kentek

I just received my MQ-9 from Nitro. It had been on order since June this year.
I am a total nooby to all things RC and this is my first my first plane EVER. So, I will be going very slow on the build out. That said, I am pretty handy and inovative on modling and I do not expect any huge tragic events, at least on the build out.

What I have found so far is that the documentation mostly sucks and there is virtually no information as to which servos and motor to use. Except for the very nice video produced by Dave Hanson and his talented wife it looks like all MQ-9 fans are left up to our own devices.
Dave's video is very good up to a point. Iwould prefer some still jpegs with close up details.
Ihave a ton of questions already and I only just unpacked this kit.

I suggest that we set up a website as a clearing house on all things releated to the MQ-9. We could use Microsoft's Spaces.live for a website and it is free. If anyone has other ideas please ake them known.
Any takers? Please PM me.

rjmanzuk Happy 70th! I will be your age in a few months.

rjmanzuk

Welcome to the club, kentek. If you read through this string, you'll note that there's one other MQ-9 REAPER build thread already. For me, two's plenty.

In my case, I'm going with an Electrifly RIMFIRE 35-48-850kv motor, and an Extreme Flight AIRBOSS Elite 60A ESC.

This will be a challenge for you as a first R/C electric ... but go slow, and do a lot of sim work and you should be fine.

Thanks for the birthday wish ... but that was back in April, and I'm half way to 71 and counting.

kentek

Greetings,

I hope you don't mind but you have a new fan. I just received a MQ-9. This is my first venture into RC. So, I go slow and slower as I don't to screw it up.
ken wood
camarillo ca
the states

crustychief

crustychief

crustychief

crustychief

rjmanzuk

Were you able to get the correct thrust angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the bird?

crustychief

papajeff

Chief,

Nice work and I really like your mod on the motor mount. Now, I am certain thatwe aregoing to
learn a lot from the Crusty Chief.

rjmanzuk

Down and right are torque compensators. Good luck trimming at zero-zero.

Only get to Miramar for airshows. Spend most of my flying time at SEFSD's field near SeaWorld (Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego: http://www.sefsd.org/ ).

crustychief

rjmanzuk

Hey, what do I know ... other than what I studied and practiced as an aeronautical engineer for about 45 years or so. Of course the only pushers I had anything to do with in my career were the GNAT-750XP, the RQ-1 Predator, and the RQ-9 Reaper. You might want to check out http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/a...apter%2004.pdf ... and drift down to the pages and paragraphs related to Torque and P-factor. I certainly do agree that it's felt most during high-power takeoff (augmented by one wheel digging into the runway more than the other, depending on whether or not it's a pusher or a puller), and also agree that benefits at cruise are minimal to the thrust offset angle. So I think bottom line is, we can agree to agree. Me? I'm offsetting mine.

crustychief

Mine flew well Saturday, no trim issues. Two clicks of elevator trim was all.

crustychief

Demigod

Bah. I liked your unedited response better.

crustychief

I thought that for a while, I talked with the thread originator about it as well. But here is another couple of pics. Check out the wing flex in the last pic!

ptmyers

Sorry for interjecting myself into your conversation. I just received my Reaper and was looking for some suggestions regarding the motor to use and maybe a photo showing how it was mounted. I am currently getting the rest of the parts together before I start the build. It's been over 25 years since I built a model and it looks like a lot has changed.

Thanks

papajeff

Chief,

Great flying photos and thank's for posting them! Also, for those of you following this thread, the
Chief has a great motor mount mod which can be found at this following link;
http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/v...planes/Reaper/

balsabuddy

OK I have mine and all it needs to fly are the wing servos which should arrive this week.

Where do I find the metal 3 blade Spinner ?

I've looked and searched and can only find a very few options.

Mine looks like it's going to weigh ~ 5.5 lbs !
But that's with a Turnagy 42 sized SK series motor
and 4S 3000 lipos.
I used the same motor on an electric Aero Tow Tug with 6 A123 cells.
It is about the same weight but out of built up Balsa and Ply.

Wing flex is expected. but I'm a little worried about it.

I am considering doing a Pod upgrade so that it swivels.
I had a coupla pieces of 1/4" Sintra in Grey and made
two circular plates out of the stuff.

I'm going to start out with My little old 900mhz Vid cam.

I've also been looking at some of those color VIDEO Monitor Rear View Mirrors
for under $100. Thinking it could Work Maybe :>}

anyway ...

Please let me know about the Spinner supplier!

rjmanzuk

Here's what I got, balsabuddy, and where I got it from.
http://www.atlantahobby.com/store/pc...-454p14101.htm

miramarrcf

any aluninum spinner will work, the one on my dads mq-9, the one with 0-0 thrust angle will work, you can go to any auto shop and get mothers alluninum polish, and you just keep polishing, if you have a polishing wheel, even better. if you really want a good result, wet sand it with 600- 1000 - 2000 grit sand paper?? i think i have to ask my dad, then hit it with aluninum polish, i prefer mothers though, and the end result will be like a mirror, any dull aluninum spinner can be polished like that you can actully save money like that instead of buying a polished one, just my 2c

also the plane flys great but dont do a loop, it looks like the wings will fold easly, fly it like a cub, not a extra 330

http://www.mothers.com/02_products/05100-05101.html

i have this camera and it has good quality, its like $20 for the camera rtr with a card, $9 for the camera with free shipping, but it takes 3 weeks to get there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXxVv8CPwDA

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...%3DI%26otn%3D1

rjmanzuk

Way too much being made out of the p-factor discussion; or, at least much more than I had intended. Peace, guys. This is supposed to be a FUN hobby.

miramarrcf

i find it quite enjoyable. im also one of the few 14yr kids in this hobby who loves to build kits. im actully building a p-51 im making lekkie

Mr. N

Hey everybody i dont remember if this was talked abt but has anyone tryed putting on retractable wheels, if not can someone try it out?That would be pretty awesome if someone did.

btw miramarrcf what size p-51 are you building, email me about your plans.