hotdogx

We had nice weather yesterday, high 70's and a light breeze so I finally got to test fly the Lil' Roughneck. Thanks to John Christensen and Don Udey I obtained enough Ace radio parts to get my pulse rudder only TX working as well as build up a second TX. The LR flew good right off the bat. I only adjusted its little elevator trim tab up a little and increased the rudder throw after the first flight. It has a fairly sedate rate of climb and the rudder response is on the slowish side, but it flies and glides well. I guess I had forgotten since I haven't flown a Tee Dee .010 in years, but it only gets about one minute air time before running out of fuel! That's too short for me. I guess that explains why some of my old Tee Dee .010 planes had auxillary fuel tanks. I plan to add one to the LR to get about 3 minutes worth of air time. Perfect doesn't seem to sell those little tanks any longer, so I'll make my own from brass shim stock. Also, I have removed the landing gear from the wing and that saved me .63 ounces and will cut the drag some. On the last flight the LR hit a thermal at about 15 feet altitude and the rudder response couldn't overcome the resulting 45 degree bank. The LR slid in on the right wingtip and did some minor damage to the wing, but easy to repair. So, hope to have it ready to fly agian in a week or two.

BMatthews

Great first flight report.

Watch out for not only the CG shift when you remove the gear but also the change to the center of drag. You may want to remove or take out the bit of elevator trim you put in.

And if you make the tank with a bit of a wedge in the lower surface you won't need a clunk at all for RO flying. All the G loads are positive except for maybe the tops of loops and rolls where it may get a bit light for a moment.

Best of luck with the repairs and upgrades.

RUDDER ONLY RULES ! ! ! !

Beeza

My Feedback: (1)

Hey Al.

Glad to hear the Little Roughneck flew. All my RO planes would have made pretty decent free-flighters as well (except one small one).

I remember a .010 Schoolboy (all balsa covered) I flew and could repeatedly catch on the landing.

FUN STUFF!

I'm glad I hung on to the Ace stuff now :-)

Beeza

Strat2003

My Feedback: (1)

Congratulations on the success of the Roughneck, Al!
We had a kit for one that never got built when they were new, all that survives is the boxtop, but I downloaded the plans and you may have pushed me over the edge to build one!
Do you have any idea what your pulse system weighs relative to a modern 2 micro servo setup? How large a battery are you using? I seem to remember that they took a rather heavy pack...

By the way, I loved the way you used the different grains of balsa on the wing, very artistic!

Lynn S

Congratulations on your success!
I know its not easy to get a TD .010 going and fly in less than 80 seconds of run time. I think the mistake I made with my first LS (with a TD .010) was to use elevator. It would have flown a lot better without the extra servo(and weight)

hotdogx

Thanks for the kind words everyone! Beeza, your TX electronics are working great! Strat2003, the Ace pulse R/O airborne with Ace RX, 225 mah 2 cell NiCad battery, and Adams Baby actuator weighs 2.5 ozs. You could do the same thing with modern gear and have an airborne that weighs 1.5 ozs.! But, then the rudder wouldn't wag back and forth like it does with pulse proportional, ha! Lynn S, I'll be putting together a 1/3 oz. fuel tank - that should get me 3 or 4 minutes on the Tee Dee .010.

boberos

Hi Al,

Congratulations; it's always great when it all come together & it flies.
If you have a pulse transmitter with adjustable rate ie. (elevator), I can send you info for a simple elevator control. You an see pics of it in October 2003 Model Aviation.

Good luck,
Bob G

hotdogx

Boberos,

My TX's are only set up for one axis on the stick assemblies, so no capability there. But that's OK, once I get beyond one channel I'd rather use servos. I just have a big nostalgia thing about the old pulse R/O gear with the Adams actuators. Most modelers don't know what to make of the rudder wagging back and forth! I always tell them with the Ace rig, if the rudder isn't shaking, something is wrong with it, just the opposite of modern digital gear. Years ago I tried the Rand LR3 actuator to get 3 controls off a single channel, and it always worked great on the bench, but it never had any range and would always crash once airborne. Looking back on it, the electric motor in the LR3 actuator was probably causing interference. After 4 crashed planes, I gave up on galloping ghost with the LR3. No such problems with the Ace R/O pulse proportional gear, they've always been very reliable.

BMatthews

I had the same problem with my Controlair GG setup. Lost 2 or three models before I managed to barely keep one in range by flying it very close to me for the whole tank. It was my first ever full flight and I was a newbie at that. In those days you just taught yourself. No intsuctors to fall back on. I remembered reading about the advantages of vertical whip antennas so I modified my model to allow for a plug in 1/32 wire whip. That did the trick. Success at last.

boberos

Al & Bruce,
I must aggree with both of you.

Ace pulse RO is very reliable with the Adams actuator but I wanted elevator so I swithched to a Kraft Tx circuit with a Fred marks versapulser. Works great.

About the Controlaire GG range. I find that if I can retain the presence of mind to keep the Tx antenna parrallel to the Rx antenna, Range is adequate. If/when I slip up, I am immediately reminded by the LR3 actuator going to low throttle. Single channel sure is exciting.

Keep pulsing,
Bob G

Andrew

Al, Bruce and Bob --

You guys are making me feel real lucky -- I had a Controlaire TX with Rand GG acutator and had a good experience with it. Any mishaps I had were due to a range problem between my brain and thumbs -- something I've yet to overcome. I built my RX and spent some time with a tuning wand and scope before flying and perhaps thru the luck of the draw ended up with a combination of parts that worked well together.

I still have the TX, RX and GG actuator, but have not had a real urge to install and run it again -- liked it when I had it, but I'm sticking with the current stuff.

the "other" Andrew