4*Star 20 EP build

[rcers]

Originally Posted by Dereck

For a change, it's now wet and windy with the odd outbreaks of lightning around the 'Howling Gales City'. If the Flying Aces Club had an indoor venue near Chicago, I could see myself selling the radio stuff and returning to indoor FF!

D

No!!! You know they make really small cool stuff for RC indoor flight - right?

ML

[Dereck]

Originally Posted by rcers

No!!! You know they make really small cool stuff for RC indoor flight - right?

ML

Do you mean someone improved on the Kolibri I built and flew indoors around 1996?

Unless you're a firm believer that the only good model comes in a bright shiny box and then forces you to wait to fly until a battery is charged, see if you can find a 'Flying Aces Club' chapter and go watch indoor free flight scale. Those models make RC look trivial and, possibly as important in some cases, cost peanuts to make.

The skill to make them comes at a different price, of course

When I said 'returning to FF', I meant hanging around the local FAC chapter wondering if I could ever get anywhere near them, building or flying.

Got my new batteries mostly for the 4*20. 2600mA 3S 30C, from 'Value Hobby' up northwest of Chicago. $50 for two with shipping and a contribution to Illinois' 'Make pols wealthy' tax. If these puppies work out, they are way shorter than my 2650 Turnigy 3S from HK and fit the 4*20 battery bay much better. Have to swap the plugs, but heck, it's only soldering.

Fingers crossed (A) that I can get out to try them out, and (B) that they deliver.

D

[Dereck]

In case you missed the other 4*20 thread:

Flew mine today. Took off into around 10 - 15MPH wind ('Chicago breezy') with ease, in a straight line, albeit straight into wind. Climbout was 'very spirited' with a 3S 2200mA battery giving a slightly forward of design range CG, E Flite Power 15 and 11 x 7 APC-E prop. Roll rate, both ways, proved good - I may up it a little later on to see what gives, but it is fine as stated in the kit. Pitch and yaw were equally solid as spec'd.

Stall and spin - stall was barely noticeable, spinning was hard to enter - as before, the CG is slightly forward. Think I need more rudder for stall turns, though again, really need to try her in calmer weather. Not that Chicago offers that luxury.

Landing, despite the wind, turbulence and direction, was uneventful. The kit UC offers good clearance on an 11" prop on our not so smooth grass field and the shallow ground angle makes touchdown into a non-event.

On the way around, I rolled her, flew inverted - needs a slight but noticeable push of 'down' for level inverted flight. Loops - sort of big, round thing in pitch. Knife edge - actually better than I recall of my 4*40EP before I fiddled with it some.

The E Flite Power 15, 11 x 7 APCE and Castle Creations Thunderbird 36 got along nicely on that 2200 3S. I may try a spinner in future - flew her with a basic propnut mount to allow plenty of motor cooling. Which wasn't really needed, after post landing widgetry temperature checks (put finger on widget!)

Did I expect anything else from a Sig design?

My ittybitty video camera has gone into sulk mode, so no video of my feet, odd bits of the pits and vast amounts of sky with a small dot in it if you have good eyesight...

Nope

D

[Scirocco14]

Hi Dereck,

I'm glad your 4*Star is flying well. Mine sure turns heads at the field...since you can't buy it as a ARF.

Mark

[BBCorvette18]

a 4 star 40 was my favorite plane back in the day thinking about it I might have to do a EP one

[Dereck]

Originally Posted by BBCorvette18

a 4 star 40 was my favorite plane back in the day thinking about it I might have to do a EP one

I flew a 'Four Star 40EP' for eleven years. Okay, by the time it wore out, the wing section wasn't modified, but no matter what I did to it, it was still the same good, honest flier. Not boring either - when I built it, a lot of folk laughed at electrics, said they couldn't do much besides maybe get off the ground some.

After a demo of vertical four points, knife edged loops and lots of other stuff out of the pattern book, they'd shut up...

For cheque book builders, Sig are coming out with a couple of Four Star variants in ready-made format. Suspect they won't be as cheap as Chinese rip-offs, but also reckon they'll be up to Sig's standards. They are electrics too. The '54' will do fine on 4S - they quote 4000 - 5000mA - LiPo, which is not too hefty in funding.

A regular 4*40 kit built as a clipwing to 53" span does real well on around 600 - 700W, preferably into a BIG prop - mine did best on a 15 x 10, but that was when you could buy real good gearboxes with easily swappable ratios. If intruiged by what can be done to a 4*40, feel free to ask.

Though the 4*20 will do lots on 3S around 2200mA

Okay, am a reknowned tightwad.

D

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by Dereck

I flew a 'Four Star 40EP' for eleven years. Okay, by the time it wore out, the wing section wasn't modified, but no matter what I did to it, it was still the same good, honest flier. Not boring either - when I built it, a lot of folk laughed at electrics, said they couldn't do much besides maybe get off the ground some.

After a demo of vertical four points, knife edged loops and lots of other stuff out of the pattern book, they'd shut up...

Yeah, today was a very good day, sunny, little wind. And the 15 or 20 pilots that showed up were flying a mix of electric's and gassers, with a few glow engines thrown in.

Funny to watch, those same guys that were flying their 120 cc twin cylinder gassers were rotating between their gassers and their foamie jets. And, a few high powered electrics (including mine) were also in their.

Electric power has come a long way with those high powered brushless motors, and high powered batteries to run them.

[Dereck]

Last year, went to the Palos RC club's electric funfly, around 20 miles west of Chicago. One of the locals told me that every 'newbie' for the past couple of years had shown up with electric models - no new glow fliers at all.

When I was living back near DC, the local big club's monster model buyers were also showing up with foamie electrics. That's a club that, when they got their new site, the committee and close associates spent an awful lot on a tarmac strip. Seems many of them wanted to buy turbines...

I also know of one club in the north of IL that lost its site to noise and got going again as electrics only. There's one near DC that was started by the silent flight lobby after the noisy lot got booted off their site - guess why? - and, several years later, got that site back for gliders and electrics only flying.

The lot that lost that site, last I heard, had not only put a tarmac runway into their latest county park property site, they were PO'ing the neighbours there with their engine noises.

Times they are a'changing...

D

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by Dereck

The lot that lost that site, last I heard, had not only put a tarmac runway into their latest county park property site, they were PO'ing the neighbours there with their engine noises.

Times they are a'changing...

D

Yeah
Our field is located about 1500 feet from the neighbors. And between our field and the neighbors, about 200 feet from the neighbors is a very heavily traveled pair of railroad tracks. The locomotives blow their horns right behind the neighborhood homes for an intersection down the road.

And, guess who the neighbors complain about in regard to noise???

[Dereck]

Okay, this is a few years back, late 1980s, I think. That MD site that's now quiet flight only was built by the local county atop a capped landfill. Some developer built a bunch of big houses right next the landfill - which is hard to miss, as its the only hill for miles around in what's mostly an industrial area. One of the buyers not only didn't like model aircraft engines, he had a lot of clout at the county government. Pretty much on his own, he got the club tossed off the site.

It had two big brick-built sun shelters, running water, mains electricity, two tarmac runways, a CL area off to one side, gravel parking and a road up the landfill.

Like your case, it's much easier for the local PooBaas to kick a bunch of guys who fly little airplanes off the site than talk locals into putting up with the noise. Or even 'a local'.

One reason the glider guys got the site back - one of them had a business literally next door to it. He kept track of things and when the whiner moved away, started the process of winning it back for flying quiet models.

I've heard of many clubs who are, to be blunt, 'proud to be loud'. That's real good until you've nowhere to make a racket at.

D