Villa

I mount servos, the receiver, and even the battery inside the wing. Only a part of the servo arm sticks thru the bottom of the wing, giving a very streamlined appearance. The first photo shows the full wing bottom of my twin tail, and 4 servos, the On/Off switch, and the receiver, all mounted against the inside of a 2" X 2" hatch cut into the bottom surface of the wing. The hatch is made with three cuts, then the hinge is scored with a Phillips screw driver. I cut the normal mounting ears off the servos. I sand the servo and the inside of the hatch, add 4 drops of Medium CA glue, then use a plastic tie wrap to hold the servo to the inside of the hatch. Photos 2, 3 and 4 show one servo in detail. The next 4 photos show how I lock the hatch in place. Remember the hatch is 2" X 2". I take a 3-1/2" long skewer and slide it from the wing Trailing edge and thru the the hatch, and 3/4" further into the wing. I push this short locking skewer with a long skewer as shown in one of the photos. One of the photos shows the 3-1/2" short skewer sitting on top of the hatch, prior to it being positioned. To open a locked hatch, I cut a "T" slot toward the leading edge of the wing from the locking skewer, and insert a piece of skewer and push the skewer toward the wing trailing edge. The last photo show the locking skewer being pushed into the unlocked position. I have also used electrical tape on the three cut sides of each hatch to keep it closed and that worked well also, instead of using skewers. The whole thing is very simple; the explanation makes it look difficult. Give it a try. I have been doing it this way for about 6 years. There is lots of room inside the wing. The receiver is in a larger hatch also. The switch is in a smaller hatch.

Clean

Good pictorial Villa.

Villa

Hi Clean. Thanks for the compliment.

mustangman177

Cool method for mounting the servos !!!

Will bamboo skewers work on 2mm wings ? I'm wanting to use this method on building the corospit or corostang wing. Toothpicks should work ?

Villa

Hi mustangman177
I never tried skewers on 2MM. Many of the skewers in the packages I purchase at Walmart are very thin so they may work OK. Now that I think of it, my SPAD Biplane, which has 2MM wings, does not use the hatch method for mounting the two servos in the lower wing. At the time I designed that plane, about 5 years ago, I decided the 2MM Coroplast was not stiff enough to support the servos using the hatch method of mounting. If you find that 2MM with hatches works out OK, please let me know so I can use it on my next Biplane. Anyone else have experience with hatches on 2MM? Please post details.

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

If you look around kitchen and cooking stores or sections you can find skinnier skewers.

Say that fast 5 times WEEEE
They are not as common as 4mil skewers but buy 2 bags when you see 'em and your good for a decade or so.[8D]

mustangman177

OzMo

I've found that toothpicks are just the right diameter for the 2mm flutes, works perfectly. To push the toothpicks into place to lock the servo door shut, 2-56 pushrod does the trick.

Thanks for the heads-up on this method of mounting servos in coroplast. Really "Cleans" up the looks of the wing without the servo sitting on the topside of the wing !!!

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

I've been installing servos soon will be at the wing on my build.
Thanks for posting the pictures, and that looks very nice !!!!!

spaceworm

So, the wing shown is 4MM? Did you use a design from the SPAD designs for it or is it you own? If this was mentioned earlier, please accept my apologies. Thanks.

Sincerely, Richard

Villa

Hi spaceworm
The wing shown in the photos is 4MM. I use a standard yardstick for the spar, plus a 19.5" long piece at the center of the other yardstick. I make three "hard" points to support the three 1/4-20NC steel bolts that hold the two aluminum angles for the booms, and the central 1" square aluminum tubing that is the fuselage. The "hard points" are made from 3/8" aircraft plywood, contain a 1/4"-20NC blind nut, and are epoxied to the yardstick spar. The dimensions of the wing are very close to those of one on Spadtothebone. I just cannot recall the name of the model. You can search here for all my posts on this Twin Tail Spad. It actually started as a Pusher/Puller using two .28 two cycle engines.

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

I'm wanting to do this servo install but don't want to cut the ears off the servos.

Villa

Hi JoelStolarski
Then do not cut off the ears. I did not cut them off at the beginning. The hatch just has to be a little bigger in the direction of the wing chord if the ears are left on.

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

Ok.
I'm getting the concept to do this., and have been looking at the
pictures to figure out at whatt point in the wing build
to do the servo install.
I am real close to starting to finish the wing and I did make some mistakes along the way, so
I will probably do the wing starting Thursday
I like the pictures since I'm more visual oriented.
Makes learning some things difficult though.

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

Did a practice one todaay so hopefully the 4mil wing will not have twist
with the Futaba S3010 that are for the ailerons.

Villa

I can understand others believing that my method of holding the servo in place is very flimsy. I believe when I started with this procedure I was using two plastic tie wraps per servo plus the CA glue. Through normal evolution I now only use one plastic tie, plus the CA glue. I have had many minor crashes, such as cartwheels, landing up side down, etc, and I do not recall a servo ever getting lose. In severe crashes, where the wing also gets severely damaged, one or more servos has gotten lose. The key is to use the CA glue to prevent the servo from sliding out of position on the Coroplast, and the tie wrap to preventing the glue joint from breaking. Both are needed. This is a common practice in light weight or low cost designs.

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

I used a dowel that I shaved down, then cut some grooves to
use a fishing knot and ca glued the fishing thread to the dowel
to be able to pull the dowel out to chage servos or service them.

Villa

Hi JoelStolarski
I notice you are using a steel screw-on clevis on each end of the control rod. It would be best if you use Loctite on one of the clevises so that the rod cannot turn and possibly get lose. Some people will add a nut to jam the clevis. I always use a Z-bend on one end. I'm to cheap to use two clevises. When is the maiden?

MrGreenSpeed

I agree red loctite or a jam nut on each end.
I now use a jam nut or loctite even if the control rod has a Z bend at one end.
I had a clevis stripped out the threads and pulled out from slight movement or vibrations, it didn't have the jam nut or loctite on it.
It was a thrilling DirtNap, it ( PBF ) just missed Me and hit My winter beater car.
Now they all get the treatment.

Better safe than sorry.
Jeff [8D]

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

I ca'd the clevises, I'm still checking and rechecking, cleaning blood stains and ink markings, maiden is close and I'm getting nervous.

Flying rc helis makes you very anal retentive about setup.

Still, no matter how careful you are there are so many things that can go wrong that
you can become so setup oriented that you are scared to go flying.

I had a very knowledgable and experienced rc heli flier that was also a helicopter
pilot in the army that taught me everything about setting up rc helis.
He spent hours with me, showing me how to setup a heli.
One day we took the Sceadu 50 out for a flight and we had spent along time on the Sceadu
and he said wow, this thing is perfect.
He wanted me to use a higher headspeed than I was used to or thought was a good idea.
But since he was the expert and I was the student I deferred to his judgement.
(I work, when I am working, in a dangerous trade and the exposure to dangerous spinning objects is
so extreme that if you think too much about the danger you would not be able to function.)
I have a high tolerance for danger in other words.

First time I have ever seen a heli main blade blow apart like this, it would have been
a fantastic youtube video if we had been filming it.
One blade flew 50 feet at least so fast that you could not see it, if anyone had been at the level the blade was flying
then it most likely had enough velocity to penetrate a skull.

Cause of failure, I forgot to ca the 2 main blade grips.
Correction : The grip that attaches to the wood blade itself has to be ca'd.
You don't ca the main blade holders, those have to be loose so that when the headspeed goes
up the blades have to be free moving so that they can straighten out.
And here to0, is a common cause of failure, the grips can't be too loose nor
can they be too tight. Takes quite a while to learn helis is all I can say about that !!!!!!!!!




The heli was done. Hirobos are real expensive to fix, I think my repair estimate in parts needed was about $300. The kits were $300 at the time but I
decided to abandon Hirobo and got A Century Hawk.

MrGreenSpeed

Do You have any pics or videos of Your choppers in action.
I'm glad no one was hurt when that main blade blew apart it must have bin scary & expensive at the same time.[X(]

I'm glad You have experience with Heli setup, some times it's hard to tell how much R/C experience new Spadders have, so I tend to give as much safety advice as I can, which can also help others reading the post that may not have that knowledge.

I admire people with the skill to fly R/C copters, one day I hope to be able to try My hand with a Heli.
I can set up, hover & do 3D stunts with a few of My Spads unfortunately at this point they are all I can afford .

I have no trouble flying 3D Heli on a flight sim but I know that's worlds away from the real thing.
I do use a lot of Heli engines on My Spads though the carbs are much more superior to the airplane versions of the same engine.

Jeff

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

I was missing the helis, so much and I got lucky a few weeks back,
traded a xbox system for a little trex 450.
so far I have flown it twice and by the end of the 2nd flight my hands were shaking so bad that I
had to stop.

Same with the first start up of the spad.
I flipped the prop about an hour and yesterday my arm
was so sore from flipping that I couldn't do much until it loosened up.
I posted the video and it's on my build thread.

My hands were shaking after running the spad,
not really from fear, but from the loudness, happiness of getting it started and running, your hands shake,
I know mine were, and when you see the video that my daughter filmed, her hands were shaking too !

PatrickCurry

My Feedback: (20)

Hey Joel, I like how you added the string so you could retrieve your dowels to open the hatches.  Maybe drill and tap a 2-56 hole in the end of the dowel, CA it to harden it and then you could screw a 2-56 rod up in there to pull them out and you wouldn't have the string hanging out.  But a great idea, though!  Looking forward to trying this "in the wing" deal.  

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

I just saw your reply here Patrick.

I updated my regular thread.

2 flights on the spadstick. I went alone to the big field, and finally the wind died down around 2pm
and it was time to fly, no instructor buddy box, and it was a very weird thing flying her.

The left servo in the wing is making some noise. Can't see anything binding but she
was tipping to right real bad. I put a rundown on the days progress on my spadstick thread, so I guess I shouldn't
rehash it here.

The hatchs are working great. i don't see anything loosening and the left servo is making a weird noise, so it will be nice to be able to
pull the dowels and be able to figure out what's wrong with the servo, or replace it, which is easy to do with the hatch.

Villa's hatch idea has been tested on the "Beast" . It looks like a beast and I've got the second take off and landing on an old camcorder, which I
can't find the firewire card and cable to download the video to computer. I had the camcorder sitting on a tripod so it's not much to watch,
but nobody wants to drive down to the big field and the spad need s some runway to take off.
First flight I used a digital camera and the camera card filled up right at first lift off which I couldn't believe, when I got home and watched the video.

PatrickCurry

My Feedback: (20)

Awe dang, too bad. You might have to get you one of those little keychain cameras and mount in on your hat. That works pretty well believe it or not. There's a pretty good thread over on Spadworld discussing the best ones to get. Let's see..... http://spadworld.net/forum/viewtopic...asc&highlight= Try that. ZZRobbie over there has been doing a pretty good job of keeping all the different ones separate. Mine was $8 plus $7 shipping from somewhere in Hong Kong off the Bay and it does a pretty good job when I stay in pretty close to it.

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

Damn I forgot to post that the string I used on the dowels broke when I tried to pull the dowel out to check one servo.

That dowel was a little tight, the other looser dowel pulled out ok and the string didn't break but it was close to breaking.