Tman, I have yet to take my CM up in the air, but I am really looking forward to it. The weather in No. Virginia has been very tempting to schedule a day off, until today when the snow began.So it looks like another week or more before I can get out and do the initial flight test.

This is my first real 3D plane so I look forward to the learning. Thanks to BME who selected my name as one of five who won this plane! My other (acro)planes are a 1/4 laser 200 , a 1/3 laser 200 and an 1/4 Ultimate Pitts; all Lanier kits. You know the heavy planes! I was really pleased at how light this Cap Maniac ended up- 7.25 lbs...If I could remember how to get the thumbnail in the post I'd put a pic of my CM in....

If you look in my gallery the first pic shows what I did for the sight cue on the CM wing bottom, the rest are of the Ultimate Pitts.

4 beeps is alot? The thrustline was fine with the glow engine on it, when I had the electric motor on it I had too much downthrust in it and it would ballon up on landing so I had to add some up to it.

Iflyit,

It was only four beeps? Sounded more like 7-8, but it was muffled and there was talking over it. So, the electric had a down-thrust issue, but not the glow engine. That's curious. Can you explain that? Did you compensate somehow when you mounted the nitro engine?

Chasrb,

Did you post a picture gallery? I went back and couldn't see one anywhere. Can you put the link up again? Sounds like you have some BIG birds, I envy you. You should have fun with the CM...

Are we watching the same video? It was 4 beeps and no talking over it, but regardless it really doesn't matter, most aircraft need trimmed in 15mph winds, and it was aileron trim.
The thrust was off in the electric version as I made the motor mount out of PVC and didn't get it cut straight.

Okay, so I'm deaf and can't count...

Ehhh... I was hoping others would have distinct thrust issues so I felt at ease compensating. Doesn't sound like that's the case so far. So, if the plane has no inherent thrust issue, and we are mounted dead square to the firewall, why would I get such a sigificant rise when I cut the throttle? Are there other factors that can cause this? I know the CG is 4-1/2" or less, so it can't be a tail-heavy condition. Are we maybe dealing with a wing incidence issue?

When we flew maiden, we had the elevator dead flat. Once up, it took a few clicks of up to trim at about 1/3 throttle. This sure made landing a b-kitty fighting the float in the wind. I'm not used to pushing a plane down to land, so it was a little scary. Maybe flying this weekend will provide more clues.

It doesn't take much so maybe your firewall had a little more down in it when made? Try adding a couple washers to the bottom of it and see if that helps.

Thx, the link is at the bottom far left of the post window...

Chas...

wow, never noticed that little icon down there before... I see I can have my own gallery of photos, cool!

Nice stripes on the CAP Maniac... I like!

Thx, I should be able to sight in on them... Yeah, the gallery is cool. Depending on your level at RCU will determine the number of photos you can place on the site.

Well i flew mine again a couple of times today and think im getting closer to getting it dialed in. I added right thrust to the motor and noticed it lines up perfectly around the built in right thrust angle in the cowl (didnt before) .. The plane tracks much better now. Locks solid in hover now all i have to do is let go of the right aileron and she starts torking. vert. lines are straight as an arrow now. The thrust even helped KE and before a right hammerhead stall was difficult due to it pulling left just before throttle chop. That is perfect now both ways. harriers GREAT. I harrier landed it once.Oh also had it in a harrier and there was some wind at the time. It was harriering backwards. I havent got brave enough to flat spin or blender it yet because the rest of my tail brace is not in yet[&o]. when it comes it i will wring it out.. at 52 degrees elevator there is no snap tendancy at all at full deflection at moderate harrier speeds with ZERO wing rock at full deflection .. there is a point i noticed somewhere between 25 and 35 degrees it will wing rock but if you go max deflection it goes away..

TMAN.. I checked for up/down thrust changes at different throttles and gaging the throttle it looks like it is fine.. ALSO for some reason it dosent land hot now and all i changed was right thrust and prop.. maybe it was my prop dont know

We flew again today as well. Shimmed the thrustline up two washers, feels good now. Still floaty on landings, but it seems that is normal, just gotta get used to it. Went to 30% from 20-20 and it idles real nice now. Can't rave enough about how much better these Saito's run on 30% [>:]. Flew inverted with just a little down, real solid. KE nice but pushes to the wheels some, still working on mixing in elevator, need more practice.

This thing has plenty of power, I'll say that... hovering was solid at 3 mistakes up, hammer WOT and up she goes with authority, nice . Snaps at moderate throttle and high rates are off the hook, like a butterfly on crack. Blenders are radical, and too scary to hold long. Still blown away by the speed of the high-rate rolls. Tried to harrier, seems to wing rock a bit, but it was pretty windy again. Couldn't get the inverted flat spin to flatten out and slow down, again, more practice.

Had a lot of lookie-loos at the feild today gawking at the CAP Maniac... oooo's and ahhhhs and lots of interest in our tail-feather bracing too. Only bad thing was the engine shimming pushed the elbow of the muffler into the cowl a bit, and with the vibration it started chewing a little hole... dammit [&o]!

This is a hellofa plane, think we'll keep her.

i wanna fly it[>:]
Tmaniaci i cannot figure out how to start a new thread. I NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone flown their Cap Manaic in the last week? This thread seems to have closed. I guess we all have them built so now it's just waiting for the good day to fly and then report our findings...

Ive had either snow or category 5 winds for 2 weeks now

Same here, no time due to travel and bad weather...

Hey all ,,

I flew mine again today and put about 5 tanks through it..

I moved my CG foreward some. I have to tell you it is a different plane. it will KE with little coupling now and still do hovering ,harriers and blenders are amazing now I must have had mine a little too far back. I had a blast today untill the wind picked up...

I am really itching to go fly, I would have yesterday, but other things got in the way..was a nice day too....

Lee,

Glad to hear the bird flys so well for you. Where is your CG now... can you measure it?

We hope to fly, maybe this coming Friday . A day off... what's that? I am dieing to get the F90 and the CAP Maniac some good excersize. We flew yesterday (F90) but just too windy. Pancaked the second landing pretty hard, not used to flying with zero ground speed . Too hard to judge your relative airspeed...

yea wind got me on my last flight and cartwheeled it on a perfect approach.

i will recheck CG i had on the same CG and the guy with the skis.. i dont rcall his screenname or his CG but i will check my plane. because what its on now is just perfect.. it cured anything it was lacking at the aft.... I didnt move it much so i will have to say a little change on this plane makes a night and day difference.. It went from a plane i liked alot to a plane i absolutely love.

after playng with CGs on this plane and a friends Fliton Extra 330S freestyle. I have come to the conclusion that for 3D/pattern its not how far you can get it back its how far you can go foreward and still hover , Rolling harrier Harrier Etc. then the plane will make an all around great plane to fly. at this setting KE is great. cuban 8s clean.. hammerhead turns rock solid. loops track well ... Inverted snaps are jaw dropping. the plane snaps and if you hold it come into an end over end on the prop axis spin..

Finally I did my maiden! It was a bit heart pounding since I am not a 3D pilot. I had the low rates at 50% on the horz surfaces and 33% on the rudder. Even at that it was very touchy, not overly so but still touchy. It flew beautiful once I had the feel of the plane! This plane can fly slower than a trainer! I am very impressed!

I got to the field at 2:30 pm EST and had to wait about 45 minutes for the moderate rain and 20 mph 90 degree crosswind to stop before I could take 'er up. The Magnum 90 was very smooth and predicable and the plane had a bit of up so I corrected with a couple of clicks down and then just flew a pattern. The plane settles very well into a landing, unfortunately for me the soggy field took off my mains I had nylon bolts in them. I think if I had left the socket head screws the main would have remained on. Anyway got a couple of small holes in the wings where the mains got carried away...

Other than that ...a great plane I can hardly wait to fly again!

I was wanting to get mine up in the air today but it was not ment to be.
I have upgraded the landing gear to composite gear as the original gear was removed on my madian flight.
I repaired the dammage and installed the new gear a few weeks back and a friend of mine flew it on its second flight. There
were minor issues that we wanted to correct today. When it is in knife edges he had to introduce alot of up elevator just to keep the
knife edge so were were going to install washers and see how she flew. The engine was a littel rich so we had planned on adjusting it.
Got out to the feild around 5:00 pm weather had closed in and the wind picked up, so we decided to go ahead and see if we could get a
flight or two in. Mark took his sig mayhem up for a flight while I prepped the Cap for flight.
Got the wing on and fired up the radio to check the surfaces. Everything looked good until I got to the elevators and saw the the left hand
elevator was in the nose down while the stick was nuteral. This was strange since I had not flown this airplane for a couple of weeks due to
weather. So I decided to move the servo arm to adjust the elevator. Upon closer examination I found that the servo was loose. Took off
the arm and was putting it back on and the servo fell into the airplane. Glad this happened on the ground and not in the air as it would have
been messy.
I epoxyed the bracket back in place and hopefully it will hold.
Here are a couple of picks of the airplane and bracket before I fixed it.
Hopefully I can get this airplane up in the air in the next few days.
John

I thin CAed the crud out of mine while putting it together because of the reports of that happening. they are solid now..

Same here. I took the advice of the forum and checked all the subject to failure areas and glued 'em gud!

I'm checkin 'um out tonight. We fly tomorrow (I hope, I think)...

Got it fixed and installed the washers for the up thrust.
Hopefully I will get her up in the air the next day or two.
The weather here has been up and down and the wind has just been to bad to fly.
John