Has anyone flipped the motor around on a U Can Do 3d 46? After ripping my landing gear out a couple of times, I coverted it to nylon bolts for break away purposes. Yesterday I placed a saito 91 on it and flew like a mad man on the maiden flight (used to have a 50sx O.S. motor on it). But on the second flight, i took off, got about 10 feet off the ground, into the wind, and and came down at a 30 to 45 degree angle. The landing gear broke off perfetly. The saito with its big head drug the ground and pulled the firewall out. I ended up building a new firewall and mounted the motor up right. I centered the motor instead of to the right (if your looking at the front of the plane). Will the right thrust hurt me? I'm running a 15x4w prop. I'm not good at 3d yet but I enjoy just flying the plane. With this motor, there is no end to vertical climb. I couldn't believe the power of this combo! After the maiden flight, I had to fly one of my SPADs to settle my nerves!

Mounting the motor to the side would be preferred to the upright mount. It will also save the same problem of digging into the ground when you start flying inverted low passes. I have seen a few with this arrangement and it does work well even though it doesn't look as nice. You need right thrust to offset the tendencies of the plane going left. Most use 2 degrees (+/-).

EXCAP232

For whatever it's worth: I flipped the engine to upright on my UCD3 .61 size because I hate fiddling around with low end mix and regulators, yada. yada. yada. Upright doesn't affect the thrust line or the fuel draw and the engine runs great with minimal hassle. I love the UCD3, but I think worrying about how it looks is kinda like worrying about whether Brett Favre combs his eyebrows.

mt