Meathook

we have flown the senior tele with 3 different gasoline engines- -the spe26, the crrc 26, and a zen 20ei. they weighed in at about 11 1/2 pounds. all flew very well and "telemasterish" even at our 6002' field elevation. we have had a blast with all of them, particularly crosswind touch and goes. also flown with floats from snow last winter

my personal favorite is the zen 20ei. hope this helps...

meathook

iliveonlytocrash

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What would you say is the take off/touch & go/landing speed? I have a grass field next to my house that is rougher than a normal RC airstrip, but I was hoping to put extra large tires on this model and then when I don't have enough time to pack up and go to my normal flying field, I could just fly outside by my house.

Also, from your experience it sounds like I should stick with the G20 instead of the G26?

arobatx

You can stop a telemaster and three point land it on a hard surface runway, and roll out only a few feet if you practice, with no headwind. On grass, I'd bet you could gently plop it in on all three and not roll at all. With a headwind, you can land it and roll out backwards on a hard surface I think you'll be happy with either the 20 or 26...

cmoulder

I maidened mine yesterday, also with the G20 EI. Really a fun airplane with amazingly forgiving flight characteristics. It can be flown from a very small field with the right landing approach.... just keep putting pressure on the elevator until it gently settles onto the runway by itself. Couldn't have rolled more than 6-8 feet (on grass). This would be a good trainer model, for sure.

I don't know if the G20 is the perfect powerplant, but I don't see how you could get much better. The engine fired up the very first time I put the starter to it, and was tuned almost perfectly, idled great. I put a 20 oz (!) tank in mine, and on the second flight yesterday did 29 minutes of mixed flying and then landed and checked the fuel... used only 2/5ths of a tank!!!!

My goal is to have an AV platform that can stay aloft for at least an hour. so I installed a mondo ignition battery, which is a CommonSense RC 3850 2s LiPo with a 5-volt regulator.

bdtsr

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Flying my ST ARF with a G-23. Added 10 ounces of weight to the tail but flies very well.

cmoulder

I also had to add weight to the tail, in fact 9.5 ounces, because of all the weight up front.

I put elevator and rudder servos in the tail as well, and crammed everything else as far forward or backward as possible to leave the middle bay open for the AV package which I will add later.

The wings were also modified as well to make them bolt-on, and 4-40 linkage hardware and CF rods were used for the wing struts. More ground clearance was needed (for the AV package to hang down a bit) so some CF landing gear from a H9 Extra 260 were used, as well as 5-inch wheels. The engine was mounted upright with the exhaust pointing up to reduce ground noise.

iliveonlytocrash

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What prop did you use with the G20? I normally use an APC 16 x 8 on other models, but I wondered if a slow flying plane like this would require a lower pitch.

cmoulder

I used a APC 15x6 and it seemed just fine, although I didn't tach it. Lifted off (in a light headwind) after a 10 foot roll-out, so it ain't lacking for pull!

I have read that others are using 15x7 and 15x8, which I may try later after getting some more run time on the engine. This plane is pretty draggy so it seems lower pitch is probably better.

cmoulder

Weather is awful today for flying, so I decided to tweak the G20 and try out the 15x7 prop. I ran it in some more with a full tank run, tweaking the high and low needles near the end, then putting about 1/3 tank in it to test the props.

No thrust numbers, but suffice to say that either prop will yank this plane around with no problem. I can see how this plane could be easily flown with a glow .61.

Once it sounded right to the ear - and checking the throttle-up, idle and midrange response, and checking exhaust residue - I used the tachometer and an infrared thermometer to see what was going on.

With the 15x6, rpm was 9870 and temp was 286 deg F.

With the 15x7, rpm was 9400 and temp was 264 deg F.

Just wish I had brought more props to check!

Are these numbers what I should be expecting? Would a higher pitched prop be better?

iliveonlytocrash

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I don't know what the 15" props should turn, but when I get a chance I will tach my APC 16 x 8.

But the way, have you been flying your Telemaster with skis? I don't know where Ossining, NY is, but I'm also in New York (around Buffalo) and we have already have over 6 feet of snow. I'm trying to find a place to buy skis large enough for this model so I can keep flying during the winter.

Firebird25

Many people use floats iso skies. So there's an option.

cmoulder

Ossining is in Westchester County, about 25 mi north of NYC.

No snow here yet to speak of, just a dusting yesterday. I have not flown the Tele on skis yet, since I just maidened recently, but I would not hesitate. I have flown other smaller models with skis, however, and it is a lot of fun.

Here are some excellent skis. http://maidenusammp.com.whsites.net/products.htm

I have them. Superb quality, good design, easy to install.

cmoulder

There are a couple of things I am going to try to make the Tele w/G20 quieter.

I am going to try an APC 4-blade 13.8x10 and also a J'Tec Snuffler on the exhaust stack. This will cut down on the power, obviously, but the G20 has way more than enough oomph as is.

A couple of RCU searches and Google searches did not reveal any previous combinations such as this, so the results should be at least interesting. We have one of the Radio Shack noise meters at the field, so I will be able to make some "before" and "after" measurements.

iliveonlytocrash

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Please post the outcome this combination. I'm working on the same project and I would be interested in the results.

cmoulder

Will do! I got the prop yesterday and am a bit dubious about it now that I have it in hand... seems a bit too much pitch. But I will wait and test it in a couple of days. Still didn't get the Snuffler despite having ordered it a couple of days before the prop.[]

I don't know how others have done their engine mounts, but I decided to try an anti-vibration mount for the first time, on any kind of engine. It is the B&B Specialties "Vibra loc" and they were probably more robust that necessary for this engine, but I didn't clamp them down too tightly and I think they might be working the plane has very little vibration from about 3000 rpm on up.

Here are some photos of the installation. I used the main firewall as sort of a "sub-firewall" and made another firewall on which to actually mount the engine. I used 3 of the "Vibra Loc" fittings (mainly because that's all that would fit!) and I staggered their locations - with all three sides unequal - in hopes that this might help attenuate the vibration a bit more.

I don't know, nor do I claim, that there is any validity to this approach, but the vibration levels seem quite acceptable.

cmoulder

So with all that extra weight up front, I knew I was going to need a SERIOUS counterbalance in the tail. So I figured out how much weight I would need, used some pennies and epoxy (all weighed separately) and used a small plastic nail box as a former to make a "brick" of pennies. I have since spray painted it yellow and it doesn't look objectionable at all.

iliveonlytocrash

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Concerning the balancing, I wonder if it would make more sense to shorten the front part of the fusealage by 3 inches or so?

captinjohn

I was wondering if the gap between a plate on back of engine and the firewall was filled with a good quality of silicone rubber, would cut the vibes down some. Four small safety bolts could be placed through the "sandwich" in case the rubber let loose. Seems like it should work on engines up to around 26cc. I guess it could be done on a test stand first. Capt,n

cmoulder

Well, at this point I'm not going to change anything... because it's all working well. Maybe next time!

I think the vibration thing is working because the vibration feels like that of a .25 glow engine, so I'm satisfied with it. Could I have done better? Hmmm....

The goal was to stuff all the propulsion-related items as far forward as possible to leave the area around CG open for the A/V payload, so shortening the nose was not an option. You can see from the photos that I managed to get the gas tank, ignition, ign switch and recharge harness, 3850 mah ign battery, 5-volt regulator pretty far forward. Only a small portion of the tank protrudes beyond the former.

I would have put the throttle servo up there if I could have crammed it in. But in order to preserve that space around the CG, I decided to move it pretty far back. Works fine there.

Now if I can just get the A/V stuff to balance on CG.

cmoulder

Great day to fly Saturday, and I had it all to myself. High was 30 deg F, but it wasn't too windy and I know how to dress for the cold.

Got in 3 more rather long flights and had a ball. With all the extra weight from the vibration fittings, the extra-large batteries, 9-1/2 oz counter weight, etc., mine comes in at exactly 13-1/2 lbs!

What blew me away was that it would hover absolutely stock-still with the G20 and the 15x7 APC!!![X(] I will get someone to video this for me next time I fly it, and also inverted flight, which is also very good and came as a shock to me.

BarracudaHockey

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Here's what happens when you put an 80cc gasser onboard

http://www.jaxrc.com/gallery/video_viewer.php?id=123

cmoulder

That's it, I'm beefing up those wing struts!

Too bad, because that looked like a great working airplane, depended upon by the glider pilots.
Great modification to add the flaps.

That is a HUGE engine for this plane! Did it have a lot of beefing up around the fuse/wing junction. On mine I doubled up the formers at the front and back of the wing saddle and used some tri-stock as well.

Even so, I will take care to fly it very smoothly when doing mild aerobatics.

iliveonlytocrash

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iliveonlytocrash

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I finally got a chance to fire my G20 up. It turned 8600 with an 18 x 6 APC prop. I'm at 600 feet ASL, temp was 39 degrees, carb was tuned about 200 rpm below max, muffler was stock.

iliveonlytocrash

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Sorry, I meant to type 16 x 8 APC prop.