BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Just picked up my Nuance 120 from Chris at 'Bondaero' and wow is it impressive! Usual fantastic finish from BJ with some neat little updates. The canopy fitting has changed which I actually prefer to my 170 version and also this version comes with optional wing adjusters as part of the hardware, complete with a set-up jig.

I'll post up more pics as I get to grips with the build.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Hi Chris, Mike, will F3AU import these?  I might just want one!

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

We'll be getting in the Fantasista 110 in on the next shipment.
We have stuggled to find a viable 110 high end market here. We will test the waters with Akiba's offering.
The Nuance 120 is no doubt beautiful and we hope to have it later this year. Mike

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Hi Mike, a few weeks ago I would not have been very interested in a sub-2m size pattern plane, however, the potential need to fly a smaller box at one club has piqued my interest.

Say, do you have the dimensions for this one? All I see on BJ's blog is an equipment list. Any other hints welcome. To the OP, my apologies for the detour off the Nuance topic!

http://rcone.kr/board/index.html?id=bjair1&no=108
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RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Let me know what details you'd like and I'll do my best to take them from my model here.

Andy.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Thanks Andy. BJ's blog lists the dimensions for your new Nuance, so I was looking for the Fantasista's for comparison. Both look so tempting, I look forward to your build here. Cheers!
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RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Dana with gas prices going thru the roof I wonder if smaller planes will be needed so we can drive smaller more fuel efficient cars with less room.
Mike

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

We looked at the Nuance 120 several months ago but the pricing won't be that much less than the 2M planes probably in the $1100 range. When comparing them with say the Sebart Wind 110 size at $599 it is a big step to these high end 110-120 sized planes and we are not sure of the market for them at these prices. Granted, the Nuance 120 and Fantasista 110 are in a totally different class than the Wind 110 but they are essentially a new market segment in the US although the 110-120 F3A market in Japan is huge. We will have the Fantasista 110 in about 6 weeks as a start to see how things go but the Nuance 120 could come after that.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Ditto that. Again I think the popularity of the smaller planes in other parts of the world have to do with vehicle size and transport issues as well as limited larger scale airplane fields. Mike

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Chris has the Fantasista in stock also, Im sure he'll give you any info your looking for on that airframe, he's a really helpful guy.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

I'd be curious to see what motor/ESC/pack size guys are using in the 110-120 sized models. The smaller motor, ESC and Battery cell counts should add up to some savings over a full 2M implementation as well.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Thats my next consideration. Im thinking a hot 6s over a less worked 8s set up but not really sure which way to go. Maybe the 6s might just be pushing the boundaries a little.

Im all ears for suggestions though........

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Mike what the base price for the Fantasista 110? What size of a Hacker motor, esc, and size of battery would you suggest.
Terry

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Andy,

The 6S, 8S, 10S debate was well discussed on the RCG Sebart Mythos thread - the Mythos 125 is designed for 6S but it appears the majority either go 8S or 10S. On 6S it's pulling over 100A & then is marginal on flight time for a schedule esp. if windy. I have a wind 110 (similar in size to the Nuance 120) & a Mythos (not far from a full 2M), both on 8S 5000 packs - for the Nuance 120 I would recomend 8S as the minimum. The wind 110 is ideal on 8S, the Mythos is marginal, if I were to do the Mythos again I would go 10S with light 4400mA packs.

Mike, you are correct car size is a big factor for this size of plane - even with a US mid-size SUV I notice the ease of transporting the wind 110 vs. the Mythos 125.

Steve

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

The other reason I would consider one of these is I have a bunch of 4S 5000s that I could use for an 8S set-up.  Now that LiPos are becoming more affordable, probably not as strong a reason as in the past, but if I went with either of these, would definitely go 8S for performance reasons as well.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

It has a chin cowl,...NO way!

bholsten

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

The Nuance 120 also has a removeable canopy.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

A shot showing the canopy and bellypan removed.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

From the BJ Craft factory:
The Nuance 120 is the same size as the Wind 110 so not really a new category size. The plane is made to fly with 6S or 8S electric, YS 90-110 glow, DLE 20 gasoline, or Saito gasoline motors which is why there is a chin cowl, it is not an electric only model. The target power is the YS-110 or gasoline 4 cycle motor.

This gives the most power options for the customer.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

The build will be a little slow at first, just waiting on servo's which will be here next week along with some other optional extra's I've ordered. But for now, here's a couple of shots showing the mods to the horns. I've done the same on my 170 version.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

If the batteries are 6S, 8S or 10S is irrelevant, what actually gives a measure of the amount of "fuel" on board are the Wh or Watt hours. Not to complicate now too much lets say that</p>

6S x 5000 = 8S x 3750 = 10S x 3000</p>

So in theory there is the same amount of stored energy (and weight!) with either of the 3 combinations, but it is always better to have more V and less A because of the better efficiency, therefore 10S 3000mAh is the winner here.</p>

But theory is one thing, therefore an adequate motor with low kV and adequate batteries are needed to really have a winner combo on 10S. On my Wind 110 I had successfully used AXI 5320/28 (249 kV) on 10S (Rhino 4900) and 18x12 prop. Because of the relatively low clearance (low stock gear) I had to use that motor as that was the max prop Wind 110 would take without having to change the gear. On the negative side I was at 4,4kg because of the heavy batteries, some 300g above the ideal weight for Wind 110.</p>

On the model with adequate clearance I would rather use AXI 5325/34 (206 kV) and 20x13 prop together with a light 10S battery pack, such as HK Zippy Compact 5S 4000mAh 25C which are only 480g each (I have them so I know), some 145g per pack less than Rhinos 4900!</p>

Hope this helps,</p>

Velco</p>

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Had a little more time on the build today. First up was to get my output arms mounted up on the elevator servo's. This was an easy fit by simply marking up the round servo discs for drilling the 2mm retaining bolts for the carbon arms and then bolting them on. Naturally I rotated the discs to find the best centering position so as to avoid using big sub trim amounts.
Next up was to make some ply mounting plates for the servo's. The cut-outs in the stabs are sized for mini servo's but I opted for the Savox micro's ala BJ style. No big deal, simply made up some card templates and then used them to mark up some of the ply that is surplus from the laser cut component sheets that come with the kit. After these had been cut out I then laminated them with some of the carbon sheet I have in stock, it's 0.01mm thick autoclave sheet that I got from one of our team members over here, simply cyano'd into place.

I'm gonna get the scales out next and get some weights recorded before I go any further with the build, I'll post the data up as soon as.

A couple of pics from today.

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Just finished weighing my 120 and heres the scoop:

Left Wing - 280g
Right Wing - 281g
Wing Tube - 57g
Left Stab - 67g
Right Stab - 66g
Fuse inc U/C, Wheels, Spats, Tailwheel Assembly, Anti-Roll Pins & Stab Joiners - 1165g

Total - 1916g.

.................................................. .................................................. ................................................

My flight pack so far;

Digiswitch - 16g
Stab Servos (x2) - 34g total
Aileron Servos (x2) - 92g total
Rudder Servo - 52g
Rx Battery - 29g
Rx (RD921 inc 2x Sats) - 31g
Alloy Pushrods & ball links - 20g

Total - 245g

.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ....................

Motor - 475g

Esc - 112g

Total - 587g

.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ....................

Airframe weight without motor pack = 2748g

Just need to add spinner, prop and motor pack to that so say another 1150g

-

So 3898g

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

I find the weight on your project amazing! Super ride.
Terry

RE: BJ Craft - Nuance 120
 

Thanks Terry, looking forward to getting this one flying!

Update: A pic of the installed stab servo.