Discussion - Lanier Husky 106" Electric conversion

[secondgear]

I know it's not your usual plane to see built here, but I thought some might be interested.

I decided a little while ago that I wanted a scale bush plane.

It had to have flaps, large wheels and be capable of STOL.
It would be nice if it was a model of a real plane as well.

I was also looking at getting a large scale plane.
Some reading was done and a few good candidates shined through.

The Sig Rascal 110 (110"ws), the Graupner Taxi (94.25"ws)and (on a suggestion from one of the local club members) the Lanier Husky (106"ws).

I ended up combining the two types of plane I was after and got the Lanier Husky 106 from Tower Hobbies. I see that they just dropped the price for the ARF.... Isn't that the way it goes

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXRLZ7&P=ML



The planned components are as follows

12s2p a123 batteries
CC 110HV speed control
Hitec HS645mg servos for the elevator halves and rudder
Hitec HS475HB servos for the ailerons and flaps
Axi 5345/14 brushless motor
22x12 prop
Spektrum AR7000 receiver
2s1p a123 receiver pack
6" dubro smooth air filled tires
2" foam tail wheel

Karl

[secondgear]

When I received the plane and unpacked it, I was very pleased with the quality of the kit.

The covering was done quite nicely. The only thing I don't really like about the trim scheme of the plane is the excessively patriotic theme it has. Red, white and blue is one thing, but the stars on the bottom of the wing???

Those stars were removed by gently peeling them off and removing the adhesive residue with nail polish remover. The stripes may still disappear some time in the future.

I did some assembling before I picked up the servos as I just couldn't wait.

I hinged the flaps and ailerons, installed the stab and hinged the rudder and elevator halves.

The tail lined up perfectly. The hinging slots in the tail were faultless as well.

The wing is pretty good. One of the ailerons got put into the drill jig at the factory backwards and was drilled in the wrong location for the controls to be installed. That was an easy fix by simply drilling a new hole. I'll cover the old hole with some matching covering in the future.

The same aileron had a bend in it as well. The hinge slits in the wing matched this curve, though and I didn't notice when I installed the control surface. I will have to remove it, straighten it and re-hinge sometime.

Some pics from when I mocked the plane up when I first got it.







I put my E-Flite Taylorcraft 450 on top as a size comparison



The room in this photo is 12 feet wide!!



Karl

[secondgear]

Horizontal stab hinged



I have my hand next to the stab to give and idea of size. Being 31" wide, it doesn't fit through a standard household door! It will fit turned, though....



Landing gear installed and the wings on. Sure pretty!



Here I have it assembled in my kitchen for a control test once the servos were installed.



Flaps up.....



Flaps down...





Here's a short video of the controls operating. I just need to set the control throws as per the manual.

Video

Now I just need to wait on some parts.

Half my batteries will be arriving on Monday or Tuesday.

The speed controller is on order.

Waiting on prices from local suppliers for the motor.

Main wheels on order.

Will get some pics soon of the radio bay.

Let's hope for a maiden soon!!

Karl

[secondgear]

I got 1/2 my cells!

This will at least allow me to power up my motor once I decide on one and receive it.

I'll post pictures of the packs I made in the next day or so.

Still a bunch left to do:

Glue windows into plane.
Assemble remaining battery packs.
Install larger main wheels.
Install speed controller, motor and prop
Mount cowling
Mount wing struts
Build the high voltage wiring harness c/w charging jacks and arming system

I would love to install a lighting system into this bird.
Has anyone used a nice system that is still available?
It would be amazing to have a nice, scale lighting system for it.

Thanks

Karl

Note: The timeline might seem a little compressed for all this to happen in 5 minutes, but I'm posting what I have done so far here. Someone mentioned that this forum would be a good place for this build.

[secondgear]

Here's some quick shots of the packs as I began to disassemble them.





Initial charge to check the pack out and make sure that all cells seemed to be working.



Shots of the Hyperion EOS1210i topping off the packs.





The security bit needed to open the packs without hassle.



The screws in the pack that the bit is required for. See the pin in the center? It keeps you from opening the pack with a regular torx bit.



Top cover removed



Removed from the lower case.



I made the following packs from the cells I harvested from the DeWalt packs:
2x 6s1p packs to power the plane
2x 2s1p packs to power the receiver and servos
1x 4s1p pack for powering up to 25 size planes

All packs have balancing taps to hook up the LBA10 balancer.

Karl

[secondgear]

I did some "social networking" today and got 2 more packs for free!!

I'm trying something different with these ones. I will charge each cell individually, so they all start out exactly the same.

That should relieve some of the cell balancing problems I am having with the other packs.

Karl

[secondgear]

I've come up with and interesting idea for an arming and charging system for this plane.

I'll try to make up a drawing and post it soon.

Karl

[secondgear]

I've got some new pictures!!

One of the batteries that I got for free had some miscellaneous gunk on them.
I don't think it would be from inside the packs as these don't really have anything like battery acid inside them.













Anyone that can identify this stuff, speak up. Did it come out of the pack?

These packs were used, but wouldn't charge using the factory charger.
Maybe something got in while they were being used on the job site.

Karl

[secondgear]

More pictures!!

Here is my very first 6s pack. I just have electrical tape around it for now until my heat shrink arrives.





Karl

[secondgear]

My big wheels came in yesterday as well.

DuBro 600RV Big Wheels



Here they are mounted on the plane



They don't look out of place at all. In fact, they could stand to be a little larger. Scaled 1/4, 31" Alaska bush wheels would be 7-3/4". That would look very sharp!!







I can't wait to land on our goat trail of a "runway" with these!!

Those bumps don't stand a chance.

Karl

[secondgear]

I forgot to mention.

From the center of the motor mounting location to the ground is 15" with the plane ready for takeoff.

Long props and big rocks!!

I can't wait to run this guy!!

Does anyone know of a good scale lighting kit for a model of this size?

Even if I just get the controller for the lights. I would like the proper strobes and some really bright landing lights if possible.

Power supply would not be an issue, I'll run another battery pack to power the lights.

Karl

[secondgear]

Took the stock tail wheel off and installed one of the main gear wheels from my Mini FuntanaX.





Size comparison



I wouldn't mind a nice balloon tire for the tail wheel as well in the future.
I'll wait and see where my CG ends up to see if I need some tail weight. If so, I know where that extra weight will be


Still to me obtained:
Speed controller (ordered)
Motor (ordered)
Prop (ordered)
Deans connectors for wiring harness (ordered)
Heat shrink for batteries (ordered)

Still to be done to plane:
Re-hinge aileron
Glue windows in
Mount motor
Install cowl
Make cooling holes in airframe
Mount batteries
Set CG

It's getting closer. I can taste it!!

Karl

[pitviper51]

THAT is a BEEUUUUUTIFUL plane you got there! great trie choice to.. i got my 80 incher in the build plans now.. just another project waiting to be built.. do you ever plan to put floats on this monster? keep the pics coming!
mike

[secondgear]

	Quote: Originally Posted by pitviper51
	THAT is a BEEUUUUUTIFUL plane you got there! great trie choice to.. i got my 80 incher in the build plans now.. just another project waiting to be built.. do you ever plan to put floats on this monster? keep the pics coming! mike

Thanks for the compliments. I am stoked about the tires as well. I would have liked to get some 7.75" tires to me scale 31" tires, but I had to go with what is available.

I don't think I'll float this guy. I will put floats on the 25 size E-flite beaver, though.

SG

[secondgear]

Does anyone see a problem with wiring the plane in this manner?



I would like to just have one shunt to disarm the plane. I am worried that running both chargers at the same time through the charging jacks could cause the plane to be live while charging.

Am I going to have to go with a series shunt as well as a shunt to disconnect one incoming line of power to the ESC as well?

Will my 2 chargers running off of the same 12v source have problems charging if they have the ESC connected between the + output of one charger and the - of the other?

Should I just play it safe?

SG