Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

To Nitro tech support:

Gentlemen I have purchased the Tucano 120 and am in process of assembling/building. The stab as molded in the fuse is 5 degrees positive incidence (5 degrees "up" stab and elevator). Please check the design specs and verify if this is correct, I can modify if necessary.

Also I was surprised to find the model is retract-ready, which is what I prefer. It might be helpful to others to mention that in the advertising.

When finished I will post a build thread. I look forward to your response.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

I just purchase one of this, waiting for delivery. How is the quality? What retracts are you using?

Cheers,

pisandro

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Pisandro, The quality is standard Nitro, not the best, not the worst. I am using Spring Air retracts with oleo struts. I have the main gears from a mustang that I cut down to size by 3/4". the Mustang gear is 85 degrees which will be vertical on the Tucano due to rake of dihedral. The nose gear has been ordered from spring Air. I actually stopped at Spring Air on my way back from Florida to Atlanta and met with Bill Waddon the owner. I showed him the fiberglass fuse and he agreed that the quality is good. Should get the nose gear this week. I removed all of the covering due to paint peeling from the covering. I have recovered with light gray Ultra Cote.
The Ultra Cote color is close to the pre-finished gray on the fuse but I felt it was not enuf of a match so I am having the fuse repainted by a club member who is in the auto collision/repainting business.

I am going to use a separate servo for the steering of the nose gear and will mount it, as well as the servo for the throttle, forward of the wing tube. I will use a reversing "Y" harness or I will criss-cross the cables if I can. The alternate locations of these servos eliminates the pushrods and wiring running through the fuse cavity where you attach the wing bolts. I could not get my hand into the fuse cavity to insert and tighten the wing bolts with the config suggested. Also I could not tighten the wings sufficiently snug to the fuse with the nylon wing bolts provided, one stripped. I replaced the blind nuts with SAE 1/4-20 and steel bolts-problem solved. I also had to ream the holes in the fuse slightly to accept the wing alignment rods.

You will need to cut a 1/16" deep cavity in the bottom of the flaps to accept the bottom plate of the supplied control horn so that it sits nearly flush with the bottom of the flap. I used a liberal amount of CA to harden the cavity. Also, I could not get the rudder and elevator servos to align with any of the holes in the formers aft of the servos. I opted to install carbon fiber pushrods, one for the rudder and one for the elevator. (I will be joining the two halves of the elevs). In order to get the pushrod outlets in the rear fuse close to the stab I had to criss-cross the rods by installing the elev servo higher than the rudd servo. I made my own guides for the pushrods. I have Nitro's Extra 500 now three years old and it flies great, but it is a relatively light airplane. The weight of the Tucano gives me some concern. the fuse in not too bad but the wings, ailes, rudd and elevs are heavier balsa than I would prefer. I have had no reply from Nitro regarding the incidence on the stab, so I will assume the design is correct and keep going.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Thank you so much, this will help me a great deal whe is time for me to built mine. I will check the areas you mention. Again thanks, an I will try to post some pictures
when I get mine.

Cheers,

Pisandro

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

I'm leaving for Destin in the morning and will be back next week. I will take some pics after I receive the fuse from the painter. I also did a build thread for the Nitro Extra 500 and posted on the Nitro thread.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Cool, that will be great. Thanks

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Well, I got mine going, first the bulkhead were loose. They came right off. I reglue all of them
The paint was coming off, but no big deal since I was going to paint it any way. Heres some pictures
of the fuse all strip off.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Im trying to get some pictures of the wins of the real plane so I can make some panel lines, Does any onoe have any picture to share? Try Google and no luck[:o]

Thanks in advance,

Pisandro

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Pisandro, Just got back from Sebastian Florida and am told the fuse will be completed (painted) tomorrow. We didn't remove factory paint, we wet-sanded and and re-painted. Good progress on your fuse. I will also try to find panel lines for wings. I have wings, flaps, ailes and rudder recovered-will cover stabs and elevs tomorrow. Received nose gear from Spring Air while I was away but haven't opened package yet.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

What engine are you using on yours? I have os 120, and a tiger 90. The 90 fits well without butchering the cowl. Do you think a 90 will enough?

Cheers

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

I will be using a YS 120, pumped. The cowl has been cut and I will attach a picture of the cowl when received from the painter. I had the 120 in a Dago Red mustang, 65" span with retracts and it was not too much engine, but it was clocked at 135 mph downwind. I'm still a little concerned about the weight of the Tucano as it relates to the wing loading, but I won't know the answer until I find final weight. Also the fact that the stab is designed with 4 to 5 degrees of positive incidence gives me a little pause in that regard.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Embraer may be able to help, try this for info on panel lines:

Embraer Aircraft USA
276 Southwest 34th Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315-3688
(954) 359-3700
The Shorts may not be exactly the same, but who will know.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Thanks will try that, I will go with the OS 120 then. I'm also doing gear doors, and Lado retracts.

Will post some pictures soon.

Thanks again,

Cheers,

Pisandro.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Try this link for the Tucano
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&e...w=1369&bih=841

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Pisandro, here are some progress pictures. Painting is complete and I like it, color matches UltraKote. The mount for the steering servo is 1/4" lite ply, could have been 1/8" to save a little weight. I made it adjustable so I could adjust tension. The split rings on the steering bellcrank are snipped from the ends of springs. The sketches are for different design options. I chose the black bottom with horizontal stripes.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Great work, I'm in the process of making gear doors for it. having a hard time seting up the engine on it since the manual shows a picture but no dimentions. Any help will be appreciated. I will post some pictures tomorrow. Thankyou so much.

Pisandro

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Pisandro, the horizontal centerline for the engine is 5/16" above the centerline of the tank hole and the vertical centerline is 1/8" to the right of the hole.I mounted my engine trusting the centerline for the tank hole and I had to plug the holes and redrill because the cowl didn't line up with the thrust line. so you may want to set your centerlines accordingly. Mount your engine to the motor mounts then place against the firewall and align with the new centerlines.

I'm enclosing more pics. I redesigned the canopy attachment. Don't want to keep removing/installing screws everytime I install the wings. I will attach the canopy at eh rear with 4-40 and blind nuts.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

I don't know why the pictures are so large,they are the same size as previous-640x480

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

You are doing a great Job, I think I will also do the same mod to the canopy, specially since I will go with this cockpit. It looks a bit small but I think it will work, and hey for $38.00 is a hell of a deal!!

Pisandro,

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Pisandro, Where did you get the cockpit set up?

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Here....

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10186203/tm.htm

I got the pilot from them too!!

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Sorry, here is the link.

http://www.proedf.com/index.php?p=6&id=47&cat2=&cat1=&dis=&lang=en&msg=S ession%20Expiried!&s=

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Pisandro, what is the weight of your cockpit and pilots?

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

175 gms.......not bad.

RE: Shorts Tucano T1-120
 

Pisandro, I have been working on the cockpit. I cut the pieces from 1" Terrain foam with a foam cutter using web photos as a guide. I'ts not accurate but OK for sport scale. I decided not to put in pilots. Weight sans canopy is 3.8 oz or 108 grams. Here are some pics.