Red Max

I might be in the wrong forum for this, but what is the opinion of experienced flyers about using standard heavy duty servos, using a 6 volt battery, in a Funtana .90 3-D plane with a 69.5 inch wing span. I want to point out that I do not fly 3-D, only circles, loops and rolls, etc. I just like the way most 3-D planes fly. I have a .40 size Twist and I love the way it flies. All my planes are set up with a lot of exponential. I just recently purchased the Funtana.

Texastbird

Well, I have seen a Funtana flutter itself to pieces in level flight, so my vote would be for some decent metal gear servos and strong tight linkages. With those large surfaces, you can't afford to skimp anywhere.

Brendan Lugo

It'll fly the plane. It just won't be very snappy on the control inputs but since you are not flying 3D or IMAC it shouldn't really matter. The only thing that may be of concern is that they are usually nylon gears and that plane has fairly large control surfaces so flutter may be a problem if you get going too fast.

pilotpete2

I would look into the new HS-485HB from Hitec, more torque and reasonable speed, at a sport servo price
I'm a big fan of Karbonite gear servos, in my experience with them they've survived abuse that would have stripped a nylon gear servo in a heartbeat[8D]
Pete

Red Max

Hey, thanks guys for the info. I am considering putting hi torque in the ailrons and elevator, and standard heavy duty in the rudder, standard on the throttle. I am looking into putting the rudder servo up front with two push rods going to the rudder together off of one servo, instead of two servos in the tail, this would be to better balance the plane for sport flying.

Red Green is my hero.

Zeeb

My Feedback: (41)

Okay a few thoughts here from a guy who went to the Funtana 90 from a Nexstar and wanted exactly what you speak of; a nice flying sport plane (oh I still have the beast although it's rarely flown since I moved to GS gassers).

1. There is a HUGE thread here on that model, do a search for it and you'll find tons of information/opinions on it and various setups.
2. They WILL NOT come in at the weight H9 says they will. Some folks claim to have gotten 'em into the high 7lb. or really low 8lb. range, but I suspect those folks have bad scales as mine's heavier than that and most I've seen here and on that huge F90 thread, were coming in over 9lbs and some by a substantial margin.
3. I went to HD DuBro control horns on the ailerons due to reported wing failures with aileron flutter. I used MG analog servos which seem to be fine with metal servo arms, ball links, titanium control rods all around and I do not fly it fast.
4. That said; there are currently two of 'em flying at our club, one with an OS120 four stroker and one with a small 26cc gasser. Both of those guys used basically what comes with the Funtana for control linkages, fly the snot out of 'em (mostly at speed not 3D) and neither one has had a wing failure. I have seen one do that but it was the original version with the single rib at the aileron servo mount station. I would strongly suggest that if the model doesn't have the newer wings with two ribs boxing in the aileron servo mount, that you consider abandoning the project.
5. To get it flying the way you want, you HAVE to keep the CG forward of the recommended range and that won't happen with the rudder servo in stock tail mounted position. Your plan for moving the rudder servo forward only has one fault that I can see on the rudder servo and that is you should use a pull/pull cable setup rather than rods and that's how mine is setup.
6. Mine has a YS-110 on it and came in just over 9lbs. I set the CG (IIRC) about 1/2" in front of the recommended forward limit and that worked great for me as a new RC pilot. As I flew the model, the CG got moved back till it yielded the desired flight characteristics for my tastes and I couldn't tell you exactly where it is now.

So, I wouldn't fly the thing fast despite what I've seen those other two guys get away with, but with a forward CG it's a GREAT transition/sport type model.

JMHO, YMMV....

OH MAN..... I FORGOT one big thing you need to do with that Funtana; re-enforce the landing gear mounting/block area on that thing. Ripping out the gear with no apparent abuse/mis-use is a fairly common problem with that model, so when you add in the normal "less than perfect landings" you might have, the possiblity of a failure goes up as well. I did some re-enforcing in that area with mine when I built it, but it wasn't enough as I tore the gear out one day landing on a full scale runway (which was a bit rough) at a pretty high speed due to some control configuration problems I was having with a new Futaba 9Z WCII radio. Flipped the wrong switch somewhere along the line which introduced a mix that wasn't setup correctly, I had to keep the thing flying kind of fast to keep control. Set it down okay and on rollout the gear folded....[X(]

Red Max

This is really great and useful information. I will take "heads up" when building on the ribs situation and landing gear. Appreciate all the help.