duthie

Anybody tried flaps or airbrakes on the Mick Reeves Super Reaper?

duthie

Heatseeker_Hill

to be honest i don;t think its worth it. it lands very easily anyway and its the undercarriage position that causes the silly bouncing

CHAWKJIM

I AM GOING TO INSTALL THE AIR BRAKE THAT CAME WITH THE MODEL. ON MY REAPER THAT I AM BUILDING IT HAS RETRACTS AND IS EXTREMELY CLEAN. I NEED SOMETHING TO SLOW IT DOWN. THE LAST ONE I HAD LANDED TO FAST. THE BEST PART IS IF YOU LEAVE THE MOTOR ON AND YOU DON'T LIKE THE APPROACH YOU CAN FLY WITHOUT SPOOLING UP THE ENGINE. SHE FLYS AT IDLE. CHECK OUT MY THREAD [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_6656809/tm.htm]SUPER REAPER BUILD[/link] . I HAVE A BUNCH OF PHOTOS.

duthie

The Super Reaper I have is a mark one, with the modified main undercarriage and my model flies on idle thrust as well but I find it very difficult to land without the 'bounce'.
I have had to repair the nose leg former lots of times and I have tried a few types of nose leg as well without success, so I was thinking of ways to slow it down, preferably to stop the 'bounce' landing, which will hopefully give me more than one flight before heading to the workshop!

Heatseeker Hill - any info on how to modify the undercarriage position would be good?

duthie.

Heatseeker_Hill

there was a thread about it about a year ago on here. i can't remember if you have to move the mains forward or back slightly. i think its rearwards but only about 60% sure.

siclick33

Duthie,

I had the same problem with the former. Even though I didn't bounce often the former kept ripping out. The Eurokit noseleg that MR sells is not very good. I solved all my problems with a Fults noseleg.

See here

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...FVSEARCH=fults

duthie

siclick33,
What Fults nose leg did you use: LXH133 This is for models of up to 20 Lbs?

duthie

siclick33

I was hoping you wouldn't ask that

I have checked and I used LXH134. I am not sure what the early Reaper was like but the latest one has a nose former that is about 2/3 the height of the fuselage. I removed this after my problems and replaced it with a former that was the full height of the fuselage to provide a stronger join.

With the new former and Fults noseleg I had zero problems. I know we have spoken about this before but mine landed quite nicely once I was used to it. Similar to the Kangaroo, if it is slowed up enough it will land very gently, a bit fast and it will pogo all over the place.

duthie

siclick33
Thanks for the info - the nose leg former is 2/3 the height of the fuselage but I have reinforced it and I am sure it will be ok. If not, then I can make up a replacement full depth former as you have done.

Cheers
duthie.

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

Hey CHAWKJIM, so you want to kick off the CAPS LOCK ?? Your posts are very difficult to read when they are all caps, though there is some good content there...thanks

***********************


My buddy and I programmed both rudders to kick outwards for drag brakes... they worked well, except in our case, the same switch also activated the brakes (which leaked) so using the airbrake usually meant no wheel brakes on the ground...so it didn't get used very often. Surprisingly, there was no pitch change, or any noticeable difference when they were deployed, other than it slowed down, and the sink rate increased a bit...

I have knocked that nose gear bulkhead out numerous times.....in fact that is one of my to-do projects this winter. We used the Fults strut, but actually had it bounce back far enough to hit the belly (rough field). I have used Micks tip on a couple of occasions where I just could not get it low and slow enough to get it to touch down, and that was to shut the turbine down when turning final.....not my first choice, but it glides very nicely, and slowly...a totally different airplane.

One flight, I hit a turf bump on take off and wiped all three gears off the plane, but it got airborne. Since it was already up, I flew off the tank of gas and had an enjoyable flight ...without the drag of the landing gear, it was quite a bit faster. This was one of the dead stick landings... I think it took maybe two feet to slide to a stop........

CHAWKJIM

On my reaper I am reinforcing the gear mounts. For the strut mount you can see I used an extra sheet of ply on the front were my finger is pointing and the mount itself is 1/4" thicker than stock. I'm using Jet 1A trailing struts and Jet 1A retracts. Here is the photo. I think the trailing strut will help with the bounce. With the air brake they provide witch is installed on the CG and the front retract door I should have good enough air brakes. The wheel brakes also help with the bounce. I use down elevator for my brake switch.

CHAWKJIM

Sorry about the big photos I'm not sure what happened.

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

yeah the photos do that every once in awhile.

The nose structure has sure changed since the first version...... Those Jet 1A should really help with bouncing..

Heatseeker_Hill

its sometimes good to have easily repairable week points guys. better for a former to come loose than the nose be ripped off

siclick33

I've managed to get a video of my Reaper. It is pretty boring as this was the end of the flight and I was just shooting a couple of approaches. The reason I post it here is that it shows how slowly this model will fly. This is the best way to prevent damage to the noseleg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qLaC5p7jQ0

CHAWKJIM

Here's a video of my reaper dissapering in the clouds.
[link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CKRLdrvwhU]gone in the clouds[/link]

Gandalv

Do you remember how much throw you used on the airbrake-rudder ? I have set up mine with 2 servos rudder and was planning to use the rudder as airbrake, but with up-throw. Maybee try both ways ? any comments folks ?

thanks

CHAWKJIM

Here is a photo of the air brake they offer now and i am putting on my reaper. you can also try the canard brake. You have a 3 way switch on your radio to do the mix. Position one is for standard flying, two is for stunt mode and 3 is for landing. On 3 the canard is the only thing you increase bringing the nose up like a f16 landing it will slow the plane down and gives you a more controlled landing. You also are using the air brake I show in picture.

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

Max deflection outward... The mix was activated with a slider, so we could use as much or as little braking as we wanted.....

That belly board looks like a far more effective solution!!!

CHAWKJIM

That belly board is factory equipment now. As for the mix on the front canards you should play with this in small increments until you are comfortable with the dissent angle. Remember if you hit that switch a high speed bad things can happen.

CHAWKJIM

The belly board is mounted right on the CG . This is a photo or the instruction page.