What Mods to make to your Wild Hawk

Hello all,

Once you've played with your Wild Hawk and have become comfortable flying it, you can get the bug to take your Wild Hawk to the next level.  With this in mind, these are the mods I would recommend, and have made, to my Wild Hawk.

Here are the mods that I recommend and the order that I would make them.

First mod: Fix those tail hinges

I originally thought of putting this in with what I would do with a new plane out of the box, but decided it was too much of an upgrade to include there.  What I propose here is to cut the movable rudder and elevator surfaces off and replace the factory foam hinges with tape hinges.  This is a little more complex than it sounds on the surface.  Once the parts are cut away, they need to have the old hinge surfaces trimmed up.  The elevator surfaces should have the plastic connector piece removed and then they should be reconnected with a bamboo or other dowel.  I recommend increasing the gap between the two surfaces (the gap for the lower portion of the rudder) by about 1/8 of an inch.  This will help to ensure that the rudder will have the most motion possible and not hit the elevator.  Now you can follow my hinge post on how to do the actual tape hinges.

Second mod: Update that battery

I really feel that the next mod it to replace the NiMH battery with an upgraded LiPo battery.  The energy density of new LiPo batteries is just too much to pass up.  For about the same weight you can almost double your mAH rating and run time.  This is done by checking out your favorite hobby supplier and seeing what LiPo options are available.  I recommend 1300mAH to 2200mAH, 3 cell (series connected cells), LiPo packs.  Most likely these new battery packs will not come with the same connector and you will need to replace the connector on the battery pack to match the speed controller, or replace the connector on the speed controller to match the battery pack.  This is easy enough to do if you know how to solder.  If you don't, find a friend or hobby shop person that can do this for you.  This new pack will also supply more voltage to your motor.  Your new 3 cell LiPo pack will provide 11 to 12 volts as apposed to the 8 to 10 volts of the NiMH pack.  This will give you more RPMs out of your motor and more thrust.  I think you will find this especially helpful during take off.  Some people have warned me about the possibility of burning out the stock brushed motor.  While this is possible, I have not noticed any issues with this and have been pretty harsh on mine.

I did a pretty severe mod to make sure that my battery fit the way I wanted it to.  I actually cut off the top of the nose and used a soldering iron to melt the foam until the battery fit snug.  Then I hot glued the top of the nose back on.



Third mod: Cut in some ailerons

I feel that this is an interesting mod because it can be done before upgrading your transmitter and receiver to more channels.  As I found out, it's actually just as easy (if not easier) to fly with just elevator and ailerons as it is with elevator and rudder.  I detailed my aileron mod in this post.


Fourth mod: Upgrade your radio

The fourth mod that I would suggest is to upgrade your radio to a 6 channel radio.  I would go beyond a four channel radio (which would be enough for all the controls needed on this plane) only because I really feel that 6 channels is the minimum for a really useful radio setup.  This is probably the easiest mod that you can make to this plane.  The hardest part is deciding what radio you will upgrade to.  I purchased the least expensive 6 channel 2.4GHz radio that I could find because I wanted the benefits of 2.4GHz (small antenna and spread spectrum technology) and I'm a cheep Dutchman.  My cheep radio is not the easiest to use, but has not let me down.

So this mod is as simple as replacing the stock receiver with your new one.  You will need test and make sure that you get the servos plugged into the correct locations and make sure that you get the polarity right.








Fifth mod: Upgrade your speed controller and motor

This is probably the most gratifying mod, as when it's done right, it can really boost your plane performance and enable you to do some really fun things.  The things you can do?  How about belly take offs without landing gear and vertical flights to high altitude. The biggest thing to take note of here is that this plane is limited on the size of the propeller that can be installed.  I've only been able to upgrade to a maximum 6 inch propeller.  This means that you will need to turn this propeller faster to get the extra thrust needed to be able to do the things I mentioned above.  So, the Kv rating of a motor becomes an important factor to keep in mind.  The Kv rating refers to the RPMs per volt rating of the motor.  I recommend 2200Kv brushless motor.  This is a bit high, but a 1400Kv motor, while certainly enough power, will not give the really fun performance we're looking for.  We also do not want a motor that is too small and so we will want to look for a motor that is rated in the 250 to 400 watt range.  This will ensure that the motor will handle the current and voltage without overheating.  Once your motor is selected, then you need to find a speed controller that will handle the current rating of the motor.  Also look for a speed controller that will be easy to program or need no programming, and has an adequate BEC to power your receiver and servos.  Depending on the pieces that you put together you may need to modify your power connectors at the battery or motor.  I was able to purchase my battery, ESC, and brushless motor from the same company (Turnegy) and so they all fit together without any changes needed.  Unless an in-runner brushless motor of the same diameter is found, you will be using and out-runner that will need special mounting.  I cut the motor nacelle back and added a wooden fire wall.  This was placed such that the propeller would be located in the same place as the original.  This post will show exactly what I did to upgrade my ESC and motor.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Please feel free to post comments, good or bad, and be sure to come back and check for future posts.

Vindication

Hello all,

After my last flying experience with crashing my father in-law's Wild Hawk, I needed something to redeem myself.  As chance would have it, the following week was beautiful flying weather and my father in-law had repaired his plane, so I worked on scheduling another outing over the weekend.

When I woke up on Saturday, the wind was blowing like a tornado!  No flying today and most likely not tomorrow either.  It looked like it would be another week before we would have an opportunity to fly, and me an opportunity to redeem myself.

Amazingly, Sunday morning was as calm as could be.  Perfect flying weather!  I quickly scheduled a time with my father in-law to go flying.  He picked me up on time and we headed to the flying field.  And by flying field I mean the open field near my house.  We quickly but carefully unloaded our planes from his car.

I noticed that my father in-law had done a great job of hot gluing his plane back together.  It looked great!  Everything was straight and clean.  You could hardly tell that I had crashed it and broken the whole nose off.  We were too anxious to get out and fly so I forgot to take any before photos.

After several unsuccessful attempts to launch his Wild Hawk himself (short runs into the ground, but no damage!) he asked me if I could try.  The pressure was on to not crash and destroy his plane again!

I was in luck and his plane took to the air beautifully!  The pressure was coming down.  It took a bit but soon enough I had it trimmed out and flying around nicely.  I handed the controls back and my father in-law flew the plane for a minute or so before getting into trouble and handing the controls back.  I regained control and handed the transmitter back to him again.  He was flying around nicely and then started to bring it down some.  Before we knew it, his plane was headed to the ground without enough time to hand me the controls.  I have to admit though, that I don't know if I would have taken the transmitter back this time so as to not be the one to crash it again.

Well, even from where we were, we could see parts fly when it his the ground.  Ouch!

Here are the pics I did take of the results.

Father in-law headin out to the crash site.
He's there, look close.

The gear and most importantly, the coffee.
The plane without the damage is my plane.

Yeah, bad crash

Ewe, wing arch is separated too

The tape did not help much this time

Well, my father in-law has shown that he is really good at fixing planes so I'm sure that he will have this one flight ready soon enough.

I hate to say this but I flew my plane from ground take of to landing with no issues what so ever.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and please post comments, good or bad.  Be sure to come back and check for future posts.

Making Points

Well, I've been kind of pushing my father in-law to get an RC airplane, especially since he has expressed an interest.  So he finally said he would get one but was unsure of what to get.  I asked around in the groups that I associate with and the consensus was that a Wild Hawk would be the best beginner RC plane for him.  I talked to him about planes and he was leaning toward getting something that was Cessna like.  He was very close to getting an eFlight Apprentice, but being a beginner, I talked him into the Wild Hawk.  Now the Apprentice is a nice plane and I really enjoyed flying the one I had to opportunity to fly, but, with the chance of breaking props and the motor every time it came down, he changed his mind.  Off to Harbor Freight we went and bought him a Wild Hawk.

I had scheduled a flying day with my Dad (at that great park near his house) and a craft day for my wife and girls with my Mom.  I told my father in-law that if he came, between my Dad and I, we could get his plane all setup and ready to fly in minutes.  He charged the battery overnight and met us at my folks house with his Wild Hawk still in the box.  He and my Dad browsed the farm while I setup the plane.  I stuck all the parts together using the supplied tape (figured that would be good enough for now), hooked up the controls, cut out the foam so the battery could be moved forward, trimmed foam from around the linkage by the servos, added the minimum amount of strapping tape on the full length of the underside, installed the transmitter batteries, checked out the transmitter and receiver, and was ready to go.

We packed up all of our planes and off to the field we went, ready to fly.  Well, we got there and found that the wind had come up and was gusty.  We later found out that the gusts were 5 to 10mph!  Since I had ailerons and more control, I took my Wild Hawk up and flew around a bit.  It was not easy to control but not too bad.  Next Dad took out his Wild Hawk #2 and was able to fly it around.  My father in-law wanted to get his plane into the air but did not want to do the maiden flight himself, especially in this wind.  So, he passed the controls off to me.  I was a little cocky and didn't think much of it and confidently strode out into the field to launch his plane into the air.  I figured that I would get it up into the air, gain some altitude, and trim it out.  After it was trimmed and stable I would hand the controls back to him and wait for them to be handed back.

I gave the controls full throttle and tossed his brand new unscratched plane into the air.  It was flying level just fine.  I gave a little up elevator and corrected for a gust with the rudder.  The plane just went all over the place! Suddenly I was fighting to keep this plane in the air.  About 100 yards out the plane took a final nose dive into the ground.  Pieces flew.  One of the longest walks ever over to the plane showed that after only 15 seconds of flight, the nose was broken clean off.  No more flying for this plane today.  Now the second longest walk back to show my father in-law the remains of this brand new plane.  Ugh, I felt bad.

After getting back and checking things out, I found that I had reversed the elevator controls and had not paid enough attention to notice that it was going the wrong direction!  So much for trusting my plan building skills.

Dad's back yard. Yes, that's a golf tee out there.

Well, how mad could my father in-law be?  At least I'm not the son in-law that divorced on of his daughters, right?!  No he was not that upset.  We returned to my Dad's place and when the wind died down a little, we flew our planes right out of his back yard.  My Dad got his Wild Hawk #2 up into the air and handed to controls to my father in-law and at least he was able to get the feel of things and fly it around a little (he did a really good job).  Now, I would have let him fly mine, but with the ailerons it would have been too much different from flying his plane.

Dad flying his Wild Hawk in his back yard.

Dad flying my Wild Hawk with ailerons.

Now we're waiting for another good day when we have time to fly, and this time we'll make sure that his plane is really ready to fly.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and please post comments, good or bad.  Be sure to come back and check for future posts.

Flying With Landing Gear

This was an experiment that I could hardly wait to perform and I finally got the chance.  My oldest daughter is finally home from college for Christmas break so I recruited her to film while I flew.  It was a beautiful clear day but the wind was starting to pick up.  I was  rushing to get things done so that I could get out before it got too windy.  I know that I could have waited for the evening calm, but I did not want to risk that the wind would settle and that something else would not interrupt my day.  So out we went and braved the elements anyway.  When we first arrived it seemed that we would luck out with the wind lining up with the walk way.  Well as usual the wind did not flay nice and it had fun crossing at an uncomfortable angle.

Not to be outdone, we flew anyway.  The wind did not make things easy.  After a few attempted take offs (see one of the last videos below) I finally made it into the air.  It was much harder than I expected to taxi in a straight line.  Especially with the wind buffeting the plane from the side, especially when it was just about to get off the ground.

Once in the air, it flew just fine.  The the addition of the landing gear had no noticeable affect in the Wild Hawk's flight.  As the wind was causing the plane to bounce around quite a bit, it might have been masking any affects of the landing gear, but I don't think so.

This first video shows the first successful take off.    I thought sure that I was going to crash into the cable again, but I just pulled back on the stick and luckily had enough airspeed to take off successfully.

This second view shows the first successful landing.  I came in dead stick because it was coming in fast enough and with power would have been too fast.  I know too that this was because I was landing with the wind, but it worked out OK.  I did think for a moment that I was going to land it on the walk way cable, but I made it to the pavement.

This video shows both the take off and landing from the airplanes point of view.  If you would like to see what I did to get this footage see my other blog RD Flying Fun.  I'll be updating it soon with how I modified a cell phone to take this footage.

Like the last time I flew, I had so much fun after the first flight that I just made sure all was still OK and then just took off again.  This was a shorter flight as I didn't want to battle the wind for too long and it was too cold for my daughter and I to stay much longer.

My daughter filmed this flight as well.  The first video is the entire flight from take off to landing since it was such a short flight.  You can see that it took me quite a bit to get it under control, but I made it into the air.

Landing was another issue again.  You can see that it came in on an angle and kind of "crabbed" in.

This video is the second flight from the planes perspective.  You might have noticed by now that the perspective is different than from the ground video.  What I did to get forward facing video had the affect of switching the video left for right.  When the plane is going left in all of these videos from the plane, it's really going right!

OK, this is the, well, blooper video of my failed take offs from the ground our perspective and from the plane's perspective.

Yeah, I could have cut some time out of this video, but I thought it was interesting seeing all of this stuff from the planes point of view.

Ouch, that last one looked like it really hurt but actually nothing bad happened.  I just checked it over and made sure the wing was still in firm (as firm as they can be with this much "experience") and checked the aileron servo connections.

If you liked this my latest blog post, please leave a comment and let me know.  Even if you didn't like it, leave me a comment as to what you didn't like.  Either way, be sure to come back and check for future posts.

Gearing Up for a Landing

I’ve  made a decision about my Wild Hawk.  A decision that is the opposite of the one that I made when I first received the plane.  A decision that goes against all the recommendations that I received when I first queried experienced Wild Hawk owners regarding the plane.  So, just what is this decision that I made?  I’m adding the landing gear back to my plane!

Why am I doing this?  And, why did I remove them in the first place?  Well, first why did I take them off and leave them off.  I took them off for two reasons.  The first reason is that having landing gear of such a light plane can cause landing problems for inexperienced fliers such as I was.  The second reason was that all the areas that I expected to fly at had no landing strips.  My Dad’s location is a rough plowed field, usually with tall weeds.  My only other current location is a local park and preserve area.  The preserve area does have a 10ft wide walk way that cuts through it, but it is lined on either side with 8 x 8 posts threaded with 1/2in cable.  Not very inviting!

Now I’m adding my landing gear back because, I’ve now successfully landed on the walk way twice, and I have plans to join a local club that has a really nice runway.  I figure this will also prepare me for bigger and better airplanes that will have landing gear.  Besides they just snap in and out (see my pictures and videos below).

Wild Hawk landing gear

Cutting tape out of the gear mounting slot

Gear installed

Landing Gear in.

Landing gear out.

So what is adding the landing gear back onto the plane going to do to how it will fly? OK, I know that the landing gear is just wire with foam rubber wheels and they weigh next to nothing, and so the weight should not affect the plane very much and they are close enough to the CG that I don't expect them to affect the CG. But, the big thing in my mind is that they are not exactly aerodynamic. Again, they are not that big, but on such a light plane they could have a drag affect. This affect could be to make the nose drop as the pull would be on the bottom and to the rear using the CG as a fulcrum. Will this be enough to affect the flight and require trimming? Will I need to redistribute the weight? Will flying speed make a difference?

Since I do not have a wind tunnel, I'll have to rely on flying the Wild Hawk to see what will actually happen. Now I am waiting for a good day to fly. Once I have flown the plane (successfully or not) I will post an update on what affect this had, if any!

Ooops! Blooper!

F759M5X8N5NA

Fly Time With Video

Wow!  Sometimes I forget how much fun it is to fly my plane!  I know it’s fun, but I forget how much fun.  I’ve been waiting for almost two weeks now to fly and it’s been a tough wait.  I have these plans to strap my cell phone to my Wild Hawk and video.  I thought I was all set to fly and video my last timeout, but there were technical difficulties.  The first thing to happen was that the cell phone I was going to use (because I’m too cheep to buy one of those mini video cameras) had issues with the touch screen working properly.  After some searching with Google, I was able to partially resolve that issue and deal with the limitations.  The second issue, well OK, the second and third issues were kinda simultaneous.  On the first two flights with the cell phone camera videoing, I found out that I was only getting 43 seconds of video, and also the tape that holds the cell phone to the plane was causing damage to the trailing edge of the wing (because I was having issues with achieving a decent landing).

The 43 second video issue was resolved (with the help of my good old pall Google again) bu un-checking the messaging video setting on the cell phone.  The setting that limits a video to the size that can be included in a text message (43 seconds for this phone).  The trailing edge wing damage issue was resolved by adding support in the form of a tongue depressor.

This was all resolved within days of my last flight.  But it would be much longer before I would have an opportunity to fly again.


To make things worse, my Dad sends me an email describing his latest outing and how much fun he had flying his Wild Hawk, his buddies T-28, and his Radian.  Flights with three planes in one day.  Torcher!




OK, I get to relate on thing about this that makes me feel a little better.  My Dad was testing his Radian without the wing attached and accidentally bumped the throttle to full and had his plane launch across the garage!  He was lucky though and only damaged the canopy (only about $5 to replace).

Ok, OK, my weekend is half over and I still have to install brakes on my Jeep.  But, after that I’m free to fly!  I rush through the job (I've done this enough times) and am done in just shy of an hour (no air tools!).  I had already put my new LiPo pack and cell phone on their chargers to make sure they were topped off and ready to go.  I grabbed my plane, my transmitter, the battery, and cell phone.  Oops, almost forgot the tape to hold the cell phone on with!  That would have been unfortunate.  OK, got the tape too.  Jump into the Jeep and head out to my local flying spot.



I can hardly contain myself as I park the Jeep and get out my plane and gear.  I hurriedly walk across the park to the paved path through the wild life preserve next to the park.  Half way down is where I like to fly from as this puts me closest to the middle of the area.  I find my spot and fuddle through my mind all the steps that need completing.  Connect aileron servos.  Make sure wing is right.  Connect the battery, wait, turn on the transmitter first!  Whew, now connect the batter.  Darn it, the beeps, forgot to put the throttle to full and then off to program the speed controller!  Wow, got it just in time.  OK, the cell phone is already on now start the video app.  Almost forgot about the tape again.  Hurriedly strip off a piece of tape.  Darn it!  Fishing in my pocket for my knife.  Fumble with the knife and cut the tape.  Stick the tape to the phone and strap it to the wing.  One final test of the controls, and toss the video equipped Wild Hawk into the air.  Wow this plane is so stable.  What a joy to fly!

The plane has a natural trim up and in a left hand circle to I just lit it climb.  It’s over cast and I really wanted to get up into the clouds, but they proved to be too high today.  I flew up as high as I dared (can’t see it, can’t fly it) and cut the motor.  I was having a blast cruising this plane around and wondering what the video would show.  Knowing that the cell phone camera was just pining down, I made a few high banked turns to try to get the horizon and sunset into the picture.
After a little while I decided to bring it in for a landing.  Now I have been trying to land on the paved walk way for some time, but it’s really tricky as it is only about 10 feet wide and lined with 8x8 posts about 3 feet high and with cables strung along them.  So, any mistake on landing can be a bad one!  First pass I aborted and hit the throttle to gain altitude.  Turned around and came in again.  This time I used the right mount of rudder and elevator and made a nice touchdown.  The plane slid right up to my feet!  OK, I did jump back a little as I did not want it to run into me and cause me to do something stupid like, step on it!

I was so excited that I just picked it up and tossed it into the air again.  I did pretty much the same thing and took it up high.  Then I shut down the motor and just let it glide around.  There was a group of kids that noticed the plane and were all excited.  I could hear them from across the field as they were pointing it out to each other and trying to find it in the sky.  I flew over them hoping to catch them on film (digital film) and maybe give them a thrill of the plane flying over head.  I did a few maneuvers again to catch the scenery and this time I did a loop.  Just a mild and lazy one, kinda ended up on it’s side at the top.  I didn’t want to pull to hard on this one with the added weight of the cell phone and the possible frailness of the winds.  I’d hate to have my first flight video be of one of the wings buckling and then a nauseating rush of the scenery as it spiralled into the ground.  So, I didn't push it.
This time I brought the Wild Hawk in from the opposite direction.  And, again, I aborted the first pass.  But I did it again!  With the judicious use of the rudder and elevator, I coaxed my plane in for another spectacular landing.  OK, at my level of experience any landing that does not cause damage is spectacular!



What a rush!  I had the best time!  I wanted to fly some more but the sun was setting and it was getting cold again.  Plus I had diner to make.  My wife was braving the Christmas season shopping with my middle daughter so the least I could to was to have dinner ready when they got home.

Included is the video I took.  The unedited version is just over 17 minutes.  I’ll try to edit it down into smaller segments to make it more manageable and also get it into a better format (mpg maybe instead of 3gp)


Well I actually figured out how to use Youtube tools to edit my video and was able to cut it up and embed them into the text of this blog.


I added this video just to provide a view of where I fly.

I hope everyone enjoys this and please comment.

I thought I would update this post add a little video that shows the status of my battery after this outing. It till looks pretty good! Other that saying that the battery was fully charged right before I went out (12.?v), I can't say exactly what the charge was. But, with the info from this video, and knowing how long I flew, I think I could have flown a lot longer. Generally LiPo batteries have max battery voltage of 4.2 and minimum voltage of 2.8 and nominal voltage of 3.7. Ok, I know you would not want to run your individual batteries down to 2.8v, but even if they only went down to 3.0v, they are still only 1/3 their way down. So, a lot more flying could have been had.


Thanks for stopping by my blog and please post comments, good or bad. Be sure to come back and check for future posts.

Last Mod and New Mod

The 3 blade prop was just for testing

So, as promised, I have pictures and updates on my last power train modification/update.  As I mentioned in my last post, I tried to match the motor selected for someone else's motor mod and they used a "V3" brushless outrunner.  What I came up with (that was also available at the time) was the Turnigy D2826/10 1400KV brushless outrunner.  I am not sure what the 2826 represents but I believe that the /10 refers to either the number of poles or magnets.  The 1400KV definitely revers to the number of no load RPM per volt applied.  This helps you figure out what kind of RPMs you can expect with a given battery pack.  Since the Wild Hawk runs a relatively small diameter propeller, I wanted more RPMs.  I would have preferred something in the 1800KV range, but this is what was available with the other physical features I wanted.  As I said, I selected it not only because of the electrical characteristics, but also because of the output shaft and prop shaft adapter and the bracket and mounting method.  I really like the self centering prop shaft adapter and how it attaches securely (like a drill chuck) but also would allow for slippage if the propeller were to impact the ground or some other object.  I also like the motor mount and bracket because it is very easy to work with.  I did make sure that I used Locktite to secure the screws that hold the aluminum bracket to the motor since it would not be easily accessible.

 Now on to the speed controller.  I was looking for a controller that would handle 15 to 18Amps, but again, the one I really wanted was not available (back ordered), so I found this one for more money, but  from the description and people's reports this one can easily handle long bursts to 40Amps.  It is programmable with an inexpensive programming card but can also have basic programming done with your transmitter throttle settings.  It is a little bigger than I expected, but oh well, I have it and it works very well and I don't think I will have to worry overloading it.

Finally the battery.  I was going to just use the batteries that I made from laptop batteries, but decided that they were just too inexpensive to pass up.  I found this (again) Turnigy 2200mah 3C 11.1V pack.  It was listed with a discharge range (20 to 30C), which seems a little unusual, but it was easily above what I expected I would use.  20C times 2200mah means that it could supply at least a maximum discharge rate of 44 amps.  See, plenty of performance for this setup.

The nice thing about having everything Turnigy is that all the connectors fit without any trouble or issue.

Now the new mod is a mod to keep my "high tech" camera mount from damaging the wing again.

In these two pictures you can see the damage that occurred to the trailing edge and how the tape cut into the wing under the force of the weight of the cell phone.  Of course, this would not have happened had I been able to learn how to land properly.  But, I have not, and I'm not sure when I will.

OK, before I get to much further into this, I guess I should tell you about some background on my method of this repair/mod.  So, some months ago, when I first got going into repairing my Wild Hawk and using tooth picks, foam chunks, and hot glue, I introduced my Dad to this.  He started to kind of take off with the idea of using cheep and free items to use for repairs.  My Dad told me about how he was collecting free coffee stir sticks to add to his supplies.  Now, I'm from a 100% Dutch family and predominately Dutch community and I am no stranger to the tendencies of the Dutch to be, shall we say, penny pinchers.  But my Dad collecting wooden coffee stir sticks struck even me as going a bit far and was something that I was not going to do, especially since I could get all I wanted from my work for free.  Well, now I'm looking at the issues with my wing repair and reinforcement and what comes to my mind as being the perfect item to assist with my repair?  You guessed it, a wooden coffee stir stick!  Did I have any in my supplies to assist with this repair?  No, of course not!  I'm sure my Dad had many available and could have fixed this issue on many wings, but not me.  I was not cheep forward looking enough to have stocked up an effective supply.

Well, after scowering my wife's endless craft supplies I had to settle for a tongue depressor.  If I couldn't find a wooden coffee stir stick, a wooden Popsicle stick would have been a good second choice.  Well, we did not have any of those either.  So, a wooden tongue depressor was what I was going to have to work with.

OK, on with the repair. I molded the foam back into place and started looking at how the wooden tongue depressor would be used to re-enforce the location.  I used my Exacto saw and started cutting the depressor down to size.

Soon I had a piece that I was happy enough with and was ready to hot glue it into place.

Now I strapped the phone into place to check things out.  You can see how the phone looks on the bottom side of the wing with the strapping tape holding it in place.  The photo to the right and below shows the top side of the wing with the trailing edge re-enforcement and how the strapping tape wraps around and is prevented from doing more damage.

Now I'm waiting for my free time to align with good weather to try this out and see if it really works as expected.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and please post comments, good or bad.  Be sure to come back and check for future posts.

Even More Power!

OK, I decided that I need more power.  I went online to my favorite hobby store site and purchased a new battery (2200mah, 3C), brush-less outrunner motor, and speed controller.  They actually came in some time ago but I just got around to installing and setting everything up.  A few things I had to take care of first like charging the battery and figuring out how to setup the speed controller.  I connected the battery to my charger and topped it off.  Then I checked the battery with my voltage checker and each cell read out very close, just the way I like to see it.  Now I needed to check out the speed controller as it usually requires a programmer to set it up.  I found out the speed controller could also be programmed to the default setting (which happen to be what I want) by using the transmitter.  This is done by powering up with the throttle in the full position and waiting for a certain number of beeps, returning the throttle to the off position and waiting for the required beeps, and then putting the throttle back to full and waiting for beeps again and then put the throttle back to the off position.  After all of this, it works just fine.  So, I setup the receiver, speed controller, battery, and  motor and checked everything out with the transmitter.  All worked as expected.

Now it was time to figure out how I was going to mount everything on the plane.  I started by removing the old motor and speed controller.  This required loosening the hot glue I had added to the motor, cutting the wires, and pulling on it until it came out.  Then I pulled out the wires from the speed controller, removed the power switch, disconnected from the receiver, and then completely removed it.  Now everything is out of the way and I can see how it will all fit.

I had already held the motor up in position next to the original and marked the nacelle.  I mounted a three blade prop that I had on hand just for reference.  So now was the time to start cutting.

I cut out a big chunk of the nacelle and made sure the surface was level.  I cut out a piece of hardwood to use for a firewall.
I marked the piece to find the center for mounting the motor.

 Next I tried the fit and found I needed a notch for the firewall to fit better.  I also figured it would give more stability since so much foam was cut out.

Now it was  time to dry fit all the motor pieces before permanently installing anything.  Everything was laid out to make sure I have everything I needed.  Since the screws to attach the motor to the aluminum mount would be hidden and not easily accessible, I made sure they were locktited in (reddish purple tube).  I decided to use wood screws with lock washers on the firewall since I would not be able to get to the back side if I used bolts with nuts once all was glued in place.

Here is the aluminum mount with the locktited screws, and to the right, mounted to the firewall with wood screws and lock washers.

Now that I was happy with everything, I decided to trim the wood down for a more aerodynamic profile.  I did this by holding the firewall in place and then tracing the nacelle outline on the back side.  Then I used a belt sander to trim it down to the profile I marked out.  Next I glued it in place with hot glue.  I made sure that the perimeter and slot were glued well.  I also added a vertical line to use to align the firewall with the seams in the foam (this helped a lot for centering).

I noticed that there was still a little flex in the new nacelle and so used some tooth picks to stiffen things up.  I ran two strait down on either side of the seam and then two more at an angle from just behind the wood to the front of the nacelle.


Now I screwed the motor back on being careful to make sure the wood screws went right back into the threads they cut during the dry fitting.  This I know will ensure the best performance and least chance of failure.  I also made sure that the screws were torqued down just enough to collapse the lock washers.


Now I need to get the battery in place.  I noticed that it was not going to fit at all unless I started cutting things up.  I really wanted it to be as far forward as reasonable to maintain the C. G.  I bit the bullet and opted for major surgery and sliced off the top of the nose.  This allowed for full access to the battery compartment.  I laid the battery where I wanted it and marked what needed to be cleared away.  I then used my soldering iron with a nail in place of the soldering tip and melted the foam until there was enough room.  I like to melt the foam instead of cutting it out as I feel that it helps to retain structural integrity.  Any way, once I was happy with the space, I hot glued the top back on.  I did not use any tooth picks for support as this section will be well taped with strapping tape.

Finally I'm getting to the speed controller.  It seemed to fit well just laying it out from the motor to the cockpit opening.  The two power wires were just far enough apart (being on either side of the controller circuit board) that the cover tab fits right in between them.  Instead of gluing it down, I opted for just taping it in place with strapping tape.  There were two reasons for mounting it the way I did.  One is that this was way easier than threading the wires through the foam, and two, it would provide for better cooling if needed.  So this configuration worked great other than the power connectors having to make an awkward loop to connect.  A little tucking of wires and rubber bands to hold down the canopy and no one is the wiser.

I powered up my radio then plugged the battery in (I no longer have an on/off switch) and everything worked as expected.  I am very happy with this and cannot wait to get out and fly this thing.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and please post comments, good or bad.  Be sure to come back and check for future posts.