Extra 330L from RC league

[Craig 01]

G'day linkadrip,Get her all sorted out?,How did you find the flying?

[linkadrip]

Yep yep Shes running again i went to fly her and the dang motor mount block came loose but i reinforced it and epoxed it real good. i thought the motor had came loose form the mounting block but it was the block itself that came loose. So i'm almost there i checked everything again my prop is out of balance too.
I'm sure it will still fly like that but i would like to get it balanced so thats what i'm working on today.
Real bummer too casue i almost took off then i noticed the vibration had gotten excessive in the plane so i stopped and taxied it back and found that the mount had came loose. So close yet so far dang.
The CG is about 6 inches from the leading edge real hard to tell not sure i checked it correctly i dont have a CG machine or apperatus to check it except buy lifting it and balanceing it withthe help of another person using the finger method and i dont think that is a proper method maybe for some planes. Firday i'll be getting a CG machine from tower hope it will check a plane this size.
So friday i can hopefully check the CG and Saturday go fly it. I'll never do that again buy a plane from china off ebay. Well at least my next gasser i have comming is going to be alot easier to setup. I'm wondering how long i'm going to be able to fly with this plane on a full tank of fuel? Well better get back to figuring out how i'm going to balance this big prop.
Definetly will give a flight report when it happens

[Craig 01]

Good thing the engine mount came loose when it did and not in flight,could have been a bit nasty.I will go over mine with a fine tooth comb checking all glue joints and strengthen where necessary. Look forward to reading your flight report.Mine arrived today,well half of it being the wing and tail empennage box.Noticed the wing and stab tubes are carbon fibre and not the blue alloy tubes that i have seen previously. Now just waiting on the fuselage and parts box.

Cheers,
Craig.

[linkadrip]

Yes mine has the blue anodized tube and it looks thin. so may first flight is going to be an easy one i dont think i'm going to get up there and do any hard manuvers with it maybe some loops just to se if the tube flexes. then i will check it when i bring it back in.

Definetly glue all the joints in the plane. There laser cut and they glue it together i think with wood glue not epoxy. I ran my engine on mine 6 times before the motor mount came loose. but i had epoxyied all the other joins in the plane when putting it together and epoxyied the elevator stabs to the plane and changed the tubes in the back elevator to thicker aluminum ones i bought from tower hobbies

The ones that came with it were thin didn't trust them and the tail vibrated alot and I dont want it to come apart thats for sure. Hope you get yours all in good shape my rear rudder was crushed a little in shipping from china and both wings were damaged crushed to some the Ribs in the right and left wings were damaged but it didnt seem to cause the wing to look deformed to bad. and the wings slide on the tube pretty snuggly so i'm going to Chance it and fly it like that.

Got the Prop balanced it's amazing what a little red barrons clear spray epoxy will do. sprayed a little on the heavy side and it balanced horizontilly perfectly then put it verticle sprayed a little on the hub side that was heavy and now it sits anywere i put it perfectly still. this should help eliminate alot of vibration that casued the block to come loose.
But i epoxyied it real good all around all the joins in the front were the engine sits. i'm sure it made it heavier in the front but probably not enough to notice.
I can do a weigh and balance on it learned about that in school but just seems like a lot of trouble, i'm lazy i just want to throw it on a Cg machine and get the CG right and go fly it.
Been waiting to dang long the suspense is killing me i want to see it in the air but have to take the proper precautions in some areas or it will be over as fast as it started.
Hope you have good luck with yours. Wait till you see the instructions that comes with it I hope you have better luck then i have, but this is my first gas plane too it has tought me alot and been benificial as a learning tool. So future projects should go alot smoother.

[Craig 01]

Still havn't received the fuse box yet,the courier delivered it several hundred kilometres away,is now on it's way here and have been told should see it monday.The plane was purchased locally "within Australia" from a model importer on line.I inspected the wings and one has a brocken nylon wing bolt and the other has a brocken and dislodged lower cap strip,fortunately i can just get to the cap strip and hopefully will be able to pull into position and re-glue,will have to un-stick covering first as it is holding it out of line and at an angle.League employee obviously ironed straight over the brocken part.Now just have to hope the ply circular packers/retainers over the locating wing bolts are as badly glued as other parts,but i bet they will be glued to stay and wont remove easily,will have to figure a way to get them out with out stuffing alignment or the rib,then will fit blind nuts and bolt from within fuse.I think it was atique who went this way as well.Will have to check and contact him for how he went about it.Maybe,if just standard wood glue and not aliphatic or marine grade was used i might be able to wrap with cloth and water soak the pieces requiring removal.Will have another look later.Tail surfaces look good much better than the wings,whoever there at league obviously took a bit of pride in their work and the employee who "knocked" the wings together did not,was surprised to see leading and trailing edge sheeting edges brocken away at sections and again "Lets try and hide it with the covering" approach only to stand out like dogs ********.Never mind,as the old saying goes,"You get what you pay for" and i payed $356.90 au plus $100.00 au for courier fee on top.Hope the fuse,cowl etc is in better condition.Had been away from the hobby for quite a while and got back into it a few months ago and built all my aircraft prior to returning,so maybe i shouldn't compare this arf airframe or any arf for that matter to my standards.Hope the extra performs better than it looks.
Thanks linkadrip for the tips,will post and let know how the fuse looks when it arrives.
I think i will also glue the stabs solid to the tube and fuse to eliminate all movement in that area as you have done.
Yep,the manual is a beauty but shouldn't present to much of a problem for me,I hope!.This will be my second gas plane.My first was a scratch build T170 home built with Quadra 35 if i remember correctly but,that was about 16 years ago.
Cheers Mate,
Craig.

It was not atique who posted on the nylon wing bolt mod.It was another modeller on another site who helped you a bit.

[atique]

Dear Linlk Drip and Craig 01
Hi
sorry, i did not see this thread, since a long time

I would like to add the following

1. I changed the firewall totally with the thicker one to accomodate a DA-50.
2. I fiberglassed inside and outside of firewall and sides where possible to strengthen the structure
3. I changed the wing tube to carbon. (kept the other one for frightening my cat who likes to scratch the wings)
4. I am using all the servo horns from airwild MLP ( from troy)
5. I am using all the control horns on the control surfaces from Troy built models, as the stock one were no good
6. I got the model for 155 US$ all inclusive, keeping this in mind, i spent some more so that i dont loose the model for some poor quality thing
regards
Ateeq

[Craig 01]

Hi Ateeq,
Thanks for the advice with your build tips.Havn't started on mine yet,waiting on the fuselage etc box to arrive before i get into it.In two minds as to what to do with the wing bolts,once i get into it i'll decide then.
Your cat sounds like a bit of a worry,then again a quick wave of that lump of alloy and i bet it takes off like ...ahh.... a scalded cat

Cheers,
Craig.

[linkadrip]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Craig 01
	Hi Ateeq, Thanks for the advice with your build tips.Havn't started on mine yet,waiting on the fuselage etc box to arrive before i get into it.In two minds as to what to do with the wing bolts,once i get into it i'll decide then. Your cat sounds like a bit of a worry,then again a quick wave of that lump of alloy and i bet it takes off like ...ahh.... a scalded cat Cheers, Craig.

Craig make sure you put good servos in that plane of yours i maidened mine today and it crashed cause two servos stipped in flight. I didnt think it could actually happen that easily. The wind was blowing about 10 mph with 15 mph gust i turned the plane and was headed with the wind and the plane picked up speed of course and then I turned it back into the wind on a sharp turn and lost the left Aeileron servo it stripped first then it started to flutter cause it was like there was no servo there i pulled up to gain altitude and lost the right elevator servo it stripped then it was goin down. Compensated buy giving more power to the engine. full rudder forgot which way, got her into a knife edge and decreased power and brought her in that way. Close to the ground i cut back on power and the wind managed to gust at the right moment and bring the plane sort of up right. Belly landed hit a bush snapped the prop and toore the landing gear off and shreaded the left wing. but all the components seem intact. Engine appears undamaged the cowl even seems to be in good shape thanks to the bush it landed on.
BUt i'm a little bummed about it, had the plane since 2005 beleive it or not and it's first flight ended in disaster My first official crash too
Now i just have to find something to take its place hopefully the engine is not damaged internally from the prop strike. Have to say the engine ran good and everything was great i was having so much fun. Till i lost control.

Well when i get around to examining it i will take pictures and post them So all can see the damage casued buy not buying the right equipment for the plane.

[linkadrip]

Heres my damaged plane i think it can be fixed. I thinkit is worth giving it a try i want to make it look chrome anyway gonna stripp all the monokete off and get the chrome monochote do my own color schem on it and repair athe wing that were damaged from shipping in the first place and the rudder. Just make it right i dont think that It will be to hard to fix willhave to get new landing gear maybe something more flexable and not as ridged the plane didnt come down real hard but it sure ripped the gear off.

[Craig 01]

Hi linkadrip,
Sorry to hear of your crash, sounds like you did an excellent job getting it back and suffering only the damage shown in your photos and by the way, most definitely looks rebuildable.Did yours come with slots in the framing in control surfaces hidden by covering where the control horns mount,mine did and their quite large slots makes me think i should use these type horns http://www.precisionaerobatics.com/D...2mivR2Mg@05@05 and this http://www.precisionaerobatics.com/D...BnNBWTLQ@05@05
and these are vitually identical to what was supplied http://www.precisionaerobatics.com/D...NNqtB03A@05@05
The supplied bearing clevises in the kit look the same as these http://www.precisionaerobatics.com/D...oEL0PfIg@05@05
I'm just not sure if i should use the flat offset horns supplied or go with the ones shown in the link and make use of the slots already there.
As for servos i will fit good quality metal gear/arm servos and with that said i am open to recommendations on the correct ones to use for this 27% extra.I dont want to go over kill,just very reliable and of the strength required for the job.
linkadrip,i feel for you mate,but,on a positive note you can now clean up the airframe from its original construction to a plane of better quality and cover it to your likeing.

Cheers Mate,

Craig.

[linkadrip]

Craig
I used all the orginal equipment that came with the plane and it all seemed to hold up considering the crash lol. But if you can get better quality equipment i would say do it. Mine didnt come with slots in the Control surfaces for the Horns. I'm sure that your plane is a little different Then mine in construction i have the origianal desighn and after about six months they came out with a different fuse for the plane i noticed.
I purchased the Hitec HS-645MG High-Torque 2BB Metal Gear Servos 4 of them for the control surfaces. cost me a little $143.96 from tower hobbies. So glad i got the shipping waived. But it's worth it to keep it in the air without worrying about servos stripping again.
The damage isnt that bad from the crash and i can definetly make some improvment on the desighn. it broke everywere the chinamen didnt glue it. I found lots of places that have no glue, they were very skimpy on that. They put it together just enough to hold things in place, so glue every joint you can get to on it. All the places i glued with epoxy were undamaged.
And glue the engine mount thoughly, make it strong or the vibration of the engine will casue it to seperate in one place or another. My engine is unharmed thanks to my piloting skills.

The wings on the other hand are badly damaged but not from the crash they were damaged in shipping and it wasnt noticable under the covering except for the rattling of peices. But now that i have removed the covering on them its a nightmare but fixable. And i found another slot for an aeileron servo so i can put 2 servos in the wings if so desired. If i would have had 2 servos on the wing it may have held up better to the forces exzerted on them.

I have gotten most the balsa i need to repair it just have to find the ply that is in the plane now.

Going to Get the Chrome covering for the wings and some other colors havent decided on yet. The tail section is undamged so i'm not going to mess with it and it will have the same red scheme on it. Definetly going to be intresting looking when i get done with it. still have to get some supplies iron and the covering. This will be my first covering job. Hope i'm succesfull

This plane is first for everything. First gas plane first official Crash and first Covering project it has been a very educational plane, I must say all my other planes i just fly them and nothing happens which is good. kknock on wood. Makes a big difference when they start getting big.

But it's such a thrill when a big plane takes off and fly's for the first time cause there so large. Its amazing and gratifying all at the same time. I built that plane and it flying what a sence of pride No wonder it so addicting
I wish you the best of luck with your plane. The Extra 330L is a great flying plane with the right equipment there will be no worries.

[atique]

Dear LinkDrip

I am using all digital Hitec servos.. 5955TG's on the rudder, 5645MG on the ailerons and 5245 on the throttle. Dont use analog servos

Use the best stuff... if in doubt about any thing.... dont have any doubt

keep Murphys law in your mind "If some thing is going to go wrong; it will go wrong at the worst time"

wish you best of luck in rebuilding

Ateeq

[Craig 01]

Thanks linkadrip,with regard to ribs you could try League and ask them for help,dont know if that would be successful,but worth a try.

G'day atique,what sevos did you use on elevators.

Cheers Fellas,

Craig

[linkadrip]

Craig
Sent the email inquiring about the plans for the extra 330L and hopefully i get a reply and Hopefully get plans that would be great.
Your Email helped a bunch as a template to work from made it allot easier and faster, appreciate it.
With any luck something will happen but regardless if they will send out plans I'm still going to try and repair the wing going to have to do some surgery and open up the wing and hopefully find a good spar that i can make a template off of. To fabricate new spars.
But not going to give up actually it has been pretty fun fixing the plane. But if at all passable it is the best thing to avoid
Well will keep you up to date on the rebuild.
Link

[linkadrip]

Wing reconstruction so far.