Hi.

I've started my first build, a Venture 60 ( [link=http://www.btemodels.com/venture.html]see it here [/link] ).

I've completed the wings. I've added the dual ailerons, an option that can be added to the original kit.

My question:

I plan on leaving the servos in the wing when I cover. It seems like it will be very difficult to string the servo wires throught the holes in the ribs once the wing is covered, so I plan on leaving the servo installed. I put a little brace around the servos, so they are tucked into the wing and will not interfer with the covering.

Will this cause any problems when I'm covering the wing? The heat from the heat gun won't melt the servo wire, will it?

You can tie a piece of string to the servo connector and pull it through the wing by removing the servo. Then, after you cover the wing, use the string to pull the servo wire back through. It works, honestly, I've done it.

David

Foos, I make a pseudo rib from 1/8th ply and cut a servo opening in it and the real rib, then I glue the pseudo rib on the side of the real one. The ply rib and stock rib are plenty stiff together to stand servos forces. On some I sheet the bottom under the servo and cut a slot for the arm. On others I place a couple of pieces as you did for the slot.

Yes, I ditto that on beefing up the wing area that houses the servos. Building a light weight ply box is a very good idea. Really do not want the servo falling out on a heavy landing, or maneuver.

The Venture 60 is one sweet plane. I have the kit, have not buildt it yet. In finding new homes for a widow's husband's RC inventory, there is a beautifully built Venture 60 done in green, black and silver coverings. It will be a hard plane to part with. While it never was flown, there had been an OS MAX .61FX engine installed. Some hobbiest make light weight paper tubes for the servo wirilng to pass through to the fuse. The string method of pulling the wiring through the wing has worked well for everyone over the years.

Good luck with the build, and give us a photo when finished. A good airborne shot would also be fun to see.

Rich S.

Foos, construction looks good so far! It also looks to me like your servo and wires are safe right where they are. Heat from the covering iron will not hurt them. You can use the string idea if and when you ever have to remove the servos.

Hi Bruce.

I wondered if you may visit this message board. rcuniverse seems to be the message of record.

Thanks. There were a couple of gaps between the sheeting and the main & front spars, but I filled it will yellow glue (you can probably see these in the picture). And I went a little crazy on the sanding and put a few divets in the ribs (I'll post a picture this weekend). I don't think it will be a problem other than aesthetically.

I thought about using the string method, but I already had the wing assembled and it was difficult enlarging the holes in the ribs. However, I didn't think about removing the servos down the road!! [:@] Currently, the holes in the ribs are just barely large enough to accept the servo wires. I guess I should go in there and enlarge the rib holes to make it easier to string the servo wire through. But those holes are going to be fairly large. Will this compromise the wing strength?

I purchased an .82 Saito engine and plan on breaking it in today. Then I can start on the fuselage.

I call for 3/4" holes, but up to 1" dia. should be no problem as far as strength is concerned. Now that the wing is built, it would probably be easiest to cut square holes with an Xacto knife.

I purchased a Saito .82 engine for the Venture and broke it in over the weekend.

#1 : Don't use 1/4 inch plywood as the base for a test stand. I started the engine and the wood instantly started flapping where the engine was mounted. I had to shut down the engine. I think I was lucky the engine didn't fly off. See pics.

So I ran to Lowes and purchased a nice, thick board and mounted everything again.

I picked up a pallet that someone had put out for trash and mounted the test stand. It work nicely. Very heavy so it wasn't going anywhere.

#2: Don't use a wooden prop to break-in an engine. My starter battery needed to be recharged, but I didn't want to wait so I used my chicken-stick and promptly chipped the brand new prop. I had to remove the prop to check it's balance, but surprisingly it was still balance.

Started up the Saito again and it ran beautifully. I ran a full tank through it at 3800 RPM. No problems.

#3 Be sure to check the mounted bolts after each run. By my third tank, the bolts had loosened slightly and the engine began to vibrate violently.

Observations (Are these normal?)

I noticed a lot of condensation on the tube from the carb to the cylinder especially when running rich. You can see this in the last photo with the engine running. Is this normal?

Also, when I stopped the engine after running it very rich per Saito's instructions, the muffler "smoked" or "steamed" for some time. Smoke may not be an accurate word. It was like pouring cold water on a hot skillet. This didn't happen on my last tank of fuel when I ran the engine leaner with a higher RPM.

Also, when I ran the Saito leaned out and full throttle, it topped out around 8000 - 8200 RPM. Is this a normal range? The manual states that 12000 is the top range of RPM.

All in all, I'd say it was fairly successful day. On to the mounting....

Mounted the engine last while watching my Mavericks get killed by Golden State in the first game of the NBA playoffs.

It went surprisingly well. The mount is slightly rotated off center so the engine doesn't fit perfectly flat, but it is barely noticeable.

I dumped thick CA on the blind nuts, so they shouldn't be going anywhere. I was very careful not to get any in the threads of the blind nuts, but I tapped them anyways.

I was fortunate because I had a thick plastic ruler that fit perfectly between the back of the engine and the engine mount. It gave me the perfect amount of space and squared the engine. I then nailed a T-pin through a piece of wood and scratched the mount through the engine mounting holes. Drilled then tapped and the engine mounted perfectly. I worried that I would go through 2 or 3 mounts before getting it straight. Glad this step is behind me.

Question before I mark the throttle hole.

I found this on a Saito website.



It's called "the DuBro 4-stroke throttle linkage" Should I consider doing something like this? Is it going to be difficult to connect the throttle linkage by simply connected it directly to the throttle arm?

The DuBro thing works well, but here's an easier solution

MinnFlyer's idea is good. Works well with solid wire pushrods.

In the kit, I include a cable-in-tube type pushrod. For four-strokes, I like to lash a connector, facing backwards, to the cable. You can use a nylon clevis or nylon ball link, secured with wraps of thin copper wire and epoxy. You can stiffen the cable where it is exposed (not enclosed by the tube) by soaking with thin CA, if necessary.

Thanks Bruce and Minn.

Pictures would be great, because I am totally lost Bruce. But you are saying that I will need to use some sort of device.

I'll give the DuBro thing a try. It's only $4.95.

Just a quick update. Fuselage complete. Fuel tank compartment lined with foam and fuel proof. Made a slight mistake by test fitting the tank one last time and forgot to put my string pull tab back on. However was able to get it out by poking the tank through the fuel tube hole in the firewall. The tank is nice and snug.

There was a small gap at the bottom of the firewall, so I glued a piece of balsa to the base to prevent fuel or oil from leaking back into the fuselage. You can see this in picture #3.

I've also just completed the stabilizer and fin. On to the control rods. This should be interesting.

Looks great! Nice sanding job!

looking very nice! One trick i always do for fuel tanks is to put a pull tab on the back of them made from 2" wide packing tape. Take a piece of tape say 6" long and fold it together for about 1" to 1 1/2" then just stick it to the back of the tank. It gives you a pull tab to get the tank out at any time, which somewhere along the lines is needed. Just a tip. Again great job..keep it up

They're not perfect, but I installed the control rods. Couple of questions:

The rudder fuselage slot came out ok, but I had to enlarge the elevator slot quite a lot in order to prevent the control rod from rubbing against the fuselage. Also once I enlarged the slot it helped seperate the two control rods in the fuselage.

1) I think the problem occurred because I wasn't able to accurately mark where to cut the slots on the fuselage. When I placed the fuselage on the plans, obviously I was unable to see throught the wood of the fuselage to mark the slots. So I marked them as best I could, but the elevator slot was marked poorly. Is there a little trick to marking cut lines blindly?

2) The rudder slot is pretty close to the size on the plans, but the elevator slot is probably 30-40 % too large. Is this going to be a problem while in the air? Should I attempt to close it a little?

Hmmmm, I don't think the extra large hole will hurt anything in the air, but it's not exactly beautiful . I would be tempted to cut a neat-looking oval out of some scrap plastic or thin plywood with a slot for the pushrod in the center. Paint it, and apply after covering, using the pushrod to locate it precisely. Kind of a band-aid, but will look better than a big hole.

Good idea. Thanks.

Foos,
Looks like things are going well, I hope to be joining you soon on your building venture. I just bought one yesterday trying to decide on engine, I may go with the same engine as you. I doubt I get to start anytime too soon, as my shop and the entire basement is still in the process of being framed out.
I ordered thinking it would be 4-6 weeks before shipping and Bruce said it should be here next week.. WOOHOO! Keep with the thread, it has been very helpful so far.

Thanks
Tango

I feel like the Karate Kid after he waxed-on, waxed-off. I sanded the entire model Saturday afternoon. Started with 150 grit, then 220 and finished up with 600. It's fairly smooth now, although I wasn't able to get the epoxed sections where the wing is joined and the bottom of the rudder and center of the elevator perfectly smooth (and does it show, I'll explain). Epoxy is tough.

I've attached some pictures of the framed plane. Pretty cool seeing it all together for the first time. I went with the Sullivan tail wheel and found a Hans Solo model to be my pilot.

I practiced covering on Sunday. Sunday night I decided to try the rudder first. Everything went well at first. The top 2/3 looks good, but the epoxed bottom is fairly bumpy. The monocote really amplifies the flaws. I had difficulty wrapping the second piece around the rounded bottom of the rudder. I think I used a little too much covering and tried to use a heat gun while pulling the monocote (similar to how I've seen the wing tips done). The covering bunched-up and stuck. The heat-gun smoothed it out a little, but it's pretty rough. I did the stabilizer fin next and it turn out much better.

I'll moved on to the elevator tonight and then the fuselage.

Do yourself a favor and get a trim iron, if you haven't already. Use the flat tip, set it on high for Monokote, and use it for those rounded areas (like the rudder bottom). It's slower than blasting with a heat gun because you have to work a little at a time, but much easier to control and will get out those nagging little wrinkles that the big iron won't. I rarely use a heat gun on a model this size, just the two irons.

The trim iron works wonders. I used it on my horizontal stabilizer and the curves look 100 % better than the rudder. Unfortunately, I warped the stabilzer somehow:

[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5857415/anchors_5857415/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#5857415]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5857415/anchors_5857415/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#5857415[/link]

Keep at it, you won't believe how nicely this thing flies when you're done.

Covered the elevator last night and embedded the plywood support for the dual ailerons. Almost forgot to do this, but glad I contacted Bruce before covering. I purchased a Great Planes' patented electric-powered Slot Machine to make my hinges. I thought I could use it to embed the control horn support in the ailerons. I needed to creat about a 1/16 inch slot. It was brand new so I thought I would give it a try. Plugged it in and started very cautiously. After literally 5-10 seconds of using the tool, the blades stopped working. The motor was running, so I thought a little oil on the blades would solve the problem. Nope. I followed the directions and opened the tool. There is a metal screw attached to the motor that turns a plastic gear attached to the blades. The plastic gear was completely stripped. What a piece of junk. I guess I'll use manual power to hinge my Venture.