I used 1/4" I think and I used spring air retracts, I wish there was more room for larger wheels as I only have access to grass fields but they work OK so far

LOOK AT WHAT I BOUGHT !!

A friend bought the Eagle V plans about two years ago and started building it. Later he realized that a turbine was not in his future anytime soon. So I bought the project off of him. It probably won't be finished anytime soon. I wanted it as a back up in case anything happens to my Turbine Enforcer.

The Eagle is about 90% built. He made the booms 1/2" wide so that they would accomodate thin wing servos. The canopy is carved balsa and rather heavy. I'd like to find a suitable plastic canopy and re-do it. Anyone have a canopy suggestion?

Joe

If you did not elongate the front fuse any don't worry about the canopy weight, you will need it to balance the plane. I used the canopy from a TopFlite P-51 giant scale for the front of mine and then the rear half is carved ( see my gallery) the plane you have looks nice! good luck with it

Where are your batteries located? With both the ECU battery and the receiver battery as far forward as possible in the nose would you still have to add nose weight?

Joe

Looks good [8D]

George,

I'm at the poing that I'm ready to start putting in 'stuff'. I was wondering if you had any pics of your installation, receiver/ battery locations. All the turbine support equipment. I'm putting the twin servos in the tail and it is quite a long stretch for the wires. I know the rx needs to be away from the ecu, but the ecu can only be so far from the turbine, so that puts the rx right close to the ecu. Just wondering what you did as this is my first turbine plane. Thanks,
Martin

I have pictues posted in my gallery of my build. When I got to the stage where I had to balance my eagle, I couldn't get enough weight up front unless I added a lot of lead. I hate doing this so I literally cut the front of the fuse off just in front of the canopy former and made a new nose that is 4-5" longer. This allowed me to put a 2500mah Ni-Cd up there that was configured to fit that space (see SR Batteries) for the rx and a 2500 mah Li-Po for the turbine. I also moved everything possible more forward such as the gas and fuel solenoids, the ecu and the servos for my retracts and air operated flaps/speed brakes. Even doing this I have a 3 oz lead sinker glued to the very front of the plane that actually is the nose of the plane.

I believe this happened because I have 2 servos in the horizontal tail, and 2 servos in the back of the wing for the rudders + I have 2 large air/brake/flaps that are actually split flaps located on the bottom of the wings between the booms and the fuse where the motor is. I also buried 2 air tanks in the wing roots, you can see these in my gallery photos. These were deviations from the original plans and it all adds weight behind the CG.

Martin,
It's not critical to have a lot of distance between the ECU and receiver. In my Enforcer, which is a similar type plane, the ECU and receiver are about 4 inches apart. They are at the same fore/aft position on opposite sides of the inner fuse. It hasn't been a problem for 150 flights.

As much as possible route the wires to the ECU on one side of the fuse, and the wires to the receiver on the other side. There are a couple of places where mine cross.

The most important considerations are to keep the fuel pump away from the receiver and to route the antenna wire away from the ECU, pump and any other wires. I have my pump in the back near the engine and the antenna wire is routed out of the fuse and down the leading edge of the wing.

If you have a probem locating things were you want you can always make an extension harness for your ECU or use longer servo extensions.

Joe

Joe,

That's the info I was looking for. I guess I had it in my head to keep the ecu and rx apart and to keep the servo extensions to the bare minimun. I am almost done with the building. So I can start putting in the 'guts' next week. I'm looking forward to getting this finished. Thanks for the help, again...
Martin

Ok guys, another stupid question for you...On my ecu (fadec) does the data terminal box actually fly in the plane? Or is it used to set up parameters and just unplugged? The engine is a homebuilt, so there's no issues with auto starting. Again, I'm sure this is piddly to you, but I'm trying to plan out where all the 'crap' will go and this little box is heavy and big.
Thanks,
Martin

The data terminal is left unplugged and out of the plane, it is typically only used for initial setup of the turbine. Once you are happy with the startup of the turbine, just leave it unplugged. Once you fly and perhaps want to change one of the settings, then it can be plugged in and the setting(s) changed but the WREN unit usually runs fine with the factory default settings!

I've finally spent some time going over the Eagle I bought and the plans. I see some things I don't like about the design plus after reading all of the Eagle V postings I've decided to make a few modifications.

One thing I really dislike is that the fuse gets narrower at the back. It says that it was designed for a Wren 54 but mine barely fits between the mounting rails. The back is about 3/4" narrower than the rest of the fuse. Because of this you have to fabricate special mounts plus there is not much room for any cooling air to flow past the turbine. This all would have been much simpler if the last few formers were made as wide as the rest of the fuse, then the engine would fit nicely with the stock mount. I suggest that anyone building one make all of the fuse formers the same width all the way back .

The speed brake is too small so instead of a speed brake I decided to shorten the ailerons and make inboard flaps. To compensate I'm making them 3" wide rather than 2 1/2". The ailerons will be 8 1/2" long and the flaps 6".

I don't like the way any of the servos are mounted in the plans. There is no way I'd use nyrods on a jet. The aileron and flap servos will be side mounted in the wings, close to and centered on the control surfaces. Also I read some complaints about not enough elevator authority so I plan on increasing them to 3" (from 2 1/4") width. I'll probably mount the elevator servos in the boom just under the stab. Since the boom is not wide enough I'll have to box it out somewhat.
I'll use thin wing servos for the rudders.

Another concern is the flimsey retract mounts. Jim, who built it, doubled the thickness but I think they should be longer, plus if they were made to extend under the wing spars it would add significant strength. I'm not sure if I'll live with it as is, or try to beef it up.

When I get done I should have a nice flying plane. Just wondering if those that have built one noticed anything else they would do differently.

Joe

I built the fuse as the planes say and had no trouble mounting my WREN and it does stay cool as is...but if you change that there should be no problem.
I ditched the speed brake as well and put in 2 large flaps as you suggest, these can be seen in my gallery (geh3) I operate mine with air cylinders
I also would never use nyrod in a jet, I buried 2 digital wing servos in my horizontal stab to work the elevators
I built the retract mounts except used thicker wood and lots of doublers, I have had no problems with them I wish there was room to put in longer legs or struts though
the plane is a blast to fly and always draws a crowd at my field
P.S I also built the wings as one piece since the plane easily fits into the back of my truck OK and I believe it is stronger that way!

good luck and hey,,, did you see the plans for the Eagle 7?

Hey when you get your EAGLE in the air, you can do funstuff like this>>>>>>>>>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4LIeDjx7-0

Nice Geh3,

was that a belly mount? That would have been an interesting takeoff/landing vid also. I am nearing completion on mine. I just have to do all the sanding, so I've been putting it off as long as possible. Anyway, thanks for another great video.
Martin

Yes a belly mount, I have a mount that will face to the rear that will give much better results soon. Good luck with yours, it is a blast to fly. I will probably do a VER 7.0 from the MAN plans this fall/winter

Gents,

Check out the improvements in one of the recent MAN. The Eagle VII is forward swept wings and canards. Cool.

A buddy has been flying his Eagle V for 2 years. Excellent flyer. The only improvement might be to add a little more meat where the mains mount. Other than that, an excellent bird.

DW_Crash

I am building a VER 7 but I have vastly improved the VER 5 by enlarging the elevator, moving the CG back and adding some huge flaps... my VER 5 lands very slow in a pitched up position so I can put the mains down gently on the grass followed by the nose gear. I never needed brakes on the field I fly from ... nice plane I think the fei bo VELOX might be a copy!

you can see how I did my flaps in my gallery (geh3) I will be adding them to the 7!

geh3,
How wide are your elevators?

Joe

I have a single elevator acutated by two "digital wing servos" and it is 0.350" wider than shown on the EAGLE 5 plans.

Plans show the elevator approximately 2 1/4" wide. I was debating going with either 2 1/2" or 3". Sounds like from your experience 2 1/2" should be fine. Agree?

Also are you using the recommended elevator throw (3/4")?

Joe

I will measure this when I get home today... if you look way back on this post, I think I put all that info out there. What happened was on my first flight I had the plane just a little noseheavy and used the original elevator and throws. When I went to land it, I "ran out of elevator" and was unable to to the traditional nice flare out so the plane came in faster than I would like. SO then I enlarged theh elevator, increased the throw a little and moved the CG back a little... all is well now, it lands like a trainer

Geh3,

I've started back on working on the Eagle V... It's been a long summer of no plane work getting done. Anyway, I was wondering where you ended up with your CG at. I saw you said you moved it back a little, just wondering how much. Also, I noticed you put an extra inlet on the top of the fuse. Did you do that just for more cooling air, did you find the motor was 'starved' of air, or did you just think it looked good? I think it does make it look quite a bit more interesting. Just curious again.
Thanks,
Martin

I put the extra intake in at the suggestion of the designer who noticed that my 2 original intakes were smaller than his designed ones. If you follow the plans and build his design, they you will only need 2. My CG figure should be posted earlier in this thread

Here is my current CG.. see the PICS I built my EAGLE as one piece so I hope you can balance yours using these pictures
I fly with high rates on rudders, low rates on Aileron and I take off with low on elevator then switch to high on the elevator for landing