EPP Parkjet turned bluecore

[j4ck4]

Thats looking really good Greg, hope you get it ready for Maiden by morning. I'm gonna try and have the EDF22 ready by then. Really all thats left is to put in servos, control horns, push rods, esc and a rx. Got Skip a yardbird to maiden also, I actually maidened it yesterday and doinked the nose slightly. But, it will be a fresh flight for Skip on it. Well, talk to you later Greg.

[surfer dude]

Greg, that looks great, except, the control horn hole should be right over the hinge line. Otherwise you will have different throws up and down.

[ElkySS]

Originally Posted by surfer dude

Greg, that looks great, except, the control horn hole should be right over the hinge line. Otherwise you will have different throws up and down.

It does not look like it in the picture but they are as close to the hinge as I could get them. They may be just a hair back but if I got any closer I did not think the FFF could handle it. I will show it to you tomorrow at the field before I take them off and see what you think.

I need some advice right fast. I am not sure how to mount my battery. My original plan was to cut into the FFF and recess it all the way down so I did not have to make a cockpit and it would leave the plane very flat on top and bottom. Now that I am to that point I am not able to do that. The battery that I am using is about 1.25 inches thick and my 6 layers are only about 1.5 inches. 1/4 of an inch under the battery may not be enough support. I plan on picking up a Rhino 2350mAh 3S1P 25C or Turnigy 2200mAh 3S 25C when I can afford it. So I don't want to do anything to it that can not be made to fit the new battery when I can get it.

So.... how should I mount my current battery? I thought about standing it up on end and only cutting down through the first two layers. Then either leave it sticking up or make a small cockpit if I had to. Then next issue I would have then would be how to connect the cockpit. I could not glue it because then I could not get it off without messing up everything else when I get my new battery. How should I do it for now?

[ElkySS]

or should I just lay it flat and velcro it to the top for now?

[surfer dude]

You might velcro it to the top for now, just to make sure you cg is right before you cut into the foam. After you have the cg right, then you can resess it into the foam. Instead of making a cockpit for the batt., you might just make a wedge shape wall in front of the batt. that sticks above the foam.

[j4ck4]

What Brett said.

[ElkySS]

That is kinda what I was thinking. I have an alarm set so I hope to madden it before anybody else gets there. Lol.

[surfer dude]

Originally Posted by ElkySS

That is kinda what I was thinking. I have an alarm set so I hope to madden it before anybody else gets there. Lol.

I see your still on line at 2:30am. You better go to sleep if you want to maiden it before any body gets there. You may crash because you fell asleep during take off.

[ElkySS]

If I can get 3 or 4 strait hours it was a good night. my back hurts so much it is hard to lay down. I hate getting old.

[j4ck4]

Just wait till you my age Greg. Then you can say I hate that I got old.

[ElkySS]

I can't make it this morning. Things came up.

[ElkySS]

Well I hurt to much to get out of bed in time to make it to the unclub this morning. Sorry I missed it guys. About 12:00 or so I used some velcro to hold the battery down and went out beside my apartment and tossed it in the air.

I thought I had the elevons set pretty strait but I guess I did not. The first time I launched it it went out about 3 feet and then pitched strait up. I cut the motor and it finished a really ugly loop with no power. There were some short poles sticking out of the ground to keep cars out of the grass and it clipped the top of one with part of the wing. Just a little scratch but no real damage.

I readjusted the trim and tossed it up again. This time it went pretty strait but my CG was just a bit to far forward so I landed and pushed my battery back about 1/2 an inch.

Tossed it back up and away she went. It felt pretty quick but since my battery is only a 15C I could not open her up much. It felt a bit unstable but that may just be because it is only my second build and I need a bit more experience. The controls felt a bit slow as well. Not sure if that is because of the gold-n-rod, placement of servos, or something else. I am going to get somebody that is a bit more "in the know" to look at it later.

I only flew for about 5 minutes and then landed it again and I was by myself so no video yet. I am going to, come hell or high water, make it out to the field tomorrow and try to get some video of it flying. Maybe I can talk the better half into letting me order the 25C battery soon so I can open it up and see what it can really do.

All and all, not a bad short flight. I have a few things I need to change (like re-centering my trim and figuring out a better battery config) but now I am going to go sit back down and fix my back.

[j4ck4]

Alright Greg I didn't get to see it fly this weekend, how'd it go anymore flight reports for us? How you feeling?

[smokejohnson]

Yeah watts the status?

[ElkySS]

I went out and flew a few packs Sunday. After I got it up in the air and was actually putting it to some real testing, it flew like crud... I was having a hard time figuring out what it needed. At half throttle I had a constant fight to keep it level. When I would open it wide open it would level out a bit and was less of a fight but still would not fly right. Paul walked up and we were talking about it and I handed it off to him for a second. As soon as he started flying it it landed it and said he was not sure how I kept it up there. lol. We added 1.5 ounces to the nose and tossed it back up.

I could not believe how much of a difference it made. I think it could use another .5 or so but it was definitely tail heavy. With that extra weight on the nose it was like a rocket. I still need a better battery to really get some speed out of it. Over all it is a heck of a pusher. I can't wait to get a better battery and finish getting everything recessed into the foam.

[j4ck4]

Sounds cool. I finished repairs on Skips yardbird, and started looking at assembling Kenny's 6mmfly F16, its missing some parts so I emailed 6mm, and got inspired to get the one I had started down and attempt to finish it up. I've just about got it ready for some gear. I'll get some pics before I try to maiden it.

[crxmanpat]

Jack,

I did the F-16 pictured on their website.

[j4ck4]

Originally Posted by crxmanpat

Jack,

I did the F-16 pictured on their website.

Thats basically the one I'm doing Pat, looks like it only bigger. Cut out belly pan parts and glued them up this morning, gonna do one out of depron soon if this one flies alright.

[j4ck4]

She flew great, a little underpowered. But, flew right out of my hand like she was supposed to. rolls pretty tight, to low powered for loops right now. Have to see if I can change the motor out and get some more speed and performance.

[ElkySS]

Well I decided that covering the plane was going to be more work that I wanted to do right now so I just put some REALLY bright duct tape around the leading edges so I could see it better when I was flying it. But then trouble hit.....

I was flying around and all the sudden I lost power to the motor in mid flight. I still had plenty of battery left so I just glided it in and landed it. It was a very long walk to get it since I did not have the power to bring back to me. The motor was making a nasty sound and shutting off when I would give it any power at all. So I just parked it till I got home. After I pulled the motor off I noticed that one of the magnets came loose on the stator. I super glued it back in place and now you can't even tell which one it was that came loose. At that point I thought everything was good. but.....

After I plugged it back into the esc and tested it, I got the same nasty noises. I plugged in another ESC (Castle Creations Phoenix-25 Amp which is way to small) that I had laying around and tested it out. The motor sounded fine. So somehow at the exact same moment I knocked that magnet loose I burned up my ESC. Looks like I am going to have to get a much bigger one than the 40 amp that I had on it.

Here are a few pictures of it with the tape on it.

[j4ck4]

Originally Posted by ElkySS

Well I decided that covering the plane was going to be more work that I wanted to do right now so I just put some REALLY bright duct tape around the leading edges so I could see it better when I was flying it. But then trouble hit.....

I was flying around and all the sudden I lost power to the motor in mid flight. I still had plenty of battery left so I just glided it in and landed it. It was a very long walk to get it since I did not have the power to bring back to me. The motor was making a nasty sound and shutting off when I would give it any power at all. So I just parked it till I got home. After I pulled the motor off I noticed that one of the magnets came loose on the stator. I super glued it back in place and now you can't even tell which one it was that came loose. At that point I thought everything was good. but.....

After I plugged it back into the esc and tested it, I got the same nasty noises. I plugged in another ESC (Castle Creations Phoenix-25 Amp which is way to small) that I had laying around and tested it out. The motor sounded fine. So somehow at the exact same moment I knocked that magnet loose I burned up my ESC. Looks like I am going to have to get a much bigger one than the 40 amp that I had on it.

Here are a few pictures of it with the tape on it.

Hey that looks pretty good Greg.

[ElkySS]

I just got back from Smokes house and will be grounding this plane for tomorrow morning. We stuck a meter on it and it was pulling over 500 watts at 50 amps. It was dropping my battery down to just over 9 volts.

I am running a 6X5.5 right now but grayson changed their recomended prop to a 6X4 so I am going to pick up one of those and a 5X5 when I get a chance (I hope for tomorrow morning) and then retest it. In the mean time I picked up a balsa Yac from him and will be tossing it in the air tomorrow morning.

[crxmanpat]

An APC 6X4E is the sweet spot for this motor.

[ElkySS]

This is only my second scratch build. Will that 6X4 be slower than the 6X5.5 since it is losing some pitch or will it make it up in some magical rpm increase?

[crxmanpat]

Let's put it this way. I have a Saab Draken foamy that goes 78mph on this motor/prop.

But you definitely don't want to use a 6X5.5 unless you feel like burning up your motor.