hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

Looks great! I am so looking forward to flying mine Working on it today! Lots of great info on this site for it already got the new tail wheel for it.. Thanks

eric_f

Tailwheel once again broke on landing (solder joint) sending the plane off the runway. Minor wingtip damage, but could have been worse, lol. I'd recommend to all who haven't done so to purchase a good tailwheel assembly and install it instead of the stock one, it's junk and can't track worth anyting, it will wander all over the place and eventually fail from fatigue. Mine had 20 flights or so with one repair already for the same problem

~Eric

Tom Nied

I bought the Sullivan. Wasn't sure whether to buy the 2-6lbs one or the .40-60 size, so I bought the lighter one. If its not strong enough (the wire is 1/16" ) it will be a simple swap for the mid size one because the bracket is the same.

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

Advice well taken on the tail wheel! Thanks Bob

McChiken

I just got a sullivan 2-6lbs . It seems really spungy . I put it on my Mojo and it sways a lot from side to side cause of the spring action . I have a dubro also . I think it is more stout without that spring action .
I would think the next size bigger would be more stable . Is the bigger one 4-40 wire(.094) ? I'll probly put the dubro on the Escapade.

bonebreak

I got the next step up from the 2 to 6 pound (I think 5 to 8 pounds?), and it is alot more stable than the stock one. The stock bracket had 1/16" wire on it, and that is the same for the smallest Sullivan. The next step up is 3/32" I think, and works great. No side to side movement at all.

Tom Nied

hmmm, havent opened it yet, have to go back to the Hobby Shop anyway. Think I might just swap it for the 40-60 size.

bonebreak

I would. The 1/16" one will be too weak IMO.

rcgus67

I had my first flight today with my escapade today , fx46 11-6 prop awsome flying plane, took very little to trim out, really moves along, half way through the first flight i had flutter on the elevator and rudder, luckly there was no damage, i bolted it together and yes i did tighten it and even sealed the hinges, when i got it down the tail feathers were loose and the pushrod was bent, i just got done epoxying the tail feathers together and to the fuse, i am also going to replace the clevices that connect to the horns, the pins in the clevices are to small for the holes in the horns, there is to much play in them.

Tom Nied

There's mechanical slop between the clevices and the horns? That's not right. Will have to check that out.

ArnieMaui

I would definately go with dual servos on the ailerons. The single s3003 aileron servo on my Avistar stripped and I lost her. That was after 100+ flights of wringing her out, but still a bad way to go. Is the s3004 an upgrade? I have the remaining s3003's from salvage, but afraid to use them.

I was thinking of getting another Avistar, but this Escapade looks like a good replacement.

Tom Nied

Arnie, I just finished an Avistar, my second. I had so much fun with the first I had to have another. Converted it to a taildragger and put a larger engine in it. That being said, I recently bought the Escapade and as soon as I have pending projects complete (GP Spectra E, I'm almost done), I'm going to start the Escapade.

So according to my thinking, get both. The Escapade is a much better "looker". Both I'm sure both are going to be fun. From what has been reported, I think the Escapade is going to be what I would describe as "hotter". If you've read this forum up to here, you know there are issues to check. But I think those isolated problems are pretty neat and completely workable . A lot of the guys ahead of us who have flown the Escapade have shared so much, and are to be commended for what they have reported.

From what I can tell, the Futaba S3004 is a small upgrade over the S3003. They both have nylon gears. They would be absolutely fine in the Escapade but if you've stripped out an S3003, you could consider a gear rebuild. It's actually pretty easy with the new gears set. I'm more familiar with Hitec and am putting HS-475HB Super Pro BB in mine. But I think the Futaba's you describe would be fine. Start studying servos (Servo City is a great place to do this http://www.servocity.com/index.html) and you start to get a good feel for what might work for you. Cost, speed, gear material, weight, torque, bearing type, gear type, all are things you can consider.

Sorry to hear your Avistar bit the dust, I really liked my first and brought it back to life many times.

ArnieMaui

I have read the whole thread. Great advice.

The Avistar has to be one of the best trainers. Touch and goes every 20 or 30 seconds. Bank it hard after lift-off, a few more banks and grease another touch and go…memories

Do you mean replace with the same nylon gears or metal gears? It is still hard to trust these servos.

Tom Nied

To clarify, I meant rebuild the servo with a new nylon gear set that is probably available for that servo. If you feel there maybe other issues (electrical) with the servo that you can't trust, then by all mean, replace with new servos. I like to put fresh electronics into a new plane if I can and you certainly don't want to put questionable servos or radio into a beautiful new Escapade or even a new Avistar.

The Avistar is also a good Sport flying airplane. Your description of flying circuits with repetitive takeoffs and landings, I remember also. It's a fun airplane. You just have to initially get past the incredible wrinkles on the fuselage. Mine didn't fly any worse because of the wrinkles.

bonebreak

I just got back from maidening the Escapade. What a nice flying plane. Although the wind was up around 15mph, it still handled perfectly. It has a great roll rate, and loops look great. I was having a bit of issue with getting it to stay in a knife edge, but I blame a bit of this on the wind. Inverted flight was a breeze, although I did have to give a little more down elevator than I would have thought, but this may have been from the wind also (now I think of it, it was probably the expo I had on the low rates as I never went to high rates on the elevator). I only got to fly twice, but both flights went off without a hitch. I cant wait for the wind to die down to less than 10mph so I can really put it through its paces.

For those interested, I had no issues with flutter. All the hinges are still in perfect working order. I did add a little bit of c/a to the elevator bar when I built it although it felt good and tight. I used all the hardware that came with the plane except the tailwheel. I didn't have any issue with play in the clevises as stated in a previous post. I did add some epoxy to the landing gear block/front wing mount, but didn't add any additional bracing, and it stayed good and tight.

I am running an OS .46FXi with a 11 X 6 prop, and had great vertical. I am thrilled with the performance. It does exactly what I had hoped, and is a bit more aerobatic than I thought. It is a very gentle flyer if you want it to be, and can slow down to a snails pace if you need it to. Landing was as easy as landing a trainer. Overall, I didn't see any bad habits at all. It is already one of my favorites.

Tom Nied

Great to hear. Wonderful report bonebreak. Sounds like a winner.

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

Great report! I am getting excited about trying mine! Still needs bench time, time is not easy to find right now but will have her up soon! Thanks

ptuxbury

Hey bonebreak, glad to hear your maiden went well. I actually got to maiden mine today too.

I went to the local field during my lunch break. Winds were great - probably in the 7 mph range. The field was a mess - still wet, but the near end 1/3 of it was dry enough to fly from. Nice smooth take-off, and I was up in the air. A few clicks of left aileron did it for trimming. I didn't have any issues with flutter with mine either, but I poked holes in the elevator where the joiners run and wicked CA into them.

I wasn't confident enough to do knife edges on my first flights, but I did rolls, loops, stall turns, immelmans, split-s's, and inverted flight. I stayed with low rates for these first couple of flights, and it was still pretty snappy with nice roll rates. No problems with inverted flight - a little elevator input needed to keep it level, but not too much. Since I only had 1/3 of the field to work with, I did a bunch of touch-and-goes to get a feel for landing approach and speed. I had no problems with nice slow approaches and I had nice, smooth landings well within the 1/3 of the field limit for both flights.

I'm flying a Thunder Tiger Pro 46, which had plenty of pep for this plane. I love making nice low flybys at half throttle, and then kicking it up to WOT halfway across the field. By the way, the optional cowl makes this plane look really sharp, especially on those low flybys and when it's taxiing on the ground.

The weather is supposed to be really nice the next couple of days, with low winds, so I'm going to try to get out again. A friend of mine just bought an HD camcorder that he wants to try out, so we're going to try to do some video of the next flights. Maybe I can get some of those flybys on video and post it on Youtube. I can't wait to get out again.

For those folks discussing the Sullivan tailgear, I installed the 5-12 lb model in mine, and it worked out great. Other upgrades include the threaded metal clevises, and rubber wheels instead of the foam ones that came with it. Despite my earlier concerns, right now I'm very happy with this plane.

Thanks for all of the advice, and conversations I've had on this thread. I think the build went much better because of them.

-ptux

Tom Nied

Also Excellent to hear ptux. Sounds like its a great sport flyer.

McChiken

Hey Ptuxbury , I got my dad a Thundertiger pro 46 . Its a great motor but running properly tune it spits so much goo out it almost looks like its running rich . Is your real gooey too ?

The motor I mean .

Well my Mojo is done so time to get busy on this Escapade your all raven about .

Tom Nied

Sounds right to me, but I add castor to my fuel

bonebreak

Glad to here your maiden went well also ptux!! She sure is a fun bird to fly huh?

ptuxbury

I was flying my Escapade at lunch again today, and on my 2nd flight the canopy/hatch flew off over a swamp. There is pretty much no way I'll be able to recover it.

I went to the Tower Hobbies website and they state that it's back ordered until late May! That's a bitter pill to swallow.

So my question is, can anyone who may have crashed their plane supply me with their canopy? I'm willing to pay for it. I just don't want to have to wait 2 month before I can fly this plane again.

Otherwise I'll just have to try to fabricate something on my own.

Thanks,
-ptux

bonebreak

I forgot to state that!! My canopy loves to inch forward when I start the plane with an electric starter. It seemed to do OK with the engine vibration though. I actuall put a piece of tape on my canopy at the top rear to keep it from sliding forward. I'm sorry you lost your canopy, and wish I could help. That really stinks. I do hope everyone from here out takes the extra precaution and secures it with something like tape or something. I think I may put some velcro on the back of it where the magnets are, or I may just put some tape on it like I did yesterday. I wondered if I was the only one having issues with the canopy not staying secure.

eric_f

Oh crud, i forgot to mention that too! I think it's because that's where I grip it when I turn it over with the starter. It has never crept forward on me while operating though, so I didn't think anything of it :P My battery also has to be placed perfectly on top of the tank for it to work too. Otherwise, it won't lock all the way in.