Fliton Extra 330 Mini

[Bobbydog]

Hey everyone,

I picked up a Fliton Extra 330 Mini last week and fully intended to do a build thread on it. I got in the first few hours and then the camera mysteriously dissapeared... I guess the wife took it on her trip for a few days. So anyway, Ive got a few before pics and a few afters.

Heres how the plane comes in the box. This is my first Fliton plane and I'm amazed at how well put together the parts are. I hope the people in China know how good they are! The covering job is better than I could do myself and I'm VERY picky. The only thing I dont like about this plane is the color scheme. The pink has got to go...

Bob

[Bobbydog]

The manual is printed on nice thick paper, unfortunately the instructions are not very clear in alot of areas and I found myself figuring it out as I went. There was a few parts that were not shown on the manual at all, like a 1 foot length of carbon rod and small ply squares. Not a biggie for someone that has built a few planes, but if your a beginner it could be a little tough at some points. I'm sure the carbon rod is whats left over from the "wing tube" and could be used for control rod upgrades, however they kit does include prebent control rods already. The small square ply blocks are for the control horns I believe. The idea being that you put the control horn on one side of the surface and the block on the opposite side.

The hardware kit is good and bad. All of the screws are too long and pertrude through the other side of the control surfaces even if you use the ply blocks. So you have to cut them down. Again not a big deal but smaller screws would make more sense. The control horns themselves are a little rough and have to be drilled out. I went with the Dubro micro horns instead.

The cowling is excellent quality, however it is a little too big around the edges so it doesnt "mesh" nice with the fuse. At least that is what mine is like.

The micro control horn connectors are a little heavy, but are good quality. I instead used the Dubro micros on the ailerons. I would have used them on the tail feathers also but was out of the Dubros..

The landing gear is made of fibreglass and are really good quailty. The wheel pants are fibreglass also.

The kit comes with two different motor mounting options, one for electric and one for a .15 glow engine. Unfortunately both of my motor kits were badly warped and required me to duplicate a few pieces from new ply. I think this might be a result from the plane sitting on the shelf somewhere and drying out...

Bob

[Bobbydog]

The rudder control linkage interferes with the elevator, so I had to cut out a small section to make room. I've run into the problem many times before, so its not a fault with this kit. I think its just because of the extreme angles I demand.

Heres a pic of the two different control horns. I like the Dubros because its "slipperier" than the anodized alum ones, so I can make the control rod nice and tight in the hole and still have it swivel nice.

[Dangerous Dan]

Looking good I have an extra 260 mini on order

[Bobbydog]

In the last set of pics I forgot to mention that those pushrods you see are my own creation. The ones that come with the kit are just steel prebents. They have alot of flex in them especially the rudder so I made my own. If a person had some carbon rod available you could just slip it over the prebents to stiffen them up.

Another nice feature is that the CA hinges come installed in one control surface already so you just have to slip it in the other half and glue.

[Bobbydog]

Heres another problem I had. The elevator joiner between the two elevator halves was way off square. It comes pre glued on one side and it was set at around 80 deg's. I had to cut it off and redo it. Not a biggie.

I have never "smoked" a canopy before, only dyed, so this was my first attemt at it. I picked up a airbrush from the hobby store but I think I got too cheap a one. I dont plan on using these things for anything other than canopies so I only spent 50 bucks on it. I'm not sure if I used the wrong kind of paint or the airbrush is crappy. I used Tamiya "smoke" arcyllic paint. The paint didnt flow at all on the canopy as I put it on, just kind of "pebbled" up in balls. Almost like it was dried before it even hit the canopy. Any suggestions on this be great.

[Bobbydog]

I added a exit hole for the cooling air. Strange that they didnt include one knowing that people would be using electric power. I added a couple balsa cross members to hold the covering in place after cutting out the hole.

I also cut a small hole in the cowling, in the underbelly directly in front of where the ESC is located. Hopefully that will keep it cool enough.

[Bobbydog]

The canopy doesnt come with any type of latching system. I guess they expect you to screw it on and off every time you change a lipo. Anyway, I threw together this spring type latch which works really good and stays on tight enough that its a little tough to get the hatch off even when you want it too. Its a copy of a E-flite Edge canopy latch system that I seen.

Bob

[Gregg28]

The Extra 330 Mini is the workhorse of my fleet. I really love it. It is not the easiest to put together and needs some modification around the wing spar and landing gear, but it is really a phenomenal flier. I replace the stock landing gear with wire gear.
What motor are you using? I really like the Hacker A20-20L with TP1320s.

Have Fun

[Bobbydog]

Ive had a chance to fly it three times now. The first two flights went great, but the third was a little bit different. A damned tree jumped out at me! I was forced to fly in a tight area that I had never flown in before, I just couldnt wait untill my landing strip was ready. I came in for a landing and thought that the tree was alot farther away from the plane than it was. The plane spent 5 days at the top of a 150 foot cedar! I ended up hiring a tree topper to climb up the tree and get it for me. I tried but only got 30 feet before my knees started to shake so bad I thought I'd fall off the ladder lol. Anyway, he got it down and now its sitting in the hanger untill the grass comes in on the runway.

I'm using a E-flite Park 480 in it and a 2100mah lipo. The plane does feel a little heavy so I just ordered some 1200's. I have a ton of 2100's and was hoping I could get away with them, but they are 2 oz's heavier. I also think that the 480 might be a little too big. I was going to try my Himax 2816 in it. Its almost an oz lighter but is only capable of 16 amps constant. Thats 160 watts for a 1.3 lb plane, not great. Anyway, I'll post a few more build pics here in a min.

[Bobbydog]

I read many posts on how the landing gear likes to rip out of these planes so this was my take on a strengthener. The braces run the full width of the plane and distribute the load evenly. On my first landing, which I greased I might add, cracked one side of the fiberglass landing gear. Way too soft if you ask me. At least for grass landings. So I'm going to do as you did Gregg and throw in some wire gear. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it yet, if you could post your arrangment I'd appreciate it.

I had a velcro seatbelt installed, but found it a real pain in the butt with the tight quarters, so I came up with this "Pillow" idea. It is so much better than a velcro belt I will try to use it in every other model I build now. I also glued a "platform" over the cross members that are to hold the lipo, then glued a piece of velcro on that. The battery is going nowhere. It was very easy to get the recommended CG with a 2100mah lipo.

[Gregg28]

Sorry, I have not been keeping up with this thread. Here is a post with some pictures:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...&postcount=389
It is basically a 3 layer plywood sandwich with the middle layer cut out to receive the wire gear. The sandwich is then glued into the fuse with a triangular wedge piece to tie it to the firewall. The gear is from a Great Planes Super Sportster Mini, available from Tower.

[wcc963]

i have the mini edge, and im planning on putting the e-flite 450 in it or would the 400 be a better choice?

[Gregg28]

	Quote: Originally Posted by wcc963
	i have the mini edge, and im planning on putting the e-flite 450 in it or would the 400 be a better choice?

I have to be careful here. I really like the way these planes fly on the Hacker A20-20L, which is similar to the Park 450. In my mind, that is the only way to go. That being said, a lot of people prefer the Hacker 30-28 size, closer to the Park 480. I guess it depends on how you fly.

[T. Bob]

I bought this a week ago it seemed like a good deal.

http://fliton.com/catalog/product_in...288b63328468ed