David Germany

Here is a scan of the offending part.

Good idea Chris, I'll have a go this evening. Thanks

I am currently building a Pete Kessell Apollo from his plan and have a question regarding the wing centre section. The plan appears to show the centre rib as being cut from 50mm balsa block, but this does not seem logical for a lightly loaded thermal glider. Has anyone else built one of these and if so how was the centre rib constructed. Also I hope to make the outer panels detatchable and would appreciate any ideas. David

Hi Peter, Another oldie here hoping to build the Apollo, currently drawing up a materials list. How are you progressing with the build. I seem to remember seeing some forum posts somewhere suggesting power setups for the Apollo, not sure if it was on this site though. I have a 350W Outrunner from a damaged model which I'm hoping to use, should be plenty of power. I anticipate using a 3S 2200mAh Lipo as I have several of these available and they are cheap enough to buy if necessary. I'll have to check the motor spec before deciding on the folding prop to use. I'll use a basic 40 amp ESC and would anticipate considerably less than 30 amps from the final setup. If the above proves to be too much I might consider dropping to a 2S lipo with increased capacity to make up the weight. I'm thinking of extending the fuselage forward of the wing because of the lighter weight of the outrunner / lipo set-up. Also intend to move the battery position forward for the smaller lipo, possibly move the servo's forward as well, although this might not be worth the effort. The main thing is I'm hoping to avoid having to add any nose weight to counter the lighter power train. Did you find a source for the carbon tube ? I've yet to find someone who can supply both sizes. Look forward to hearing back from you. David

David, I assume you have built the fuselage exactly as plan with a tapered nose which is why you will be restricted to 28mm dia. On advice from other BOT builders I built mine with a parallel section forward of the wing which enabled the fitting of a 35mm dia motor and I have used a Turnigy 540L V-Spec Inrunner w/ Impeller 810kv from HobbyKing. With a 12 x 6 this pulls approx 300 Watt on 3 cells and gives a reasonable rate of climb, however on 4 cells the climb is very good and a 30 second motor run takes is plenty high enough for my aging eyes. I think the preferred motor is a MVVS 3.5 Outrunner, but these are very pricy (about £90) Re the above comments on wings folding if you stick with the mild steel wing joiner you will not have a problem. I lost my joiner a few months ago and unable to locate any 1/4" bar I used 1/4" HT Ally instead, Worked fine for 6 or 7 flights until turning into wind for a landing at about 50 feet the wings folded up like a buzzard and promptly dived into the ground. Amazingly one wing panel was intact and the other suffered only a cracked root rib and minor leading edge damage, the ally bar was folded through 120 deg. The fuselage suffered only minor damage. I think maybe the higher stresses from using the 4 cell battery and the reduced strength of the ally were just too much. The joiner has now been replaced with steel as Dave Thornburg specified. I also built spoilers into the wing panel and they do work, but you need to mix in some up elevator to counteract the pitching down and keep the model level. I also included a wire joining strap across the two stabilators as I found there was a tendancy for them to pull apart slightly in flight. I also have some down elevator mixed in with throttle to prevent the nose from pitching up to sharply, or you could hold in some down during the climb. I have marked the fin with the position of the stabilators where they give a flat glide and I check this before each launch. not sure what the incidence is, I'll try to have a look tomorrow. Get someone to give you a good strong level launch without power, preferably over some long grass, you can then have both hands on the tx ready to react and you can check the glide. You'll love this model. David

I'm just about to cover the wing panels of my kit built 'Bird of Time'. The front 'D' box has been glassed with Eze-Kote and I intend to spray this with acrylic paint; The open structure will be covered with transparent Solarfilm. I'm thinking I should apply the film to the unpainted Eze-Kote, then mask & spray the sheeted areas, and covering the join with a Solartrim cheat line. An alternative would be to mask first, spray the sheeted areas, then fix the film to the previously masked rear edge of the 'D' box, and again covering with a cheat line.My previous builds have been either fully sheeted or fully open wing structures and this is the first time that I have used Eze-Kote.Any help would be appreciated. David.

Hello Ian,Motor is a KMS 2820-05, this was the one that Ripmax recommended. It's not the cheapest (about £35 I think), but it's a good quality 3 bearing job with a 5mm dia shaft.You could probably find an equivalent cheaper. The KMS motor fits straight on to the firewall without any mods. Not had a chance to fly since adjusting the COG back but ZigZag's experience would suggest it'll be fine.I'll try to get a reading of current draw tomorrow if I remember to bring a lipo in to warm it up.

Checked the balance and it's 82mm balancing level, I'll try moving the lipo back to get 90mm, If this works ok and removes some of the up elevator in level flight, I'll replace the battery forward and remove some lead.Hopefully there should be a pic of my COG balancer. Should have made the uprights a bit taller as the Wot4's wheels only just clear the base, otherwise seems ok and I'll set to and check the rest of the models.Looks like it's going to be the weekend before I get to the field again. One thing I have noticed with the Wot4 is a tendancy in still air to land rather fast with a long roll before stopping , I've put this down to the low frontal area / low drag. Could it be COG related ? I can't see that it can but I'm constantly suprised at all the interactions involved in aerodynamics.  Dave

I designed a COG balancer a while ago but never got around to assembling it, I'll try to do this today. If it works I'll try to post a photo. Dave

I'll check the COG tomorrow with the lipo (2600 4s) in it's current position and see what I've got. Dave

Thanks guys, I don't think it's the down thrust as I've allready mixed down elevator to throttle to prevent climbing under full power. The model accelerates fairly level both upright and inverted. I think I'll play with the COG as Terry suggests, a bit at a time, and see if it chenges anything. I'll also try to get a COG measurement a bit more accurate than using fingers. Am I right in thinking that the model should balance slightly nose down, or should it be dead level.Thanks again for the advice.

Have flown mine for 3-4 months now and really rate it. Was concerned when I got it because of comments on some of the forums but need not have worried. Yes it's a bit heavy particularly with the required nose weight, and yes it needs some up elevator for level flight ??? but it only needs a touch of down to maintain inverted flight.. It's not as precise my earlier Overtec Extra 260 but then again that's not what it is. I have the recommended KMS motor on 4S and it pulls vertical from slow level flight easily. I'm sure this model is capable of much more than I am.Any ideas on the need for up elevator to fly level ?

Don't forget to sort out the battery placement, as kitted there is no easy way to change batteries wihout removing the wing. As mentioned earlier I fabricated a tunnel to accept the battery, access is through the cockpit floor which is easily removable. The battery slides right up to the bulkhead and secured with a sliding plate and velcro. You were right to beef up the motor mount, I glassed much of the inside for the same reason. On 4 cells performance if definately acrobatic, but I think this model looks best doing lazy lift-ofsf and gentle climb-outs followed by low & slow passes. Dave

  Fieseler Storch DH Rapide Trent Turboprop Meteor

1) Kings Lynn Model Shop2) Kings Lynn Model Shop3) Watt 4 ARTF 4) J Perkins

I have recently built one of these and decided to set the c of g on the main spar, it did need a LOT of lead but I forgot to measure it. On the ground it feels heavy but in the air it is a real floater, approaches need to be quite low otherwise it will just float past. On 3s the power is quite scale like with gentle climb outs even on full throttle. On 4s it has good vertical performance and does ice big loops, however it looks best doing low slow circuits and will look even better when I find / make a suitable pilot, this was a very small plane and the pilot needs to look quite big in the cockpit. The stall is uneventfull and my inexperienced fingers cannot make it spin.There are definately some niggling issues with the kit but at £60 it's still good value.Oh, I made a balsa tunnel enabling me to slide the battery in through the cockpit and up to the firewall, and then secured with a velcro'd block to prevent movement, so battery changes are quite quick.

I would love and cherish it, always

Have now managed some short bunny hops but model always drifts. Broke a tail rotor linkage landing on gravel so grounded at the moment. I now feel much more confident that I will get there in the end. Thanks for all the tips. David

Thanks Owen I'll have to discipline myself with the throttle, my natural reaction as soon as anything looks wrong is to kill the throttle. I'll stop trying to hover in the dining room and try and get outside on Saturday. David

Have checked servo direct from Rx and seems ok. Have noticed that if I throttle up to the point when it just begins to lift and then kill the throttle the heli spins quite violently clockwise until it settles back down ! , is this a normal torque reaction or the symtom of a fault ?

Thanks YakMad Will check out the servos. I'm sure the problem is at the tail end. The Tx that comes with the Mini Pred does not appear to have sub-trim adjustment as far as I can see, although the symptoms would suggest that this is part of the problem, ie more servo travel in one direction than the other. Maybe I'll try the servo on my DX6i to see what happens. David

Hi Owen Have levelled the swash plate in both directions , when you say all sticks at neutral does that mean the throttle stick in the lowest (off) position, or at mid travel. Also there seems to be a problem with the tail servo which has more travel in one direction than the other (with the pushrod removed), also it does not appear to centre correctly or smoothly. This is a new digital servo that I have replaced. I tried another servo on this chanel and the problem remains, could this be a rx problem?. Hope to try another hover tomorrow. David

I have aquired a second hand Art-Tech Mini Pred Helicopter which I understand has never flown, but has crashed !. I have replaced the main blades,boom, main gear, boom supports and tail rotor servo. I have run up the motor but have been unable to get the model to lift off into a stable hover, either the heli spins madly on the floor, or it lifts off and starts to bank over to one side, I have no details as to how to set up the rotor head / tail rotors and I'm sure that there must be a logical sequence to follow for this. Any help would be greatly apreciated.