Dave Wilshere

Local day flying, its been calm and foggy/mist laying. Paul Baker had his Yellow sports scheme Std out today again having just got his 43 hour P-60SE back from JetCat.
Even in dark conditions it shows up well.
I was flying my Plus, but no one drove the camera! Longest flight today was 15 minutes and I still had 1/3 tank left, slow full flap circuits were kept within our 300' x 200' strip.

nigefay

My Feedback: (1)

Can anyone tell me what this is? I noticed a rattle in my wing when dismantling my Xcalibur and this is what fell out when I shook it. It is 1.5" long and 1/2" dia.

stevew76

That's bit left over where they drill the holes out for the small ali tube. I had one fall out as well.

Don't thing the manufacturer check their wings over after construction.

DenisFerrari

It really seems a very nice and visible color scheme indeed

And very nice and elegant livery too.

Dave Wilshere

Paul again yesterday, bright winter sky makes the yellow 'pop'

dmattmul

I've enjoyed the Ripmax so much I've decided to build the plus and wanted to know if anyone has any feedback for the electric retracts that are out on the market now. I have the Electron's in the smaller version and love them. Electron is also making them for the larger unit but use the same motor as the smaller version which concerns me. ProLink (Through DreamWorks) is also selling a unit but with larger motors which makes since. Anyone using electric in the Plus?

mikedenilin

My Feedback: (67)

The Plus stock air retracts air system is as good as it gets. I don't recommend electric retracts and brakes for planes of that size. 120N and up. We have been working closely with several factories on how to implement electric LG system for many years and have not yet seen a proven one. Electron system is great for smaller jet,100N or smaller.

dbottaz

With reference to electrics for the plus.
I have both xcaliburs. Just completed the plus and decided to go with the Dreamworks electric, I was the first to do so. I will first state Dreamworks is great to work with. The electic gear works good, xicoy con troller is good. However, I found some issues that required adjustments and they are with the prolink struts. First they were slightly longer and that caused the tires to bottom out in the wheelwell, remedy was to swap out the 3.5 " tires for 3.25. The next issue was with the struts supporting the weight, I found even with the heaviest springs the struts still didn't support the weight. Problem, either to weak of spring or what I found the geometry of the trailing arm of the prolink was not designed to support this much weight. Remedy, ended up using the origally design strut for the xcalibur plus, it is designed to support the weight. However, it require machine work to adapt the entarco electric brakes and fit the strut into the electric trunion hole. So, my conclusion is electric gear is fine but I could build an argument for going with OEM pnematic if you want a true bolt in.
Hope this helps.

Dave Wilshere

I'm with Mike. Even last weekend with a Wizzard, Electron gear the gear failed to come down (well he got one leg part way) If it was not a grass site the expensive paint job would have been wrecked. I have over 100 flights on my plus with the original gear and not one fault/hang up.

dmattmul

Appreciate all the feedback. I am in the motor industry (produce the winding wire for 60% of motors in North America and 30% of Asia) and it's kind of an honor (Or dishonor) modifying gear and making them electric. Fortunately I have a small machine shop at home and access to a motor testing lab where I have been testing retract systems for many years. I've have them in everything from the X-Calibur to the large FB Dolphin (7 airframes all together) and to date have not had an issue. Normally find the strut dimensions off (Like dbottaz) if I try to buy a third party strut (Like Intairco or ProLink) and need to re-machine some part. My best luck has been to purchase the air system and modify that. Getting the spindle absolutely perfect with the threaded rod at 90.0 degrees is imperative. I've found most of the air system the tap is not a perfect 90 degrees as with air is not critical. Using a brass rod in place of the polished steel rod reduces amp draw 25 to 30%. My favorite design for the rod is to use the normal 6 mm OD on each end and 8 mm where the rod is threaded through. The square grooves by Electron also seem to reduce load to the motor. Everything needs to be lined up almost perfect and if not removes any margin of error. It's good to know the Pro-link dimension and spring issue. That is to bad as I like the motors in these units. By the way the majority of failures in the lab is not the motor but the gearbox. That seems to be the weak link in most systems tested. The next to go is usually the bearings. When I test these units I cycle a 30 lb. load up and down till failure. This draws about 0.7 amps with 1 amp the max I want to see. It's to bad a servo manufacture does not want to get into the retract business, I think they know how to make a great gearbox. Using titanium gears in place of the cheap steel would be a plus. Probably 99.9% of the gear boxes out are made in China and having worked there for over 15 years the quality control can sometimes slip if not properly monitored. As mentioned I think by Dave getting the gear up before building up speed and pulling positive G's is a must. Again thanks for all the feedback. The XCalibur is really a great airframe to knock around the sky with. Can't beat the value for the money. It's really a nice airframe to grab and go as the plane comes apart and goes together in just a few minutes. The molded wheel wells makes flying off grass an easy clean-up.

authomassen

After crashing my Pilot-RC Dolphin I decided to get a Xcalibur. I have ordered the standard sport scheme. Luck in bad luck has it the complete set of electronic retracts with wheels that survived the dolphin crash, will be a more or less drop in fit in the X, and the servos can also be used on all surfaces expect the rudders.

I´m now trying to figure out if the tank from the dolphin can be used in the X, so if anyone could measure the how big a square tank can fit the X, it would be appreciated. Thanks!

hood077

My Feedback: (3)

Another successful Excalibur maiden!

Reever45

My Feedback: (16)

I have a question, never had an issue with first Xcalibur and a friend still has it. Got a new one the other day and the Stab does not sit flush on the top of the vertical fins,the stab rests on the notched area at back top of vertical fin. There is alittle bit more than a 1/16" gap at the back stab bolt between the top of vertical fin and cut out in bottom of stab. Has anyone put a incidence meter on wing and stab? Should the stab be same incidence as the wing,both at zero for instance? My friend that has old one is out of town for 3 weeks or i would just go over and put a meter on it.

Dave Wilshere

The tail seat will be correct, for some reason the factory has set the cutter deeper, hence the notch is not deep enough. Just cut the notch on the fin to clear.

Dave

JP-1

Quote:- ("I have a question, never had an issue with first Xcalibur and a friend still has it. Got a new one the other day and the Stab does not sit flush on the top of the vertical fins,the stab rests on the notched area at back top of vertical fin. There is alittle bit more than a 1/16" gap at the back stab bolt between the top of vertical fin and cut out in bottom of stab. Has anyone put a incidence meter on wing and stab? Should the stab be same incidence as the wing,both at zero for instance? My friend that has old one is out of town for 3 weeks or i would just go over and put a meter on it.")



See post #2023, DW posted some photographs for further clarfication

sillyness

My Feedback: (25)

Hi all. It's time to sell my XCaliber. Only has 9 flights and no mishaps, but it's just not for me. Going back to IMAC. I noticed on RCU that all the ads seem to have expired, not really any showing sold. Is there another place you all have success selling? Do you think I'd be better selling turn-key (JM 100XBL, really nice brushless servos, power box Mercury, etc...) or should I part it out? Never sold a turbine before. Obviously.

sillyness

My Feedback: (25)

For the recent threads, my tail seat was fine. Trimmed out easily.

dmattmul

Started building the X-caliber Plus. Great value for the money. Fit and finish perfect. Nice idea to have a template for the servo holders. Mounting points is all very nice hardwood. I'm kind of particular with hardware and normally don't use much in my airframes but beside the Phillips screws (I prefer allen head sockets) used most everything else. Does anyone know if the stock gear uses 1/2 in. trunion lock attachment ? I'm leaning to use the Ripmax + struts and my own electric retract but need 1/2 inch struts. Did DreamWorks fix their struts to fit using the 3 1/2 wheels?

Thanks

Dave Wilshere

The plus struts do have 1/2" top inserts.
The location is great if your servos match the height, my JR servos don't, so I always slice the guides off and reposition-they are only tacked normally.

Oh, there is an Xcalibur Plus thread too ;-)

Dave

dbottaz

Have both XCaliburs. On the plus, the JSM (OEM) struts are about .009 over 1/2 where they fit into the gear trunion, can be massaged to fit the .500 hole. Note the Prolink strut is slightly longer and that prevents a 3.5 wheel to fit in well. JSM struts will fit in the wheel well with just about any retract trunion.
I provided some comparison shots of struts. Also the geometry of the Prolinks have too much leverage on the spring to support the weight of the Plus, but the JSM strut works fine. I think everything else about the Prolink is better, but it does'nt fit properly.

For fun and comparison to other installs I provided a few more photos of the installation of both of my XCaliburs. On the Blue Angel version, air tanks were fitted forward along side of nose wheel well leaving the space over fuel tank open. I painted the inside with Krylon Hambered silver to give it a cleaner look. On the plus I added electric gear, Entarco electric brakes, smoke system and I-gyro. The blue angel weighs in at 21 lbs dry and the Brit Plus is 36 lbs dry and 42 wet with smoke and fuel fluids. 150 flights on Blue Angel and 40 on Brit Plus, clocked BA at 174 and after swapping out the K140 for a K160 the Plus clocked at 190 mph.

highhorse

My Feedback: (2)

sending you a PM

hood077

My Feedback: (3)

Anybody have an excaliber for sale. Looking for just an airframe. I live in northern Virgina. Willing to travel a bit.

Mesche

I have a question to the original Ripmax pneumatic retractable gear. Is the Valve for the break working proportional, meaning that the breaking power follows the stick? What type of Servo is needed for this valve? Is mini or midi size ok?
Thanks for your help.
My Xcalibur is almost complete. Now I have to decide about the gear to buy, pneumatic or electric.

Dave Wilshere

No, its on-off. If your grease the brake surface it work perfectly, just the the Behotec combined valve I favour. Its impossible to get true proportional braking on wheels below 100mm dia, the contact surface is too small.

Any servo, no feedback from the valve so even 2kg

pylonboy

My Feedback: (2)

I have the stock air retracts. Would DEFINITELY buy again. They are nice units.

I used the stock air valves with small servos such as Hitec HS82MG. They work fine, but as Dave has pointed out.......the brake is not proportional.

If I had to do it again, I would use the stock retract valve and the Jetronics proportional brake valve for perfect braking control with air. I have used the UP-6 valves, but I am not completely convinced on their functionality. I have one on my Xcaliber and Ultra Flash, but I may switch out for the Jetronics valve in the future. They work perfectly. Just a little pricey.