CA Models - PassPort Delux ARC

[Jim Woodward]

Hi Guys,

I flew one fight last night after work. The YS 160 ran awesome, except that I can't shut it off! It just ticks and ticks and ticks over at a very low idle. I guess this is not a totally bad problem to have The engine ran strong and did not overheat, so cooling is fine at least in these temperatures.

How did the plane fly???? I needed about 3 micro-clicks of aileron trim, and about 6 or 7 micro-clicks of up trim on take off. So far so good! Uplines were straight, Downlines pulled out a touch. Left and right rudder knife-edge passes (short distances) seemed neutral. In horizontal flight, the rudder turns stayed flat and didn't pitch or roll out either way.

If you haven't read this before, the rudder is VERY STRONG on this plane. However, I posted the T-can picture again becsue "Yes it works."..... The rudder is very authoritative, but is not twitcy with the T-can installed.

For a first flight, I'm very pleased. I'll post more later after I get a few more on it.
Thanks,
Jim

Setup:
1. Wing - .25 deg positive
2. T-can - .25 (matches wing best I could)
3. Stab - zero deg to canopy line
4. Thrust - matches firewall/nose alignment
4. CG Static- around leading edge of wing tube - maybe just a head of it
5. CG in Flight: Inverted 45 uplines need a tad of down elevator to maintain

[tuny]

Jim congratulations! looks great!
I have a couple of questions.
- why not use the original stabs?
- difference between t-can witho and without (I´m thinking on puting one on mine.)


see you at tangerine!

TUNY

[Jim Woodward]

Hi Tuny,

I need to fix the tip on one of my new stabs, and just to get in the air faster, I decided to use the stabs that were RTF from my Osmose. I think they are basically the same anyway in terms of size and dimensions. I flew the Osmose with and wihthout the T-can. I did not like the plane without the T-can. I have heard that basically all PassPorts had needed some amount of up elevator mix. Given the T-can adds positive pitcing moment with rudder input, and I like the overall effect from the Osmose, I decided to install it.

I will let you fly it next weekend!
Jim

[Jim Woodward]

HI Guys,

These picture show a relief slot I opened up on the chin cowl. I tilted the motor to the left to move the header a bit more away from chin cowl. However, the chin cowl wraps tightly around the motor pump area so I started to get a crack where this slot is now. Looking at it, the edge of the pump flange was actually the closest part of the motor to any surface of the chin cowl. I opened up this slot, problem is resolved.

On to the best part. It seems like all the good things I loved about the Osmose are built-in to the PassPort, but to a greater degree. Again, my PassPort has the T-can and Osmsose horizontal stabilizer. Left rudder is Zero elevator mix. Right rudder is 2% down elevator. I mentioned earlier that my wings were 16.76 and 16.01 oz earlier. During calm day loop tracking, I determined that the left wing was heavy, and added aboug 1/8th oz to the right wing tip. Tracking was now nearly perfect inside and outside. When i dissasembled the plane, the "heavy" wing in flight was indeed the 16.76 oz wing, and the lighter wing had received the tip weight.

Rudder: This plane will shift your paradigm on what an effective rudder really is. I'm using the single-piece rudder on pull-pull cables, not the split rudder option. I am flying 1 1/8' throw each direction for all normal flight, including rolling loops and knife-edge loops. I am using a "full-swing" rate for stall turns. There is so little rudder used in flight, that you have to ensure your rudder setup is centering well.

Roll Mix: I am using 10% linear roll mix. Left rudder gets left aileron. Right rudder gets right aileron. However, due to the low rudder movement, the amount of aileron movement is also small. Later on I plan to try a point-mix to bring in the roll mix closer to the center of the stick. That should bring the overall number into the 3-4% range I believe.

Low-throttle has a point-mix so that the final click of power brings in 2% down elevator.

Thats it - no funny stuff. The plane draws great lines, it rock-solid-stable, point rolls with ease, can fly at very low airspeeds and still show almost zero rudder input. The integrated rolling stuff is executable to a high degree - plane carves it power on and power off no problem. The knife-edge loop is easy to get started, and easy to finish. Of course, you need to still shape it, but noteably, in the last 90 degrees, nothing funny is happenning to the plane.

Snap rolls have the same low-rate rudder, 9 deg up, 10 deg down for elevator, and 24 degrees up and down for the ailerons.

Spins are done on high rate elevator and high rate rudder only - no need for aileron.

Rolling circles? I did the best 2-roll opposite circle of my life the other day. I landed and went home

Thanks,
Jim

[1bwana1]

Thanks for the mixing tips Jim. I got six more flights on mine this weekend. I am still lowering my rudder travel. I guess I am just having a hard time believing it has so much authority with so little travel. I think I will have to add a little down thrust, because I notice that my spinner is not quite lined up with the nose ring, this is causing me to carry a tinny bit of down elevator when trimmed for level flight. It also is increasing my rudder mixes to compensate for a slight pull to the gear. It is incredible how sensitive this plane is to very small adjustments, or mis-adjustments in my case. Still, so far, it is the best tracking and rolling plane I have ever flown. Snaps are just so crisp, they stop perfectly almost every time. I had always heard that pattern planes don't snap well. Not true with this one, simply an amazing plane.

[Jim Woodward]

Steve - thanks for your update. Let us know if you change the thrust and how it works.

Thanks,
Jim

[1bwana1]

Well it was a perfect day here in San Diego. Warm, Sunny winds under 5 mph right down the runway. I did a couple of trim flights, and with the new thrust angle, which is exactly lined up with the nose of the plane, everything just seemed to come together. I flew the AMA Advanced pattern about 8 times. The plane is simply amazing. I have never flown anything this good. I am loving it.

The bad news is that after the last flight of the day, I wanted to check the data logger on the JR 24 receiver. The numbers were great. I asked a friend to hold the radio wile I checked it. I went to return the logger to my tool box and was walking back to the plane. It seems the guy holding the radio must have accidentally bumped the throttle. The plane took off down the pits, hit a trash can, and then into the safety fence. Luckily no one got hurt. Broke the prop, put a small ding in the leading edge of the left wing. It also cracked the cowl area around the nose ring, and chipped the paint in a number of places. No huge deal, everything is repairable, and the plane will fly again. Mike Morgan who is a glass wizard will probably do the repairs. I am hoping that NetBoxHobby will have the paint in the right colors (I need all 4), or know the brand and numbers. It should be back up and flying in a few weeks. Hopefully in time for the first contest of 2009.

[Jim Woodward]

Steve - sorry to hear about the pit accident.

I have 60 + flights on my plane now. The YS 170 is running awesome. I competed at the Tangerine contest with it. I constructed a new T-cannalizer for it and have the plane trimmed quite nicely for it. I've used a point-mix for the roll-mix, as you can taylor the mix to the needs of the model. For my Pass-Port, I have settled on about 4% roll mix, but moved closer to the neutral point of the rudder stick. This is needed because I only use about 1 1/8" of rudder movement for the all of P and F09, barring snaps or spins. With such little rudder used, a linear mix using rudder as the master will see very little movement at all on the slaved surface.

The plane is flying really well! I'm very happy with it. I let Alan Cook and Stephen Hamilton take some time on it this weekend. I think they liked it
Thanks,
Jim

[1bwana1]

Jim,
Thanks. The repairs are completed, and the plane is up and flying again. I was able to get perfect color matches for the paint (5 of the colors) and have plenty extra should anyone need some. I have about 20 flights on the Passport now. My experience is similar to yours on the mixes. Incredible how effective the rudder is on this plane. Like you, I am really liking this plane.

Steve

[MLiprie]

Good to see you got it flying Jim now you will hopefully feel the pass port exuberance.

hehe.



Matt L.

[BOSSIER_ROB]

	Quote: Originally Posted by 1bwana1
	Jim, Thanks. The repairs are completed, and the plane is up and flying again. I was able to get perfect color matches for the paint (5 of the colors) and have plenty extra should anyone need some. I have about 20 flights on the Passport now. My experience is similar to yours on the mixes. Incredible how effective the rudder is on this plane. Like you, I am really liking this plane. Steve

Don't break it! I haven't flown it yet. LOL. Get some video Steve. I wanna see how that rocket under the cowl launches it vertical.

[1bwana1]

Don't worry, I have a ton of flights on it now. I really love this plane. I will trade you flights on the Passport for flights on your new Slick!