Hi Guy's,
I just thought i would share some pictures of my inverted pulse.
We fitted it with a GMS .61 inverted and took it out for a fly
today. The plane handled very well.
jetway.

I think it looks good.

With the extra weight, it might be a good idea to beef up the landing gear and mounting area.

Wow, I've got a .46 in mine and it gives me all the performance I can handle (though it is only my second plane). I'll bet that .61 will really pull it around.

Beefing up the landing gear might also be a good idea as Jim suggested. I've unfortunately torn the gear out of mine twice now, but I must admit they were both less than spectacular landings. Thankfully, in the stock configuration, the gear will tear out cleanly without damaging too much of the airframe.

I will take the advice and beef up the landing gear.
Yeap that .61 really pulls it around it is pretty fast.
jetway.[sm=thumbs_up.gif]

I'm using 440 nylon bolts to hold my gear on. They're are pretty dinky, but there's three of them, so I figured that would probably be strong enough. so far i haven't had a rough landing, so it's too early to tell. I'm hoping the bolts will shear instead of ripping the mounting block out. It's worked really well on my mini and 25E Ultra sticks, and we did it for year with our old ugly sticks. Occasionally the gear will come back and hit the stag, but it's worth the risk to keep from tearing the bottom out of the plane. A stab is cheap...a fuselage isn't.

I really like this plane. You can read my observations here:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=599300

Hey Doc,

I've heard differing opinions on using the nylon bolts for the landing gear from people at my field. I've been told that it's good in theory, but doesn't really work in practice. But it sounds like your experience is different. When those nylon bolts do shear off, do you have to drill them out of the blind nuts? I think I'll give it a try, what could it hurt since if it saves me from having to rebuild the undercarriage.

Thankfully, the first time the gear tore out, I was able to directly epoxy back in place because not too much was tore up. This time is a little different because I tried to reinforce some stuff from the first time. I definitely don't need a new fuse, but it'll take a little more work to get the pieces to fit back together.

My experience with nylon bolts for landing gear is that they do work just as planned but there are a few things to consider. I put 3 on a 40 size Funtana and broke them off twice and it worked perfect. I didn't use the 1/4 - 20 like some people do but used 10-32 and they snapped right off, saving the plane. Worked perfect. I think that on most 40 sized planes 1/4 - 20 is probably too big and probably won't snap off soon enough. Also one thing to consider is whether or not you have wheel pants. With wheel pants on when the gear comes off it can send the end of the wheel pants up through the wing. On the planes that I use wheel pants I just beef up the landing gear area better.

On my Ultra Sticks I use long ones, and the grab them from inside the radio compartment with a pair of hemostats and turn them out. On the Pulse you can't get to them like that, so you just jam an Xacto knife into the bolt and use that to back them out. Lots of times they break off with enough left sticking out to get a hold of.

An easy way to remove broken off nylon bolts is to heat a screwdriver with a lighter and insert the hot tip of it into the end of the nylon, making a slot. Then twist the bolt out.

How long of a build was this for you?

Zoot,

Not sure if you were asking anyone in particular, but this was my second plane and first ARF. My first plane was an RTF. To be honest, it took me longer to put together than I care to admit [:-] I did mine over two weekends and put in a lot of hours. It really does go together easy. Before I started mine, I was reading stories about people putting theirs together in a few hours. I kind of got my hopes up after reading those stories, but I had a learning curve to get over, atleast that's what I'm telling myself But the plane flies great, even after repairing a torn out landing gear a couple of times, so I guess all's well that ends well.

So if you have any experience putting ARFs together at all, I think you could get this done pretty quick. If you're like me and maybe a little slow, then there's no shame in taking your time and building it over several days.

I took your advice on the nylon bolts, good thing too. All this snow around here, I landed about a foot short and the wheels touched down in about 1.5 inches of snow. the bolts broke and damage was very minimal, just some new nylon bolts and a minor ultracote patch, oh and re-balanced the prop, it's now a 12.75X7 LOL.

sure beats the heck out of a cartwheel or something.

No way....not the Pulse XT ARF. There's still a lot of work left to do on this plane, though, cowling aside, most of it is easy stuff. Securing the canopy takes time unless you use screws, and getting the control horns on straight can't be done in seconds. Securing the radio equipment isn't something you want to do haphazardly either.

Getting the airplane right takes some time. Slow down and enjoy it. Having seen hundreds of maiden crashes, I'de say most of them were due to poor preparation. Almost everyone builds faster than I do. It takes me six hours to assemble a Mini Ultra Stick, but every one of them flies straight off the board and I never have to touch them after the test flight. I prefer to take my time and know everything is as good as I can make it.

The Pulse that gets into the air quickly is the Plug-N-Play version. All you do is jam in the receiver and hook up all the wires. Then you go fly it. Really, the biggest problem I had putting together my Pulse XT Plug-N-Play is that I couldn't believe it was so easy to have such a nice plane. I kept checking everything over and over because I just had to have left something out. Even after flying it there was nothing to do except wipe it off. I didn't even change the setup the plane came with except to dial in some more rudder throw with the radio.

I wouldn't even worry about the speed with which you get an ARF ready. I worry more about the quality of the work I'm putting in. Part of this is pride in workmanship, but most of this is because it's a poorly installed radio, badly balanced plane, or improperly secured control horn (among many, many other things) that can cause a catastrophe. I take my sweet, sweet time and I check my work over and over and over. And then I'll think of something at 3am, get out of bed and go check it again.


Certainly if the result is nice work.

I used to despise actually building an airplane kit. I have built so many that I am burned out for life, but I kind of enjoy assembling some of these ARFs, especially the E Flite and Hangar 9 stuff that goes together so well. Even at that, there wasn't much assembly on the Pulse XT PNP. Bolt on the tail, bolt on the LG, bolt on the prop, jam in the receiver and go fly. Shameful, really, but it's hard to argue with the results.

Speaking of which......................


http://largoflyingclub.com/app06/pulse.wmv

http://largoflyingclub.com/video/austinpls.wmv


Some of you may have seen these, and some of you may not have. Enjoy or ignore. Just for grins, here's the Mini Pulse with the big 480 motor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rawC-C9JMWA

Hey Doc, I can't thank you enough for the video you posted (I think it was on another thread that I saw it) It got me inspired to get a Pulse and I finally got to do some good flying with it yesterday. We finally got some good weather. Anyway, very nice flying plane. I think it's better than the 4 Star 40. It has some upgrades that the 4 Star doesn't have and looks better. I let the guy fly it, from the hobby shop that sold it to me and he loves the way it flies. [8D] Thanks again.

There's more video of the Pulse in the can but I have to learn how to edit it. I've got about 15 minutes of it and the parts you haven't seen are some of my favorites. Once or twice I almost plant the thing, but she is so stable and forgiving that I got away with it.

The clock is ticking.


Make sure you tell Horizon! I need my brownie points!

The more time you get on it the more confidence you will have with her. I'm sure one day I will have too much confidence, but then I'll just go buy another one.

And that, my friends is the beauty of plug-n-play...... buy it, charge it, fly it fearlessly, trash it, replace it. Repeat as necessary.......

God bless America.............

God bless PNP.................

Thank you Hangar 9.

What! You have more video of the bird and you haven't posted it! [X(] We need more video of it. This is a nice flying plane.

I have Pulse EP with 450 motor.How did you fit the 480?? THANKS,RACJ

Just putting this arf together. Does anyone have any tips,suggestions or upgrades they would do?
Anything need beefing up. Please reply with any suggestions. I'm going with the os 46 ax.
Thanks

have to agree with doc about nylon bolts.I have them on my easy sport going on 4years no issue.in fact I put 1/4 20's in after I nearly ripped the bottom out with the steel bolts.if something has to give best it be the nylon bolts .cost is less than a buck .if you enjoyed doc's xt pulse imagine his ep pulse sporting a 480.man its awesome..right doc??

I would add some extra glue to the landing gear area. I usually do that on all my ARF's anyway but this plane has a light fuse frame so I didn't want to take any chances. Have fun with it and let us know how it does.

Follow the instructions. That's it.

Well, I did change one or two things, but it was nothing major.

To save myself a bunch of writing that I have already done, he's my review:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...97#post6803099


That's a really excellent choice.

Just bought mine today, I have a mini pulse aswell with a park 480 (but i went down the folding prop path).

If this thing flies anything like the mini pulse, ill love it, if not, ill just transfer the gear into my ultimate or fairchild pt-19, im an electric fan but couldnt resist the larger pulse, lets see how it ends.