Sandmann_AU

Hey all.

After repairing my ridiculously expensive (in Australia) Bisson muffler that I broke about a year ago I've resurrected a plane I've not flown in ages - my Seagull Models Harmon Rocket 3. After playing with a Dual Ace running 2x.40 2 stroke Super Tigres and a Skybolt running an ASP 1.20 4 stroke I'd forgotten how much fun the zippy little Rocket (running .61 2 stroke ST) can be. I'd also forgotten just how hard it is to get this thing to slow down, and landings tend to be fairly hot, and usually much further down the runway than I'd intended!

I've got flaperons set up on this plane, but they're usually fraught with problems for obvious reasons, and I was looking at it the other day (after wiping away all the accumulated dust) and realised there's plenty of room on the trailing edges for flaps and after looking at the .40 sized Great Pains RV40 kit (from which the Rocket's derived) I found it has an option to build with flaps. So what I'm not looking for here is people telling me "you don't need flaps" etc... what I do want is ideas on if it's feasible to kit-bash flaps into this little arf without major wing reconstruction.

I've really got two options as I see it - a single servo in the middle of the wing or a pair of servos with a Y adapter. The single servo seems simpler on the surface but I end up having to solder two pushrods together and since the central joint was never designed to take a servo I'd be cutting into an area that's really part of the wing's strength... plus the flaps wouldn't come near the wing root (since the fuse is so wide) so I'd need fairly wide torque rods.

That leaves a twin servo design which shouldn't be too hard, as long as there's existing holes in the wing ribs to run servo wires (otherwise I'll have to completely strip & recover the lower wing rather than just cutting a hole big enough to brace two of the ribs and create a servo mount). I believe the wing loading's pretty light on this plane so weight shouldn't be too much of an issue. Has anyone had the wing apart to see what the ribs and trailing edge look like? Ideally I'd like to simply cut the flaps from the existing trailing edge and hinge them but it may not be so simple once I start digging.

ggraham500

My Feedback: (4)

The Horizon Hobby web site still has the product instruction manual in pdf format. You may want to check in that. Here is the link to the manual.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/ProdInfo...050_manual.pdf

I fly the RV-4 and yes, that little demon comes in fast! And I use the flaps, but you still need to come in long and low to prepare for a long landing because this wing really floats. The RealFlight simulation is very realistic and excellent for practice.

Good luck.

Sandmann_AU

Thanks for that... I actually have two copies of the HR3 manual here... I killed my first one by having too much fun too low, so bought a second. Unfortunately the manual doesn't really show anything about the structure of the wing - was hoping someone might have de-skinned one for some reason or other. I wish I still had the wreck of the old one to compare to, but there really wasn't much left of it.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Try shifting a little weight back and see if that doesn't make it land slower - A nose-heavy plane will always come in like a dart