An air brake could be mounted on the nose but I did not because of the height the retract sits in the fuselage, It would have been a pain with the way that the geometry would have been set up so I opted for the door instead. The mains prevent the drag brakes on the struts since they they retract inboard, I guess anything is possible though! Glad you liked the thread.

Chris

Chris,
has anyone tried mixing in canted rudders for slowing up the landing approaches? I have'nt started my Stingray yet but was going to incorporate rudders to help slow it down.
Regards,
Chris Z

I think I remember someone talking about using the canted rudders as brakes but not sure if they did it or not. I ran out of channels on my bird or I would have tried it, I thing that it the rudders were mixed to the upper brake they would balance each other out fine. I have just installed a PST J600R and am going through my plane right now and redoing the CG, it was WAY nose heavy on the first flights so I am guessing that my trim changes were also way out. I will report more later but I thing think that the upper brake may be sufficient since the landing speeds did not feel that bad to me with the extreme nose heavy condition, I just have to wait for the snow to melt now!

Chris

Chris,
what size wheels fit the "Stingray Yellow retracts"?

I machined up some 2 1/4" mains and a 2" nose for mine. The Yellow retracts only fit a 3/8" strut but you could always make an adaptor to fit the larger struts it you wanted, kind of wish I would have gone with bigger struts on mine, I may change them this summer if I have a problem with the little ones.

Chris

Strato, when you machine your own wheels, what do you do for rubber? Thanks.

I order replacement tires from Glennis, I had to machine a tool to stretch the tires over the rims to keep from tearing them.

Chris

i have another question but this time regarding the rx anttena i saw in a pic some one had it on the nose in an attena tube what are other options for attena placment what did you guys do

Use a full length vertical whip! Best reception, in my experience.

Mine is ran through a pushrod sleeve on the right side of the fuselage and out into the wing root at the leading edge.

Chris

another question what would some one expect to pay to get one redy for flight minus the engine

Did anyone figure out a way to get the steering servo in front of the nose wheel former?

I would guess that you would be around $1500 minus engine, I traded all of my stuff for labor charges on jets that I built so I can't give exact figures. Let me know if you need more info, the only thing that was not covered in my thread was the wheels and brakes that I machined I think.


Chris

I've been trying to figure that one out myself !

Marc

Yo Chris!!!

....Missed you at the shop lately!!! When you gonna get the Stingray back out to fly? Would love to see it in the air!


BTW Chris and I will see ya'll at Florida Jets!!!! (*My First time*)

-Levi

Stratotanker:

I have a question about your mains...are those Robart struts? I just bought the Robart offset struts like yours and if I cut the strut to the length that will allow them to fit into the wheel wells, it's so short that it cuts into the spring stopper inside the strut! What did you do to make yours work, if they are Robarts?

KC Moore

www.kcmoore.net

KC, I am using the robart struts. I did have to cut past the stopper to get the gear short enough to retract, the spring had to be trimmed a bit too if I remember correctly.

Chris

Heya Yellow, Strato, or whoever can help...

I'm in the final construction phase of the Stingray now (Got the kit on 1/28/04), and am having trouble figuring out where to run all the internal lines, tubes, wires, etc. There is nothing in the instruction manual suggesting routing of the retract lines or servo wires, and I'm just wondering if there is a common routine here? Also, what are people using to secure the wires/lines throughout the fuselage, since I will have several 36" servo extension wires. Any help is greatly appreciated.

BTW, here's how much I had to cut off the Robart struts to make the offset version work...not much left to play with!

Hey 2K.

I installed my radio system largely on the left had side of the aircraft and turbine hardware on the right. The receiver battery is right in front of the left fuel tank, but off to the left side. The RX is immediately in front of the battery, with the switch above the two in the forward 1/2 of my access panel.

The ECU is immediately in front of the right side tank but off to the right side to clear the steering tray. Incidentally, you'll need to put some relief cuts in the steering tray if you're using the Jet-Tech fuel cells. The ECU battery (a 6-cell 2200 pack in my case) is positioned in the rear half of the canopy opening on the right side, sunk down to avoid contact with the canopy. The UAT is mounted to the left side of ECU pack.

I split the tray and sunk it down in the rear half of the access hatch to avoid ECU Batt/UAT contact with the canopy, and still leave clearance for the steering cables underneath. This was done with a pair of sheet aluminum brackets with threaded inserts for mounting to the flange around the canopy opening. The front half of my canopy opening has a tray mounting the ECU and RX switches, propane solenoid, and Brake valve. Try to keep the lightweight stuff up front...

As for wiring, I ran the Servo wires and pneumatics down the left side into the rear compartment, the RPM sensor, fuel/gas lines down the center, and all the ECU cables down the right side. My fuel pump is sitting in the unused cavity to the right of the fuel tanks. The retract and brake tanks (separate circuits are fastened down in the nose. I would put the propane tank in the nose, but opted to leave it external to simplify things. Lastly, the antenna is routed directly forward from the RX and has a relatively clear path to the nose of the aircraft where I installed a whip ant. Try to minimize the antenna routing over areas with carbon fiber if possible.

Its a tight fit to say the least, but it can be done without any counter balance weights... I was a bit concerned with mounting all the hardware so close together, but the range has proven to be excellent with my Futaba 8UAP. If that's about as clear as mud, I'll try to dig up some pictures...

Good luck!
Kelly W

PST Jets
North American Tech Support

That's great! Thanks for all the info...I forgot to ask one more thing...the retract valve diagram. I've only used Spring Air retracts in the past, so this 5-way valve has me stumped. Three nipples on the left, two on the right, what goes where? AND, do I just "T" the mains together for push/pull to have only TWO lines going from the valve to the back? Maybe Yellow can add a simple diagram with the kit in the future (if buyer purchases their retract system with the jet of course, like we did). Thanks again for the above info. I haven't made it to balancing the plane yet, but it sounds like my idea of putting all the batteries in the nose is going to be too nose-heavy.

I also have a radio question: Is PCM required for turbine jets? I'll be using a JR 783 FM with a simple 6-channel receiver, since I won't be using flaps, smoke, or brakes (yet). I've talked to a few of the scale jet guys and they all say you have to use a JR 10X or the like. Is it just because of the extra channels? I've flown a diamond dust for a while with a 4-channel non-computer radio at speeds well over 150mph and it's range is fine...never had a glitch. I've also flown ducted fans (yech) with a basic FM radio with no problems. I don't see the big deal of which radio system is used on a Turbine, other than the fact that you need extra channels, because in regards to electronics, the turbine engine has significantly less vibration than a glow engine.

That one had me scratching my head and flipping through the book for a while too. You're probably right that a diagram would have been nice touch, although not an absolute necessity because you'll get it figured out pretty quick by just playing with it...

As I remember it... The center port on the 3-line side is the inlet from the tank and fill valve. Treat the ports on each side of the inlet as the exit to the rear retracts (for example). The adjacent ones on the 2-port side work exactly the same so they could go directly to the nose retract. Treat them exactly the same as the one's on the 3-port side except there's no fill port...

The screws in the valve body regulate the pressure going into the cylinders. When the valve is switched, the air is exhausted through a pair of small holes in the valve body somewhere. The thing to note about this restrictor layout is that if the retract experiences any hang-up's in its motion, there's a possibility that it could build up pressure and slam to end of travel when let go. If a relatively large restrictor were placed on the exhaust side of the cylinder, this shouldn't happen. I didn't bother to change it though. The retracts in this kit are pretty slick... Once you've leak tested, they'll hold air for a very long time. I drive the valve with an HS-225 servo but an HS-81 or similar would probably do fine.

I think I've got all the pictures on my work PC so I'll try to post some tomorrow. For now, here's a 1st mock-up of how I did the equipment tray. You can see the RX battery relative to the tanks. Its tough to see the layout in the 3rd pic so I'll se if I can get a few better shots tomorrow.

Regarding PCM vs. FM. I don't fly turbines with FM. Vibration is not the concern here. RF noise from electronics is the key concern. The reason I laid out the RC system on the left and the ECU on the right is to separate the system as much as possible. Although the ECU in this case (along with pretty much every other ECU on the market today) is quiet in terms of noise, it never hurts to separate it and the Pump from the receiver, servos, antenna, etc. I know of a few turbine pilots flying on FM, but its unusual for the most part...

Kelly

Doh, I spoke too soon. Just found the pictures...

Picture 1 is the fuel pump position I chose. Its near the leading edge of the right-side wing root. WAY away from almost every other piece of hardware in the fuse and its hard to get at, but it works... The flightworks pump has mounting features that made this an easy choice.

Kelly W

PST Jets
North American Tech Support

Okay...got the retracts done and working properly, got all the servo extensions ran, and now I'm losing my patience with the fuel tank setup. I have the white plastic tanks from Yellow, and if you use the stock steering servo setup, it gets in the way of the brass tubes coming out of the fuel tanks. Not to mention the crossover fuel line from one tank to the other will actually be going around the neck of the servo and back to the second tank. I think it will work as long as I don't turn or use the rudders. Anybody have any insight on this?

Do you have any pictures of the problem at hand?

Chris

Why yes, I certainly do have a picture

Here you can see where the brass tubes are already touching, and I haven't fastened the steering servo tray yet. If I do, it lifts the tanks up and puts pressure on the tubes, even before I put the fuel tubing on. I guess I'm just worried about any possibility of the fuel tubing being pinched or cut, and the way it is now, the steering cable could easily cut through it after a few dozen strokes of the left stick.