoes, the plane on the runway.
Thursday's flight was canceled due to wine during lunch and too much traffic in the afternoon. Friday I'm going to nail flying the Telemaster. I am thinking that the problem is pilot related, and not aircraft related. I've been trying to over-control the craft on landing approach, probably due to too much previous heli flying experience. The transmitter has been re-programmed with lots of expo. which might add some stability to the landing approach.
If you notice in the picture there is no fuel bottle, no fuel pump, the tool kit is very small and mostly not even used, there are no rags, no windex, no 12 volt starting batteries, no glo plugs, and no work table. I love electric !
Later
Al G.
< Message edited by algutkin -- 12/29/2005 11:30:59 PM >
Posts: 4322
Joined: 5/24/2003 From: Rochester,
NY, USA Status: offline
The big 6s2p BalancePro HD 6400mAh pack easily fits in the main cabin of the Senior Telemaster ARF. It firmly slides into position surrounded by foam and is then held in place with a block of white EPP foam that wedges snuggly into place.
All the connections are made from the front hatch area so the wing can be kept on for arming and recharging.
Posts: 576
Joined: 8/7/2003 From: Orange,
CA, USA Status: offline
Nailed it !
5 full stop landings, and 1 touch and go. The plane came back whole. Once you get used to the flat final approach, the float while in ground effect, and loss of rudder and tail wheel control during the roll out, this plane is fun to fly. It will be even more fun carrying a camera. When Greg Covey and his guys fly this craft I'm sure you will see what a great plane this it.
I now know that any flight problems in my previous posts were self induced. I made some programming mistakes. I never, ever, used expo in the past when flying helis or fixed wing aircraft. I just continued to over-control the aircraft and accepted the fact that I was just never going to improve. My electric conversions started with twins, so I read up on flaperons, and expo. I just now realized that I made an error when I programmed expo into my computer controller and didn't even realize it. I made my controls much more sensitive around neutral instead of less sensitive, thus, I was always chasing the over-controlled aircraft and never flew with stability. I realized this error when I checked the setup for the Telemaster. The flights today were completed with the proper amount of expo programmed in, and the craft flew very stable, as expected. Now I have to change the programming in all my setups.
This will probably be the last post from me regarding the Telemaster until mid February. The Telemaster deserves a better flying site, so, it is going to fly at Death Valley Airport in February and we are set up to take some funny videos.
I just pulled a 60 size nose wheel trainer down from the attic and threw away the motor and tank. I started the conversion last night and will post pictures as soon as I can edit the picture size. I am going to try this conversion using a 2826 Axi motor and a 12X8 prop. The statistics say it should work. The craft weighs 6 lbs. with a 2 cycle KB motor and empty tank. I removed the motor and tank and it now weighs 4 lbs. even. Stay tuned, this conversion will take 5 hours or less.
Happy New Year Al G.
< Message edited by algutkin -- 12/31/2005 12:49:31 AM >
Posts: 405
Joined: 10/9/2002 From: Brookland, AR, USA Status: offline
Al,
Be sure your expo is set in the proper direction. Set up correctly, it should make the plane less sensitive to stick movememnts around center. If it's set wrong, it gets more sensitive. On Futaba, you have to use a negative setting, with the higher negative number being less sensitive. JR is just the opposite; + expo is less sensitive. I don't know about the other mfrs. I have flown a friends plane that had it backwards. It wasn't fun.
Posts: 576
Joined: 8/7/2003 From: Orange,
CA, USA Status: offline
Larry:
You are absolutely right. I had plus 50 set in my Futaba, now I changed it to minus 50 and it made flying easy. After all these years of flying I never payed attention to expo. Boy, did I make life difficult for myself. I made flying much more difficult than it had to be. Because the elevator was so sensitive I made the Telemaster look like Flipper with it's tail flapping the water, going up and down.
Posts: 405
Joined: 10/9/2002 From: Brookland, AR, USA Status: offline
Here are a few photos of a friend's Telemaster taken today for it's maiden flight. It was a little breezy, but the plane handled it very well. It's slow, stable, and really easy to see. This one will likely end up carrying a video camera.
Posts: 2
Joined: 1/24/2003 From: IN Status: offline
Lets revisit the ARF wing strut issue. In the package of "extra" lumber, there are 2 18" strut shaped pieces. There is a hard-point located 1 rib out from the servo opening.
When more flight reports are available, we may know that extra wing support is not required. I certainly hope so. 'Rasslin with an 8 foot wing getting an aircraft ready to fly (or leave) is not the fun part of a day at the field.
I don't want to sound arguementative, but simply offer a "heads-up".
Posts: 4322
Joined: 5/24/2003 From: Rochester,
NY, USA Status: offline
Is that what those pieces are for?
They don't show up in the manual instructions but I had them in my box. Apparently you need to buy hardware to attach them.
It turns out that your answer is in the new Telemaster review on RCG by Steve Herlacher.
quote:
The wing struts were included but they were not covered and the old instructions did not say anything about them. They included some extra covering to cover the struts and any other small hangar rash.
I have been told by some pilots that they are not needed and I have been told by Hobby Lobby that they are needed for loops or rolls so I decided to use them. I used some brass control horns from Hobby Lobby to mount them to the wing and then just a wood screw to mount the other end to the bottom of the ply landing gear plate.
Posts: 270
Joined: 6/17/2005 From: San Diego, CA, USA Status: offline
Well folks I returned my ESC to Dymond tonight. I simply didn't want to be stuck with only a 4S set up. I was ready to pay the difference in price for the Jeti but they didn't have the Jeti ESC I needed and said that a controller good for 70A and 5 cells would be over 250.00! I drove home with my Dymond 50A controller but didn't feel right about going with the 4S set up. I looked in the HL catalog and they advertise a 70 A Jeti good for 1-6 cells for 129. I checked the HL site and they are out of stock. So now I'm in the market for another ESC ready to spend a bit more. Has anyone used one of TrueR/C ESC's? Why are they 1/3 the price of the Jeti unit?
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RE: Hobby Lobby Sr. Telemaster ARF - 
