RE: Giant Telemaster Build
Mothy,
Wow, those pictures did turn out large, well it is a big plane you know! I"ll have to edit the post when I get home tonight. Not sure what I did wrong. The landing gear that comes with the kit is not strong enough in my opinion. Plus it is rather narrow for a wing span of 12'. I used T6 aluminum (1/4") and had new gear made that is 36" wide running Dubro 6" tires. The wheel pants come from Fiberglass Specialties, I added 1/4" ply plate to the inside of the pant and installed blind nuts to bolt the pants to the gear.
I sheeted the top and bottom of the fuse all the way to the tail with 1/4" balsa. On the sides I added two additional longerons. Again in my opinion the per plan build leaves you with a fuse that has a fair amount of twist available but also much lighter than my alterations. I also added a 1/4" ply plate to the rear for the tail wheel and put a robust tail wheel in the back. I also placed the rudder servo in the tail similar to what Randy did on his bird. I probably should have moved the rudder servo to the main part of the fuse and done a pull/pull setup to reduce tail weight. I never remove the tail so a removable tail was not a high priority for me.
The struts are built per plan for the most part except that I used trailing edge stock to sheet the ply struts to reduce the amount of sanding and shaping that was required. One key enhancement to the struts was the use of 1/8" thick aluminum strap instead of the 1/16" strap supplied in the kit. Don't use those thin straps, as you see in the thread several of us have had cracks show up in those straps. The strut plate in the fuse is per plan except that I added a 1/8" thick strap across the bottom to bring the attachment point out past the side of the fuse. Moving the attachment point out allows me to simply fold the struts back after removing the wings and leave the struts attached to the fuse during storage and trailering.
Regarding power. As you can see in this thread a variety of motors have been used. It doesn't take much horse power to get this big bird in the air. On my first Tele I used a Fugi 43cc and it flew fine but had no extra power if you got into a bad spot. Now remember, this is after all my mods and ballast which brings the plane into the 28 pound range instead of the 23 lbs per the plan. I swapped out the 43 for the G62 mid season and the change was dramatic, it would lift off in 50' and basically go straight up. Windy conditions etc. where you might get in a bad spot and need power was no longer an issue. I also fly at 5k feet so if you are at sea level I'd say the DA50 would give you similar performance as my G62 does at this altitude. As you noted, you may want to lighten up the tail to avoid so much ballast in the nose.
If there is any other questions you have don't hesitate to ask. I know I spend alot of time bugging Randy when I first built mine. Jerry.