LADDIE

I am using two sets of 3S2P Thunder Power 4200mA Lipos in series. That gives me 10 minutes or more of aggressive flying. There is more then enough room for servos and the batteries under the canopy hatch.

Strykaas

Mhhh indeed, lots of $$$ in the batts...

Strykaas

So you have a very long battery cable running inside the fuse then onto the engine pod. Must be "heavy" copper cable. No issue with Rx ? Wasn't reception quality affected ?

LADDIE

So far I have no issues with the reception. I twisted #13 wires all the way to the nacelle. I tried to separate the battery wires from servo wires as much as I could inside the fuselage, but once the wires entered the nacelle there was no way to keep them apart. Originally the antenna was going to be inside the fuselage, but I decided to attach it to the wing tip.

Strykaas

In my humble opinion, there is no real need to isolate Lipo wires from servo wires... but it is vitally important to do it with the rx antenna.... I would follow the same route, run the antenna inside the wing towards the wing tip· Try to get a video of it

LADDIE

For modelers who want to convert glow powered N/S to electric I am enclosing the two sketches I used to do conversion.

Strykaas

Thx [sm=thumbup.gif]

John Hawkins

My Feedback: (2)

Sketch combined. Hope you don't mind Laddie.

LADDIE

Thank you. Only problem with that is that when it is printed you do not get full size parts as when printing separate sketches.

John Hawkins

My Feedback: (2)

Right you are. Scaling for print is always a pain. In Photoshop and in the print function of XP the drawings show up very distorted. Apparently this is caused by a pixel aspect ratio correction, which is new to me. Prints OK in ACDSee though. Hope I haven't confused the issue.

lowflyers

hi there i just wounderd if any one noes the average weight of the north star coverd in cloth and paint mine came in at 8 poundes 4 onces just wounderd it that was to heavy

John Hawkins

My Feedback: (2)

I don't know how that would stack up against other cloth and paint models but most "stock" jobs end up at the seven pound and a bit under under range IIRC. There's lots of wing area so it should be flyable if the power is there. Fellows change things around moving the engine ahead and lenthening the nose and so on to get rid of ballast and trim weight commonly shedding 12 ~16 ouncs. Performance at seven pounds is pretty good though.

Newc

My last one came in at 6# 9.6 ounces

lowflyers

hi there i just wounderd what motor u had on your north star that came in at 9p.6onces i have y.s 45 on my 8p.4 once north star with no wheels i sure hope it will come off the water

Newc

The Nortstar that is my most recent one - I've built 4 - and that weighs 6# 9.6 oz. uses an Super Tiger G51 with a Mac's muffler. It's the one that's third from the right - camouflage scheme. I also built the orange and yellow one that's second from the right.

lowflyers

hi again i am sorry just trying to here this right your plane weights just over 6 and one half pounds i dont no y mine came out so heavy

Newc

Since the nplane is sitting on my bench right now as I cycle the battery I was able to weigh it again just to be sure that my notes were correct. The weight given earlier is exactly right. My notes also show that it has 1.5 oz. of lead in the nose for balance purposes. One trick I do with the Northstars is before putting the nose on I hollow it out and then pour molten lead in so that the weight is as far forward as is possible.

Following is the content of a note that I sent to a friend that was building a Northstar about a year ago, and maybe this will help you understand how I build them...

"In going through my notes for the build of my latest Northstar, here’s some stuff that I thought that you might find interesting. First of all, the total nose weight is written up as follows “Molten lead poured into nose cavity. Total nose weight – lead plus ¼-20x 1 ¼� bolts to hold nose – along with epoxy – to fuselage is 1.5#� Considerably higher than the 8 ounces mentioned in the manual, eh?

Instead of fiberglassing the bottom I have been using a second layer of balsa epoxied to the bottom sheeting, grain running lengthwise, making a balsa plywood bottom. I’ve found this to be more rigid than fiberglass. See attachments for a couple of pictures of a couple of other mods. The biggest one – most important – is the large triangle stock under the engine nacelle to give support for this area. After the very first flight with my first Northstar – on wheels – I noticed that the engine nacelle and the fin was loose. The fiberglass ‘strengthening’ called for in the plans simply won’t hold up to the abuse that one wants to give these planes – Laddie agreed when I showed him what I was now doing. I also put smaller triangle stock at the junction of the top of the horizontal stab and the fin. You may want to check the rigidity of your nacelle, stab, etc. before flying again. I strongly suggest this mod, even after the building job that someone else did.

I made a lot of other mods during building that are the as a result of earlier builds and my and my brother’s experiences. Since you didn’t do the build they may not mean much to you, but in case you do ever build one or for some reason have problems I’ll list them here so you can consider them for the future and/or for fixes……

Triangle stock on inside between bottom and formers F2, F3 and F4 – for increased strength and rigidity.

Increased sponson depth by ½� to have plane sit higher in the water. Sealed all inside seams and balsa with full strength epoxy for water proofing and strength.

Added 2 ½� to rudder length and added plastic water rudder.

Final phase wing construction 1 – make distance up from bottom 2 7/8� to account for added balsa on bottom.

No fiberglass on bottom or nacelle (as mentioned above).

Servo rails positioned ahead of F3, not behind

Added support for control rod tubes behind F3

Elevator control rod support added in nacelle to eliminate deflection.

Aileron control rod outer tubes extended past fuselage for increased control and reduced control rod deflection.

Exterior support to control rod for rudder, including running outer tube past fuselage for increased control and reduced control rod deflection.

Balsa cover added to rear of nacelle

Fuel tubing used in all through holes for screws for vibration isolation and water proofing.

Entire radio compartment waterproofed with diluted epoxy.

Additional plywood support rails (to eliminate bottom flexing) in radio compartment

Silicone sealant used to waterproof radio compartment

Radio switch and charge jack located on top of cockpit canopy to get it higher off water


When completed – including all the added weight mentioned above – and with a Super Tigre 51 and Mac’s muffler the finished weight is 6# 9.6 ounces. I don’t have a comprehensive build log for the Northstars with the OS 46 FXs installed, but think they might be a bit lighter."

Here's the pictures that I mentioned in the note. Hope all of this is helpful to you.

Newc

fay

Hi all,

After reading all pages in this fews day I found that the tank setup has not in here. Can some one provide tank setup picture?

LADDIE

fay.
I am enclosing the copy of the drawing showing the location of the tank. There is nothing special about the position of the tank. One line goes to the carburetor and the other to the muffler nipple.
Laddie.

Newc

Laddie - Good to see you on these pages! I'm sure you recognize the picture above and probably remember the plane I had there. What do you think of the mods I made? No need to be politically correct or kind, I have a tough skin!

Newc (Jim)

fay

Hey thanks Laddie for the attachment.
I'm going to ordering the kits and now just looking accesories what require for complete this bird.

I've few .46~.50 unused engine and I think TT.46 or OS.50SX are smart choise but then I also have Brushless motor AXi2826 900KV(recemended from manual 1500~2800g / 52~98oz) with 60A esc new and unused... this is make me hard choise untill I built the kit..

Here at Malaysia I never saw Nortstar or Arrow flying. Other than this there is many other type seaplane/floats are flying. And I never saw big seaplane uses motor configuration.

lowflyers

just wanted to say thanks guys for all your help

LADDIE

Newc.
I had the picture enlarged and framed. Maybe I will see you at Skymasters Float Fly in September. I am planning to bring all my North Stars and Arrows to sell some. I have way too many planes.

Strykaas

Please take pictures of the whole collection [8D]

LADDIE

Here they are.