mustangman177

Clean and others

What are the dimensions of the PVC you are using on your USS ? When I built my first one, I used 3 1/2" PVC fence post cover obtained from Lowe's. Since then I have not been able to find this dimension at any "box store". Has been replaced with 4".

I like to build my fuses out of PVC entirely with lightening holes made. Makes for a stronger, more rigid fuse.

Not sure what the weight addition would be with 4" over 3 1/2". Probably minimal if made with the lightening holes.

Cary

Clean

That's what I'm using, it's all I could find. The inside is made to fit over a 4x4 (3.5x3.5) so I figured that's what they meant. Anyways, thats what I'm using.

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

I drilled big holes in mine.
In looking at my build notes I have 1030 grams or 2 pounds 4.3 ounces as the fuselage weight.
Can't remember what was in the fuselage at that point, and my notes are sparse, but I believe this
was the weight of the fuselage and the former only which would have had the holes drilled.
I used a 3" or 76 mm sized hole saw and when I take the gear off I'll see how many
holes I drilled. I didn't drill out too close to the motor mount, i think I went back 2" or more.
Only drilled on the vertical sides, both sides.
i left the whole former intact, where Kraut cuts a angle out of his I chose not to and I'm glad I didn't cut the angle
out of the top because that area I have glued a wood block to and it has made the wing have alot to hold onto.


I just weighed the other 11" x 4" piece pvc former I have cut for the next build.
This is the weight with no holes drilled in it, 537 grams or 1 lb 2.9 ounces.

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

Here's the gear picture twisted a little.
I've got another piece of the same aluminum
that I could use for the time being.
Any physics guys here that could calculate an attchment point for
a brace.
I've got lots of places to attach a brace so where to attach.
or altenately maybe some welded gussets on the gear, how about some ideas?

PatrickCurry

My Feedback: (20)

Hey Joel, seeing that photo gave me an idea that may have been used before, I don't know.  You know how people zip-tie bamboo skewers along the length of a pushrod to keep them flexing.....  I wonder if you got some light wood, maybe shoe molding or even pieces of yardstick and thread-wrapped it and CA'd it to your gear.... I wonder if that would keep it from bending.  I mean a really doinked landing might snap the wood, but with the two laminated together it would be pretty strong.  Or maybe even use a carbon fiber arrow shaft and just put it down the length of the gear.... spray paint over it and no one would know the difference.  What do you think of that Clean, do you think that would strengthen the gear sufficiently without much of a weight penalty?  Or would that make it *too* rigid and prone to constant damage?

PatrickCurry

My Feedback: (20)

Oh yeah, I'm afraid if you go with bracing attached into the fuse Joel and you doink that, you could possibly do some pretty serious damage to your fuse.  I am ignorant about these large birds though, I have to admit, so I'm not sure what would work or not.  [8D]

spaceworm

I would go for a wider piece of aluminum for the gear if you can't get higher strength material. 6061 -T6 or 2024 alloy would be better. I get mine at a local salvage yard, but some is marked for type and some not. Another thought is to laminate two thickness of the aluminum you have. Another thought is to lay up a fibreglass gear or cover your aluminum gear with glass cloth and epoxy resin.

You could run a piece of music wire from the lower ends of the gear in an angle up towards the center and then put a fairly heavy spring from that top vee point to the center of the fuse. That would give some shock absorbing and added strength to the gear.

Another SPADDER used a half of a bicycle rim to make a landing gear. A half of a 20 inch rim would give you 10 inch plus one half of the tire diameter clearance to the ground for prop clearance. The rim is designed for light weight with strngth and shouild work good. An aluminum rim would be lighter than steel.

I attach my gear to my fuse with nylon bolts into captive nuts. That way, I shear the nylon bolts on a hard landing instead of bending the gear or ripping out the fuse.

Good luck.

Sincerely, Richard

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

The laminate idea or carbon brace sounds good guys.
I really like to buy the darn landing gear but I am too stubborn or too dumb and like to figure
something out like this, and I have the spare piece so I am still in a mode to try innovations and
stimulate my brain to think harder than it is used to thinking,
if anybody can understand that.



I am missing flying my beast so I better get her fixed.

Had my first engine die in-flight on the nexstar. lIKE FOR A SECOND I STOOD THERE MOUTH OPEN AND LIKE YOUR BRAIN JUST
DON'T WANT TO RESPOND, FUNNY STUFF !!!!!!
Good thing she glides for what seemd like an eternity.

Almost knocked the tripod over that was holding a new
camera that I was trying to see if I liked since it's been taking a while to find a point and shoot that takes good pictures.
I didn't freak out like usual so that was a good thing, but it decided to stall at takeoff.
So I have been doing takeoffs straight up and gaining altitude before I do turns but she wasn't high up really.
But !!!!!!!!!!!! SHE WAS OVER THE PLOWED AREA WHERE THE STIK HIT DAMN NEAR SAME SPOT, IT'S LIKE A BERMUDA TRIANGLE THAT SPOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Phew, I got her turned around to land and then the kicker is she starts gliding and gliding and it's like i can't get the son of a gun down and shes gliding
towards the lake.

Got her down right at the edge of the runway and that was about 50 feet away from the water.

Clean

Amazing how a little headwind can shorten a glide path/takeoff path.

It does just the opposite when you're going downwind!

joeskeeter

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Tried out a camera panaorama

spaceworm

Kool. I just found that my new cellphone has this feature. Have to try it out!

Sincerely, Richard

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

Thanks.

got the gear off the spad so I'm gonna try and hunt a welder down and use some of the old gear to
reinforce the new gear.

Got to mow the field again.

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

Knocked out a gear and put it on.
I sat and tried to figure out some kind of brace and then tried
to get one of the old welders fired up, but
the welder wasn't cooperating and then the
batteries went out on my welding hood, so I had enough.
Drilled holes screwed it together went with a small piece of aluminum brace.
I got to thinking about a wood gear and making it oval cross section, but can't afford to buy all the stuff right now, so back to
scavenging or using what's on hand.

PatrickCurry

My Feedback: (20)

Looks real nice Joel!  That should hold up to all but an actual CRASH landing. :-)  Looks like you've got some toe-out in your wheels though, you might want to check that and angle them inward a bit.  Fly that bad boy!

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

Patrick I think your right on the toe out.
I put the wheels on and might have to sdjust.
I reread some posts and I think it woulsd be good to
start on a gear with the principle you mentioned on a stable rod down the length of the gear strut.
I wqant to order some of the carbon fiber sheet, checked prices and the stuff is not cheap.
And I have to get the resin and hardener so cheapest I found was on ebay a good sized sheet and the resin and hardenber fo around $30.
Would like to not waste it so I think I'll get some ideas and a design first before just going ahead like usual where I
just do stuff haphazard and hope it turns out.
Been through alot of wood and metal doing things that way.


Been fixing vs flying did alot of patches last night on the Nexstar, learning how to work the ultracote.
Used a regular iron at wool setting and that stuff is great.
It sticks real good, you can shrink it stretch it curve it.
fixed the sport stik,had alot of wood to repair and then had to patch it.
Using non acetone nail remover to clean the old fuel and wood and I'm getting good adhesion, had the stuff
on hand, so tried it. Would have preferred to get some of the special cleanr for balsa but budget is a little tight.

I bought a Arrow trainer that should be here monday, probably should not have spent the money but it took a long time to find
one and this one is never flown still in the box. It's a few years old so hoping the wood it's still ok.

Got to learn how to slow the planes down at landing, otherwise I'm gonna have more fixing than flying days.

joeskeeter

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Bad crash with the "Beast".

PatrickCurry

My Feedback: (20)

Uh oh.... give us the scoop.  You weren't trying to fly in too much wind were you?

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

There was a little wind, but real light.
She's heavy and seemed like the motor just wasn't pulling good.

Split fuselage and motor got full of dirt.
took the motoraprt a little to clean and the carb off and I think i've got it clean.
There is a little play on the connecting rod to the piston don't know if it's normal.
got to film it and then somebody can look at the video to diagnose.

She's fixable and I'm going to have to see if i can remove some weight somehow.
Wings ok servos all that ok.

I flew the nexstar after the crash and finally got a couple of super smooth landings done so that's getting better.

II went to fly saturday and I guess I been brooding over the spad, and forgot to bring my radio.

So I shot a bunch of pictures to do a panorama of the field,
I tried loading the raw panorama into realflight and the field isn't showing up.
Posted a help thread in the rc simulator section here on rcuniverse and I'm stumped.
I've got enough photos to get the 360 x180 but can't seem to get the stiching programs to produce the
panorama because they get bogged down when I use the pictures that have alot of sky in them.
I've got about 600 shots if anyone want's I can email the folder .

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

I took a little time to figure a repair on the fuselage.


I was in Las Vegas last week to take a turbine class so that
was the high point of the last few weeks.

Clean

Gotta start bolting the big pieces together on mine.

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

That looks nice.
Red looks nice, I just can't see the orientation too well with the red.
my brown wing is even worse.

Clean

I see red and white or red and Yellow fairly well. I have a buddy that only can see Orange and Black. Every one is different. I actually prefer the Red and Yellow, my two favorite colors, and see them better BUT they didn't have any yellow the day I bought the coro and all of my sticks except one were Red and Whitee.

joeskeeter

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So did some fuselage repair and some screws and glue and although the coro is split she's tight
at the split.

Gonna straighten the gear.

I'll put a 5hp lawnmower engine on it load it with some c4 and fly it into the lake.

Then since I was on a repair binge manic episode go to find the spark plug that has the adaptor ring on it, so
it fits the hole and I can't find the spark plug.

3 hours searching and I can't find the plug.

so I cut the field wednesday flew the nexstar and 2 deadstick landings, motor cuts out at low idle.
set the idle and she was running good a little rich lots of fuel spraying out the pipe.

Can't get the OS fx 46 to idle and now she's stalling.

Put new oring in the low speed needle cleaned the fuel tank and replaced the rubber stopper, and new fuel lines, new glow plug #8 os,
and then go to fly Friday and can't get the pos to run now.

flew about maybe half tank and then stall.

Need tip on cleaning carbon off piston tried seafoam and it didn't dissolve aANY OF THE CARBON !!!


I'm King of the deadstick landings now.


Help, seems like more fixing then flying.

joeskeeter

My Feedback: (4)

Repaired fuselage, cleaned carb checked diaphraghm and made some new gaskets.
Found sparkplug in socket.