gazzacov

Having searched here, I reckon no-one has done a build thread for this bird on here yet, so thought I'd give it a go. I'm going to start by stating a few things first though..
Firstly, I don't consider myself an expert builder, flyer, or even an authority on pattern planes, so don't take my words as gospel, its just intended to show my experience at building and eventually flying this plane. Secondly, I have never done anything like a build thread before, so if its a bit random, sorry, it's all my fault! And lastly, I have quite a bit of time constraints due to work and family commitments, so this may take a while! All comments welcome, especially if others have any similar experiences relating to this plane.
And so it begins!

Angler-Hi

Gaz, you'll be fine mate, lol. Besides, it's YOUR build thread. I'm sure folks will enjoy it. Can't wait to see how she turns out for ya.

Mike

gazzacov

Very well packed, no damage, & everything that should be there is there.
The instructions are just Photos, with a few pointers, but that's no hardship, all self explanatory. After a dry fit of the major parts, I started with the ailerons, using medium cyano for the hinges. Did my usual trick of covering surrounding area with masking tape to prevent any excess glue getting on the covering, this also stops the dreaded 'bloom' effect as well.

Angler-Hi

Looks sweet. What are the specs on that plane?

kyleservicetech

Two club members put two of these planes together, both using the Hacker A50-16S motor. The first model bit the dust in a midair last year with a giant scale gasser. That was about the models 20th flight. The Electric was lost, the gasser landed with cracked wing ribs, spars and cracked fuse.

That club member immediately obtained another, put the repaired Hacker motor in it, and is still flying it. The second modeler has also been flying his model.

Our resident "3D" gasser pilot got his fingers on one of these models. You could see the smile on his face clear across the club field.

That is a very pretty, very high performance model airplane.

gazzacov

Hi Mike
Specs are as follows:
Hacker A50-16s motor
Hacker X70-SB Pro esc
Savox SH0257Metal Gear servo x4 (ailerons)
Savox SC1258Titanium Gear servo x2 ( ele & rudder)
Sanyo 2200 eneloop rx battery
EONX-30 4350 6S Lipo
APC-E 16x10 prop
Futaba 617fs receiver
Span 152cm
Length 158cm
weight around 2.5 kilo without battery
I may change the battery as I have some 6S loong max already, will give those a go before buying the flightmax

Angler-Hi

Well good luck with the build mate. I'll be following this one closely.

gazzacov

Happy new year peeps! Hope y'all had a good one. Actually managed some time to myself, so on with the build. Wing servo's were next. Came across a small problem here, the servo leads weren't long enough to pass through the wing and out into the centre exit holes as standard, they needed to be extended first. (Discovered this after I pulled one through, then the string came off the end!) Took about 30 mins and lots of cursing to get it all back in. I don't like the idea of pre-packed servo extensions, I prefer to make my own, as I can be sure the soldering is ok then. Plus, I don't want to have anything on a plug and socket in an area I cant get to, so for these, I cut the plugs off, and hard wired some extensions in. I've left the rx ends bare at the moment, as I'm going to make some 'y' leads cut to the right size for the rx, to keep things tidy.

gazzacov

Next was fitting the rudder, and elevator assemblies. Rudder was easy enough, cyano on the hinges, screw on the tail-wheel. Elevator was something else. Had to drop elevator through the hole in fuse first, then slide in the horizontal stab, epoxy this into the fuse. Then I could glue the hinges on elevator, and try to fit them into the horizontal stab. Not at all easy, 6 hinges to be glued top and bottom, lined up with the cut slots, and pushed in before the cyano takes a hold, all this on something over 650mm wide! Decided to avoid cyano, went with something called 'Gorilla Glue' instead. Great stuff, fairly thin, but expands to over 3 times its size as it dries, which takes about 5-10 mins. Gave me plenty of time to get it all lined up, and probably stronger than cyano.

gazzacov

This done, then fitted servos to fuselage, (with extensions already soldered on).
Savox servo's are the dogs watsits, and these came with some heavy duty allen head bolts, and nyloc nuts to mount the servo. Great, but couldn't get the nuts on as couldn't get to the rear of the servo! Only solution was either use normal screws, or make access holes on the opposite side of the fuse from the servo. I went with the second option, as there was already a hole in the wood for alternative size servo's, just needed to cut the covering and seal it back when done

Angler-Hi

Looking good mate! Happy New Years friend. It looks like she's coming along well...minus the servo leads, lol. Pretty cool idea to make your own extensions. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Mike

gazzacov

I was going flying today, but decided to spend a quiet day building, as I have the house to myself! (Very rare)
Next on the list was the undercarriage. Good hardware, but let down by a few things that could easily been solved at manufacture. Firstly, fitting the wheels and spats as supplied means the wheels won't turn, as they bind on one side of the spat. Easily solved with a few washers to centre the wheels. Second issue was the covers for the u/c legs. They have a nice machined indent in them so they fit snugly on the legs, but the tops where it meets the fuse were nowhere near the right angle. It's as though they're not even for this model! Didn't expect that from a Sebart kit, especially one at this price. Had to remove the covering, cut the wood, then recover. 30 mins instead of a 5 minute job, grr.

gazzacov

Next up is the motor. As supplied, the bolts for the Hacker are too short by some 5mm, luckily I have plenty of stock bolts, so I cut some down to the right size, so that's all good and tight now. Not sure of the degrees, but there's a good deal of offset built in, just hope its right!

Angler-Hi

Gaz, I hope it goes well friend. But for the money, that's too many things wrong right out of the box. Keep at it mate.

gazzacov

Hi Mike. Angles, yeah, no excuse for that, but to be fair, the hacker is sold like any other motor as a stand alone item, just so happens its the recommended motor for this plane. The bolts supplied would be fine for, say, a metal motor mount, or a 3-4mm thick ply, but this one is around 5-7mm with fibreglass on top, probably much thicker than would be expected.
anyhoo, 1am here, off to bed.

kyleservicetech

Agreed:
My Hackers are designed to be either mounted from the shaft end, or the "tail" end. When firewall mounted from the shaft end, the screws included are for metal firewalls.

If Hacker were to include screws long enough for mounting to thick plywood firewalls, you can be certain someone would use those same screws for a metal firewall, and have those extra long screws drilling into either the motor windings or motor bearings.

gazzacov

And now, the end is near.... etc.
Fitting the radio gear was nice and straightforward, lots of space in the fuse. Have used 2 'y' leads for the ailerons, top set on ch1, bottom set mixed in on ch5. The top set plug into a pair of sockets on top of the fuselage, keeping it nice and neat. The bottom set just plug into the y lead and are hidden inside when the bottom wing is mounted. I love the way the wings attach to this model' Just one bolt on the bottom wing, with a ply peg at the front, that's pretty much standard. The rest, though, is interesting. There are holes drilled in the wings and struts front to back. After attaching the bottom wing, place the outer struts into the cut-outs on the wing, place the top wing on, then push 5x carbon rods through the holes, locking it all together. Mine aligned perfectly, no slop, and it takes just a few seconds. Very clever!
On the linkages, I've used the supplied ball end connectors, as more than up to the job. The only exception to this was the rudder, as the supplied rod was too short! Grr. I seem to remember a similar issue with the Sebart Shark, (though both mine were ok) You'd think after previous issues were brought to light (It was also mentioned in a few magazine reviews)that this would be checked. Ahh well. Have substituted it for one the correct length with a metal clevis for now, just so i can set up the control throws etc. I'll have to go out and buy a new piece of wire the right diameter, as all I have here is 1mm smaller, and it leaves a little free play.

gazzacov

Details of the wings fixings...

gazzacov

Rudder pushrod detail

gazzacov

All I have to do now, is apply some stickers, set up the radio/throws/mixes etc., set the C of G, and wait (a while, i reckon!) for some good weather!

gazzacov

Thanks for checking out the build folks. Of course, this is just the beginning, there's flying, testing, tweaking and all that stuff yet! If anybody has more info/experiences with this plane, please share them! I love the idea of all the combined knowledge and experience of all things Rc being available to anybody on Wattflyer, hence this attempt at a build thread.

kyleservicetech

Uh Oh

Be real careful of those set screw type servo connections to the pushrod. I've seen several club members that have crashed models when those things come loose.

If nothing else, put a very slight dimple in the pushrod with a dremel tool, screw the set screw into it, and hit the whole thing with a small drop of CA. That is, the set screw, and the pushrod where it goes through the hole in the hole in the setscrew unit.

Make danged certain CA does not get into the servo, or into the servo arm.

As for me, on higher powered models, I won't use them.

gazzacov

Thanks for the info Dennis. Way ahead of you with that one. Ground a small indent in the rod (they're metal, not carbon), used threadlock on all metal to metal joints, and also added a drop of industrial strength cyano over the ends for good measure. Tried this on a spare connector I had as a test, couldn't undo it even with large pliers, just chewed the end on the connector. So I guess these are on for good!

kyleservicetech

Good to hear!

I've put CA into threads of screws before, they appear to make those screw threads permanent.

Angler-Hi

Gaz, she looks AWESOME man! Not to add any pressure, but you should get some video of the maiden. If she looks that good on the ground, I can only imagine how sweet she's gonna look in the air. Awesome job mate!

Mike