If you can't reach any further, you could always cut a hatch further back to mount the battery. That may be a thought for me as I approach the assembly point of balancing with my Saito 100. Used the same method on my Dazzler with a Saito .72 and it worked great. No added dead weight. In that plane, my battery is almost under my horiz stab.

-s

I just cut through the covering in an "X" pattern. The hex-wrench pushes through easily and when you take it out the covering kinda springs back and makes it tough to see that it's cut. Not really noticeable when you get a few other dings on the plane. Cutting it this way also acts to keep the screw from falling out when/if you remove the stab and fillet.

I have not covered my stab holes yet, but someone else suggested covering them with a decal of some kind if you don't have the matching monokote.

I cut my hole in an x pattern like Hrkdrivr did and they aren't real noticable. I'll still cover them somehow, but as they stand they are still pretty inconspicuous.

blue monokote trim sheet worked great
b-

I originally cut mine like Hrkdriver but after unmounting and mounting, they didn't quite look as neat as I would like. I didn't mount my stab permanently (glue) so I would like to access them now and again for checking for tightness. I'll probably paint them as suggested above - unless I can stumble upon a really cool plug of some sort.

-s

I used one of the holes as my antenna exit.

How'd you get the antenna to the hole? Drill through the fillet block?

First Flight!!!!!!!!!!! All I can say is WAAA WOOO!!!!

At 6lbs 7oz w/ski's, this thing is a rocket with a Satio 91 and APC15x6, although a 15x4 would have a better throttle response.

I am just ahead of the factory CG, (quite by accident) and it should be moved back at least a inch. I have a slight belly pitch with rudder and a little roll, I'll be mixing that out.

Pop Ups/Walls are incredible with this plane,the wings stay nice and level. Inverted Harriers are nice, beautiful slow knife edge flight, and you can get a radical shoulder roll too!!! It is way too much fun on ski's and it really carries it's energy.


I love flying off of snow, and what a great plane to do it with!!!

Regards,

Darrin C

That's it, I am putting my skiis on. I haven't flown for way too long. (since New Years Eve)

I weighed the Dubro skiis before I bought it, and it came out 6 oz including packging. So it's probably no less than 5 oz. Compared with what's currently on: 1 oz for both wheels and 2 oz for both pants, I will be adding at least 2 oz Not that big of a deal, but the CG may shift forward which is my main concern. Anyway, I will see how it goes tomorrow.

You will have a blast!!!

Darrin C

..literally

Sounds really cool. Can you post some pics?

I just installed the skiis. It turned out with skiis, weight didn't increase much at all. I weighed the wheels, wheel pants, and collars, they are 4 oz total. Then I weighs the skiis, which is also 4 oz. I didn't weigh the skiis' hardware, which is 4 collars, 2 clip spring, and 2 4-40 bolts. I can't imagin these hardware to weigh over 1 oz. So I should be almost identical weight-wise.

mo pic

I've not seen those over here, but then I've not seen much white stuff either...

But if.....it does..... how much are they?

...maybe a DIY job for me?

Flatspin

Everytime I try and do a flat spin with my UCD it ends up being a knife edge spin.

Inverted Flatspin
Full- Right rudder Left aileron and down elevater

a knife edge spin is a knife edge spin but a flat spin is also a knife edge spin.

CG is not yet to 6" I am still at a little over 5". Is this the problem?

Please advise

The list price is like $22. I got it at LHS who has $5 off $25 coupon, so I practically paid $17 for it. Tower sells it for $20.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXWH30&P=7

Another company advertising in magazine has the aluminum version.

My balance is 5.75". UCD will enter inverted flat spin with just full down elevator and right rudder. But RIGHT aileron needs to be applied to keep the wing level, otherwise the right rudder will roll the inverted plane to the left. This tendancy goes for most aerobatic planes that's low wing or mid-low wing, for which rudder input will roll the plane the opposite direction.

Your LEFT aileron input is what rolls the plane from inverted position to knife edge position. And the wing will keep rolling as long as you keep the left aileron input.

Thanks for the reply that will help a bunch

I just flew my UCD today w/ skiis off the snow. Hehe, the snow makes landing even smoother. And I love the way how I leave trails on the snow, then just disappear when I take off. Even taxing around is so much fun. Surprisingly, the Sullivan spring tail wheel steer quite well in snow.

I was a moron when I flew with my glow plug starter attached. That thing hides so well in the cowl, I didn't even notice throughout the flight. I only realized what I did when I tried to start the engine for 2nd flight, and cannot locate the glow starter. Good thing I had a back-up.

Completely unrelated to skiis, I accomplished the rolling loop today. Elevator input timing is everything. Off by a little, and it will do a rolling barrel instead.

To all your dismay, I don't have any video footage of the snow flight. It's hard enough to convince my wife to film my flight during normal season. There's no way she'd go film me flying in snow. Maybe I'll talk to some club buddy to do this favor if I can find another die-hard pilot here in Detroit.

Thanks for all the info on the skis...guys!

Rolling loop - wonderful

Me: to get a UCDo in the UK = 6-8 week special order !
Never mind the skis!

Maybe ready for Xmas, and maybe.....snow?

From all the threads on this ARTF.... it must be one good flyer!!

The only thing I would complain on this plane is that rudder has way too much roll and pitch coupling. I think it's that ridiculouly tall rudder that strays too much from the center of mass axis. I am thinking about cutting down that rudder, the counter-balance part. But then I don't want to give up the yaw authority either. Just love those knife-edge loops. I will try mixing it out next time and see how it goes.

I'm having a bear of a time mixing it out... especially the pitch coupling, It seems to either reverse or lessen with increased throw... wierd... I just gave up after the 8th or 9th try, seemed like I was chasing my tail.

I guess I will mix it out the old-fashion way: finger-eye mechanical mixing.

Just a shot of how I did my tail-wheel. Same way I did it on another plane of mine.

Used Sullivan wheel assembly but instead of using the spring (I usually don't like springs for tail wheels), I soldered a tab on top of the brass part of the assembly. The tab I used both times is a small stretched oval tab this is used to hold on wire landing gear. The tab already has a hole on each end and is the perfect size. Once soldered, I then install a second control horn simply for wheel linkage and then make my own connecting rod. The black horn in this photo is for the pull-pull that I've not yet hooked up.

This system works GREAT on my other plane so I expect the same here as they're similar.

Just thought you might like to see it.

-s