Twinstar Tail and Landing Gear done

Finished the repair on the vertical stabilizer. I installed longitudinal runners along the base. Not as pretty as I would have liked.

Port side. This thing ain't goin' no where.

When 

I had tried out the cool jet front landing gear expecting it to fail, and it did not disappoint. Today I installed the 5/16" wire front landing gear. I drilled out the existing hardpoint, and used the lever from the bigger kit, but the hardware is otherwise the original. I am using an original wheel from the Eflite Alpha 450 Trainer (thing is over a decade old!). Drilled it out, a bit off center, but meh. This baby is rock solid.

Very tall, so maybe now I can keep the props out of the grass. Thin profile, less drag.

Breitling MXS-R DLE 30cc Up!

Cleaned up and set up the Breitling MXS-R on the iX12, and today took her outside to run up the engine. Took a bit to start not unexpectedly, but then ran perfectly! Set the low end points, tried to tune in a few more RPMs off the high needle (nope...), and now she is ready!

I decided to change the spinner from that black to cub yellow!

Listen to the dulcet tones of the DLE 30! If you listen carefully at the very end you can hear the differences between landing, approach and flight idle.

Once the winds settle down time to fly!

Twinstar Tail Fix, 30cc MXS-R Prepped

The other day pulling the Twinstar out of the car I somehow caught the tail just right and she snapped clean off. I removed it, held on by the edge of cote, and cleaned the surfaces, sanded where it was needed. the used 30 min epoxy over the middle where the tab used to be, and CA along the flush edges.

Gave it a couple of hours, and it's set nicely.

I will add a small line of wood along the bottom of the stab to add a little base support, then cover it all in cote. May even try to match the swoops. I will also be changing out the nose gear. The small twin wheels looks great, functions poorly, and the thinner wire that came stock was constantly bent and wobbly, so I will also be replacing that with the hardier wire, which necessitates replacing all of the mounting hard/plastic ware as well. I will bulk up the bulkhead a bit too, to handle the stress.

I brought the DLE 30cc Breitling MXS-R down from the ceiling for cleaning and inspection, replaced the Tygon fuel line/clunk with Viton, and replaced some of the other lines with Tygothane, using the Viton for internal clunk lines' stuff at cheap. I had a bit of charge in the NiMH batteries that I accidentally left from last fall, but topped them off, need to deep cycle them... and tomorrow I will program her into the iX12, and do some run ups on the engine. 

I also finished up a few things on the MX-Bach, fixed the wheels which were a tad wobbly on their axles. Put the cowl back on and she is done, ready to fly!

I spent the better part of the day cleaning the shop, and found a way to hang the helis off the floor. I also didn't like having the big 30cc planes hanging from the ceiling upside down, so found a way to hang them, moved a few of the others around to accommodate the new plan. Once they are all on the wall I'll take a pic.

That ominous feeling when things just go too well...

After fixing the completely loose muffler, cleaning up the engine on the MX-Bach, I cleaned and touched up the paint on the prop, added white tips and clear coated the entire thing. Came out very nice. I put it back on and that weird feeling that it went too easily came over me. It reminds me of "found time", that ominous feeling when you suddenly have free time when you shouldn't, and you begin to fear there is something you are supposed to be doing and you're not. It's like that. Like this: the bolts for the prop went in perfectly, the holes lined up miraculously, I woke in the middle of the night and it came in a flash. I forgot to re-balance the prop, which I had been reminding myself the whole time to do.

So the next morning I took it off, balanced it, which it REALLY needed (the three big pieces of electrical tape each go down the back of the blade), and re-installed it.  Took her outside and ran her, easily tuning the low idle, and re--tuning a bit the high needle, and she ran marvelously like she usually does. This RCGF-USA 35cc engine is a sweet one, and her shenanigans not running right or idling the other day were gone with fixing the muffler and the mild re-tuning. She even likes her silencer again!

I had mentioned that the Sukhoi with her RCGF-USA 10cc (one of the early ones) was running great but seemed a bit laconic. I had a Master Airscrew 13x8x3 blade on her, and she has suggested she liked a twin blade better, unlike her sister the Stik with the same engine who does great with the 3-blade prop. I static tested the thrust with the 3-blade and got about 3.7 lbs at WOT. I then put an APC 14x8 two blade prop on and she consistently gave the same ~780 rpm but the thrust was now 4.7 - 5.2 lbs! Needless to say I left the twin blade on and will see how this translates in flight as soon as the weather stops acting the fool. I meant to weight the aircraft but forgot to. I will later and will update this post.

I still think the Sukhoi would be much better suited for a 15-20cc engine. The Stik loves the 10cc and has great vertical. You can see the size difference here. Both are great fliers and a lot of fun!

A Magnificent Day with My Flying Machines!

Heading out with my trustworthy aircraft with the intent to fly and not fiddle! And this plan survived the day, perfect flying and no damage at all!

The Twinstar with her new shoes. I am not so sure the small front gear will tolerate the clumpy grass...

She does look good though!

Yeah, it took a beating. I had to find the thinnest part of the grass to get her able to attain Vr, as otherwise she was just driving through cutting the grass; too tall and too clumpy. This is 3 mm rod without a spring. I don't think it is a good idea to keep this small gear on here. I would like a shock absorbing gear like the back two. Need to see what I have. The new Du-bro steerable front gear arrive, and its the thicker 5/16" wire, too big, but probably what this will need. Even with the original single coiled spring gear it wasn't sturdy enough and was constantly bent back and to the side. She does need the thicker wire. Set her aside for now. She is covered in thick grass spray.

Just like watching her spool down.

The Stik and her RCGF 10cc gas engine wanted to play the fool with initial idle issues, but a small tweak to richer was all it took. She is fast and flies so amazingly well. Despite that as the wind conditions changed a bit and the rollers at either end of the runway started to enter the approaches, it took some convincing to get her down. Love this plane!

Idling well, ran great! A bit noisy under stress in the air (4-cycles a bit), but powerful and dependable.

The Sukhoi with her RCGF 10cc. This is my best running 10cc, the others being the one on the Stik, also an RCGF, and the cantankerous Evolution 10 cc on the Sbach. This plane is a bit of a pig, nice but not great speed, and she can't vertical long at all. I wonder if I should just use that new 2 blade I got for the Sbach with its Evo? Hmmm... I think I will give that a try. This plane really needs a 15-20cc engine. That cowl just creates a lot of drag. The landing gear are a bit soft, even with perfect landings a slight bump in the grass causes a prop strike enough to stop the engine, and they bow a lot on landing. They are only 3.5 mm thick. I saw a nice more Sukhoi like rounded CF set on Amazon that will fit, and I may commit to using that.

Sweetness. 

Again, just because I love this idle!!!!  Right after a 20 min flight, with another 10-15 min in the tank!

MX-Bach Tune Up

The MX-Bach was acting the fool last time I took her out to the field. All of my planes lately have had issues with idles that need to run high, and she was no exception. I have decreased the amount of oil to a bit thinner than 1:40, which I hope will help, and make for a lot less oil thrown on the fuse and wings. 

I noticed on inspection that the muffler has come off the cylinder. The Pulse XT 40 did this as well, seriously affecting how it ran, and its issues resolved with fixing it.. I will need to make this a regular preflight check. I think it is likely one of the reasons I had idle issues. Before I start screwing around with the needles I will start her tomorrow and see if this solves the issues.

One screw holding it on, oil sprayed all over the place, took a bit to clean up, and I couldn't get all the oil stain off the muffler.

Made a new gasket, or I should say, made a gasket because there wasn't one. Liberal Locktite.

The silencer had fallen off on the bench at the field, fortunately not in flight as it would be history. Whew... It popped out of the silicone having lost the securing wire tie. I used two this time.

Last time I took the MX-Bach up she was having idle issues. I had to bring her in hot, and she was floaty, after several attempts I finally brought her in and a foot off the ground killed the ignition. The same hand is used for the kill switch that I have on the elevator, soooo... I accidentally gave a little up elevator, she lifted up and stalled, dropped, and broke off an end of the CF landing gear. Thank goodness I have an exact replacement brand new hanging around in my shop! Some minor internal damage, mostly just cracked spars, easily fixed.

Took no time to drill the new holes and install. New pair of pants!

Messy during Man Working Time!

I installed a new tail wheel bracket because the carbon fiber one was getting too soft and wobbly. I purchased one for 120-150cc sized aircraft because, I don't know why. I should have gone with the smaller one, but I think I went with this one because the hardpoint on the fuse is shorter. I could have just cut the other one. It really doesn't matter, this one works fine. I wanted a metal one that would hold the vertical axle firmly, and this does the job. Since it's off center from the hinge point I thought of and tried a couple of different connections for the turn coupler, and ended up just using the rod method. To keep the turns from being too acute I had to put the rod connector pretty far aft. It works fine.

You can see the hardpoint on the right just fits on the tail of the fuselage. The tail wheel is now much more secure and sturdy. 

This is the kit that arrived. I know what each piece is for, but I don't understand that the silver handle screwed into the blue aluminum piece is. I removed the handle and used the blue part as the rod connector to the tail, as can be seen in the photo above this one, on the left. I was able to put an M2 bolt through it into the wood, so that is what I used it for. If anyone has any idea what that this is really for I am curious. Of course there were no directions/instructions...

I am now cleaning up the prop's paint a bit, and will reattach it tomorrow after re-balancing it and then see what I need to do to get the idle set right.

Real Flight 8 and my DX7S

I don't know... I think I still prefer the ease of working with Phoenix RC Flight Sim, but I can't get it to work right on my new PC, so I am stuck with RF8. RF8 isn't bad, by any means, but I am confused by a few things. I liked the huge selection of phot airfields, the huge variation of aircraft including helis, I mean everything was there. I would expect RF8 to at least have all the Horizon Products, like Hangar 9, and why not encourage more helis. But most of all, I don't understand whynit doesn't just work or have really good instructions for working with Spektrum products.

My DX7S doesn't work perfectly with the Spektrum WS1000 dongle. I had to play around for days with switches as it doesn't see all 7 ch, and they aren't apparently mapped the same. Why RF8 and the dongle don't just recognize the DX7S like a receiver would, I don't know. I get there is some give and take with using one model (ACRO) to control both planks and helis. Some smart programmer should be able to figure that out.

Right now I figure out how to get Flight Modes (2 allowed on the DX7S), and the Hold switch done. I am still not quite sure how. I don't have flaps or gear on planks.

1. Start with the stock simple ACRO model in the Spektrum Tx, in this case the one I use on my sims is my old DX7S.
2. While pressing the ROLLER, turn on the transmitter, taking you to the SYSTEM SETUP and scrol down to SWITCH SELECT. Make it look like this:

F Mode: AUX1

Mix:Gear

This gave me Flight modes and Hold on helis, did nothing to planks.

3. Go back the the ACRO, change its name if you wish, turn off the TX, then bind it to the Dongle by holding the button on the WS1000 while installing in (Really? It's not easy if your dongle in going in the back of the computer, heck, its not easy no matter how you do it. May take a couple of tries to get the strobing orange light).

4. Turn on RF8 and voila.

I fly the Ultra Stick 30cc around with the flaps down... no way around that I can find. Maybe there is a keyboard setting. I'll get back to you on that. I tried setting different WING TYPE like flaps, flaperons... nada changed it. I tried variations as one is limited to in calibration in RF8, no effect.

You can see the flaps down half way here.

Sometimes the flaps move with the ailerons. I saw it do this when I had WING TYPE set to single aileron and single flap servo, but I changed it back to single aileron, the stock setting, and it's still doing it.