Okay I am a 16 year old noob at building airplanes and a good friend gave me a TumbleWatt to get me started. I cant build it with the directions i have so if there is someone who knows the tumbwatt and will accept questions or strait up rewrite the instructions so there in "tumblewatt for dummies" format i would appreciate it greatly!!!

That kit is not for someone who has never build any other models before. For help, go to the designer- [email protected]/

I e-mail him and he is not willing to help.. so if there is someone out there please help me. I will greatly appreciate it

Hang in there Coreysnyder, I have a tumblewatt on the way (should be here in a few days) I'm by no means an experienced builder but I have a few balsa kits under my belt. In the mean time you can start with the questions and hopefully I can answer them, or at least get you in the right direction. Hercules

I am working on one myself.  My questions are to the connecting of the electronics.  Not many "keyed" connectors and there are 5 wires on the speed controller.  Is there anywhere to get an explanation on what signals are on these wires and a chart how-to on connecting the correct wires to each other?

G'day

Can you post a photo of the Electronic Speed Controller (ESC).

A "normal" brushless speed controller has the following connections -

1. A three wire connector like a servo connector which goes to the throttle channel on your receiver. The three wires are Signal (white or yellow or orange) and the two others are the power (red or brown for positive) and black for negative

2. There are two thick wires for connection to the battery. Usually Red for positive and Black for negative.

3. There are three thick wires to the motor - one for each phase. Connect them up any way and try them. If the motor runs in reverse, simply swap any two wires and it will be correct.

Most lower powered speed controllers also contain a Battery Elimination Circuit (BEC) which regulates the battery voltage down from, say, 11.1 volts to something under 6 volts for the receiver. The power to the receiver is delivered via the small three wire cable mentioned in #1 above. No additional battery for the receiver is needed.

BUT. Some higher powered ESCs do not include a BEC circuit and you do need to use a receiver battery. I would be surprised if you need to with this model.

Does this help at all?

G'day again

I just found the TumbleWatt site. That is NOT a beginner's plane. Not unless you have been playing on a simulator for several months and even then it would be just about impossible to get it to fly without crashing it.

To get it to fly, you would need to set it up with VERY tame control throws or you would risk re-kitting it very smartly.

Have you flown before? If not, then you need a high wing trainer that has some stability built in. The TumbleWatt is designed for aerobatics and is therefore designed to be only minimally stable.

Sorry for putting the dampers on but if you try to fly that plane as a first plane, I would give you about 1 chance in 1000 of being successful.

If you can get some help from an existing pilot and use a buddy box setup then you would have some chance.

So what happened to this discussion? Did you ever finish the model?
I've been building models for about 14 years, and this is some fun to build.
Actually not too bad if you have some of the correct building stuff, like a building board on a building board of at lease 2' by 4' and are familiar with using thin CA for glue.
If you actually did finish the TW, I'd be interested to see some photos.
Pete