zo6

My Feedback: (1)

Can anyone tell me if the 3D Visions fuse will fit in a standard 6 1/2 foot pick em up truck bed and be able to close the tailgate? There's enough room diagonally but I'm not sure about the stabs having clearance. Do the stabs detach?

Thx,

Zo6

Maudib

My Feedback: (51)

The stabs do indeed remove, but I carted my DV around in my 6.5 foot bed truck with the tailgate closed with the stabs on and it's almost exactly the same length and stab width...

I put the tailfeathers in the front of the bed near the cab to help keep the wind from buffeting the surfaces. (Actually, I clam the rudder by placing two small sheets of 1/8" balsa crossing the fin and the rudder counterbalance and a squeeze clamp to hold it there... works great.

Course if you have a cap...

But again... NO problem with the Vision in a 6.5 foot truck bed and the tailgate will close.

Fastlif

My Feedback: (2)

Anyone got anymore details, pics, gripes or praise for this plane? Thanks, some nice pics would be great!

Eric.Henderson

Mine is very close to being ready to fly. I fitted a Slimline muffler, from my Double Vison set -up, and dispensed with the belly pan. Thanks for the tip on the Landing Gear. Troy' came through fast and it's now installed. Still looking for a 1" CF tube for this plane. The pattern tubes I have looked at seem a bit thin?

Eric.Henderson

I also fitted a bright LED to the ign system. I don't like not knowing if it is on or not. This visual aid can be seen in bright sunlight. I modified a dubro charging switch to take the LED. It is wired in parallel to the igin system and is on when the ignition is on.


Also painted the canopy to avoid the "headless-horseman" look. It's a 3-D plane and not an IMAC plane so a pilot is not required. the canopy really helps in extreme momnents of much needed orienation (VBG)

Fastlif

My Feedback: (2)

Pics look good. hopefully mine gets here tomorrow or the next day. Cant wait to see it. Biggest dilema is if I should run standard or short stand off's for the DA 50 mounting? Any suggestions? I plan on using it for 3D.

Fastlif

My Feedback: (2)

I am using 1.25 standoffs drilled thru to nutplates in back of the firewall. Anyone else making any progress on their Vision?

Eric.Henderson

I'm the wrong guy to ask about stand-offs, see pics of iso mount. B&B Specialities iso-inserts in a fake fire-wall - (Just hate that "drum" sound) :-)

CG on rear of wing tube - will move packs (ign and flight) as desired

zeke-RCU

I have a Ford Explorer Sport Trak and it carries my DV in the bed just fine. I lower the rear window and set the DA-50 and Fuse inside the cab. The remainder of the DV wings rests on the bed sides and the tail section rests on the tailgate.

Me, my Ford and Double Vision just driving down the road to the nearest flying field.

Maudib

My Feedback: (51)

Use the SHORT ones... 1.25" the plane is... if you can believe this... NOSE HEAVY.... so you want that engine weight as far back as you can get it. Carbon spinner would be sweet and helpful too.

Fastlif

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks, going with the 1.25's on it. Duralites behind the tube, servos in tail etc... for now I am running just a regular DA muffler, maybe later will add the tuned pipe on it. I would like to talk to someone and see if the 180$ is really worth it for a few hundred rpms and the weight gain?
Eric, that mount looks wild, can say I never seen anything like that!

Maudib

My Feedback: (51)

I've heard reports of about 400 more rpm... on a 22x8 that's about 4 lbs more thrust.
The setup is perhaps about 1 lb. more than a standard muffler (I don't really know for sure yet how much the tuned can & header weigh) so you are gaining 3 lbs of thrust (or about 10% more umph) that's pretty significant...

On the Vision that extra pound will add about 1.6 oz per sq. ft.... keeping it light, at 16 lbs with a tuned pipe, you'd still be at about 26 oz per sq. ft. Real nice...

If I can get this in at 14.75 lbs with the standard muffler I'll be sitting at 24 oz per sq. ft. That's way sweet.

Maudib

My Feedback: (51)

Eric,

Let us know how your balance comes out... seems that with this setup you are about 1.5" further out than I am (I will be using 3/4" ply spacers beneath the 1.25" standoffs) and a premininary check shows the plane being a little noseheavy. I'm hoping with the CF spinner that I'll be O.K. to place the batteries at the rear of the hatch. And that's with the tank located on CG.


Also... how did you get out that far and have the cowl still cover the nose a tad at the bottom?

Eric.Henderson

Maudib,
Believe it or not I have a plan.....

I used this same design on my Double Vision and was able to move the ign-battery and Li-ion flight pack batteries to get a good CG.

The plan is to use shortened stand-offs If I need to move the engine back. They are currently 2" long. The pictures above had the engine loosely in place. The top "mouse ears were removed so that it would fit the DV cowl and engine thrust line position.

As you can see below the cowl covers the fuselage "gaps" when it hits the U/C legs. Did you cut notches in the cowl for the legs?

I have a lightened backplate, very-light wheels and CF landing gear on the front. There are 8611's at the back which are pretty heavy servos.

BTW - The Iso-firewall moves the engine mount position fwd about 3/4". I tried taking pictures with and without the flash to try and show the cowl lines more clearly.

All I need now is for Noah's Ark to leave my state and I can fly the thing :-)

Eric.Henderson

While I'm at it.......

OK, you guys with good "Vision", :-) What is different about these Vision wings?

1st prize is another photo....

Maudib

My Feedback: (51)

Nice cut work on the cowl Eric...

What's different? I dunno...

It looks like you have reversed the wing attachment/antirotation method...

Using plastic set screws in the top of the wings instead of the aluminum ones inside the fuse.

What's your reasoning?

Fastlif

My Feedback: (2)

I agree with Maudib on the wings.

I think I will shoot for lightness and regular muffler. I run tuned pipes on all sorts of other planes, so I am in love with the quieter sound, but darn, just cant stomach the money they want for that little metal. I guess you can say I am on the fence.

Eric.Henderson

You want reasoning - I fly model planes, what do you expect?

The Double Vision had a nice canopy latch but no requirement to hold the wings on from inside of the fuselage. The Vision uses two bolts to hold the canopy/deck in place and requires you to fix on the wings from the inside. For me it would be a real pain to keep taking the deck off everytime to to lock on or remove the wings.

Sooooo.. I went outside-of-the-box and reversed the concept. The ali-studs are tapped into blocks in the fuselage. I fitted new blocks into the wings and tapped them for 1/4 x 20 nylon bolts. I widened the notches in the studs to match the nylon-bolts. (The nylon bolts were sharpended a little with a pencil sharpener.)

Now you can fit and remove the wings in seconds without taking off the deck/canopy. Nylon will not unscrew on its own and I also have a visual on the retaining bolts status.

You might wonder about the retaining power. I made a mock-up and could not pull the pin out using all of my strength.

I have four spare Vision ali-screw-holders if anyone wants them.

Regards.

Maudib

My Feedback: (51)

Well... that's one way to skin a cat....

I bought the hatch latch (same exact one used in the DV and installed it in my Vision... I like the quick access to the inside including those wing retainers...

On my DV I always take the hatch off when I fuel and then stop before it overflows. So I couldn't imagine not having it...

In fact I bought 5 of them nifty hatch latches from Hobby Lobby... I'm gonn retrofit all my planes that are feasible... including the EF 87" Yak which SCREAMS for them because of it's 4 screws holding the hatch on...

Eric.Henderson

No cure for me I'm sure.

I like those latches.

Fastlif

My Feedback: (2)

Maudib,
Kudos to the hatch pin, I was looking at them as well, friend of mine has the DV and to say the least, I was dissapointed when the Vision went cheapo with out it. You pulled your covering off, I would like to put one on mine, but I bet it will be a real bugger with the covering still on. what do you guys think?
I would really like it as I plan on no choke servo, just a rod. Hatch pin would be quick. Only need choke first flight of the day, so figure I can live with to 6-32 screws in the canopy, or try to fuss with the pin installation.

Maudib

My Feedback: (51)

Yeah, you'd be hard pressed to do it on a covered plane...

However, if you can live with cutting the covering from the bay out directly below it and patching a piece back (Ultracote sticks to this stuff like permanent) then you can easily do it.

In one of the earlier pics you can see a dark spot where the pin would go thru the turtledeck... looks like they were going to do the hatch latch, but didn't... in other words.. the hole is alread there... just filled with glue or putty. I stuck a pin through it to locate it then poked it clear with a thin philips scewdriver.

I screwed mine to a 1/8" liteply plate with the holes hardened with CA... a drop of thick CA between the two helps too if you rough up the plastic a tad with sandpaper.

Then the plate is epoxied to the roof of the fuse... you have to be careful not to get epoxy down in the pin slot... I coated the area with vaseline to help prevent this.

Fastlif... what an excellent idea... it never dawned on me to run my choke inside accessible from the hatch... no messing with bellcranks or binding choke rods... Sometime the obvious is always looked past.

Eric.Henderson

Ref. it never dawned on me to run my choke inside accessible from the hatch... no messing with bellcranks or binding choke rods... Sometime the obvious is always looked past.


The forward and horizontal pull-push action seems to work the choke the best on the DA50.

Another way to do the choke is to put the choke-rod through the right side cheek cowl opening. It just sits there minding its own business. I zapped some black fuel tubing on the rod where it touches the cowl to prevent bounce damage.

Operationally you push the choke on - Flip and pop! - Pull the choke to "off" - go start.

On my Vision I made a little hole to feed the rod through.

Bashedit

My Feedback: (35)

Good info you guys! I'm going to go back and remove the choke servo on mine, I like the short rod better and want to lose weight. Right now I'm sitting at 15 lbs -13 oz without a battery pack. Even with the shortened nose, same distance to backplate of spinner if you're using the 1-1/4" stand-offs, I'm a tad tail heavy. Put a 2200mah pack one former forward of the wing tube and it balanced fine. Waiting on Li-Poly's to see what final weight is. Has anyone weighed their's yet?

Maudib

My Feedback: (51)

Hmmm

I'm using 1.25" standoffs with 1/2" plywood spacers for a total of 1.75".

Do you have any more pics of your kit bash and install?

I can't hardly believe you'll be over 16 lbs... I'm still looking good for approx. 15 lbs...

Keep in mind that your nose shortening caused you to move your ignition & ignition battery back a little hurting your CG...