Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

Unfortunately it doesn't look like my Caelus V2 Lite is going to make it here this month. Mike says he hopes they will be in early next week. If he receives shipment by Tuesday early he can ship some out. If not, he is off to a trade show and for me to receive mine it is looking more like mid March. What a bummer.

jetmech43

My Feedback: (9)

It will be worth the wait

big_G

Keep us posted...curious to see what the V2 changes are, besides weight..(if any)...

mups53

My Feedback: (41)

Guys I'm surprised that the planes got here so soon. They just showed up in beautiful condition.
I'll be shipping the back orders today thru Monday.
If anyone was waiting for actual physical stock well that time has arrived.
Please feel free to order one today.
http://www.f3aunlimited.com/airplane...nes/toprcmodel
Thanks for you patience.
Mike Mueller

big_G

Mike,
Besides weight, have you seen any difference in the plane?

Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

Mike,
Great news. I'll be looking for mine early next week. When will you have the Futaba 20mm Seacraft aluminum servo arms back in stock?

big_G

More trim data: Noticed a pull to right on long full power verticals. Added a touch of left thrust. Arrow straight climbs, and really cleaned up outside loops. Still carrying a little up elevator trim. Moving battery back more...helping rolls without causing other issues...need to extend battery tray further back. Will be moving c/g aft until tracking and stability starts to suffer.

Dave Harmon

Before you extend the battery tray....try adding stick-on lead weight to the tail.
This will not take much to make a big change. I would try 1/4 oz at a time on the fuse under the stab as far aft as you can get it.
This will prove if a further aft c/g will help the trim or not....before you go to the trouble of doing any work....uggh
Remember to trim the elevator each time....and...you might try flying trimmed slightly nose down at cruise speed instead of absolutely level...this will help too.

kdunlap

My Feedback: (12)

I agree with Dave. Frankly, your batteries look too far aft. I have zippy compacts and they are lined up with the aft end of the wing adjuster. Or about 1.5" further forward than yours. Just out of curiosity what is your wing incidence? Your setup looks like mine when my wings were set at +0.5. I am now at +1.0 and the plane flies good.

kdunlap

My Feedback: (12)

Just one other thing. Your HiMax is 556g and my Pletty is 565g, so our setups are pretty identical. I do run a CF prop and CF spinner... but... that shouldn't account for the big difference... I'd look at wing incidence again. Also does your T-can have a ton of positive incidence?? That will drive the nose down and result in up trm and need for weight in tail.

shepga

Big G,
Have you asked Chuck H. to have a look and maybe fly it? Your close to his neck of the woods aren't you. (relatively speaking). If he helps you would have this thing worked out in a heart beat....First contest is less than a month away....Time for some quality practice...

big_G

Mr.Shepherd.
I am blessed to have a bunch of great guys in District 6...2 of which are 2015 Nats Champions. All willing to give assistance. I'll try to bribe one of them to wring out the Caelus and get their inputs. I get at least 10 practice flights in when I hit the field. I feel very comfortable with the Caelus...it's very locked in. Looking forward to the 2016 schedule!

kdunlap
All can surmise is that my Caelus was made a little nose-heavy. Wing incidence is 1 degree positive, the canalizer is at .6 positive. Stab is at 0. Last night I extended the battery tray aft. This weekend I will see if this helps. Keep in mind, so far I have absolutely no evidence that the c/g is too far aft.

luckymacy

wow, I have my tray all the way up and my batteries as far forward as possible. :-)

kdunlap

My Feedback: (12)

So, I want to say something here and I will preface this with my standard disclaimer that I don't compete -yet- but have some experience building.... This is not a knock on the plane either--- so, I got my plane to where it looks like big_g has his in terms of flying qualities. Working with 3-4 great guys we played with everything. CG FWD and AFT, 4500 batteries and 5000 batteries. After several weeks of adjusting everything we could think of, the plane stopped getting better. We got it fly real good, but not perfect. The trick for this airplane was mixes. -4 to be exact. Now, I know what the true pattern guys will say and that is mixes are frowned on. Yup, I get that. But something was said to me when our best guy flew the airplane... he said and I paraphrase... "what makes you think that this airplane isn't bent?" His point was that mixes are your option of last resort when dealing with a bent plane. So, I put the mixes in and will not look back. This airplanes flies very very well. So, my rhetorical question is, "if you tried everything that makes sense, why not see if mixing can help out?" Or, why do you think your airplane isn't bent? Sorry, not to be controversial, but this is the result of my experience -unprofessional as it is-. I do like the plane and it flies better than me.

big_G

If it is "bent", the defect can be measured. I wonder what you will find?.. Personally, I am using the "Triangulation" trimming method, in which mixing is a last resort to achieving a true flying airplane. I'll ask Bryan Hebert about this situation at the next contest. BTW kdunlap...start competing!...So much fun. I wish I had not waited so long to compete.

kdunlap

My Feedback: (12)

I really like what Bryan writes and I hope to get one of his airplanes some day! I was going to use his method, but frankly, couldn't find a way to accurately calculate 25% MAC on a DTFS wing. It's pretty straight forward, even if the wing sweeps, but the double taper seems to vex both the calculators online and the tracing paper method. So, short of that, I took what Mike and TOPRC were saying the CG should be. Currently, I am at the back end of the canopy latches and that works well. when I started with the "book cg" I was probably 2" further forward. Anyways, it's all one big experiment. I am planning to be at Green Sea for my first contest. Should be fun.

big_G

One thing Bryan talks about is that if the plane pulls to the canopy on knife edge, the c/g is too far forward. Granted, the MAC on a DTFS wing is a tough one. I'll ask him about it next month. What class will you be signing up with? Good luck at Green Sea!

Dave Harmon

I ignored the MAC....to much drama for me on DTFS type wings.
I found the correct c/g by flying the airplane.
The installation of the battery tray position was based on previous experience....and I cut my own tray and made it longer than the mfgd trays.

kdunlap

My Feedback: (12)

Sportsman!

big_G

Good luck and kick it!

Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

I received my Caelus V2 Lite this afternoon. Package was not damaged by FedEx for once. Everything was packed nice and tight and everything inside looks fine. I went over the quality of the plane briefly and found the normal paint chips, light paint in some area's, and the name Caelus on the fuse and wing is going to need some attention before the next shipment goes out. It looks pretty bad to me. Next I did a dry fit and all looks good except the stab main CF tube is really loose. A wrap or two of tape should fix it so no biggie. The canopy fits really well and I like the new spring loaded latch on the top of the fuse. It fits so well and comes off fast and easy so I think my switch and arming pin will go inside the fuse. I have been flying since about 1980 and this is my first full composite plane so all and all I am satisfied. Of coarse everything needs to be re-glued that I can get to but that is a given on any plane for me. I do have a question, when I mount the CF spinner back plate and prop there is only about 1/4" of the motor shaft inside the prop. Just doesn't seem safe to me. I'm running the Himax 6330-210 motor.

big_G

Congrats on your new addition. You will like it a lot once you get it dialed in. My HiMax 6330 is the same....worries my that it has such a small nut holding a big prop. So far, so good. Check the anhedral stab alignment. Mine was off a good bit. Can you shoot a better picture of the battery tray location?

Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

Here are a couple more pics. I'm amazed at how light this plane feels. I'm so use to my 50cc to 70cc gassers.

Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

Came home this afternoon and soldered the 4.0 bullet connectors on the Himax motor and the CC ESC. I was going to mount the motor on the ply mount that I bought and see how well it would fit inside the fuse but ran into a snag already. The ply mount is already pre-drilled but the holes are not in the correct position as the motor mount for the Himax motor. Ran out of time tonight so i'll see if I have time tomorrow to slot out the holes and get it lined up.

Dsnow

I use 6-32 blind nuts and cap screws and the mount will center between the openings in the blue X-ring, you do not need anything larger than 6-32's, give it a try.

Dave Snow