tsixber

Hi all,
I just found this wonderful little plane at my local TRU and it is my best micro RC so far. I've had AA bipe (modified to SW and extended) and still fly a very old AA jet, (extended wing) but now I only like flying the Siverlit SW. I get at lease 9 min airtime, but I don't fly at top speed all the time.
My plane did the crazy sideways and into the ground thing when I first got it, so I taped a small washer to one wing to get that turn out. Then I found that if I just bent the tail down it would fly great without all the stalls. I first tried to add weight to the front but then realized the problem wasn't balance it was the angle of the elevator in relation to the main wing. I have had to re-bend the tail for each flight cause is slowly returns to wrong position over time but it's quick enough fix. You can over-bend it and make the plane nose dive into the ground, but the happy spot is very easy to find really.
I thinks I'm going to go buy another one for spare parts and such. Only $19 at TRU and they will take it right back if it don't work.
I would like to put an elevator control but it's not really necessary because the SW has so much power. It climbs great with highest throttle setting and dives right down with no throttle, once you get the tail angle straight that is.

Cheers,
Tim

Neurotex

Great lil plane ain't it!?
Only problem I've heard about, and it happened to one of mine, is
that the actuator response in the RX burns out. You'll loose rudder
control but can still fly it as a throttled free flight- or strip it for parts.
The other one I have hasn't had any problems.

DGrant

My Feedback: (4)

Glad I found this thread.. really in just searching the WWW for one of these SW planes. I didn't even know they existed.. in our yearly raid of TRU for our Xmas shopping(kids, grandkids, neices, nephews).. I saw these on the shelf.. a whole bunch of them. The nephews always love to check out my planes(RC planes as most of us know them).. so I thought these would be perfect for them.
The kids opened them and instantly were taken by them.. it was like a "real" RC plane to them.. so off to the park we went..
They wanted to try them themselves.. so after a brief groundschool(I'd never flown one this small either).. we got one up.. then down. It was decided that I would take the pilots seat until we had it figured out.... you know what?? After some tweaking(wings, tail) to get it to fly straight.. those things are a BLAST!!.. I explained to them about backing off the throttle, keeping it in sight, and trying to keep it within reasonable distance.. these boys took to them immediately.. I think I might have set the hook that they've been nibbling on most of thier life knowing about my planes.. now they know why I fly!
ANYWAYS.. I want to get a few more for the family.. my wife really wants one... and it's something that I know she could do all by herself.. I can't find them here though.. the TRU had 10 of them.. one person bought all 10.. just 15min before I got there.... I keep going back, and have at least 3times a week...they can't keep them in stock.... they are that fun. I was hooked... and still am. I've got GiantScale RC sitting here, and have found these small things really bring back the fun in it... with no stress at all about loosing anything near and dear... have fun. Wish me luck in finding a few of these things.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

dgrant, isnt it fun when things work out far better than your expectations? its always good when the youngsters can get involved too. one of the other fun things about the SW, like the AA, is you can build tons of planes from their parts. i finished this one last night, called the Smiley (a member on RCG drew it up). i'm using the SWs RX and motor/gearbox/prop, the actuator is my own, and the battery is a 130mah from an AA. wingspan is 13.5 inches, empty airframe weight was 8.3 grams, and my AUW is sitting pretty at 20.1 grams.

its maiden was about 15 minutes ago and was quite pleased to see it cruise away gently. everything on this plane is smooth, turns, ascent, decent, very docile. pretty cool plane, i'll probably color it at some point and add the landing gear, but for now its working pleanty well.

nick

Neurotex

Nice job on the Smiley! Seems a good match for the SW.
I thought you quit building there for a minute...

How do you go about lengthening the actuator wires?
I tried soldering but the solder won't stick to the wire. I noticed
that this hair like wire has an insulating coating on them. Even
after stripping this off the solder still won't stick. What gives?

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

thanks

actually, i had stopped building for a while. i did that 15" stryker the other day, but other than that i hadnt built anything for quite a while. slumps come and go, but balsa lasts forever

i've had the same problem with the coating on the magnet wire like you're having. i found that my 15W iron didnt get hot enough to actually burn the coating off well enough for the solder to stick. if i use my old Weller 30W iron, it'll melt the coating off in a heartbeat and the solder sticks like glue. if you've got a low watt iron only, try using some sand paper to scuff up the end of the wire, the get a little solder blob on the iron and dip the wire into the solder. it should melt it off enough to make it stick that way. some solder flux might help too if you've got it.

i got a video in of the Smiley today, but i've having problems with windows movie maker. i'll post it when i get it all sorted out.

nick

Neurotex

That Smiley is begg'in for some wild color scheme!
I noticed how high the stab is set. Looks very stable.

The soldering iron might be the problem. Like you said not hot enough.
Also I was using a bic lighter to melt the coating and that might be causing
soot or dirt. I'll get a better flux and clean up the iron to make it hotter and
try again. Thanks!

Vid!

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

another member on RCG did a little work on one of the pictures to give it that Mr Yuck look i was looking for. looks pretty sweet! the yellow one is the original, the Smiley, of course

i've tried the lighter trick too for getting the coating off the wires. i found the same problem, the melted coating made it just as impossible to solder anything to it. at one point i had used a lighter to burn it off, and then scraped off the burnt stuff with sandpaper. it worked a little better, but i'm sure it was still a pretty dirty solder joint. at some point i'd like to get a nice variable temp soldering iron, that would be quite convenient.

movie maker still isnt cooperating, i'm thinking about putting it on youtube or something, but i'll try it again tomarrow first.

nick

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

here's a little Gee Bee i did last night and today. 7.5" wingspan, 10.3 gram AUW, 6mm long can AA Jet motor and prop, 50mah lipo, SW RX and a .6 gram remote actuator for the rudder. no test flights as of yet, too windy and cold. the color was applied in a new way, using a can of compressed air to basically blow ink out of the tip of a marker. its incredibly crude, but seems to work great with a neglegible weight gain. i think its my new favorite way to get color on the planes (though larger planes would be a pain to do as it takes a bit of time to color this way).

it was meant for indoor, in a large room or gym, but my wingloading might be a bit too high for anything other than a gym (2.5oz/sq ft). it should handle a bit of wind though with its weight, and the motor/prop/lipo combo really seem to put some good thrust. i think i need to win the lottery and build myself a giant indoor stadium! the last picture is of the "airbrush" i used for the coloring, just a couple peices of balsa, some CA glue and a marker. next step with that will be to find a differant way to get the air flow, the compressed air can isnt the best for the job, but maybe a fish tank airpump will suffice.

nick

Ayrton S

Nice, Micro!

Good to see the famous Brown Sweatshirt in action again

What motor/prop combo is that????

Cheers

Ayrton

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

thanks, Ayrton

the motor is from the AA Jet, as is the prop. i knew i was going to be close to 10 grams when i was finished so i wanted to make sure i had the extra oomph to stay airborn.

this poor old sweatshirt is nearing the end of its life i think, i had to get a new Carharrt jacket this winter too. they're both so well broken in and comfy, but too many holes!!

nick

JDNus

Sorry about the subject change.... I figured out why my propeller isn't running properly: the gear which is directly attached to the engine (the smaller gear) is shreaded, so the teeth aren't grabbing the other gear properly. Any idea where I can get a replacement gear? What do I look for exactly? Thanks.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

JDNus,
the gear you're reffering to is called the pinion gear. the pinion that comes in the SWs gearbox has 9 teeth and a mod 3 pitch (pitch is the angle of the teeth and distance between them). you'll need to find a pinion that has 8 to 10 teeth, any more or less and performance of the plane will change. you can find this kind of gear on all sorts of tiny RC cars or other small motor driven devices.

you can buy one if you prefer from here: http://www.bphobbies.com/view.asp?id=V872120 scroll down to the selection of white Didel 9 tooth pinions. i'm not 100% sure on the bore, but the motors shaft is around .75mm, but just to be on the safe side i'd get a few differant sizes. otherwise, get one of the small bore ones, like the .61mm bore pinion and then you can ream it out till it has a good fit.

nick

JDNus

oh wow! That's great! thank you for your help.

WingedWarrior

Does anyone know if these planes (silverlit r/c single wing) are still being sold? I've been checking my local TRU for the last month and they never seem to have any in stock. I broke the actuator wires on my first one when the vertical stabilizer popped off in a crash and one of the wires broke too close to the foam to resolder it. I really love these planes but can't find them anymore. Anybody know if they are still available?

Also, does anybody know if they make some kind of electrically conductive tape so i could try to repair my SW plane with that instead of a soldering iron? Thanks!

JDNus

Try QVC
http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/app.detail

W.A.S.P.S-Flyer

Im Currently building my own plane for the sw's electronics. My sw has been not flying lately due to a wire breaking inside the actuator when it crashed tail first. I decided i would try to wind my own actuator so i ripped apart an old 130 motor i had lying around and unraveled a bunch of wire off the armature and wound it up. I had a little trouble getting the coating off the wire myself when i soldered my actuator on but its on there and it works! Here is the page that the plans are on of the plane that im building- [link=http://www.mindspring.com/~thayer5/ffpages/plans/baxter.html]click[/link] Its the XE5. Ive built it before and it flew wonderfly rubber powered until it got stuck in a tree and was left there for about a month of rain and wind.

H8SUVS

I went into TRU looking for Havoc Heli's for my cousins and walked out with Two SW's for myself as well. I actually like this plane a lot more than my AA's because of the speed. They are tail heavy but a penny under the nose fixed that right up. After that flight I realized that I had a spare set of landing gear from a rubber powerd balsa model (the $3.00 Guillows kind). I taped it on and took the penny off and the plane is a blast to fly! It'll do ROG no problem and it's really hard to stall, it turns way smoother too. Landing is kinda tricky since the landing gear is a little too soft for the weight of the plane. But if you bring it in nice and smooth and blip the throttle before touchdown it's possible to get a really nice landing. These planes rock!

Now to change out the battery for an old AA Lipo.[&:]

If I were to switch the batteries, can I simply hook it up to the old NiMH connector and still charge from the TX?

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

the SWs TX is meant for NiMH batteries, so it wouldnt be good for charging lipos. you could probably use an AA TX to charge it though. might want to double check the polarity of the charging plugs, just in case.

nick

Neurotex

hey, the gee bee looks great!
What did you use for the rudder actuator and push rod? I looked
the pic over & over but can't figure out what you did there to make
it work.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

looks like i need to retract my statement! http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=646817

thanks, Neurotex, this poor bird has yet to see any real air time yet, its driving me nuts! i used an old .6 gram eflightdesign remote actuator (first actuator i ever bought, 2 years ago, still going strong). a bit of CF rod and some copper wire for the control rod and she's all set. i hadnt used a remote actuator in a while, i forgot how easy they are to set up compared to a BIRD/in hinge type. when the snow is all gone and its not so cold, she'll get her maiden.

nick

Neurotex

Thanks, I like this servo set up much better than the stock also.
.6 grams is unbelievable.
I haven't had much luck with the actuator in the rudder.
My next project is going to be a micro plane with a 5" or 6" wingspan
to see how small & light I can build one. I'll worry about what to put in
it later.
I need to get another one of these Single Wings too. With the way they
fly that Gee Bee should really scoot!

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

back when i bought that remote actuator, .6 grams was a pretty good weight. now-days its considered bloated (mostly thanks to people like Nick Leichty and his tiny .15 gram remote acts). but, they still work quite well, so i certainly got my moneys worth from them - too bad they havent sold them for about a year now. the in hinge type are good for keeping the weight low, but making the hinge flexable enough and the magnet/coil lined up can be a major pain in the butt. the only problems with remote acts is getting the linkage proper leangth. but with some brass wire, cf rod, and some heat shrink tubing, its not too bad.

any design plans for your 5-6 inch model? with the SWs RX, a 50mah lipo from a picco heli, and a 6mm motor/prop from an AA, you can build a pretty small plane. the gee bee will probably be kinda quick, but i'm sure i've had quicker

nick

Neurotex

I thought the .6 was light but .15? It seems I've got some research to do.
That's good way to adjust the push rod. You could also make a fine tuning
adjustment on a servo mount. But then that might add a little extra weight.

I'm drawing up some plans for the micro plane. The wing ribs might be basswood
sanded very thin to 1mm with a 2mm thickness then coated with an epoxy. It's
super light and very strong, almost like carbon fiber. The problem is CA glue
doesn't bond to it the way I want it to.

With the Gee Bee maybe a larger prop will speed it up some. Have you tried
making any basswood props? The one I made puts out some thrust especially
after I sanded some undercambering into it. I was thinking of making two fat
blade props for the Demoiselle since the plastic props don't look vintage enough.
For the Gee Bee one prop wouldn't be hard at all to make.

W.A.S.P.S-Flyer

How big of a motor can the sw's reciever handle? Also, My charger's lowest amp setting is .2 amps so i cant charge any thing thats under 200mah. I want to build one of those small planes like nick's gee-bee but a 220mah lipo would be almost as heavy as the stock battery.