Sbach342Guy

Errr....ummm.....it's not my Revolver. It's my Sbach 342 from Pilot RC. They now offer free laser cut parts. All you pay for is shipping. They sent me enough parts to rebuild the entire front two thirds of the fuselage. They even included the sticks. There isn't much of a Pilot RC following I can find so I'm asking here. Some of you have done some pretty decent rebuilds in the past. Sorry for the technically off-topic question.

lopflyers

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Why not a whole fuse?

microdon2

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SBach -

oh, np. When I re-assemble damaged fuses (Revolver or otherwise) I'm always piecing things back together, not taking it apart. I try to recover every piece of the plane after a crash. With some patience, work, luck and the right covering the repair usually turns out pretty good (now that I've had lots of experience), thought I'm sure the planes are a wee bit heavier, with all the epoxy and such. But they seem to fly fine (I'm not doing 3D), it's cheaper than buying replacement fuses, and I enjoy the challenge.

I'm actually just finished fixing a H9 P51 150 fuse that broke in half (literally) on my maiden two weeks ago (engine cut out and I then stalled it). (Pics attached - at the field 30 mins before the crash, then the the damaged fuse (and at that point was already after some rebuilding), and now. Also had to fix some wing damage. All done now - just waiting for the replacement canopy - should be able to fly it Sunday. Looking forward to showing it to the guys who said they didn't believe I was going to rebuild it. (this one WAS my most challenging rebuild to date!)

Sbach342Guy

The fuse is damaged from having the landing gear ripped out. The landing gear is mounted to two aluminum l-brackets which are mounted inside the fuse. Oddly enough the aluminum was stronger than the ply in the fuse. It tore up the inside of the fuse pretty bad. I'll post pics in a bit.

orthobird

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ok, try the CA debonder, if not, you will need to work very slow and carefully with a dremel, and take your time, go back and forth between removing just a little at a time, and refitting it, kind of like a jig saw puzzle, til it keys in just right.  do it somewhere where you are sitting down, and you can rest your hand or wrist on something stable.  this will give you better control of the dremel.  also, use both hands when holding on to the dremel.

orthobird

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microdon, you will not believe it, but i had the same thing happen to my H9 P51 blue nose on its maiden. i wanted to cry, unlike you, i threw mine away, which, after seeing what you did, i wish i would have kept it.

microdon2

My Feedback: (47)

Ortho - sounds like we both learned the hard way that these warbirds don't glide like sport planes do! (one day I expect to be very smart from all of these painful lessons....)

Sbach342Guy

The damage is actually worse than it appears. Because of the way the fuse was damaged I need to replace almost the entire front two-thirds of it. The only part I can keep is the thin ply outer shell.

orthobird

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that is actually not that bad. i think you can do it. why don't you cut the weak parts out and on your replacement part, cut out the parts that are on wood frame of plane, and then glue bridging plywood on two sides of the surfaces gap. also, reinforce the landing gear plate.

Sbach342Guy

There isn't a landing gear plate in the same sense as there is on the Revolver. The two aluminum L-brackets are each attached to two pieces of ply which run about two-thirds the length of the fuse. One of the pieces includes the inset for the wing and the wing tube. I'll build the new structure and include some pics to help explain.

Ernie Misner

Orthobird, those are nice close-up carb pictures. How did your idle stop screw get screwed in all the way?

wjcalhoun

Mike:
The short version of the long story on the DLE55 bearings is...

Was installed in my PHP Ex260; taking off of a wet grass runway, almost ready to lift off. I hit a hidden puddle which tore off the main LG -> prop strike at WOT -> broken crank. I thought that with that significant force, the bearings might have been damaged (although they felt fine), so i decided to replace them.

I actually flew the plane 3 times after replacing the bearings, and had increasing trouble getting her to idle down. I think what happened is that the manufacturing grease in the bearings inhibited airflow through the bearing, and as it ran in, the grease was replaced by 2 cycle oil, which allowed for transfacial airflow through the bearing.

I have new DLE bearings on order.

Back on topic, my R70 is ready to go with the EagleTree instruments, so today, tomorrow, or the next day (weather permitting) I'll get out and fly her to get altitude, airspeed, and 3-axis g-force measurements.

Merry Christmas all,

Bill

orthobird

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it came that way. my mistake for not having had removed it earlier. i should haev checked that before. i obtained the engine brand new. so it came that way from DA.

lopflyers

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For the price of those DA I'd think the factory should triple check that

Luchnia

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I think this is characteristical of the higher price and quality airplanes. My EF Extra 88" has aluminum brackets build into the fuselage probably much like you have. This is what a good quality built plane is like. I think other manufacturers could do this with minimal cost too, or make it an option.

You must have hit that extremely hard as I cannot imagine what it would take to break that gear section out. I know my EF can pretty much fall out of the sky on the ground and not damage that setup! Maybe when you rebuild go in the area of the adjoining wood and do some thinned epoxy or thinned glue of your choice and do some strengthening.

VictoryRoll

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HI Bill (wjc) !

What a great reply you to my last post/questions, and yes, there were a lot of moving parts to it. I appreciate you taking the time to answer each one, effectively & clearly.. Very informative, and I love formulas and math, as I am a Mech. Eng., as well as a Computer Eng.... anyway, I appreciate your wisdom and help.

On the misaligned (from factory) pins on each wind panel... "not gonna do it !" (GHW Bush) I called the store and it will be back on the UPS truck either late today, probably Wedns. It is definately a mfr's. defect, and I should not be expected to correct that, as I am sure most of us would agree. I do have an incidence meter and could correct, but, not something I wish to do on an ARF. Additionally, some of the hardware bags were opened, and I suspect some items may be missing. I also suspect that this box/unit was probably delivered to another person, they found misaligned pin defect, sent it back, and it must have gotten mixed up with the new boxes, instead of the return to mfr. boxes/lot.

Not really happy about that, but at this time of the year, I think they are allowed a mulligan on this one. Nt cost to me, just a week to 10 days more before I get to play with it, but that will give me time to get my new PSP Mfg. engine test stand, and start my breaking-in of the Saito 100. I have a wood test stand now, and it will not handle the 100, so I get to spend more money...

I plan on doing the same with replacing CA hinges w/ the Robart 1/8th's. to all control surfaces. I pretty much use same method as you, and I too had trouble with the Gorilla glue. Changed it to epoxy as well. Question: Do you stay clear of the area in the two edges where the old half of the CA hinge is still imbedded in the edge, or do you just drill straight through them if that is the location you desire? Do you believe that I should use 6 hinges per control surface w/ this setup? I am a person like yourself, that beleieves in going over the recommended/typical install requirements, like you stated for servos torque, I do the same, so I am thinking of following your lead/suggestion on the number of the 1/8th Robarts. Do you agree?

Thanks for everything Bill!

Merry Christmas,


Don

wjcalhoun

Hi Don
I avoid the areas that had CA hinges in them, because it is very hard, and the drill bit tends to wander off if one tries to drill into it. The specific location along the aileron, or rudder, or elevator, is not so consequential in my opinion, so i place the hinge where i know i can get a clean hole in the direction i want it to go.

I built my R70 with 5 per surface, and I had a failure at the outboard edge (gorilla glue) during a KE spin. Might not have happened with epoxy.

As i look at bigger birds (my 3 50cc planes for example) the outboard end, and inboard end hinges are doubled - maybe 2-3" apart, and the other two or three are spaced out along the control surface. Honestly, I think 5 equally spaced robarts would be fine if installed properly with 30 min epoxy, but if you want 6, that would be fine also; not much weight.

I think you are probably correct to send the airframe back; if the AR pins are misaligned, one might wonder whether the builder got other frame members out of place in the construction jig, and the plane may be out of true elsewhere also.

Best,
Bill

Sbach342Guy

It was a dead stick landing. Plane bounced back up 6' or so and come back down at a 45 degree angle...right on the gear. I didn't expect it to carry quite so much speed considering how far out I was when the engine died. I was running out of runway and had to bring her down. Much better than a total loss.

SigMan

My Feedback: (21)

sorry to hear about your loss. getting ready to start on mine soon. post some pics if you can. thanks.

Ernie Misner

On my smaller planes I have used 1/4-20 nylon bolts for the landing gear. They nylon bolts would give way before it would break out the fuse. There might be a way of doing that on the larger planes?

Sbach342Guy

I'd worry about how much more damage you might do. One of the times I ripped the gear out of the Revolver the stabs were both torn in half by the gear.

microdon2

My Feedback: (47)

I agree with SBach. Letting the gear rip off may cause more damage. Build it strong enough and you'll never worry about your gear again.

Ernie Misner

The nylon bolts do work great on smaller planes. I'm sure you are right that a system like isn't workable for large gassers although it would be more along the line of aluminum bolts. As Murphy would have it I don't think I ever had a real hard landing after going to the nylon bolts on those planes.

lopflyers

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Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas Club Revolver

Luchnia

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With over 6000 post in this thread one would think the Rev 70 is a popular bird!