Sure is the truth... Really sneaks up on ya when your not looking

IronCross; I just got mine finished last night. With the Magnum .91 in the front, as close to the firewall as the Great Planes .60 -1.20 motor mount would allow it to go, I had to put a 6 Volt, 1500 Nicad battery pack just in front of the two rear mounted tail servos to get it balanced at 90 mm from the leading edge. This makes it slightly nose heavy, but that is what several other posts recommended.

To recap, I am using a Magnum .91 four stroke, Futaba 3305 on rudder, and 3010 on the elevator, both mounted in the rear of the fuselage. Ailerons have 3004's, same with throttle, which is mounted in the rear most opening of the servo tray, next to the FMA Direct 8 channel receiver.

I opened up the covering on the bottom of the fuselage, toward the rear and installed a platform between the third and fourth formers from the rear and velcro'ed the 5 ounce battery pack to the platform. I recovered the the access area with white covering. If I need a little more tail weight, I will make a light ply or bulsa hatch. For now, it balances perfectly level at 90mm from the front leading edge.

I used thin foam under the tank, to keep the tank as low as possible, in line with the larger engine's inverted mounting condition. The motor mount is as high as possible to maintain design thrust line and angles.

I will try to take some pictures to post this week. Weather permitting, I will try to test fly it this weekend, then post a report for everyone.

Once again, thanks to everyone for sharing your information. Hope I can continue to contribute as well.

Now gotta get my quarter scale Dynaflite SD fininshed and report on that thread as well.

Happy landings to all

MikeBoyd

Looking forward to the flight report on that one... Ought to be a blast...

Pics! Pics! And Flight video!!!!

i just ordered one, and a magnum 70 4 stroke.

The plane only comes with an 8 oz tank, are you guys using it? and if so how long of a run time are you getting from it?
how large of a tank could be put in the plane?

The 8 oz. tank should be plenty of fuel for a .70 four stroke. They don't use much fuel and 1/2 pound of fuel up front is enough additional weight in the nose. However, there is plenty of room up there for just about any size tank you want to put in.

I put a Magnum .91 4S in mine and still plan on using the 8 oz. tank. With the 23 ounce engine and heavier GP .60 - 1.20 motor mount, I ended up with two servos in the tail and a 6V NiCad battery pack in the tail to balance the plane with no additional weight.

With the .70, you could most likely get away with the lighter GP .45-.70 engine mount.

I'll try to post some pictures and other information later today. Too windy here in San Antonio to do a test flight and next weekends weather forecast isn't very promising either, so don't know when I'll be able to report on the planes performance in the air.

More to follow, good luch with your plane
[email protected]
AMA 7197

I put a Hayes 11 oz in mine... Think I had to hog it out a little to tdo it though... The Saito .56 (with a stack on it to boot) will fly longer then I can stand there... No dead sticks though.. I was planing ahead for a bigger engine though..

how long of a flight do you think i'll be able to get out of it? I'm kinda spoiled right now, I can go wide open for 15min with my kadet, it has a mag 46, and a 12 oz tank. I would like to get the same.

I'm using the GP .60-1.20 mount.
I was planning on mounting atleast one of the servo's in the rear, and probably a 6V 2500 receiver pack there also.
I'm used to around 20min of flight time, and thats what I want to get out of this one as well, So if i need to put in a bigger tank I'm going to.

I have always been told one minuet of flight takes one ounce of fuel for a 1.0 cubic inch four stroke.. This is "average" flying... So a .70 would burn approximately 3/4 ounce per minuet... This is about the only aproximation I have seen or used... Has worked pretty good so far..

I can see I'll be putting a 10oz tank in it then. I ordered a remote fill, and remote glow adapter for it, since i'm mounting the motor inverted. Any advice for mounting? I've never mounted a motor inverted, or had a 4 stroke before.

Okay, mine is done. I put a Magnum .91 four stroke on a GP .60-1.20 engine mount. Like others using a .91 four stroke, I mounted both the elevator (F3010) and Rudder (F3305) servos in the rear. I ended up with a 1500 ma, Nicad 5 cell pack in the rear to balance at 90mm from the leading edge. The planes final weight is 7.4 pounds, or about 24.3 ounce/sq. ft. wing loading, which isn't too shaby. I did not add any weight to the plane.

Now if the weatherman will just give me a decent weekend, we can see how it will fly. I have posted details on my member information. This was an extremely decent ARF for the money. Only the stars were stick on, so be careful with heat on them, they will shrivel up on you. I ended up cutting some new ones from Ultracote. My covering had allot of wrinkles when delivered. The main covering and star trails appear to be Ultracote or Oracover. I will post some pictures soon as I figure out how.

Good luck to everyone.

Mike Boyd
AMA 7197

Mike,

My PSD is out of the box and beginning to go together. I prefer to think about solutions for a bit before I pick up my scalpel so I am still evaluating the engine installation. I have both a new OS 70 II and a Saito 91 and I have to make up my mind on which one to install and how to intall it. If you have any pictures of the inverted installation I would appreciate seeing them as I am not sure if I want the sideways option or the inverted installation. Were you able to keep the thrust line on center and did the cowl fit ok with the GP 60-120 engine mount? Also, did the fuel tank end up being too high for the inverted installation. At the moment I am leaning toward the sideways installation and would welcome any comments or input from you on that choice. Which ever way I go I will post the results and pictures on this thread.

The brown truck just delivered my next plane, the Sig Sundancer 50. I got one of the first ones available from Tower and now they are out of stock again.

My apologies for all of the questions - I do enjoy the wonderful exchange of ideas and very helpful advice on this forum. Let us all know how the maiden goes.

Howard

Answered Howard by PM, hope he has fun building this great little plane!!!

just checked my tracking number, and it looks like my decathlon will be there when I get home!

Wow, I never expected to have this must response from my original post on the PSD. I haven't had a chance to fly mine again since making adjustments, but she's ready when the weather decides to cooperate. Plus I've been distracted with a couple of foamies lately too.


I'm ready to cover a set of GP .40 size floats. I intended to mount them to the PSD and fly from a nearby lake, but I'm starting to have second thoughts. The Saito 72 pulls it around nicely, but the floats are going to add extra weight and a bunch of drag, so I might have to put them on something else, like my Stinger or SuperStearman. Either way, I plan to make them removable so I can switch back and forth on a whim. Maybe rig all my planes to use them.... there's a thought.

Anybody got thoughts on floats on this plane?

-Greg

A .56 hauls mine around pretty good... I would think a .72 would be plenty for floats... Don't forget the pictures

got my PSD last nite. I cant believe how well its made for only being $119. I didnt have alot of time to mess with it, I opened the box up, made sure everything made it through shipping ok. There a couple of wrinkles on the fuse, but the heat gun will take care of that.
The wings and feathers look good. Very nice ARF, and a real steal for the price. One thing I did check was the motor mount that came with it. If I were to use one of my .46 magnum 2 strokes on it, I would have needed a larger mount, it wouldnt fit. Kinda weird since that motor is in the size range for the plane.

welp i have the wing done, and the fuse cut out for the rudder and elevator. I havent had aton of time to work on it, or else the plane would have been done by now

Was wondering if someone was going to put floats on it. I have my eye on the Goldberg decathlon, but apparently all places, including tower are backordered until late May. We have a float fly the wknd before memorial wknd and I was hoping to get the Goldberg, but now I may take a more serious look at this plane. Seems like nobody has anything bad to say about it. I like the larger ws on the goldberg, but $319 vs. $119 is a big difference in price for only a small diff. in size.

My progress at the moment

Lookin' Good! [8D]

wish i would get more time to work on it. Ive only been able to spend like 45min - 1hr at a time working on it.

Take your time. You know the saying "Haste makes Waste." or is it, "Haste makes a Bag of Sticks." I can never remember.

I know, but we're moving wed. So I would like to get it done before then