Hey John... I see your pilot is that screaming dude with the cap backwards... that is too funny [sm=lol.gif] I saw that one at the LHS the other day. He is cool! I almost bought him for my new Funtana 90, but this build is getting real expensive. I just put in HS6635's all around. Four were gifts, bought two along with a new Saito 150 . This thing will rock [8D].

Looking good on the Cap Maniac... maybe you'll get airborne before we do. Good luck! Maybe I don't wanna be first [8D].

Yea I kinda like the little dude, reminds me of my brother. He has the same look alot of times.
I also have him in my Razzle 3D. I just finished up work on my cowl for access holes for the fuel dots and low speed and high speed needles.
Should be ready to fly at anytime, weather is supposed to by high 40's to low 50's with winds around 7 to 10 miles per hr.
Might have to go out and fly her then becuase the following week is not looking that hot. It is supposed to get colder and rain is forcasted for
the first part of the week and I go in for minor surgery later in the week and will be out of commsion for about a week or two.
Usually around January and Febuary are pretty bad for flying in Kansas but then along comes March and April which is around the time that
the flying can pickup. That is also about the time the sun starts setting later in the afternoon allowing for more flying time after work.
As far as servo's go I have 4 5645's, 1 645MG and a Cheaper servo for the throttle. Got a good deal from my Local Hobby shop on them.
It does get expensive servoing up another airplane, lucky I had the 770 JR receiver laying around. I put in MPI Switches in all my airplanes and they
can get costly too. The little things are what add up. I also started using Carbon Fiber rods and Titanium ends for my push rods which make for a better
feel on the flight controls seems to be alot stiffer than just your standard setup. If I get a chance I will post some pictures of them but they are much like the
setup that I posted earlier I used on my Razzle 3D.
This should be a fun plane to fly.
Talk at you later.
John

Is this thread Dead ?? where are the flight reports??? I have a NEW one coming, MAX Is checking it over himself. I just destroyed my Mantanance machine Ohh I mean funtana 90,, Looks like its gonna be cold here for a while I guess i can finish my Goldberg extra 300 that ive had since 1991 and have been building since last march[X(].. Maybee my cap will get here and i can get started on it. Im sure someone has flown theirs by now. I want to hear details

I took my Cap Maniac up Sunday for its maiden flight. I have a Magnum 120 4-stroke in it with the CG set to 4-3/4" back from the leading edge. I was only able to get in one flight. The Magnum 120 is new and I had it running rich. Though I did not have a chance to put it through all the 3d maneuvers I was impressed on how smooth and stable it flew. The CG at 4-3/4" was right on. Inverted flight was level without it heading downward.

I did knife edges, which held solid and steady. I was so caught up in the knife edge that it don't remember if there was any coupling. Rolling circles were pretty impressive and smooth. The plane was very responsive to inputs without it feeling like you didn't have control of it. I didn't have a chance to hover or torque roll it, but it did do a awesome knife- edge spin.

The roll rate on high rates was insane. I think I better tame it down a bit. Up here in CT we have snow cover so its maiden flight was with skies on the plane. I fly all winter so I hope to take it up again real soon to put it through the paces. So far its a keeper.

AHH thanks for the info. you must be up in the altitude for a 1.20 on it. whats your all up weight ? (without the skis HE HE)
We had a couple of good 50 and 60 degree WITH NO WIND TOO days. but next week is supposed to be in the teens and stay that way for a while..

The cap came in at 8.3lbs. I also added tail wires to support the horizontal stab.

not bad for a 1.20 im hoping to get at least 7.5 or less if possible with a O.S.91 four stoke

The weight of the 120 Magnum is 31.08oz with muffler so you should be close to 7.5 with your OS91

Went in for surgery before I had the chance to maiden this airplane. Weight came in just over 7 pounds with a saito 100. CG should be around 4.5. Ended up making
a battery tray between fuel tank and the throttle servo. Gives me a way to shuffle CG easily.
Weather has also been very shi**y here the past week too. Hopefully I will be able to get it up and flying after I recover in a couple of weeks.
This airplane is begging to fly.
Richy is that tail wire a kit, it was suggested that I do this to from a good friend I trust. The tail does seem like it could be a weak link.
J

Hello guys , I have been looking for a nice Model to be my first Acorbatic plane and CAP is one of my favorites.
But looking at all that you have been through with this model really makes me wonder if it is a good choice for a
rockkie like me ..

I have a OS 0.61 FX ready to go, thinking could be nice for this plane..

I was also looking at the Great Planes New Matt Chapman CAP 580 any coments on this yet..??

I would surely apreciate any suggestions if this would be a good idea or any other choices to look at..

Rgds

Its a very well built model. I just happened to get a bad one. All of my problems revolved around the warp. I cant give you a flight report and the guys over on the Matt Chapman thread cant either yet. no one has flown it yet. Richy is the first flight report on the BME. he says it flys Great. I am pretty sure It will 3D better than the Matt Chapman. Those guys over there were getting some heavy weights. The BME also has more wing area. which means it will "feel" lighter in the air. Also from what ive noticed the Chapman has limited room in the cowl. The BME is made for a 91 Four stoke so there is plenty of room.

Hi Guys
The tail on my plane definitely seamed weak. Past experience on similar conditions justified adding them.
The tail wires are not a kit. I made the connection at the stabilizer and fuselage bottom out of flat stock. I used a pushrod threaded at one end with a screw able clevis for adjustment and soldered a clevis on the other end. Here are a few pics.

Thanks Drumbum for your comments...

You got a bad one but Tmaniaci has really needed to apply some enginiering to his due to flaws of manufacturing..

Seems like a very cool plane hope BME can improve it soon ..

I certainly noticed the larger wing Area on the BME besides less weight considering the diference in size also.

Just got my new one . put it together for a quick mock up for measurements, Looks like everything is OK .I am going to start putting it together tomorrow.

Great Lee...

I know Max had seaid they did some randominspections and everything looked great on the kits, so maybe there was just a couple Friday planes that made it out the door...

Hope this one goes great for ya and you get it in the air soon.

-David

I am one of the guys who won the Cap Maniac in the summer giveaway, I am about 2/3 through the assembly of the plane. I was going to photo document the build, but decided not to. Thanks to you who have done that work.

I had to wait for the manual to be posted on the BME site before really going into the assembly process; it should have been in the box, but oh well. The manual is fair at best, there is the !QUOT!black box!QUOT! effect where magic occurs and entire steps have been completed.

The assembly has gone okay. The wings halves and spar went together well as did the horz and vert stab. However, the spacers (for lack af a better term) between the vert stab and the elev halves are not equal; one side is okay and the other is 1/4 -3/8 away from the elev half. I'll just glue and cover a shim to make it look even.

I changed the hardware to Dubro control horns all around, changed out all the wheels - wow do you think they could include !QUOT!in-round!QUOT! wheels? I will probably change out the tailwheel assembly, doesn't look to quality and not going for the wheel pants either.

I am thinking of using the HS5625 for the ailerons and elev halves and using a 5645 for the rudder and maybe a 5625 for the throttle too.

I have a Saito 72 I thought of starting out with on this plane, I also have a Saito 120 (too big) I had thought of using too. The Saito 100 I have read in here about sounds like a good match, I am looking forward to the reports of its flight test. My other thought would be a RCV 91-CD it should fit entirely in the cowl with no cutting.

I'll post as I continue to assemble.

im at the point just after the stab installation and i havent had any time to go work on it in 2 days. its supposed to snow here this weekend i will get to it. I havent been in to much of a hurry because i know if i get it finished i will want to fly it and at 20 degrees, i dont think that will be fun. but as for the construction. It has gone pretty smooth.

Well today was almost the day to maiden the airplane. Winds were light, temp was around 60 degrees just a beautifel day in all.
Got out to one of our fields, got everything setup to fly. Then found a problem, one of the aileron servo support strips had been knocked loose over
the last couple of weeks. So I will have to remove the servo and reglue or epoxy the support before I can maiden it. Glad I found it before the first
flight. It could have been a disaster if that servo would have came off of the mount. Well there is tommorrow to fly as the weather is supposed to be
about the same as today.
John

Go Dave! Good thing you discovered the problem... it would suck to convert this beauty to a pile of stix. Was it a flaw we should look for, or damage on your end?

We'll get Bill's up some day. Holidays, Travel and messy schedules are constantly getting in the way. I'm thinking three more weeks for our maiden is the first opportunity. We have a few details to finish before flying. Gotta tear down the front end and locktite, build a proper battery & Rx mount, set throws and re-make a couple of bad control rods that have crappy threads. We're also thinking we should fab a brace system for the tail feathers. Saito 100 has been buggy, so we gotta go back to factory settings and re-tune. Can't get a good falling RPM to a solid idle.

Only one limited single-flight report so far on skis. So, when you fly, give us a detailed report on CG, AUW and performance please!

So many planes, so little time...

it probably will like to idle high untill its broke in good. I never touch anything but the high end needle on all my 4 strokes on break in and the first gallon or so run them DOG rich. actually as they are breaking in, especially O.S 4s, I can actually tell they are leaning down and gaining power.. I made the mistake of screwing with the low end on a 1.20 before it was broke in all the way and played H@(( getting it right after that. me and a friend made are having the same fun with a 150 saito that got ajusted before it was broke in. Also i remember your cowl was pretty closed in. Did you open it up? his we would adjust and it would run fine and then when we stuck the cowl back on it was too lean at idle (its a sukhoi) we decided the cowl was causing it to heat and lean. so we cut the bottom out of the cowl. and we still had to drill a hole in the cowl to adjust it for proper idle when on. Now it is fine but his is through 3 tanks and it still isnt broken in all the way. we notice more power each flight

two words:

thirty percent....

I use to use 15% in the Saito's, but recently tried 30%.... amazing difference in how the engine ran... idled SOOOOO much better and transition was very crisp. Of course the top end was about 1000 rpms more too..

On the Saito 1.00 I ended up with a 15x6 at 9900 rpm...

I ran a couple tanks of 15% though it on the bench.. then put the 30% to her...

Immeidately she idled nice and low without coughing, sputtering or quitting... just richen it up on the high end for a good smoke trial and have at it...


I know it's more money... but when you see the difference it makes, the power, the transition, the idle... it's worth every penny... especially the difference in power... makes it the bets power to weight ratio in this size....

Hi jgraham
I also had the left elevator tray break loose from the fuselage while screwing the servo in place. I re-epoxied it and added epoxy to the other servo trays to be safe. Same thing happen to me this summer screwing in an elevator servo on Chip Hydes CapX Arf. The tray broke loose, and I ended up pushing the screwdriver through that beautiful covering. After looking at the tray there was barley any glue on it. I was cautious not to use too much pressure screwing in the servos on the Cap Maniac because of what happened to me with the CapX. It didn’t matter. If the glue is inadequate it’s going to fail no matter how careful you are.

Forgot to mention that DITTO here
Idle is so smOOOTH with 30% and the POWER

As Richy mentioned about the elevator tray. I had the same issue with that tray earlier in the build but I attributed to myself and not the airplane. There
was not much glue on the servo mount peices so I would be careful and look at it closely. I ended up making kevlar/composite control rods all around instead
of using the stock rods. I have not had the chance to build the brace for the tail feathers so when I fly it I most likely will not put it thru to hard of a flight and
see what happens. I would have to agree with the others about the 30 percent fuel it is all that I run thru my 100's (got two of them now) and it does make a
big difference than the 15% fuel. I ended up making a battery tray out of some ply that I had and a few 1/4 inch stringers peices. I put the RX in the area next
to the throttle servo seems to fit nicley in there. I will include some pictures of the battery tray. I found these little puppies and I like em but they are hard to
find at any of my local hobby shops. Jtec makes a battery and RX tray that is pretty nice. I will most likely change out the foam padding with the these things.
Here is the website for them:
[link=https://www.jtecrc.com/pillowPacks.htm]Jtec Pillow Packs[/link]
I will post here if I get it up and flying, I was hoping a friend of mine would be available to fly this airplane but he will not be. Much more accomplished pilot
than myself plus I was going to take my video camara and tape its flight. Will have to do that at a later date.
John

Well, got it up in the air today but not without incidents. It was not flying right so I put into final approach and ended up cutting the landing a little short. Seems that the landing gear caught the ground(mud/wet grass) and it came off and plane belly landed without any other damage. Now the plywood did not come out of the airplane instead the
blind nuts pulled out of the wood like it was butter. So I will end up strengthing this area too and replaceing the blind nuts with new ones. The landing gear is also bent and will
have to be straighted out or replaced. Well my weekend project has been picked out for me.
John