I ordered a DA 50 last Tuesday and the big brown truck was at my house on Thursday. That was quick!

This is my first gas engine which will installed on the WH YAK (when it arrives).

For a gasser newbie like myself, are the any words of caution from you experienced DA 50 users?


Regards

Chuck

AKA
Scooterpilot

just follow the break-in instructions and all will be well..good luck

Josey is right. I've been flying a DA-50 in a WH Edge since August. I have about 6.5 gallons thru it now. All I did was mount it securely, using medium lock tite on the bolts thru the firewall, burn Lawn Boy ashless or equivalent for the first 4 gallons or so, and be sure to use lock washers and the muffler brace when mounting the muffler. DO NOT use LI PO batteries for the ignition without a regulator. I've heard of people using as little as 1250 MAH nicad or NiMh batteries for the ignition. Dont worry about the weight and use a larger battery, say, 1800 minimum. The last thing you need is an engine to quit at the wrong time due to dead ign. battery. As far as that goes, go ahead and make sure to use heavy duty switches with built in charge connectors. That way, you can get into the habit of checking both the ign and rec batteries every couple of flights with a digital vtm with a load button, such as the Hangar 9 that I use.

Also, on the airframe, keep the extra vibration of the gas engine in mind. Use lock tite or at least lock washers or self locking nuts everywhere on the airframe. Be sure to "harden" the servo screw holes with thin CA before running in your servo screws. Treat every nut and bolt as if its going to fall out without extra attention. Servo horn screws, mounting screws, landing gear nuts and bolts, etc. Once you've flown and checked these after every flight for 5 or so, you'll know what to pay more attention to or not worry about. In my case, I was a little suprised at first with the difference between the gasser and the glow planes as far as things staying tight.

I had a couple of things come loose on the first taxi, and corrected them in time. Also had the engine mount bolts loosen a bit on the first few flights. Have lock washers and medium lock tite now and six gallons later, no issues.

Just pay attention to what Tom says at WH, and also the DA manual. With a little care you are in for a nice, stable and enjoyable ride. I am addicted to gas now, and I'm sure you will become that way too, as long as you pay attention to a few details. BTW, the later DA-50's run fantastic. Mine is ser#365X something from early this year. No issues what ever. VERY dependable easy starts and not one in flight quit to date(closing in on 100 flights).

Tim

I have 2 DA 50 one in the Carden Cuda and other in the YAK 54 EF.
I have many problems whit this engines.

The engine in the CUDA whe the plane is in inverted flat spin stop inmediatly, and I have more 40 dead stik landing. I have a friend is expert in walbro carbs, he put the needles just fine, the engine run great in the air and in land only in inverted flat spin stop in up ride flat spin the engine no stop. I use NX 23x8, amsoil and 87 octene gas. I put 6 holes in the fire wall of the Cuda and the engine stop.

The other engine never run fine in the first fly stop, in this case the carb was obstruction, clean, ajust the needels and now run fine, but stop in some violent blenders.

I change the engines the YAK for The CUDA and the Cuda Stop in inverted flat spin.

I put 5 or 6 mails to the DA and no response.

In the other hand I have a ZDZ 80 RV, in Lanier Laser 200 kit, this plane has 400 or more fligths, never, never stop, never a dead stik, and never I feel afraid whit this engine.

I need to know if whit a internal trumpet the problem fix, but DA no answer to me and I do not know where I can buy one.

Sorry for me spell

I never will buy a DA[:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@]

Mine also will run rich when inverted at 1/4 throttle or less. Great engine otherwise. Tweaked needles till I'm blue in the face. I tried a trumpet (velocity stack) on the carb. No difference..... []

You need to give DA a call. They don't respond to the email much, but they're great on the phone.

Ok I will do

Desert Aircraft owns the market in service. There is not a finer company out there. My DA-50R is #0000006 adn i have never had any trouble out it what so ever. Opened the box bolted it on ran it, then ran it some more and its still running.

You know with the advent of technology DA could be even better placed on the market by supporting their customers with service notifications on the website, that way people across the world can just access their website see of any issues if any on certain build numbers or components and then see if they can resolve the issue by themselves if possible or maybe re-adjust needle settings.

Fore example in my situation the DA50 manual and the DA100 manual both had an update in terms of the needle settings after calling DA they mentioned that the needle settings in the manual have been ammended.

It would be easier on DA to have less number of calls being handled by a common update posted on their site.

Just my point of view.

I'll mention this to Brian @ DA on Monday when I talk to him.

I have a da50 and i have about a gallon threw it,and every time im flying gi go to dive and it stalls.i dont now if im setting it wrong or what..What is the best way to set your engine on the ground?

Can you tune a 2 stk glow motor. basiaclly the same way. set high end for max rpm. back it off a couple of hundred rpm.

Set your low end for a smooth to fast throttle response.

Im sure other s have a different method but this is how i do mine.

P.S. dont run it real rich..let the oil mixture do the break in for you.

My DA 50 also shuts off in a blender or long inverted flat spin. This is in a wild hare extra. I called and someone there told me it was a airflow problem, this is their favorite saying. I made a plastic tube like a air horn that was 6" long and this did not help either.

Kent

Then send it to them. You'll know what great service meant then.

There is an ammendment to the needle setting from the original manual, you guys better recheck the DA what the new setting is, I forgot i think it was 1 3/4 on low and 2 on high or maybe 1 1/2 on low and 1 3/4 on high.

Also one other member did mention about the warlboro carb diaphram being affected by atmospheric pressure, the needle setting is not set rigth then double check the carb issue here is the post.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_39...tm.htm#3924138

Just bringing it to the top,,,

Well I was excited about my DA-50r that I got updated a couple days ago....but here's the problem.

The engine is already broken in so I spent about 8 hours trying to put my Ultimate Biplane together and finally the DA50r....it flew perfect...the next day when I went to half throttle the engine would die like it was losing power....I was like ***....

So I called my friend had a few DA engines and he said make sure to check the needles...so I checked and they were factory settings needles. 1 7/8's on high end and 1 5/8 on low end...the thing that bothers me is that is ran fine..

I was using 93 Octane Gas from Shell Ethanol Free mixed with Amsoil Saber Pro 100:1 Premix.

The second flight I almost lost the plane because the engine almost died on me on half throttle...I was lucky to land it because it seemed to have no problems at the low end...only when I go half or full throttle...half throttle the engine wants to die...at full throttle you might as well expect a dead stick....

Anybody else have this problem? I waited almost 3 weeks to get my engine back from being serviced and got it back and 2 days later I had to send it back again....geezus....

Have you tried opening the high speed needle? Have you set the needles at all since getting the engine back from service?

Any chance the carb screen got plugged after the first run?

The factory needle settings are way too rich especially the low. Lean the low a little at a time and see if it improves. It may just be loading up with fuel and won't transition (too rich low needle will cause this). This is what mine did out of the box. I leaned the low until it was perfect and the engine engine came to life.

Come to think of it, just leave it on the ground and let it idle for about 10 seconds then goose the throttle stick. If it sits there and just sputters fuel, smoke and takes forever to come up to full RPM, the low needle is too rich. Lean it until you can leave it sit at idle for 5-10 seconds and the RPM snaps up as fast as you can move the stick. That's how all mine are tuned.

Regardless whether the thing is rich or lean, it needs to have some basic checks done to see what the problem is.

I agree with that. All you need is air, fuel and spark to make an engine run or anything related to that.


As for the original question, "Does your DA 50 do this?" No, my DA 50 runs just fine whether it be inverted, sideways, up right, etc. I set my needles as lean as possible on the low end, and peak the high then back off a tad. It does not load up in flight, nor does it go lean in flight. There is still a little of the DA burble, but not much at all. Nothing wrong with mine.

You send them your engine, they set to their way-too-rich factory settings, and now it runs like crap? That makes total sense to me. Just tune it. Keep it simple.

I have opened the high speed needle from 1 7/8 to 2 and then 2 1/4, then 2 1/2 then 2 3/4 and 3.....the low speed needle was even leaned out to 1 1/4....It seemed like the more I messed with it the half throttle area it won't transition right when the valve opens up for half or full throttle..

The idle speed was perfect no problems at all, its just the half throttle and full throttle area is where the problem lies...This is where I tried to tune it for 3 hours with no luck...I think I started from 7am until 11am then from there I gave up and just packed it up and sent it back to DA for engine service describing the problem above.

I also called DA before I decided to pack it up and they said clean the carb with carb cleaner which I did and that didn't do anything to the problem.

I was just originally curious if something like this happened to anyone or does it sound like the engine still needed to be broken in some more? Any thoughts?

I have tuned it...in fact here's the actual video of my second flight it sounds just fine right here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8Ni177txPs

I checked the ignition, the plug, the carb, the fuel line (no bubbles)....

It was the next flight after this which I had a problem....at half throttle everything changed...picture this....its like your mowing your lawn and then you run into a thick pile of long grass then the mower slows down like it won't turn and then goes back to full rpm after you pass that hurdle...but my DA50 did this over and over again like it was going thru a bunch of bumps of grass.. if that makes any sense. If I kept my stick to full throttle it would die, it did this on the ground and it the air and this is when I started trying to examine if the low speed or high speed needled was too rich or too lean.

After all the checks my only choice was to send it back and explained in detail what went wrong so hopefully I can update this when I get my engine back and see what was the real problem...it can't be possibly pilot error as you can see from my flight video there was absolutely nothing wrong with it....

Tada,

Let us know what they found when the engine returns. My bet is still on some kind of carb issue.