jerusha

i was thinking about building an electric version of this plane also and was wondering if a speed 380 motor and a 25 amp speed controler would power it.

weathervane

Well, I ran into some BIG realworld problems. I have a set of plans and a stack of sticks and that is about it. I do plan on doing the build asap.

-Andrew

I just need about 10 more hours a day.

alparent

WOW! This is just what I've been looking for! I really want to build this plane.

My story starts with a foam plane I found in the trash. It's an Hitec Sky Scooter. (It works fine but I'm sick of recharging batteries)

I want something fuel powered, (when it runs out of fuel.............I just add some more!) But I don't want anything big!

This is just what I need!


I have no budget, so I want to build as much as I can.

I have no experience what so ever.
I have no knowledge.
I have no equipment.
I have no engine.
I have no electronics.
I have nothing!

OK I'm ready to start!!!


In the thread there is talk of a build manual ...... was it ever put together?

So Bipe! (can I call you Bipe?) It's really remarkable how much help your giving out!
I there anymore help left in you? That I can tap in if need be?

When I do finish and get this plane flying......It will be the ultimate testimony that THIS is the perfect plane for beginners!



OK..........where do I start? What do I need? Are those plans in DWG format?

brocja01

alparent:

Welcome to RCU. The 1/2A forum is a wealth of knowledge and you will enjoy these little planes.

Here is my opinion on how you should get started:

Unforntunalty, you will have to spend some money.

And since you are starting from scratch, I would expect you to probably spend $200 (being very conservative) to get this plane in the air, even with all the building.

Most people will tell you to find a local club and have someone train you, but if you mean no experience building, this will be a great plane for you to start building with. Scratch building is a great way for you to learn alot about model airplanes, and when (not if) you crash, you won't be so intimidated when trying to fix your plane.

You are in the right place to get some of that.

As far as building equipment, opinions are going a dime a dozen.
Here is mine:
1: Flat surface you can build on
2: Hobby Knife (#11 Blades)
3: Hobby Saw (The xacto saws you can buy, best purchase I have made in 2 years)
4: Fine and Medium CA glue
5: Epoxy (I use 30 minute)
6: Stick Pins (I use them to hold the wood down while building)
7: Patience

I actually don't have an opinion here. I've kind of converted (Only till my son is old enough to go to the field with me) to electric because I can fly them in the park next to my house. But Bipe, or any of the other guys that hang around in here will be able to give you some ideas on what to use.
Again, you will get a ton of opinions here.
I myself like Futaba. You can get a 4 channel radio with 4 servos for 120 bucks or so.
Just look around.

alparent

Thanks for the comments brocja01.

What's the best place to get RC stuff in Canada? Great Hobby? or is it stile cheaper to get it from the US like Tower Hobbie?

brocja01

I'm not sure where it would be cheaper to buy in Canada. But there are a bunch of people who do alot of buyin gin canada. They will chime in I assume.

Bipe Flyer

Alparent ,

Brocja01 covered the bases pretty well. You only have a couple of options for engines right now, either the AP .061 or the Thunder Tiger .07. The Thunder Tiger is a little more user friendly.

The easiest way to learn is to find a club and have someone teach you to fly. Even though the LST is a trainer, some clubs will be reluctant to teach you on anything smaller than a .40 size trainer, because that's all they have experience with. You can go to http://www.maac.ca/ to buy insurance and find a local club. The bad news is that La Commission pour la protection des Terres Agricoles du Québec is shutting down fields in Quebec that are on agricultural land. See these links - http://www.maac.ca/view_news.php?itm=232 - http://www.rccanada.ca/bb/viewtopic.php?t=32816 , so it might be difficult to find a club right now.

Yes, Great Hobbies has the best selection in Canada. They carry even more products than Tower Hobbies.

martin_solo

Enya 09 are still available I just got one and planing to build my r/c first trainer

I got the engine and the plan. Now I need to figure out what radio, servo and battery I need

I have 4 Hitec HS-55 that I bought cheap, but I was told it would be too small for this trainer with an Enya 09.

The radio system I am thinking to get is the new Futaba 2.4Ghz, if I understood correctly, it has a very light receiver that I can use in any size plane, and all I need to get started is the battery and servos.

Can any one recomend a proper servo and battery for the LST trainer?

Thank you,

Martin

Bipe Flyer

The Receiver will be fine. I'd go with Hitec HS-65 servos and a 250mAh to 370mAh NiCad or NiMH receiver pack. http://radicalrc.secure-mall.com/shop/?shop=1&cat=19

martin_solo

Hi Bipe,

thanks for all the tips!

I visited the link and found the

Radical RC 350mah Sanyo NiCad 4-2/3AA cell 4.8V Flat RX pack 1.975Oz $14.75

and the

Radical RC 370mah NiMH 4-2/3 AAA Cell 4.8V Square RX Pack 1.05Oz $ 11.00

The NiMH is lighter and cheaper, is there any disavantge against NiCad batteries?

thank you

Martin

Bipe Flyer

The only disavantge is that NiMH needs a different charger if you want to quick charge. If you are going to slow charge overnight, you can use the same charger for NiCad and NiMH.

David Ingham

I used to do a lot of control line and rubber power maybe 20 years ago, but am completely new to RC, so I need a trainer. I am building Keith Laumer's Push-Up, slightly reduced in size, as I have mentioned on the Keith Laumer thread. I am making a lot of mistakes, cause I am so out of practice, but I am optimistic. I plan to use a two channel, rudder and elevator, control, left over from the Cox P40 Warbird that failed to teach me to fly RC, and a Pee Wee. (The speed control is fried.) I have not flown combustion free flight, but I figure having experience with rubber power I can fly it with little help from my clumsy RC abilities.
Assuming it survives that, the next step will be too teach my nieces and nephews to fly it.
One question now is how to power the Cox electrics. They work in the Micro Warbird on 7.2 V. and less when the battery is running low. The Ni metal hydrides from the Warbird weigh twice as much as the engine, so I am thinking two disposable Li cells, maybe watch size. I suppose Li polymer would work if I found ones that are small enough and can be charged with my charger that has 1/2 amp minimum current output.

skaliwag

My Feedback: (1)

Iv'e never tested and checked but I think the Cox Rx from the Warbirds cut Channel 3 at 5.4V. With #3 not being used you won't know when you have reached a point of no return with a pair of Li Po's. The stock bats are 6 cell 220Mah.. and weigh 1.3oz. You can always take a cell out. But you may need the extra weght at the front to get a good CG. What engine are you going to use? If its a TD .010, 7oz is a threashhold... (Skimmed the thread but couldn't see it)

David Ingham

Thanks skaliwag.
Yes, the manual says it cuts the motor in time to land. I will be left with only testing the voltage between flights.
(I have gathered that lipos don't like to be fully discharged.)
Those numbers may be of much use to me. 1.3 oz is less than I guessed for the battery, but still much more than the weight of the engine, tank and fuel.
Taking a cell out would help the weight, but I don't think the charger would work.
It does appear to be coming out tail heavy, so I plan to put the battery well forward.
I am more afraid of weight than of loss of control. It is a free flight design and doesn't really need my control. But weight means speed which, for a beginner, usually means damage.
I would like to use an 010 but my $ 77 bid did not lead long on eBay, and they may be fussy. I have two Pee Wees. They weigh (not checking my notes) around 0.8 0z. They are the engine shown in the plans, so its coming out tail heavy is my fault (out of practice).
Having committed to building the model, if the left-over Cox controls don't work, I will have to try to find some that do, or fly free flight on drops of fuel.

skaliwag

My Feedback: (1)

How much Wing Area does the Push Up have? I don't like to ask the Pee Wee to handle any more than an 11oz model.

David Ingham

I get 91 in2. wing area for my plan.
The engine is around 0.80, or at least less than an ounce.
The fuselage is 1.1 oz before covering.
Plus the wing and tail.
You say 1.3 for the old battery, if I can't do better than the Cox µWarbird battery. The RC equipment was about a pound when I watched people fly RC. I hope Moor's Law has trimmed it down below an ounce.
So I have the propeller on backwards to keep it from going too fast.
My ideal goal is to have an RC airplane that children can fly, with only occasional repairs.

David Ingham

I bought two CR2032 3 V watch cells and soldered them in series. They do power the Rx and servos. The electrics draw 50 mA steady with bursts over 100 when moving the tail. The Li cells are rated 220 mAh, so they should be good for a couple of hours switched on or ten years hanging from the ceiling. They weigh about half an ounce together. The electrics now weigh about the same as the un-covered fuselage but still around twice the weight of the engine. I plan to try the Ni metal hydrides on a control line trainer.

David Ingham

Fortunately, I found, before I flew it, that the watch batteries don't have enough average current capacity to work the Cox receiver (Rx) and servos for long. I now have two of the smallest camera Li cells that I could find. My little volt meter shows no drop when working the servos with these. The next step is glide testing. I am looking for the park with the most grass.
I had an RC trainer that I bought from a friend. I asked another friend, who was a licensed pilot at the time, to try it first, and he broke both the air frame and the engine. He bought me the new engine parts, but I never got around to fixing the air frame. Thanks to Moor's law, my Push-Up should be small and light enough not to break on the first crash.
There are two types of trainers. There are trainers like the (full size) PT19 that have dual control, and trainers like the Wright Flyer and the Flying Flea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Flea) that are designed to allow the pilot to teach himself.

David Ingham

The most serious problem, as an elementary trainer, seems to be too much power. Either it didn't slow down with the needle valve as well in the field as on the bench or I got carried away. By bad luck, it hit on asphalt pavement, and now it needs a new fuselage. Back to putting the propeller on backward, and I need more head gaskets. Maybe it is too small for this engine. 010s are so expensive now. (My car broke the same day.)
I am still convinced that small size is the key to a survivable trainer. The limit is the electrics, which still weigh several times as much as the engine. I have them soft mounted, but their weight requires it to fly faster than it would have to for FF or CL. In this respect, the advantage of RC is better tolerance for wind.

tri-pacer

Hey Dave,

A way to slow it down a bit, is to scale the airplane up a bit, or at least the wing, to lighten the wing loading. For my Laumer project, the Yardbird, I wanted something a little more relaxing; so I left everything the same, and gave it a 38" wingspan, leaving the chord the same. I'll throw some pics on the Laumer thread in the next few days. Anyway, sorry about your plane, but don't give up!

Chuck

David Ingham

Thanks Tri-pacer, Most of the damage is at the 4th station where it becomes lighter. If I can get it straight, it should not be as bad as I thought. Will need refitting and recovering. The wing is ok.
The electrics are really about twice as heavy as the engine, and maybe I can find lighter batteries. I do sort of wish I had stuck to the original size.
I think for the same stiffness in flight and crash survivability (for given speed) the structural weight goes like the volume, so the bigger an airplane (or bird) is the higher the wing loading and the higher the stall speed. [Did anyone ever hear of a 747 surviving a crash like a Gwillows ROG?] It is a matter of compromising with the available radio equipment and finding a suitable power source.
For my Flea Whiz, when my son was young, I scaled it up by the square root of two and substituted an 049 for an 020. With no sub-induction and a muffler, it is very mild mannered, as I hoped it would be. But I don't think it would survive much of a crash, as the slab-winged trainers do.

avroarrow

Hello guys, we got side tracked for a few months but we found the link in my favourites as I saved it and transfered it to my new lap Top. I did get mey Kadito finished but switched gears as I was waiting for some engine parts that never showed. Slipped a BM 1209-08-12t in, 3 cell 2000mah lipo, 10amp esc,9x4.7 propI used the bigger lipo as I needed balance weight in the nose so I added useable weight with more battery. I maiden'd the little plane wed, 5km wind. IT FLEW BEAUTIFLY! Just like the big kadetsenior.Slows down and flies verywell on 1/3 throttle. I flew it for 20min then checked battery.Still had lots.One advantage of a big battery and brushless motors.Boy was I pleased with the way this little plane flew. AS GOOD AS A gws SLOW STICK,maybe better because it looks like a plane. Next comes a set of floats for puddle jumping and winter skis. My small foam wheels need to be changed to something bigger, then it will RoG from our grass field.

avroarrow

[img][/img]

avroarrow

Finally got a pic through

avroarrow

Second pic is a little better.... We have a new plan for 1/2a planes...covert foamies to 1/2a.... first plane to tackle is a 400 tiger moth, .07 tt to be istalled.