I am building a Beat On 50 airplane as my first attempt at building and flying a pattern plane. Its an older kit, but it looked like a good airplane to build. The engine requirements suggest a 4S 50 or 2S 30. The manual shows an OS 52 surpass with a tuned pipe. I have a YS 63 engine and was wondering if it would be a good engine for this kit? I am also new to tuned pipes, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

The Akiba Beat-On is a good design.

If you're using the 4S YS 63, you don't need a tuned pipe. Either a regular cigar shape muffler, or, a Hatori type short muffler will do. Just pay attention to the final weight, it may be slightly nose heavy.

However, with the Beat-On being an order design, it probably has a pipe tunnel. Therefore, you can use an older style Hatori flexible header connecting to a Macs long silencer, that will work great. Be sure to soft mount both your header & pipe. Otherwise, the header will break quite easily.

Adrian

I looked at the engine mount and I will need to move the YS63 back because of the prop hub position. If you think it would be okay then I will go ahead with that. Do you have a recommended source for the Hatori flexible header and the silencer? I apologize for asking these basic questions, but what do I need to "soft" mount the header and pipe? Thanks.

>> I looked at the engine mount and I will need to move the YS63 back because of the prop hub position. If you think it would be okay then I will go ahead with that.

I don't know what kind of an engine mount came with the plane. Therefore, I do not want to comment on that.


>> Do you have a recommended source for the Hatori flexible header and the silencer?

Unfortunately, Hatori stopped making those flex header for a number of years now. However, you can contact Central Hobbies, they may still have some older one in stock. Otherwise, they can give you recommendation for an alternative for your 63. I think your easiest solution is to use a cigar shape muffler that comes out on the side of the nose of the plane, and you don't have to worry about broken flex header & soft mount it.

You can also take a look to see whether you can fit a Hatori # 643 header - http://www.centralhobbies.com/Exhaust/hatheadr.html, along with a Hatori # 720 pipe - http://www.centralhobbies.com/Exhaust/hatori.html. Both from Central Hobbies.

However, it will not be cheap, & may take quite a bit of work for retrofitting.


>> I apologize for asking these basic questions, but what do I need to "soft" mount the header and pipe? Thanks.

No need for any apologies, that's how I learned when I first started flying pattern - some 15 years ago - by asking questions. Here's a link to the soft pipe mount - http://www.centralhobbies.com/Exhaust/clamps.html#hush

Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

The engine mount is phenolic and is bolted down on the rails of the fuselage. I made a template based upon the location of the thrust washer and the cowling. It looks like I will have to move it back about 3/8" which may work out since the listed wt of the the OS 52 Surpass is 434g (15.31oz) and the wt of my YS 63S is 460g (16.1oz).

That should work.

As you may aware, YS is pretty much a bullet proof engine, as long as you break it in correctly, use a good fuel & run it slightly on the rich side.

Good luck with the build.

I am getting the components together for this build and have the Hatori muffler, header, retracts, and titanium struts from Central Hobbies. Any suggestions on the servos? The wings are a bit shallow in height for normal size servos and I was thinking about using Hitec 225MB for that, I already have a Fut 9252 which could be used for the rudder, not sure about the elevator and throttle. I have used the Hitec HS81 for the throttle in most of my other airplanes.

Is anyone familiar with this kit? The instructions for installing the aileron servos is installing a plastic piece inside the servo hole and stick the servo on its side to it using double stick foam tape which was included. Apparently the original BeatOn was designed by a pattern champion and I would assume that this method was tested on this smaller version. I was thinking about using Futaba 9650s for the ailerons. Open to suggestions.

The wing presented some challenges especially since I have never installed retracts before, but thanks to the help received, they were installed and work smoothly. I had to special order the Supra 30 retracts from Singapore since they were not available here in the US markets. Fortunately the fellow that I talked to was familiar with the BeatOn50 and said that they would be able to get them for me. It took a while, but they fit perfectly. I chose the Hitec 75BB for the retract servo.

I used the Futaba S9650s for the ailerons as they had resonable torque and fit into the side mounts. The plastic plates which are installed over the servo bays make for a very clean look.

With the wing done, I am focusing on the fuselage. I installed the horizontal stabalizer parallel to the wing and the vertical stabilizer was then installed. There is a plastic formed cover that slips over the vertical stab and tubing is installed for the rudder pull/pull system into the fuselage and just seem to float inside, which is a bit puzzling. The tubing does not reach the servo bays in fact they are about 4 inches back into the fuselage. I am not sure if I should try to secure them or not? I always struggle a bit on selecting servos. I need to select servos for the rudder, elevator and throttle. I usually use an Hitec HS81 servo for the throttle. I have a Futaba Digital S9252 which I thought might be okay for the rudder. Since this is my first real pattern plane, should I also get a digital servo for the elevator? Any suggestion on the servos?

More photos.

More photos

And more photos.

It looks like the largest tank that will fit into the bay is an 11oz Hayes which I think will be okay? Any suggestions on the rudder pull/pull system (previous message) or the servos for the rudder, elevator, and throttle?

>> The tubing does not reach the servo bays in fact they are about 4 inches back into the fuselage. I am not sure if I should try to secure them or not?

You should always install a cross brace to anchor the rudder cable tubing. Here's my build thread on the Altair 200, towards the middle of the page shows the cross brace for the rudder cable - http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_86..._2/key_/tm.htm. You should also install a short plastic tubing between the two rudder tubing to support the elevator push rod as well.


>> should I also get a digital servo for the elevator? Any suggestion on the servos?

Digitals are definitely better than analogs, much more precise, especially on centering. Use servos with good torques on both ele & rud, it makes snapping a lot more easier.


>> It looks like the largest tank that will fit into the bay is an 11oz Hayes which I think will be okay?

I think the 11 oz should be ok, as long as it will give you at least ten minutes of flying time.

Adrian

Adrian, I thought about this for a while and began to think about why they, the designers/builders/flyers of the BeatOn50 would provide cable tubing that is essentially shorter than both you and I are used to. I asked myself about the mechanics involved in linkage for a pull/pull rudder system and the movement of the cable as it goes through the limits, and it was there that I realized that perhaps by having a floating cable tubing that I would eliminate much of the binding type friction as the servo arm moves. I wish that I could diagram this for you, but do not have the skills to do that, nevertheless, the tubing is there mostly to guide the cable to its connection point and if you have it fixed the lateral position of the servo arm will vary through its arc as it moves from one limit to the other and move beyond the fixed point. I don't know if you understand what I am saying, but does that make any sense to you?

Be careful with the Hayes tank. I seem to remember them not working and playing well with the YS pressurized fuel system. I'd at least recommend testing it on the bench if possible.

Hi Winglift,

Did you use the foam tape that was included in the kit to mount the aileron servos? I have an EZ beat On kit too, but hesitant to use that method. I'm planning to use a YS53 or a YS63,but due to engine vibrations, that mounting method would not be a good idea. Might need to secure them using light ply and servo screws. Just my opinion.

Gerard

Gerard, At first I was hesitant to use this method, but decided to go ahead with it. When I installed the servos I carefully positioned them and then pressed them onto the mount and I am very confident about it. They are rock solid in the mount. The foam tape supplied is very effective. Just be sure that you have the servo in the right position before pressing it onto the mount because it is not going to move. Again, I was like you, but now believe it works just fine.

That is not good news. I will do just that. I hope it works as that seems to be the largest tank around that will fit. Thanks for the heads up.

Update on this issue. I did a search on the Hayes tank and discovered that many preferred it for a YS engine, so I think I am going to go ahead and use it. Perhaps it was an isolated event that you heard about. Regardless, I appreciate the info.

Hi
I have an EZ Beaton which I have had for a number of years, it was fitted with an Irvine 53, I thought of putting in retracts but to help keep the weight down I fitted a home made carbon under cart It flyes very well and I am sure it can teach you a lot. But a word of warning watch your slow speed as it does have a habbit of aileron reversal (I found out this the hard way is their any other) This happend when I was flying dead stick comeing in to land at height This reversal also happend to a friend of mine who is very experianced and competes in aerobatics, but he just told me thay it had some unusual flying charetistics As far as the YS goes this is a gret little engine but I think this will be a case of over power for this airframe.

Always fly two mistakes high

Wow! I am not familiar with aileron reversal. What causes it? You are right about the YS and I will probably not use full throttle at all, however I already had the engine and it was about the same weight as the recommended engines. It also fits nicely in the cowling. I also thought that it would help with the extra weight of the retracts. What are some of the other unusual flying characteristics does it have?

I've been working on the fuselage and ran into a challenge or two. The elevator is moved by a "Y" shaped pushrod. The diagram in the construction manual shows the assembled pushrod which is made from a hard balsa stick and wire ends, the trick is bending the ends at the correct angle. The diagram shows only the horizontal length only not the length of the bent wire so I approximated the angle between and with a little math determined the length of the bent sections. It does show the exact exit holes for the pushrods and I drilled the holes. Since the pushrod assembly is already bent, it required some doing to get it through the holes. I had some antenna tubing and fed those through the holes first and eventually got them through the bulkheads to the servo bay. Then I inserted the ends of the pushrods into the tubing. As I fed the pushrod back the tubing would guide the ends through the bulkheads and eventually out of the holes. It worked great.

The bottom pan requires one to attach channels to each side. The trick here was to find a way to hold the channel piece to the pan while glueing. I used Zap Plasti-Zap medium CA for this as it is plastic on plastic. This is the perfect glue for this process. I modified some clothes pins to hold the channel to the inside of the pan. It is important to have the pan and channel pieces trimmed properly prior to gluing. I left about 1/8" on the rear end of the pan to allow for the plywood pieces to be glued on the end for the dowels. I also backed up the pieces with a small piece of balsa to give a more solid hole for the dowel. I then notched the pieces to match the channel.

More photos.