RE: U Can Do 3D
 

this is my first post in this thread. i have a UCD .60 and am powering it with a ST .75. and vertical....well there is no vertical with this engine. the manual said that the ucd will hover nicely with any of the recomended engines.... has any one else found that a .75 isnt enough power or is it just me?[:'(]

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

First flights today on 46 UCanDo. About 15 flights or so. Running Saito 82a with a 15 X 4 prop with 15% four stroke Omega. What a combo! I never flew a four stroke before and today I never hit full throttle. Mostly 1/3 to 2/3 throttle. Hovers at 1/2.
I fly very slow to avoid and tail issues and with the fun I had today, I will not need more speed on this plane. I have other planes for that.
geoff

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

Got a few extra flying days in due to Trenton being shut down,dont know if I'll get paid but had fun anyway. Been practicing like crazy,tying to get DOD in a TR,man I've gone thru a lot of fuel! I finally decided to cut the throttle and see how much I can let it fall without losing it,that was a mental barrier I need to get past. I can let it fall 3 to 5 feet before recovery throttle is needed,sometimes I cut throttle just slightly and let it fall very gradually,that works too. To make it short,I got down to 2 feet a couple times but no tail touch yet,no sense in forcing it,you know what happens if you do. I'm so close but by the time I get it down that low,I get shaky about going that extra few feet,sometimes the rolling gets really fast during the desent, its almost more than I can handle at times but what a rush. I know someone made a post about always being in control while in 3-D,a fast DOD TR will put that to the test!

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

anyone have any info on cutting down the rudder on this plane?

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

Why would you want to do that???

More rudder, more aileron, more elevator = more better

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

unable to knife edge well with out having to compensate with ail and ele.
rolls over onto its canopy and also pulls to canopy

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

Try raising your ailerons a bit and see it that helps. I don't think you find too much you can do about the rolling over except to put your gear lower in the fus.

To get a good knife edge you CG has to be right for it and not always as far back as you can handle it in hopes of easier hovering.

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

i'll try that but im pretty conservitive on the cg, about 1/2 ounce of nose heavy still.trying to make this plane last for a while,while i pick up a few 3-d trix

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

I have done just that. Unfortunatly it only eliminates the roll coupling. Removed about 50 sq. in. off the top. I'm convinced that the pitch to the wheels is caused by the placement of the hor. stab. being too high. I'll see if I can dig up some pics of the mod. Later, Joe

In case that I don't have them, the mod is well documented in this thread.

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

The pitch to the wheels is a CG and aileron position thing and not a placement issue with the horizontal. I would play with those way before I would do any cuttin.

Why do you think the placement has anything to do with it?

Dave

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

IMO the Do will never be very precise,not in the wing design or the fuse for that matter,its not worth that much trouble to make it fly straight,do the best you can with some trim,mixing and just use it for its intended purpose:very slow flying,good 3-D'er in low wind,only fair to poor for IMAC/Pattern at best. Its worst at trying to add snaps to any straight line maneuver. I still like my Do, I just dont try to make it what it isnt.

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

Because I have tried every CG position flyable, have corrected wing incidence on two of four UCD's and spent countless hours on ail. positions in the past three years of flying one of these.

The most obvious reason behind my statement is that if you study the .46 size 'Do' you will see that the horizontal stab is placed much lower and does not suffer anything near the pitch coupling that the .60 size does. As far as cutting goes, that area removed off the top only proved that the too tall rudder indeed induces roll coupling.

I realize that this mod is not for everyone in this age of computer radio mixing. Some of us are just curious about the reasons behind the need for a mix. Joe

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

Nothing wrong with that,you learn from that. To me, its a waste of time to "fine tune" a Do, in fact,I dont fine tune any plane,just the first 3 or 4 steps on the pattern plane trim chart. If you look at that chart, you could spend weeks,months and 50 flights before you're done. On another subject--TAIL TOUCH!!!!!! I DID IT!!!!!!! I went out last night for the "Golden hour",did my usual 3-D routine,climb,elevators,harriers,hovers,walls,para chutes, I got down to just 6" a couple times and 2 flights later I finally did my first hovering tail touch,man it felt good. I wish I could stop this thing from T/R,it would make the tail touches even easier but when I give it full right ail, it T/R the other way! It throws me off when I have to "hunt" for the perfect position of the ail,guess I could set my ail throws to that so I can hold the stick full right-duh,thats what ATV & computer radios are for!

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

Way to go Mix!:D Nothing beats the sense of acomplishment when nailing that elusive manuver. Now comes the hard part, what is your next goal?

As far as setup goes, I have a personell problem. If it takes an entire season, I will not quit untill it is perfect. Then I wreck it. Joe

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

Rolling harrier DOD comes to mind first,inverted harriers DOD,I dont even do them inverted at any height,then maybe flip from upright harrier to inverted DOD,wall on take off.Theres plenty more I would like to do,even perfect rolling circle at any altitude is a huge challenge for me. The sky is the limit, wait, maybe the ground is the limit-LOL.

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

I have been flying the 60UCD for about 7 or 8 mo with an FS Surpas II91 with no problems. Love the plane. I decided to go with a YS 110 and on the first flight the firewall broke in half when I landed. It was a dead stick landing and may have been a little on the hard side but not much. I had the cowl off because of breaking in the YS and the engine just fell off on the ground. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem. I am in the process of making a much stronger firewall.

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

:)paul7194...

I have the mighty 110 on mine. I've got about 50 flights on it. No problems with that. I love that engine on the plane.

Deadsticking YS...I've never seen an engine worse for this. After months of working it out this is what I found:
Regulator...3 Turns out from fully closed
Main Jet...1 3/4 Turns out from fully closed
Low Jet....1 1/2 Turns out from fully closed

Depending on your elevation you may close the main 1/4 turn if you are above say 1000 feet and open the Low Jet to 1 3/4 or so. But if you leave the regulator at 3 Turns open it should run. Maybe after break in and a lot of time you may even close that 1/4 turn buy I'd do that as a last resort. In fact...on 2nd thought...I wouldn't close the regulator less than 3. This setting is different than the "flush" setting the factory states. (which doesn't work) Try these settings and you should be able to keep it running.

Glue your firewall back together, install your cowl and go have the time of your life. Wonderful combonation.

Thanks
Barry

PS: Ahhhh.....YS. You love em till you don't

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

I reinforced the inner firewall/fuse joint with a thick epoxy fillet, and I pinned the firewall to the fuse with hardwood dowels (1 inch apart)

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

As far as I can remember,GP doesnt have tri stock in all corners, I add some,even hard wood( I cut them myself from square stock),use epoxy. The 4-strokers and bigger 2 strokes(1.08 & up)do vibrate more and the firewall will probably need "beefing up". I also thin some epoxy with Isopropyl and seal all the exposed wood and glue joints from the oil slick. The glue used in most ARFs does not hold up well with oil,its softens and peels off in a short time with constant exposure to oil. I took the wife with me to show her some hovering,harriers,ect..,she's never seen me do that type of flying,she actually yawned after some DOD hovering!!!! I mean,here we are,going beyond mere flight, into the Third dimension,and she yawned and stated she liked another guys plane! All he was doing was straight & level,maybe a loop,she said she liked the faster flying!!! Guess I should get a jet!(actually, it would be cheaper than another wife),

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

Thanks for the input. I cut a new firwall and beefed up the mounting and epoxied the @#$#@@ out of it. It is now ready to fly again.
When I examined the firewall the factory had used very little glue and what was there was a rubbery glue. They did use tristock. I guess it's just a hazzard of trusting an arf.

Thanks fo all the input

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

Yep, most ARF's at best have a few minor issues,anyone who has built from kits or scratch a few years will find the flaws pretty easy,newcomers are at the mercy of the vendors.

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

I have the ucd 60 size with the saito 150. First few flights were no problem great. But on the second deadstick landing, it was a little bit hard, the engine together with the firewall fell off. I have reinforced the firewall and the landing gear. So it can handle the engine and hard landings. I noticed the factory firewall was very fragile.

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

My second Do looks like crap from the dork-ins,dork-rolls and harrier crashes(I mean landings), I didnt even use matching covering for the last couple repairs, but since then I have been having fun with it. I've been flying mainly in the evening when its cooler & light winds and have recently found this thing really T/R's like hell. I've got it down now,did 4 tail-touches last night,what a blast,I couldnt fly my Giles because of a number of equipment failures but at least I had a spare transmitter battery so I could fly the old faithful. It does help for me having an older,ratty looking plane to get DOD with,I dont think I'll be doing that with the Giles for a while anyway.

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

Now its done,lost my second and probably last Do last night. This one is a mystery to me,looked like a hit but mainly on elevator,everything looked good when I checked the wreckage. It happened on take off,I was about to do a 4-pointer ,before I started it shot straight up,I tried elevator to get it level but did not respond,just sort of looped and went in inverted. The rcv batt was good,servos still worked,radio was good? I really dont know what happened,I expected to dork it doing some 3-D thing,not like this. After all the hover practice I will miss it for that alone but this plane doesnt shine in any kind of wind. I'm going to fly my gas Giles and finish the Funtana X100,have engine,plane,servos & most everything else I need.

RE: U Can Do 3D
 

:)MIXMASTER...

Sorry about the loss of your "Do".

I'll be interested to see if you end up replacing it. I, like you, wanted something more. I went from the UCD to the Mayhem, to the Funtana 90, to the EF Yak, to the Showtime, to the Velox. I've liked all of those planes (well except the F90). When it's all said and done, I fly them all but,...I like the UCD60 the best of them all. It doesn't KE as good as some of the others and Harriers have wing rock, but for pure fun, flat spins, waterfalls, hovers, and ease of flight I really do like the UCD the best.

It'll be interesting to see what your thoughts are after you fly something else for a while.

thanks
Barry