TomM

Takin a little break. Here's the bellcrank instal.
www.poconopa.com/belcrank.jpg

hattend

My Feedback: (20)

Like this?

Don

ec121

My Feedback: (2)

The top tube is for your antenna wire to run inside the fuse. The servos can be mounted in the center of the fuse in tandem with one in front and the other over the hook block without doing anything except adding a cross member for one end of the added servo. The reciever can sit in the middle hole. It is easy enough to run another nyrod down the fuse. There is a hole right beside the top tube at the top of the wing saddle. I used the bellcrank method myself.

TomM

DOH! Antenna wire!
I'll just have to run another tube for that.
Pretty much done- all but the battery and receiver installed- I'll do the balancing tomorrow.
Feels a couple pounds heavier than my Paragon. Could have used it today in that 15-20 mph wind. The paragon just hovered in one place as soon as the hi-start let go. Made quite a few "lawn dart" landings with absolutely no damage. I'm a little worried that the BOT's bolt on wing is not conducive to my landing style

Miami Mike

Is that a carriage bolt that's visible from the outside? Even if it is, it looks okay to me. I wonder though, how much lighter that assembly is than the servo it replaces.

I'm hoping the final result will require removing some of the built-in nose weight instead of having to add more.

(What? I just tried the spell check and "okay" doesn't pass.)

TomM

It's a panhead screw and washer on the outside. All in all, it's probably no lighter than a micro servo. Maybe heavier due to the wire pushrod. Nyrod would be better, but not easy to brace the outer tube in the rear fuse. I just couldn't get my HS81 in there and have enough travel. The small wheel was wider than the fuse thickness and didn't feel ike waiting for another servo.

ec121

My Feedback: (2)

I glued a piece of plywood with the screw in it to the side of the tail. I think I can brace the nyrod with a block and some Goop. It will stick to about anything. Shouldn't be a whole lot of pressure on the linkage since the book says you only need about 15ozs to move the elevator. I was too lazy to try to get a servo into the hole. Also read about jamming a piece of foam down the fuse and using it to brace the rod. The pressure will pin it to the side in the middle of the run. I have some small Kavan rods with the tiny metal center rod.
Does that metal weight go clear to the nose or is it hollow behind the thing? Book talks about drilling a hole in the nose to add the shot if you need it. It would be a heck of a chunk of metal if it was solid!!

hawksnest

Mine will go up the winch today. I used a GWS NARO HP BB servo with 19 oz torque, in the tail. Heat shrink tubing on the servo, then thick CA to the opposite side. Works smooth. AUW already test tossed, is 58 ounces. 1400 A pack, and only 1/2 oz lead, as in one .45 cal. semi wadcutter. (I have 12,000 left from shooting comp ) Will post flying results. BG

TomM

After I crash it today, I'll put the nyrod in it

pics
www.poconopa.com/bot1.jpg
www.poconopa.com/bot2.jpg

hawksnest

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TomM
[B]After I crash it today, I'll put the nyrod in it

My original idea was to use an 0.056" Sullivan flex cable, and route it right around and up to the evevator fitting, trapping it with curved pieces of 1/2" balsa and CA. I went with the servo instead. Where is Lackawaxen PA ? BG

TomM

Same idea as the flex cable but with real flexible nyrod. Had good success with those in aerlons.
Lackawaxen- Start at Scranton and go east for 60 miles. It's in Pike county. I'm on the Delaware River looking into NY out the window.

hawksnest

Flew my BOT ARF today. No surprises, it creaked and cracked first time up the winch as the joiners set themselves in the boxes, but other than that, it launched high without a zoom, and with the tow hook in the second from the front hole, it climbed pretty good. I will move it back a hole tomorrow and try it. O yeah, it actually fly's great, moves around the sky well, and thermals great. You can stand it on a wing tip and pull to keep it there. No tip stalling on mine. Only had time for two launches today as the whole sky was "up" in central PA, but flew over 30 minutes total on those two flights. Specked it out both flights, and carefully brought it down at what I think was the speed linit (no spoilers, remember) . If you can fly pretty well, you can get it down and land it without spoilers. If you don't have much experience, fly off a big field from a high start, and you will love this plane. BG--Shermans Dale, PA

TomM

Congrats on that first flight. Maybe the FMS sim is correct- I've been flying the BOT on it and I just can't land it- too much speed. 4 loops at low altitude bleed it down enough though .

I took mine to the field today but it was too crowded, and a couple of guys practicing their 40% Extras for a contest. Being the only glider guy there, I didn't want to tie up the field stringing my histart and leaving it lay wherever. Only flew my heli. Have to get out early tomorrow.

Chillybee

My Feedback: (3)

I flew my Bird of Time yesterday using my NE Sailplanes heavy duty hi-start and the wings didn't even creak. The surprised me to say the least. My best flights were just over 10 minutes measured from after releasing the line. I could have stayed on the thermals longer but didn't want to drift any further down wind because I'd already went past the edge of the field and was over the trees. The light wing loading lets it float with the best of them but still penetrate 15 mph winds quite well. I was able to cover alot of ground for some great thermal snooping. It also amazed me at how tight it could turn for such a big glider. The hitech HS55 mounted perfectly in the tail eventhough I was hesitant to do it. No extra weight was needed to balance it either. Overall, I can't find anything wrong with the plane. My only suggestions would be to get rid of the weight in the nose to allow for another battery pack and possibly add spoilers to allow steeper approaches. But I'm totally happy with this ARF and would suggest it to anyone who likes easy relaxing gliders.

Shredz

Lots of support here for an older design

I bought one already built and I can't believe the attention it gets when I pull the wings out of the sleeves. I liked this plane right from the first time I saw it. In fact, I liked it so much, I went out and found another one to build just so I could add some goodies like flaps.

I'm glad to see an ARF is available that flies well.

Thermals,

A4HawkPilot

My Feedback: (3)

Mine is finally on the way. So am I to understand that you HAVE to use a very small servo for the elevator? I think the smallest I have are Hs-225's.
Too big to fit back there?

Chillybee

My Feedback: (3)

The HS-225 has too much width to fit. I put in the HS-55 with a control arm and it worked out perfect. You can pick one up for $19.95 at servocity and they have free shipping. Or you can pick up a good knock off at Allercdotcom. They sell their Micro9 for only $12.95 but you have to pay a few dollars for shipping. I've bought many of them for my zagi and the ailerons & flaps on some gliders and have had no problems at all. Of course, I also ordered replace gears because of the zagi crashes. The Bird Of Time is one great flying glider and if you install the micro servo in the tail, you won't need any extra ballast at all. Mine flies great.

Miami Mike

It sure seems scary to trust your Bird of Time's elevator to an HS-55. I've had many of them break in much smaller planes.

A4HawkPilot

My Feedback: (3)

So what would be a good servo to go with if the HS-55 wasnt your first choice. I used the 55s in my zagi until I just got tired of blowing the gears but that was from crashes only. The only other place I use 55s is in my pylon racers for throttle.

FlyingPig-inactive

Agree. Mine glitch so badly after some crash. It seems to be the case that act as a bearing turn loose a bit and make 2 gears a bit apart of eachother. So the motor try to turn, but the arm (and potentiometer) does not.

I just use CS-10BB once and I love it. Much quieter than HS-55. I guess you may need at least CS-21BB for this job. A bit smaller than HS-55, a bit higher torque. $19 @ ArtHobby.

FlyingPig

hawksnest

I used a GWS NARO HP BB from www.balsaproducts.com in the tail, because they are fast with service, and had them in stock. 19 oz torque. Same size as the CS 20. It works fine, and I have used GWS servos in a bunch of planes for HL and light slope with good success. I have about 6 hours flying and winching time on my BOT with no trouble. BG

A4HawkPilot

My Feedback: (3)

Yes I saw in an earlier post you had used GWS NARO's. I looked for them on horizon but they were out of stock. I am going to check my semi local hobby shop and see what they have. IF nothing then I think I might go with art hobbies as they are just over in Montana and the order would not take long to get here.

ec121

My Feedback: (2)

I used a bellcrank and a standard $8.95 Hitec 300 servo under the wing. Didn't want to have to keep putting gears in a little servo or glue one in place. Works fine! No slop.

Chillybee

My Feedback: (3)

I just finished flying mine in about 10 - 15 mph winds and almost lost it twice because it was a speck. I can personally say the Hitech HS55 has enough torque to pull it out of a very steep dive. I think that any good micro servo will work in the tail. Just make sure that in case of a bad crash, you have replacement gears. As for torque, in this case the flying stabilizer is supposed to be aerodynamically balanced (so they say) so doesn't take much torque to move it especially on a slow flying floater.

Miami Mike

It's funny that you mentioned that. Just today at the slope, something like that happened to one of the HS-55's in my Zagi glider during a hard landing. I thought I'd have to replace it but then something seemed to pop back into place. Now it works fine.