I was going for perfect...

I got pretty darn good!

A few days ago I lost the hatch to the Pulse XT 60 in flight, lost in an inaccessible forest off the field proper. Irrecoverable. Horizon won't sell just the hatch, I would have to buy the entire fuse for $139.  I decided I needed to try to build one. I have repaired wings, fuses, but I haven't built a substantial part like the hatch. I think I did pretty good. I made a few decisions that I wouldn't next time, but all in all, I did good.

The baseframe. I chose a wider piece of wood than was optimal for the sides, and they were a bit unmatched in the angle when glued in, but I went with it. The hardest past was going to be the curved surfaces, but that turned out to be easy. Used the fuse as the template and jigsawed the pieces, then sanded them down.

Three stingers.

In the front end I used a 4mm bolt as a peg to fix the front to the firewall.

Thin moldable basswood sheet in two halves. I did this becasue I wasn't sure I  could fold a large piece over the frame. This concern made no sense. I would use one full piece next time. Used 30 min epoxy and let is stay clamped overnight.

SHeeting the other half.

Fit perfectly! after sanding. There was no hump, smooth,contoured. 

Inside after sheeting.

Outside after sheeting.

Perfect cote work! 

I wanted to do something besides a soring loaded latch, so I used a pair of helicoter control rods. There are two wood pins inside the aft corners to prevent lateral movment.

Sweet. After a bit in certain light there is a small hump at the middle of the fore end. The there is a small gap on this side at the back corner. All in all though, I did good!

Well this sucks...

Well as I mentioned yesterday, the hatch came off in flight and will never be seen again...

And Horizon Hobby told me they don't have one without buying the fuse. Read that as, "we won't pull one off for you".

That just sucks.

I guess I will see if I can make one, but I am not optimisitic. I am going to give it a try and see if I can build something decent. A challenge. Though honestly, I would rather have bought one for $25.

Best Wx Eva'!

Goodness, we could not have asked for better conditions. Where the hell was everybody? I ran into Dennis Delisle flying his helis when I got there just before noon, and later Clarence showed up for the second time today.

I took the Sukhoi 10cc and the Pulse XT60 with its sexy new spinner and 3 blade prop up.

She flew well with this prop but issues with pulsing of the engine once in the air made for some cowl removing fine tuning, later it turns out her muffler was coming off and the loss of compression was likely causing the problems, since she was running just fine before this. This new 14x7x3 prop wokrs very well and did provide some more clearance. Had to take her home to drop the engine and tighten the muffler with some blue.

At one point I was hauling ass and she was off a bit aways. She suddenly flipped over her CG, I am talking ass over tea kettle, and came out of it levle flight.i have no idea what that was, as she flew just fine control wise, but she threw her top hatch into the deep inaccessible forest below. Great, just great. If my early search is any clue, the only way to get a hatch is to by an enitre fuse.age for $139. I have an inquiry in to Horizon Hobby asking about just getting a hatch. I don't have a good feeling about this. It had shown a tendency to come loose with the cowl off during tuning, so I had a piece of tape on it. I took it off yesterday thinking the cowl would help hold it in place. Great idea.

Everyone should have to walk to the fence that lines the field at least once. I went hoping against hoe that maybe it came off near the fence. I knew it was hopeless but I had to try. Waaay up there on the top of the hill is the field. I am sure I return covered in poison ivy... the fence keps critters out so I don't expect any ticks.

The Sukhoi is a b it tail heavy I think, and on landing she likes a high alpha. This makes the tail land first and the front wheels come down a  bit hard. In the past they break off, but recent repairs hardened it, so now it just bent! I consider that progress. Will need to take it home and put it in the vise.

Dennis flying.

Dennis Delisle and his 700.

Prop Day

Amazing day to fly! Took the Pulse XT60 and the Waco, first flight of the season for her.

Had to retune the low needle again, kept cutting out on run up from idle to WOT. Running great now. Clean at WOT, a bit sputtery in the mid-range. Way powerful. Flew amazing!

This engine, an RCGF 26cc with a Vulcan 18x7 CF prop, has always run perfect. The Waco is difficult on the ground, really wants to ground loop. Practiced take offs trying to get a clean roll out, flipped her a couple of times spinning around. Learned that she has a lot of P-factor so I have to bring her up slowly and let her run up and lift off. Got the hang of it.

But not before breaking the Vulcan CF prop.

She is sooo over powered, and the 18x7 likes to tip cut the grass and ground strike stall. So I took advantage of having a 17x7 APC. I think once I find she flies well with it I may keep it for a while. I will get a Master Airscrew Classic 18x6 after that unless I can find another black 17".

The three blade Master Airscrew 14x7x3 came in today for the Pulse, which was flying a 15x6.  The 3 blade aluminum spinner from eBay arrived a couple of days ago. Wow. Look. At. That. LOOK AT IT! That is beautiful!

Can't wait to fly it.

Waiting for a Powerplant!

IMX-Bach update. nstalled some of the gas neccessary electronics etc. I needed a few more channels for this going gas than a 6 channel reciever provides, so I installed the fated Spektrum AR8010T with a single antenna and a dual antenna satellites. One of the antenna on the reciever itself got cut, so I trimmed back the metal jacket to expose the same length as was lost. So this baby has 5 antenna in all different directions.

!Fuel tank is just forward of the wing tube CG, plenty of room for the ignition.  I installed the fuel dot, seen in the first pic, and have a fuel dit coming in the mail from China.

The reciever installed, you can see the three satelite antennae. The ones on the reciever, the short one goes straight out, the long one drops down and extends out the bottom of the fuse vertically.

Spektrum wasn't helpful about the brown out, telling me what I already knew, but I expected that. They think the issue was external to the reciever, a voltage issue. I have no reason to suspect that. It was a transmission problem. They told me that I couldn't fix this and offerred no help. I know that I can remove some of the outer metal jacket and expose the same length that was lost. At the very least it will transmit, but zi am confident it recieves as well, No way to tell.

For now I am waiting for Joe to finish his move to his new warehouse, and then send me a 32cc engine I purchased used from him. He doesn't have these laying around, I was just lucky. Once that gets here I will install her and break her in. I think I will use the 17x8x3, if I can drill it. It can take up to a 20x8. I think the one on the MXS-R 30cc is an 18x10... I have no idea why, but it works well with the DLE 30.

Microfastners Metric an SAE Guages

This! $15, $23 shipped, for both.

Sbach Tip Stall and Vortex Generators

The Sbach and I have a long rich history of tears, pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth, mostly due to its unstable wing at low speeds and its strong tendency to severly tip stall into an unrecoverable death spin.

When I took the old 30cc Sbach wing and adapted it to the MX2 fuse creating the MX-Bach, it was necessity, not a love for the Sbach wing, despite its sexy shape, that made me do it. To address the tip stall, I sought a way to keep the lifties under the wing tips for as long as possible and to allow a more gentle stall. And voila, I discovered Vortex Generators.  Here is a great presentation on the concept, a video of experiments by an RC engineer.

I didn't, and don't, have the data nor the gumption to do all that math, so I just made some using L-shaped styrene strips, and installed then where I thought they should go, about 5-8cm back from the leading edge.  It's all described here.  I knew they would be tall enough, just picked a length, decided a V shape was nice looking, and stuck the buggers on. It actually worked! The MX-Bach has only flown a couple of times with the VGs, but she no longer shows the stall tendencies she used to. I think flying her at 10S made her a bit underpowered, so am very excited to be converting her to 30cc gas!

So as I prepare to build yet another Sbach, I am considering putting the vortex generators on her too. I will use the same guess work and install them similarly. I still have the L styrene strips. I think she is going to be an amazing flier!