Okay, I put a Castle Creations BEC into the plane and plug in the battery to see if it works. This is the first thing I've done to the plane, haven't put the wings on yet. BEC works fine, so I run the fan up to about half throttle and I hear this big racket from the fan, oh sh**. Pieces of plastic come flying out the intake, what the hell was that! The damn nose cone of the fan came apart and put some nicks in the fan blades. This sucks now! Not even put together yet.

So what can be done to get a new rotor and spinner?

Anyone else have this happen? I guess mine had a little to much vibration.

Wow, that sucks. Truly sucks. You're going to need a new blade. The thing will be terribly unbalanced. Contact John at NitroStaff1.

sure I can replace a new fan unit for you. what's your order number?

John
Nitro Planes

Thanks John!

Order #470093

EDF's NEED breaking IN!!!!!

Please see the F-35 thread where I've outlined the proper proceedure.

I'm working on an video showing what must be done as well.

Only thing I could find is this, "Nitro Planes EDF Pre-Maiden Procedures". Looking at this I never got close to what it recommends. I was running it up slowly to 1/4 throttle first because of the vibration, but I read where that's the way these fans are so I brought it up to 1/2 throttle and boom.

If you get vibration, then you must remove and balance the fan, and also look for blade rubbing before running it up!

This is standard with all EDF's.

You - MUST - check it out.

John appears to be sending you a new blade set.

Look in the F-35 thread here where I outlined the proceedure for testing and breaking in the EDF.

You must sand the blades slightly to avoid them rubbing with the shell.

Because this was not done on your EDF, the blades contacted the shell which broke them off..

The blades will splay out and hit the shell because of centripetal force... you must sand down about 2mm of plastic to avoid this.

The best way to do it is to spin the fan on a drill against fine grit sandpaper.

It only takes a few minutes to do but it means the difference between a broken EDF and a good flying plane.

Actually the fan nose cone broke apart and went into the fan blades. The fan blades are still intact, except for the nicks in them from the nose cone. Being a "RTF" I was hoping for less work, I wish they would leave the fan out if it needs to be balanced.

RTF means that the amount of work needed is almost minimal, but on ANY RTF you have things to do.

Any RTF will need to be trimmed and adjusted, with EDF's you also have to do this to the FAN.

I guess it would be nice if were not completely assembled as you've said though, at the least it points a newbie in the right direction... but then again those manuals are abysmal aren't they?

You do want to install the cone though. It is important for the efficiency of the engine.

After you have it balanced out, consider putting a microdrop of CA on two sides of the cone, using a toothpick tip.

That way you only get a minimal amount of CA on the cone, so it can later be worked loose, but it will not come off in flight.

Opjose, thanks for the tips.

Opjose, I got the fan screw off, but I can't seem to get the blade off. What am I doing wrong? thanks

Once you have the front screw off the fan, you should be able to pull the fan blades straight forward.

This should expose the retention shaft under the blades.

Yeah, no such luck, and I'm pulling quite hard, too. I don't want to dislodge anything pulling too hard.


There is what looks like CA on the heads of the blade. They might have CA'd the damn thing in there.

Ok then don't attempt to pull it off.

Fold some sandpaper a couple of times or so, and put it at the edge of the blades.

Turn the fan by hand to sand down the edges.

How can yetti balance his fan blades without getting it off?

I can't. It's not happening.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=7312919

Right, so sand the tips slightly with folded sandpaper.

Done. Thanks again!

Now that you've done this, run the engine up to full throttle and hold it there for about 20 seconds.

Let it cool and check for rubbing etc...

It should not be occuring, but better safe than sorry.

Make sure that the ESC is held in place firmly by the tape ( use packing tape if you have to ) and that the heat sink is in the air flow.

Also make sure that the tape in the fuse is holding snugly... you don't want it coming loose and dropping into the fan during flight!

Replace anything that seems to be coming off or up with new packing tape.... cut the tape with scissors and don't get your fingers onto the glue.

Keep the inside air ducts as smooth as possible for best air-flow.

I maidened her off of smooth pavement with the wheels on. Flew like it was extremely tail heavy. Throttled down and settled her into the grass. Rechecked the CG. Fine. All control surfaces were flush. Checked the gear. Turns out the gear was shifting in the air (screwing the plates down does not tighten the gear down. You could fashion your own out of thicker push rods) causing unmanageable flight. Took the gear off and hand launched. MUCH BETTER. High rates under 12mm very sensitive, but fun. Feels like you're really flying it. Haven't even tried out the low rates, but I'm sure it will be even more enjoyable.


Battery died. Pointed it into the wind. It floated. I thought it was going to stop in the air.


P.S. Sprayed the bottom of my F-35 with neon orange. Looks cool and very easy to see the orientation in the sky.


I recommend this to anyone getting into EDF. For the price, you just can't beat it ,and the build quality was far better than I expected. Make sure you remove the paint from the surfaces you are gluing to. Fine sandpaper works, but seems to damage the foam a bit. I used a hot glue gun to put a thin layer over the areas I wanted to remove the paint from. I let it set, but not for too long. Used the tip of a X-Acto to lift it from the surface. Brought the paint right up with it. Just be careful that you do not melt the foam.

Hey congrats!

Yup it can seem rather pitchy on high rates.

That's why I prefer to tackle as few things as I can on a maiden.

BTW: Did you install the two other servers or just go with the default?

Also did you notice that it rolled on you and you had to add right trim to level it out?

Re: Gear

The gear has a retaining hole that prevent the rear gear from shifting forward and back.

Then the two straps are used to hold the gear in place.

Once done they should not move or shift.

Thanks. I'm glad it's still in one piece.

I didn't install the two extra servos. Went default.

Even with the gear installed correctly( gear in retaining hole), and the two straps secured tightly, the gear still shifted left to right and vice versa.

Do you mean that the wheels lshifted on the wires?

Or that the wires themselves moved left/right?

Neither should affect the C.G. and flight characteristics though. Only forward aft movement would.

Could the battery have shifted causing the problem?

The wires themselves moved left and right. Hmm. Maybe the battery was shifting, but the way I put it in now it is snug.


Went flying again today.

I should first note that my charger is broken, (when AC is plugged in both lights go on) but both batteries were charged prior to this problem. John is sending me a new one .

Anyway, I always thought my F-35 was slower than the ones on the youtube vids. My first battery, the battery that came with the f-35, seemed lackluster. Just wasn't powering the F-35 well. I was struggling to get through some wind. My second battery, however, the one I purchased from the replacement section was really fast. Youtube video fast. On the first charge this battery was not fast.

My question is: Was my charger defective the entire time? Is it my ESC?

Thanks


P.S> just got my fan off. balanced it the best I can. Same blade does not return to the top. But when I put it on the drill, it's still vibrating.