Here's a guy with the right priorities

Good luck with your maiden.

Pete

Best of luck to both of you on your maiden flight. Do let us know how the it went!!

-tycho

Well, I managed to maiden flight my Extra today
Started off tuning the Saito then I ran her up and down the strip checking the tracking. Gave her a little more power and the tail lifted up, all was well, no need to change anything. I was going to bring it to the pit and double check everything and refuel but everything went so smooth I just poured the power on and away she went. 1 click on the elevator for trim and she was flying smooth. I had a short 3 to 5 minute flight then landed it. I set the throws to the recommended low settings but found the plane quite twitchy. I dialed in some expo and went up again. Sweet flyer at 20% expo and low rates, snap rolls were quite nice even in low rates. Low high speed passes were a blast, snapped well, tight loops, split S's etc were all a blast. It descends on knife edge rapidly and won't hold a flat spin but, I do have it quite nose heavy right now. Landings were incredible, I received an 11 out of 10 for the approach's and landings by the voicetrous crowd that surrounded me I think she's a keeper!

I put several more flights on my SE yesterday but the day ended with a "slight" problem. I was doing some touch and go's during my "planed" final flight and on about the 4th or 5th touch down the gear ripped out. As the gear rotated back, the pointed tips of the rear of the wheel pants punched through the lower wing sheeting, and then as it continued back, the gear block and upper part of the gear crushed a bit of the rear fuselage.

I brought her home, stripped off the covering in those areas that were damaged, resheeted the wings and used some scrap balsa that I have from the Top Flite P-47 I'm building to repair the fuse. It took about an hour to make the repairs and get everything sanded smooth. I'll re-apply the covering tonight and be ready to fly again tomorrow.

For anyone building the SE (or the 4* series) be sure to use a good amount of epoxy on the landing gear block (I didn't the first time on the SE, but did on the 4*) You might also want to add some additional triangle stock to the fuse sides to reinforce the landing gear block since the kit only shows to add some on the forward bulkhead.

Hughes500E: Sounds like the maiden went very well Photos?

Connery: Sorry to hear about the landing gear. I definetly will make sure I add a little extra epoxy to the landing gear block. This is what mine currently looks like. Do you think it's re-inforced enough?

-tychoc

looks like a brick S_-_t house

Pete

tychoc, looks good to me.

I've got mine all recovered and it's ready to fly again.

Like so many other SE builders, I followed the instructions and mounted my engine fairly early in the process. As a result, I needed to add about 3.5 oz of weight in the nose to get my CG correct. (OS .46) I had already cut my throttle cable to length, so couldn't consider moving my engine further forward. My advice to other builders is to wait until the last possible step to drill your engine mounts and do a preliminary balance. I plan to order a new cable and re-mount my engine to eliminate some of this excess weight...Fred123[&:]

Good idea Fred but, the very last thing I did was bolt on my engine, still had to add major weight with the engine right up front. I'll be playing with CG next week myself, perhaps the majority is enjoying a tail heavy almost 3D CG equalling the engineers taste. I'll post my results

Hi everyone.

I have run into a little problem, let me start by explaining the way I build the Wing and fuselagde. First of all I have the building board and pins so there is no miss about building the wing twist or the fuseladge twist either. I built the wing pined down to the board and so the fuseladge. But the problem is that when I install the wing to the body with the aluminium tube that come with I have a gap. It only happenes with one wing, at the leading edge of the wing. I hope you people understand what I am saying. Who have a suggestion on how to fix the problem or what is causing this gap.

Please help.
DAAdood

How much is the gap? Mine has about 1/8" of a gap and it flys just fine.

Yes it is a 1/8 gap at the TE,

thank you
Daadood

How's the build coming?

Connery: I'm done building, however, I haven't finished sanding yet. Also, this will be my first covering job, so I'm a little apprehensive about getting started on this. Then last week was spring break and the kids were off from school etc. so not much have happened for the last couple of weeks.

I also started getting my Venus 40 ready for her first flight as well as getting my original trainer (H9 Arrow) flight ready again. I bought a new TT .46 Pro engine to stick on it as well as a new flight pack so that I can start teaching my sons how to fly.

I guess the SE has been on the back burner for a while. I'm going flying today (Sky Raider II) and will start breaking in my Mangnum 52XLS which I have in the Venus. I figure by next week I should be ready to get back to the SE.

Any advice on how to go about covering it? I'm planning on using Ultracote. Haven't decided the color scheme yet.

-tychoc

Covering is a blast, glad to hear you're using Ultracote. Start at the tail and work your way forward on the fuselage. Take your time and set goals. Do the stab one night, fin on the next night type of thing, never rushed and always enjoying. Do the bottoms of the stab and the wings first then the top. Make sure you have a good heat gun. When covering the wing leave about 2 inches of overhang all the way around. Using a medium heat iron, tack the covering in places around the wing pulling tight as you go. Then turn the heat up and adhere the parameter all the way, tight. Pull out the heat gun and tighten the covering on the entire wing. Use your iron, with a sock, and go over the edges again, the balsa sheeting, cap strips etc. I usually cut the TE halfway through back edge then when I cover the top I overlap and trim flush with the sheeting. LE, I cut past center then trim the top covering to overlap past and slightly back under. For the edges, cut the overhang in strips, fairly wide strips where its flat but as you approach the LE cut the strips closer together, don't cut all the way to the wood, leave about a 1/4 inch. Now just using your iron pull each "tab" and iron it down. Once finished take your knife and cut the covering "flaps" off about 3/16 of an inch , 1/16 of an inch iside your cut, leaving a clean 3/16 tacked edge all the way around. Cover the bottom, do the edge, cover the top do the edge. Now you can just iron on a cap over the entire tip and then trim around. When I seal the firewall, I usually paint the thinned epoxy around the top and bottom edges of the engine compartment. This helps attaching the covering, I believe it helps to hold it on
When you have to cut any holes in the covering, wing tubes, wiring, alignment pins etc use a hot soldering iron. It cuts the holes and seals the covering to the edges all at the same time. I also recommend that you seal your control suface hinges. I do both sides of each surface myself.
Looking forward to seeing your SE
Hope this helps a little!

Hughes500E: Thanks for the info. I'll take your advice and go slowly. It's not like I have to get the SE ready anytime soon. By this weekend, I have 3 planes that are operational at the same time. I have really enjoyed the build so far, so I'll just apply the same approach. Small steps at a time, and like you said, make sure I'm enjoying the process.
I'll post pictures and "lessons learned" when I'm done + I might have to ask some questions between now and then anyways.
By the way, the wheel pants. Do people spray paint those. I fly on a grass field. Will the hold up or shouldn't I even bother with putting them on?

thanks,

tycho

I purchased a set of fiberglass wheel pants to use on mine (actually, another forum member here in Canada shipped to me free from all costs a set to use) instead of the ABS pants. I ended up using 3 inch light tires with the stock dural and have yet to install the pants. I believe many use fiberglass and CA to join the ABS halves (some acetone and a piece of plastic) and then yes, sand them up and paint them. Not sure how fast I'll be installing mine, kind of like the big wheel look plus the fact I'll have mine on floats quite often!

I used the kit supplied wheel pants and painted them with standard Krylon spray paint to match my covering. I fly from a grass strip and they had held up fine. Even when my landing gear departed from the plane on a touch and go, the were still in one piece.

Had the same problem with my left wing. Gap was not too bad, ( 1/16") [&:]so I carefully bent the Aluminum tube on that side to close it.. My gap required that the tube be bent to the rear. The bend is so slight, you can hardly see it, but it still requires that I have the tube marked put it back into the right position..Fred123

So does that mean your SE turns to the left better [:'(]
I logged three morre flights on my SE today. What a hoot. I moved the CG aft just a hare but, I did not like it. I put the CG back to stock and it felt much more comfortable. Perhaps others opinion will be different but no sense going any further back with it for me.
What a plane!

Steve

Hello Fred ;

Do you think that by bending just a little toward the opening on the tip will fix the problem?

Is that what you saying?

If the gap is at the leading edga and if it is not too big won't go away when the wing get fastned using rubber bands or zip ties?
Mine had a 1-2 mm before covering. After covering it is now 1 mm and when I install the wing with a zip tie it disappears completely.


/RCfun.

Don't bend the tube..... A 1/8 gap at the TE will not affect anything. Like I answered in your other posts. If you are that worried about it fill it with balsa and sand it down.
No worries bud , fly the thing

thanks I think I just leave it like that, Do you have a nice scheme to show me . By the way how do you post pic in the forum I forgot completly how to. please tell me I am willing to share my finish SE plane and my corrent 4* 60 in the forum. I also like to post a real unique P51 whish is not mine but my friend neighbor who covered and also covered my current 4*60 plane.


Well talk to you later

DAAdood: You have to press the "Click here to upload" button at the bottom. See picture: