I am in the process of building this plane. actually the wing struts are drying as i type. I have 2 questions. I got 2 of the 7.2 volt 270mah batteries and it doesn't fit into the stock location. should i trim out the hole so the battery will fit or should i return these and get the correct size battery and sacrifice flying time with the smaller packs? 2nd Q: [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] The wing struts seem very flimsy! is there anything i can do to fix this without adding too much weight or is going to be fine?

Thank you
replies=appreciated

The struts are fine. Mine came warped, and I had to put them in hot water, then iron them between 2 cotton rags to get them flat. After a BUNCH of flying, crunching and repairing... I finally replaced the struts with balsa.

Cut the battery slot to allow the battery to slide forward into the cowl. The added power of an extra cell is great. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] 2 extra cells is better. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] You can widen the battery slot for the larger cells with no problem, but the heavier cells will have you wanting more power. (more cells... more weight... vicious cycle here.)

With the heavier weight of the larger cells, the wings need stiffening. In the LOWER wing only: Install 1/4 X 1/8 medium balsa parallel to the LE, (1/4 inch is vertical.) appx along the 30% chord line (high point of airfoil) from center to just outboard of the interplane struts. (you'll have to carve a bit of foam only at the dihedral break) Use the GWS glue, or yellow glue. Carve a 2 inch long piece of 3/8 X 1/4 medium balsa into a dihedral brace, (some odd angles to carve...) and glue it in with 30 min epoxy, to the rear side of the balsa spars. 80%+ of the wing flexing in flight will be eliminated. No need to do anything to the upper wing.

The little GWS motor doesn't have a lot of extra power... The Tiger flys SLOWLY. You gain altitude faster with the fuselage near level than by trying to point the nose up. It is VERY easy to fly the thing in a stalled condition and wonder why it won't climb if you are used to .40 powered trainers and higher performance planes. Think like you are flying a GLIDER (nose up is death) until you gain familiarity with the plane. Once you are familiar with it... it does some neat aerobatics.

This is not the best beginner's plane...

it was recommeded by someone that i have to cycle these batteries 3 times before i fly it the first time. just like breaking in a engine. does this need to be done? if it does can i discharge the battery by running the motor becuase i don't have any other discharger? in the instruction manual it dosen't mention anything about the recommended throws. right now the elevator is moving a good 1/2 in. each way and same with the rudder.

Cycling the new batteries by running the motor WITHOUT the prop will also run in the electric motor. Brushed motors such as the little GWS one do need to be run at high speed (unloaded with the normal pack is fine) to let the brushes "seat".

One or two non-flying cycles and the batteries will be ready for flying. The new batteries have a "memory" of not being used at all for hwevr long since they were made. Slow, deep charging and appx 20 to 30 min discharge rate has given me the best results. The ESC will stop the motor when the battery is down to the correct voltage to recharge, so it is a semi-auto discharge system.

You may notice durration increases slightly each flight the first few flights... most of that is you getting used to the plane, and getting used to throttle management of an electric plane.

I got a charger called Duratrax intellipeak pulse charger that can cycle, auto cycle for deep conditioning, quick peak charger, and discharge. I have slow charged each of the batteries once. are you saying that i should run the GWS motor without a prop for one battery life?

thanks

Correct. Set up the plane just as if you were going to fly, except leave the prop off. Run the motor until the ESC cuts the motor off. You can vary the speed some... but mostly keep it at high speed.

You only need to do this before the first time the motor is used to fly a plane. You only have to do this with a new motor, and only one or 2 battery cycles.

I am sorry for all the questions but i am new to electric indoor flight. The rudder servo came unattached on the inside what should i use to reattach it but not rip off the foam when i want to take it out. the GWS kit came with double sided foam tape and once i repositioned it once it lost its good adhesion. Duck tape would rip foam out with it so i guess duck tape won't fix everything[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Thanks, Nick

Wrap the servo with common vinyl electrical tape. (makes repositioning easier)

Buy 3M outdoor rated double-stick foam tape. Its grey, and sticks twice as well as the white stuff. Its also slightly thinner and has less flex... so the servo case moves less under load. (more positive control movement.)

You can tape the inside of the plane with clear packing tape where the servo will go, and that will act as a release layerso you can remove the double-stick foam tape without ripping the foam. (same purpose as the vinyl tape on the servo, so just do one, or the other.)

I have found that the horizontal stabilizer is not perfectly perpendicular with the fuselage. I used the GWS glue that came with the kit and it must of gotten knocked off. I have tried to bend it slightly with no results. What can i do?


Thanks, Nick

How far off from straight is it? In which direction is it out of alignment?

If its off in pitch, you should carefully remove the stab, and remount it. There's not much room for error in that direction. Fortunately, the GWS glue will peel free from the "egg carton" foam if you are careful. It'll fly with the stab off by up to 5 deg ether way... elevator can overcome it. The problem is that the plane will pitch up and down with speed changes, and that can get really bad when you go dead-stick.

If its off in yaw, no biggie up to 10 deg, or when the rudder hits the elevator, whichever is first. It'll give little roll couplng to the elevator.

If its off in roll, again up to 10 deg is not a big deal and then it would give a yaw coupling (which on that plane would roll it too...)

Generally... the stab has to be WAY off before they won't fly in a controllable manner.

if you look from the back of the plane the horizontal stabilizer is off vertically. One side is higher than the other. actually the right side is lower than the left by about .5 centimeters. you called it roll

Thanx

.5 cm? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

Heck... the foam the stab is made from doesn't get any straighter than that. Go fly. Its fine. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

I finally got it in the air at a indoor flying dome! It flies so easily. I could trim the rudder so it keeps circling and put the transmitter on the floor. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Well maybe not that easy. At this dome the only rule is to have your channel pin. So at one time there can be about 20 planes in the air at one time. On the planes third flight someone was flying a hard little plane in the wrong direction! not in the pattern. He struck the right wings and they cut directly off the plane. It was 15 feet off the floor when it happened. Luckily the same day just before it happened we picked up a Pico J-3 stick with a battery for $20. This eased the shock of losing our plane to a mid-air on the third flight. The horizontal stabilizer bent but did not come off. Do you think it will be repairable with foam CA or should i use epoxy to glue the wings back together. I know GWS makes a wing kit for $15. but i want to use what i got and try to repair it.
Moving on I have just recently read about lithium-polymer batteries and they sound really neat. anyone here ever try them?

Thanx for any help in advance

I repair my GWS planes with yellow carpenter's glue and clear packing tape.

If there's a missing section of foam, I mix 50-50 yellow glue and polyurethane glue, using tape as a backing (for one smooth surface.. on top) fill the gap with the foaming mix. When that dries, carve the underside reasonably smooth. don't bother peeling the tape (unless the plane it getting too heavy...)

What about epoxy for repairing the wings which got blasted into 4 different panels. Does it ad too much weight or does it eat the foam. Have you ever heard of Foam CA, someone reccommended this to me.


thank you

Epoxy is heavy. That's the main reason to stay away from it with these little planes.

Foam-Safe CA is expensive.

Yellow glue is cheap and it works very well. The Polyurethane glue is still less expensive than the Foam-Safe CA... but 4 times the cost of yellow glue.

I choose glues by a combnation of the loads it will have to withstand, weight for strength, and cost. When all else is equal... I go with the least expensive option.

Speed of drying is very low on my priority list. The yellow glue hasn't slowed down my building VS using CA. I can put together a 4*40 in 2 to 3 days from opening the box to first flight without using ANY CA. (and the plane is lighter and stronger than one made with CA...)

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Originally posted by: Iloveflyin
What about epoxy for repairing the wings which got blasted into 4 different panels. Does it ad too much weight or does it eat the foam. Have you ever heard of Foam CA, someone reccommended this to me.


thank you<hr></blockquote>
.
TM wings have almost no structural integrity. They're only a single bent sheet of foam, after all.
Merely rejoining the broken parts does nothing but add a stress-riser at the joint, which will take the first opportunity to break again at the same place.
If you can find some CF strip, it's worth adding a full-span spar of it to the underside of the wings.. tip-to-tip. .007"x3/8", attached with UFO CA will make the wing unbreakable in normal use.
Another trick is to add rigging per the full-scale.. This keeps the wings from bending up in flight and aids the structural strength.
Stiffening the outer struts with a thin CF rod is also popular.
Expect a short motor life on 7 cells.
But the things ARE fun to fly!

Jon- Nope i fly at the Oakland Yard Dome in Michigan. We fly every other saturday night. I got the wings patched with epoxy and packing tape. The next time we fly is this Saturday so i can see how the repair job performs. Hopefully this time with no Mid-airs!


Thanx