jeffo

My Feedback: (68)

Deadeye,
Northstar follow up: Arrow by Laddie Mikulasko
Page18 post 438
Repairs were made,flew it all last summer.-yes you really need two people to get it in the water.(me and my son)

russram

HI Jeffo thanks for your replie. Your facts worrie me . At 20lbs and a 160 os powered there seems to be a massive weight change of 3x on a standard N star. If was to use that extrapilation a 2x would turn out 32lbs which would make a high load wing in this design very hard to build in 3 sections. I was hoping that my 2x Nstar to be around 20lbs and powered by my Thunder tiger pumped and piped 120 although i have a OS160 as a backup motor. Can u give more info on your construction etc. I built a simatar 1.5 years ago and had huge sucess and was hoping that the Nstar would be the same. Transporting is no problem as i have a model trailer and a van for my hobby cheers Russell

jeffo

My Feedback: (68)

Russram,
The only big glow out there is a Super tigre(4500).The problem you will have is that you have to counter for more nose weight.One of the other 1.5 Northstars had a weedwhacker type gas engine,and it weighed 35 pounds because of so much counter weight.He took it off and replaced it with a Moki 2.1,he shaved off 8 pounds.He said it looked good in the air,but was a dog.On the 3rd flight he lost an aileron servo,and put it in the trees,completely destroyed.There is a guy in Canada that also has a 1.5 (25 pounds)he originally flew it with a webra 1.2,under powered-he since replaced it with a O.S. 1.6,with much better performance.It is on same thread.(Peter Cary).
It is basically same as plans.I thinned the fuse an inch,it has a pump(tank on C.G.).No fiberglass,and covered in Solartex.I simplified some construction areas,birch dowel L.E.,built up ailerons and tailfeathers.I tried to make it look like an 1960 type fighter.I suggest you go blow up the plans 2x look at it and see what actually your getting in to.Don't get discouraged,my buddies laughed at me when I decided to build the 1.5 Northstar,I brought the 1.5 plans to the field they thought I was crazy.It made me more determined.
Goodluck-Jeffo

russram

Thanks Jeffo for your feed back i do have a 4500 but weight of it will be a huge penalty and i still have not worked out how to section it but i'm sure the wing cord is thick enough to take a carbon tube i like your 1.5 and one peice is not to much of a problem cheers Russell

cavandish

Here's my newly completed northstar, prior to maiden.
os 50 sx for power, 11/5 apc. she runs real sweet off the grass, who needs wheels ?
i do have quite a bit of elevator throw, which gives plenty of pitch response. she is dead stable at all speeds, I recon the wing rock people speak of, is caused beacause the trailing edges of their tip floats are not 'sharp' on all 4 sides.
I used hanger 9ultracote and clear solarfilmon the centre of the wings, ultracote is the best plastic covering I have used,the seams stick (film on film) really well. 2underside film seams that 'shingle' in the wrong direction,are sealed overwith a line ofthin west system epoxy. I realise that sig Koverall would of been preferable, but just could not be bothered with having to paint after covering.
The hull bottom and tipfloatshave the standard 1/8 balsa, followed by a layer of 1/32 light ply epoxied on, finished by a layer of 1/2 oz cloth applied with west epoxy, the film over laps the ply bottom by a 1/16" and is the eteched an covered by the layer of 1/2 oz glass.
Balast is taken care of by 5x subc rx cells( gives 3000 mah !)and 8 oz of lead.
My first go on water was great ,apart from suffering very little rudder response, not wanting to have anything hang down past the hull bottom, I have opted to increase to 40% rudder throw, and extend the rudder 1 inch back with a piece of .0030 ally, hopfull this will do the trick.
WOW what an exciting plane !!!!!!! I though i was 'over' the smaller glow planes- NO WAY HOS'EI am totallyhooked on the Northstar, and yet if you read the reviews on RCU, they are not that good ? what a bunch of looser's ! more pics to follow

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I fly mine off the grass sans wheels also, what a blast!

But you may find that flying from water can put holes in the bottom wing covering - that's why fabric is recommended.

Yak Dude

Hey everyone, I finnally got my Northstar finished and the wind calmed down to get the first flight in this morning. I only had one problem. I needed all the up trim in to keep it in the air. It's balanced at the right place and the plane didn't have any bad habits. No trim needed on the ailerons or rudder. After a smooth landing I ran the clevis out 8 turns to get the trim centered on the radio and did 2 more flights. Probably 20 landings total and 30 minutes in the air. What a delight,flew like it was on rails for the most part.Easy to get back on the water and somewhat forgiving if it baluned some. I did a couple of really and I mean really slow passes, I was surprized. The pictures do show the elevator up about 1/4 to 3/8 in inch up. This is where it's trimmed. Any suggestions on what I can do.Maybe move the C/G aft a 1/2 inch. Or just not worry about it. Thanks in advance for any help. Wes "predmech"

jeffo

My Feedback: (68)

Premed,
I've noticed the C.G. on the northstar is on the nose heavy side.If you have to fly with a lot of up trim your probably nose heavy.The way I can tell it is to nose heavy is in a turn.If the nose drops,and really plows in a turn,while pulling back on the stick,your nose heavy.Take an ounce or two at a time until this condition improves.Compare it with how neautral the elev. is.You kinda have to play with it until you feel comfortable with it.Once you find the sweet spot your golden.-Jeffo

Yak Dude

Thanks Jeffo, I'm definetly nose heavy. I moved the battery out of the front and stuck it behind the servos. It moved the CG back about 3/8 to 1/2 inch. I'll try it there. I would have gone out this morning but the wind came back and will be here all weekend. I'll update when I can. Thanks again. Wes

Augie11

Maiden flight today after hanging on the wall since Thanksgiving. Built pretty much stock with 21st Century fabric and an OS .55AX turning a 3 bladed 10x7. She didn't turn well on the water but I expected that as I left the rudder as per plans.
Lined her up into a 5 knot breeze and with just a pinch of 'up' she was off straight and level at 1/3 throttle. That surprised me with us being at 5300 ft. elevation. One click of up, one left and it was off to the races....literally. She is FAST but rock solid. No wing rocking even at a crawl. NICE!!!!!! Did I mention she's FAST??????
Back on the beach all was intact, not a drop of water inside. Ailerons had been set as recommended but I've cut them down to about 65% of that (no expo on my float fly Tx!). I plan to bring her out again next week or as soon as my knees stop knocking.
GREAT plane. One fellow is off to order one and another guy wanted to buy mine (sorry!). Really impressive flyer.

cavandish

I have had a dozen or so flights with this bird and absolutley love it !

Deadeye

So why I am still scared to death to fly mine? Do you guys come in slow and high alpha to land? I'm not afraid to fly it, just afraid to land it! I don't want to smuck her up again!!

cavandish

The best way to smash it up is try to " come in slow and high alpha to land" I made this mistake on my maiden and just got away with it,she bounced up and started to decend tail first, leveling at the last moment, I am probably nose heavy, in this case it saved the day !
You have to fly it in fairly quick and low, break through ground effect and then keep it just off the deck allowing it to settle on its own, before you have lost to much speed, it will land like a dream. it is no different than landing a plane with a high wing loading. Coming in high alpha cancertainley be done, but it is for experts only. I have a gp revolver with a 90 in it instead of the recomended 50, I land the northstar just the same way.maybe you have flown a pylon racer or a h9 sundowner, or even a warbird-its the same deal -grease it in, and enjoy

Deadeye

That's probably my problem...I like high power, light, and slow lately. I better get out of the habit becasue I can see it screwing things up for other planes like my Extra, Skybolt, and 182. I've been landing my UCD, and SSE's at stall 3 pointers. Cool, yes, but it is spoiling me flying these 3Ders lately.

Frankly, we just didn't have a very good spring for flying. I'm still shaking off the 'winter rust'. I tend to fly the snot out of my more challenging planes *cough* CAP 21 *cough* later in the season.

rocketman-RCU

My Feedback: (73)

here is one of my favorites by a friend in KC

HeavyDD

Pretty kool rocket man, is that small ailerons and flaps??
Hmmm what about ailerons and flaperons?? That would be kool 2.

cavandish

any one is having problems steering on the water just use your ailerons in the same direction as the rudder.
I quite often skate my n star over the ground, so did not want a water rudder hanging down, but have always disliked the way she would not turn in the water, this morning I discovered a great way of turning on the water with the rudder as on the original plan, Just use full aileron deflection, this works best at about walking pace or less, she will turn in a 10' radius.

Yak Dude

Well, another 2 good flights at the lake this morning. All the flights up till today were with calm wind, today the wind was around 5 to 10 MPH. The plane handles great in the wind with no effect on the water handling.
I drilled 3 and 1/2 oz of lead out of the nose putting the CG at 15 inches. This got rid of half the up trim needed to keep in the air. Now it can fly inverted with half down stick needed to keep it level. The top of the elevator is just up some from being flat with the stab. So it's much closer. Definetly need to be gentle with the elevator on landing. I'll fly another flight on a calm day and then shift the battery back the 8" to move the CG aft 3/8 more and see what happens. Here are a couple of pictures after the flight with more detail on the plane. Thanks JEFFO for the help. Wes

siddus74

Predmech,

I don't really like thes type of planes, but I must admit yours is one of the finer ones I have seen - the finish and the overall look is a credit to you! Good Job!

Siddus74

Yak Dude

Thanks for the compliment. I still need to make and put on the USAF military star deal that goes on the left top of wing and also on the bottom. When I get those on I'll get a picture on and also a pic of the bottom.

aa1a

My Feedback: (4)

Hello Everyone,
Here is my Northstar. It is powered by a 46AX with a Macs pipe and an APC 10x7 prop. It is my first kit build so I decided to keep it stock. I did add the elevator pushrod support. The first flight was about a month ago and it has about 20 flights on it. It flies great. Stable and fast! At high speed it has a very slight “wobble” but I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t looking for it. The roll rate was outrageous with the recommended throw so I reduced it to 60% and added some expo to make the approaches easier. It still rolls like crazy. I’ve started removing weight from the nose because I suspect it is a little nose heavy. I don’t have a scale so I know what it weighs. It’s covered with Monokote. The Monokote seems a little fragile for splashing down into lakes. I think I would use Coverite fabric next time. I spent many many hours getting the throttle to work right. It works perfectly now but I would definitely put the throttle servo in back next time and probably the elevator servo too. Building the airplane was a good experience and I’m now looking for my next project. Maybe a Chaos.
Thanks to everyone for all the posts. Lots of very good information and lots of good looking airplanes.
Jim

Cougar429

My Feedback: (3)

Figured I'd jump in here. I originally started to build the Northstar 20+ years ago, the first having my attempt at air retracts and too heavy to fly. Second was a short lived foam and composite version that would not get off the water regardless of what I tried due faulty design to the hull and step.

Went back to the tried and true original, only getting as far as starting the fuse before fixing and flying real helis had me all over the country. Finally decided to finish it and, what do you know, even though the original kit box was still in storage, the fuselage is nowhere to be found![>:].

Anyway, went online and located another kit and in my idiocy offered to use that as a pattern to build a second, using the partial kit, for a friend. That was last Christmas.

As of this afternoon, this is my progress. Along with the Northstars you can see some of my other distractions. I always considered the floats to be the only boring part of this design, so went and changed the back end. Since there would be a slight reduction in floatation area I also made them roughly 10-15% wider. The fuselage bottom, float bottoms and sides are all skinned with lite ply.

Another mod, generated when my friend stated his wing folded after some rough water landings, was to reinforce between his L/G blocks and build a reinforced box in the bottom of my fuse to move my L/G there. Along with that you may spot my slightly larger step break in the fuse. His got the same treatment. That change was based on some of the mods introduced to the Polaris.

Tomorrow I will try to add some pics of the tail mods. I've built it out of frame and lite ply to avoid having to glass, and installed the throttle and elevator servos in the pod.

Cougar429

My Feedback: (3)

As promised, here are the pics of the tail. Once everything is bonded up to the tail stanchion I will fab a vertical stab.

The micro servo installs onto the sidewall stands, just aft of the tank. There is a bulkhead that slides into place to keep the tank from moving. The elevator servo is attached to the lite ply stab skin and attaches to the tail with one of my spare TREX 600 ball links. The stab then attaches to the tail box with 4/40 button-head cap screws. Where they were drilled into the stab hardwood inserts were installed to prevent crushing.

The aft box bulkhead is lite ply with two drains cut into the lower corners in case there is a fuel leak.

cavandish

unless you fly from concrete or tarseal, throw the wheels out.
This plane is so versatile without them, I have even taken off from a shingle riverbed, 10 inch deep grass is a breeze, leave the wheels on, and you are restricted to a prepared surface.

Cougar429

My Feedback: (3)

It takes a total of approx 3 minutes to remove the wheels, as it was always intended primarily for water or snow.