Getting other things done as well, got the smart-fly installed. Nothooked up, the battery and switch is just a temp toget linkage hooked up, that's why my servos are plugged into theRX..
Got the pin switch mounted and the fuel dot as well.. The ignition is mounted and throttle is hooked up, stillneed to do the choke...

The cowl looks great,

I still don't care for the geometry of the ele linkage,, I think I'd try moving the horn above the servo and go to the next hole on the horn,, that might give you closer to 45 degree throw.

I tried it on the inner hole and it wasn't enough throw, it's on the farthest hole out now, only two holes on the horn... The only way to fix it is to move the servo up and go back to the old arm, or larger after market arm.. It's a crap design with this style control horn, the control horn hole is in line with the center of the servo... Wait a minute, what if I cut that horn off and used the same style as yours and I have some in stock in the shop.. Hmmmmmmm, typing that statement about the control horn might have just fixed the problem...

First I am going to put a meter on it and do the math on paper to see what I need to do toget what I want on throws... I agree, it's still not right and I won't be happy till it is........

Jimbo

should work out ok, if your only chasing 45 you will be laughing....mine has 60 degrees....... more than enough.

Well I am pretty much screwed on changing the location of the elv. servos, gotsick of messing around and went to move them and I can't.. Above the servo locations is a stringer and the deck of the fuse, if i cut into it, the whole back end would beweak.. The only choice now is to cut off the horn and go with a bolt type horn, I will make that decision after a few flights...



I made the top wing one piece, the 3 piece stock design was weak and mine didn't line up for nothing. There are some pics back in this thread showing the gap i would have had...

Any how, I made hatches on the bottom of the center section to make my connections at the field.. They are held in with magnets and will stay attached to the wire running down the strut.. I picked up some 3/4" yellow shrink tube to attach the wire to the strut, it will work like a charm and you won't see it inless you are looking for it...

<span style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; ">Quick dodgy video of throws and my preffered expo. And a pic of my bipes new mascott.</span><br style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; " /><br style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; " />[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=978dzC9KV-U[/youtube]

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Well we are just about done with this plane, here is a sneak peak of her still down in the shop. I am taking it to a fun-fly tomorrow to run the motor some and show it off a bit..

I am picking up my batteries today, i went with two 2100 LIFE packs on the RX and a 1700mh 4.8v Nicd on the ignition.. I still have to balance and do final hook up's to the smart fly and install the remote kill switch on the ignition. Also, now that the graphics are on the cowl/canopy, I can finish the paint and clear coat. I wil work on that after the fun-fly...

Scale, I am sure I will have just a few more questions for you on the Smart-Fly.. also, the one piece wing worked out great. it's much stronger and will set up faster at the field..Thanks for all of your tips, I really appreciate it..

Ok, I'm feeling the red accents now ;-)

I like the servo wire access hatches too, very smart

I still have to stripe the fuse and cowl with the red, then it will all come together..


What a day, went to my LHS today, 70 miles round trip so not very local.. Well I broke down about 3 miles from there, the dang serp belt went out on the van!I limped it the rest of the way to the hobby shop and waited for the tow truck, got it repaired, my tension pulley went bad, That is what caused it all to go fubar...

I got my batteries though and will get them in after dinner.. The Power expander looks pretty straight forward.. Do you just plug up to a letter, then plug the pig tail into the receiver where it needs to be? I got the same kill switch as you, what plug did you plug that into?

Yes, just match the letter to the channel slots,,, I put the optikill straight to the RX not through the Powerexpander,, just no need to give it more than 5 volts.

I took the pitts to our fun fly today for some show and tell and to run the motor some and ran she did.. After I primed it Iopened the choke and she spit on the third flip, closed the choke and one flip it was running.. I tell ya, the factory setting's on the carb are pretty spot on, I didn't check the R's but it sounded great.. I didn't want to run it to much on the ground, so I shut it down after a few minutes and the temp gun read 174... I ran it again later on in the day and decided to range check the radio, no problems there...

My list of things to do before we take it to the air is pretty short...

Need to balance here.
Check the incidence on the top wing, the stab and bottom wing are right on the money.
Adjust all the throws and set up my triple rates..
I need to re adjust the throttle servo, I have it set wrong.. I get way to much response out of the motor with each click on the stick, I will redo the end points. I did it the fast way so I could bring her to the field today, any tips on this and I am all ears...

Other then going over everything elsewith a fine tooth comb, I think it's about ready.... I did dumb thumb my little EDF in on landing, should have never flow that dang tiny airplane today.. It was windy and very cloudy, but no excuse, I zigged when I should have zagged. It's fixable enough!

After 1/2 to 1 gallon you'll propably have to tweak the needles,, mine was just a little rich on the low end after the first few tanks.

Try this,,
Put as small an arm on the servo as you can to max out your ATV or end points. Then cheat the servo arm position to have the arm further away from 90 degees at idle, and closer to 90 degrees at full throttle, that will give you more expo or throttle curve on the low end.

Good luck

Thanks for the tips, Scale.............

For anyone reading this and you don't know about using locktite on your metal gear servos...

I always use locktite once I am all done adjusting my servo arms, just a small drop on the screw.. Well yesterday was proof that you better not skip this step.. I didn't have any on mine, I knew I wasn't flying her and still need to take the arms off for final tweaking.. While the motor was running I did a range check and the top right ail. locked in the down position. I did a quick check and the screw had came out far enough for the arm to slip off! Now this was no big deal, but had it been in the air, it would have been a huge deal as it was locked in full deflection... This servo screw did it again even after I tightened it up so I need to see if there is something else going on with it... Any way, use locktite on your MG servo screws!

Jimbo

+1 on the thread locker and I always toss the OEM philips head screws and use these http://www.sdshobby.net/100pcs-129c-...mm-p-4289.html

Makes cranking them down and getting them off way easier

Good idea, I shucked all the crappy screws that came with the pitts and got good ones like you suggested, even got the bonded washers, love them things now...

I will check to see if RTL has the servo screws since I need to put in another order with them.. I think I might change all the servo arms to Aluminum as well, the ones I made are to big and heavy and how it fell off the top right ail. twice, kind of has me spooked.. I just think it is a weak link that doesn't need to be!

I ordered the new 1.5" aluminum arms for everything and also got a new arm for the rudder, just better all the way around and worth the extra $$...... I also ordered new servo screws, I really like the idea of using Socket head caps instead, even got small lock washers too..... Now i won't have to worry about getting thread locker on any of the plastic or an servoarm coming off........

Scale,
I'm planning on balancing her tomorrow, care to tell me how you went about it on yours?


I made a water bottle tank and took out the temp oneI used last weekend, it is 16.9oz fiji bottle.. I love being able to see the plumbing with the clear bottle, makes checking things nice and easy...

i will be interested to see if your batteries stay there, mine ended up in with the throttle servo. My HV servos are quite heavy though.


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ST, got ya on the servos. What motor are you running in yours again? I will let you know where my batteries end up, my hope is the ignition bat goes up forward of the tank and the RX bats end up aft the tank where the ignition bat is now.. It's a nice spot to make a battery tray, but we know that never works out like we want.. I do plan on putting smoke on it this winter, long as i feel the extra weight won't hurt how shy flies...

My CG was set per the crappy manual and it flew fine for me,, my batteries (2xA123 2300mah) were under the aft part of hatch with a Ign. pack up to on the side of the firewall box,

good luck

dle55 dla56 and pitts muffler, no ignition batts i use a tech aero IBEC on these smaller planes to save weight. 2 x4000mah lipos is heaps of reserve and redundancy.

I had a mid air with my 50cc Pitts Python. Was woundering if you knew anyone with some wings? Lower left wing to be spacific. If not I will have to rebuild it but would like to just buy a new or use one.

Got bored at the In-laws so i decided to make the plane a little more visible during low light conditions.

Wings done, ailerons and tail feathers still to go.

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how did she fly like that?
I asume you landed it as best possible, prolly fly OK,as long as the aileron is not jamming things up too much or dragging behind ?

It was hard to land. I was instantly thrown into two consecutive uncommanded rolls. Then I had to keep the plane in a knife edge till just before landing. I had to land with full down elevator on final. The bottom left wing was tilted and was forcing the aircraft up. I still can’t believe I made it back. Very fortunate for me, I thought it was going to be a total loss.