SUCCESSFUL MAIDEN FLIGHT TODAY!!!!!
I'm a happy camper for sure! Here's some good info for you guys building:
I have the retracts version, and I'm using Cermark Mains from Robert at
http://www.EJF.com These are gear made for the Cermark F16. The mains are fine, the front doesn't work, as it's made to sit recessed in the fuse (with gear doors). So I have a Robart up front.
I am using a Venom 6V 1200mAh battery, that is in the second bulkhead area from the nose, and I packed in soft foam to stop it from moving around. The can for the air is up there, too. I have an OS 55 AX for power. It balanced a bit nose heavy at 10 3/8" from the leading edge where it meets the fuse. NO EXTRA WEIGHT REQUIRED.
It is REALLY important to NOT USE THE PLASTIC BOLTS for the tail booms! In the little baggie of hardware, there's 2 metal bolts that fit in the rear perfectly, but nothing but the plastic bolts fit the f$%#ing Chinese blindnuts, so I used them in the front. I have been to 2 different Ace hardwares, and 2 hobby shops, and nobody can find a bolt that will screw onto the screw - either metric or SAE. The plastic screw UNSCREWED itself in flight. The metal one held, so I consider myself LUCKY, and yes, I'm going to buy a single $1 lotto ticket today since I'm very lucky that the plane landed safely!
Anyway, I was talking with another guy at the field today that has the bigger one - same crap for the booms. He told me to use a heat gun, soften up the glue, pry the blocks out and change the blind nut to 6/32, and then of course you can use a metal, hex head bolt. He also put 1/16 ply plate on the underside of the wing to prevent anything from digging in to the soft balsa. Sounds like good advice, so I'm going to do that tonight.
I thought the elevator felt "mushy" in flight, and I had to switch it to higher rates, as it nosed down pretty hard in turns. I'm thinking that this is a combination of the booms flexing with the plastic bolt, and I'm a little nose heavy. I was also running the new motor pretty fat (rich) and was not yet impressed with it's speed. It flew fine - roll rate was good, and it held knife edge during a 4-point roll pretty well.
I have my plane setup with flaperons - about 1/4" down, with about 1/8" of up elevator mixed in, but I didn't test them out yet. There's definitely 2 schools of thought here on flaperons vs. spoilers, and I'm going to setup a mode for both for I can play next time out. I will say that without any flaps or spoilers, it still landed like "butta". It does take a while to slow down, so brakes might be the call here...but then again, I was a bit hot coming in because I didn't know what to expect.
So I'm trying to really decide about the booms...to epoxy permanently, or not. If I epoxy. I don't need to worry about "fixing" anything...and I'll still leave the stab screwed in with the 4-40's and locktite so I can at least get the wings off.
I'm hoping that when I lean out the motor, it goes faster. Most of the flight was a full throttle, and it flew fine, but nobody said "Wow! Thats fast!". I'm using a Zinger Wood 11x8 pusher. I will try APC 11x8 and 11x7 and see how that works...and someone else told me to try a 12x6. So...overall, I'm very happy, and would recommend this plane.
I'll post pix now that it flew....I'm superstitious and never take pictures on first flight day!
Thanks everyone for all the help!
Mark