Warbirds-RC/HET-RC F-20 Tigershark [Archive] - WattFlyer RC Electric Flight Forums

Glacier Girl

12-13-2005, 04:06 AM

Randy,
No harm ment. You've always done me right on my Megas.:D

And so the build begins.
First note: Not all the kits are exactly alike. For example, mine came with a painted cockpit frame, battery tray, and a lot of spare wood. Some came with an unpainted frame, and no tray, and no extra wood.(?)

Anyhow I'm deviating slightly from the CD build manual. It's just how I build. First thing on mine, after checking all the parts and reviewing the CD, was re-ironing the covering. Seems the cold weather lossened it up everywhere.That took aprox 2 hours. Now onto the wings, there are 2 liteply spars that connect the wings to the fuselage, the end with one corner cut off faces down and installs in the fuselage. On mine it actually took some tapping with a mallet to dry fit it, very tight, no play. Wing side has a little give to it as it's needed to line up the wings properly. I'll get back to that in a bit. Before installing the wings, there are a couple of things that need done.You need to clean out the servo lead tunnels in the foam. And run servo cords to be able to pull the servo leads through. There are cords run front to back for the antenna and battery leads in the fuselage, but nothing for the wing servos. So what I did was use some regular old 1/16" cord to run mine. You will need to use a stiff wire lead to snake the cord from the fuselage hole for the wing back through the fuselage into the electronics bay. Coil up the one end of the cord and stuff it into the wing servo hole with a piece of tape to hold it, same for the bay. Now back to the wing install. Per Carl, who built one of the prototypes, the rear of the wing (TE) needs to be 1mm above the bottom of the fuselage, this allows the middle of the wing to sit flush to the fuselage bottom, and the LE to be 10 mm above the fuselage bottom.
I pinned mine in place to hold the measurements, then took a fine line marker and outlined the wing on the fuselage. Removed the wing, and trimmed off the covering on the fuselage, approx 1/16" inside my lines.
Cleaned off the lines with denatured alcohol, and resealed the cut outs with the iron. With the pins still in place, I mixed up some 15 min epoxy, and coated the insides of the wing spar slots, and put some on both the fuselage and the wing. Tapped the spar into the fuselage then installed the wing. The pins hold the wing to the correct measurements. And I used masking tape to hold pressure on the wings till the epoxy was dry. Clean up any squeeze out with alcohol. While the wings were drying I tied off the other end of the servo cords to the fuselage for later.Per Carl the wings should sit with a little up dihedral, to help handling,mine seemed to be fine.After it dryed, I removed the pins and tape.
Since the wing to fuselage fit isn't perfect a fillet is recommended.
And since I'm not that good freehanding it, I cheated. I used masking tape to lay down on each side of the joint, about 3/32" on each side top and bottom. I then mixed some 5 min epoxy and smeared it across the joint. Took a good old popsicle stick to give a rounded fillet, then followed up with a alcohol dampened rag to remove the excess. Pull off the tape and I had nicely matched fillets. Next up for me was the aileron hinges.
On mine one aileron sat proud on the inside and the other was high on the outside. So I had to re cut the hinge slots on both to get a nice flat fit. Also One of my ailerons was slightly large, it binded on the cut out. Something a little sanding took care off. Removed both ailerons, and the 4 hinges, marked the center of each hinge to align it on install. Time to glue, so I reinstalled the hinges and ailerons into the wings, checking the marks to make sure hinges were in evenly. Doing one at a time, I bent the aileron down approx 15mm, and put thin CA on each hinge, top and bottom. For me it was easier to use a thin piece of wire and dip into the bottle of CA, then use the wire to place the CA on the hinge precisely.
Bending the aileron down, before glueing, gives the needed amount of play in the hinge for free movement. And that's about it for tonight.

watt_the?!

12-13-2005, 06:53 AM

is that you annie?

Glacier Girl

12-13-2005, 03:49 PM

[quote=watt_the?!;28296]is that you annie?[/quote

????????????Who's Annie???????????????

tashley

12-13-2005, 04:15 PM

Who the heck is Annie???

watt_the?!

12-13-2005, 09:12 PM

nevermind...Annie and Markos run Warbirds-RC...good people with a wealth of information....sorry.

i shouldve known if i'd read more...like ''I got mine on Saturday, Christmas came early.
Wow for an ARF, the CD has 354 pages of build."

my bad.

Tim.

Glacier Girl

12-13-2005, 11:00 PM

Ok, And just what kinda oxygen are you snorting Tim? LOL

Anyhow, word of advise, recommended servos for the ailerons are Hitec 125's. Apparantly I got the last 2 Tower had, so you may have to search for another supplier.
Like I said I tend to build erraticly, not page 1 followed by page 2 and so on. So I jumped to fitting the mini fan. Carl had said on the prototype that he had to do some trimming on the side fuselage frame work to get his installed, so I wanted to do any carpentry work with out anything in the way. Well low and behold, mine slipped right in.......till it got to the intake hole. @%%&$%@&&$*^^%^^#!@#@! The intake tube and framer were misaligned 1/16" off center. You'll see when you get yours, there is no wiggle room at all. It's either go or no go. Well I ended up sanding a little of the tube and a little of the former to get a close match. But not enough, I could see the cardboard tube was starting to peel from trying to force the fan in. So brainstorm time, if it won't go in with out binding, it needs lubed. I took a candle and rubbed the intake duct opening, beveled the edge of the fan shroud and lubed it too, with the candle. Slipped right in like it was ment to be there. Yea!!!
Ok I'm on a roll now. So I decide to run the antenna lead and battery cables. The kit comes with almost thread like cords pre run in the sides of the fuselage to pull the leads and such through. Knowing my luck, those tiny threads would snap on me about halfway through the pull. And there looked to be no way you'd be able to rerun them. So I took the threads and pulled double loops of nylon cord though, No breaking them, and doubles just in case I needed to run something else later. See I thought ahead. So I decided to run the antenna tube first. It's to run up the right side of the fuselage to keep it clear of the other electric leads. I figured with the twists and bend involved in routing it (you'll see) I would use something a little larger then 1/16" tubing, so I would have a little room to work the antenna up through. I dug in the scrap box and came up with an old hollow control rod, aprox 1/8" diameter x 3' long. Perfect. Proceeded to cut the holes in the rear and front cockpit formers to run the tube. Now in the CD they show using a reg drill to do this. Me I chucked a cutting bit in my Dremel, dropped it into the cock pit and cut the holes with no problem.Used the same set up to cut the hole for the former at the nosecone mount, where the tube is to end, also.
Tied and taped the tube to the cord and pulled, man am I glad I used the heavy cord. There is a spot right at the end of the pull that it gets really tight, I'm sure I would have snapped the thread. Mission accomplished, I scuffed the tube where it lined up with the holes in the formers, mixed up a little 5 min epoxy, and added just enough to anchor the tube to the formers. I left aprox 1/2" of the tube sticking out the front former, and the leftover I left as is until the Rx is installed, then I'll trim it to length.
Running the battery leads through the left side was uneventfull. Went right in. I used 2' each of red and black 12 gauge silicone wire for the leads. On mine I will be using Anderson Power Poles for connectors.
I'll solder them in place when I get to a spot on something else, where I need to take a break, and after I'm sure of the exact length needed for the wires.
Well that's about it for this mornings work. Next I'll go to building the canopy/cockpit. It's going to be pretty basic. I may go with a pin and mag latch set up to ease removal of it, to service the packs.

Mike Parsons

12-14-2005, 01:08 AM

Thanks for documenting the build. Any chance of some photos? :)

tashley

12-14-2005, 01:17 AM

Yeah man, bring on the graphic images.;)

Glacier Girl

12-14-2005, 03:02 AM

Ok,Ok, Here's a couple shots.
Anyhow, I worked on the removeable canopy/cockpit assy. a little tonight. The cockpit comes as a 3 piece lite ply unit. On mine someone must of been playing with it as it was already glued together and painted flat black. Hmm? Well since I was makeing mine a removeable unit with the canopy, I Took the lite ply assy apart and reversed the wood to get unpainted wood for the glue to stick better to. Also since the ply to plastic canopy attatchment was very mininal, approx 1/16" thick ply.
I beefed up the sides with spars which gave more for the canopy to attach to, and strengthened the joints where the front and rear bulkheads attached to the main part.I then rough cut out the canopy. And taped the canopy down tight to the cockpit frame, after placeing the frame onto the jet. I took fine line tape and outlined where the canopy needed to be trimmed. Removed the canopy and of course trimmed it right up to the tape line.Now the canopy actually curves in slightly at the bottom. So taping it tight to the fuselage leaves it a little long on the rear, when it's cut. To get a better fit, what I did was tape the canopy to the cockpit frame only. This allowed me to use a pair of scissors to get a nice flush fit. Now like I said I'm not building a scale interior on mine, but a bird needs a pilot. So I took "Frankie", a left over from a PZ Mustang, and volunteered him.The stock cockpit is just a frame with a cross bar about mid way back for strength. To keep mine light, I took the back off of a tablet and cut out a formed bottom to fit inside the cockpit framework.
Then I positioned "Frankie" on the cockpit bottom, and reinstalled the canopy to make sure he had headroom. When he was where he would fit, actually very close to correct position, I used a pen to outline the bottom of his torso on the cockpit floor. "Frankie" has an indentation running around the bottom of his torso, so when I trimmed just slightly inside the outline I had drawn, he popped right into place. I flipped the cockpit over and CA'ed him into place. Then I CA'ed the new cockpit floor to the frame. And that's where I stopped for tonight. All that's left is a little paint work on the cockpit and canopy, and installing the front guide pin and magnets to hold the rear of the assy. in place, on the bird. I'll try and get to that tomorrow.
Hey while I'm thinking of it, what would be the preferred glue for attaching the canopy to the frame?

Glacier Girl

12-14-2005, 03:19 AM

Sorry, but after I typed in the discriptions for the photos, the system kicked me off.
#1 Shows wings and ailerons installed, pull cords for the servo leads run, battery cables and red antenna tube in place. Note the cord inside the antenna tube. You won't belive the convoluted route this has to run to get to the nose, so I figured pulling the antenna lead would be easier then trying to feed it through.
#2 You have to look close but this is the wing to fuselage joint, with the epoxy fillet.Using the tape trick made a nice neat fillet.
#3 Bottom of the cockpit area. Shows the antenna tube glued to the formers, the battery leads, and the balsa blocks I installed to support the battery tray. The blocks will hold the tray just above the launch hook, so if something bad happens, the hook won't impale the pack.
#4 "Frankie" in the partially completed cockpit. Still have to add the front pins and magnets, and do a little painting. Trimmed canopy can be seen in the backround.

termite

12-14-2005, 03:26 AM

Glacier Girl, Never thought you intended harm, Markos is an excellent vendor:)

Just wish my shipment would hurry up:confused:

Keep the info and pictures comming

Randy
Dynamo Electrics

watt_the?!

12-14-2005, 03:29 AM

Glacier Girl, Never thought you intended harm, Markos is an excellent vendor:)

Just wish my shipment would hurry up:confused:

Keep the info and pictures comming

Randy
Dynamo Electrics

You're not bad yourself either Randy!!...in my book as one of the good guys.

Tim.

termite

12-14-2005, 03:35 AM

All we can do is try, and I just keep on tryin':D

Randy

Glacier Girl

12-15-2005, 08:41 PM

Ok sorry for the delay on the build.
Didn't seem like I got much done, but it sure did take a while.
Anyhow, #1 Is the canopy all trimmed up and taped off for paint.
#2 Is how I plan on keeping my canopy down. Can you guess how?
#3 Ok heres how, rare earth mags. 8 total. When they connect they are there to stay.
#4 What I did was drill 4 holes in the fuselage and cockpit just a hair bigger then the magnets. It worked out well at the balsa and mags are exactly the same thickness.I installed backers underneath to support the magnets.
#5 Shows the magnets glued into place and the backers trimmed off.
#6 I did the same to the cockpit, man do those magnets hold, I had to really pry to pop the cockpit back off.
Meanwhile inbetween all that, I managed to get the connectors soldered on the battery cables, and proceeded to glue and tape down the canopy to the cockpit. For this I used JZ Products, Super RC Z 56 glue.
Supposed to work well on most plastics,to bond them to wood,foil, fiberglass, or painted surfaces.
And that's about all I got done last night.
Hopefully my order from Tower gets here today or Friday. That way I can get rolling on the electronics install.

Glacier Girl

12-15-2005, 08:57 PM

Oh something I though I'd pass along. A tip if you go this route on attaching your cockpit the same way.
How to be sure the magnets all line up.
After I drilled the holes in the fuselage, I used a little water based paint,white in my case since the bottom of my cockpit was already painted black, and put a heavy coat around each hole I had just drilled.
Then I positioned the cockpit over over the fuselage, making sure it was all lined up, and pushed down. The wet paint gave me a mirror image of where the magnets would be. I marked the center for each hole and cleaned off the paint from both pieces. Drilled the holes and installed backers on the cockpit. Now before I glued the magnets in the cockpit side, I put one each magnet on top of the magnets in the fuselage.
Hate like heck to get the magnet backwards and make it repel instead of attract. I then laid the cockpit upside down next to the fuselage and slid each magnet off the one on the fuselage and glued it in the corresponding hole in the cockpit, making sure I kept it the right direction.
All done, magnets are in perfect alignment and all are attracting to each other. Oh and maybe one other tip. Lay a piece of duct tape across the cockpit, with a little hanging off each side, when you first snap the finished cockpit to the fuselage. Will give you a pair of handles to grab to pry the cockpit back off. You'll need it.

termite

12-16-2005, 03:46 AM

Very Nice indeed:)

Randy

Glacier Girl

12-16-2005, 01:28 PM

Thanks Randy.
Well post office was a no show with parts on Thursday.:mad:
So I just tinkered around. I'm planning on painting my version so I scuffed all the covering with a scotch brite pad to dull the finish and give the paint something to bite on to. Something I noticed when sanding, the covering is loosening up again. I'm guessing it has to do with sitting in the cold shop overnight. I shut off the heat until I'm ready to work. Guess I'll have to convince MaMa that it needs to stay inside after it's done, or rack up a heck of a gas bill.:p
Hopefully I get some parts today, and can carry on.

Glacier Girl

12-17-2005, 02:43 PM

Arrrrrgh, Darn snail mail. Servo from Reno, Nevada shipped on the 13th arrived yesterday, rest of the stuff shipped from Illinois on the 12th was a no show.
Oh well.
Set up the exhaust nozzle, since there wasn't much else to do.
On the CD, Carl used a product called Dura Lar to build his. I went with what I had, clear laminating sheets, 9x11. Photo #1.
And being left being left handed, I tend to do things differently.
In the CD it shows the fan installed and and sliding the tube up to it and marking for the cutouts for the fan flanges. Way to little room for my fat fingers. So I left the fan out and wrapped the tube around the front of the fan, as it gave a little more room to work with. Was very easy to get a good set of marks for the cut outs. Remember to add for the wooded flanges that the fan sits on inside the bird. Photo #2.
Then I unrolled the tube and cut out the slots for the fan. Photo #3.
Now I installed the fan unit and slid the tube into the fuselage. Taped one end down to the fan, then snugged up the other end and taped it down onto the other end. Photo #4.
Installed the exhaust cone and taped it into place. Photo #5.
Opened up the tubing material for a tight fit at the end of the cone, and taped it into place. Photo #6.
It was now a simple matter of marking the areas of the laminate for cutting, along the length and at the end of the tail cone. Photos #7 & #8.
Pop of the tail cone, cut the tape at the fan, and slide out the laminate for cutting. Pretty easy, just cut on the outside of the line on the length cut, and inside the line for the tail cone end. Photo #9.
Butt the 2 ends together and run a strip of tape down the length. I used the green tape for photo clarity. Actually I used regular 3m Clear packing tape on mine. Photo #10.
Fold the tube at the seam and slide it up into place. It folds quite easy if you use the seam, and the tube doesn't buckle. Photo #11.
Tube in place, exhaust cone on, and tube taped to the fan unit. Again green tape used so you could see it. Tube is ready to go, other then cutting the hole for the wires to exit. Photo # 12.

Glacier Girl

12-17-2005, 02:51 PM

Whoops, over load on the photos. Here's the rest.
And a tip on taping the lenghtwise ends together to get a nice tight joint.
I used a piece of packing tape longer then the tube is. Apply 1/2 the width of the tape to one side, leaving the tape hang off each end. Flip the assy over so the sticky side of the tape is up. Tape both the ends of the tape down to a hard flat surface, making sure it's pulled tight. Then simply butt the other end to the taped end. Use a paint stick or something similar, but be sure the corners are rounded so it doesn't dig in, and slide it inside the joint area of the tube. This will bond the loose end of the tube to the tape, and you get a nice tight finished joint. Then just pull up the tape that was holding the ends down and trim it off with a pair of scissors.;)

Mike Parsons

12-17-2005, 05:07 PM

Thanks for the photos and build detail! :)

-Mike

Glacier Girl

12-20-2005, 02:10 AM

Well just to keep the thread current, I'm still waiting on the @#$^@^
snail mail to show up with my stuff.
I had a bud send me something on Friday afternoon(16th) from NJ and it arrived today. I'm still trying to figure out how something shipped priority from Illinois on the 12th still hasn't arrived.
Anyhow the only thing I accomplished this weekend was testing of my bungee launcher. Thanks Carl for the tips on it. It slings my Mustang like it has JATO assisit. Should be more then enough for the T/S.

Glacier Girl

12-21-2005, 12:39 PM

Well since the postal service still has me sidelined, I did what I could last night.I wired up the esc to the motor. I'm using the Het-RC Typhoon EDf motor, 2W20, 700 watts, with a Castle Creations 60 esc.After soldering the leads together , and yes I made sure it spun the correct direction, I folded the wires over and used a piece of heat shrink on the rear wires and a wire tie on the front to hold everything together in a nice tight package. Since on mine I'll be running a 4s lipo the built in bec on the Castle must be eliminated and replaced with a stand alone bec. So I snipped the red wire on the esc to rx lead, covered the ends with heat shrink and bundled the whole thing togeter with another piece of heat shrink. On mine I'm using an Ultimate Ubec, good for around 32 volts.
I then installed a piece of heat shrink on the rx and battery leads from the esc, I ran mine a little long as I would trim it later. So motor/esc/and fan installed in the belly of the beast, time to fit up the exhaust to mark it for a wire exit hole.Carl had a neat trick in his build for cutting a nice round hole, after marking the exit spot on the exhaust tube, remove the tube from the bird. Take 2 3/8" inside daimeter washers and clamp them over the mark, then take an Xacto knife and trim out the hole. That accomplished, slide the tube back up into the bird, and feed the rx/battery leads through the exit hole as you reinstall the exhaust onto the end of the fan.On mine to reinforce the wire exit hole I used Carl's trick on a piece of clear packing tape and slid the wires through it, and applyed it around the opening, to reinforce the hole. So now I have everything inplace and looking good. Time to fasten it down. On the duct to fan I used clear packing tape to attach the top of the duct to the fan shroud. Then it was time to bolt the fan to the formers. 2 very important tips. #1, tack the pressed in nuts in the wood with CA, from the underside. 3 of mine fell out on attempting to install the bolts. Boy was that fun getting them out and reinstalled with the exhaust and fan in place. I ended up sliding the fan back about 2" to gain access to the wood formers and reinstalled the nuts. That fixed I reinstalled the fan back into place. Now tip #2. Loctite the bolts that hold the fan in place.
Any vibration is going to work to lossen up the bolts. After installing the washers on the bolts I applied a little red loctite to the top of the bolt, not only will this keep the bolt in place, it helps hold the washer to the bolt, so it doesn't fall in to the unreachable area, when you go to install the bolts.Nothing worse then hearing the "clink" noise and noticing the washer is no longer on the bolt and nowhere in sight. LOL One other thing you can do to help hold everything together while installing the bolts, stick a R/E magnet on the allen wrench, It will hold the bolt/washer to the wrench, as you wiggle the bolt into place. Well that was about it for last nights adventures. I'll work on the final wiring of the battery and Ubec wiring, and figure out the install of the elevator servo, Ubec,and rx. You'll see, once the exhaust is in place you run out of room real quick for adding anything else inside.

Glacier Girl

12-23-2005, 05:02 AM

Well now for some of the fineness work. Like I said, when the exhaust tube is installed, where did all the room go? It took some planning, wood working and plain old yankee ingenuity to make the electronics fit.
I started with the elevator servo install. Looks pretty simple, it installs on the left side of the fuselage, when the bird is in the upright position. The build CD recommends a backer installed between the fuselage spars, to give more support to the servo, other then the balsa sheeting. Ok, so I cut a piece of 1/8" lit ply to fit between the spars, the backer measures aprox 15/16" wide and 1 1/2" long. I made mine a little long to allow me to be able to position the servo for best clearance. Now since the fuselage is slightly curved where the backer needs to go, I figured epoxy would work better then trying to use CA, to attach it. Again from the CD it's recommended to coat the face of the backer with CA, let it dry, then sand smooth, to give the double sided tape that you attach the servo with, something to better grip onto. Well I deviated from that. CA tends to raise the grain on wood, plus it's not very smooth when it drys, hence the sanding part. Me, I used a thin coat of epoxy. Done. The epoxy lays flat, bonds well to the wood, and gives a nearly glass like finish for the tape to adhear to, no sanding needed.
In the build CD they show the elevator servo (Hitec 81) installed with a pushrod connector attached to the servo arm. Well there was no way on God's green earth mine would fit without pushing in the exhaust tube for clearance. Yankee time. Well a clevis takes up a lot less headroom, so I didn't need to install my servo so deep in the fuselage that I had to cave in part of the exhaust to get it in there. In the photo you can see the backer installed to the fuselage, and how much clearance I had to work with on the servo arm.

Glacier Girl

12-23-2005, 05:28 AM

Next up was the Ubec and Rx positioning. And they ended up being just as much fun to install as the servo. I started with the Ubec, about the only place for it to go is right behind the Rx. So I deftly slid it into place after marking the fuselage as to where the Rx would sit. Guess what?
The only way it would fit, without bending the exhaust AGAIN, was putting it in a position where the Rx lead was 1/4" too short. Well I didn't want to bend the exhaust and I didn't want to weaken the fuselage, by cutting the spar out, so I took the heat shrink off the Ubec, unsoldered the Rx lead and soldered on a slightly longer lead made from a servo extension. Now that I had that fixed, I needed to attach the Ubec. I guess I could have installed another backer to tape it to, but I was starting to look at the weight I was adding if I did this. What I did was slide the Ubec down into place, and then added a drop of thin CA to it where it met the spar. This held it until I whipped out the old hot glue gun. Laid a small bead of glue across the top of the Ubec to fuselage joint to hold it in place. Between it and the CA, it was there to stay, and they weighed less then a ply backer,epoxy, and double sided tape.
In the photo you can see the Ubec installed next to the partially fitted Rx.
I get to the Rx install a little later.

Glacier Girl

12-23-2005, 06:01 AM

Wow, I was on a roll. Next up was the control rod for the elevator.
If you do a little pre fitting of the horizontal stabilizer you'll see a couple of problems right off the bat. #1, the elevator contol horn is way too long. It hits the darn exhaust tube. You know, installing all the stuff in the bird would be so easy if that *&&%^##^ exhaust tube wasn't in the way. On my bird the horn had 3 holes for the rod to hook to. I ended up cutting the horn off right above the lowest hole to get clearance from the said exhaust. Now #2 problem shows up. Not only is the horn deeper in the fuselage then the servo arm, it's also offset to the side from the arm.
This is one of those you will have to do on your own. Making the control rod to fit. On mine it required 3 Z bends to make the rod. #1 Z bend was to get the offset, side to side correct. Did I mention the exhaust was in the way again. Yep, the bend had to be made close to the clevis end at the servo arm, or the rod rubbed the exhaust. Plus the Z had to be where it wouldn't hit the servo or the fuselage crossmember when the servo arm moved back and forth. That accomplished, I moved next to the drop down Z bend, to get the rod to the correct level of the elevator control horn.
I measured the length of the control horn, to give me the drop down length. Popped the control rod off the servo, and holding the rod with a pair of pliers, making sure the first Z bend was in the right direction, I bent the control rod down. Marked the length needed for the drop down on the rod and using the pliers, made the other half of the Z bend. Man I'm cookin now. Last to do is Z #3. Ok, easy enough to do. Installed the horizontal stabilizer on the fuselage, but offset, so that the control horn was outside of the fuselage. Holding the elevator level, I marked the horn's hole center, with a pen on the fuselage side. Now being somewhat smart, I remembered to center the servo. Now all I had to do was measure from my mark to the servo arm to get the control arm length.
Mark the proper spot on the control rod, and Z bend away. Rod's all done, it fits, clears everything, and looks almost professional. And it only took an hour to do. Below you can see some shots of the rod itself, and how it looks installed in the fuselage.

Glacier Girl

12-23-2005, 06:34 AM

Lastly for tonight, I went for the gold, fitting the Rx in. I'm using a Hitec 555 Rx in mine.
Same old, same old exhaust. Wasn't going to let the Rx in.
With the bottom,(top in the picture), spar there, the Rx would not slide down far enough to clear the tube, and allow access to install the various leads. I needed about 3/32" less spar, so I went in with a xacto knife and notched the spar and removed a sliver of it. Photo shows the initial cut.
Yes I did clean it up. Since the Rx just has to sit there, I used a coat of epoxy to give the double sided tape something to grab onto, plus the epoxy added strength to the balsa sheeting and the spar. Test fitted the Rx, all's cool. I'm holding off on installing the Rx permanently. I want to twist all the various Rx leads together to give a neater appearance, and to help with any possible interference problems. So, if my aileron servos ever show up, I'll get them run, then do my twisting and install the leads in the Rx, install the Rx, and run the antenna through it's tube.
Well, not quite all for tonight. Looking at the wiring I saw the right aileron servo lead would have to run right along the battery and Ubec leads.
I didn't think that would be a good idea. So I had to rig up a snake to pull the servo pull cord over from the right side access hole, back across the fuselage to the left access hole. I guess the intake felt left out, with all the fun the exhaust had. There is just enough room between the fuselage and the intake to get a cord through. So I can imagine what fun it's going to be getting the servos wire end through there.
That's all for tonight, or this morning, as it's now 12:30 am Friday.
Oh my, the alarm goes off at 5:00 am, for work. Might be a good day for a vacation day.

termite

12-23-2005, 03:13 PM

Any day is a good candidate for a vacation day:p

Excellent progress
Randy

Glacier Girl

12-23-2005, 07:40 PM

Well said Randy.

Lets see where to tinker today. Ok I'll install the horizontal stabilizer, since I have the linkage worked out for the elevator. The build CD shows a nice trick for trimming the covering to epoxy the stabilizer on. First install the stabilizer with the included bolts. Make sure now that it is straight and level vs the main wing. You know the routine, eyeball it for level, and measure the tips to the wings for correct position. Mine was good, so on to marking the covering. Flip the bird over, and run a marker down the fuselage to stabilizer joint on both sides. Unbolt the stabilizer and you have your trim marks. Cut the covering about 1/8" inside the lines, and save the piece you removed, you'll need it later. You also need to trim the leading and trailing edges of the stabilizer for epoxying. Trim off 1/2 the thickness of the stabilizers covering, this gives some wood access for the epoxy, and the epoxy will seal down the covering. Also you will need to trim the covering on the fuselage bottom just removing 1/2 of the covering as you did on the stabilizer. You can clean off the marker with a little denatured alcohol. Now reinstall the stabilizer and check the fit. See by cutting 1/2 on the edges and inside the lines you have no exposed edges. Now it's time to glue it together. But before you glue it, don't forget to install the elevator control rod. I would have no idea how you would connect it if you forgot to do it first. Anyhow, i mixed up some 15 min epoxy and spread a coat on both the fuselage and stabilizer attachment points. Slide the control rod ahead of the stabilizer, and position the stabilizer in place. Put your bolts back in, and don't forget to add loctite to them. Tightened the bolts down on mine and noticed the rear of the stabilizer was sticking up, so I clamped it down until the epoxy dried.Wiped off any squeezed out epoxy with a rag dampened in the denatured alcohol and I was almost done.

Loubud

12-23-2005, 07:59 PM

Geez, Glacier. Way too complicated for me but I enjoy learning. Thanks for the thread and Merry Christmas.

Glacier Girl

12-23-2005, 08:05 PM

Now the CD recommends adding fillets to the stabilizer to fuselage joints. As I said before I can't free hand them so I use tape to give me nice clean fillets. One piece on the stabilizer and one on the fuselage, giving me about a 1/8" fillet. Mix up some 5 min epoxy and using a popsicle stick I ran a bead across the seam. Wiped off the stick, and used it to form a slight concave fillet. Followed that with a dry towel to remove most of the excess epoxy, then lastly wiped what was left with a towel dampened with denatured alcohol. Pull off the tape, and make a final sweep with the damped towel to cut down the tape edges. Another set on nice fillets.

Next up I installed the tail cone. Pretty straight forward. Sand the inside of the cone, so the epoxy has something to bite on to. Recommend you wear a dust mask, as the cone has fiberglass in it, and the dust might bother you. On the fuselage trim just enough of the covering to give the epoxy something to grab,and leave a little of the covering on so it doesn't leave you with an edge. Now if you are building like I am, you need to do something. Mark the 12 o'clock position of the top of the fuselage. You'll need this mark for when you install the vertical stabilizer later. I had already gone through the CD making notes, so I knew about making this mark, and made mine before I installed the exhaust tube.
Mix up some 5 min epoxy, smear some inside the tail cone and some on the exposed wood of the fuselage. Install the tail cone, and while holding it in place, clean off any squeeze out of epoxy. Tape the cone to hold it in place till the epoxy dries. Notice the popsicle stick on mine? Mine didn't want to stay straight so the popsicle stick acts as a lever when the tape is pulled tight and tugs the cone back into its correct position.
Well that's all for now.

termite

12-23-2005, 08:17 PM

GREAT tip on how to do the fillets;)

Randy

Mike Parsons

12-24-2005, 02:21 AM

Very nice progress. Thanks!

Glacier Girl

12-24-2005, 03:09 AM

Hey Lou, yeah a little harder then the foamies.
Oh happy day, I swear the Mailman was holding out on me till he got his Christmas present from me. Look what finally showed. Only took 10 days from Illinois. Good thing they put a "RUSH" sticker on it. LOL

Glacier Girl

12-24-2005, 03:29 AM

Back to the build. 4 hours of sleep, and I go all day on it.
First off you will see how much bigger the servo is vs the factory cutout.
Plus the mount ears on the servo. Well these servo are only going to be used on this bird, so I couldn't see making cut outs to clear the ears. So off to the belt sander and away with the ears. Next I lined up the servo with the furtherest forward and and closest to the fuselage cut outs. Marked the covering and proceeded to trim out for the new opening. Pretty straight forward, except for where someone got crazy with the glue when they added the sheeting to the foam. I ended up using a diamond wheel on my dremel to finish the cuts. An xacto blade would barely cut the balsa, and after I poked myself 3 or 4 times I gave up on it. Anyhow once the main cut out was done, I marked a slot in the upper balsa sheeting for the servo arm to go through and cut it out. No excessive glue there so the xacto worked well. Fitted the servo into place and hooked it to the Rx to check the travel of the arm and did a little fine tuning of the cut out for it. Now again from the CD they go with the CA route followed by sanding the glue to attach the double sided servo tape to. Me, I went with epoxy. Tip: to clean up the balsa of any foam remnents, take a popsicle stick and cut one end off, straight across.
Makes a good scraper and is easy on the balsa. Now onto runing the servo leads, and installing the servos in place.

Glacier Girl

12-24-2005, 03:48 AM

Time to run the servo leads. Tie my heavy duty cord to the lead, tape it off so it's nice and smooth, and pull. It goes about 3 inches and stops.
Well after trying every way possible I could think of, it still would go no further. Ok, I pull it back out and grab a Mag lite to take a peek inside the run channel of the wing. What the .....
%^^!#$)5**%$%{) The wing run hole and the fuselage hole don't line up. Note to self and anyone else building this bird. Check the holes, before gluing the wings on. What I have is a slot about half the thickness of the Rx plug. Break time. I go in the house and have lunch. Come back out and determin the only way to get the plug through is either open up the wing or cut out the pre manufactured slot. Well I didn't look forward to hacking up the wing. So I had to come up with a way to open up the slot. An old crappy screwdriver volunteered it's life for the bird. I sharpened the flat head blade and worked it into the wing slot, and slowly wittled away at the opening. Only took like half an hour per side. Jeeze.
Mission accomplished, I ran both servo leads into the electronics bay.
Now I cleaned off the servos with a little D alcohol. and attached the included servo tape to them and installed them in their homes.

Glacier Girl

12-24-2005, 04:08 AM

Now you get to see how good your building skills are.
There are no covers included for the servos once they are installed, so you get to build your own. Time to check your spares bins.
I used 1/32" lite ply to build mine, 2" x 1 3/4". After cutting them out I put some thin CA on each corner, this keeps the wood from splintering when you drill for the mount screws. Now remember I said to save the covering you took off the horizontal stabilizer? Well now you know why.
Cut out 2 pieces big enough to cover the doors, and iron them on.
Another tip: If you don't have a covering iron, IMPROVISE. Just don't let your wife know what you did. Steal her iron. Set it on the lowest setting and it will glue the covering on slicker then snot. Make sure you check your iron when you're done so that nothing is stuck to the bottom. Then sneak it back in the house. LOL Now back to the doors. Next up you will need 8 tiny screws to attach the doors to the wings. If you use Hitec servos, especially the 55's, they come with really little washer head screws for mounting them. They are perfect for this. Take your doors to the drill press if you have one, and drill four, 3/32" holes, one in each corner about 3/16" in. Use a wooden backer block under the door, to prevent splintering. Take the door and mark the wing to get it in the correct position. The Hitec screws are very sharp pointed, so you can use them to drill into the balsa sheeting on the wing, other wise mark and drill the holes. Pull the screws and door back off, and put a tiny drop of thin CA in each hole to strengthen it. Wipe off any excess with acetone, or steal your wife's nail polish remover. But I didn't tell you to do that.
Reinstall the door and screws and they are done. Looks pretty good to me.

Glacier Girl

12-24-2005, 04:40 AM

Lets see now, I'm on a caffine buzz, 10th or so mug of coffee,so I'll keep going. I jump to the electroinics bay to finish it up. Route everything out of the way of moving parts and get the power leads away from the Rx and antenna. Put a tiny drop of Ca on the antenna end and tack it to the pull cord. Zip it goes right through to the front of the fuselage.
Next up are the Rx leads. I decided on mine to wrap them around themselves to help with any interference conditions. That done I put a small heat shrink ring on the plug ends and where they all came together to keep the winds in place. Plugged the leads into the Rx, pulled the cover off the double sided tape for the Rx, and slid her into place. Tip: if the fit is tight, wet the back of the Rx. It will allow it to slide vs sticking to the tape. Once in place a firm push and it's stuck. Double checked everything, and installed the cover for the bay with the provided cover and 4 screws.

What's next? Oh, I might as well install the vertical stabilizer.
Remember I told you about marking the 12 o'clock position on the rear of the fuselage, before attaching the tail cone? Here's why. You need that mark to center the stabilizer to the rear of the bird. The front is easy, but if the back isn't right, you will have a bird that constantly turns/yaws.
And since this bird doesn't have a rudder there is no fix for that. Before you go any farther, tak a piece of tape and stick it on the tail cone, carry the rear line back onto it. When you remove the covering for the stabilizer install you will loose your line. So the tail cone line keeps you right.
Anyhow, you tape the stabilizer in place and double check it. Then take a marker and scribe the joint line on each side, Remove the stabilizer, and cut about 1/16" inside each line. Pull off the covering to expose the wood sheeting. To keep from making a mess when you epoxy the stabilizer on, use my tape trick. Reinstall the stabilizer, sans glue, and run tape to give you a 1/16" gap on each side of the joint. Pull off the stabilizer and mix up the epoxy. Also get some tape strips ready before hand. You are going to need them to hold the stabilizer in position, and you don't want to be trying to hold the epoxied stabilizer and ripping off tape at the same time. And grab a square, so you can check the stabilizer to be sure it's 90 degrees to the fuselage. Since I used the tape trick. I gobbed the epoxy to the stabilizer and fuselage. No worry about the squeeze out.Plant the stabilizer, line up the marks, and grab the tape to tape down the stabilizer. Now get your square out and check for 90 degrees to the fuselage, and double check the stabilizer to be sure it is still on it's marks.
Now to take care of the squeeze out epoxy. Just like doing the fillets, popsicle stick to sweep the big stuff away, followed by the dry towel, followed by the alcohol dampened towel. Pull off the tape. Look, no mess.
Let it dry, then go back and install fillets just like I showed on the wings and horizontal stabilizer. Use the tape trick and you're good to go.

termite

12-24-2005, 05:36 AM

Excellent tips and techniques :cool:

keep it comming
Randy

Glacier Girl

12-24-2005, 05:52 AM

Now what?
Hmmmm, got the antenna run so I guess I'll attach the nose cone. Same as the tail cone, attachment wise. But first you need to finish the antenna run. On the front of the fuselage where the antenna exits it's tube, I ended up with about 4 or 5 inches of antenna hanging out. So I just drilled a small hole in the opposite side of the fuselage front. And installed a 1/2" long control rod tube in the hole. Just big enough, inside diameter wise to hold the antenna. Made a half loop of the antenna and stuck the end in the short tube. A little dab of Zap glue to tack it into place and it was done. Now back to the nose cone. After checking the fit, I sanded the inside of the cone, it's fiberglass too, so don't forget the dust mask. Scuffed the covering on the front of the fuselage. Mixed up some 5 min epoxy and glued away. Wiped off the squeeze out, and applied tape to hold it in place. When it was dry I saw that the fit was not quite tight on the sides, the nose cone was proud of the fuselage.
Since I am painting mine, I used the tape trick and filleted the nose cone joint. Nice smooth conversion to the fuselage.
Well since it was pretty much together, I went ahead and installed the control horns on the ailerons and made up the control rods for them also.
No pics, as if you are building this,I'm pretty sure you know how to do it.
One tip though, run the screws through the horn backer plates before you try and install them. It makes it a lot easier to install them on the ailerons.
Well since I was just about together,I figured I'd make up the battery tray after checking the balance. Carl recommends 67mm from the leading edge at the wing root. So I set mine up on the CG stand and slid the pack around until she balanced out. Marked the location on the fuselage for reference, and went to the battery tray install.
Mine came with a pre made tray. But I thought it was too long after checking the CG battery location. Plus I did a messy job cutting out the slots for the velcro, so I just built a new one. I'll get to that in a bit.
If you look it the battery compartment, you'll see a big problem. The launch hook block sits dead smack in the middle of it. Ok I can work with that. I took some 3/8" balsa blocks to use as risers to bring the battery tray up above the launch hook block. I used 3 on each side to support the tray on the sides and used the launch hook block to support the center. Now on mine, the pack had to sit back into the rear double former. And the double former was 2 different sized units, on the bottom opening. The rear was about 1/8" higher then the front one. Why did I mention this? Because the front half of the former/s opening on the bottom is the exact heigth of my installed balsa blocks for my battery tray. I grabbed my Dremel and installed a sanding drum on it, slid it into the battery compartment and sanded down the rear former so it matched the front one. Now I can make a tray that runs back across the formers, and gives support to the back of the tray. On to the tray. Depending on what pack you run, you may need to adjust to make it work for you.
I'm running a PolyQuest 4s 4400 12C pack in mine.
Anyhow the tray measured out as follows. 6 1/2" total length, 2 7/8" at it's widest, and the section that ran back into the formers was 2 1/8" wide and 1 3/4" long. All one piece, I used 1/8" lit ply, the formers cut down the availible space so I had to trim down the rear end of the tray to clear them.
Using the mark for the battery location. I laid out the spots for the velcro to go. Since I didn't feel like setting up the router bench to cut the slots for the velcro, I used my drill press. I clamped a spacer block on the the drill press table to align the slots with the bit. I used a 1/8" cutter bit from my Dremel. It not only drills, but can cut in the horizontal plane. Set the highest speed on the drill press. Lined up and zip just like that 4 nice slots for the velcro to run through. I put a coat of epoxy on the top of the tray, for a smooth finish, and after it dried I installed 2 velcro strips on it, running front to back. Added the opposite strips to the pack. This with the velcro straps should keep the pack secure. Installed the vecro straps to the tray and epoxied the tray into position, on top of the balsa blocks, hook block, and rear formers. Stacked a couple of packs on top of the tray to keep it weighted down, and packed it in for the night.
If you are not going to paint yours, the next step would be setting up the throws on the ailerons and elevator. The CD covers that, so I'll let it slide.
Non painters, install your decals, and paint the canopy. It's almost done.
And so am I. I'll get back to you after I get mine painted. Wait till you see this paint job. Oh and a bird needs a name and tail art. Here's mine
"GOBLIN"

Glacier Girl

12-25-2005, 01:59 PM

Well here's hoping Santa was good to you, and you found your dreams under the tree.:D
A couple of late shots.
Nearly completed bird, CG dead on at 67mm.
Bottom paint, these old eyes need something bright and different.;)

Glacier Girl

12-26-2005, 12:41 PM

Almost there. Just have to add the tail art.:D

hole digger

12-28-2005, 01:37 AM

Just talked to Randy from Dynamo the F-20's are in. Guess what my next plane is!!!!!

digger

ktaylor

09-09-2008, 03:52 AM

Well, it has been almost 3 years since Brad built that F-20 Goblin. Its now my avatar (in flight photo) And it never once flew until last month. It had it's maiden bungee launched flight August 9th. On the 8th, night before we had stuffed a ABF 4000 mah 5 cell pack into it & didn't realize that it would make it so nose heavy. Pulled 60 amps for 1100 watts. Short 50 ft flight that scuffed the wing tips pretty well. Minor repairs & it was ready for the next round.

Did some reprogramming in the radio & it was ready, first flight was a whopping 3 1/2 minutes of butt pucker & cheeck clenching. Took a lot of trim, but once it was trimmed out, it flew AWESOME! Very very fast. We stuck a "how fast" into it, with the static & pitot tubes coming out of the canopy in front of the pilot. Second flight recorded 96 mph top speed. Really good flight, total of 6 minutes.

Third flight hit 98 mph & can sort of be seen in this video. http://www.badiusownersclub.com/video/F-20Goblin.wmv

The plane came into my possesion due to a long story that just amounts to the fact that Brad is generous beyond belief & also scared of the plane he built.:D

I brought it back with me to Rock Island, Illinois (pretty close to where the ailerons servos originated from) And flew it this past weekend at an all electric fly in. The plane launched perfect, no trim needed, banked to the right & went dead. The motor spooed down, total loss of servo controls, & then everything came back to life for a split second, and then back to dead. The servos held the plane in that agressive bank until it stalled & spiraled in. It left a hole 4 inches wide & almost as deep in the sod farm ground.

I tested everything out at home, the receiver appears fine as does everything else except for the UBEC. IT appears that it stopped putting out power for the flight system. Brad thinks that maybe the hidden antenna caused a loss of reception. I'm more incliined to believe it was the UBEC, but either way, the plane is toast.

The electronics will be going into a new F-20. Stay tuned, in the next few months there will be a Goblin II. It might have to make it's maiden flight in snow, but the cold weather might help keep the battery cool. ;-)

Glacier Girl

09-09-2008, 07:02 PM

Kit's already on it's way from Markos @ warbirds r/c, Ken.
You already have the paint crystals for the finish.

You going to tell em about what happened the the big old Corsair too? LOL

ktaylor

09-10-2008, 02:42 AM

Sush up ya hear... ::o;-) Thanks for the new kit, DH.

OK, fine Brad being Brad also gave me a big whompin CMP corsair, ready to fly minus a crystal in the receiver. I went to take off with it, and well, I wasn't ready for it to lift off so soon, I thought it would need more runway & speed, well, the tail lifted & I was still keeping downforce on the tail, & then when the wings lifted, I should have added more power, & well, crap, I messed up & tip stlled it, & broke the landing gear, outer wing spar snapped & let the outter section seperate (good thing it saved the wing) & I flattened the motor mount. Some how the prop didn't break. No electronics failure there, just plain old panic mode kicking in. Hmm, I can pilot a plane near 100 mph, but can't manage to keep one under control when its taking off.... :roll:

Glacier Girl

09-29-2008, 09:39 PM

ktaylor

09-30-2008, 02:38 AM

Kids!:blah:

So's what you going to do when I hand you the sticks on the 262?:eek:

I mean the Goblin was 1000 watts, the Corsair is 2000, and the 262 should be somewheres around 3 grand. Watts, not money, thou close. :Q

Well, let's see, first ff, start chanting, "it's not my plane." Then proceed to fly it until the battery runs out or I make a smoking crater in the ground. :red:;-)

Also, is it gonna take off from the ground or bungee launch?

fossoman

01-21-2009, 03:24 AM

I have these 2 the Hobby Lobby Rafale and the Exceed F35 The Rafale flys ok but is a bit underpowered stock. The Exceed F35 is a Rocket flys just fine at half throttle goes about 95 at full throttle probably 100 in a dive.
http://www.nitroplanes.com/frarecoedfrc.html
Rafale is on the Right F35 on the left. http://www.hobby-lobby.com/rafale.htm

Flight Video F35 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcKVs62aKKc
Ive updated this since I first posted I Upgraded the Exceed F35 with 2 servos added to the tail control surfaces. The serperate elevator control Made this plane go from Good to Excellent. It just takes some getting used to. You have to push the nose down to land it to maintain some airspeed. It went from difficult to land to easy after the upgrade. Its stable even in 15 MPH winds now. Great Plane. One negative is the Radio that comes with it is not even good enough for this plane I just shelved it. So if you decide to buy one just get it minus the Radio Equipment and use your own. Im using an old Spektrum DX6 and this thing ROCKS.