Wish me luck!
 

Okay, here's the deal: Saturday I go to the flying field to fly my plane for the first time!

As a little background to how I got to this point, here's what I've been doing for the last couple of months (I started researching first week of January). I started off researching things online (of course) and eventually found my way to RCU. After deciding I was definitely going to do this, I joined the AMA. Then I started talking to people in the nearest club. Once I knew where I was going, I did some research on things I found in the RCU Marketplace and made purchases.

I've had my plane for almost two weeks now. I bought this plane in the market, and got it fairly quickly. I then started looking for an engine and electronics. Eventually, I found my way to this engine and just received it Monday (it runs great by the way). At the same time, I found this electronics package and it arrives today. If all goes well, I will have a fully functional trainer in a day or two (by Friday at least) and have everything ready for my first flight on Saturday!

And before anyone asks, my first flight(s) will be with an instructor. That was part of what I accomplished by going out to the local club and introducing myself. My first visit was actually to their Valentine's Fun Fly, and that was a lot of fun. I've met many of the members, and have enjoyed the few visits I've made to the field (a nice paved one, by the way). That's something else I did this week; I joined the Eglin Areomodellers! One of the members runs the only really local shop out of his garage, and I went by to pick up some finishing items and paid my dues at the same time.

For those of you who don't feel like clicking the links above, here's what I got:

Megatech Nitro Capitol Flyer
Tower Hobbies .46 BB ABC
JR XF421 (full package with TX, RX, servos, batteries, extension and charger)

As it says in the subject: Wish me luck! :D

RE: Wish me luck!
 

good luck! let us know how it goes.

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Don't worry, I'll definitely be posting Saturday afternoon when I get back from the field. Good or bad, I'll have to share it with someone! :)

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Sounds like you are on the right track......remember this is fun.....

don't stress.... and enjoy!!!

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Good to see you have done your research and joined a club with proper instruction. You have excellent opportunities ahead. Listen carefully to your instructor and let him help you sift thru the many "suggestions" the other members will give you. Virtually all fliers (including myself) volunteer more information than you will be able to absorb at first.

Welcome to the madness. :) And of course, GOOD LUCK!!

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Welcome to RC flight and RCU.

While many might not have made recomendations for the things you've bought, they'll work just fine for getting started, AND you bought them at reasonable prices. ;)

Sounds like you also found a great club, so there's not much else to say except Good Luck and Have FUN!
Dennis-

RE: Wish me luck!
 

I actually got the electronics package for less than what the marketplace price was... but I won't say how much less. :)

And thanks everyone for the well-wishing! I'll post a pic of the assembled model when I get home this afternoon (assuming UPS delivers those electronics on time and I install the servos!).

RE: Wish me luck!
 

I will be in your position in a month or two. I'm all set up with my plane and gear, now for this Wisconsin weather to get better...:(

Good luck and you better post how it went!!

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Maybe give one off the club members a call before the weekend and see if there is a JR buddy box at the field. Training can be tricky withoou a buddy box! [8D]

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Good luck with your setup and learning how to fly.

A word of advise.

Tower 46 engines are very prone to air leaks around the backplate, carb and front bearing. They also do not like to shut off with the transmitter due to the air leaks (takes about 30 seconds to shut down). Except for that they are very powerful engines for a 46.

Nothing you can do about the front bearing, however, I suggest pulling the backplate and sealing it with some silicone, same with the carb.

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Good luck with your setup and learning how to fly.

A word of advise.

Tower 46 engines are very prone to air leaks around the backplate, carb and front bearing. They also do not like to shut off with the transmitter due to the air leaks (takes about 30 seconds to shut down). Except for that they are very powerful engines for a 46.

Nothing you can do about the front bearing, however, I suggest pulling the backplate and sealing it with some silicone, same with the carb.

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Okay, I lied about the picture. Turns out the batteries in my camera are dead.... Oops.

So... I'll take pictures before it maidens this Saturday. Odds are it'll look best before it ever flies. ;)

And I'll definitely be posting to let everyone know how it goes!

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Heres an update:

I received the electronics package yesterday (all in good working order). I went to the local hobby shop (only open Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays since it's a garage business) and bought new servo arms, just to be safe. While I was installing all the control linkages, I found that the Z-bend on the aileron control rods was too tight to fit the servo arms. So I tried to rebend them. See where this is going yet? Long story short, I'll be revisiting the hobby shop Friday to buy some threaded rods to make new control rods for the ailerons. Oh well.

That said, at least everything else is hooked up and functioning. I'm going to tune the engine when I get home today, since I now have throttle control! As a side note, I have bench run the engine and it seems to be in fine shape, but I want to tune it on the airframe.

I'll post again on Saturday to let everyone know how it goes! Pictures will be included!

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Too tight in what way? Were the rods too thick to fit into the holes in the servo arm? If so, there's no need to go to the hobby shop. This is a common. It's impossible for the servo manufacturer to know what diameter you will be using for the control rods. Since a hole that's too large would allow movement, they err on the small side. When you encounter this situation, you just need to enlarge the hole. Do it a little at a time to make sure you do not make it too large.

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Not the hole size... maybe I didn't explain well. The Z-bend that was premade in the control rod that came with my ARF was too tight. Ummm... okay, if you're looking at it from the side, left to right you'd have horizontal then a 90 degree bend down to vertical and then the final 90 degree bend to right back to same horizontal plane but a bit lower. The vertical part of that bend was not as tall as the servo arm is thick, and therefore would not fit no matter how big the servo arm holes got. I suppose I could have thinned the servo arm, but that didn't seem like the best idea. Did that explanation make any more sense? Basically, the horizontal parts of the Z-bend didn't have enough room between them for the servo arm to fit.

Let me know if I'm still confusing, as I'm beginning to confuse myself. ;)

EDIT: I have attempted to illustrate this... let me know if it makes sense.

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Oh yeah, and I do need to go to the hobby shop as I broke off the original Z-bends and the rods are too short now. Though I suppose I could mount the aileron servo so the servo arm is nearer the control horns and rebend what I have... hmmm, that may work. Of course, I'll have to remember to reverse that channel on my TX. :)

The original servo installation had the servo mounted so the arm was further away from the control surfaces. If I turn it around, I'll gain an inch or so and then can use the remaining lengths of control rod without having to get more... I'm liking this more and more as I think about it. What do you all think? Will that be safe?

RE: Wish me luck!
 

It would be safe and there will be no need to reverse the servo rotation. Think about it for a minute and you will realize that you are simply moving the shaft to the rear. All should be fine. You could also just make a simple "L" bend and put a "ez link" or small wheel collar on the end of the wire instead of a "Z" bend. Very easy to do. The wire is "tempered" in such a way that it does not like to be rebent several times without failing. Make your bends within the adjustment range of the clevis's or whatever other adjusters you have on the other end of the wire.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXAZC3&P=0

I would prefer the wheel collar myself. :D

RE: Wish me luck!
 

But I have to take the servo out and turn it around to have it mounted where the shaft is nearer the control surfaces. So wouldn't that change the way the control surfaces are deflected and require channel reversal? Either way (reversal or not) it's not a big deal. Just leave it alone, or make a couple button pushes on my radio and I'm done. I guess I'll figure it out once I've done it. :D

And your idea with the L-bend and EZ-link or collar makes sense, but I want to avoid having to go to the hobby shop again if I can. Although, if I can find them I think I had a couple of EZ-links... so maybe I'll do that. An L-bend is definitely easier to make than a Z-bend. ;)

Thanks for the ideas!

Edited for typos... [:'(]

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Turning the servo around does NOT change the direction of ROTATION of the shaft as viewed from the top. Assuming it was correct before, it will still be correct. CW rotation will still be CW rotation. You'll see when you hook it up.

Since the distance from the aileron will be shorter the old rods should work with new bends.

Your instructor will give the entire plane a good looking over before you fly. If not, ask for a new instructor. An instructor for a first time pilot and a new plane should ALWAYS look over the plane. Make sure all the batteries are well charged the night before too.
I'v been doing this for many years now and I still have 1 or 2 of the guys look over my planes before I fly to see if they see something they don't like. I may disagree with them but I respect their opinions, and it has saved me a plane before. We ALL make mistakes. Oops, did I admit that? [:'(]

RE: Wish me luck!
 

I stand corrected. Well, I sit corrected, but you know what I mean. ;)

I'm a visual kinda guy, so I had a hard time picturing the control as being the same either way the servo faced. However, when I went and did it I saw immediately that you were correct. Like I said, I'm visual. Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it. Oh yeah, the L-bend with an EZ-link worked just fine (I have functioning ailerons now!).

Well, tomorrow's the big day! I've got things all setup with my instructor, and I'm going to keep messing with the engine when I get home from work today. I'd like to have it somewhere near tuned if I can. :)

I'll take advice on that from anyone so feel free!

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Don't over tweak the engine. Chances are it isn't too far off, but you can sure mess it up with a little tuning. Then your instructor may need to spend a lot of time getting it right. You'll be OK if you leave idle mixture for him to show you how to adjust. You can just tweak on hi-speed mixture a little and break in the engine a bit. Follow mfg recommendations for break-in. Allow engine to cool between runs. If in plane, make sure plane is tied down securely.

Let me repeat myself: CHARGE ALL BATTERIES OVERNITE TONIGHT!!!!

Enjoy your flying tomorrow. We're supposed to have 70 degrees, calm air and partly cloudy, great weather

RE: Wish me luck!
 

The weather's loking pretty nice here too. Though it may be a tad breezy. And I need to 'fess up... I'm not really going to tune the engine much (if any) today. I just want a reason to sit outside and run it. :D

And don't worry, before I go to bed tonight EVERYTHING gets plugged in. Even the glow-plug ignitor. I'd hate to have the instructor tell me my plane is perfectly flight ready, but the RX battery is too low (he checks his at the field, so I'm guessing he'll check mine too).

Less than 24 hours away now!!! I'm already getting excited. :eek:

Next posting will include pictures!

RE: Wish me luck!
 

We're looking forward to good news and good pictures. Whatever happens, have fun!!

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Well, here's a little pre-flight photography. Quite a while before flight, but hey I've got the camera batteries now so why not? :)

EDIT: I should have Photoshopped the junk out of my garage... please ignore! The big bag things hanging by the plane are folding bazaar chairs... kinda cool actually, they have armrests and cup holders. :D

RE: Wish me luck!
 

Should work!