Building a Cularis
 

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%">Yep another new guy on the block, anyone have photos of the finished wing/body connection? Also, this plane uses 6 servos will this work with a 6 channel radio? Or will Ineed a 7c or 10c?

Thanks,

Greg</span></div>

RE: Building a Cularis
 

You can use a 6-channel radio. If you will use your Cularis with the motor, you will need to use a Y-harness on the flaps. I did not follow the manual when doing the connections. I use regular servo extensions, but use velcro to attach the wing to the fuselage. I did not like the setup the manual suggests since it can wiggle lose in flight. You will then lose control of the wing servos.

RE: Building a Cularis
 

Greg,
Are you using a computer radio with some degree of programming or mixing function? Will your be the electric-powered version?

I used a 9CAP for mine with the standard 9 channel receiver, but any 7 or more channel receiver is best suited for the Cularis to take advantage of the "full-house" controls. This way you can setup one servo per channel and program the controls. Obviously you need to work with what you've got!

Also, I built mine exactly per directions and I can tell you the wings have never worked themselves loose. On the contrary - they are probably a little too hard to separate, but I can live with that. I think the Cularis is an excellent sailplane for someone who want a "no surprises" saiplane with very stable handling characteristics. Go Elapor!

Good luck!
Matt

RE: Building a Cularis
 

Itoo built mine per manual and I have no idea how many flights I have on this model by now, but I'm pretty certain it's over 100. It pretty much always go to the field. One reason is the wing connectors. It literally is a 10 second assembly including the time it takes to pick up the second wing! Do use care and read carefully to be sure you are getting complete penetration of the servo plugs... the manual covers this. The only way mine can disconnect is to have a wing disconnect and I don't think the servos would help much at this point.

I used the suggested Hobby Lobby power system for mine. It is VERY strong. If there is one flaw with the model, the gyro effect of the prop showed that the front of the cockpit is a bit too weak for high power. It all but ripped the nose completely off when I got it shut down. It was very easy however to apply a layer of fiberglass cloth over the area using thin CA instead of gel/resin. This happened very early and has performed flawlessly since. I also at the same time ran 3" wide fiberglass maybe 12" down the belly as a landing skid. Very light process and very strong. No signs of wear yet... just grass stains. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...eeth_smile.gif

I absolutely love my Cularis. It's very easy to fly and continues to impress me. Ido have one personal record of a bit over 2200' AGL, at which point it becomes pretty small!

RE: Building a Cularis
 

Greg,
I've been flying mine for almost two years. Stock Himax motor set-up. You can see mine by looking under RC Groups Blog. Search Fred Sanford
Cheers!<br type="_moz"/>

RE: Building a Cularis
 

Crash my Cularis a few time. Ripped nose off, broke all wing servo, lost rudder in flight. Dog lunch, But she a hard bird to kill. Watch my video on DOG CHASE CULARIS and CRASH CULARIS . What is under the hood, 900K motor, 40amp ESC, All medal gear servos ( replacement of the one I broke HS55 AND HS81), 10BEC, one Gryo for the roll, just to smooth thing out. All from Hobby City for under 100 USA dollars not including cularis, Battery 2100, 20C from hobby city 18$, OH and lots of white Duct tape. Those strip on the wing and tail are not paint, they are color duct tape.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRoD40fs1zw Warning this Video is not for the weak in heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYI-uZoLMNc After repair, I show how to replace wing servo and what not to do for wing connectors.

RE: Building a Cularis
 

Crash my Cularis a few time. Ripped nose off, broke all wing servo, lost rudder in flight. Dog lunch, But she a hard bird to kill. Watch my video on DOG CHASE CULARIS and CRASH CULARIS . What is under the hood, 900K motor, 40amp ESC, All medal gear servos ( replacement of the one I broke HS55 AND HS81), 10BEC, one Gyro for the roll, just to smooth thing out. All from Hobby City for under 100 USA dollars not including cularis, Battery 2100, 20C from hobby city 18$, OH and lots of white Duct tape. Those strip on the wing and tail are not paint, they are color duct tape.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRoD40fs1zw Warning this Video is not for the weak in heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYI-uZoLMNc After repair, I show how to replace wing servo and what not to do for wing connectors.

RE: Building a Cularis
 

Is there enough room to use a 72MHz standard size FM receiver?

RE: Building a Cularis
 

yes

RE: Building a Cularis
 

What kind of motor are you guys using for the Cularis ? Is it worth it to buy the Multiplex Power Set http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXSBS9&P=7 or is better to assemble it with a different engine ?

RE: Building a Cularis
 

I'm using an AXI 2820/12, but you may use any type of motor that meets the specs

RE: Building a Cularis
 

Hi Cularis experts - I'm a newbie to the Cularis, after flying the EasyGlider and wanted take my soaring experience to the next level. I'm pretty eager to get this thing flying.

Ihave to admit the this project is a little more complex than I thought it would be. To keep things real simple I went with:
*Cularis flight pack (2 mini HiTec servos and 4 nano hiTec Servos), used servos only
*Cularis power pack (motor, ESC)
*Futaba 7C2.4G radio (tx and receiver only)

I realized last night my flaps are going in two different directions - Igot a Y-harness to control both flaps with one servo. There's a nice dial (channel 6)in the 7C that I would like to use to control flaps. But right now, that dial's gonna make my Cularis roll.

After looking around online(including this board) it seems my options are to:

1) Mount one of the flap servos so it's parallel (rather than mirror to) the other flap servo. &gt; But I prepfer not to rip out the servo from the wing and dig another mounting hole at this point, and there's something about a symmetrical setup that appeals to me.

2)Reverse the servo by re soldering the motor inside &gt; Those nano servos are really tiny, my guess is I'll probably mess this up.

3) Dedicate two channels to flaps. &gt; Since Ihave 7 channels, this seems to be the most elegant solution. Except the 7C doesn't seem to support it. It's just ironic to have so many channels yet not be able to solve this. I could use the y-harness to control the two ailerons with one channel. But the 7C still doesn't have a 2 channel flap function as far as I can tell (all those mixing features don't seem relevant here).

With so many Cularises out there, Iwould have thought this would be very straight forward. Am Imissing any options? Any useful ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ed

RE: Building a Cularis
 

Just plug 1 into ch6, the other into ch7(or another unused ch.), then use mixing to slave ch7 to ch6. Just follow manual to set end points and servo direction, pretty simple really. Or get a reversing y-harness. This reverses 1 servo plugged into it, and is pretty cheap. I prefer using the mixing option, no added weight and 1 less thing to fail. Good luck!

RE: Building a Cularis
 

I used the reversing Y harness for my flaps. Works great. I used the recommended power supply with a Graupner folding prop. The only mod was to build and install a mono wheel for landing.

RE: Building a Cularis
 

Thanks a bunch guys. CBM, I tried the slave setup last night - and it works great.

Separately, one of my flap servos started acting up. So I tested the slave setup by connecting the ailerons to the flap channels for a moment.

WhenI connect this broken flap servo, Ican hear the motor reving in some positions, and then silent in others. Seems like the motor isn't connecting to the gears. And then whenI try to push the pushrod(you typically hear the gears swoosh), it doesn't move and there's no sound of gear motion.

Are the tiny flap servos that sensitive? Do Ineed to get a new one? Or does this sometimes happen and it'll help if Itake it apart and put it back together?

Thanks.

RE: Building a Cularis
 

Depending on the price of the servo, it's often more economical to replace the stripped gear (and it sounds like on of yours could be stripped) than to replace the servo.

If you got the servos from Tower, look them up in their online catalog. On the tech info page will be mention of replacement gear sets if any are available.

RE: Building a Cularis
 

I usually have a spare servo and a spare gear set. If a servo goes bad I swap it out. Then I either replace the gear set or send it in for service.

RE: Building a Cularis
 

After rebuilding Cularis from last crash two weeks ago I did it again. In the pass two weeks I fiberglass the whole nose of plane from front of wing to motor mount. It paid off.

It was getting too dark and had a need to fly. (That dam old EGO again.) I was so depress to fly that I used a 10x6 prop to fly. ( The Prop was the only thing that broken on the last crash and did not have a replacement. Stole it from my Easy Glider Pro.)

On landing I ran out of real estate and slamed into curb, Head on. The Fiberglass took it and ask for more. I few years ago a did a crash just like this and the plane was trashed.(It was a Slingler, Zagi like plane.) Once again, you get front row seat on this crash. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7xGAnRCmA0

This one from two weeks ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmtlZZ8SuQA