cdrc2004

Not sure who is on this thread these days but here you go anyway...

Had some good flights this weekend. Slowly making my way through scale detailing, borrowing heavily from Destroyer and adding some of my own twists.

Of interest: Tried out a Xoar 20x8x3 prop which really looks great and flies the plane beautifully. Only trouble was being limited to 6 minute flight time. Easy, scale flying left 3.75v in each cell. 2 x 6s 4100mAh batts w/ 80 amp CC HV ESC powering Tiger Motor AT5330-11 (190 KV). WOT produces 3700W pulling 74 amps. Aircraft only needed a few moments of WOT on take off, flies nicely at 1/2 throttle though it weighs 26.4 lbs. Looking into batts with higher mAh to give better duration. Batt compartment is really tight already though so we'll see.

Made my own spinner of balsa I shaped using my drill press like a lathe. I then poured CA over it to create a hard shell. Sanded and painted. Used Zap Goo to adhere spinner to end of prop shaft. The spinner is not perfectly balanced but it's pretty close. Since it's so light, being slightly out didn't make it fly off in mid flight as I thought it might. This is my first time using Zap Goo, I'm told it should be fairly easy to clean off when I near to remove the prop. It seems almost like a flexible caulk. A bit of a pain but worth it to me to have a scale spinner. BTW, since the spinner was easy to make I made a couple so if I end up having to wreck this one to remove it I have another on deck.

Cheers,

Chris

retransit

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For the rest of you guys (I've seen it in person), take a look at what Chris did for the dummy engine. Quite nice!

mackone

Wow it looks great Chris , the radial is a work of art . The big three blades look great , but the are amp hungry . Where did you end up putting your Batts ?
My next thing to fix is the Spinner and the Tail wheel.

Capt G

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are these still available?

cdrc2004

As far as I know they are. http://www.arfpros.com/product.sc?productId=15 Just search "ESM Swordfish" and few sources come up.

cdrc2004

Thanks, Pete. I've ripped off Paul on several things including this tail wheel: http://shop.dubro.com/p/semi-scale-t...-size-aircraft Looks great and works well. I added a few layer of plywood to existing fiberglass hatch, holding up well. Both of my batts are right up against the back of the dummy radial. Again, an idea i borrowed from Paul. Had to cut away a little of very front of the fuse to squeeze the two 6s in there but it's worth it to have the weight all the way up front I think.

Seriously, Paul's ideas on this plane have been a huge help.

Ram-bro

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Capt G, if your looking for one, I have one RTF. I havent been able to get the G38 running

cdrc2004

Had several flights with higher mAh batts and was able to increase flight times from 6 minute to 7.5 minutes. With the 20x8x3 prop and 2x6s 4100mAh set up, easy scale flying for 6 minutes left 3.78v in cells. Switching to 2 5200mAh batts, cells were at 3.77v after 7.5 minutes of flight time. I considered even higher mAh batts but went with these 5200's from Common Sense RC because physically they are nearly identical to my original 4100's. I wanted to avoid carving out even more of the firewall and fuse. The 5200's weigh only .2 oz more so didn't didn't need to rebalance. I'm sticking with this set up.

There was spirited discussion at my LHS and the field about whether specs on these 5200's were true because like I said, physically the 5200's are almost exactly the same as the 4100's. There was a small wager placed as to whether or not the 5200's would really increase flight time because a few guys thought the 5200 specs were bogus. I'm no scientist but my timer does not lie.

It was a good day.

nemesis4u

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Just a heads up...

we have limited supply left...

http://www.vqwarbirds.com/advanced_s...3221d2&x=0&y=0

RickVB

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Gee Tomas, I asked you about this in September, and you said they had been discontinued.

New run? Anything changed? (Besides the price, sheesh.)

RickVB

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Guess it didn't matter what he charged...

Fili

We've been trying to order from VQ...everything we request is "out of stock" anyone have a phone number to this place, or another vendor to get ESM planes?

retransit

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Try here:

http://www.troybuiltmodels.com/items...YSF-85AAF.html

Bob

Fili

Thanks Bob...

RickVB

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So did anyone ever put a IC radial in one of these, or did you all give up and go electric? Looking around, the only one that appears to fit in the cowl is the Evo 35cc. The questions there are a) will it actually fit (7.3" diameter) and b) is it enough engine to fly it (2.2hp rating, 18x8 prop)?

RickVB

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FYI, for anyone else who is as desperate as I was, you can apparently still get them to the US from Singapore Hobby Supply for about the same price shipped (~$975) as you could have from the last couple of US suppliers. Don't ask how I know...

wenel

Hi Rick
Build one for a friend with a Evolution 7 77cc. Was a
a bit of a nightmare. The rockers clear the cowl with about +- 2mm plus you have to move the collector ring infront of the engine witch is a scale location luckily. Taking the cowl of and putting it back is a mission and can be done. At the end was decided to separate the cowl at the bottom for easy fitment. Fitted one of Tys cockpit kits and a 990cc fuel tank that that made the servo tray location interesting.
When that's done there's not much space left for on board glow , throttle and choke servos and receiver. Still need to be maiden.

Will keep you up to date

Greetings

Wian

wenel

Sorry , wrong photo

RickVB

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77cc!! Wow, isn't that a bit much for this plane? Looks really good though. And clearly, the Evo 35cc will fit (and I already knew that for sure since I have one in my possession). In fact, I now fear that the 35cc will be too small to look good.

Do you have pilots in mind for this plane yet?

RickVB

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Then again, there's really no way to do this right with a radial engine, as the cowl is the exhaust manifold...


(Thanks to Retransit for the photos, which are from post #473 on page 19 of this thread.)

wenel

Hi Rick. Dont think its to much.The Evolution 7 77cc put out around 4.8 hp that's
a bit down on a DLE 55 with its 5.5 hp.

Greetings

RickVB

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Yeah... but isn't the DLE-55 too much for this plane also?

wenel

With the DLE 55 you will cruise just above 1/4 throttle but ones you start doing some "aerobatic" maneuvers your going to use pretty much all of the 55cc because of the drag and weight depends on flying style and height above sea level. We decided on the 7 77 because it fitted in the cowl, help with weight in the nose and compared more or less with what was recommended and of course the cool factor :-D

JSZ

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I'm looking for a lower left wing and a spar if anyone has or knows were i can get one. Thanks JZ

RickVB

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So they packed adequately and shipped rapidly, but unfortunately as many of you have already found the factory packing leaves a great deal to be desired. Clearly, the glue they use to anchor the cardboard sections together was lousy, so they come apart and parts bang around inside the box. This didn't get me, but their decision to pack the top wings bottom to bottom caused considerable damage. I have asked for new wings, but I have little hope given the situation that that will pan out. Has anyone repaired these wings, and if so what color covering/paint matched the silver?