The flying monkeys got me...

Helis and fixed wing

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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Eflite Pulse XT Build Part 1

My Eflite Pulse XT arrived yesterday from Horizon Hobby. Today was a busy build day, and per usual, its always something. A couple of minor techincal glitches, overcome by some MacGyvering, and all's done but the most critical part, the wing.


Das box!



Das parts!



The first step was cutting off the extra 1/4" of axle, to allow the wheel pants to fit. The axle comes long so that the float modification can be attached, but if one uses the wheel pants instead of the floats it needs to be shortened. Easy peasy. This was a lot more sparkly than the photo lets on! (I like sparkly...).



Posts on the Pulse XT 25e discuss the weakness of the landing gear box, between my fingers. This one is rather built up, so I wonder it Eflite already addressed this problem? I had planned to glass this, but I can't see how I would or how it would add strength... 



But I did epoxy all the joints in the area, here the underside (also did the top, into the battery box as well). I think this will be helpful.



Landing gear and tail assembly comptleted!



To help support the model during the build I cut one of the boxes from the packing with the cutout seen here.



Into which the fuse fit nicely! This proved quite useful! I am so clever...



Elevator and rudder servos installed. JR MN48's. I wish now I had mounted them towards the center, rather than to the outside of the cut out. The geometry of the control rods would be a little betteras they come into the compartment a bit more along the midline. I may redo this, but it is really minor and moving them will just weaken the tray.



Control rods completed, servo's centered and servo arms trimmed. The Spektrum AR600 DSMX reciever can be seen here.



I had to re-engineer the motor mount. In this pic you can see that the HURC Power Up 32 motor's mount holes don't line up with the Eflite Power 32 mounting holes pre-set in the firewall. I gave this a lot of thought, and rather than build a new firewall, I opted to grind and drill the X mount to accommodate the original mount holes. I am not sure if it will vibrate out of center... but it seems secure and come out properly positioned and centered on the cowl. You can see that it is mounted slightly to the aircraft's left. It is also angled slightly right. 


The re-engineered X mount.



She went together pretty well! The ESC is ginormous (Emax 70A) and the 4S battery fills the battery compartment. Its a snug fit. I'll post a pic tomorrow. I also got the aluminum spinner and it looks sweet! That's a 13 x 6.5 APC eprop on there. Tomorrow the wings and canopy and she's all done! With the Power 25 setup she is wicked fast. With this Power 32, she should be a rocket!  

The Hangar 9 Sopwith and the Dynam C-47 Transporter arrived this afternoon. I think after I complete the Pulse I'll start work on the C-47. Its huge... 

Not sure what the status of BMF is. I wonder it they've completed the work. I need to fly something!

5 comments :

  1. I saw the sparks and the first thing I thought was-- OMG are you doing that on white carpet? Then I clicked and realized it was a towel. Where are the little pilots?

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  2. Nikki, the little pilots are on facebook lamenting about how the giants are building bigger better faster more capable airplanes that seem to fly themselves... :)

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  3. LOL! Not sure I trust the old timers with speedy here. This one has a tinted canopy. Not sure I'll hide one in there... was looking for something cldver, but I don't have anything. I used to have Jack-Jack from The Incredibles, but he was in the MX2 that caught on fire and I don't know what happened to him after that. He might still be in that canopy. my friend Ron has that plane and is working on rebuilding it.

    If I find something I might put it in the canopy.

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  4. Hi Ken. Thanks for the info. ust popped open the box to start this build and the dihedral wing joiners are missing. I called Horizon and they can't help me until next week, if at all as those joiners are not available separately. I would be happy to make my own, but all I need is a template, which they say they do not have. Anyone have a template or a suggestion? Thanks. email dugmar at gmail.com

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  5. Huh... I would be shocked if Horizon doesn't solve your problem somehow. Customer Service is one of their strong points.

    If push comes to shove you can make your own. Measure the distance into the wing, the height, and the width at the joiner opening. The challenge would be getting the dihedral angle right. I would tape the wing halves together and pencil out the dihedral, then make a plywood joiner based on those dimensions: Lenght, Width, Height and angle. That and liberal epoxy, as well as letting the whole thing cure while installed on the fuse should do you well. What you want the joiner to do is keep wing forces transmitted across the whole wing, and if its solid, be it epoxy or close fitting wood, you'll be alright.

    Enjoy this plane, its my absolute favorite! I am on my 4th one!

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