hey guys, got my do today so in official now
glad everyone else got there stuff also, now if my boss hadnt called and told me were goint to six days a week
may be awhile[>:]

gjeffers...

Glad to have you back! 6 days a week! Hope they pay you overtime. In your travels do you get to see some nice hobby shops?

We don't have any very good ones. Most don't carry much inventory at all.

Anyways...
Thanks
Barry

Barry, We're looking forward to a "giant" Do report. [8D] That would be something to fly that's for sure. I've never seen one but I heard there was one down at our field but the guy crashed it.
Gary, sorry to hear that your hours are changing. I hate it when that happens. [>:]

Well guys, I think I have finally figured out what I will do. The UCD is now assembled. All that is left is servos (the actual ones, I put in some "dummies" for a control horn and pushrod "rough fit", but left it so that I can still add them easily), final radio bits and motor. I think I have decided on servos, Futaba S3010's are 72/90 Oz/in. running 0.20/0.16 sec. speeds on 4.8/6 volts. Not a bad price and a pretty flexible unit I can use in other planes I have in the "batter's box" (I already have the 100 Oz./in. rudder servo). As for power, I think that the OS .50 SX won't cut it, I will, (after talking to you guys) have to get me one of those Saito 82's! (I'll send you the bill ) I collect vintage vacuum tube gear and one sale will pay for all (thanks Ebay, for having a 20 cent listing sale today!). My old Sig 4 Star 40 needs a new wing and covering, I think I'll put the .50 on it and fix 'er up for my son. He turns 12 in 2 months and just was awarded his Arrow of Light in the Cub Scouts and is on his first ever "by his self" summer camp with the new BOY scout troop he joined two months ago! He's been buddy boxing with me on our good old Hanger 9 Alpha. I think I'll try to get him soloing asap and turn over this low-wing trainer to him. I couldn't kill it, maybe he can! (knowing him, he'll be out-flying me in no time!) He deserves it, he's such a great kid!

Since I started building the UCD 46, I have been putting my UCD EP through the wringer. I have flown it so much the wings are getting tired and I can see them reshape in the air! Kind of a poly-hedral thing! The dang thing flexes all over the place anyway. It has a remarkably fast roll rate and on a downwind leg can actually cover some ground! (It has a Himax 380 power, geared brushless and 3 cell LiPo. I hope the electric power doesn't spoil me! 20 to 24 minute flights on a fresh charge, unlimited vertical and NO CLEAN UP!) It can be a real hand full. I recently bought the Hitec Optic 6 with the Spectra synth module (dial-a-crash!) so that I could do the mixing I wanted to do on the UCD 46. I switched my UCD foamie from the old Futaba Conquest 6 channel to it. After reading some awful posts recently about the Optic 6 and a possible glitch problem myself, I decided to take the EP out yesterday to do some careful flying while I watch for trouble. Normally I like to keep things fairly "up there" in case of a bad call or slow reaction time. However with the radio in question, I didn't want anything going wrong where I couldn't at least get the remains. It was perfect flying weather! 3-5 mph breeze, 85 degrees and the sun was just setting on the western treetops at my field, (I jump 2 of my fences to end up in a 6 sq. acre, well manicured field) my batteries charged, I did my pre-flight, range checked the Optic 6 and holding the UCD at an almost vertical angle, I throttled up and opened my hand to allow the plane to harrier out into the breeze! I kept her at a max altitude of around 40 feet and flew a few circles around myself and did as much trimming as is possible with this plane. It is impossible to hands-off this plane! After about 5 minutes and upon noticing no real problems, I started doing some more daring manuevers and using up a little more sky. Typically, I fly this plane with wild abandon but with the new radio in question, I was flying a much more controlled pattern. A few spins, several rolls, inside/outside loops, inverted runs and a Cuban or a stall turn here and there. I suddenly realized, MAN IS THIS A BLAST OR WHAT!!! For some reason, the tight control and forethought (I was still nervous about the radio so I was still not letting it go as high or as wild as I normally do) showed me that I think I actually could fly just about anything now! My confidence level just got lifted up to the next rung! Having been shown how to fly R/C by a combat pilot, I had a tendancy to do a lot of my turns with lots of roll (with no rudder control, they call it "bank and yank" ) so rudder turns were something I had to teach myself. Last nite, I conquered it! I was doing some perfect coordinated turns and doing some sweet rolling harriers in the sky and keeping the plane no more than about 75 feet from me at any given time. My heart actually sank as I heard the rpm's drop and I knew that I was 22 minutes into the flight so I headed down wind and brought it back in for a perfect touchdown 3 feet from my transmitter case. What a sense of accomplishment! I am on the same prop now for more than 40 flights! (hard to say with no landing gear!)

I can only imagine what it will be like to fly the UCD 46! No flex, more control, split elevators and my first ever four stroke! If anything ever was to "kick start" me into making this all happen sooner, it was last night's flight with the EP! Plus I am sick and tired of hand launching and belly landings! Still not sure about the Optic 6. If you tap the module while in flight, it will glitch. I have heard that it can stop transmitting altogether! I think I may try to make the plug that holds the module make a more sure contact. Maybe a little foam tape might secure it in there better. Other than that, it seems to offer a big bang for the buck. It does a lot more than my JR 431, the next best radio I own.

Wish me luck on the Ebay sale, I'll list something today that will make enough to buy the servos and S 82! That way I don't have to ask the wife if I can spend some more money on toys! I'm just swapping them! I can justify just about anything if it means flying! You guys rock! I don't think that I would have ever set up this plane right with out the help from this thread. Kudos all around! I'll post some pics ASAP.

Gotta run, C'ya later!
Blisster

Blister...

Radios that "glitch" a lot are just called 3D radios. You get more violent maneuvers that way. I wouldn't worry a bit about it. After all....what could happen?

Man hearing you talk about your flights makes me want a UCDEP. Sounds like great fun.

Your son will love the 4*. Those are nice planes. When I first got into this hobby I started with my oldest son 2 years ago. Now he doesn't fly at all and I'm hooked. I wish he would fly so I had someone to enjoy it with besides my left handed friend.

Thanks
Barry

Yes Barry, maybe we need a system that is on for 5 seconds and off for 5 seconds and so on! YEE-HAW!!!

And I do dearly love my UCDEP! I love the fact that I can fly it right out behind my house. I don't think I would fly glow there. At $60 it's a great plane. No fuel! No Starting/tuning/cleaning! With a big 3500 or 4000 mAh you could fly for 30 minutes if you were conservative in flight. The best part about it is that it weighs a full pound-plus fully loaded so un-like most foamies you can fly it in your average low gust breeze. As a matter of fact I like flying in a little wind, like 3-5 mph with gusts to 7 or 8. When you turn it into the wind it just sits there. I love doing crosswind zig zags! In the zero breeze situation, where the Foamtana type, Depron foamies are happiest, this one turns into a great big flying dog toy! This plane loves a little breeze! I am running the Himax 2025-3200 geared brushless (3200Kv), a GWS 4 channel micro reciever and a 1350 mAh Thunder Power LiPo. It turns an 11x4.7 APC prop (yes 11!!!) The bad thing about this plane is that it is fairly soft. Even though a bad landing or a lack of good judgment won't necessarily total the plane, expect to have some hot glue in your arsenal! Some areas of the plane are very thin and don't hold up to much. They should have used Depron instead of this stuff they call "FlightFlex". This stuff looks like a thin (1/4" ) sheet of foam carpet padding! It's a bunch of little wads of the foam fused together and sliced thin. I have added a little hot glue since I bought mine but I fly the &$@% out of it so it's no surprise, tears in the foam happen. I have a brand new one still in the box that I scored in a local hobby shop close-out sale. I also bought a Shock Flyer complete kit that had an extra fuse and tail set included. At $32 for the UCDEP and $28 for the Shock I was delighted. They were the last two R/C planes ever sold at Wing's N Things in Tulsa, Ok. I cleaned them out! I don't know when I will ever get the new one out, I might just hold onto it for a while, unless the worst happens!

Like the close call I had two weeks ago, when my flying field was in use and I went to an unknown spot just to get some stick time. It was a deserted school that was surrounded by cattle grazing pasture land. As my UCDEP was flying well I let it get a bit away from me and a bit too low for comfort. I started to correct and bring her back when all hell broke loose and it went down just over a rise where I couldn't see from about 30 feet in a flat orientation. It was as if some one had turned on another transmitter on the same channel. I had enough time to kill the motor. As I headed for the barbed wire fence I would have to jump over and saw that there was tallgrass where the plane went down and I was relieved. As I continued walking (1/8 mile?) up to the ridge i then saw the cow pond! When I got there my UCDEP was now a UCDEPUW! It was floating perfectly on top of the water about 2 yards out, just enough that I couldn't reach it with anything. I thought, "Hmmm, propellers work in water don't they?" and throttled up. The prop flipped over a couple of times and the plane went the opposite direction than I expected. Then I tried to "swim" it to me by using the rudder as a flipper. No luck. I ended up shedding my shoes and socks and waded out into the silty, muddy bottomed pond. I had to remove a good amount of slime algae from the plane and it still has a slight green tinge in areas! There were no cows in the field, thank God!

I got a box today with all my servo lead extensions, Woo-hoo! One more step done on the UCD46! And I put a sandjob on the 4* fuse to prep it for covering. My son arrives back from Scout camp Saturday. At least I hope so! This is his first ever trip away from home by himself. Another kid might come home in his place! We'll just have to see. I just hope he's as good as the last one we had! Maybe I can give him a lesson in covering when he gets home. On his new (old) Four Star 40! I'll give him my old JR 431EX to go with it.

Bye now,
Blisster

Blisster.. Sounds like your loving that EP "Do"... I have been looking in getting an
EP plane to fly at home but was not sure about foam... And the one that I wanted
(funtana EP) well lets just say after all was said and done, I went WOW on the price.
But one of the ads here on RCU has me thinking foam may not be bad,,, Forgot who
make them, but it was the get it all and Fly out of the box 540T... That price seemed
good if it flew as they say........

Well this AM, I found out why my APC 14X4W was making my "Do" vibrate so bad[:@]
My drill caused the problem and drilled the hole in an angle... Darn drill, I may have to
get a new drill(but it is the first prop, in three years) or maybe a reamer...... MMMmmm.

So no flying the "Do" [].. I did not like the 14X6, so I reinstalled the 14X4W and spinner
and left the other home...[:@]... But I had a Great time with the S.T. I'm starting to really
like this plane..............

The one Depron foamie that's popular around here is the Foamtana but it is a knock off. I think the 540T would be a similar flyer. These birds can be made for around $20 to $30 for the Depron and CF spars and gear (if used), then add $75ish for servos, $60ish for a brushless motor, $40ish for the ESC, $30ish for Rx and then add what battery(s) and charger. You're still spending $300 at least to get in the air and stay there. I lucked out and caught a poor slob at our old hobby shop talking about something and we conversed for a very brief time, I paid for my stuff and was putting stuff in the car when he walks up and says, "hey, my girlfriend and I are breaking up and I need to get rid of some stuff, she's kicking me out of her apartment!". None of it is new or perfect but for $35 I got a BL-8 ESC (matches the Rimfire), a Thunder Power 1320 mAh @11.1v Li-po, GWS 4ch. Rx, 3 GWS micro servos (I have upgraded to Hitec), a Rimfire brushless outrunner (I also upgraded this to Himax 2025) and he threw in a vary odd Spitfire plane. It's all fiberglass, heavy but beuatiful. Mechanical retracts (Nice Futaba Retract servo included) and someone has done a paint job on it that isn't that bad but still... It now needs to be stripped down a bit and reworked, especially around the canopy lines, the rest of the plane is OK and the wing looks great! looks like a perfect hanger queen! Bless his heart, I felt bad for him and when he didn't have change for the forty I told him not to worry about and wished him luck. Look what he saved me. I got easily $250 to $300 worth of stuff. Yes the Rimfire had a drill bit in it for a shaft, ($3.98 bought a new one, the actual one!) Electric flight would not be happening for me with out his girlfriend! I guess I could have gone with brushed motors but the Himax and Hacker motors are coming down to about the same as what you'd spend for the equivelent glow motor, in my case a .049 (Actually I would say more like .061/074 based on my experience with the ultra-cool Norvel's) I saw for a brushless to do the work of a .40 motor, you have to spend about $150 for the motor, plus you need even more for the battery power! I am getting by for the moment with a Hobbico Mk II Field Charger. It does a fine job of charging this Li-po and then shuts off when done. Nothing fancy, no conditioning or balancing. The Li-po takes a bit to charge, but I generally get around 20 minutes flight time per charge! I think that they're rated for 500 charges. Other than the fire issues, they are the "cat's meow" in my book!
With up to 20 amps at 11.1 volts in a 1"x3"x1.25" package and weighing a few measely ounces they are great! I highly suggest every glow or gasser give electric a shot, at least for having fun close to home. I fly electric 10 times more oftern then I can glow! Lately it's bee every morning and every evening. I went out this am at about 10 and had a great time in the breeze and then I just flew again at 8:30 and chased the birds out of the sky! Only me and the bats coming out to feed were left! No sun in the eyes, no heat, no sunburn! Just the mellow hum of my Himax and sound of wind as I made those low flyby's at 3/4 throttle! Fun stuff guys! I Highly recommend it!

Blisster

well my dad got another 46 ucd
i'm putting a magnum 91 on it

i should have it ready in a week

i have to finish school so i don't know how much i can work on it

38

Hey 38... It'll go "almost" fast enough But as they say, It'll be ready when
shes ready......

Well I just added my washers to the left side of my mounts..... Man I should have
done it from the start....... I also have to get some stacks.... It was wetter
than heck in there... Man, my YS's are messy but at least she spits most of it out
side the cowl... MMmmmmm wait a min... Maybe it just being sucked out better
So how do ya'll keep them stacks inplace?? weld them in

Hey Raideron, does this have any effect on normal flying? I understand it makes a lot of difference during hovers. Was thinking about doing this after I flew it a while, but if it only helps and doesn't make it fly weird normally, I might go ahead and do it first. What type washers and how many did it take? Did you measure thrust line incidence at all? Thanks, just had to ask!

Blisster

Flew the Giant 3 times this morning. Wheeeeeeee!

Much more impressive with the 17x6 prop. It will hover and even pull out, but it seems sluggish to me. Less than what I'm used to for sure. Not really sure how it's different. It just seems the engine is wound up all the time. My others kinda back off when you are in level flight and then you punch it and the plane surges forward. This one just starts going faster slowly. Maybe it's just the size. But I do feel I'm still under powered.

My servos didn't fail this time!

The plane actually is a very nice flying plane, but it's not going to be one of my favorites. Not unless I give it some more power somehow.

Anyways, it's super easy to hover with the spoilerons up. I mixed it to my elevator via a switch and makes it even easier. It's fun to play with the "crow" but I don't see a great reason for it.

One thing I thought was amazing was how this plane will harrier. I gave a about 30% spoilers and pulled back on the stick and held it there to avoid using any aileron. I adjust the throttle until it did the harrier. Absolutely rock solid. No wing rock what so ever. Pretty darn neat. From this position I could back off the throttle a bit and do a nice elevator. Very easy to do and you can bring it clear to the ground if you want.

This is a very easy flying plane...almost like a....a.....a.... A UCD! It's that easy to fly. It was balanced well and flew hands off when inverted. It has a very light wing loading (15+ ozs) and it showed when doing inverted flat spins. Looks just like the 46 when desending except this baby doesn't even have a prayer of doing a rising flat spin. I could get it to decend very slowly and very flat but no rise. Not even close.

Rolling circles were a thing of beauty. Very easy to do and very lateral and pretty. Very nice.

KE is without ANY coupling. I didn't even need to use high rates. Used medium rates and could do them all day without any trouble at all. Amazing. Not very UCD like!

Waterfalls were doable but hard because of lack of power.

All in all this is a "Gentle Giant". Very nice flying plane but needs more power. I'm not sure where to go to get more power without ruining the wing loading. Right now I don't think I'll fly it very much because I just like to do the 3D stuff too much. But it's a beautiful plane in the air and I love flying it. Just not enough power. Did I say that already?

Thanks
Barry

Blisster... I'm not good at the thrust factor[].... I really did not have any problem
hovering, maybe I'm using more rudder to keep her upright??? But she'll hover all day
if I wanted too and I never really noticed.... But I was practicing blenders, inverted flat
spins, elevators etc.. Anyway on my uplines, I noticed I needed a bit more rudder to
keep her going stright up, it was a little windy up there??.. But I associated my left pull
to not having enough rt. engine thrush.. ( I hope) [8D].... And I seem to remember
some pulling on hi throttle runs at different times and maneuvers... I only added one
normal washer on the lt. side of the mount(2).. And will test to see how it does next time
out and I'll add more if need be or remove if I don't like it.... I sort of went with adding
the washers since some here does this.... It may be needed more with the use of hi
torque engines??? And depending, I think it can help in all higher throttle blips/positions???....
But I never added any to "Do" # 1 which had the YS 63 and the S-100... I remember
having some rudder correction at different throttle positions, but I did not add any to it..
That's my story and I'm sticking to it....

Barry.. Sounds like you had some slow fun.. I know what your talking about on the Surge..
Like your term... Gentle Giant..... Bet she's easy to see

hey guys, starting my build and noticed my firewall already has right thrust built in, does anyone eles's or is this a first? my old one didnt

Hi Ron, The stacks have a flange/bracket on them and the screws for the carb go through it. Also they need a 5/16"x 7/16", 1/16" O-ring under the stack (the O-ring doesn't come with the stack) Let me know if you can't find an O-ring for it and I can send you one.

Hey I'm glad you got the Gentile Giant flying Barry. I bet that's impressive in the air. WoW!

We had our fly-in this weekend and it's was really nice. The weather was perfect, lots of people there, and lots of planes. I won 3 times in the raffle (gave up one prize) and got lots of flying in with the Do and Katana profile. What a blast. My wife even showed up for a bit. She said, "wow honey, you fly much better than when you used to crash into the weeds." [>:] Well I guess she's right. [:-]
The Do flew good but it's starting to show it's age and number of flights on it. I'm going to start taking off the cowl to put on the velocity stack and add a fuel and then put on a brand new cowl. [8D]

Hey Gary! I'm going to be taking my cowl off tonight so I check it out. Oh! You should see how good I'm getting at inverted flying now. Very cool. I'll have pictures soon. [8D]

Hey Gary and all,
My UCD 46 has right thrust out of the box, as a matter of fact on page 14 in the manual, under "Mount the Engine" it says:

"Draw a verftical line on the firewall using the embossed lines as a guide. NOTE: This line is offset to the left side of the fuse so that the spinner will be on the center line of the fuse."

This is without a doubt to center up the spinner because of the right thrust. I think the question now is, did they ever NOT have the right thrust built in? If not, then adding washers for more right thrust may be unnecessary and would mean that it would depend on the version of the UCD as to the need. Don't you just love "grey areas"? Copyright on the manual is 2003, if that helps anything.

Well. I have been working on my son's Four*Forty tonite. I got the empenage covered and that's about it! Now I know why they tell you to cover the tail before you glue it all on to the fuse. What a pain! I bought some Towerkote for this project, it's my first time with this covering. It's not quite as tough as Monokote and it's definitely tougher than Econokote (a real waste of time and $$$). Towerkote's red is not as deep as Monokote but I like it. So far so good. It goes on great, sticks down well and stretches out nicely. I am pretty impressed for the difference in price it's petty good stuff. I may have his done before mine! What's wrong with this picture?

Well, I am curious about the right thrust issue now, did they add it or has it been there all along? News at eleven!

Blisster

Okay Fellas -- Help me make a decision here on motors. I want to purchase it today so I can get my UCD3D46 up and running.

Saito or YS and what size .72 or .82. Lets imagine money didn't play a role.

livinmal...Go with the 82 minimum. Many consider a Saito 100 even better. In this class, the Saito is better than the YS63.

My 5 UCD46s have all had RH thrust built in the firewall. I've tried adding a single washer to get more RH thrust and I'm undecided if it's better. With the larger engines I think you need more thrust with the 82 it's questionable. I guess it's not enough better to really make it worthwhile to me. It makes it easier to hover but waterfalls aren't as easy for example. Either way is ok with me.

Anyways, good flying guys.

Thanks
Barry

I have Saito 100 on mine,a bit of vibration but I have beefed up fire wall with tri-stock,use 4/40 & HD linkages and 85 oz. servos. It has stayed together without any problems for a year so I think its OK. I always add a little more right thrust(washer)than built in,the problem I have is it needs some up-thrust,I have to hold constant up elev to keep it in a hover. Also, I never go/need full throttle when level.

Gary, Since I had to take off the cowl to re-do some stuff I checked the firewall and it does have the thrust built in.

Hey Gary.... How ya like the heat ..... Mornings are starting out dark when flying again...
Both of my "Do's" had it built in................

Rob.... My carb has no screw holes.... Am I missing something, or do you have to tap them in
Man, Guess that's the problem when you get stuff off of ebay... It's always missing
something .... Guess the stack does not slide down into the carb.?? but stays on
the upper lip of the carb.... If it does slide into the carb.. How does the o-ring stay?...

Barry.... MMmmm S-82/YS-63... Thats's a hard one..... But I guess not really, because of the
Set it and forget it ease of use of the 82.. But, Man I miss the response of the YS


Well switching my throttle servo from the HS 425BB to a HS 85MG... No, not a weight savings( I
need the weight for balance) She'll still be fat.... But I had to make room for the 1700 6v
I tried to make my own stack... first try did not come out to good................

Ron, Are you talking about the 82? Mine has 2 screws that go through the intake block part of the carb. The screws go into the plastic back plate on the back of the engine. If you look at the block it has a round recessed area right where the air enters in. That's where the O-ring goes and the U shaped clip on the velocity stack has 4 holes in it and it slides over the block with the 0-ring underneath it. Then the screws go through the clip, through the block and back into the back plate. I have pictures I took last night but they are at home. I'll post them when I get home.

Awwwwww... I see... Thanks Rob.... Guess I'll order one, not sure when, I wanted
to get a prop reamer also.... Does anyone know.... Is it really necessary to get both
the standard and metric reamers... I know the Saitos are metric... But.......

Hey I'm really happy.... My "Do" went on a diet
I just weighed the old servo/battery to the new.... And... Hold on to ya hats...
I'll save 1/10 of an oz......... ..... Man, that reminds me of my diets