burtona

My Feedback: (50)

I'm putting my Sickle together too and I use the Wixi digital angle meter to set the stabs. I indicated off the canopy base on the fuselage and dialed in 0.5 degree negative stab incidence. I went to an Ace hardware store and bought 4mm X 10mm set screws to clamp on the aluminum rod at the front of the stab for adjustment. As complete as the hardware package is in these kits I'm surprised they didn't include the set screws, but no big deal. I've got about a half a day or less of steady work and it will be ready to fly once the ESC gets here on the Brown truck.
You only need to seal ailerons and elevator gaps on one side. I use blenderm surgical tape on the bottom. The tape DuBro and others sell for hinges on foamies is the same thing. It does the job and it doesn't stick so hard you can't pull it off if it needs replacing.

burtona

My Feedback: (50)

After losing the canopy off my Integral (losing is an understatement as I know within 200 feet right where it is in the woods) that used a BVM latch I decided to make new ones with about an inch of travel to better secure the canopy on the Sickle. The idea for this came from some of the Virginia pattern guys or maybe Dave Guerin but I shamelessly copied it. 3 pieces of CF tube, a ball point pen like spring, a 4-40 SH cap screw and a little CA. I'll glue it the canopy and use a piece of 1/8" ply on the fuselage with a hole for the latch pin. With 1" travel it should be secured well.

cmoulder

Now that's a serious looking latch!

I also put the latch on the canopy. Don't know where most guys put it, but after fiddling around a while trying to figure out how to measure and glue the thing in straight in the underside of the turtle deck, it just seemed obvious to mount it in the canopy.

At first, even with the alignment tabs/hooks in place, the canopy sides bowed outward a bit in the middle and inward at the ends. However, after having it mounted to the plane for a couple of days the shape has "relaxed" a bit and now has a much better match to the canopy opening in the fuse.

Thanks for the stab advice. Looks like it will take a few flights just to get the stab/elevator tweaked.

It also appears that the weather will prevent a maiden tomorrow... Flyable, but not the best with overcast and a chance of rain. Don't want to push it anyway and will probably wait until next weekend.

cmoulder

Wow, am I missing something?

Got everything assembled today (except wheel pants, not installed yet) and weighed the components to come up with the AUW.

My DigiWeigh was used for the lighter parts because it only weighs items up to 1 kg. A digital postal scale was used for the other stuff, accurate to 0.1 oz.

My AUW (including wheel pants) with the Zippy battery set is 4.868 kg, and with the Rhino set it is 4.904 kg.

I thought I forgot something so I triple checked. It was weighed with the APC 20.5x14 which weighs 123.4 grams, but I have the Falcon CF 20.5x14.5 which weighs 64.6 grams, so I could easily shave another 2.07 ounces. This weight includes the Tech-Aero dual regs and two 800mAh Rx batteries. I chickened out on the 350mAh batteries because they were just so small it was scary. Maybe later.

Very happy camper at this point!

I just hope it balances on CG with the main batteries... I'd hate to have to re-position anything.

rcpattern

My Feedback: (45)

Bob,

Dual 350mah packs will last you 10-15 flights with no problems. I know they look small, but they do work....

Arch

cmoulder

Arch,

They just look so... incredibly tiny! I'll try them later, but for the first few flights I'll go with these.ng

I might have a bit of a problem with the CG. The first photo below shows where I tentatively marked the CG with some striping tape. The second shows how far back the batteries must be placed to achieve that CG (with the canopy on).

Seems pretty far back, doesn't it?? But that's where it balances. Did you ever see batteries that far back?

I looked at some photos of the Wind S Pro and this model appears to be very similar. Do you know where the CG is on that one?

Mastertech

My Feedback: (31)

On the CG, leave the wings off and set to the center of the wingtube for the first flights. That is 25% MAC as near as I can figure. I just picked mine up with a 1/4" dowl to check it.

Tim

cmoulder

When I do it that way, it must be even farther back to balance!

I'm stumped. I can move the ESC back a little, but I'd have to put the RX batteries under the stab to get it to balance with the battery packs in a more "normal" position.

I must be doing something wrong. All the components are the usual stuff a lot of guys are using, and I can't imagine the tail group on this one is so much lighter than the others.......... I dunno...

Mastertech

My Feedback: (31)

Your batteries are only about 2" farther back than mine. That's about .5 oz less in the tail, I used twin servo leads on mine.

Tim

PS.

Did you check the right and down thrust? How about the wing incidence? Add wing adjusters yet? If not you will.

cmoulder

Tim,

Thanks for the input. Do you have a photo of your battery deck?

OK, when I get desperate I go back and search the threads again, and on the Sickle V1 thread on Electric-F3A there was a report by "tewalker" that he was using Zippy's and the end of the battery packs was about 2 inches from the wing tube. So this is not so abnormal as I had thought. Hmmm.

So what I will do is move the receiver behind the wing tube and make another little battery deck farther back, somehow leaving access to the LG area. That would require the least amount of component shifting. I'll leave the battery deck in the front in case I ever get hold of some superlight battery packs.

I have 3 deg of right and 1 deg down thrust, as closely as I could figure using a protractor and some shims. Wing and stab incidence I don't know about yet. I have some Gator wing adjusters which I am hoping I won't need.

For the initial setting on the stabs, I simply centered the metal rods with the set screws in the middle of the oval cut-outs in the stab root ribs.

cmoulder

It was quite a hassle but there was no other choice.

Moved the receiver back behind the wing tube, made a new battery deck and spliced it into the mid deck, moved the ESC to the original battery deck, and cut another air inlet in the chin area of the cowl. Now the ESC will be getting a direct shot of fresh air.

Still got the clamps on the new battery deck as the Aeropoxy cures. Also got the servo leads and battery wires squared away.

cmoulder

Glad I didn't rush it last weekend because there was some critical stuff remaining to be done before maiden.

Ran up the motor for the first time but nowhere near full blast, perhaps 1800 watts, and the power is amazing! Full bore is going to be about 3.5 HP, and it "inspired" me to add some stiffeners to the firewall.

Also cut another vent hole in the chin, which exposes the ESC to direct airflow.

Don't know how fashionable an undersized spinner is. Definitely lets more cool air into the motor.

Photos of the canopy latch and also the canopy tabs made from the leftover phenolic control horns.

After all final mods (including Falcon prop/lighter spinner, removing unnecessarily long servo extensions on wings), AUW is 4759g with the Zippy battery set, 4816g with the Rhinos.

burtona

My Feedback: (50)

My Sickle is also almost ready to fly. All that's left is to locate the battery on the tray to set the initial CG and re-check all control throws and incidences.

cmoulder

Looking good, burtona. I'm ready for your flight reports.

Mine's ready to fly but the weather forecast is for high winds this weekend. Maybe I will get a chance to maiden during the work week, what with Daylight Saving Time starting Sunday.

rcpattern

My Feedback: (45)

Very nice Dave. Looking forward to seeing it next month at Green Sea.

Arch

cmoulder

The winds weren't quite so high today as expected and I was able to maiden this afternoon. A bit turbulent and varying speeds.

The Sickle flew great right from the start in a quartering wind that ranged from 10 to 15 mph. Needed 2 clicks of up on the elevator and 1 click of left aileron and it was flying very nicely, without a doubt the most precise flying model I have ever owned, although admittedly this is the first truly modern pattern model I have owned as well.

With the CG located halfway between the middle and the back of the wing tube, it required just a smidge of push inverted and held a 45 degree line upwind with no elevator. Hard to tell much about the downline pull or tuck, or the rudder trim, with the turbulence in the sky, but it seems not to need a lot of correction. Can't wait to fly it on a calm day and find out. As someone noted before, rolls are practically effortless.

I got in 5 short (5 minute) flights to begin conditioning the batteries, but suffice to say that even at this point there is plenty of power on tap. Ambient temp was 55 degF and upon landing the Zippys and Rhinos were barely warm and the ESC and motor were cooled off completely by the time I could get the canopy off to check.

Beautiful flying machine... it's a keeper, for sure!

shepga

Bob,
Great job getting your Sickle in the air. I'm glad everything went well. I have been working on mine slowly. I'm still about a month and a half out.

Glen

cmoulder

Thanks, Glen! It really has been a lot of fun just getting it together and learning a bit about composites and larger electrics.

It's great that there is a lot of combined wisdom here at our disposal. Sure took a great deal of the mystery out of it.

More Sickles coming down the pipeline and I'm looking forward to reading about your maiden soon. If it's anything like mine, you're in for a treat!

shepga

Hi Bob,
Where did you get those blue foam wire keepers from?

Glen

cmoulder

Glen, I'm on the droid now so it's hard to paste a link. However, go to amazon.com and keyword search "servo wire keeper" and you'll find them.

Edit: Ok, Horizon has them [link=http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=DAJ74RED]here[/link], except they're red now.

They have some adhesive on them, but add a small drop of medium CA and they will stick permanently.

shepga

Thanks Bob!

Glen

cmoulder

The Tech-Aero dual regs with the 2 FP 350mAh 2S LiPo's worked out very well with surprisingly low current draw. Did 6 flights today and upon recharge put back only 152 mAh.

Plenty of capacity for a day's flying and can really shave significant weight, depending on what you might be using now. The 2 batteries together weigh 56 grams. I didn't weigh the switch/regs before, but I would guess the whole dual-redundant Rx battery set-up weighs less than 4 oz.

shepga

Well, I'm running about a month ahead of my schedule. I've got a shot at a maiden flight this Sunday. The last big thing I have to do is create and install a battery plate (will also mount the controler). Hopefully I can get this done tonight. I have lots of little things to do on Saturday ( mount regulator, switch, receiver, 2S lipos, cut carbon fiber spinner for prop, install landing gear, install wing tip skids). The most chalenging thing in the build so far was mounting the Pletty Advanced 30-10. Since it requires nose ring with rear support installation I felt it was a liitle bit harder than if it were able to be mounted on a rear fire wall. I'll upload some pics of my motor install later.

Glen

cmoulder

Glen,

Did you get everything done yesterday?

Good luck on the maiden!

shepga

Bob,

I didn't get everything finished until late Sunday night, but it is ready to go now. The weather looks good tomorrow, I hope to fly the maiden then.

Glen