So after my lesson on the club trainer I set out in earnest to get my Tower Trainer built. So far I have done everything except put the wing and tailfin together. The quality of the kit is excellent and the pieces are going together just as they should! Tomorrow I'll be constructing my engine test stand so that I can break in my Magnum XLS .46 appropriately. I should be able to get the plane done this weekend and then next week it'll be off to flight school, more practice landings, and solo flight!

Thankfully my instructor said he would do the first check flight on my plane to make sure everything was assembled correctly and that the plane flies right.

*I AM SO EXCITED!!!!*

The TT40 will fly much better if you can turn using ailerons "and" rudder... night and day difference due to all the dihedral. Practice that on club trainer if needed. Here is mine.. the plane is very strong. I rounded the tips, I have a ST.40 in mine so your 46 will be plenty... i have since moved onto the four star...


Mike

Don't waste time building a test stand to break in the engine. Put it on your plane and break it in on the plane. It has everything you need to do it. All you have to do is restrain the plane during the engine run. I use padded stakes in the ground. There are other methods.

I stuck a new OS 40 FX on a goldberg falcon lll with no break in and got over 650 flights out of it before I sold it!

I just ran it a little on the rich side starting out.

I wanted to use my fuel in the air, not on the ground.

Yeah, as pointed out, you may go ahead and break it in on the plane using the restraint system MrStang described. As for just flying it without breaking it in, this all depends on the engine. Some will just not run right until they have three or four tanks through them (some more than that).

What I do is simply mount it on the airframe and take it out to the field and burn fuel through the engine, following the manufacturers instructions on how to do this... usually run on the rich side for several tanks and go with it.

I use the very rich ("four stroke sounds") and alternate very rich for about a minute at full throttle, then lean it out for about 10 seconds, then back to very rich and cycle this through the tank. After it burns out the tank, let it cool for a while then fuel it up and do it again. At some point, it will begin to transition from idle to full throttle very cleanly and give good power and RPM at the rich side of lean. I run it for several flights on this rich side of lean, then adjust it to fly for the best performance but even at that, slightly rich (maybe 300 RPM down from lean at full throttle).

You will still have to work out the transition on some engines, which requires you to "play" with the low speed mixture, but once you have that set so that you don't load up at idle and transition from idle to full without hesitation, well, you are good to go (for low end). High end requires some adjustment from day to day, usually minor in nature, perhaps a couple clicks one way or another, but it is usually done before the first flight of the day and remains that way all day.

As far as the Tower Trainer 40 is concerned, it is a good trainer. I had one and enjoyed it. I sold it in favor of the Hobbico Nexstar Select (why, I don't know.. don't ask.. but I did and solo'ed with the Nexstar). It (the Tower 40) flew just fine, but was a tad smaller than the Nexstar (perhaps why I opted for it) and thus more visible.

Bests of luck with that. You should enjoy it.. don't forget.. work with an instructor!!!


CGr

I do like CGRetired suggested.
2 tanks are enough for me. the cost of a gallon of fuel and factoring in a 10 oz. tank you are talking about $2. A small price to pay to protect your investment.

I do the same. Usually two tanks on the ground, then just fly a little rich for several tanks. On some of my engines, particularly the LA series engines, they take at least two tanks before they will idle. They will die below half throttle for a couple of tanks, and they really sound terrible, but after a couple of tanks, they settle right in and idle beautifully.

My FX engines, on the other hand, would idle on the first tank. I run two tanks through them on the ground anyway, before flying.

The Evolution .45 on my trainer took about three tanks before I got a reliable idle from it.

My other engines are Super Tigres, and they seem to require 3-4 tanks on the ground before they start to run reliably. I probably still haven't completely broken those in yet.

And I agree that an engine stand is not worth the effort, especially on these smaller engines. I have used a piece of flex tubing to keep the exhaust pointed down at the ground to save on cleanup.

Broke in the motor today. It idled from the get go. Ran it for around 30 minutes starting at 2.5 turns and then ended up at 1.25 turns. Runs awesome, idles awesome, I will just have to play with the idle mixture to help with transitions.

I also break mine in on the plane staked to the ground. I use the exhaust deflector and also use cling wrap on the plane and tail fins that way when I've run 3-4 tanks of fuel through it, I remove the wrap and only have to wipe a little oil off it.