rc-sport

My Feedback: (12)

Psssst...look to the left, that's my baby. It's sitting motorless for now, I had to borrow the motor for my Funtana 100

biplanemurphy

Great lookin' Skybolt Spanishflyer. Please tell us more about your elevator linkage/setup, It looks quite original/nifty.
Really like your strut modifications too.


Murph..........

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Hey Murph, Which pre-tapped hole are you talking about???

ChrisMH

One modification I am considering, after the fact, is cutting a hatch in the bottom forward fuse and either installing a smoke system (less likely), or moving the battery pack to that location (more likely). I hate the fact that I have 10oz of "dead" weight up front, and would like to replace it with something a bit more useful.

Then again, maybe I'll wait until it gets a bit more beat up

Chris

biplanemurphy

Hi Minnflyer...........So the engine I'm using is an OS 120 fs surpassIII 4-stroke with fuel pump. The muffler had a pretapped hole with a plug/screw in it. I took the pressure nipple off an old OS muffler and screwed it in. The muffler they provided must be identical to the one they provide for 120 surpass without pump. The non-pumped version would rely on the backpressure for fuel supply, so it makes no sense that it would melt standard fuel line, and tygon tubing, and the black line that came with sullivan skywriter smoke pump. Here are photos of the muffler.

Thanks.....Murph..........

P.S. other than the melting tubing, the smoke system works great. Nice thick smoke!!! Equal to or better than my friends 26cc gas engine with smoke muffler!!!

biplanemurphy

Hi ChrisMH........All my smoke system is in fuselage between servo tray and fuel tank. 8 oz. oil tank, battery and pump all fit well.

Good luck.......the smoke really is fun, and the club guys really love it!!!

Murph.........

P.S. maybe if you put the flight batt. and smoke system batt. where you have your ingenious lead holder, it would maybe balance the same.

micagreenmachin

I did that when I first built the kit. I consider it a "must do" mod. There's plenty of room for a battery pack up there. Just zip-tie it to the bottom of the fuel tank mount and save some dead weight. Believe it or not, I think I actually got a Sulivan Skywriter to fit up there. Have to work out the details, but a test fit looked promising. I think I can fit the smoke pump, receiver battery and smoke battery all in there and a 10 oz tank will go over the forward wing mount... Won't need any lead in the nose this time. Before I yanked the covering off, I had 2 oz of lead in the nose to make it balance at the aft-most CG location.

It also makes it possible to replace the fuel tank if necessary. It's still not easy, but it is doable with a hatch, I've done it several times.

I say go for it and cut the hatch, you won't be sorry....

ChrisMH

Well, I had a bit of insomnia this evening, so decided to go ahead and cut a hatch and move my battery forward. Ended up looking pretty good and allowed me to get my battery right up against the firewall.

And...it now balances *exactly* at the aft end of the balance range with *no* additional nose weight. Needless to say, I'm pretty pleased about shaving 10oz off of my Skybolt

Final dry weight: 10lb 6oz.

Now for a nice day...

Chris

spanishflyer

Hi Murph,

About the elevator linkage I can tell that is a solution that I saw in F3A planes, unfortunately I have no photos of process oy my installation. I enclose a photo of the part. It is mounted on ball bearings and it moves effortless.

I´ll try to explain, excuse my english...

I mounted that before gluing fin and elevator, but tail must be almost finished in order to take measurements from elevator base.
This kato part is very nice but must be perfect installed and alligned with elevator to get exact movements in both elevators.

After drilling in the sides of fuse, I reinforced with 2mm plywood inside the fuse, in this ply will be the part screwd, and outside is necessary to install two little suplements of ply to keep paralell the ball bearing keepers (see image).

Then is possible to install a sullivan rod direct to servo, this is the easy way
Is possible also to use a pull-pull but you must tune the part with a fiberglass panel, like large servo arms. I did this.

Is not complicated but the narrow fuse at the end makes the work a bit [:@].

Spanishflyer.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Murph, that may be your problem. You should tap the header, not the muffler

biplanemurphy

Thanks Minnflyer.......Isn't the header even hotter than the muffler? I could tap it if neccesary, but I am real hesitant, I'm fearful of making the melting worse.

Spanishflyer..........That looks great. So it's called a "Kato"? I like that system for the split elevator, and think i'll look for it for upcoming project!!

ChrisMH........So she went on a bit of a diet? Hope she flies even better now!!!

Thanks guys....Murph.........

biplanemurphy

Hi Minnflyer........Just to add a little more confusion....I had the smoke system on a previous model.
The engine was a .70 OS 4-stroke. Tapped the muffler even farther down the line. See the yellow line in photos.
No melting problem, But a much smaller engine. I used the same 20% fuel (could that be the problem??)
I "assume" that a four stroke engine should run about the same temp. So I am really befuddled.

Thanks for the help.....Murph.........

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

First off, you should tap the header pipe because it has less pressure than the muffler (Bernoulli's Principle)

Also, the head has cooling fins, so it is cooler than the muffler. since you're tapping the headder close to the head, the head will act as a heat sync and keep the first part of the header cool (or more accurately, it will keep it cooler than the muffler)

Now, why it worked on one engine and not the other is anybody's guess

surf

A little late on the pics, but here is mine, almost three years old. OS FS91

biplanemurphy

Minnflyer.........thanks , I will try that next few days.[8D]

Surf....Nice color scheme, How's she fly? How's the .91 preform?

Thanks guys...murph..........

surf

murph,
Matching the checkers was a pain!! I'll probably never do that again.

The plane is around 10lbs and the 91 hauls her around ok. This isn't a 3D machine as you know and she flies good on the 91. But landing speeds a high but does float ok.

One modification I did was to make a "springer" landing gear set up. As you know the landing gear is flimsy so I used some 'pull pull' cable on the landing gear with srings.

PS Fort Bragg is a beautiful place.

tukkus

My Feedback: (2)

ChrisMH do you have any pictures of what you did or can you take some? I'd like to do the same as you but I'm kinda scared to cut into the fuse since I didn't build this plane and I'm not sure where it's safe to do so.

Also can anyone tell me how involved it would be to change out the main gear for something stronger. At 12 lbs dry the main gear is mushy and from what i can tell the wood under the main gear is glued to the fuselage. I haven't stripped the covering to look so I'm not really sure but I don't want to start tearing anything apart without knowing exactly what I'm going to be getting into before I start. The guy who built this plane did a great job with the covering and the build, except for the weight this plane was nicely done, with any luck I'll have some pictures later today.

Murph, there is no smoke on this either, it's just a pig but a good looking pig though and it flies true.

tukkus

My Feedback: (2)

Here's some pics.... I'm sill waiting for my YS 120 so I can fly it so it's grounded for now. I'm most likely going to have to do something like Spanishflyer did and make some tabs for the cabane struts because mine kept popping out in flight.

tukkus

My Feedback: (2)

some more....

biplanemurphy

tukkus..........That clean lookin' Skybolt gives new meaning to the words "AIR MAIL"!! hehehe

Nice plane......Murph.

P.S. Check the "Skybolt build threads by Chrismh and Mods-are-me. Lots of good info and techniques!!!!

biplanemurphy

Tukkus........and everyone else.....Here's those links to 2 great build threads!!

ChrisMH Link [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5070795/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm]ChrisMH's build thread[/link]

Mods-R-Me Link [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3561097/mpage_1/key_skybolt/tm.htm]Mods-R-Me's buiild thread[/link]



Hopethese help.........Murphy[8D]

ChrisMH

I've updated my build thread to show the hatch modification. The pics are included here, too.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_50...tm.htm#6028766

As far as the landing gear...if it is built according to the plans, you should be able to cut out the wood on the inside of the gear and the gear will be attached with screws right under that. I modified my gear so that they could be removed since, given their flimsiness, I was quite sure I'd have to bend them back into shape eventually (actually, I already have...they really should be beefier for an airplane this weight).

Chris

Edit: Wrong pic attached

Deadeye

tukkus, just curious, what have you got against 4 strokes? Have you ever had one?

surf

tukkus, in regards to the wimpy LG I must agree and I have not found an aftermarket one. So with that, I developed a 'springer' LG. I have used this on different planes that I could not find a strong LG. It's simple and works pretty good. Springs can be found at Home Depot and the cable is 'pull pull' cable. You can "pre load" the tension to create stiffer gear. You can see the springs at the top of the LG.

ChrisMH

I do believe Tukkus is a fan of the 4-strokes and his sig is that he uses him 'cause the likes 'em!