rollo

The fuel tank on mine is mounted right behind the firewall. Then there was the rod that goes across the wings and that's where I placed the servo. If there is a battery plate there then I would just cut out a space for the servo and mount it there. The rod is flexible enough to snake through.

Sneasle

I may have to do some cutting then. The plate has been solidly reinforced as it was a very important part of the original front structure. It is cross braced under it so cutting it out would be a challenge.

IDK, I think I will do what I need to do to finish the fuse. Got a few more areas to glue, and then I need to get some 6" servo extensions for the tail servos, all I got right now are 12-24" ones, might be a bit over kill.

I will give it a balance then and see what happens. Maybe if I am lucky I will need a tad bit of nose weight.

rollo

I just took a look at the manual and where the battery is, in the pic below, I mounted my fuel tank. I drew a red arrow to the area that the servo is mounted. I used some tri-stock and then used some thick square balso as rail to mount the servo on.

Sneasle

But I bet you took the battery tray out for your tank. My tray will not be easy to remove.

rollo

Nope. My tank sits on the battery tray. I rebuilt that section just like the original since that section was not as crunched. Also doing what you did and making it a solid plate. I think what made mine successful was using a 4 oz tank that was more rectangle in shape and didn't angle up. The tube pretty much run straight into the firewall.

Here is a link to the tank I used. [link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXD715]http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXD715[/link]

Sneasle

Yo must have done something to your front area then. I am the smallest/flattest 4oz tank I could find and it runs into the former at the back of the tray. It is a sullivan flex tank, so I heated it up a bit to slide into the former, but it is still a really really tight fit.

rollo

The only thing I can think of is that I didn't put in the bracket that holds the end of the electric engine mount. So I had free room from the tube section all the way to the firewall.

Sneasle

hmmm.. can you pull the fuel tank out and take a pic for me of that entire front bay? Maybe two, one of the front bay and another one of that fuse former? I woudl greatly appreciate it .

SMUGator

I'm looking forward to seeing the duct tape deluxe trailer park graphics job. It looks pretty good in the photos.

Tom

rollo

My fuel tank is secured really well and I can't pull it out. I don't mind taking a few snaps of what I can. I feel that with the picture from the manual and mine you can understand which former I removed which is allowing me the space.

Sneasle

Ah, so you removed the former? Hmm.. I may need to go in and do something similar to that then to get the room I need.

rollo

Yea, I never built the former that the blue arrows are pointing too. You should be able to remove the same one with out that much of a fuss. Heck you can actually just cut it enough to just slip the tank in and use the former to brace the tank into place.

Sneasle

Oh, umm.. Ya.. I didn't even know that that blue former existed....... I don't have that in mine...

I thought you meant the former closer to your red arrow.

rollo

You know thinking back. I remember sanded down the one near the red arrow in order to get the tank to slide back in there more. It's still in place just a little narrow near the top par t of the former.

Sneasle

Well, that explains it. I guess I need to take the sanding bar to it a little bit.

rollo

Yea that should do it for you.

Well this weekend the weather is looking good and I should be able to make another attempt at a successful flight.

Sneasle

Ya, If I can get the throttle servo worked out I will cover the fuse and run the engine in a bit more.

rollo

Using the cable type push rod made it so much easier for me.

Well, I did happen to take a few shots of the plane before it went in so here they are. I am taking it up again this weekend so I should have some more to share.

Sneasle

Nice. Mine should be done soon. Not feeling well tnight so I haven't done much.

SMUGator

Have you tried to zoom in on any of your pics to see if the elevator halves are at different deflections in flight? I think I can see a bit of it in the last photo, but the resolution on the online pics isn't the greatest anymore.

Tom

rollo

So as it stand the funtana is a porpuse! I plus a few other have racked our brains trying to figure out what the issue could be. We have eliminated servos, and CG so we are down to thrust line or out of alignment elevator. After a quick inspection of the airplane, I am determined that it is the thrust line. You can clearly see the engine does not point in the same direction of the wings and is completely off the thrust line. The picture says a thousand words and the cause was improperly alignment of the firewall.

Solution is to shim the engine mount so the thing is straight.

mjfrederick

According to what I see in that picture you have negative incidence in the wing. An easier fix than trying to adjust the angle of the firewall or engine mount might be to just change the angle of the wing relative to the thrust line (it does have plug-in wings doesn't it?). About .5 degree positive will probably be enough.

rollo

Here are some better pictures where I lined up the aircraft and leveled it. You can see where the engine is pretty much facing down. The easy fix as I demonstrated would be to glue on a little shim and raise the engine to the proper angle easily achieved and represented by the piece of paper I used as a wedge for testing purposes.

1. Picture one is before shim
2. is after

Sneasle

Also, Keep in mind that the actual thrust line for the Funtana is VERY high up on the firewall. I have my .15 sitting on the same thrust line that the planes uses stock and your rod seems to be below that line. That, not including the possibility that you might have the engine angled down in relation to the plane, is going to cause some weird things.

SMUGator

Shim it, test fly it again, see what happens. Read test pilot's diaries and this is exactly how problems are diagnosed on experimental versions. I like this theory more than any of the others, so I'd hold everything else constant while changing the thrust line and see what happens.

Tom