Stik with 13" 3 Blade Prop

Still with the 3" wheels, I put the Master Airscrew 13x8x3 on, and as you can see she has a bit more prop clearance. The MA 14" Scimitar was a tight fit for ground clearance. I still think she needs the 4" Robart wheels I ordered.

Mojo risin'!

Had a chance to take the Big Stik up for her maiden flight this afternoon, and it was splendid!

Preparing to takeoff!

After working a bit more to tune the RCGF 10cc engine, she took off easily and climbed out. She was quite a bit nose heavy still, so clicked up the elevator to mid rates. Once she was up I trimmed in up elevator and she settled down. I expected that with fuel she would be nose heavy. No trim required for roll or yaw. She had plenty of zip with the twin 14x8 Master Airscrew Scimitar. I flew her around for several 8's and circuits, then brought her in for her first landing. I focused hard and made a perfect 3 point landing. Despite this after rollimg out she slowed down then the prop touched a clump and the engine stopped but she rolled out on all three.  She is still breaking in, runs a bit rough, but ran true. One of the things I like about the open engine is being able to tune it so easily.

On her tail wheel there is about an inch of ground clearance for the prop. This is with the 14" prop and 3" wheels. I ordered 4" Robart wheels and will try the 13x8x3 three blade Master Airscrew prop if necessary.

This was so important. I felt like flying her was as simple and straight forward as I needed her to be. I had planned to spend a couple of hours, but I was at Joppa Field and some guys showed up to practice lacrosse. I won't fly with people on the field so I cleared out.

Earlier I had spun up the HK500 FBL heli with a BeastX 3 axis stabilizer. There is something not right about the setup. I may need to change to digital servos... she wasn't stable and needed a lot of rudder trim. I really never took her out of hover. She needs some tuning up and sorting out.

All in all, my mojo is surely rising!

That would be... about exactly 1-to-1

"What is your flight to crash ratio?"

"Right now? A solid 1-to-1".

I first checked out the field near me, Joppa Hill fields, that place that rips my landing gear off every single time, and there were people laying down chalk lines. I wanted to just fly, not have a lot of people watching, just fly, so was hoping no one would be there. So I drove out to Hudson with the plan to maiden the Stik and the newly repaired Trex 600E. When I got there it turned out to be Dump day, which means no flying until noon. Apparently it also means not driving up to the field to wait an hour either, according to Moose who manned the gate. So I turned around and drove to Merrimack. I was rather surprised to see no one was there flying. I unlocked the gate, and a family parked at the edge of the road asked if they could watch me fly.

It was odd gusty, but nothing significant. I took the Eflite Cub 450 out, tossed in a 3S and flew her around to their amusement. I showed the young girl the plane and let her hold it. I put another battery in and took her up again. The winds aloft were brisk and I almost hovered her, and on the downwind she did 100 mph. I turned over the trees at the south end and she got hung up in the wind, and the battery timer started sounding off.

"Wow, its frozen in the air!", I heard the girl exclaim excitedly. And it was, just hovering there, full throttle into the wind. But I was trying to make headway. Then the wind dropped and so did the cub, her battery drained and the low voltage cut out kicked in. She dropped right into the trees. She made it all the way to the ground, and broke her left wing off clean, and the prop in half.

But WAIT! There's more!

I told them I was calling it a day, and they left thankful, the dad saying he would be back, he had been thinking of joining. I suspect they were there hoping someone would show up and fly, but they got me. But I still wanted to fly. I wanted to at least hover the Trex 600E to see if the gyro would hold and check out her settings.

And that's when another family drove up (where the hell were you guys?). Their son Jacob would be joining and they came by hoping to meet some of the members.

I was already on the runway, had her spinning, checking out the match of the blades and making a few changes. Got her tuned up, and decided it was time to hover. She came up sweet, and the gyro held. I took her up and the blade paths were spot on, one disk. I decided to fly and took her up and about, flying a simple circuits, and the gyro held her heading perfectly. I brought her back in and started to turn in about 3 feet high when I noticed that the elevator was getting sluggish, and she started to pitch nose up despite down elevator. I hit HOLD and set her down, nose high and tilting left. She stopped and the blades didn't strike anything, in a cloud of dust. I checked her out and the only thing seemingly amiss was the elevator snap link had separated from the control arm. This was the same thing that brought her down a couple of years ago.  This and the fracturing of the boom stays was all the damage externally.

When I got home I found out that the boom was a sort of bent, curiously it was stove in on itself and had accordion-ed at the power-takeoff end, and the front torque tube gear had stripped. I took it apart and the torque tube was ever so slightly bent. They would need to be replaced

Parts are ordered. I fixed the elevator snap link such that it will never come apart again.  I noticed that parts for the 600e are hard to find, hoping that the EFL parts will fit, as I suspect they will.

You can see the slight bend in the torque tube, and the curious "stove in" accordion like bending of the boom.

Awaiting parts. Easy fix ahead. Had a new boom on hand, but ordered a torque tube, stays and the front torque tube gear set.

This is how clean the wing broke. I drilled two holes in the wing joiner on both sides of the gap. I used dowel wood to act in its place. Epoxied with 15 min Epoxy and she was as good as new.

New prop on.

And back where she sleeps.

I am coming to terms with my continued ineptitude. Knowing that there is always a third, I wisely packed up for the day and didn't maiden the Stik.

I have been looking for something that I can throw around, a helium-bird, like the Veloxity but not, low cost. I found this Edge 540 from Hobby King   (Videos). I have a 10 sized electric motor, new 9g digital servos, a 40A ESC, everything I need to fly this 3S with about 300W of power. Can't wait.

I am confident that between this bird and the Stik I will get my mojo back. I am counting on it.

Oh. And just after the heli went down the Dad asked me what my flight to crash ratio was. 

"Right now? A solid 1-to-1".

(Shamefully resets Crash Clock...)

Big Stik Build Update

The CG was waaay off forward, as I expected. I moved the Ignition and Receiver packs as far aft as I can, and they are now underneath the wing hard-point aft of the elevator and rudder servos.

Even then she took 3 oz (88 grams) of weight to balance. I opened the underside just forward of the Vert Stab and inserted this weight, epoxied it in, and closed the opening, coted it and voila, nice and balanced. The fuel tank is mostly forward of CG so there will be some nose heaviness.

In trying to tune the engine the other day I learned a few things and burned out the throttle servo.

The plane dry weight is 7.2 lbs. The Master Airscrew 13x8x3 triple blade runs at 8000-8200 rpm and develops 6 lbs of static thrust. The Master Airscrew 14x8 twin blade runs at the same rpm and develops 6.6 lbs of static thrust. I went with the twin blade, and a thrust to weight ratio of 0.91.

The small amount of resistance in the throttle control arm, from the slight bend as it exits the firewall to the plastic pipe that covers it as it moves aft was creating enough resistance that the throttle servo burned out. I lubed it up with some silicone, but will need to put a small bend in the control linkage as it attaches to the throttle to alleviate any side bending force increasing the resistance. It seems to move okay... maybe it was just a bad servo? We'll see.

I have debated adding some additional hard point attachment to the fron of the wing. The solid single hard point seems more than adequate.

The ignition works fine. But tuning this engine reliably is troublesome.

Lastly, the Spektrum AR7610 7-ch receiver that was in the ill fated Spitfire won't bind... I suspect it did take some water damage.

Rocket Man

Yeah baby! 16 inches of pure rocketry right there. Estes Bull Pup AGM-12D. Finished building her and look forward to flying her soon. (Need to get a clearer photo...)

Great Planes Big Stik Build Days 2-3 or so...

I've made some progress on my Big Stik 10 cc gasser build. It's required a few modifications, and trial and error solutions to problems, adding hours of work and re-work. It was at times frustrating so I didn't take as many pics as I could have...

The 260cc gas tank. It stops at the front bulkhead, not the firewall, which is as I would like it. The nitro tank is designed to fit into the middle hole of the firewall, but this would crowd the air intake for the gas engine's carb which faces rearward. I need the space between the foremost bulkhead and the firewall for the ignition, and I want some of the increased weight being a gasser back towards the CG. This means that the tank was sitting on the middle bulkhead like a teeter-totter, so I build a small base to support it anteriorly. This went in just behind the foremost bulkhead.

I put darts on half of the underside of the horizontal stab.

The horizontal stab only used three CA hinges, which I thought a bit weak. I am using Dubro nylon hinges on all of them, and added two CA slots.

I am making mine a tail dragger. I wanted a steerable tail wheel and MacGyver'd this. It clears max deflection of the elevator. Took a couple of attempts with fresh wire to get this right.

This is how the tail steering rod comes out on top of the horizontal stab and attaches to the rudder.

A full view of the tail mod. Let's hope it lasts. Worst case it casters.

I put down a piece of plywood to give the underside where the tail wheel attaches some oomph it lacked for this application. I used it to further secure the horizontal stab, which was simply epoxied into place.  I secured it with RTL Fastners servo screws (long ones). Love those screws.

On Day 1 I installed some plywood to establish a sound platform for the landing gear so they would lay anterior to the CG. The holes at the bottom of the pic are the original blind nuts for the tricycle configuration, which I did not use. In this pic you can also see how I shouldered the bulkhead to help the longer tank pass.

I covered the screws with a little foam. You can see where I had to cut the middle bulkhead to get the tank in.

Tank lined in and the servos installed. There were several steps and mis-steps to get here. The issues were that I didn't want (nor needed to) drill any holes for the throttle control arm. I needed to change the connection to the card a couple of times before I found a nice combination that did not bind and was secure. I completely invented the upside down station for the throttle servo. The stock design has all three servos in that bay. This would require  significant geometry issues getting the rudder and elevator control rods to the servos. This eliminated most of that angle issue, but there is still a little angulation as you can see. I toyed with using the servos externally on the back of the fuse, but decided on the cleaner internal location.  As part of the throttle servo box I reconstructed the cross bar of the original middle bulkhead I had to remove to fit the tank.

The landing gear installed for the tail dragger config. Note the opening underneath just behind the firewall. This allowed me to access the fuel tank fittings and to pass the Hall sensor wire to the ignition (the only new hole I put in the firewall. I didn't want to use the center hole as I don't want to obstruct airflow to the carb. This is also where I put the ignition box. I Dual-Lock Velcro'd it to the side of the fuse inside there. The fuel line nib is on the opposite wall.

The access hatch is in place with the spark wire, fuel line in and out of the QuikFire fuel filter and balancer (the blue thingy) emerge from it. When I was having trouble with the first 10cc I took it off, but am using it again.  Its very light, effective in all it advertises. This is the RCGF-USA 10cc gas engine and ignition from the ill-fated Spitfire. The ignition worked after the soaking, but I don't know if its damaged. I have a replacement from Hobby King coming in case, but that's gonna be a while as its coming from Hong Kong. The ignition and receiver packs are likely toast. I pulled them out and they looked ok, but I squished one and foamy water came out... I opened them and they are corroded, so tossed them and have new ones coming. I thought about using LiFe, but only my base charger can charge them, so went with NiMH. And yes, I finished installing all of the engine mount screws.

I am getting to the end of the build. I want to add some more support to the front of the wing, Right now it only has the single post that is built in, and that's likely enough, but I want a little insurance. I will also be testing the receiver, which seemed dry from the crash: it looked like it was just above the waterline that ended with the packs partially submerged. The switches and the receiver seemed to be dry, but time will tell. I am using the Spektrum AR7000 from the Spitfire. So wing mod, electrical to include receiver, remote cut out, and switches. Then she will be ready to start and tune. I hope that goes well. I ran the motor after the soaking and it ran. I wanted to see if it would, it did, but rough. I learned during the demolition recovery that the clunk had wedged anteriorly and attribute the odd running to that, but I still don't know about the state of the ignition.

More to follow. Couple of days of work-work ahead, then play.

ADDENDUM: By the way, I learned a couple of things. Dubro wheels HATE alcohol, and bubbled up like poison ivy on skin where ever it touches. I cleaned a hub and watched a wheel blister... And when grinding off an axle, those sparks will leave hundreds of tiny little holes in them where they melt in.

Hobbico: Another Awesome Customer Oriented Company!

About 2 years ago I bought an Onyx Dual Charger from Tower Hobbies or an affiliated seller. I don't have the receipt and I have no idea where I got it... A few months later the right screen failed and I didn't need a single charger (that's where I made the dual charger with two inexpensive single chargers).  I was on FB the other day and a suggested FB site for Hobbico popped up, and I  LIKED it. As I perused it I saw a post about this very nice charger, and I mentioned how mine went brick. Hobbico responded suggesting I contact them. A couple of weeks later I sent it in with a note that I had no receipt nor recall from whom I bought it. A week later it was in the mail, they turned it around in a day, repaired! I know its mine as I changed the output leads to bananas to allow a wider range of charge leads. 

I love this about Hobbico, Tower Hobbies and Horizon Hobbies! No one provides better customer service. 

Thanks, Hobbico! I can now charge two planes at once with my two dual chargers! They have earned a place in my favorite vendors (see the links to the right!).