From Electric Park Flyer to Nitro Flyer - The Transition
09-16-2007, 02:44 AM
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From Electric Park Flyer to Nitro Flyer - The Transition
What a journey!
First plane was an Aerobird Challenger. Now I have Challenger, Aerobird 3, Xtreme, Swift, Stryker C, Parkzone Spitfire & Mustang. I've made my own EZ-ESC, EZ-XPORT and soon to be released EZ-??? for brushed and brushless controllers and ESC voltage regulators that can go up to 30V with a switching power supply. My pal and I (also an electrical engineer) go every weekend to dogfight the AB3s and Xtremes withe the XPORT combat modules and a slew of NiMh and LiPo batteries. Been dogfighting for about 4 months. So the transition was inevitable........
I buy most of my stuff off of EBAY that is scratch and dent or some hobbyshop sale. I bought a Hanger 9 SOLO (Similar to the Alpha 40 trainer) for $30 and an evolution motor for about $40. Got a field kit off some guy on EBAY for about $90 that included the box, starter, fuel pump, tools, glow plug ignitors, fule line, etc. Generally the works to get it up an airbourne. So I write this to you all for those that may be interested in my adventure and possibly your own. Hope it helps.
THE SPECS
1) Plane = ARF Hanger 9 Solo Star (www.horizonhobby.com)
2) Evolution motor 0.46.
3) Servos - standard servos (Futaba S3004) for about $13 each from the LHS.
4) Fuel - 10% Nitro.
5) Radio - DX6 with AR6000 receiver
6) RX battery - 4.8 volt 1100 NiCD. Also, 7.4V 1350mha with a voltage regulatos.
7) Servos can take 4.8 to 6V input. Regulator ensures consistant voltage to RX and servos
THE BUILD
1) The plane took about 3 late evenings to build. Everything is already monocoat covered.
2) You have to assemble the wing halves, attach the tail/rudder, and elevator with 30min epoxy.
3) Servo tray is pre-cut for standard servos. One servo in the wing control both ailerons, which you need to do some cutting to mount it. The other servo mounts are straighforwar with no cutting.
4) You have to cut the included control rods and make the Z bends. 6 rods total: 2 for front wheel/tail control, 1 for throttle, 1 for elevator, 2 for ailerons (one servo does a push/pull)
7) RX battery is 4.8 volt, but I used a 7.2 lipo with a voltage regulator to 6V
6) Must have tools are: 5min & 30min epoxy, dremmel with cutting wheel and grinders, small phillips head
THE SETUP & TEST
The motor started up very easily. You need to make some small adjustments for the carb to be open enough so that it will idle at the proper RPM. The DX6 has a throttle cut button that rotates the throttle servo to kill the motor. Older radios use the down trim button to kill the motor.
So I warmed the motor up and taxied around for a bit to get comfortable. I hit the gas and it died. Same thing happend over and over. Sometimes it would run wide open, sometimes not. Sometimes I got it in the air for 20 seconds and it would die again. Doh! - I need to adjust the fuel needle on the motor. My trick - open it up and have the throttle wide open while adjusting. Adjust it until the pitch hits its highest and then starts to drop (aka getting rich). Then back off (close it) just a bit to ensure the mixture is a tad rich but not running at its highest RPM. Once that got cleared up, I was on my way.
FIRST FLIGHT
Plane flies much easier than I expected. It is much much bigger than the other Hobbyzone/Parkzone planes. 14 oz of fuel lasted about 12 minutes, similar to running batteries in the parkflyers. So I'm blasting away doing some basic flight maneuvers and then it happened! I'm cruising along and the freaking wing came right off, 200ft up. The wing floats down like a spinning leaf but the fuse with engine is moving like a javelin down to earth. So the wing was in tact but the fuse went nose first into the dirt. Looked bad. Motor was completely buried in the dirt and the front of the plane was crunched. Tail and elevator was still in good shape.
I used standard rubberbands and I think the fuel from the exhaust softened them and made them break. I bought better bands and made up two metal wires with loops to act like a "saftey chain" for the next flight.
Oddly enough, the crash damage always looks worse than it is. I purchased some basswood and balsa wood and believe it or not, I got her up and flying in a few days. Monocoat goes on best with a cheap heatgun vs the iron. Start slow and increase heat as you go. Placement first with loser heat and increased heat to make it shrink slightly. No biggie. Motor needed cleaning on the outside.
SECOND FLIGHT
I ran the 3-bladed Evolution standard props on my first flight Since LHS was out of them, I used a 10x7 single blade instead with a 2-bladed spinner. Ahhh, what a difference. The 10x7 yielded much more power and thrust. The 3 bladed prop made me feel like the plane was really slow and lofty - great for the complete beginner. But if you have some flight time under your belt, go for the 10x6 up to 10x8 for this type of plane - it give you up to 2X more power over the evolution 3 blade, in my opinion. The flight was great. Loops, knife loops, victory rolls, the works.
SUMMARY
So, I'm at the LHS. They know me now cause I'm in there enough and they are selling some of my EZ-XPORT parts. One of the younger guys says, "I'm glad to see you finally flying Nitro and getting out of the cheap park flyers". I told him, "No way my good man. I'm still flying those all the time. I'll never turn into a biggot toward parkflyers." I made my polite point. I never would have gotten into this hobby if it were not for the Hobbyzone Challenger and the FSone simulator.
Flying this Trainer gas is actually easier than the Hobbyzone challenger or Xtreme. The large wing surface area gives it a tremendous amount of lift and it jumps off the ground. Initial cost to get into it is a little higher, mostly due to purchasing the aftermarket radio and some of the field supplies. After that initial hit, as you add more planes you can get reuse out of the equipment.you already have.
I think I'll fly this one for a while and then try out a Corsair or even build up my own from scratch. I hope this gives some insight to those who fly parkflyers and want to try out gas powered planes. They are not as difficult as one might think. But you do need an area to land that is smooth – no hand launching
(FYI - I'm 6'1" to give a perspective of plane size from the pics)
Till then...
JC
First plane was an Aerobird Challenger. Now I have Challenger, Aerobird 3, Xtreme, Swift, Stryker C, Parkzone Spitfire & Mustang. I've made my own EZ-ESC, EZ-XPORT and soon to be released EZ-??? for brushed and brushless controllers and ESC voltage regulators that can go up to 30V with a switching power supply. My pal and I (also an electrical engineer) go every weekend to dogfight the AB3s and Xtremes withe the XPORT combat modules and a slew of NiMh and LiPo batteries. Been dogfighting for about 4 months. So the transition was inevitable........
I buy most of my stuff off of EBAY that is scratch and dent or some hobbyshop sale. I bought a Hanger 9 SOLO (Similar to the Alpha 40 trainer) for $30 and an evolution motor for about $40. Got a field kit off some guy on EBAY for about $90 that included the box, starter, fuel pump, tools, glow plug ignitors, fule line, etc. Generally the works to get it up an airbourne. So I write this to you all for those that may be interested in my adventure and possibly your own. Hope it helps.
THE SPECS
1) Plane = ARF Hanger 9 Solo Star (www.horizonhobby.com)
2) Evolution motor 0.46.
3) Servos - standard servos (Futaba S3004) for about $13 each from the LHS.
4) Fuel - 10% Nitro.
5) Radio - DX6 with AR6000 receiver
6) RX battery - 4.8 volt 1100 NiCD. Also, 7.4V 1350mha with a voltage regulatos.
7) Servos can take 4.8 to 6V input. Regulator ensures consistant voltage to RX and servos
THE BUILD
1) The plane took about 3 late evenings to build. Everything is already monocoat covered.
2) You have to assemble the wing halves, attach the tail/rudder, and elevator with 30min epoxy.
3) Servo tray is pre-cut for standard servos. One servo in the wing control both ailerons, which you need to do some cutting to mount it. The other servo mounts are straighforwar with no cutting.
4) You have to cut the included control rods and make the Z bends. 6 rods total: 2 for front wheel/tail control, 1 for throttle, 1 for elevator, 2 for ailerons (one servo does a push/pull)
7) RX battery is 4.8 volt, but I used a 7.2 lipo with a voltage regulator to 6V
6) Must have tools are: 5min & 30min epoxy, dremmel with cutting wheel and grinders, small phillips head
THE SETUP & TEST
The motor started up very easily. You need to make some small adjustments for the carb to be open enough so that it will idle at the proper RPM. The DX6 has a throttle cut button that rotates the throttle servo to kill the motor. Older radios use the down trim button to kill the motor.
So I warmed the motor up and taxied around for a bit to get comfortable. I hit the gas and it died. Same thing happend over and over. Sometimes it would run wide open, sometimes not. Sometimes I got it in the air for 20 seconds and it would die again. Doh! - I need to adjust the fuel needle on the motor. My trick - open it up and have the throttle wide open while adjusting. Adjust it until the pitch hits its highest and then starts to drop (aka getting rich). Then back off (close it) just a bit to ensure the mixture is a tad rich but not running at its highest RPM. Once that got cleared up, I was on my way.
FIRST FLIGHT
Plane flies much easier than I expected. It is much much bigger than the other Hobbyzone/Parkzone planes. 14 oz of fuel lasted about 12 minutes, similar to running batteries in the parkflyers. So I'm blasting away doing some basic flight maneuvers and then it happened! I'm cruising along and the freaking wing came right off, 200ft up. The wing floats down like a spinning leaf but the fuse with engine is moving like a javelin down to earth. So the wing was in tact but the fuse went nose first into the dirt. Looked bad. Motor was completely buried in the dirt and the front of the plane was crunched. Tail and elevator was still in good shape.
I used standard rubberbands and I think the fuel from the exhaust softened them and made them break. I bought better bands and made up two metal wires with loops to act like a "saftey chain" for the next flight.
Oddly enough, the crash damage always looks worse than it is. I purchased some basswood and balsa wood and believe it or not, I got her up and flying in a few days. Monocoat goes on best with a cheap heatgun vs the iron. Start slow and increase heat as you go. Placement first with loser heat and increased heat to make it shrink slightly. No biggie. Motor needed cleaning on the outside.
SECOND FLIGHT
I ran the 3-bladed Evolution standard props on my first flight Since LHS was out of them, I used a 10x7 single blade instead with a 2-bladed spinner. Ahhh, what a difference. The 10x7 yielded much more power and thrust. The 3 bladed prop made me feel like the plane was really slow and lofty - great for the complete beginner. But if you have some flight time under your belt, go for the 10x6 up to 10x8 for this type of plane - it give you up to 2X more power over the evolution 3 blade, in my opinion. The flight was great. Loops, knife loops, victory rolls, the works.
SUMMARY
So, I'm at the LHS. They know me now cause I'm in there enough and they are selling some of my EZ-XPORT parts. One of the younger guys says, "I'm glad to see you finally flying Nitro and getting out of the cheap park flyers". I told him, "No way my good man. I'm still flying those all the time. I'll never turn into a biggot toward parkflyers." I made my polite point. I never would have gotten into this hobby if it were not for the Hobbyzone Challenger and the FSone simulator.
Flying this Trainer gas is actually easier than the Hobbyzone challenger or Xtreme. The large wing surface area gives it a tremendous amount of lift and it jumps off the ground. Initial cost to get into it is a little higher, mostly due to purchasing the aftermarket radio and some of the field supplies. After that initial hit, as you add more planes you can get reuse out of the equipment.you already have.
I think I'll fly this one for a while and then try out a Corsair or even build up my own from scratch. I hope this gives some insight to those who fly parkflyers and want to try out gas powered planes. They are not as difficult as one might think. But you do need an area to land that is smooth – no hand launching
(FYI - I'm 6'1" to give a perspective of plane size from the pics)Till then...
JC
09-16-2007, 03:41 AM
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RE: From Electric Park Flyer to Nitro Flyer - The Transition
Hi, congrats on your flights. I think though that you should not use the DX6 with this plane, the DX6 is made for park flyers and has limited range, your large methanol plane can get out of range very quickly. I see your field is huge so there's not much of a chance of it hitting property or a person, but it can still result in the loss of a plane.
09-16-2007, 04:00 AM
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RE: From Electric Park Flyer to Nitro Flyer - The Transition
I thought I had mentioned about the DX7 in my post but I see that I didn't. The DX7 should be here anyday. Already have the AR7000 RX and waiting for the TX to arrive. For those who do not know, the DX7 radio will work with the DX7 RXs as well as the DX6 RXs, like the AR6000 But the DX6 radio can't work with the DX7 RXs. Although I have read and been told that the DX6 is for parkflyers while the DX7 is for everything, I'm not sure if I am 100% convinced about that. Could me a marketing pitch to sell in two distinct markets. Being a nerdy engineer, I took my RF meter to the fields to do some tests and signal strength and range were just fine with the DX6. This by no means am I suggesting to use parkflyer radios in big gas planes; it just means that where I fly the DX6 works just fine. But the area I go here in Austin, TX is remote, has lots of area, absolutely zero traffic and a great road to land and takeoff. So radio noise is minimal.
So I took the "chance" and flew with it anyway. But I must admit, eventhough everything flew fine, I flet like driving on a road trip with the radiator hose patched with Duct tape. I was left wondering if at anytime would the radio signal fade. But I sent that plane up so far that I could barely see it and it still did fine. So that is my pitch, but for safety sake...why chance it. Go with the DX7 (or similar radio).
JC
So I took the "chance" and flew with it anyway. But I must admit, eventhough everything flew fine, I flet like driving on a road trip with the radiator hose patched with Duct tape. I was left wondering if at anytime would the radio signal fade. But I sent that plane up so far that I could barely see it and it still did fine. So that is my pitch, but for safety sake...why chance it. Go with the DX7 (or similar radio).
JC
09-16-2007, 04:55 PM
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RE: From Electric Park Flyer to Nitro Flyer - The Transition
looks neat, how repairable is the crash damage??? that would be cool to take a Super Cub and make it nitro
09-16-2007, 11:29 PM
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RE: From Electric Park Flyer to Nitro Flyer - The Transition
The crash damage I easily fixed. Most of the time took back annotating what I considerded to be the original dimesnsions and cutting the basswood properly. My suggestion - before your first flight on a wood framed plane, write down the dimensions of the plane in the wing, tail, elevator, and fuse. This way it is easy to size up later. After my repair, I got her fixed back up and stronger than the original. Burned up 3 tanks and had a blast. Afterward, threw up the Xtreme for some electric fun. All is good in my RC world this week....
JC
JC
