Adrian Smith 1

Not a breath of wind first thing this sunny morning. Out came my little Pilot Slick 67" for once as she doesn't get too many outings. I had to towel her off after every flight (4) because the dew was so heavy. 😀😀 though all round. PS. It can't be long now before the maize is harvested 😄

Well the alloy spinner is a 3.5" job with metal backplate I am not sure if I can get anything heavier than that. Probably need to have look round, Peter.

On to the shaping using hard balsa triangle stock for the rails. I am going to have to notch the shelf to accommodate the velcro strapping. Like so .... The shelf weighs around 2 oz therefore added to the extra 2oz from the spinner gives me 4oz of the potential 8oz required.My old woodwork teacher wouldn't be too impressed with that effort, but it is what it is. I am also going to fix the rails across the fuselage rather than along it so as to accommodate the velcro strapping. One thing's for sure I will need to reconsider the elevator throws by reducing them particularly if the plane is still a bit tail heavy. I am thinking I may have to add 4oz of weight under the tray to help achieve the correct CoG. Anyway I will finish the shelf at the next visit.

I had a testing afternoon today to try and arrange the internals to achieve the correct CoG. I got her up on the rig an it was quickly evident that the power packs need to be right upfront. I suppose I am not surprised given that she is designed for a petrol engine plus tunnel exhaust. Even with the lipos up front I still had to balance an 8oz weight on the nose to achieve a slight nose down attitude. Time for rethink. First off I am going to have to build a shelf for the lipos to sit on at the front. I have had a change of plan over the spinner as a result and will use an alloy one as opposed to the plastic one I had envisaged. That will give me an extra 2oz upfront. In the meantime I found some 1/4" ply for the shelf. The dimensions required are 10.5 cms width and 13.5 cms length.

Yeah, I know what you mean Aidan. I had a Hanger 9 Inversa 62 some years ago very well engineered without spoiling its aerobatic performance. An absolute cracker on 55cc petrol motor. The guy that bought it off me got an absolute gem!

Interesting looking at your set up which is much more sophisticated than what I use. I have an in line ammeter (up to 200A) which stores the current draw readings for one flight then resets when the juice is turned off. However, I do use it on the ground with a new model although I appreciate those conditions are somewhat different in the air. It will be good to experiment, however. Thanks for the illustrations though, Peter.

Tried again but failed!

I was beginning to think along those lines, Peter hence my hesitancy. My Sbach 342 (similar size and weight) runs the same motor using a 24x8 and seems to perform well although the same precision as F3A is not required. That said I wondered if I could improve performance if at all possible. I was thinking more along the lines of 24x9 or even 24x10. I am not sure what this would mean for the current draw at WOT. I have an interesting Pdf document that I have downloaded on these specific motors which examines the motor characteristics/efficiency of WOT on different props/voltages etc using a graph and tables. I can't work out how to reproduce it here otherwise I would believe me 😒

I am a bit undecided about which prop to use. I have a 23x8 and a 24x8 which both fall within range, but I am not sure if I should go larger. I will have a think about that. I have a spare 3.5" spinner that will need carving, although I think I might prefer one that has a back plate with a bolt that screws into the prop shaft. In the meantime I have cut a window in the fuselage floor to allow airflow though. A bit more thought before moving to the CoG rig stage checking.

I decided to position the RX and switch wiring first. I fed the throttle signal wire down the fuselage to the RX first. I then positioned the RX and switch next. I am sort of hopeful the lipo power pack positioning will be roughly here. I will have to see when I get to that.

Just for a comparison of the general area for the CoG range between the Capiche 50cc and Capiche 140 below. Capiche 50 cc Capiche 140. I am going to have to adapt a couple of CoG balancing templates to use for the Capiche. Fortunately the CoG line matches the mid range point here on these templates. That should do it when I get to doing that job.

Great array of F3A aircraft there, Peter. Glad it went well ✈️

Funnily enough, I looked back at a couple of my aerobat settings to see what's what. My 91" Slick (Goldwing) has Elevators at 20mm +/-, Aileron 22mm+/- and Rudder 30mm +/- which seem ideal for me. Sadly I can't find any record of what the throws are on my Sbach (Goldwing) which is also 50cc electrified, but I guess that are no too dissimilar to the Slick.

In truth I am not an exponent of 3D and never have been, Peter. I am more along the lines of freestyle aerobatics rather than the strict F3A precision flying. That said I take your point on the throws they do seem a bit excessive to start with. There are no recommendations for low rates I guess that's because it's a plane that's really not meant for the novice flier in any shape or form. Anyway I am still a little way away from the maiden as there are still a few jobs and checks to be done before I commit to air, so I have some time to think about it.

In the end I reduced the end points on the elevators and rudder to 30mm and 40mm respectively as I didn't want to go crazy at the start plus the throw look quite wide. The ailerons remain at 20mm. Used my preferred gauge provided by the now defunct Aeroworks. Wow! I had some great aerobats from them back in the day. I looked at the recommended CoG range and marked on the inner rib out of interest. Seems that the forward measurement is well behind the wing spar. I will check again on that and I will also look at my old Capiche 140 to see where the CoG range is located on that.

Thanks, Philip. There will be plenty of air flow through Capiche. I will be cutting the covering where the exhaust tunnel is. 👍

Time to give some thought to the throw settings. The manual sheet gives intermediate settings from the inboard point as ailerons 20mm +/-, Elevator 35mm +/- and Rudder 45mm +/-. For advanced it just says MAX for all! The CoG normal range is 225mm up to 240mm for experts from the leading edge of the wing at the root. I will probably settle on mid-range for the CoG to start with and intermediate throws and see how I go. That's the next work shop visit sorted I think.

I have had a good morning. Unboxed the replacement OPTO ESC (130-160A) ready to solder on all the gold connectors . I went for a slightly higher priced Platinum HobbyWing ESC. After all the soldering was done I decided to attach the programme box. The default setting is for Helis so it was a quick job to change to Fixed wing. I quickly flicked through the values until I reached the Timing setting. The default is 15 with the option of going up to 30. Balancing out the need for power + duration I left it here. Obviously raising the timing to nearer 30 will give more power at the cost of duration. There is no guide on the motor manual as to the preferred timing so it's a case of suck and see. The ESC is supplied with a fan unit which can be attached to the ESC. I am not sure if this is a gimmick or not as I have not fitted one before to a couple of other HW ESCs and they have been ok. Any thoughts or views on that if you have used them before? Last job this morning was to tidy up the wiring and yes the throttle works just fine after calibration with the TX. The throttle signal lead underneath the ESC will be sleeved with a coiled plastic protective tube before I put the cowl back on. Hopefully I will be able to get on with the assembly next week.

No, Philip no leads disconnected. All my ESCs are OPTO because my squadron is basically large scale. I haven't given up on it completely. It's less of a priority now, but I will test it again on another set up as you suggest after I have checked the soldered connections. I consider Hobbywing ESCs to be of good quality and they are by no means the cheapest on the market. I am just a bit surprised on this one as I have never had a problem with them. I am going to replace it one way or another so that I can get on with the Capiche assembly. Thanks again for your input. 👍

I will try that, Philip. It's not as though I don't have a relationship with MSL. In fact I order loads of stuff from them so I hope they realise I am not trying it on. 👍

At last a positive outcome! As Philip suggested I dug out the only spare ESC I had which was a lower specification ie: FlyFun 110A Opto. I had to re-solder some gold connectors on to match those on the Capiche motor and power drive leads. I did use 2 x 6S lipos wired up in series. Fired it all up and lo and behold the motor sprang to life! Checked her all over happy that test was completed. What to do with original ESC? I bought it 2 months ago for this specific project from Leeds MS, but since I soldered some connectors on it I guess that negates any guarantee. I guess I will just had to put that one done to experience. Anyway onwards and upwards as I will have to source another OPTO ESC rated to my set up.

I really appreciate your feedback, Philip. Sounds like a good plan to start with. I have another ESC that I can try. I may have to solder some different gold connectors on, but that is small beer in the route to the truth.👍

The last time something like this happened which was some years ago it was proved as a faulty motor. I can't seriously can't imagine a brand new Dualsky GA6000.8 as being faulty surely ....... they are usually so reliable.

After a positive start I eventually had a deeply disappointing morning ....... 😖 First job was to link the RX to the TX - all good. Plugged in the rudder, elevators and ailerons to the RX. Altered the senses where necessary and got them functioning perfectly. Incidentally it is a quirk of Futaba that to get the throttle working the channel has be reversed. This has been done on all my models in the memory by the way. On to the business end which started promisingly. I plugged in the throttle lead to the Programming box using the 2S battery as a power source and this what I got - Something not right here. The instructions in the manual at best are poorly worded with the English a bit difficult to follow. Anyway I decided to dispense with the 2S Lipo and just plug the throttle lead (No separate programming lead from the ESC by the way) into the box with the power generated by the power train Lipos Alleluia!! All good. Checked all the values and they are all in line with my thoughts. Next I decided to calibrate the throttle range with the programming box disconnected. I made sure the end points were sufficient wide on the TX throttle channel as normal compared to my other models. I performed the calibration method as described in the manual (standard method) However, the motor won't run at all - dead as a Dodo. The only thing that happens is a single beep every 6-7 seconds from the motor. Looking at the ESC trouble shooting guide it seems it could be somewhere in the throttle lead signal, but not certain. The ESC is set for 12S so it's not that as I am using two 6S lipos in series. The other suggestion is that there is no throttle signal from the RX. Well it worked in Programming Box so why not now. Throttle range too narrow? Nope - 100%+ either way. Throttle stick not been moved to the bottom position - certainly has. The next thing to look at is all the connections I guess. Failing that I will try the power train and ESC from my Sbach which has the same motor as the Capiche. At least if I try my Sbach ESC and wiring set up in the on the Capiche's motor to see if it's a faulty motor. Or just swap the motors over to see if it's the Capiche's ESC that's at fault, but I am doubtful. I even checked to make sure I got the ESC which is an OPTO version. Not that then. Right now now I am too exasperated to try anything next and I have just left it on the bench for another day having spent the best part of 2 hours trying thing to see if they work. Any other suggestions gents? All gratefully received as I am not too experienced to learn a new lesson.

Wow! what a day and display. Great pictures. 👍 😀