Aeroworks 122″ Extra-260 ARF QB™ #2

 

Now, deal is, Aeroworks has defined a new standard in the ARF market over the last couple of years, and continues to refine that new standard. Most of the ARF market has seen the light and tries to copy Aeroworks in their “Quick Build” level of completion. Aeroworks is still the company all others are trying to keep up with, and their quality, designs, and ideas are innovative and top notch. But, sometimes getting a factory in China to do everything you ask of them can be tough… or maybe it is just always tough. So, bottom line, as much as Aeroworks knows what it wants, and as much of that as they did deliver in my first 122″ 260… some things (as seen above) weren’t done right. Aeroworks told me to do my best with the review of the plane from the first batch and that these issues would be addressed in the second batch. That batch has arrived at Aeroworks — one of the first one was shipped here. And I’m happy to report, that upon inspection, all the above problems have been addressed nicely.

• There was no glue in and around the hinges.
• The bevels were not round and the surfaces close bevel to bevel with no binding whatsoever.
• The wing tube fits easily into the wings.
• And, most importantly the “fix” to the wings related to the shear web is already done.

There are no mods, improvements, or fixes to do on this plane. And, it can go together in a few short days like the last one did after all the mods/fixes were complete. It should be a very quick assembly. The only extra work will be the installation of the tune pipes… and maybe the usual soldering of wires throughout.

Here are some pics of the new plane, which was delivered today:

 

Gonna try one of the new www.jerseymodeler.com fuel dots on this plane. The dot can be put below the level of the tank without spillage upon filling because the valve in the dot does not open until the fuel filling probe is inserted into it. The dot also comes with a return line for your tank overflow/vent line end… that returns the overflowing gas to the fuel can instead of having it pour out onto the ground. The dot comes with everything you need to install it, the fill adapter, the return line and its adapter up on your plane and fuel can. Looks like Deano at Jersey Modeler has this all worked out pretty slick like:

 

 The first plane had JR servos and Smart-Fly power distribution… this second plane will have Hitec servos and Emcotec power distribution via the Emcotec DPSI 2001 RV:

 We started on the QB™ tonight, we worked on it for a couple of hours. Before I could get the camera out Joe Nolasco and Mark had used the included engine template (there are several for DA, 3W-150, 3W-157/170, ZDZ 150-160, and the DA template fits for the EVO-150), drilled the firewall and mounted up the engine:

 

 We used www.microfasteners.com 1/4-20 blind nuts for the engine mounting bolts. I like to glue these on with ZAP thin CA:

 Joe mug’n for the camera… what about?… who knows with Nolasco. lol:

Mark bolted on the MTW headers:

Mark doing some measuring to get an idea of the spacing we’ll need for the tune pipe mounts:

Then I peeled back the covering so we could have an easy time setting up some mounting for the tune pipes. Man, the quality of the wood and the constuction is great:

Nolasco cut off the servo connectors and direct soldered on extensions with Dean’s connectors:

 

Fromeco rules and has plenty of power for these 40% planes with high current servos:

I like the Hitec heavy duty extension wires… they don’t unravel and they’re 22 gage. We got the 48″ extensions for the outboard servos cuz these wings are big! You can get great prices on these 5955s, 8711s, Hitec heavy duty, extensions, light ply, aircraft ply, H9 titanium pushrods and lots of our giant scale stuff from Awesome Hobbies ( www.awesomehobbies.com ) Their prices are good, worst case is the same price as Tower/Horizon.

Nolasco direct soldered the extensions to the aileron servos:

 

So nice to have someone doing all the soldering, made the wings just come down to some quick easy assembly for me. Nolasco also made up the pigtails for the Emcotec aileron ports. We used Dean’s 1003 connectors where we will connect/disconnect the aileron servos:

 

Quick and easy to assemble after Joe Nolasco did all the soldering. On the outboard servo I went with the high hole in the control horn and put the pushrod on top of the servo arm. I used the included control horns, but added conicals… and mounted them back away from the bevel edge about 1/8″. Also, I used www.microfasteners.com servo screws to hold down the servos. After drilling 1/16″ holes for the servo screws I dropped some ZAP thin CA in the holes to strengthen up the wood: http://www.zapglue.com/ :

On the inboard servo I used the lowest hole in the control horn and put the pushrod underneath the servo arm. Using those control horn holes actually works out perfectly for linear movement between servos. Having the inboard servo pushrod under the servo arm and the outside servo pushrod over the servo arm keeps the geometry running pretty good throughout the range of travel:

 Mark started the install of the pipes… Mark needed some hardwood with a 20 degree angle on it to square off the angled former he will be attaching the rear pipe mounts to… so I ripped him some strips with my trusty skilsaw:

  

 Mark used ZAP Zpoxy to glue in the wood I ripped down for him:

 

 We’ll bolt the rear mounting plates to it, here are the rear plates that Mark fabricated for the pipes:

 Here are the pipes and headers for the plane:

 

 Joe Nolasco has about finished all the soldering for the plane… having soldered on Dean’s 1003 connectors to the elevator servos, and also made 72″ extensions for those elevator servos with Dean’s 1003s on one end, and regular connectors on the other end for the Emcotec power distribution unit:

  

The tune pipe mounts are finished:

Here’s a shot from the engine looking into the fuse:

 One pipe has a pit of some kind in it, and it just pokes all the way through (you can see light through it)… wonder if JB weld will be fine here:

 

 I got an email asking “why a DA?” Well, it was here in the shop, so it got bolted on… simple as that. So this year I’m flying BME, 3W, DA, EVO… maybe we could get in a ZDZ sometime. lol That 3M Mentor stuff looks pretty also.

I got an email asking “what engine should I get?”  I’ve talked about this alot with my local friends… the 100cc class of planes/engines is a toughy for me. The 150cc class has lots of great planes, great sizes of planes for the engines, and great engines. Everybody’s 150s are solid, and have the power to weight that is pretty ideal (although they do keep making the planes bigger, which makes the motors a little down on power — but for some reason in the 100cc class they make the planes smaller ??? ). For the 100cc twins I would like some bigger planes… 106-108″ and reasonably light… 28-29 lbs tops. For the 97-104″ planes that you see mostly in this catagory I’d like a lighter motor, like the BME-115. But, it needs to be more reliable first… at least for anything low and slow… for IMAC it’s fine now. The DA-85 (on a pipe?) might be the ticket for these small 100cc planes that are common now. Also the ZDZ-80 super. The 3W-85 and EVO-80 on pipes might do the trick, too. The new lighter DA-100 should help too… I’d like to try it.

I got an email asking “are Sala mods and cans worth the price on a 100cc plane?” Well yes, a new engine, Sala Mods, headers, and pipes cost some bucks. The Sala Mods do smooth the engines out alot. I think headers and canisters are too heavy for most 100cc planes anyway. I save the cans for the 40% planes that don’t even notice their weight.

I got an email asking, “how did you guys make the pipe supports?” Mark cut out some 1/4″ light ply with the same design as the Aeroworks supports and used the Aeroworks insulators. Slick.

 Whilst waiting for the replacement Greve’s pipes from DA… we sealed off the front pipe area with balsa:

Added an extendion to the carb arm to get some resolution:

 

Put together the stock tank using the 3-line clunk setup like I always do. The tank is included with the ARF, and a smoke tank is also included. Fuel line and fuel tubing barbs are also included (IMPORTANT NOTE, again make sure you use DUBRO quality fuel line):

 

 Still waiting on the replacement Manfred Greve’s pipes from DA :

Ran the elevator extensions (that Joe Nolasco soldered up) out the back of the fuse:

 Got the rudder servo wires secured to make sure they didn’t end up on the tune pipes:

This pics shows the Emcotec DSPI 2001 RV being used for power distribution. The unit supports up to 26 servos on 10 channels, and has a regulated voltage of 5.9v out to the servos and the receiver. For our planes can’t see why this would not be a better choice than the standard DPSI RV. THE standard DPSI RV supports 32 servos on 12 channels, but is bigger and heavier. Since we tend to use 6-8 channels and 10-15 servos… seems like the 2001 RV is the ticket with its lighter size and weight.

Also shown are the rudder servos mounted in the factory rudder servo cutouts. These cutouts are double plywood to give the servo screws plenty to hold onto. The DUBRO balljoints are included with the ARF. Metal pushrods are included, as well, but opted for titanium turnbuckles, as always. Holding down the servos are www.microfasteners.com servo mounting screws:

 

I got an email asking, “where do you get the spiral wrap for the single servo lead? in fact where do you get all your spiral wrap from?” I said, at www.awesomehobbies.com.

Same deal, two 5955s, stock control horns, www.microfasteners.com #3 by 5/8″ servo screws, etc. Direct soldered extensions with Dean’s 1003 ends:

 

Then I did a re-mount of the Emcotec DPSI 2001 RV for better shock obsorbing, that Nolasco had it too hard mounted:

 

We also got the Fromeco Badger switch mounted for the ignition. The fuse sides are thick enough so that the stock mounting method is plenty strong:

Made alot of progress on the this plane, almost done. Will post some more pics soon. Still waiting on the replacement Greve’s pipes from DA. Ordered ‘em over a month ago… got the first set with the hole delivered to them last Thursday, but they “lost ‘em” until I called today. So, now they are getting ready to ship the replacements. When you pay $600 for a set of pipes/headers to improve the engines performance, and they’re “in stock” and you have to wait well over a month for them… that kinda makes me feel bad.

Decided it would be nice to have charge jacks on the outside of the plane to check the voltage at the field without removing the hatch. So, cut in these Futaba brand charge jacks:

Nolasco soldered the leads off of these charge jacks over to the battery leads off the EMCOTEC. That should do the trick for field voltage checking:

 

I also secured the included fuel tank with the included foam and included cable ties:

This plane is all but done, just waiting on DA to send the replacement Greve’s pipes. Again, there was nothing to enhance or improve on this second generation… just went together in a matter of hours as advertised… using the included hardware, no less.

 Got an email asking, “I noticed that you peeled back the covering on this plane to do the can install, and also significantly changed the covering on your Aeroworks 100cc Yak. Could you please share any tips and advice on dealing with ARF covering removal and scheme changes?”  I said… most ARF covering is not applied with high heat… so removing it is pretty easy. Just carefully pull it back. I like to remove the covering on the bottom of ARFs just to do a neat job of the elevator extensions down the turtledeck. Then, with a few minutes work I re-attach the covering I carefully peeled back. On the Aeroworks 104″ Yak54 ARF QB™… I thought I improved the appearance alot with the covering changes I made. Those changes were quick and easy. I just peeled back the checkers and swooshes and replaced them with a piece of white covering. I used the pieces I removed as a template to mark the new white covering.

UPDATE:
Not much, ready to go except no pipes. Still waiting for the replacement set from DA. Waiting and waiting. If I would have known replacement pipes were going to take a month, or more, I would have just patched the hole in the first pipes. Wish they would have looked at the first pipes before they shipped them to me to begin with. Wish they hadn’t “lost” the replacement pipes in the shop, “forgot” to ship, shipped to the “wrong address,” and so on. Oh well… anyway… did anyone notice that this model took 2nd and 7th in the Invitational Class at the TAS last weekend?

 Might as well take some pics… here’s a shot of the glued in rudder hinges, used Z-poxy like always:

And, here’s a shot of the elevator servo/linkage setup:

 Pipes showed up, plane finished, hope for a video shot at least by the weekend. Some final assembly pics to follow. Oh, and we have a new member in our crew now, he’s been helping out quite a bit…  Monkey says, “Ciao”:

 

 Here’s a couple of shots of the completed interior:

  

A few shots of the engine area:

 

Couple of shots of the pipes from the exterior:

 

Here’s a couple of shots of Monkey finishing up the wiring on the Emcotec DPSI 2001 RV, etc:

  

Monkey is happy to have all that done… “ssshhhwwwoooo”:

 Ready for the maiden! Monkey did a final cleanup:

 Woohoo! Monkey pulled the maiden today! Monkey let me put up a flight after that, poor monkey tried to hold the plane while I ran up the motor… not good, not good… u’ll have to check the vid. BTW, the Greve’s pipes kick ass… but no question that 8711s dominate over 5955s, imo… at least on the ailerons, two versus two… big difference!

Monkey pulled the maiden! VIDEO:

This plane is at the recommended CG and presents nicely for precision. Built stock, just like Jason Noll’s plane, which served him well in his 2nd place finish at the TAS this year. Its older brother is much more tailheavy, having its Fromeco 5200s in the turtle deck versus next to the front of the gas tank in this newer plane. Oh, and there was some concern about Monkey after that last flight… but don’t fret none, he landed okay and is fine… here he is later party’n it up with his latest squeaze:

 Oh, and Monkey says the Greve’s pipes make the DA-150 feel like an electric motor running on a first class speed controller. If it will do that for the DA-150 who knows how good they could be on a 3W-150 or EVO-150, et al. Greve’s pipes definitely improve power and transition dramatically… Monkey like!

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