that color scheme is da shizit!! (for you old farts awsome)

Steve and all,
Thanks for the great post on the Eclipse and Fantasy. I've read them several times and am about to start on my Fantasy. I am considering one of three motors for the plane. The OS 140 (non efi), a 3M-170 or the YS 140 (I have a new sport). As this is my first 2M plane, I'm not too big on over-powering the plane like some, so I think any of those engines would be fine. My questions to you are:

1. Should I place the elevator servos in the tail?
2. Should I move the wing tube back (1/2 in)? Meaning are these planes inherently tail heavy?
3. What engine mount do you recommend for this application?

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks
Jerry

Jerry,

My Fantasy orginally had the dual elevator servos, but has the wing tube in the stock location. I was using the OS140 and a Hyde mount. I had to convert to pull-pull elevator and locate the battery in the nose plus add two ounces of nose weight. My #1 Eclipse had pull-pull plus it had 3.5 oz of nose weight. Definately move the tube back 1/2". My #2 Eclipse has the tube moved back 1/2" and has individual (dual JR DS3421) elevator servos. Same thing, except I only needed 1 oz of nose weight. My #1 and #2 Eclipse fly almost identical.

I prefer the pull-pull arrangement. For me it is fairly easy to set up. In another thread, there is a link about Troy Newman's CF push rod system using a single elevator servo. For this arrangement I would still move the tube 1/2". For the YS140 DZ installations, maybe only 1/4" move would be required. For balance, you can move the battery to where you best like the CG.

By the way, I dinged up my #1 Eclipse at the Temple contest. The fuse repairs were easy and minor in nature, but I had to remove part of my pipe floor pan for the repairs. So,.....................I am in the process of converting the plane to electric. Once I finish fitting up the Hacker C50 14XL motor, I'll start a new post on the retrofit process. Right now I should come in very close to the 11# limit. The weight of the #1 Eclipse before the modifications, including the 3.5 oz of nose weight was 10#-4oz. I hope to compare flight performance of the glow engine Eclipse to the Electric. Stay tuned.

Steve

Grade is a unit of angular measure commonly used in civil engineering. I'm sure you have all seen the highway signs. All it is is the tangent expressed as a percentage. A 45 degree incline is considered a 100 percent grade. I'm guessing he means degrees.

I just ordered an Eclipse and was wondering if you think the landing gear mount is sturdy enough or should it be beefed up. There doesn't appear to be much to it?

Sorry to dig out an older thread, but I'm concerned about a possible mistake I made while building my Eclipse.

My question: does your stab have a dihedral built into it? Mine looks like probably it has, as the upper side is flush and the under side has a small but noticeable dihedral. No notice of this was found in the instruction sheet provided, so I ask. If it is so, I built the stab upside down... []
Could someone please check that for me? Thank you in advance.

Regards,
-Fabrizio

Fabrizio,

I have never noticed any stab dihedral in any of my Eclipse stabs. If you have an aluminum stab tube, you could carefully bend the tube. If the stab is aligned with the wing and rudder, I would fly the plane first.

Steve

Hi Steve,
thanks for replying. I'll add pictures for clarity. I'd be glad if you could check that one out, before I start cutting the bevel on the trailing edge of the stab...
-Fabrizio

Fabrizio,

I would mark the centerline of the trailing edge of both stab halves. Then install the stab halves in a short tube so that the stab roots join together. I visually sight the TE centerlines with a straingt edge to check the dihedral. Another way is to install a short tube in the stab halves and mount them in the stab bottom side cores. You can then measure the height of the stab to the centerline marks. This should tell you how much dihedral you have. If the difference is less than 1.0smm than I would use the stabs.

I usually check my dihedrals (visually) on my stabs before I install the stab tube sockets. By the way, I just now checked for you one of my stabs from an old Eclipses. It has no dihedral in it.

Hope this helps.

Steve

Steve,

thank you very very much. Height difference appears to be about 1.5mm on either side measured from the centre line at the trailing edge of both stab halves. I'm probably going to cut the balsa bevel I previously sanded and replace it with some balsa in order to sand it on the other side. Luckily I didn't install plywood reinforcements on the under side (now upper side), so it won't be a big problem, just more sanding... Luckily also that the moving parts are almost equal, so little work to adapt it to the "wrong" half but no cutting and sanding there.

This doesn't yet solve the problem: where is my "dihedral" coming from? I don't think that the folks at CA changed the way the halves are built, so I guess one (or both) of my stab halves has some sort of error. I will make more tests with my stab and search for the root of the problem. I don't think it is a big issue, but I'm interested in knowing what went wrong and where.

Thanks again for your help, thanks!
-Fabrizio

Hi Fabrizio: I have 2 Eclipses, and both do not have any dihedral. Are you installing the stab tube into the halves and just holding them together to check?? I would think that if the cores and stab tube holes are cut properly at CA then it would have to be straight when you slide in the stab tube. I would do as Steve mentioned and draw a centerline and then install the stab tube to see if it all lines up correctly. PS - you will really like the way your Eclipse flies!!

Steve, UAL
thanks for your concern. The pictures from a couple of posts ago were taken with the supplied stab tube installed and fully inserted, so that the root of one half touched against the root of the other half. I did so hoping to sand them in parallel, to ensure that both had the same height and length. So the dihedral seen in the pictures is the dihedral that is built into the stab, no more and no less*. Bending the aluminium tube is not a good idea, since the phenolic inside the fuselage would not be very happy about that... So I probably will cut both bevels away and re-install 10mm light balsa sheet and sand the bevel on the other side. Thanks for the information, I'll let you know if this unwanted dihedral is of any help, I might as well want to build another stab so to have a backup in case this one doesn't work at all. I still believe the concern is minor, but flight tests will eventually prove me wrong (I hope not!).

I'm hoping for first flight on land in mid-may and on water for our international F3A-H (hydro) competition in september. I'll keep you updated, I like this plane very much and hope it'll fly accordingly!

Regards,
-Fabrizio

EDIT: *what struck me was that the upper side was exactly flat (see photo #2), like a wing. This is why I asked in the first place...

Guys what is the best prop size for OS 160 FX on a fantasy for good AA performance.
I donot use nitro fuel.