I "inhereted" a partially built Aeron from a buddy of mine (seems I get a lot of planes this way-thanks rickc2009).
Anyone build/fly one of these? Any advice/hints/tips/mods?
What engines should I consider for this plane? I have a TTpro .46 and a TSI .46 available. I haven't received the plane yet it's on it's way via USPS, should be here soon.
Any advice would be helpful, or better yet how about a flight report on this plane?
Thanks

Al P.

There have been several discussions regarding the Aeron on this forum. You should do a search on this forum and you'll find numerous postings on the Aeron that may be helpful to you. Pending on its current state of construction, there a couple of mods that you can do:
1. Cut out lightening holes in the front two 1/8" lite ply doublers, though make sure that you leave enough material in the right spots for the mounting of your fuel tank.
2. Omit the cross braces in the control surfaces - I've done this sucessfully on others.
3. Hand pick the bottom 3/8" SQ. Balsa piece to be medium density balsa that runs along the bottom of the fuse in the rear of the fuse. Then you can omit the 1/16" fuse sheeting. You can also install a CF rod in the fuse to add ridgidity to the fuse without adding alot of weight with confidence when you omit the fuse sheeting.

Engine - either one will do just fine. The Aeron is designed for a 32 to 50.

You'll find the Aeron to be very algile and quick, capable of aerobatics that don't have a name yet - -

You'll find some movies of mine flying on my website along with some construction pics. DKJens just finished one, and Paul Swany is finishing one up. You'll find both post on this forum.
Let me know if you have any questions once you get it, and let us know in what state of construction.
Kevin

And I'd love to finish that one if I could just quit traveling.... Out this week in California on business...

Kevin, do you mean all of the fuse sheeting or just one area? To me this sounds like it would make it weak...

Kam

The fuse builds pretty strong.... If I wasn't chicken, I would have omited the sheeting... Maybe on my next one...

I eliminated all of the 1/16" balsa sheeting on an Aeron (for another guy) in the past by hand picking the right piece of 3/8" SQ. balsa. His does not have the CF rod neither. No it doesn't weaken the fuse if you pick your wood right, though it does make it a pain to cover. I 'dumb-thumb' my Aeron recently hovering about a foot off of the ground and damaged it for the ?? time It is repairable, though I figured that its days were numbered so I am going to start building me another one. I am going to make the same above mentioned changes to mine. I am also going to install the CF rod through the length of the fuse. The one I'm flying now has a CF rod installed in it with the fully sheeted fuse. Its too much. It doesn't need the sheeting and CF rod.
I've ordered a bunch of wood from Lone Star. It is expected in this week. I am going to build another PBXL (my son is stealing my PBXL that I am flying now), then another Aeron - 40. I have a proto-type Aeron-90 built that I am thinking of making some more changes to it and rig it out with a 90 2C or 120 4C (whichever I can find that suits my fancy at the time).
Hope that this answers your questions.
Kevin

How about the CG. The nose seems to be quite long. I am (slowly) building mine with Saito 72 or 63 and I was thinking of putting rudder and/or elevator servos in tail. A good idea?

I fly my Aeron with the CG 1/8" behind the spar. Remember that the spar has been moved back into the wing in the design for various reasons, so don't set it up like the other Fun-Flys out on the market, you'll have a Hand-Full to say the very least!

Servos in the Tail - NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! That is a great way to ruin the flight characteristics of this aircraft.
Kevin

Kevin, sorry about asking again -- why not? It is done all the time. I fly Laser 3 and Diablotin with 2 or 3 servos in tail. In Somethin Extra I put rudder servo in tail and the CG ended spot on. Even Wacky Bee has servos well behind the wing.

Please let me know more. My thinking was based on the differences between the piped Webra you run and the more beefy 4-strokes I was thinking of. YS 63 is slighly over 500 grams and all that weight in hanging in front of the plane. The difference is worth at least one std servo?

Essentially you are changing the moment of the plane. It will be sluggish in entry of manuvers, it will over rotate in spins, it will weaken the fuse, or after you beef it up in the tail to compensate for the servo installation in the tail its heavy, and most of all, it flies like sh*t. I had one customer tell me that he did it despite my recomendation against it, and he found out the hard way. He complainted of the lack of flight performance until he put the servos where they belonged. Needless to say, you bought the kit, you can bash the kit anyway you desire. I am not like the 'Big Boys', I do extensive testing with different designs before I release a kit. I fly what I design. Comparing the Aeron with the Wacky-Bee III (or the Hard Bet, or Ecstasy for that matter) is not appropriate. These are totally different types of designs. If you want this aircraft for hovering only, then servos in the tail would be fine, though they will screw-up all the other unique flying characteristics of the Aeron that my customers buy the Aeron for.
Like I said before, you can do whatever you want, but needless to say, I highly recommend against it!
Kevin

Hi, just to let you know, this is what I am doing. I built the servos in wing as per plans, but -- this is the news -- I am building another mounts in tail. The extra weight is very small.

If it balances ok with the Ys in front, I will place servos in wing as you advised. If it looks like I will need tail weight, I will cut out the tail mounts and move 1-2 servos in tail.

Time will tell what is best. This far the only real modification is omitting the pull-pull servo linkages. I have some nice carbon rods that I want to try out.

Control rods will not give you the same amount of stroke in both directions as the pull-pull set-up does. Another customer of mine did put his servos in the tail section with a YS on the front of an Aeron. I have posted pictures of his aircraft on my website if you are interested. They are located in the Photo Album section on my site. I do not recommend this set-up, as stated earlier, I always tell my customers to send pics of their finished aircraft and I will post them on my website. I like to show other people's work. I always admire fine work.
Kevin

Tuomo

Did you have to move servos to the tail? I’m curious since I’m about to start building an Areon with a YS 63 myself.
Maybe I should make the nose an inch shorter?

I posted a message on this forum for some months ago when I was having problem deciding between Areon and Sledge. I didn’t decide, I bought both... I'm done with the Sledge now, but haven't flown it yet.. It came together very easy. But some of the balsa included was pretty hard, some sticks were even impossible to cut with my hobby knife.. other than that great kit..

well i got an aeron from RickC also and it is buillt and should be here in about a week. what exactly are these crazy manuvers u can dow ith it kvin? just wondering so i can prepare beofre you get up here for the march funfly if u make it.
i'll let everyone know how it turns out
thx
chris

Pinhead - what do you mean "crazy manuvers", you must mean "AWESOME MANUVERS!!!"
You can go to my website and check out the movies I have posted there. I have yet to get a movie of the knife edge spin (fuse horizontal) and it climbing in this manuver AWESOME! I have seen the Aeron do things that I have no idea what they are called, but that is why it is called an extreme Fun-Fly HUGH?
Kevin

sounds fun, u gunna bring ur fleet to our flyin if u come?
i should ahve mine done and flying by then
ttyl
chris

I'll have to wait and see how things go. I hope to make it provided that I am in town. I am currently trying to get ready for the show in Perry, GA 28 Feb./Mar. 1st. I'll let you know.
Kevin

ok thx
ttyl
chris