Libertarian

I think it was Big Bird who suggested using Great Stuff foaming insulation inside the fuse for added strength and crash resistance. He claimed it was only about .2 oz I think. I've got a crunched fuse I may use a can on to get a weight/strength idea as an experiment.

Matt at Red Rocket Hobbies said yesterday that they use styro-safe epoxy glue to glue popsicle sticks inside for added strength. It's about $14 for the glue at Red Rocket he said.

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

Libertarian,
Thanks for the tip on the sheeting. Do you think heating it would help to form it to the wing easier?

Hey are you on the other site, under an alias?

Big Bird

Marsh Man, I'd love to try the flaps if you can tell me what to buy or sell me some or give me some. I'll add those and the droops on the front and maybe be able to fly this thing.

Big Bird

My experience has been that anything wooden behind the firewall snaps just like the plastic firewall. I think filling with foam is the best way to go. It adds a little weight so you'll need to check your CG and maybe add a little something at the back before flying afterward but at least it'll keep your fuse from crumpling. See my post 7-26 on page 8

Airchief

Thanks BB.
Would you happen to have any picts of your bird and the foam?

I Think i will try pop sticts to beef up the very front and see how it goes. I fly over a bean field so there is quite a bit of cushin, but i will keep your idea in mind. Can you get great stuff at like lowes or home depot or ace?

Thank you
Brandon

Big Bird

I got my Great Stuff at Home Depot. I expect it's at Lowe's and Ace too. I also used it to fill behind the firewall of my J3 Cub and Super Decathalon. It didn't seem to change the balance at all on them.

mustangfly

I've decided to get ride of my P51 Mustang after I crashed it. The fuselage is broken, but the electronics are still FULLY FUNCTIONAL. I am selling the 480 Motor, Servo, and RX (SR-327LT) CH 6. If anyone needs these parts, you can buy it from me rather than horizonhobby.com which is selling all 3 items for $46+ USD and does not include s/h. AGAIN, ALL 3 ITEMS have been tested and is FULLY FUNCTIONAL. You can email me with any questions.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MESE%3AIT&rd=1

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

Hey,
The Stang on Hobby Lobby's site is similar to PZ's, and it's running a 10 x7 4 blade prop.(part # FS400 $5.00)
Hmmmmmmmmmm, maybe I'll hack one into my Mega version.
It's a Mustang for goodness sake, gotta have a 4 blade.

Libertarian

COOL! Seems like a must have! Maybe I can use one of these broken prop hubs after all?Let us know how it works out.
R~

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

I have them coming. Working out the specs on Motocalc now.

Hey anybody know the wing area spec?

Libertarian

Yeah I'm on that other site as racracer (my normal moniker) as I also race dirt track cars (the real ones) when I have a pit crew, something RCs don't need.

I am pretty sure you'd never get this stuff (clear laminate) to stay workable and from sticking to itself if you tried heating it before you ever got a chance to apply it. Good part is you'd probably be able to get it back off if you muffed the first application since the glue'd be softer.

Libertarian

Man I thought I was a better soldierer than that. Guess I'm out of practice. Musta taken me 4 hours assorted soldering! Those little Deans backside tabs weren't much to soldier to. Had to switch plugs with both batts, the ESC, the Swallow (LIPO, NiMH) charger wires as well as substituting a lighter plug for the alligator clips on the charger. Got the new fuse today and have lots of spare everything. Trying to incorporate, perfect or invent all the new new bullettproofing mods for the plane as I build her from the ground up. You'll see pix in a day or two. [>:]
Richard

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

I'll see what happens with the laminate.
Hey I'm a dirt tracker from way back. Uncle ran modifieds in the 60's 70's. Think 40's ford coupes. I ran late models and sprints. Musta been where I got the ideas for high powered bird. 700+ horse power in a 1200 pound chassis, and they had a wings on them. Man it was ugly when they flew though.[X(]

The Marsh Man

Yeah those Deans can be tricky (Especially when you got them there old mans eyes like me). I don't know if this will help you, since I do not really know how good you are at soldering. The way that works the best for me on soldering these guys is as follows.
Make sure you have a good variable soldering iron, the one that I have is adjustable and costs about $200.00 but you can get one at Radio Shack that can be set for 25 or 40 watts. But if you have a single setting iron thats OK too.
First, you should have some flux past, take the wire that is already stripped to length or a little longer, and either put some flux on it or dip it into the flux if it is in a can. With the heated iron, place some solder on the tip till you get a little ball, if it falls off, just do it a little less next time. Then take the tip with the solder and place it against the fluxed wire tip. It should smoke a little and when the wire heats up, you should see it sucking the solder into the strands. Add more solder as needed without over doing it, you should still be able to see the detail of the wire strands without any gobs of solder. If you do get too much, just heat it up and whip the wire in a safe direction to dislodge any excess solder. After tinning the wire, put it off to the side and get your Dean plug and place it in a secure clamp. I use a pair of vise grip set so that they firmly, but not too tightly, hold the Dean plug for the blade that I want to solder.
Take some little bit of flux and put it on the face of the blade that you are going to attach the wire to. Put solder on the tip again like you did for the wire and place it on the blade of the Dean plug where you want to solder to. At first the solder will just sit on the tip, try to touch the solder to the blade, and when it warms up you will see the solder spread onto the blade. The blade has now been tinned and will accept more solder as you need it. I usually like to put a little ball of solder on the blade for when we introduce the wire. Let everything cool down a bit and wipe the soldered parts off with a damp cloth.
When you are ready, take the pre-tinned wire, put just a little bit of flux on it. Take the soldering iron and warm up the solder on the Deans plug until it liquefies, then remove the solder iron and place the wire on top of the blade while putting the tip of the soldering iron onto the wire. When the wire heats up enough it will drop down into the solder and become one with the blade. The solder will no longer be separate and will all flow together. When this happens, remove the soldering iron and hold the wire steady until it cools enough and becomes solid again. Don't forget to place the shrink insulation onto the wire before solder the two parts together and make sure it is far enough away from the soldering point to prevent premature shrinkage. After the solder hardens and it has cooled a little, slide the insulation onto the new joint and use your soldering iron or a heat gun if you have one, to cover and shrink the insulation over your new joint. Flip it over and repeat for the other conductor.
Try this out and see if it helps, I find that this gives consistent and good looking solid soldering joints.
I hope that you find this useful.
Steve

Libertarian

Hey GG, MY uncle during the 1960's raced dirt track in those old cars too! My dad's fav cars were those old 40's Fords. I'm a Chevy man myself. Sounds like a helluva serious plane with that HP! YOU flew that?

Libertarian

Thanks MM for all the tips. This is gonna sound stupid but I've never used flux while soldering, just the soldier wire. I did it pretty much as you described except (including vise grips); what does wiping the soldered parts off with a damp cloth do, after tinning them?

The Marsh Man

The flux helps to prepare the surface, it etches the metal slightly and makes the solder stick better to the surface. Most solder has a flux core to deliver flux to the area to be soldered. But adding flux to a larger area ensures that the flux has contacted the soldered area so that the solder adheres better and is drawn to the fluxed area.
The reason for wiping, is that if flux has been used, either by adding flux or using a flux core solder, there is typically some flux residue around the solder joint or connection. Wiping removes any burnt debris and prevents or limits corrosion at the soldered area.
You can use a dry cloth, but I like to use a slightly damp one.
If you solder without the use of flux you would then not have to wipe unless you noticed and junk on the solder joint, (Oil or other things on the wire when heated may burn and leave pock marks on the solder).
I hope this helps,

I am sending the stuff today, let me know when you get them.

Libertarian

Thanks MM. I noticed if I burn the soldier brown it looks like that, "gonna turn rusty" stuff I've seen before on my soldier jobs. Putting it all together tonight. Pix manana.

Richard

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

This is just like what I "flew".
When they lift off it gets really messy.

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

A note to anyone doing any mods to the wing on your stang.
DO NOT use ZAP on the inner foam skeleton. I tried last night to use the center portion of it to hold the landing gear servo. I figured ZAP would work to hold it in place.
WRONG!!!!! It melted it like you held a blow torch to it. Deformed the bottom half of the wing slightly too.[:@]
Going to try and cut melted mess out today, and reattach with CA like I did on Frankenstein.

Also servo reducer worked great. Slows down the gear in up and down rotations. Looks much more authentic.

sjchmura

THinking of Lipo (2100mAH 3cell upgrade)...

Are there any video footage on the web showing the speed /climb differnece between stock batteries and the lipo??

The lipo 3 cell pack is 1/2oz lighter too

I just got my new charger that also does lipos (5-10cell NIMH, Lipo 1-5 cells, lead acvid etc) from Hitech+ac adapter so I am good to go. Longer flight times and more power would be great.

On the stock motor+lipos will there be large increase in flight times? Right now I am getting about 6-8 minutes on the stock stuff.

Finally would sticking a brushless in the nose with Lipo = destroyed electronics??

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

I believe LostSoul has vids of his on lipo power.
As for brushless with stock componets, won't work, you'll need a brushless Esc to run the motor, which means a complete electronics change.

L0stS0ul

My video is of my corsair with the lipo. I think [link=http://www.rcgroups.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=31933&cat=500]miklos[/link] has a video of his brushless conversion with lipos and the other video is of the stock plane on lipos (and his crash ). I know there are some other videos out there of the stock one on lipos. Can't find them right now though.

The plane flies amazing on lipos. there is a definite power increase and hand launching issues go away with the stock setup on lipos. It definitally is much better. I still fly mine on the stock nimh packs though. I use my lipos in the corsair. Gives me more airtime with my 2 favorite planes

[link=http://www.rcgroups.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=31933&cat=500]if it was not clear before you can get to miklos videos by clicking here [/link]

Libertarian

Sweet Sprint car. I'd love to try one of those someday!

So I reassembled the Mustang (see pix) with a new fuse, prop and cowl. These pix show the selector switch a la' the Myklos conversion and a little rubber band idea I had to pull the dean plugs and longer wire back into the fuse that I used when I installed the deans. They also show how I beefed up a fold I had in my wing using some styrofoam from an electric flying UFO (from Raidentech) that my dog got a hold of (guess it blew off the roof finally). I put sections of it in front and behind the main wing spar directly under the crease that was allowing the wing to fold to a V under high loads. Note here how I elongated the prongs that hold the back of the wing inside the fuse using folded up coat hangar wire glued inside the scoop.

After I had it all put back together I noticed that one half of the prop had just fallen off![X(] This was the prop that made it thru several really bad crashes (including a 100' lawn dart dive when the motor cut out in a climb). After a later crash I noticed the plane buzzing strangely as I flew over myself. Upon landing I noticed it was bent, so I straightened it but didn't reuse it. I only bolted it on and it fell apart. Imagine if I'd been able to launch it before it fell apaprt?!

In my haste to try her out yesterday I overlooked the left aileron being in the up position (slightly) and when I launched it made a quick left arch and pronged on the nose after 15 feet, [:@] I'm also wondering if the styro-patch inside the left side of the wing added enough weight to contribute to the left roll.
Now I only have 1 more extra cowl and I'm on my last prop. After slightly buckling the new fuse I decided I'm gonna try Big Bird's idea so I filled the fuse with Great Stuff last night (only between the battery box and the firewall), mainly 'cause I wanted to see if it'd straighten out the wrinkles, not so much to keep it bulletproof.

I sent my old battered bird to Hobbyzone today to see if they'll give me a new one also.

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

To any one considering the addition of retractible landing gear.
I stumbled upon a company making liteweight air retract system that will work.
Will save you the time and hassle of making up rods to clear the gear in the retacted position.
Weighs aprox 3 oz. for the whole system. May have to go out and buy another wing.
If you 're intersested in it let me know and I'll find the info for you.