n00bs Gonna Build a Carden

[gareth.ky]

Oh snap, that's a really good idea. Thanks SunDevilPilot1!

I like how that gets around the issue of using some of the servo torque in flight to fight the springs. You can even use wider holes on the servo arm and narrower holes on the tail wheel to get some oversteer. With my rudder servo mounted in in the bottom it will be easy.

[SunDevilPilot1]

You may wrap the cables in fuel tubing where it will hit your carbon tailwheel bracket. Save on wear and tear.

SunDevilPilot

[gareth.ky]

I hate flight 0. You always know something is going to go wrong but you cant tell what. Sometimes its minor and sometimes its major. I don't think i have ever had a totally trouble free maiden. So today it was time to go out and get it over with.

The Good:

We ran the engine with the cowl off. With the factory needle settings it sounded pretty good. Loud, powerful and it idles like a swiss watch! I mean I have never heard a gas engine idle quite as smoothly as that.

I got everything buttoned up and did one last control check and cranked it up to maybe 1/2 throttle and it took off. It was immediately clear that it needed a bunch of down trim. Once that was under control it flew very smoothly. I'm not sure if the trim was a CG issue or just me not getting center on the elevators right. I'll investigate more tonight.

So I brought it around the first lap and the motor was kind of surging and I gave it a bit more gas. I don't think I got past 1/2 throttle the entire flight. There is no throttle curve so I know there's more stick left, as it were. It's flying very smoothly at this point and all is well. Just tooling around.

The Bad:

So about 1/2 way through the second lap we some some small yellow object depart the airplane WAY out from the field and I know instantly that its a wheel pant. I've become one of those pilots that can't keep their pants on. The hurtful part about this is, I have 4 longer bolts and nylon lock nuts at the field for the pants but I though I wouldn't need it. Think Again.

So I decide to land in case the other one is about to let go and sure enough it is starting to fall off. The airplane set right up to land and touched down without a problem. I was thinking I would have to go around but its really easy to land.

The Ugly:

On closer inspection the nut holding in the axle for the right wheel is missing and its just the wheel pant holding things together. I very nearly lost the wheel!

The wheel pants are my bad, I should have use the hardware I bought for them. We search the countryside for 1/2 an hour in the 100 degree heat but couldn't find it.

The deal with the axle is just stupid. It's a PSP Titanium axle. Its course threaded which that may have to do because of the metal. Its comes with some nuts that are no nylon lock nuts. Standard hardware store nylon lock nuts are too long for the nylon part to grab. I humbly request that PSP ship a titanium nylon locknut with their axles. I really like the C-clips they use instead of wheel collars. for now I'm going to switch to the Dubro axle. They come with fine threads and nylon lock nuts and I can cut them for the C-clips.

Special Mention:
Jersey Modeler. I think Dan was making fun of the big nipple that is the fuel dot. Those fittings really do work. All the way home I couldn't smell a drop of gas in the car. That, to me, is totally worth it.

[gareth.ky]

I looked at the elevators and they were not set up right. Totally my fault. I have it sorted out now and I'll start from 0 on the trims tomorrow.

The spark plug boot twisted around in flight and the wire made contact with the sharp edge of the cowl cutout. It was about to start cutting into the wire. It's probably good the flying stopped when it did. I'm working on some wire routing clamps to make sure it stays pointed backwards.

Also the magnets were not quite strong enough to hold the removable tunnel plate in place. I'll fix that by adding some rails so it slides out.

Should be good to go tomorrow and really start breaking in that motor.

[gareth.ky]

For Flight #2 Jim suggested I go in 1/2 a turn on the high speed needle. I also got all the trim out of it and centered up all the sub trims. The flight went fine and I just did some laps around the field.

I set up for a touch and go and the motor just died. It was going too fast and wound up hitting the fence and the end of the field. I flared it at the last second and the fence kinda gave so it was all good. We could see most of the bolts in the cowl had fallen out and it was a little ripped on one side. then I noticed that the header had come loose (no locktite). The CF tail gear was cracked. It was also basically out of fuel.

I ran to Ace for replacement hardware and Jim donated some bonded washers to secure the cowl & CA to fix the tail wheel. Soon it was good to go. I used locktite on the header bolts this time. I'm using the gasket that came from DA but apparently the red silicone works better.

For flight #3 we went in another 1/8 turn on the high speed. It flew great and I did a CG test (roll inverted on 45 up line) and its perfect. Its not changing pitch with throttle either. I kept switching from 1 click of up trim back to center. It just slightly sinks at zero trim but my elevators may not be perfectly centered.

I was getting more adventurous, doing some basic IMAC maneuvers. I don't have much time on it yet but it does everything I ask without an issue. Its a great confidence builder. After the flight everything looked like it was in the same place. I took off the cowl and tightened the header bolts while it was still hot.

On start up of Flight #4 some observant club member who's name escapes me said the motor was loose. We checked the bolts and sure enough he was right. I had lock nuts on those so it must be the plywood compressing.

I flew a little and then handed the sticks to Jim. When he was done I realized I forgot the timer so I did some slow rolls and set up for a perfect landing. Nice way to end the day.

Took it all apart and found the landing gear is coming loose. More locktite!

A big thanks to Jim Flannigan and Greg Ward for helping me out.

[TrojanMan]

One happy camper!



Great job on the Extra!

Jim

[FlyguyXII]

Congrats! Glad to hear things are working out for ya hope to see some video soon!

[gareth.ky]

The last flight I put on it I was really starting to feel comfortable with the airplane. I'm trying to get the throws dialed in for low/IMAC rates. At first the snaps looked ***** and I had too much elevator and not enough aileron throw. Now they are getting closer to where I like the feel of the airplane. I still want more rudder, I may end up flying it with close to full throw and lots of expo.

The motor was running like a champ until day #2 of the Heatwave. Then it started flooding and became difficult to start. Last time I had it started it was bogging down when I throttled up. That's a no go for me. It's on its way back to DA for them to take a look at it. They will also do the latest mods.

I have to do a better job of sealing up the exhaust port. I was using the gasket but it developed a leak. Then I tried the red silicone but I didn't give it enough time to cure before applying pressure and it leaked also. When I get it back I'll give it a couple of hours to cure before I go cranking on the bolts. Oil is all over the front end.

I'm going to add 1/8" or maybe 1/4" to the spacer block to push the spinner out a little further. This will also help with the CG, not that it really needs it.

This airplane feels really good upside down. The CG is really close to perfect. Once I get the rudder dialed in it will do really great slow rolls. I'm starting to think that Mode 1 and Mode 2 will be the same except for the rudder.

We have done some testing for aileron bloback. Initial tests indicate there is none. I have done a down line roll test where I come over the top and start rolling, then stop and start again after the airplane pick up some speed. I can see an increase in roll speed when I start rolling again. I can also move the linkage in one hole on the servo arm for even more leverage but the lock nut hits the servo body.

So far so good. Thanks everyone.

[gareth.ky]

Oh I forgot to mention how the electrical setup is working out.

The Fromeco switches appear to count a little higher than the charger puts back. So if the switch says "0.9" (900mah used) the charger might put back 650mah. I'm not sure yet if this is some sort of drift but it would make sense if it was. Error on the side of caution is good.

The packs are staying balanced across the airplane. So the pack that's working the ignition & Rx drains no more than the other pack that works just the Rx. To me, that makes perfect sense. The Rx sees two different voltages from the packs and will draw more current from the pack with the higher voltage. When I charged the packs last they were within 20mah of each other after 4 flights and 680mah used each.

Flight times are a little low right now (maybe 8-10 mins for 32oz) but it may be a carburetor issue (the reason the motor is on its way to DA). Still only 1400mah total used for 4 flights like that. With 4600mah on board it could fly for 2 hours on a charge. That's a lot of flying!

[gareth.ky]

With the motor off to DA and a contest coming up in 2 weeks it was a good time to get more covering done.

I read all this stuff about cutting on glass and so I had to give it a try. I got a 56" x 15" mirror for $22 at the hardware store to cut on. Once you try glass you wont go back. The razor blades just cut better on glass. I peeled the backing off and stacked the Monokote in two layers. First layer is glue side down and the second layer is glue side up. Lots of Windex in between the layers so they are easy to position. Then you can squeegee it all out and the stuff wont move at all.

I made templates in CAD and had them printed at Kinkos. The prints cost more than the mirror . then I marked the templates with a sharpie and cut all the parts out. The nice thing about two layers is you get 2 parts for 1 cut and they are reflected for right and left.

I used the "floating" or "windex method" to apply the parts to the model. That part was cake. Use lots of Windex and Windex over the top too. Then you can use a soft silicone spatula (something that wont scratch the Monokote) to get 90% of the liquid out. The parts will dry for 24 hours and then I'll use an iron on low heat to seal the parts in place.

I'm really happy with how well this bit came out. I'll get the bottoms done too this week.

[eagle1]

looking good gareth, keep up the good work and the post, pleasure meeting you at the heatwave

[KEITH RUSH]

Gareth,

What band saw did you buy and where did you get the new table with the miter and fence for it? I think I seen it say Craftsmen on it. I have a Craftsmen 9" band saw and the table that comes with it is pretty crapy.

Great job on the build. You included alot of great links to other builds that I have been trying to refind myself, so thanks.

Keith

[gareth.ky]

Thank You Keith.

The bandsaw is an 12" Craftsman (model# 22400). We are pretty sure its made by the same company that makes the fairly well regarded Rikon saws. i have some pics up here.

The key difference is the Craftsman model has a HEAVY cast iron table and the Rikon has an aluminum table. The table and fence suck. The guide slots are not cut precisely so my miter gauge can wobble. Its also too heavy for the off center tilt mechanism. Makes setting a precise bevel kinda hard. the table is also non 'standard' so the nice Kreg aftermarket fence wont work with it.

I got mine on sale and paid something like $280 for it. At that price is a lot of saw for the cash and you can forgive a lot. It can be adjusted into true and can cut straight. Something apparently not all saws will do. I could make a nice aftermarket table for it, one that's longer to support wings, pretty easily.

If I had more money for a saw I would look at the Grizzly 14". You can pay a lot more money for less saw than that.

The miter gauge is an Incra. I got it from Rockler.com. They are great, just try not to spend all your money there.

[gareth.ky]

This is too easy. The stuff just irons down without an issue. I think it looks alright, all opinions welcome. The fuse still needs two red stripes down the side and the registration number which will be "VC-CYA"

I think now that i should have covered the tail all in yellow and some something more creative with it.

Now if I could just paint worth a

[why_fly_high]

Dude, that looks good! Did you do something with the turtledeck where the idiot kicked it? You can't see it in the pictures.

I really like it. Finish up the paint and she will be finally done.

Dan