WarbirdAirRacer

My Feedback: (16)

Just checking in

jimmkeeh

OK here is mine. 18 lb. 12 oz before nose weight for the CG balancing.

The Saito 180 almost fit undwer the cowl. I put Golden Knight rocker covers on it, so they would match the gold trim.

Jim K.

jimmkeeh

In this picture you can see how little of the rocker covers potrude through the cowl

Jim K.

jimmkeeh

Picture this time?

Jim K

WhoDaMan

My Feedback: (164)

Excellent job Jim,,, very nice,

Dave

COL J

Jim,

That 180 install sure looks clean and, nice job. I would make one suggestion. I found that on my TF Stinson Reliant, I had to remove the rest of the material between the cylinders on the dummy engine. I was getting pretty hot head temps until I did that. Good luck. Now I guess we are all going to have to think seriously about TF's new Cessna 310.

Hellcat716

My Feedback: (2)

I would leave the material between the cylinders for more efficient cooling. It will work as a baffle and create more air over the cylinder. Has worked for me many times with no heating problems.

mnluz

Hey, anyone tried or willing to try a YS 120 on the TF staggerwing ?
I own a very scale TF stinson and the staggerwing would be just the perfect match.

I have the servos, a very nice YS 120 and all I need is the plane.

Tks,
Marlon (Brazil)

bluestratos

I started building my Staggerwing to day and found that the airlerons are badly warped. I was able to get 99% of it out by twisting and reheating.. but then I got to thinking.. maybe it is the wing that is warped or both. Is the incidence the same across the wing?


Also.. I have three new engines that will work in this plane.. a 35 evogt 2 (it will obviously show the head through the bottom of the cowl) a Saito 180 4 stroke (some of the heads will show and a OS 160. I know the Evo will be lots of power and it is gas so thrifty.. but what about the 180 saito, how does it compare power wise to the OS 160? Better fuel economy and a nicer sound but I want at least as much power as the 160.. your thoughts?

Best regards,
Randy

Doolittleraider

My Feedback: (72)

Which gas enigine would be best g-26 or us 41? Would the 41 fit in the cowl?

bluestratos

The cowl tapers to barely 8" across at the front, almost 10 at the firewall. Anything bigger than the OS 160 will require cutting the cowl to some degree.

I am still confused about the CG.. it says it is to be measured at the fuselage but the fairing has in inpact at this point. Can someone clarify the correct placement of the CG for me.. Best regards,
Randy

jimmkeeh

Randy,

Yes, the manual is confusing on the CG point. However, if yoiu look at earlier postings, you will see that others have used the point where the fairing and the wing make a straight line. They have flown the plane using this CG point successfully with no problems.

If you use a Great Planes CG machine, you can widen it to the point where it is under the fiberglass fairing (stronger than the built up wing) and also at the correct distance to measure the pproper CG.

Jim K

bluestratos

Thank you.. I thought that was the correct location of the CG but wanted to be sure.

I installed my retracts on the weekend, the mains were pretty straight forward, I did change to the first hole on the control horn so that the secondary doors open a bit more than 90 deg and I added a little brass tab so that when the doors are closed they stay in alignment. The tail wheel was a lot more difficult.. needed considerable modifications to work properly. I added a 1/8" x 1/8" stiffner along the leading edge of each door half and made small blocks that I bonded to the inner body to give the hinges some thing to mount to.

The doors still tend to catch the wheel just before it clears as it closes so I believe the answer is to increase the veritcal hieght of the sides on the aluminum bracket that mounts to the retractable tail wheel assembly so the doors close a little later. I am trying to find some very, very light springs to replace the elastic bands with but no luck so far. I also installed some small eye hooks at the point where the elastic band attaches to the doors so that the doors do not go over center and hang up.

I had to add a second air tank as the single one from Robart does not have enough capacity to cyle the doors more than 4 times. I get about 10 good cycles now. I made some gaskets from some dense foam I had (it was the packing from a Saito engine box) that I made donuts from and glued to the air tank mounting points .. this makes a friction fit for the tanks as they slide in and a small shot of flexible CA hold the tank into place. This allow the tanks to slide much further toward the nose and simplifies attachement. As designed the tanks had no bearing at the head due to interference from the servos for the air valve and the throttle.

prann

Yesterday I flew my plane for the first time. I have a RCS 140 up front with a 16 X 8 APC prop at around 8k rpm's. The engine is inverted and the spark plug cap is just about even with the cowling. I made a hole for it in the cowling but if I painted it red, it would be almost impossible to see. I had to add 1.75 lbs of lead on an aluminium shelf I build over the engine. Both the ignition box and the ignition battery are in front of the firewall. The receiver battery is just behind the firewall. I had installed the retractable tail wheel but uninstalled it trying to lighten the tail. The rest was built as per the instructions. The plane weighted 20 lbs. unflueled.

We fly from a 715' asphalt runway at sea level. The plane took off in around 300 ft. It was the most scalelike take off I have ever done. It flys on its wings. Do not pull it to much. The plane has nice speed in the air. I could loop it at high elevator rates with a decent sized loop, not to large. Rolls on low rates are way to slow, just perfect on high rates. Flaps worked fine. Not to much balloning which was cancelled by mixing 1/16" down elevator, just as the instructions recommended. Landings are another thing. Although I balanced the model as per instructions, it seems nose heavy to me and a friend pilot who was on vacations from flying UAV's in Irak. I may try moving the CG 1/4" rearwards. On landing, the plane drops the nose strongly resulting in balloning. On my second landing, I bounced the plane about 5' and decided for a go around. Although I was concerned on being low on power, the plane moved without problems. Of course, I was very gentle on the elevator but no wing rocking was perceived.

I would not recommend this airplane to a novice nor to anyone who has not flown a high wing loaded plane before. Built as per instructions, it is a beautiful model. If I had to build another one, I would use a bigger engine. I hate to add lead, but even by building everything as far forward as possible, I still needed the weight. I can't figure how the plane can be built lighter than 20 lbs. Since I like scale flights, I will not change the engine. I just have to let it roll down the runway. As for the OS 160 4 stroke, I have one and really believe that it has even less power than the RCS 140. I wouldn't use it. I know RC Report used one, but for emergency power, would recommend against it.

All in all, I love the plane as is.

jimmkeeh

Dear Prann,

I seems that you put a lot of weight up front. Did you set the CG 5 1/2 " from where the wing fairing meets the fuse, or where the wing and the fairing become a straight line.

See the postings above from the guys that flew it with the CG at the straight part of the wing.

Jim K

bluestratos

Wow.. I have a 160 os single, a Saito 180 or a EVO 35 that I can use. Sounds like the EVO is better suited but, between the cylinder head and the muffler I would really have to butcher the cowl up. Wieght wise the evo is about right, being 1.7 oz heavier than the OS. The other thing that I am concerned about is the small fuel tank.. appears to be a 24oz. The 160 two stroke will suck that dry pretty fast. I will play around with the EVO tonight and see if I can spin the engine on the fire wall to disguise as much of the engine and muffer as possible. I also have a brand new Brison 3.4 that has a much shorter head but due muffer (pits style) it would meaning cutting the fire wall back for clearance. (about 1"+) I guess this is possible if I engineer a pocket.. I will have to check that out as well.

Birddog-RCU

My Feedback: (62)

I won't be purchasing for a while but I'm going to put a either a Brison 2.4 or Brillelli 40 on this plane. Sounds like it flies much like a Pitts at least as far as the high wing loading and powered landings are concerned.

jimmkeeh

Whoa! Take it easy!

Did you guys look back at the postings of the flights with the OS 160 twin? Dick Petit seems to think that it flew quite nicely.

Jim K

Birddog-RCU

My Feedback: (62)

And it will fly very nice with a 2.4 as well. I'm alergic to lead weight. I'll most likely get a custom exhaust made so I don't have to hack the cowl up as much.

prann

I balanced the model at 5.5" just inside were the wing and fairing join. I used a Great Planes CG Machine. The fact that I had to add so much weight does not surprise me since the RCS 140 is the lightest gas engines I know of. I will however recheck the balance before I remove any weight and will inform you here.

I do have an OS 160 twin 4 stroke which I used on an 84" ARF Spacewalker. The model weighted around 11 lbs and was nicely powered, maybe somewhat overpowered but not enought to make me think that a model of almost twice the weight would fly comfortably. However, I have not tried it in the Staggerwing so Dick Pettit's opinion on this should be a more informed one besides the fact that he probably has build 10 times more airplanes than I have.

prann

As I mentioned before, my engine is installed inverted with a Bisson Pitts muffler. Only the spark plug cap barely shows. I do not know if you can find an inverted pitts style muffler for the Evo 35, but if you can, I do not think that you will have to expose to much through the cowling.

bluestratos

I checked my Brisen and found out it is a 2.4 (39 cc) so it is a perfect match for the plane. I mounted the engine last night and the cowl clears the engine with room to spare (inverted) but the plug will need to show a bit. The pits muffler is going to require some cutting of the firwall at the bottom to provide clearance, as the muffler will stick past the fire wall 1.2". When done it will be all hidden by the cowl with only the exhaust tubes projecting as designed. To in fill the cut out area, I think I will either take some thin wall alum tubing 2 1/4" outside diameter or so, and fit this back into the cut. The other choice will be to laminate up some fiberglass around a tube and make a custom filler. In either case, I will wrap a dowl with course sand paper and clean up the cut to create a nice concave that will match the muffler bodies shape. I doubt the cut will weaken the fire wall as only a small portion of the bottom needs to be removed (about the bottom 2", from left to right). Once I have it cut I will be able to determin if it needs any addtional reinforcing.

I also found the light springs I was looking for so I can modify the tail wheel doors to avoid the elastic bands.

Birddog-RCU

My Feedback: (62)

The Brison 2.4 fit is great news. I look forward to using the same engine and exhaust setup. It will be interesting to see how it balances but I'm thinking based on Prann's report of adding 1.75 lbs to the nose you should be close.

prann

I think you will be very pleased with your arrangement. In my case, I only removed two cylinders and the flat spot between them from the dummy engine leaving the flat spots between the removed cylinders and the rest of the engine. As for the exit, I only removed enough material to clear the muffler's exhause stacks. I have had no heating problems.

I wish you luck.

bluestratos

I cut the fire wall yesterday nite to allow clearance for the muffler. I cut a horizontal line 1 7/8" below the center line of the engine then after roughing out the cuts, I finalised them by wrapping course sand paper around a 2 1/2" cylinder and cleaned up the opening. This created a semi circle that the round muffler blody sits in allowing for good airflow all aournd. Tonight I will add some shear webs and gussets to the subframe to strenghen the area I cut away and then use thin aluminum to cover the opening. I will use liquid metal to get a good bond and the aluminum will actually add strenght due to its round shape.

One thing though, it looks as if the muffler is going to rub the cowl right at the corners so I will have to cut the cowl away abit I am sure... So close.. lol... However.. if it is just a small amount I may be able to have the muffler modified so I will have to mount the cowl first to be certain.

Best regards,
Randy