Prop Another RCH Trainer thread

[callsign4223]

The chair is the cat's scratching post. Better that chair than anything else in the house.

As far as the trainer goes, I hope to be able to finish it and have it in the air this weekend, but I'm leaving for a 2 day conference tomorrow and I still have to write a paper for school before Sunday, so we will just have to see if there are enough hours in the day to get it done.

 

[Tony]

Right on. I'm hoping to have the new plans completed by this weekend and have a flying plane to test out. Doubt that will happen though. Hope you can get yours in the air bro!

 

[callsign4223]

Well, the papers done and I'm off to get some thin plywood to do the motor mount and some velcro and finish this thing up. Hopefully finish it and get it airborne today.

PS, anyone wanna proofread a paper????

 

[Tony]

Well, the papers done and I'm off to get some thin plywood to do the motor mount and some velcro and finish this thing up. Hopefully finish it and get it airborne today.

Good deal, hurry up and get that sucker in the air!!!

PS, anyone wanna proofread a paper????

That's a negative ghost rider, the pattern is full!

 

[callsign4223]

Actually, it is done. I just need some longer bolts to hold the wing on and then it's ready to fly. Mounting the stupid motor took me an hour and a half, I was ready to rip the thing to pieces. I couldn't find any way to get my fat hands into that little bitty nose.

 

[Tony]

Now you know why I have very long needle nose and nylon nuts lmao. Regular nuts will work as well with thread lock. Go in from the wing opening. Either way, wrap a zip tie around that wing and toss it in the air. WITH VIDEO!!!!!

 

[callsign4223]

Tomorrow afternoon

 

[Tony]

No, tonight. The sun is still up!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[callsign4223]

Well, maiden is done. It flew great, all the problems were mine not the planes. I need to add in some expo. It was a little windier than I was hoping for and it handled it well. The landing even went pretty well, at least until I went to pick the plane up.



I think I need to just make a solid piece of plywood for the firewall. Also, I think I need smaller prop. I was at about half throttle for most of the flight and the motor was a little warm and the esc was VERY warm, almost too hot to touch.

I did have someone there to video the flight, unfortunately the video is all of the sky and not the plane.

 

[Tony]

Did you not put any wood on the firewall? It has to have some kind of support for the motor.

Glad it flew well for ya.

If the ESC is getting too hot inside the fuse (motor warm, ESC hot means lack of airflow usually), then you can cut a couple small holes and mount the ESC to the outside but still plug in your battery and such on the inside. This will give much more airflow to the ESC keeping it cooler.

How did full throttle feel? I bet it wanted to scream with teh shorter wings and more KV than I'm running. May have to stick one of my 1300kv motors on it just to test hehe.

 

[callsign4223]

I ran it up to full throttle for take off and the thing SHOT into the sky. After that the most I did was 3/4 throttle because it was too twitchy.

The entire backside of the firewall was 1/4 inch plywood almost. It folded around the very edges of the plywood. I am going to cut the front piece off and replace it with a solid piece of plywood.

I'm spinning a 11x5.5 prop on this thing, you don't think that may be whats making the esc so warm? I couldn't find prop recommendations on hobbypartz for this motor.

 

[callsign4223]

Ok, I have fixed the firewall. After removing the foamboard I realized the piece of backer plywood was EXACTLY the correct dimension vertically to fill the area between the fuselage top and bottom so I cut another piece of plywood and attached it to the edge of the original backer going into the fuselage to give me a larger glue surface. I then hot glued the extra piece to the right side fuselage and hot glued the top and bottom of the original backer to the top and bottom of the fuselage. I left the left side open for airflow and cut a vent on each side of the fuselage near the tail. Also, I came up with a different mounting system for the wing. The rubber band method seemed so cumbersome and took too long for my impatience to allow so I used a couple of pieces of plywood and bolts to attach the wing. The back piece is just glued to the fuselage and a bolt with washer through the rear of the wing holds that attachment point. For the front piece I cut a slot into the bottom of the wing and put hot glue in, then stuck the plywood into it, then hot glued around the edges of the plywood. A bolt with washer through the front of the cockpit holds this attachment point. It allows me to remove the wing and swap batteries a lot quicker than the rubber bands I watched Tony fight with on his trainer.

 

[Tony]

If it works, that's all that matters. I hate the rubber bands, but it's the easiest and cheapest method to use to attach the wing.

And on my Extra and my Edge, I'm running this same motor and spinning the same size prop and my ESC gets warm, but not hot. But, I have a bit of airflow though my fuse as well. Not like the trainer was being sealed up.

Can't wait to get my hands on this thing.

 

[callsign4223]

Well, I managed to get her airborne again today. Man she flies nice. Now if I can just get the landings down. Came in too hot and didn't flare soon enough, broke the firewall again. This time all the glue joints held, the 1/4 inch plywood broke/delaminated. I think I need to make a set of coat hanger landing skids and call it good. The open front and air flow slits worked wonders. The esc came down just slightly warm.

As a side note, at full throttle this baby SHOOTS skyward. Most of the time I am at 50-75% throttle. Actually got video this time and will upload to vid section after my buddy sends it to me.

 

[Tony]

The flight doesn't count if you can bring it back hahaha.

Can't wait to see the video, but just so you know, you could have put it in here.

Maybe I need to take this 450 size motor off of it and put one of the small 1300kv motors on it. Never tried it lmao.

 

[callsign4223]

Yay, I finally landed without crushing the firewall. I think I found the problem with it, ME. The first two times I was landing about 30 yards out from myself and I don't think I was flaring it at the right time. This time I was over at Tony's place and his neighbors cows were out in the field so we were basically landing at our feet, or at least I was landing at my feet, Tony tried to crash into a cow. This time I was able to time the flare much better and it landed in one piece. I didn't get to put it back in the air because the aileron control horn was tearing loose from the wing were I hot glued it. I should have used the backplate and screwed the control horns on. Ohh well, live and learn. I am going to have to find some screws and make sure the horns don't pull loose again, then get her back in the air again.

 

[Tony]

I did not TRY to crash into a cow lmao. I like my plane thank you very much lmao. But I do think my 2200 Zippy has had it. Quite a lot of air in that pack.

It was a good time. First time I have "flown" with anyone in a while. I do think however, after ripping the firewall off my plane, that I'm going to repair this one and retire it. It looks too good to tear up anymore. Use this as the "Official" plane, then build another one to actually fly. This time, with the new wing and tail feathers lol. I may even cut the wing down shorter than yours is. It will make it less stable, but a bit faster. that actually gives me an idea... Yeah, this is going to be fun hehe.

 

[TripodXL]

Tony, Have you made plans for RCH Trainer 2.0 yet. I found this site and down loaded the plans and was preparing to build it in the next few days/weeks (wife just got home from "the Stan" so I might have some honey-do's to take care of since we don't have the same concept of "house cleaning"...for a year no less). I would rather build the 2.0 (if there is one) than mod the 1.1 version. This will be my first build. I bought a 4 ch RTF and it is a POS. By the time you buy all the "upgrades" like an aileron wing with servos, and a brushless motor "kit" you have a $230 foam rtf with a no name $10 TX/RX, no name servos and a crappie foamie which kind of has me a bit peeved since it doesn't fly well with out the mods, though they don't tell you that up front. Just wanted to learn to fly something simple and get into RC planes. Thanks.

 

[Tony]

There is no "2.0" per say, but I did change the plans with a new wing and tail. The wing is now two pieces instead of 3. You have the bottom and top as one piece, then you put the middle in there and fold them over. Makes for a GREAT leading edge and makes the wing even stronger. I have to thank my moderator Lee for this idea which I have also put on the Edge 540 Profile plane.

The tail is now easier to build since the elevator doesn't run through the rudder. I have made the elevator control surface all one straight piece, giving more authority and I have made the control surface on the rudder slightly larger to compensate for the reduced length.

I myself have flown one that I built for the OP of this thread. However, We cut about 3" off the tip of each wing (my bad for making two left sides lmao). With a 70g 1300kv motor, that thing is a screamer.

HOpe this helps. I always upload the latest plans as soon as I finish them, so if you see a post that stated something has changed, I can assure you, it's in the store ready to download.