hopkimf

My Feedback: (56)

All,

It's just about ready to fly. Had some things get in the way. The local flying site might work wit a seaplane if you could get to the shore. maybe in a week or two it will dry out. If the pictures come thru, you will see I deviated from scale towards the end. But from a little distance it looks OK. Paint match for cowl and pants was close to Ultracoat with a cheap can of Ace hardware spray enamel. I didn't get the cowl bubbles. Gave up. Also didn't get the wires. Glad it's done. My hardest build to date.

Rarlier I mentioned bifdding on another kit. It turned out to be the Barth Waco. i have it but have not done anything yet.

Regards,
Mike H

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Sure looks good Mike. Be sure to give us a flight report.

hopkimf

My Feedback: (56)

Still almost done. I should have made a layout of the aileron motion. I made brackets to hold ball links. The balls are offset about a half inch from mounting surface. So for the lower aileron, the line from the hinge to the ball is not the same as the corresponding line on the upper aileron. Just eyeballing, I attached ball joints for upper and lower. I had too much motion on uppers. So I had to flip some brackets around to get the throws equal. Once I get that done, get the right battery installed and balance, it will be ready to go. I'm going to drag it outside and try to get a few decent photos.

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Mike,

I have some suggestions for you based on my experience with my Waco. If you place the aileron interlink points equal distance from the trailing edge of the fuselage you find that the upper aileron will travel farther in both directions than the lower aileron. The first photo shows the upper left aileron and the second photo shows the lower left aileron. What I dis was to reduce the travel of the upper aileron to match the lower aileron.

Here is a quote of mine from page 52 post #1280:

quote:

ORIGINAL: Big_Bird
"Due to the fact that the ailerons do not have enough travel the plane rolls very slow. I have just put a lot of differential throw in the ailerons. About twice as much up as down. I'll try this out this coming weekend. The last photos show this throw.

I finally had the chance to fly the Waco today with a lot of aileron differential. The plane rolls at least twice as fast and no longer has the little wobble in a roll. Try it, I'm sure you will like it. I'm now completely satisfied with how it flies and I'm pretty picky. It does a great inverted flat spin and quickly comes out of it as soon as I'm ready."

Mike if you set up differential aileron (more up than down) throw you will find that the Waco will do really nice axial rolls. Of course it takes two different linked channels to do this.

hopkimf

My Feedback: (56)

Ken,

Thanks for the tips. I see from the photos how you handled it. I'm going to get a similar result since I made brackets with the ball link at one end. By flipping them end for end and left and right, I should be able to reduce the throw on uppers, and adjust as needed with transmitter.

Thanks,
Mike H

hopkimf

My Feedback: (56)

Couple more photos. It balanced at 0.30 of the combined width of upper and lower wings. No weights. Is this about the CG to use here?

Thanks,
Mike Hopkins

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Mike, that is a very good looking plane. I balanced mine where the plans showed.

hopkimf

My Feedback: (56)

Ken,

I'll check there. With all the little plan errors, I thought that might be wrong too.

Did you need to make any CG adjustments once you flew it?

Thanks,
Mike Hopkins

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

No I didn't. Jim's CG location seemed to be close enough. I'm using a G-62 with Jump Start and I didn't need to add any balance weight. When do you plan to fly it? It has no bad habits, just don't get it too slow on landing.

WacoNut

Mike your Waco looks great, you definetly need to give yourself a well desrved pat on the back[8D]
Anthony

hopkimf

My Feedback: (56)

Hi Anthony,

Don't look too closely. I deviated from scale by leaving a bunch of stuff off. Like the aileron corrugations. I didn't re do the aileron section to make it lay down. Ignored flying wires. Went with rear cockpit only. Lots of not to scale stuff. But from a distance it should be adequate. And it's built! I will be flying it soon. As a full scale pilot, I thought RC would be a piece of cake, but over the years I've trashed more than my share. I'm going to be careful on this one. Have you had yours up yet?

I still have the Barth in the box. I admit I bought it without really knowing what I was getting. But it seems to be all there, and the price was pretty good. Getting it built and going will take some time. It makes me think I'm really in the big leagues with something like that. I've never gone beyond 1/4 scale so far.

Regards,
Mike Hopkins

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Hi guys,

We had a ball yesterday at the Dallas RC Big Bird flyin. The only plane I took was the Waco. A friend shot some photos and I thought you might like to see them. It was pretty cloudy but no rain.

RICKSTUBBZ

Ken,

She still looks good. Some nice shots there. Will you be bringing it south for Bomber Field again this year?

Did you ever find what was causing the engine problems and/or the debris across the spark plug?

Ekim

My Feedback: (1)

Nice photos Ken.

I'm building the Peter Barth 1/4 scale and I'm kind of curious what you and other Pepino flyers are using for servos. I'm not sure I see a need for digitals on this airplane. I have some Hi Tech 645MG's. Maybe a pair of them would be okay for the elevators but not sure about rudder & ailerons. My radio is a JR X9303 (2.4 GhZ) and I'm thinking maybe I should just stick with all JR servos.

Again Ken, very nice looking airplane.

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Rick,

I don't know if I'll bring that one or another one. I have reconfigured the trailer to haul the big Super Decathlon and I can't get another big bird in it. I can only haul one big bird in the truck.

I came to the conclusion, right or wrong, that the carbon cat whisker across the spark plug tip was being caused by the Amsoil Dominator oil (40:1) that I was using. After I got back from Bomber Field I changed to Mercury Marine Quicksilver Premium 2-cycle outboard oil @ 40:1. I've done a lot of flying since then and have not experienced the cat whisker problem. On the back of the bottle it says that it is also for air cooled engines. A good friend, Jim, with the big Spacewalker has been using it for years and never had a bit of problems.

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Mike, the 645MG will work just fine if your JR radio likes them. I used 5 of them for the flying surfaces and 3 smaller Hitec servos for the choke, throttle, and kill switch. I'm also running dual 4.8 v 1650 mah NiMH batteries. I don't think your Barth will need any more than that.

Mein Duff

Hey guys new to theWaco bulds and all this excitement...how does one become a Waco  Brotherhood member? any official registrations?
keep up the fabulous machines, they are great aricraft to fly and admire.

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Go over to this thread and PM Stickbuilder. Tell Bill that you would like to join the WACO brotherhood. It's free. Ask him how to do the secret handshake.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_40...tm.htm#8820373

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Had a fun time at Bomber Field. Brought back a little hardware for the Waco.

jfassino

Can someone tell me how tall this airplane is so I know if it will fit in my Buick Enclave. I have about 31 inches of head room. My 88 inch Yak fits fine but this looks much taller.

I have enjoyed the thread but did not see this measurement listed. Thanks,

Jim

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Jim I just measured mine and it is 23" to the top of the front cabane strut. My top wing is one piece and only bolts on at the field.

jfassino

Ken,

Thanks for the information, looks like I am good to go.

Thanks

Jim

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Indeed it does look like you are good to go Jim. Best of luck and be sure to read all of this thread to avoid the pitfalls.

chuck l

My Feedback: (17)

I'm looking for some advice or comments. I bought a Pepino Waco from another guy that needs to be finished, ie covered, painted and rigged out. It came with a Spehar 4.6 (75cc) twin cylinder engine. The plane was built using the woods called out on the prints, i.e. it's heavy. The Spehar weights about 98oz vs. a DL-50, which weighs around 60oz. These are apples to apples comparisons, engine, mufflers, ignition, and battery. That's almost a 2.5 lb difference, plus the weight needed to balance out the big engine. Can the Waco handle that kind of weight from a wing loading standpoint? I'm leaning toward selling the Spehar and putting the DL50 in it, btw, I have an extra DL50, but it would need a side mount muffler to maintain the prop to firewall distance. The Spehar fits entirely inside the cowl with just the two exhaust pipes hanging out. The cylinder head on the DL50 would be exposed. The twin cylinder sound certainly is nice as is the lack of vibration.

As a side note and a reminder about standing in front of or to the side of propellers, don't do it! I fired up the engine yesterday for the first time and it ran great above about 2000 rpm. Trying to bring the idle below that, the engine just shook like crazy and would die. On the last try, it broke the prop in two and threw the pieces about 30' is each direction, and this was at 2000 rpm. After several phone calls, it appears that one of the two Hall sensors is bad. It runs above 2000 rpm because that is where the ignition module switches to the signal on the good Hall sensor. Below 2000 rpm, the timing is just too advanced.

Chuck

Big_Bird

My Feedback: (1)

Chuck,

It would take me all of 2 seconds to decide to get rid of that Spehar 4.6 and I don't know anything about it. It sounds dangerous.

I run a G62 in mine and it is plenty of power. If it is especially heavy you may need some nose weight but not the Spehar 4.6.