Hey guys...don't flame me, im an rc car guy, i own a nitro 4tec and a higly modded t maxx. Half the time i drive my t maxx it's in the air. Ive always wanted either an electric or nitro airplane...but how difficult are these to actually fly, and not wreck? Ive heard the 3D planes are a good plane to start out with....

Wow, we finished our UCD60 with the Saito 125 and this thing-is so smooth in flight. My son is doing extremely well with this plane. He lands it perfectly, can hover (at altitude) for as much as 15 seconds, flies knife edge pretty well, and the rolls are quick and good looking.

He has only flown 2 gallons of fuel since he started flying and he has no problem flying this plane pretty well. I would urge anyone to consider the UCD as their second plane as long as you can practice throttle control.

what size prop on your saito 125? ALSO what was the amount of thrust u put in the firewall with the 125? I know this is really really stupid but here it goes, how do i measure the angle of thrust to make sure it is 5 degrees? i have no way to tell.... And to add it do i just put washers behind the motor mount?

MIXMASTER, how do i fill the hing gaps? I think that is the gap between the ailerons and the wing, the elevator and the back wing.. is that right?

I am so nervous to start building this thing.. I always mess up something. I may just let it sit in box a few more days....

is the waterline cg the balancing of right to left?

", the wing trailing edges need to be beveled to 45 deg to allow spoileron travel of 45-55 deg throw for harriers,wall" i have no idea what that means.. And to tell the trueth not sure how to beef up the landing gear. wish someone had pictures..

got the 4/40 push rods and clevis to solder on(actually one end is threaded) would it be better to just put a z bend in rather than solder? Not confident in my soldering although i did pick up some siver solder and flux...

U told me I could ask.. open to anyone and everyones thoughts..

Stevl,
Do i need a cline regulator with the saito 125? u have it mounted inverted? any problems i need to be awaare of? what size prop? i bought a 15x8

fliggyg, you will find with different engines and prop sizes, required thrust angle will vary. Its a trial and error thing. Start with about three degree and fly with the cowl off. Pull some uplines and watch to see if it pulls left. If needed add another degree and try again untill satisfied. Remember that the more thrust angle required, the further the mount has to be offst to the left of the fuse to put the spinner in the center for cowl alignment. That is where a radio mix of the rudder slaved to the throttle works real nice. Once the angle is set, mount the cowl.

With a foot print of app. 2-1/4 inches on the engine mount, a 1/16 inch thick washer equalls 1 degree. One of the more accurate options are 'Ernst' thrust plates from 'Quantum' models. For a couple bucks you get three plates in 1, 2 and 3 degree increments with a combined angle of up to 6 degrees. You can also turn one to give right thrust as well as up/down thrust. Washers work, but have a tendency to embed into the firewall.

Waterline is front to back and lateral is side to side.

Use the 4/40 rods with the solder fittings. If you want to go light and strong, Central Hobbies has carbon fiber rods with titanium 4/40 ends. Nice setup but cost a little more.

No Z bends. Use ball links on the servo arms and safty lock quick links on the control horn. I like the HD control horns for this model, all from Dubro.

You won't know if it needs a 'Cline' regulator untill you run it or if you choose to move the tank on the CG.

There are multible pictures in this thread on just about every part of this plane. Your going to have to scan the thread. Good luck and save being nervous for the maiden. Joe

BTW, I get more deflection than this plane requires on the control surfaces without added bevels. Dubro pinned hinges offer lots of movement and doesn't need sealing.

To me,water line CG is how it balances from top-bottom,like a boat in water or a car/SUV,SUV's are known to have a high CG,not too good for high speed turns-roll overs. An inverted mounted engine hangs the weight lower on the fuse which I believe helps in self righting,especially in upright harriers. Fore/aft and lateral CG still has to be set.

If you are not locating the tank over CG,you probably can run without a Cline or Perry pump,just follow the closed carb procedure to minimize flooding.(or use forceps to clamp the line)

The landing gear blocks do come loose quite easily,the formers come loose also. Just add some tri stock to the vertical formers and for further strength add hard balsa block or bass wood to join the 2 formers together. If any oil gets on the joints, it will soften the glue, you can coat the joints with epoxy thinned with isopropyl alcohol.You can reach inside to the gear block&formers thru the front of the wing saddle area.Dont be fooled by the tri-stock at the bottom and the 2 small dowels,they are not enough.


If you are not good at soldering and dont trust glue,use 4/40 all threads with carbon fiber tube glued to the threads,I like Gorilla glue for this,dont need much as it will expand inside the tube,you could just glue the ends & middle. Du Bro ball joints are probably best but I use Sullivan 4/40 metal ends with the little clip on keeper,I solder the clevis to the threaded rod on one end to keep the rod from rotating under vibration,I dont trust the 4/40 nuts to hold permanently.


I am on my 2d 60 UCD,have flown other peoples UCD too,none of them would harrier well,they didnt "lock in" for long and would snap out sometimes. I fixed this problem by Beveling the wing trailing edges using a Dremel tool sanding drum.The wing edges should be just like the aileron leading edge,tapered to 45 deg. angle. This will allow aileron travel above 45 deg. which is needed to completely stall that big fat airfoil that only fun-fly type planes have.To do harriers all day long if you want,you need "spoileron mix", which is elevator to flap/aileron mixing. The elevator is Master,ail/flap is Slave. When up elevator is pulled the "Spoilerons"(both left and right ailerons)go up also. I put this on a switch so I can shut it off when not needed. How much travel is needed requires some experimenting during flights.So you will need a computer radio with lots of mixing functions and some "open" mixes help too.You might be able to get the travel needed without beveling but the hinge gap will have to be wider than I like,either way,you should seal the hinge lines with clear Monokote or tape to help prevent flutter.

The extra steps I outlined during the build may sound like a lot, but they are not hard to do.I do this because most ARFS have some flaws or weakness that need to be addressed.That is whats so cool about this forum,you can benefit from lots of other peoples experience with the product,you just have to be aware that some of the posts are not very good info,use more experienced people in your club for a second opinion.My second 60 UCD with all the changes made is holding up to over 100 flights and many harrier landings and a few hard landings too.(dumb thumbs) This plane is an excellent 3-D beginner to experienced flyer. It hovers very well,will harrier well if modified,does everything else and one or two things no other can do-U-Can-Do.(sorry) If I had not purchased a second one,I probably would still be searching for a plane that does 3-D easily when in fact it was just my lack of experience and practice-practice-practice that made the difference. I still have a long way to go, I want nothing less than "Hucking it on the deck".
Tail touches while hovering,touching the wing tips while rolling harriers,ect...........got to go,weather is here!

Thank you so much or the patience and advise. I am planning on starting on this plane tonight. Wish me luck. i will post some picks along the way...

We are using a 16X4 wide prop. You can use covering to close those gaps between control surfaces. Those gaps need to be as close as possible while you're building.

FYI: We used the provided engine mounts and mounted per the enclosed instructions and everything is really good. Our instructor who took it up for the first flight said this was the first plane he didn't have to put one click of trim in any direction. I guess we were really lucky.

ok, my building has begun. I want to be clear on this mixmaster.. I took 4 pieces of tri stock and reached through where the gas tank goes and epoxied them in the 4 corners vertically (from belly of plane to the top) above the area the landing gear mounts (actually i stopped just below the opening where the fuel tank is inserted because the tri stock would have partially narrowed the opening and hendered me inserting the tank). I think I got them to the bottom of the belly but not sure my fingers not long enough to feel. It is hard to reach place. the place was only about 1" between the formers and I could feel tri stock from the factory centered along the bottom (horizontally) of the plane. Does this sound right?

Now, I have some wood (it is actually balsa wood that is 1/4 x 1" soaked in CA and doubled to make it 1/2 x 1" ) cut to the size that barely fits between the formers where the verticle tri stock i glued earlier went (this is the space right above where the landing gear mounts to bottom of fuse). I was going to epoxy these at the bottom between the formers touching the factory tri stock. I actually was going to put 2 in, one on each side (right and left). would they be needed? do I need to get hard wood instead (long trip to LHS but can if a must). Does all this make since and sound like I am doing it right??? I am scractching my head wondering if this strengthens what needs to be strengthened. Do i need to do anything else to that area? Please let me know asap... U said use some thinned epoxy and coat the former joints.. All of them I can reach or just the ones at the landing gear area?

moving on to hinges, I picked up some dehingable 1/4 scale heavy duty hinges. these are nylon i believe. they are not as long as the slits cut by the factory for the ca hinges. I guess i will center them... They are slightly thicker but can be easily worked in i believe. How do i seure them? do i use ca (thin or medium), epoxy or what.. and do i just put them where the factory cut the slits? I think 3 on each aileron and so on....

please forgive my ignorance.. never used most this stuff and never tried so hard to make sure something is so right... Please please answer each question... thank you so much.. anyone else feel free to chime in also..

All good ideas but sounds like a lot of extra work. I just smear a generous amount of gorilla glue all around the landing gear plate and firewall on all my ARFs and it does the job fine. The stock UCD harriers very well with about 50% spoileron. I have a ton of harrier landings and the gear is still in place. No other mods needed, unless that's what you are into.

fliggyg, your on the right track with the tristock installed vertically in the corners. What I have done is to add one more dowell between the two existing ones and it ends up very strong. Mine averages about 250 flights per season X three years off a rough runway and its fine. Not over done, but strong enough for the ocassional spanking. There is only one reason why I would not glue wood blocking in between the formers. I have snapped the tee nuts, or blind nuts, for the bolts and you may need to get in there and replace them. With tall LG as these, it does increase the chances of a misshap, but you will find that this plane floats in so gently, chances are you won't knock them off. There are UCDs out there running stock without problems.

For the pinned hinges, a metal nail file works well on the hinge slots. A couple strokes in/out and its good. Also the file will straighten out any slots that are out of allignment by angleing the file in the direction it needs to be corrected. Dry fit all surfaces and check for binding. Epoxy works well with hinges of this type. IF you are quick and confident, 15 minute. If you are unsure of what you can accomplish, go 30 minute epoxy to play it safe. I do the wings and stabs first and when dry do the control surfaces.

Take a hobbby knife and cut away a small amount of monokote from around the hinge slot.

Dip the knuckle of the hinge in oil so the glue dosen't stick to it. You can use a CA hinge to stuff the epoxy into the slots to make sure its sufficiantly coated. Do one section or surface at a time, check for alignment and move to the next section.

Lately on larger gassers I have been useing gorilla glue for the hinges, but if this is your first experience use epoxy.

Here is a pick of the cut away around the slot and a typical 4/40 set up. Good luck. Joe

How wide a hinge should there be? Mine is almost 1/4". I have not glued them yet .. Here are the pictures.. I am affraid they are way to wide and too much travel.. please someone let me know .. So i can permantly glue in place...



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fliggyg...

I don't think your hinge gap should be nearly that wide. You need to take a nail file or hobby knife and cut the hinge slot a little deeper. It should be only as wide as the pinned area of the hinge.

Everybody...

Tower has dropped the price on this plane to $169.00. With the discounts should be able to get another $20 off of that. Now that's a BUY!.

Thanks
Barry

fliggyg, you should be looking for app. 1/16 inch gap. Those are big hinges. Here are your choices:

#1 Cut a bevel around the hinge slot so the knuckle of the hinge will inset into the balsa for a narrower hinge line.

#2 Use a smaller hinge. They will now be loose in the existing slots due to the thicker ones in there currently, so, gorilla glue is an option as it will fill the void.

#3 Plug the slots with balsa and wood glue, then re-slot for the thinner hinge.

#4 Abandon the slots and cut new ones next to them.

Option #1 is the easiest at this point. Here is a pic of what to shoot for. Good luck. Joe

ok, once again ty everyone for the help.. i am correcting the hinges ..

AcroJo,

What type of control arms are those? Where did you buy them?

Thanks!

Steve

StevL, Dubro # 867 HD Control Horn. HD Ball Links # 899 and Safty Lock Quick Links #817. Pull/Pull on rudder is #880 If a cable setup is desired then it is #881

Currently with servos sent back to Horizon for repair, I temporarilly installed slightly heavier elevator servos. To offset the weight I eliminated the 4/40 steel linkage and made up CF rods with 'aluminum' all thread. Much lighter than steel all thread and the CF supplies all the integrity needed. Will swap out the rudder today hopefully. Either CF linkage or cable. Weather looks promising for this afternoon. Joe

Just to let everybody know, just because you crash your UCD there is life in these planes.

I test flew this plane today, albeit...a 25 mph wind...it was underpowered...and very tailheavy. It flew pretty good...it has potiental!!!

Very cool. Hows it fly, give us the scoop. That looks great.

There is life after death indeed. My first three made the one I'm flying now. Frankenstien. Got out this afternoon and finally did the most impressive inverted flat spin yet. It just sat there. If I can squeeze a little more down elevator out of it, who knows, it may do a riseing flat spin. Joe

This plane is what's left of three crashed UCD 60's..two mine...another a friends. The fuse was in three peices, the lower wing was in pretty good shape.. and the upper wing was a POS!! Lot's of hour's of work to do this...but after flying it today it has potiental. I was flying it with a OS 91 FS...but it needs a Saito 125 or more, not only for power but for weight!

I am trying to send a video but it is in quicktime .mov. What do I have to do to show it here?

Here is another still shot.

Ok another ???... Mixmaster stated this "The wing edges should be just like the aileron leading edge,tapered to 45 deg. angle. This will allow aileron travel above 45 deg. which is needed to completely stall that big fat airfoil that only fun-fly type planes have".. How do I do this, what exactly does it mean (the trailing edges??) *ictures of it?