Review

ASSEMBLY CONTINUED



I used stainless steel 6-32 machine bolts, nylon insert lock nuts, and sealing washers, to mount up the servo tray. This setup for the Dremel drills holes in places you otherwise couldn't get to... or, as in this case, holes you couldn't otherwise drill straight. You need the cullet nut kit from Dremel, some short bits like the ones from Dremel, and a Dremel right angle attachment, of course.


Okay, having calculated the pull/pull geometry based on the molded in exit hole, the width and location of the 3W rudder servo arm, and crossed cables... I guessed at where my rudder control horn should be located and also how far out my clevises should be on the rudder control horn bolt. Now it was showtime and so I hooked up the pull/pull cables. Well? I guessed pretty darn good. I went with Kevlar cables from donshobbyshop.com, although I've used the DUBRO metal cables with equally satisfying results.


Here's a shot down the fuse.	Here's a "bag of nuts" from microfasteners.com.	I'm going with an Emcotec DPSI RV LDO for power distribution.

The rudder setup on this model has everything you want in a pull/pull cable system: No tension in the non pulling cable at any deflection point No drape in they non pulling cable at any deflection point No snake in the pulling cable at any deflection point Only a slight snake in the non pulling cable at full deflection which is compensated for with the geometry to allow that cable to be just "off tension" at full deflection. Not even a slight drape, just no tension at all. If all this is done right the rudder should whip back and forth full deflection just as free and easy as you please. No cable, control horn, or clevis hitting the fuse at any deflection point... even past 45 degrees of throw. I'm satisfied.


Okay... this shot shows the setup at the rudder. This is where I guessed it should be before I drilled the hole and put the hard point in earlier. The control horn bolt is 1-1/8" behind the hinge line... after you add back the 3/8" clevis you end up with a pivot point that is 3/4" behind the hinge line. Add in approx. another 1/4" to that because I crossed over the cables... and I figured I would need a 1" offset on the rudder servo arm, slash bellcrank, from 3W. The first hole on the 3W arm is at 1". Long story short, I guessed right. :-) Now there is more to it... more to why I wanted it there versus another setup where the cables still worked freely. I not only wanted a free working system, but I wanted it to work at 45 degrees and well beyond 45 degrees. And, I didn't want any part of the system getting in the way of that happening. Using these particular bits and pieces of hardware give you alot of flexibility if you need it (I didn't in this case , but usually I do ). The key is the 3W rudder servo arm, slash bellcrank. If I had slack in the non pulling cable I could have just moved the cables to a hole closer to the rudder. If I had tension in the non pulling cable I could have moved the cables to a hole closer to the rudder servos. I do like the 3W control horns on the rudder versus the rocketcity style I used. I had them in stock, but I didn't build the hard point in the rudder correctly to have been comfortable using the 3W control horns. It would have been two horns, one on each side... and the middle of the hard point should have been hard wood. I was thinking "keep it light" when I glued it in. So, my bad there. What I like about the 3W control horn is that you eliminate the clevis and having side load on a plastic part like that. And, it makes for easy tool-free cable removal. Which is nice when you have a removable rudder like this one and the one on the Votecs.


Here you can see that although I sanded down the end of the fuse an 1/8" to get more throw on the rudder... even at that added full deflection I'm not running into any restrictions/obstructions on the pulling side of the system.	A desirable result on the non pulling side at full deflection, as well. I've seen them from well known builders where one cable tightens hard in the non pulling position, but the other cable is slack in its non pulling position.	Here's a shot of the crimping sleeve and its connection to the rudder control horn. Again, I've used the DUBRO setup just as often with the same reliable results. I had both in stock and just flipped a coin.


The stabs were too plain and the wings still looked like they could use some more contrast for better visibility, so I ordered some more graphics.	I think I screwed up by getting the propeller in blue instead of silver holographic.	May I just say that Kirbys Kustom Vinyl Graphics rocks!


Okay... got to working on mounting my aileron and elevator servos. The stock setup is totally fine. They have the 3mm servo-mounting-machine-screws tapped into the carbon fiber ribs and you're ready to go... the 3mm screws are even included and in place. Everything is located correctly and it all works out fine. But, I got to thinking that it would take me the same amount of time to cut a servo hole in the wing as it would a servo arm slot in the access cover. I didn't want to be reaching in the access compartment a million times whilst programming the servos. I just got to thinking about it and decided I didn't want any unnecessary aggravation while programming.


So... I mod-ed it. No biggie... I just cut a hole in the wing which I lined up correctly for the control horn hard point (which already has a pilot hole drilled in its center) and glued in some 1/4" by 1/4" hard wood for the servo mounting wood screws. Now, programming will be standard fare.	These ailerons have alot more throw than the CompARFs... and probably enough throw for me... but just to be safe I sanded off a small 1/8" from, oddly enough, the aileron. With the CompARFs it is the wing that gets in the way and needs to be cut down to add throw. With this model it is the aileron that gets in its own way.	The elevators, though, were maybe worse than the CompARFs... although Don Hamp says they are majorly effective without extreme throw... anyway, I sanded 3/8" off of the stab (not the control surface this time ) to get approx 45 degrees of throw.


Okay... I mounted the engine with the same method I used in Wild Hare R/C 106" Extra review. First I figured out I needed a 5/8" spacer. Then I put a 1/16" sheet of plywood on the firewall to flush it out with the face of the fuselage (which is like a border around the firewall on this model; and is not quite flush with the firewall itself). I temporarily attached the 1/16" ply to the firewall with a tiny pin head of glue because I want to pop it off later and shape it. Then I used ZAP 30min Z-POXY to glue together two pieces of 1/4" and one piece of 1/16" aircraft plywood. As with the Wild Hare R/C 106" Extra engine... I bolted the engine onto the spacer so I could slide the spacer around on the firewall until it was lined up correctly. With the WH I used drywall screws to mount the engine to the spacer... with this plane I drilled smallish 1/4" holes and used short 1/4 x 20 machine bolts. Then, like with the WH, I cut a piece of wood to use on the backside of the firewall. I predrilled and ran two drywall screws through that piece of wood. Then I held the engine (which was mounted to the spacer) up to the firewall and also reached in and screwed down the piece of wood from the other side of the firewall. The screws in that piece of wood go through a big hole in the center of the firewall and screw into the wood spacer that the engine is attached to. Once I had the engine pretty close to where it should be I snugged up the drywall screws, but not real tight. Then I bolted on the cowl and marked the locations in the cowl where I will need to make holes to allow for the engine spark plug and carb snorkel. After that I was able to loosen the drywall screws a little and really fine tune the engine/spacer location; and snug the drywall screws down tight. If, after checking with the spinner backplate, everything looks dead on I can go ahead and remove the cowl and remove the engine from the spacer (while leaving the spacer still sucked up on the firewall by the piece of wood from the opposite side of the firewall). Then drill the four motor mounting holes right through the firewall. What's cool about this method is that you don't drill the holes through the firewall until you are absolutely certain everything is lined up right. There's no guessing, you can't miss.


Took a break in the engine mounting action to show you how things are looking.	This spinner that came with the plane from FLY-FAN... it's got the bling bling!	But, here's the spinner I'll be running... cuz I prefer to trust that engine to a Tru-Turn.


Okay, now I went ahead and removed the engine from the spacer so I could drill the mounting holes through the firewall. The spacer is still being held very securely by the piece of wood and drywall screws that are on the other side of the firewall. I drilled straight through with a 1/4" bit.	This shot clearly shows the 1/16" aircraft ply I tacked on to flush out the firewall with the surrounding border. After I shape the spacer I'll be able to shape this piece of 1/16" ply to match.	Next I ran a 5/16" bit through the firewall to allow for the 1/4 x 20 blind nuts (which you can get from microfasteners or from DUBRO). I like to use a sharp bit and run the drill bit in reverse for the first half of the hole... to prevent splintering the wood. Sometimes I'll soak the area to be drilled with ZAP Thin CA to prevent splintering, as well.


Then I sucked the blind nuts up flush with slip lock pliers and followed up with ZAP thin CA to hold them in place.	To get the spacer to look the way it does here I popped off the 1/16" ply from the firewall. Then I glued it onto the back of the 9/16" spacer; lining up the holes. I shaped it with a drum sander to drop the total weight down to 1-3/4 oz (could even make it lighter, but this should be fine). And, finally shot it with some clear.	Got some CA in a couple of the blind nuts, so ran my 1/4-20 tap through and then the engine bolted on like butter. It worked out just how I wanted on the gap between the cowl and the spinner, too. About 1/8"... that way I can sand a frog hair of up/down and/or left/right thrust into the spacer without having the spinner hit the cowl.


Started working on the carb linkage setup. As always I'm looking for maximum resolution and the best proportionally linear geometry I can get. So many setups I see leave the carbs butterfly moving slowly through one half of its range and moving super fast through the other half of its range. I want my ATVs at 140 and I want my geometry setup for a perfectly even opening and closing of the carb butterfly (in relation to the proportional movement from the servo arm). This means I gotta have a short servo arm and a long carb butterfly control arm. It means that at the half way point of the carb butterfly's range and the half way point of the servo's range... that their two controlling arms should be parallel to each other. I added on this extension to the fuel tank tray for my throttle servo... I glued it down with ZAP Medium CA.


For the throttle arm... I spent a couple of hours making something up in the shop that wasn't too bad. I was going to solder it on but I know a guy that just had the solder joint he made break on his 3W-150. And, even though my solder joints don't break, I started getting insecure.	So, I went ahead and opted for going over to my buddy's machine shop and having him cut something out and weld it up. Now I have the proportionally linear movement I want and also max resolution. And, no worries about it popping off in flight.	Just got this Biela Prop from Aircraft International today... pretty sweet looking and fits in the 3W 3D cut on my Tru-turn spinner. AI sent a 3D prop to TT last year so TT now has that info in the computer for the guys that need it. I heard this prop flies good.


Well, I ran into snag #4 on this model. #1 was no rudder control horn hard point. #2 was a stab tube that wouldn't begin to go in the sleeve. #3 was not enough elevator, rudder, or aileron throw. And, now #4 which is canister tubes that don't work with stock headers. Now what is really about this is that if there were no custom canister tubes you'd just bolt on standard canister mounts, and use the stock headers. But, what they've done is give you custom canister tubes that leave you requiring custom headers. And, they did this with no good reason. The custom canister tubes should just be 7/8" higher and they would be a welcome addition. But, the way they are I should have just cut them out. And, I would have if I had known what the final bill on the custom headers was going to be. Then I would have just put some standard canister mounts in the plane where they should be so I could have bolted on standard headers and been done with it. The above picture shows how the stock headers line up... or should I say, don't line up.


So, back down to my buddy Pete's shop to make up some custom headers.	Here's the first one done... two offsets... one to make a little more room at the carb linkage location...	And, another to curve back and line things up with the canister tubes.


I made a throttle servo pushrod from 4-40 all-thread and a carbon fiber tube. I have a DUBRO ball-joint on either side. The geometry is perfect and the resolution is maxed out. I ended up needing a 1" servo arm rather than the 3/4" arm I had drilled. So, I drilled and tapped another one, but a stock 1" arm would have been golden for me here. Pete told me I should use some 1/2" stock aluminum with a hole in it just a frog hair larger than the 4-40 tap. He said this would keep the tap from wobbling around and make the threads come out better. I said, "huh?" And, so he just cut a chunk of aluminum and drilled a hole in it for me. Worked real slick for tapping the new hole.


I threw the plane together to see how it was looking.	This pic shows the foamie that Jim Orsi just built me.	Here's one showing the new vinyl graphic from Smart-Fly.


I could have used the stock servo locations for the elevators, or I could have cut holes in the wings next to the access panels like I did for the aileron servos... but for this that and the other reason (started thinking it would be better not to have the servos so far from the root and stuff )...	... I decided to locate the servos in the middle of the access panels. Here's a picture of the wood I glued in to mount the servos. I glued the panel to that wood... and will put four screws in the corners. Kind of a pain, but should work out real nice in the end.	Ah, and the stab retention is done via 4-40 stainless steel machine bolts (with stainless steel sealing washers) into a hardwood block in the stab tube which I drilled, CA-ed, and tapped.


I know in-the-wing looks nicer... but this will make setting up the linearity, resolution, geometry, programming and maintenance alot easier for me.	Mickey came over tonight so we went and got some tacos at the local Taqueria. Then he notched out my spinner for the Biela prop.	And, here's what wrenching on these planes until 4am will do to your appearance. Definitely time for some:


I chose to use 3W control horns for two reasons. One is that the pre-drilled holes for the control horns are practically in the hinge line. And, two, the factory holes are so large that even 10-32 bolts swim in them. Good thing I had all the different hardware that was needed for a result I would be happy with. In the end, 53 degrees -- 53 degrees -- 3" up -- 3" down. Resulting in excellent geometry, linearity, resolution, and a bind free setup. Important note: I want to have all six of my aileron servos traveling the same 53 degrees in each direction off of center... which in turn causes the aileron to move exactly 3" in each direction off of its center. This is achieved by adjusting the control horn heights and pushrod lengths. Another consideration with the skinned (offset) hinges is that I may need to setup differential with the radio to get the rolls to be axial. I don't know why these composite winged plane manufacturer's do not use Robarts, or at least some type of center hinge setup?


I went with 1-1/4" arms on the ailerons, and 1-1/2" arms for the elevators.	I picked up some heater hose from the auto parts store, and used some .032 stainless steel safety wire to attach pieces of it to the canisters at the sleeve joint.	From there you just slide it into the canister tunnels. This mounting method allows the air to blow over the canisters to cool them.

COMPLETED

VIDEOS

First hour flying the plane. :-)