The copper will do just fine and the Silphos 15 will hold up no problem nice work




Den

You're right, it's usually called "Silphos". I'm just used to calling it copper-phos cuz it looks like copper.

Patriot

Painted the fuse over the weekend, ready for the decals. I decided to get some decal paper to make an emblem for the tail. Not sure if I want it to be the same as the original or something a little differant, but I have all options available before I clear coat the whole thing.

Patriot

more red stuff....

Patriot

Patriot,,,, Tell us how it flew... I'm building one also and would appreciate your feed back.

I will. I have been kinda banished from painting in the garage for the last week now. My wife is having a garage sale this weekend, and all of the stuff she is selling is in the garage, and she doesn't want me getting paint all over everything.
I have to paint the red sunburst on the wing, and finish the wheel pants. Then, I will be ready for clear coating the whole thing.

I just picked up a new 21 gallon 4.5hp vertical air compressor, which I will use for painting the clear coat. So, I need to get a paint gun, and get a filter/regulator for painting as well. I found some which will be about another $50 investment.

Hopefully, the garage sale will help pay for it.

Once everything is painted, I have to finish running in the engine and get it remounted, charge batteries, tune it all up, etc.

But, getting there. Little by little.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Patriot

Have any of you who have built this plane, programmed flaperons into your C-Pro's? If so, how well do they work? I was thinking of doing this, as I have the ability, and slower landings would sure help out, as I need to get back into the swing of things here.

Patriot

You wont need them. The C-pro doesn't land fast in the first place but it does have a bit of a sink rate, sorta like a bipe. I find that pulling the power all the way off on mine results in a steep glide slope but as long as you keep the nose down there aren't any stall issues with the design. The best way to land the pane is to carry a bit of power on it and control the decent with pitch and power settings, not hard to do but definitely not Cub type flying either..

Sounds like an easy lander as long as one keeps his wits about him. I only ask, as you said it has a pretty good descent rate when the power is dropped off, which I would think a little flap could help to slow the decent rate by giving a little more lift. It is nice to have a nice slow descent and landing without having to kill the power.
I suppose it is just something I will just have to play with, and decide whether or not I like it. With the exception of some warbirds, flaps are something that I think are usually not needed for RC planes. But, none the less, fun to fool around with.

Patriot

I know what you mean about playing with flaps, the C-Pro would be cool with them IMO. This leads to the biggest nit-pik I and a couple of other guys have with this design. The ailerons are TOO small, plain and simple. I fly mine on high rate and with 1.5" upward throw and .5" downward throw(differential) and the roll rate is too slow for my likes. It's quicker than a cub but nothing like an Extra. Got me to thinking if I ever built another, I do have a spare kit, that I would make the ailerons longer, perhaps 2/3 span, to gain a little more roll authority.

Considering the fact that the ailerons are short and far outboard on the wing they really won't function well as flaps of any kind. They will act as spoilers when raised, have not messed with this myself tho..., raising them will provide a bit of artificial wash-out which could possibly be beneficial. Lowering them would produce the opposite, wash-in, which could promote tip stall behavior.

I think the best thing you can do is dail in as much throw as you can and some healthy differential, this REALLY smooths out the flying characteristics of this plane and makes it a joy to fly. Be very conservative on the elevator throws though, it's big and will get snappy on you real quick, mine started with the reccomended in the build guide and I think I dailed some out still. Rudder is pretty small so dail in as much as possible, mine come to within 1/16" of the elevator on both sides of the throw.

The only other thing I can add is the take-off characteristics can be interesting. DO NOT horse this bird into the air! Apply power slowly and let it roll out while the tail lifts and add in power, then break ground once the airspeed is up. If you try to yank it off too quick you'll know it because this thing gets real squirrely on the ground when flown that way.

Hey Shogun yours and mine fly alike but mine does not have that snappy thing going on maybe your CG is a little far back ?
Patriot nix the flaperon idea as Shogun said the ailerons are kinda small I too have them dialed all the way up.



Den

Den, with the 1.60 mine carries a little bit more weight than some of the others I have seen, combine this with too much elevator throw and the plane wants to snap at the bottom of loops and in real hard turns. I just dialed out a bit of throw and it calmed right down. The elevator is huge on this bird and it's pretty effective too. I also sealed the gaps on all of my control surfaces which really helped the ailerons out and picked the roll up a bit but it still could be better. I went with the books recommended balance point and since the plane flew pretty good just left it there.

Overall I really like the plane, it's just not a Cap and I have to keep telling myself that when I first take off, after 5 minutes I'm back in the groove and flying the heck out of her.

Well, the wife finally got done with her garage sale last weekend and spent a couple days afterward to restore all of the stuff she didn't sell. So, the garage is mine. ALL MINE!!!! HAHAHAHAHA.

Anyway, I managed to tape off and paint the cowl. It turned out really nice, ready for a shot of clear.

The wing is now taped and has a coat of base white over it to seal the tape before I paint on the red. Will wait a couple days for the white to get nice and dry before I paint the red. Once I am all done with these items, then I can finish my decals, and give the whole thing some clear coat.

I have to say I am a bit disappointed in the stickers that came with the kit. The numbers and checkerboards are not quite as opaque as I had thought. You can see a bit of red through the white, so it doesn't match my white stripes as closely as I would have liked. Also, they were kind of hard to apply, and getting all of the little air bubbles out from the bigger decals was kind of hard. Some of them are still there, even after *****ing and pressing them. I really wish they were water slide decals, not self adhesive.

Well anyway, here is a couple more pics.

Another problem I am now running into, which I am sure you have all had. My garage is where I do my painting, and it is also where I do everything else, like woodworking, fixing the car etc. As a result, there is alot of dust that I simply can't seem to get rid of. Even when I let it settle in there for a couple hours, I still keep ending up with alot of dust and micro-hairs in the paint job. It really irks me. I will have to set up some sort of dust tent that I can put up and take down easily and quickly to prevent overspray, and also minimize dust. I have a good idea in mind, but what do you guys do to prevent these problems?

Patriot

Now I am really TICKED OFF. I go back into the garage to check on my red sunburst paint job, and what do I find? A giant mosquito stuck to the red paint right in the middle of the wing. AAAUUUGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!

Now, I have to wait until fully dry, sand it out, and add another coat to that spot. grrrrrrrr..........

Patriot

The best way to keep the critters out of the flypaper is to cover it up with something, the trouble is.....an 80" wing is a pretty big something!

An idea is a large cardboard box, lumberyards sometimes have them from sold water heaters, pretty good size and you could join 2 to get the size you need. On smaller parts I apply the paint and then cover with a bowl or a box till the paint flashes, be sure to clean the inside so that nothing falls out of the container when you turn it upside down and place it over the parts.

For the dust, you could do what wooden boat restorers do. Make an enclosure by hanging plastic down from the ceiling to the floor. Before painting, spray the "walls" and the floor down with a light mist from the garden hose. This should settle most of the dust down and keep you from stirring it up as you walk around the floor.

I must be a glutton for punishment....

I get home from work, gently sand out the bug from the paint, then spray over the area again. After 6 hours I realize, I can still see the legs of the bug in the paint, and there are also a few scratches from the sandpaper. To make matters worse, this is Rustoleum, and I forgot to wait a good couple of days before painting over it, so now it has some kind of a weird blemish in the paint from not waiting long enough.[:@]
So, now I will wait a couple days. On Saturday, I will sand out the whole area, steel wool it with fine steel wool to make sure there are no scratches, then paint it AGAIN. Can any more screw-ups happen? Maybe a tree will fall on my garage and destroy the wing, forcing me to start over again.[&o]

Patriot.

We're not going to let you get off that easy....

Well, it looks like the mosquito is going to do the ol' Jimmy Hoffa thing. He is permanently embedded into the paint.

After steel wooling the area, I managed to smooth it all out, and it looks good, but you can still see a couple of tiny little legs in the paint, but hardly noticable, unless you really search for it.

I am going to wait til' this weekend, finish painting the ailerons, then steel wool the whole wing to scuff it and prep for clear coat next week. I will also be making a make-shift painting tent for the clear coating, will post pics of that too.

Patriot

Just wondering how far back from the wing leading edge should the balance point be {center of gravity}.mine was and old kit and the plans call for 4 3/4 inches from the leading edge which to me seems too far back.Please help me with that.
Thanks

WALDO

My plan shows 3 1/4" back from the leading edge. It looks like a pretty good spot compared to other wings of similiar designs I have seen before.

Patriot

Thanks for the info,mine has a zenoah g-23 and it balanced at the 3 1/4 spot.
thanks again,hopefully will fly next week.

WALDO

Patriot, Waldo,,,,,,,,,,, any updates ???

patriot It looks llike you are doing a great job on this plane . You don't need flaps, but after all your work do yourself a favour and triple check balance ,lateral as well and DO NOT force this plane off the ground, I did and now only have pictures. I had held up elevator on the takeoff roll as with all my other planes, she came up quicker than expected with a violent left snap hit on the wingtip you can imagine what it looked like I am going to build another once my current project is complete. Good Luck