Picked this thing up this evening and got it in the shop at 10pm tonight. Comes in a couple of wooden crates and a cardboard box for the cowl:
The first thing I noticed was that it is enormous. My foot is dwarfed by the cowl:
All the Aeroworks Quick Build Series parts have been high quality… and these smartly done pre-mounted wheel pants are no different:
The fuse is clean looking… light but rigid, pre-installed x-braces throughout help with that… and as always there is a pre-installed antenna tube down each side of the fuse:
The canister bay is cavernous to say the least! It is over 4-1/2″ tall and as deep as you could ever need. You could use lots of different headers and canisters without a problem:
As you know these QBs come very complete. I’ve used the included foam tires on my last QBs and they held up great and are very light. On this one I pulled some DUBRO 4.5″ Treadlites off the wall, and also went with DUBRO axles and collars (Again, the QB does come with them standard.). I show DUBRO 6-32 1/4″ long machine bolts for the collars, but I tried the DUBRO 6-32 1/8″ long machine bolts on this one. I used ZAP threadlocker on the 6-32 bolts in the collars. The included tires and axles are shown in the background:
By midnight (2 hours total) I had unpacked the plane, cleaned up the crate/boxes, mounted the gear, axles, tires, and pants, and put the plane together… taking pictures throughout the process:
Gotta new fancy pilot from Aeroworks this time.:
Got my servos today… going with JR 8711s on this QB:
Our local DJ, announcer, web designer, and all around RC guy, ‘Joe Nolasco’, stopped by. Joe wants to see this plane fly so he started mounting the servos in the wings:
These modern day high powered servos are still being mounted the same way much lesser servos were mounted in the past. For a couple of years I’ve wondered about that, and have seen some problems recently with them on planes others have assembled. www.microfasteners.com thought about this stuff over a year ago and released a larger servo screw, a 3m screw. They get stuck in the Hitec brass sleeves but fit the JR sleeves just right. So, I was finally able to use them:
In order to synchronize the servos as accurately as possible I need a finely adjustable height control horn… so I went with the rocketcity style control horns rather than the included control horns. The included stock horns spread the load out over a much larger area than the single bolt rocketcity style horn. So, I used alot of fresh ZAP thin CA to strengthen the wood around the hole:
Also, using the www.microfasteners.com 2″ allen head set screw bolts, rather than the rocketcity style bolts, allows a very fine adjustment of the control horn height. They look cool, too:
I’ve been told that the JRs feel/fly/center much better than Hitec 5955s. Now, JR does not have a field programmer like Hitec does. So, what I want to do here is see what happens if I really setup the geometry, linearity, synchronization, and resolution as perfectly as possible. See how much, if any, electronic equalizing needs to be done after that (this really will depend on the “out of the box” linearity of the JR servos, if they travel equal distances off center one servo to the other I’ll be in good shape).
I’ll need Unihubs and then will have to custom drill Nelson arms… to have the servo arms lined up perfectly to the “determined” center with the 8711s remaining at zero sub-trim. At that point no synchronizing will be required if the JR 8711s are linear from the factory (the 8411s were far from it).
Centers and endpoints are easy… it’s synchronization througout the range of travel that is tricky.
Okay, I got back on the wings and opted for moving the control horns from where I had already drilled them to closer to the hinge line for linearity but high resolution. I setup 56 degrees of travel in each direction (112 degrees total) to have the aileron move up and down 4-7/8″ in each direction. That was as far as I could go just before the hinges would bind. I used protractors to get each servo to move exactly 56 degrees each way for the aileron to move 4-7/8″ each way. Then I custom drilled the Nelson arms so that all three servos could be at zero sub-trim.
The moment of truth… something I have been wanting to try for years… with the arms moving equally 56 degrees each way for an equal 4-7/8″ throw each way… and with the sub-trim at zero… the first servo should have ended up with equal ATVs if the servo was linear from the factory. My tests with 8411s years ago showed them radically non-linear from the factory and these were, unfortunately, no different. The ATVs required for my 4-7/8″ throw in each direction were 115/137. A big let down, but not surprising considering my tests on the 8411s four years ago.
Futaba tested out well for linearity out of the box four years ago. Hopefully that is still the case and therefore the setup I’m trying still possible with them. Their upcoming brushless motor servos sound awesome. With the JRs it seems like forget all the custom drilling since they are totally non-linear out of the box, and just PowerExpander EQ-10 them or Equalizer 3D them. I could still use an Emcotec with Equalizers, but I’d want to separate the power leads, having them go to the Emcotec… and the signal wires, having them go to the Equalizers. But, I don’t have time to do all the custom wiring of Equalizers to Emcotec right now:
Okay… after spending lots of time trying to come up with a perfect custom drilled servo setup for JR 8711s on the ailerons… I realized that due to the 8711s lack of linearity it would work just as well to just bolt on any standard servo arms and use a synchronizer like the Smart-Fly EQ-10. Here’s what I ended up doing:
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two 8711s per aileron
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JR servos arms (using the 1-1/4″ hole)
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Nelson control horns w/ microfastener 2″ allen bolts
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3″ H9 titanium push rods
(under the arm on the inside servo, over the arm on the outside servo, 2-1/2″ rods should also work) -
1/2″ ss 4-40 bolts from microfasteners — 4-40 ss nylon lock nuts
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3m x 6m long ss socket head bolts from microfasteners
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Thin CA from ZAP
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blue medium Threadlocker from Pacer/ZAP
My final setup left each servo arm moving 52 degrees in each direction from neutral… in order to move the aileron up and down 4-3/4″. Using the Nelson control horns made this possible. Also, having done some work on my hinges for more throw and smoother operation, I did a one piece blue gap seal on the bottom of the wings:
From there I synch-ed them up with the Smart-Fly EQ-10. Very easy to use just like the Equalizer 3D always has been. I’ve always gone Emcotec DPSI units for 40% planes… but to save time I went EQ-10 on this one. I had my Fromeco regs made up to run at 6.8 volts… so I’m using an Emcotec Filter Capacitor on my receiver (might could have saved QQ’s plane if indeed he did have a power failure):
Got my graphics from Dennis and Debby at www.kirbysgraphics.com … now we can get this party started:
Joe mounted three 8711 servos in the rudder tray:
And, made up the rudder servo linkages using the JR full arms, etc:
Joe Nolasco made up the DUBRO fuel and smoke tanks, using barbs, etc.:
Joe also glued in microfasteners.com 1/4-20 blind nuts in the firewall. DJ-Joe used 5-minute Zpoxy to glue in the engine blind nuts:
Moving along to the engine. We checked to see what headers might work. In the Aeroworks manual it shows a 2-3/4″ drop. The 3W shallow drop headers are too shallow, and the 3W standard headers are too deep. The 3W standard headers are closer, though, and Sean McMurtry used them by heating them up and giving them some more bend. Another option is the KS headers… just cut to the perfect length and weld/braze them up. I’m probably going to go that route:
Okay, I dropped back to the wings at this point because I heard about some failures with the first batch of wings for this model. I ended up spending a ton of time modifying/rebuilding per Aeroworks… then cleaning glue out of hinges, sanding away the convex bevels and recovering (I covered the bottoms in white because I thought that would make the plane more visible). These wings are now on display at Awesome Hobbies… since after further failures of the first batch of wings Aeroworks still had doubts about these even after I did their fix:
Lost interest in the plane for a few months after that. With all these hassles plus the endless BME-115 problems it has been a discouraging year for me in R/C. But, a couple of months off and I am ready to try to get this done again.
Here are the updated wings from Aeroworks, these were rebuilt by a custom builder for Aeroworks and I had him cover the bottom white instead of the factory blue. I went with the stock Aeroworks control horns on these because I didn’t want to invest any time on them after all I had invested in the first set of wings:
Geometry/Linearity/Resolution 101:
I got started with the elevator improvements. Same problem the wings had with convex bevels. I sanded the hump out of the bevel balsa so the elevators would close bevel to bevel… and cleaning the glue out of hinges… then recovering. NOTE: This isn’t necessary if you’re satisfied with 40-45 degrees of elevator throw:
Winding down on the stab/elevator project… just about done. Covered the bottom of these white, as well:
Couple of notes on that. 1) is to watch the length of servo mounting screws you use on the inboard servo… as 9/16″ screws will go right into the wing tube:
And, 2), the included control horn screws are still breaking pretty easily for me. Just a light finger tip turning of the screw driver can break off a screw head from time to time. It would be better to use microfasteners.com servo mounting screws. But, to make them fit right on the inside two holes, you need to grind down their built-in washer a bit:
If you take the time and trouble, like I did, to get full bevel to bevel throw on the elevators… and you use the stock control horns… you’ll want to hold the control horns back an 1/8″ from the bevel so they don’t bottom out before you get bevel to bevel:
I’m rolling with the stock control horns, but they don’t allow you to get the synchronization between servos that close. When using only two servos per aileron (like I’m doing) they are very close. On the elevators they’re not. If you’re only using one elevator servo per half this ain’t a consideration, of course:
Would like to report on more progress on the Aeroworks, here, but me and Mark spent hours today sanding down wing tubes to get the wings to go on the plane. Very frustrating when you’re trying to get a plane done for an event this weekend. And, even more frustrating when you think about how this was done once already (hours spent sanding wing tubes by Joe Nolasco on the first set of recalled wings for this plane). Been working pretty hard on this plane everyday for more than a week (with help from Joe Nolasco and Mark Vogel along the way)… but have doubts about it being ready by Saturday. Would have loved to have spent the day today actually accomplishing some forward progress… rather than just sanding wing tubes and eating composite dust all day.
Here’s Mark, sanding, testing the fit, and sanding some more. He worked on the tubes for a couple of hours and then I worked on them a couple of more. Still could use some more sanding:
I did do a little soldering today… extensions are all direct soldered, like I do on most all of my planes:
Got the stabs finished:
Synchronized the servos using the Smart-Fly EQ-10 Power Expander:
Used Dean’s 1003′s for the servo leads, as usual:
The pilot doing some inspecting, “It’s all ball bearings theses days”:
It was at this point that I felt like we might be over the hump. We were finished with the problems with the wings, stabs, rudder, and wing tubes… and could finally just assemble the plane. That went really fast, the actual assembly is a quick and easy. The shipment of planes coming next month should just be the quick assembly part, without the other hassles. Also, at this stage I remembered how sweet looking the plane was… all first batch hassles aside… this is one strikingly gorgeous plane, IMO:
Most everything gets very positive from here on out. The replacement wings fit was impressive… perfect, in fact… (impressive because that means all the planes are being jig built to tight tolerances, any part will fit on any plane… all planes are straight as an arrow):
I could no way, no how, get the included pull/pull cable wire to go through the included copper crimp 3 times… I could barely get it to go through twice. The cable is thick and strong though, nice stuff. So, I just made up my own crimps out of aluminum and used the included copper crimp for a “keeper.” The cables haven’t loosened up a frog’s hair so far:
My friend Mark Vogel helped me alot on this plane… he mounted these two Fromeco 5200 Lith-ion ”grunt” packs just inside the turtle deck. He beefed up the former there in a few places before mounting the packs there. They’re really a bit too far back, I think. I’m speculating the factory location shown in the manual will be more to my liking… we’ll see:
Joe Nolasco mounted up most, if not all, of the equipment. He added sealing washers to the bolts that are holding down the Fromeco regulators for a little extra cushion. Joe mounted the regulators and Smart-Fly EQ-10 on DUBRO tygon fuel tubing standoffs… into blind nuts he glued in with ZAP thin CA. Again, the Smart-Fly EQ-10 is working out great and has the servos surprising well synchronized thoughout the travel range. The servos are quiet, apparently not fighting each other much. Shown also is the Emcoted “flux” capacitor, lol, filter capacitor I’m using for current spikes. I wanted to use the new D-Cup version from Fromeco because it has a much higher capacity, but it isn’t out yet:
I used the Fromeco Wolverine and Badger switches. And, the Wolverine is doing its job as the regs are slightly missmatched, but the batteries are dropping at an equal rate. Joe mounted these with the same technique I used on the 104″ YAK review… that of grinding down the white mounts the thickness of the side of the fuse and bolting the switch plates on to those white mounts… only using the actual two end mounting screws for “looks”:
I setup 48 degrees of throw on the rudder and with my CG location I could use more, or maybe less expo, or maybe a more forward CG… we’ll see… it’s close to enough rudder authority right now… but I might like just a touch more. Aeroworks has a poster board throw meter that is easy to use to setup the rudder throw, as well:
Got going on setting up the plane for cans. The Aeroworks addendum doesn’t apply to 3W engines with LL length cans. We blocked off the air at the original manual location. Seems the manual and plane design considers DA only. There is also a triangle area that is not blocked off in the manual… but you could take the time to block it off with some balsa… to keep hot air from getting into the fuse:
The can mounts that are included could be used with 3W engines, but the cans wouldn’t run exactly parallel… so Mark made up some new ply mounts with the can holes spaced further apart:
3W/Pefa cans mount up best on their collars… keeps the mounts from crushing the cans. Thereto Mark made up two new custom ply mounting plates and spaced them out so that each can mounted up at its collar:
The standard 3W header is too deep for how this plane is designed and the shallow 3W header is too shallow. If the landing gear wasn’t quite as high up in the fuse it would work out better for 3W headers. Being that Mark made custom ply mounts… it might have been possible (very close) to get the can right up to the landing gear plate and have standard 3W headers work out. But, we didn’t do that. I asked Sean McMurtry (who’s been flying the plane for awhile now) what he did… and he said he just bent the stock 3W header and made it work:
We’re going with the “cut and weld” headers. We’ll just cut the height and length where we need it… then weld on the fitting. Unfortunately AI sent one 170 fitting and one 106 fitting. Doh! Trying to get this plane ready for a large air show next weekend:
The next picture shows 1) www.microfasteners.com “full thread” 1/4-20 engine bolts. Best way to make sure you’re actually tight, not cross threaded, or loose from bottoming out in the blind nut. 2) glue joint here was gummy and gooey… scraped it out and poured in some fresh ZAP medium CA. 3) have a pretty healthy squirter here… unburned fuel spraying out onto the cowl baffling. Gonna need to fix that one. 4) used the LL canisters I had laying around with the 3W 170 CS… AI says I would get better performance out of LLX canisters, that LL are good up to the 157. May have to visit that soiree sometime:
Again, gotta give Mark credit for doing all the canister/header work. He’s an engineer and calc’d everything perfect the first time. Mark made the KS headers the same length as the 3W headers. When I bolted on the engine, cans and headers it went together nicely. 1) I had a 3W servo mount in my hand, but Mark said he liked the stock wooden one, so I went ahead and used the Aeroworks stock mount for the throttle servo. Worked just great. 2) I have never used these smooth surface headers before. But, I know lots of guys have so it would be interesting to have them chime in with their experiences. The 3W headers are knurled nice and deep and the teflon sleeves go on tight and stay in place real well with the clamps. These KS headers slipped on like butter and wanted to slip off like butter, too. On the first start of the engine they slipped back until the canister stacks hit the cowl. I had an idea to heat them up with a torch next to the teflon sleeves and thereby having the teflon sleeve kinda melt onto the header… without the back pressure from the engine. It worked… they have not moved since then. But, I’m still not sure what method is the best way to keep them on:
My friend Gus “billy bob” Stutsman had one of the guys at his shop weld up the fitting to the header. It’s held up solid so far, thanks Gusser:
I don’t mount up the 3W ignitions with mounting screws through the mounting plates anymore. They just end up breaking into many pieces. I velcro or cable tie them down using foam strips on the two long outside edges to lift the ignition for airflow underneath it. I like to use double sided foam tape from DUBRO and the hard foam that comes with the QBs sandwiched in the middle of the DUBRO double sided foam tape:
Flushing the ignition with the top of the motor box worked out fine until we tried to put the cowl on. We had to lower it about 5/8″. Whoops:
Jim Orsi (video guy) cut all the slots in the cowl… and Mark cut the carb relief and stack exit holes. Good, because I hate dealing with glass dust:
Joe Nolasco snapped this shot of the TruTurn spinner… we both think it’s the coolest:
We had the PCAM airshow on Saturday morning early… and naturally we didn’t want to maiden the plane there … so we rushed through cable tying down anything loose and made it to the field two hours before dark on Friday night. Everything slipped together and was working beautifully and I thought we were home free. But, the engine would not “fire” at all. Not too many 3W ignition shops in Ukiah. lol But, I remembered that Mark had a busted up 3W ignition (from mounting it in the factory mounting hole locations) he had replaced from his 56 twin. Me and Joe rushed to the shop while Mark watched the plane. Joe soldered on a Dean’s end and then we rushed back to the field. We used green electrical tape to hold the ignition together in one piece… then layed it on the motorbox and tried to start the engine. It fired right up. So, we then scrambled to swap ignitions. At dark I taxi’d out for the maiden with Mark shaking his head, and Joe saying, “do it, just do it!” The maiden went great.
The next morning, Saturday morning, my pit beotch walking the plane out at PCAM:
”Don’t even go there! Pit beotch? I’ll show you a pit beotch! Just fly your stupid plane, cracker!”:
The PCAM flight line boss was in this golf cart. I chased him down with a high alpha knife edge and scared him out of his cart. No, no, seriously, it was all a planned part of the show:
Some more PCAM pics:
A few shots from the field before the first flight video:
I’ll talk more about the flight characteristics over the coming weeks as I get more tuned in to the plane. Right now, as you can see from the video, the plane is big, beautiful, stable, and easy to fly. There is no flexing or twisting and I get the impression it will be a low maintenance plane that will hold up to alot of flights. After one gallon of fuel through the engine:
The 3W-170 ran strong… but after 2 gallons it sucked up its head gaskets and flamed out… first the doa ignition, then the reed block leaking, then the head gaskets. Well, I’d been wanting to try out an EVO-150 anyway… as you may have noticed I had anticipated using one from the start and put the EVO graphics on the cowl. Well, I popped out the 3W-170 to give an EVO-150 a try. A gaggle of EVO engines:
Before I could get the motor swap going EVO sent along new pistons/rods and said they should be changed. In these pics Smok’n Joe is changing out the pistons. The new EVO-150s have alot more power than the older version so EVO changed to stronger rods… they ended up needing to change out the pistons with the new rods:
After the engine swap we got the plane out to break in the new EVO. The first half of this video is the maiden flight on the EVO (which had not been bench run at all, even at the factory), the second half of the video comes from the fourth flight of the day (with about 1 gallon through the EVO):
The EVO-150 continues to be a champ, I have yet to touch the needles and I’m running the 3W 3D Prop on it now. The EVO’s red parts look good on the plane and with the red TruTurn spinner, too:
I took apart the EVO-150 to see how it was doing. Typically if I do a good job on the break-in there will be little if any blow-by. You can see here that after 9 gallons of fuel that is exactly the case… no carbon tarnish past the ring & the cylinder is clean too. I see other’s engines that have 1/2″ of dark blow-by after just a few gallons of break-in… too lean, too hot, too fast, or the oil & mix used:
I went with 2 gallons of Pennzoil Aircooled, 2 gallons of Lawnboy Ashless, then 5 more gallons of Pennzoil Aircooled… all @ 32-1 (my latest idea, lol)… just getting ready to go to Belray H1-R. The important thing to me is the rings and cylinders lack of carbon build up… which looks great. But, I’m not sure if this is a normal amount of carbon on top of the piston… or, if all the Pennzoil made it worse? Anyway, I’ll clean it up and start in on the Belray:
I took apart the carb, too (habit after a few gallons of break-in) and everything was clean and looked good. One new thing that has never been in a carb I’ve cleaned is this weird little poured in? custom little silicone? washer thingee. It just stays in place by the narrowest of margins. It’s there for some reason I guess, to protect the diaphragm, or something… but I still kinda don’t get it. lol Seems like an accident waiting to happen and a solution without a problem, that might create one. lol :
A few flying pics with the EVO:
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