Mike

I have just been out flying an Onas all afternoon and this is what I have decided on. This plane is identical to yours with the plety and rhino 5000´s. The back edge of the battery pack is 2.5 inches in front of the wing tube and the CG is perfect. He has the same servos in the tail as you do. I will make a tray extension that you can simply add to your plane to get the batts where they need to be. I must say this plane flies extremely well set up like that.

Chip

I've been too tired and too distracted lately to get things done in a fast manner so I took off today so I can get my Onas ARF version close to ready to fly by the end of the weekend.
Last night I started the firewall and I thought I'd post some pics of the progress. All this took me about 4 hours. I'm not the fastest nor the slowest but I have learned to be patient and only work on critical things when your in the right frame of mind. Working on planes when it's strictly a chore tends to lead to sloppy work that hurts you in the end and causes rework.

The material for the firewall is 1/4" liteply. I laminated it with carbon fiber cloth. I've selected the AXI F3A outrunner. for installation and will be starting off with a Himas 6330 F3A new on the market.
The Himax is supposed to compare well with a Plettenburg Evo 30. I have 2 Himax mototrs now so I'm putting my faith into the reports that they are very stout and are showing excellent numbers. The motor is 2 ounces lighter than the AXI and sells for about $250. I will have this paired up with the new Castle HV80 Ice to start. The reason I'm using the AXI for mounting puposes is that it is a bit longer than the Himax and by doing this I will only need a washer to allow the Himax mounting and can then go back to an AXI if I deem necessary.
The Himax has a hole configuration that allows both the AXI and a Pletty so I will drill all 7 4mm holes so I can even put a Pletty in if I want to. The Pletty Evo's are the standard bearer outrunners for F3A and I had one last year in my Fatboy/Sickle. I choose not to continue with one because of cost. I get a kick out of doing E. pattern with a budget in mind. It gives me the ability to show others that this deal is not that expensive and it can be done inexpensivly. Heck the setup I had in my Integral at the 2008 Nats had an AXI F3A that I bought from a friend for $140 and an CC HV85 Esc that I got used for $120. So all up I had a $260 powerplant that was way more power than the plane needed and was always reliable.
The firewall is fixed into the fuse and the motors has to come out thru the nose. I secure then in with Gorilla glue that I put into a disposable glue syringe. I then spray a touch of H²o on it and let here dry. I transfer the hole pattern to the firewall using a piece of card stock it get tack glued to the motor back and the holes located then I tack that to the firewall once in place and remove the motor side. From there you drill the 4MM holes into the firewall and Bam!!!! It fits perfect.
I have a template for the firewall I'll scan and post.
The firewall installed weighs 38 grams.

More pics

More
The last pic shows how the Gorilla glue expands as it cures. When all done it's extremly strong. My friends use this to mount YS 170's so it'll work on this and has never failed me. It's a lot cheaper tha BVM epoxy that some insist on. Mike

Last post of pics

Hooked up the elevators, Mounted the servos into the fuse. I'm using the Airtronics 94761Z's for this.
I really like the CA/Chip control horns with the ball bearing clevis.
I use .125" Carbon Fiber tubing for the pushrods. I start of by drilling the CA clevis inside to 1/8". The CF tubing is then a snug fit and I used thin CA per Tony to glue the rods in. This is a nice secure tight fit that I'm confident will work. I made sure I did what Todd mentioned and put the screw side on the outer most ball bearing side and attached it the the horn.
On the servo side I first cut some 1/8 inside dia aluminun tubing to about 1 1/4"'s. I measure the proper length on the CF and cut it. Then slip the aluminum over the CF and CA it in with thin. Next I put a 2/56 sullivan rod/stud half way into a hand drill. I then apply some thin CA to the threads and drill it into the hole on the tubing. The Aluminum outside stops the CF from splitting open. This make an extremly light pushrod and I've been using this for elevators and ailerons for a very long time with out any failures.
Mike

Guys

Unfortunately the supplier of those BB clevis has become very unreliable so we have decided for the time being to recommend using the MK 2.5mm ones instead. I am working on getting us a large order of those at a reduced price so we can go back to including them but everything just takes time. Central always has them in stock though. Also your method of pushrods will be more then adequate as we have all been using .060 rod thin CA'd into all sorts of different plastic clevis for several years now. Either way will work great but I do recommend using thin zap or the GP thin as I have had some of the other glues let go in tests.

Chip

Hey Mike your Onas is looking sweet. How is you ARC Onas coming along?

Stephen

Hi Stephen. The ARC is in the corner for now. I have a lot done to it and I could if needed have it done in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping to get on it soon.
I should be done with this one in less than a week. Trouble is a have some testing to do on the new Himax 6330 and the new Ice HV80 ESC before I'll fly it in this plane. I suspect that will add a week. It's typical for me to be scrambling late to get things in order.
So what are you up to? You have a new one too don't you? Mike

I have a new Pass-port for the season and its flying awesome, Chip and Marcelo are really doing a great job with all there models. I know what you mean about scrambling to get ready I haven't had a plane this early in the season in awhile. I guess I need to think Todd for that, for putting my plane together.

Stephen

Tail wheel
I've been using these $5 tail wheels because they are the lightest and cheapest I can find at 10 grams. $5 delivered ain't bad either. The problem has always been the spring system that they use for steering doesn't work well. This time I thought I'd try a different way. The plastic tube has a 1/8 inch inside dia. It slips back and forth to eliminate binding. The CF rods drilled into the rudder are 1/8". The steering is very positive now. I've had this king of tail wheel on my Integral for 2 years and it is very strong.
http://www.dollarrcparts.com/cam-0004.html
The nylon screw on the tail wheel is a 1/4x20 and I tap it and screw it in. It's very snug and doesn't require any glue which makes it easy to replace if needed.

I received my new Onas yesterday, and wanted to mention how well packaged it was, different form all my other Camodel airplanes, very well distributed and protected.
I was also impressed by the installation of the battery tray, rudder servo plate and formers already installed, choice of firewalls for glow or electric, wow, it does looks so nice and clean.

Very nice improvement in all aspects!! Well done Camodel.

Mups, believe it or not, that tail wheel is the one that came with my Oxai Axiome, from a 100 euro parts kit!!! and cost $5 bucks?? wow, good tip for parts.

Well finally finished. Great build that went pretty fast for me. Dave Snow just left and we did all the setups including a starting point for the CG. The lipo is at the back of my 4 inch extended tray and that should get me in the ball park. I prefer the pack to be as close to the CG as possible as I feel it works the best there.
Last night I loaded the new CC Ice 80HV ESC with the new software 3.2 and used most of the reccommended settings for the Himax 6330 Outrunner. Initial runups are very smooth and I'm optomistic that this will be a great combination running with my new Power Unlimited 4900 30C Lipo's from Chris at F3AUnlimited.
All up I'm at around 10lbs 12 ounces. Thanks Dave and Tony for your input on the plane it will make it a lot easier for me.
Thanks to Marcelo and Chip for getting me in the right direction. I hope this plane and my flying will represent your company in a fitting manner.
Mike.
PS: Weather got cold on us for the first time in 3 weeks. Par for the course it'll have to sit a few more days.

Hey Mike, what servos are you running in the Onas?

Thank you

[/quote]

Hey Mike, what servos are you running in the Onas?

Thank you
[/quote]

Hey Chris being new to Airtronics I did some research and I decided on the following.
Rudder 94773M High Torque (Mark Atwood uses these)
Ailerons Low Profile High Speed 94746M's. I'm using these because I like the specs and thought they would work well. I think car guys are very high on this servo.
Split elevators 94761Z wing servo's. Very small and you have to take the tabs off. I know Chris Fitz runs these on the ailerons and I know of others doing the same but I opted to go with the low profiles. Both the Aileron servos and the elevator servos are as fast as I've ever seen a servo go. All seem to center excellently. I've always considered JR digital servos to be the benchmark for any other brand to meet. Airtronics servo's have always had a very good reputation so we shall see. So far I'm pretty impressed.
I'm running everything off of a 6V regulator.
Good luck, Mike

thanks mike. big help.

Looks great Mike. Thanks for the details about your setup, it will make doing mine much easier.

Larry in Denver

Hey Larry,
Are you Larry Falsetto? Another active pattern flyer in the Denver area??!!!
Hope you'll come to the Arvada contest June 26th and 27th. Some of use are going to Albuquerque in a few weeks.
I'd love to see the ONAS.

Dan Underkofler
[email protected]

(Sorry for the offtopic guys - Larry didn't have PM as an option)

For those who might be wondering about the Onas in the F3A pattern, at my contest last weekend I let Mark Leseberg fly it a couple of times. It looked absolutely great doing the F maneuvers and everything in P. He said he really liked it!

Weather permitting. It's kind of windy right now I'll have mine in the air tonight. Dave Snow is liking his so far. He's convinced this plane will be a good match for me so I'm pretty excited to finally get it in the air. It's been sitting ready to go for 3 weeks but the waether has not allowed me too get it up. Thanks Tony

Dave Snow flew his CA Onas in the Winstom/Salem, NC contest this past week end. Both he and the plane flew really well in some tough conditions. It's a great looking bird. Dave and George Asteris battled all week end back and forth in Masters class with George edging out by a very slight margin.

Both Dave and George are very talented pilots.

I hated to miss that last weekend. It would've been a lot of fun to be there and fly with those guys, especially after the battle George and I had a couple of weeks ago.

Arch

Arch that would have been a mini nats for masters. Places 2 thru 4 from last years results.
Masters is tough. There is a lot of talent in the class.
Onas tonight baby!!!!! Winds are calming down cold weather is coming in. Mike

Details of the CA Model Onas ARC - now in stock in the USA.

wing panels are 9.8oz as pictured; ready to cover
Accessory package includes spinner, wheels, gear, pants, alum control horns etc.