You will need to be sure the elevator flat with the top of the horizontal stab versus the bottom. If the bottom is flat the plane won't rotate up.

The manual says, "10 1/2" from the LE of the wing at the fuselage" I have mine in between 10 1/4" and 10 1/2" for the leading edge @ the fuselage, and it seems to fly fine.
HeliTB has it right to make the elevator flat with the top of the stab- I'll go out to the garage in a bit and measure it so it will be a no brainer for you.
Also, some have recommended that there be a "positive angle of attack" when the airplane is at rest on the wheels, but I don't recall anyone giving an actual number per se.
what I have experienced, is that the plane will lift off like a trainer like this- BUTTER as they say- smooth and silky, all by itself.... BUT too much, and your first landing will be absolutely unforgettable, ( bounce- bounce, bounce- etc....(My bouncy maiden [link]http://cvrcclubvideos.us/HDVids/KenBobcatMaiden.wmv[/link] )with a loud crunch at the end. )as many in this thread have also noted. I would advise (at a C/G of 10 3/8" back from the LE @ the fuselage/wing intersection) ** I hate having to clarify, but this has proven to work well with me**
To set your angle of attack at between 1/4" to 1/2" positive. measure this by setting the plane on the ground, gear down, and measure from the trailing edge net to the fuselage, and then measure the center of the leading edge radius at the fuselage. for example, your trailing measurement is 6 1/8", then hopefully your leading measurement should be in the neighborhood of 6 3/8" to 6 5/8". this will give you a slightly positive angle of attack, and will let you climb out nicely with a little up elevator. **just a little bit, AT SPEED**

Now for the fun part... LANDING
I would just get a NICE RELIABLE LOW Idle set on your engine, and use it on your final approach- I have become accustomed with really flaring the elevator on this bird, and it has proven to give really nice landings with it once I got used to it. you just want to get into a nose high attitude, and keeping the nose up you can adjust your decent with little blips of throttle as necessary.
If the plane comes in too fast, it'll bounce, and with this plane it seems to bounce progressively higher each time, while the airspeed keeps bleeding off... And you know that aint no good!
Good luck with things, and if there are any more Q's, post'em! there's a ton of people in this thread who love to chime in and give advice!

P.s. there is a vid one page back of our club videographer shooting touch and goes- if you watch it, it will give you a feel for approx how it likes to come in.
KM

Here is my Neocat that I maidened today. Mods include the tail mounted HS-125MG elevator servo and rudder servos on the inside booms. The flights went very well. Weather wasn't too great, 10 to 20 mph winds though. Power is good with my Scorpion 4025-10, but I think I will end up going to 8 cells from 6 to make full use of the motor. As it is, the system puts out about 1,500 watts (motor is rated at 2,000) with an APC 12x12 prop. 51 amps. I wish APC made a 12x14 though. Tried a 13x10 as well, but ground clearance is at a minimum with this prop and the speed wasn't as great. Anyway, here is a pic. Hope to get more flights in tomorrow with the better weather!

Hey Thankks for all your answers and help. Hope to try the new settings within the next week. Had to come in getting dark and I may have fried a lipo pack. Too long in the air. Must listen to timer.

Just take your time, and get to "know" the plane- You'll be rewarded! This plane is a kick in the pants once everything is all sorted out! It'll be frustrating at first, but woth it in the end!
Yeah.. lipos are weird- I took a break from electric about 8 months ago, and despite storing the lipos at 50%, I came across one that just started puffing something fierce!
I have a "med cart" from a local medical establishment with like 100 little drawers in it, and just happened to notice one drawer was skewed kinda funny. I read lipo batts on it, and realized that I haven't been in it for quite some time, so I unlocked that side, opened it up, and WHOAH!!!!! I kinda freaked, grabbed the deans lead and hurled it out into the driveway! Of course, nothing happened. I did the bucket of salt water thing for a coupe of days and into the trash it went. Lipos seem to be just too darn fragile IMHO. I think if I get back into electric, its A123's from here on out!
KM

Any video on the horizon?
I was about to but the neoplanes version, but my Fiance somehow found one at the last minute and surprised me for my birthday, so I am curious to see how this one flies despite the fixed gear. I wonder how the plans compare to eachother? (nitro vs. neo)
I bet on electric this is pretty sweet!
KM

The Kangaroo named for its reliable bounce on landing and all the pod and boom type aircraft tend to bounce if you land nose wheel first, its a toss up between having a positive angle of attack on the ground and having a bouncy landing, if you can get the nose up on the landing and touch down stalled then it should not bounce too bad, reflexed ailerons help on landing as it spoils the lift and adds washout to the wings, doesn't matter how fast I land mine it will not lift off again with the ailerons reflexed

If you have a puffed up LiPo, put it in the frezzer until the puffyness goes down and then slow charge it, I am still using a couple like this after about another 10 charges, tried a 6 cell A123 in my EDF Twister but the weight took the edge off the performance compared to a 4S LiPo, but being able to charge them on the field at 10 amps certainly helps.

Mike

Thats just it with the batteries- The A123's have only been used for flight packs in my GS airplanes, but I have seem a few aircraft with them that seem to fly extremely well- I believe it's only a matter of time before they offer larger Mah A123's. Running the risk of a fire in the garage while I'm at work is just not worth it, and storage in a shed or something outside is also out of the question, as the temps in the summertime can get over 120*. Yup! It's a good time to be in this hobby with all the new technology that keeps coming out!
KM

Hi hey in reference to the tower.75...It seems to be a very strong running motor. I am very happy with mine. Only problem was ordering part of the muffler.Teach me not to crash I suppose. Seems there was always a complete one not a partial. Haven't yet tried aftermarket exhaust on it. Starts great tunes easy.

Does anybody know if there is AA for Airplane Addicts? Is it harmful? Can you have too many?

Yes you can and you must act fast before it's too late......[sm=drowning.gif] send all you planes to me before you become a statistic and I will AHUM dispose of them properly hehe.

Dauntae

Nope! You're only limited by how much room you need to eat, sleep, and wash. all that extra room is called storage- Airplane storage.

This is what a garage is supposed to look like. However, there will hopefully be a transplant to a bit roomier one if we get the house we're bidding on tomorrow!
Can anyone say, "OVERSIZED 3 CAR GARAGE?" He he he he!

KM: Put three flights on the Neocat today, but sorry no video. I could let someone use my cell phone, but that quality of video might not be worth the effort. It did fly great though, an have gotten used to its unusual qualities. Anyway, as far as I know, the Neocat is exactly the same as the Bobcat. The box on the Neocat says Bobcat, and so do the decals. Just a different trim scheme, which is the only reason I got the Neocat. The black and yellow looks too bad ass. The Neocat does include a nice electric motor mount tho.

I can't wait to try 8 cells on the Neocat. On 6, it has nearly unlimited vertical and is pretty quick.

The only weird thing about the plane is (and I have seen others post about it) that when taking off it sometimes likes to go vertical. When it does, it seems to get into some bizarre high alpha thing that makes it seem like it needs loads of down trim until you get the speed back up. However, I have taught myself how to get it to lift off nicely with a shallow climb out. Overall I am very happy with this $99 airframe.

Cool- Nice to know about the high alpha thing, cause mine was doing it again today- Or I should say that I payed more attention to it today... I'm thinking it only happens under a certain airspeed, and then once over that speed, the lifting tail goes to work and keeps the nose down.
also nice to know that it's the same plane, or really close to it- I have heard that the non retract version had slightly thinner airfoils, but no one has been able to substantiate those claims.
If I ever wad this one up, I suppose I'll find out!
Thanks for the flight report!

Hey that looks like my garage. Good luck on the new house. I am up to 40 planes now. Trouble is maaintenance. Time to start the crash and trash program for a while. Keep collecting when I find one I don't have I usually buy it. Receivers are getting expenxive for all of them.

Do you know how thick the airfoil is at its max on the Bobcat? I can compare.

Thanks, the plane is hanging right now, and all together. there is a slight gap, so I might be able to slip a piece of paper between the wing and fuse and make some marks on it to get the measurement-
About the planes, I think I'm in the middle to high 20's, with 8 or 9 flyable. 1 of them is an 88" 50cc Sukhoi, and another is a 72" 1.80 powered Katana. Just the two of them take up a fair amount of real estate,(even broken down) so hopefully we will get this new house!

Iam a new contributor to this thread as i have started on my Bobact 50 to which i will be fitting a Wren MW44. It is the retract raedy version as it is the only one i could get hold of, i will be fitting fixed undercarraige to it as it will be used from grass/unprepared runways. I will be using it as a hack jet to get the MW44 into the air before it is fitted to a sabre, i also have the falcon 120 which has been heavily modified by a club member, it is now all sheeted and glassed and is currently in primer pending a colour scheme. I have been going through this thread and my eyes are starting to go funny . . . . clearly a popular model with 150+ pages! what i am looking for are some pictures of radio/turbine installations, tank sizes, control surface movements etc and any mods i need to do to it, i already have the covering off the wings to beef them up a bit and will be doing the same to the boom mount points and changing the bolts to metal ones. Any help would be appreciated.

Jamie

Beware of the HS-125MG thin wing servo. Well I almost lost my electric Neocat/Bobcat last night because of the servo, which I put into the stab like many others here. Fifth flight, servo was bought new. When I plugged in the batts, I noticed the elevator was way out of trim since the day before. I figured it was something I did somehow, so I re-trimmed it and took off. All was well for the first couple minutes. Then, all of a sudden, she wanted to dive. I used all of my up trim and had to hold back on the stick, and was able to get her back safely and without issue.

When I got on the ground, I was started checking things and playing with the elevator trim when it suddenly went to full up. Servo still worked fine, but basically kept finding new centers every few minutes and twitching. I'm lucky that it did not go to full up or full down while in the air.

Naturally I assumed that the problem was something other than the servo, as 99% of my planes have Hitec servos, and I have never had a problem with them. I checked everything including linkages, connections, etc. Plugged the servo into a different channel, and it was still doing weird things. I then remembered that the plane needed elevator trim a few times before, but it was no where near as severe. It was windy when I flew it last time, so I thought that may have been the culprit. I now know the servo was acting wacky since the second I first gave it power.

I then did some research on assorted forums, and found that quite a few other modelers have had the same problems with this servo and it's digital counterpart (HS-5152), and have even lost planes because of it.

So I would be very weary of this servo. I will switch this one out with something else. Anyone know of a good JR/Futaba servo with the same dimensions? Thanks. -Chris

This is my scratch build/designed 52" sport jet which has an HS-125 on each elevator half, each aileron, and the rudder. It is doing 151mph in the 4th pass.

Brian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz5YMPtoe9s

I am really hoping that these bad servos were just one particular bad batch. The mounting blocks I glued in fit this servo, and this servo alone. Do I take a chance and order another? Anyway someone who has not had any issues with this servo could let me know the manufacturing date on theres? Mine was dated 0411 (November 2004, it must have been sitting in the hobby shop for a while). Thanks!

I bought all 5 of mine in the fall of '08 direct from Horizon.

I have quite a few in different models, mostly the digital version and they are superb, must have been a batch of faulty pots

Hi everybody. I have a question, are you give a degree to the turbine. If yes, how mach.
My model is a "FALCON 120" and turbine SWB "MAMBA". Thanks

My JetCat P120SX deserves a PhD no doubt about it.

If you mean the angle that the turbine points down at the rear, I think the general concencors is between 5 and 6 deg's

Mike

Well got the servo problem fixed, and have put several flights on the Neocat since. I must say that I highly recommend my setup for those wanting it electric. It seems to be flying faster than before, not really sure why. Magnets breaking in? Doubt it, but who knows. The Scorpion motor is 100, 60 bucks for the ESC and 80 for the batts. So for 240 bucks you can't beat it, and the performance is stellar. Around 80 to 100 mph in level flight with no slime to clean up. Wish I could get some video up!