rideon67

My Feedback: (1)

Finishing up an old Flite Line kit that was in storage I'm to the motor mounting stage and the instructions are non existent. Planning to fly this plane with a Magnum 36 Pro - stock muffler with rudder as a quick sport flier and have no experience with pylon type planes.

Where should the thrust line be vertically in relation to the wing? The front mounting area of the fuselage limits where the motor mount can be since they are pretty much the same size, so if the engine thrust line needs to be in line with the wing, some "adjusting" will be in order. TL at the center of the fuselage seems to be the intuitive placement. Also, is the 2 degrees right thrust offset needed on these planes?

I've looked at some of the old threads and have decided to use the screwed on hatch cover to make life easier since I'm not pumping big horsepower into this thing. Also glassed wing center top & bottom and switched landing gear to a small Dural with light wheels. Am I OK with these changes?

Finally, does the addition of the profile canopy give any noticeable changes in flight characteristics? What kind of speed can I expect with a 9/7 APC with this setup?

Thanks for any pointers.

DHG

My Feedback: (7)

Rideon67,

The Magnum .36 ought to be perfect for what you want to do. The thrustline should be in the middle of the firewall as provided -- assuming the firewall is 2-1/4" square, that would be 1-1/8" down from the top. Use zero up/down thrust and maybe just a "taste" of right thrust. 2 degrees sounds like more right thrust than you need, although I don't suppose it would hurt anything.

Keep the airplane light (3-1/4 lbs., if you can get there) and the landing gear you describe should be fine. The stock setup works pretty well, although the 1/8" wire they supply is springy and can cause the airplane to hop sometimes on pavement.

Adding a profile canopy/turtledeck improves the appearance and won't affect the speed enough to notice. With a .36 and a 9 x 7 propeller, it ought to be good for somewhere around 80-90 mph, maybe a little more.

Sounds like fun! Enjoy!

Duane Gall
RCPRO

daven

My Feedback: (1)

You've got a great sport plane there, they do fly very nice. Your changes will be fine, we flew these planes a few years ago with O.S. .25FX engines and they flew great. We were get low to mid 90's in the straights, so you may just be able to crack 100 mph. A 9x7 may be a hair heavy, you may want to start with a 9x6 and go from there.

splatt

As is, a pylon racer needs to be pushed for take off to get things off to a good start. Not much to taxi

I took a Scat Cat and bent the stock gear straight down and added a nose gear to it. Had perfect runway manners. Just a matter of running a control wire forward.

good luck

rideon67

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for the help guys. Finished it up as described (monocote) with rudder and flew yesterday. Since my recent flying has been profile 3D stuff the elevator throw was doubled from the plans. BIG MISTAKE! Jumped like a flea on a hot skillet. However, since the plans don't give aileron throws mine seems too small. Roll rate is about 360deg/sec. These planes penetrate the air as opposed to flying in it. With the 9/7 APC it is fast and cuts corners amazing. The first landing was an experience since I was afraid to touch down elevator and the thing just floated to almost walking speed before it dropped a wing (only a couple feet off the deck so no problem)

On the second flight (with more reasonable elevator response) I sent it on a vertical up line, slowed throttle to near stall and gave full rudder-down elev-opposite aileron. It sort of snapped, went into a spiral down, and even though very high I could not seem to do anything to stop it -- so the gound obliged.

Now that it's slightly heavier (epoxy repair to fuse) I'm not sure how to fly this thing. What aileron throw should I have for sport flying? How do you stop a spin and how many revolutions does it take? Are stall maneuvers a no-no? What can I expect when flying inverted (CG is right on plan spot).

I'm more than a little jumpy about spinning this plane in again, but would like to do more than a fast tight pattern and a couple of high g loops.

Thanks

DMyer

My Feedback: (2)

Interesting you put the Scat Cat it into a spin and couldn't recover it... I once watched Chip Hyde put a scat cat(borrowed) into a power off flat spin just fooling arround after he won the heat... he couldn't stop the spin... so it just spun all the way down... amazingly it didn't even hurt the plane! So don't feel bad! IMHO... the Scat Cat rudder is more a trim tab used for takeoff than a useful arobatic flying surface... not a whole lot of power/surface area there.