Flew the ucd 46 maiden today..what a great flying plane! Ive got an old os 70 surpass up front, barely pulls out of a hover....cant tell if its the old motor, old fuel (havent flown glow in over a year) or the nitro (i think its 10%, but a year old, need to go to 15 +%).

At anyrate, mines box stock, no mods and seems to be holding up well after 6 flights. One landing was a harrier which dropped the last foot or so pretty hard and it seems ok.

Ive got a new OS 61 FX 2 stroke anyone have any experience with that? Im afraid it might be too much banging around for the airframe.

Thanks!

Scott

SLT

See post 521 ... 4 post above ... vert stab failed on my maiden flight ... landed the plane just fine ... talk to ya soon ...

Rick

Ever since I have fiberglassed my landing gear, I have done it 0 times. This has to be done.

First cutback Monkote as per pic. Then first fiberglass/epoxy around the landing gear and up 2 inches on the side. Then epoxy over the wall that supports the single wing dowel. Then place another piece of fiberglass over that wall and wrap around on top of the other fiberglass even to the front of the plane and other strip of glass. Then another layer of epoxy over everything. After epoxy dries, sand and hit with paintbrush white. If you sand it nice .. you will not even notice this. REMEMBER it is just as important to re-enforce that wing dowel wall as it is the landing gear.

Most important ... it works, and works WELL.

The 61FX should be OK. If I had to choose, I would go for an OS 50 SX over the 61FX.. The 50SX puts out almost as much BHP as the 61FX yet weighs only a tad more than a 46.

How did it fail. Was the grain of the wood the wrong way? Did it have anything to do with your epoxy?

The stab itself is still whole. What failed was the wood below the stab where it goes through the fuse. I will take a digital pic tommorow and post it.

Rick

I caught a post waaay back on like page 8 of a fellow who was using a 60 fx w/o much luck. Think ill just stay with my trusty 70 surpass and up the nitro :-)

What a sweet little flying plane this is. Overal the UCD series is a winner....4/5 people at the field today had them (all others were the 60 size). Shoulda bought UCD stock!

My landing gear seem rock solid...not sure if ill reinforce them up or not....

Scott

Scott, I am on my 3rd 46 UCANDO. The landing gear broke off in everyone. Those 2 tookpicks and Chinese hot glue looks like it is going to work, but it isn't. Same problem with the 60 UCANDO. If you don't want to worry about it, do it. I know UCANDO's are about the easist plane to land, but a little gust of wind goes a long way on deadstick. Otherwise your plane is going to look like this guys in the pic. That is the way my last 2 UCANDO's looked. Not happening this time. He even said that his landing gear has broken 3 more times with the NyBolts.

Hmm,

Maybe I should redo those gear! Ill make it a deal, make it to winter, and itll get some new gear.

Thanks for the advice!

Scott

Thats the only U Can Do that I have ever owned, and my first 3D plane. I started flying it back in July. What I flew before that was a airmadillo and started flying it in April. For being the first real plane to own, it is a very sweet plane. I have never built a plane before, so the first thing that came to mind was nylon bolts to go in the landing gear (the madillo had a breakaway bolt for the wing if you crashed or did cartwheels). I would really recommend this plane for learning though. I love it! With the Saito 91 on it, there is no end in vertical climbs and hovering or whatever you want to do. I had a O.S. 50sx on it at first - another sweet motor, but not for this plane.

It won't make it til winter ... let me know when they break!

Man, these gear dont seem that weak!

Did you guys notice any fragility in the structure before they broke or was it a particularly hard landing that did it? I've tugged on them a few times and they seem in there, plus the one landing I had (elevator drop down to the ground) was kinda rough, but not a problem...and all other landings are so gentle...

Is anyone having any luck w/ the gear in the stock configuration after extensive use??? Or is the feeling that they will break no matter what, who or when?

I just hate adding weight to it as it barely pulls out of a t-roll as it is...

Scott

It is my opinion that the gear is NOT that weak. I PLANTED mine down hard a couple of times, enough to bend the LG and it was just fine. The only two times mine came out was "dumb thumbs" when I landed with too much speed and off the end of the runway into high grass and dirt mounds. This is my second plane so I am very much a rookie and the UCANDO has proven itself alot more durable than it looks. And, I have noticed as I get better at landings, it will slow to an absolute crawl and land sooooo softly. So, the gear is suitable for normal flying and landing, unless you're STL who wants to practice harrier landings with it. Which is fine, it's a great plane to do that with, but you can't expect nothing to break when you SMACK it down hard. My feeling is, even though glassing is an excellent way to add strength, and I have no doubt it's alot stronger than stock, on a very hard landing, the stress is going to move along the gear until it finds the weakest point, like the fuse sides, and split those. STL, I really do think glassing is a good idea, and you did a very nice job and will probably have no trouble, which is what you set out to accomplish anyway, but it's not unbreakable.

Face it, the whole plane is weak to some degree. You can't make something out of balsa as light as the u-can-do without compromising strength (compared to other planes).

That being said - I have been flying mine all summer from very thick grass without adding a single drop of glue to repair anything. Stock.

Good point, imdapope, and this is a BIG plane too. Name one other plane this big and this light.

Ok guys ... maybe your right about it being a tough plane. But I have had 3 46 UCANDO's and 3 60 UCANDO's this year. I fly the **** out of them until they crash. The only problem i have had with all 6 is the landing gear, the rest is fine, no doubt. But if you don't want to do pillow landings everytime, you will need to re-enforce that gear. I think it's the only miss on the plane, and I am going to still recommend to everoyne to re-enforce that gear.

I was at the LHS and they have some iron-on carbon fiber about 2" wide. How do you think this would work for reinforcing the gear? I don't want to repaint the front of the plane, and it's real hard to get monokote to stick to epoxy, at least for me. I figured the CF may solve both problems....

I dont think that would work. That covering is really only to prevent dings and dents that come down onto the surface of the covering. The landing gear, when it comes off, pulls off backwards. Simply ironing on will come right off. If you put the fiberglass on nicely you can just brush paint or spray paint right over it. It will still look cool.

stl,
You must fly to the limit! Your 3rd UCANDO? Why so many?

UCANDO 46 = $150
X 3 = $450
UCANDO 60 = $190
X 3 = $570
===
$1020

Great Planes must love you!!

Honestly, this is my first year flying. I have been told that I am now one of the best pilots in the area. I am not trying to brag. But I got that way destroying many airplanes and flying very low on the ground. I wanted to get as good as I could as fast as I could. But it cost me about 10 airplanes total this year including 1 giant scale Laser. I have to give most of my credit to the G2 Sim. I have thousands of crashes with hundreds of hours logged on the sim. I take the same risks on the field as I do the simulator. I did my first tail touch only 45 days after ever putting a RC remote control in my hands. I also now have a 40% Edge, but am going to save that one for next season.

Fly hard. Crash hard.

Here are just some of the planes that I have just bought this year. My Goldberg Decathlon with YS 91AC was my second plane. My Dave Patrick Ulty 120 was my 3rd. This is about 1/2 of the planes I have or have had. I have bought about 25 since March.

http://www.flybuder.com/gallery/dion

Take more chances and you will learn faster.

fly hard, crash hard, HIT LOTTERY!

I looked atthe CF again and you only iron it down to hold it til you epoxy or CA it to the wood. I think it will do very wellholding everything together. I used two layers of it, wrapped like you did the fiberglass and epoxied down. I guess I'll see if it holds.....

Wow STL that is quite a squadron for only 7 months! I need to come fly with you! They all look like great birds.

As I was cutting the covering to put the wing servos in last night, I noticed what a lot of you guys have been seeing with the ribs - the rib next to the servo mounting hole was crushed. I was able to get it all pushed back in place, so I saturated it with thin CA in hopes it will hold together. I'm not sure what the problem is, but GP definitely has something wrong with the way they're packing or handling these things.

To anyone who has had the cracked ribs, was there any other damage you found that I should look out for? Also, anyone adding carbon fiber to the horizontal stab area for strength, or possibly tail brace wires?

With some of these planes losing their tails, I'm thinking of adding CF to the rear fuse area where the stab mounts. I got some CF that is 3" wide that I think would work well if I lay it down the fuse on either side wher the stab mounts.