Adrian Smith 1

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. 👍 😀

Well RM turned up after all with the Programming Box 😀 There are stick on labels for different applications. In this case I want the FlyFun V5 table 1. There are couple of other labels if needed. As I am using a HobbyWing Flyfun OPTO ESC the throttle wire plugs into the left hand slot while power source of up to 8.4v goes into right socket. This according to the manual. I am using a 2S RX lipo for this purpose. This is because there is no separate socket in the ESC for a programming lead. Hopefully I will get this sorted during the week.

Royal Mail at it's finest sent me an email Saturday saying delivery was for that day (that's an aspiration rather than a promise by the way). That didn't happen although I have had another email today to say it will be delivered today (Sunday!!!) . I will see about that Huh ..... Admittedly I paid for 24hr delivery and today will be 48 hours ...... 🤔

There's a good chance you are right,Gary. My good lady wife said that I had probably had a "Daddy look" and that's why I can't find it, adding that if I did a "Mummy look" it will come to light!

The job is to set up the motor with a Hobbywing programming box. The ESC is an Opto 160 FlyFun 130-160 HV and I thought I had the correct box ..... Nope, it seems I need a specific Hobbywing FlyFun box V5! Now I thought I had one as I appear to have the instructions for it. Do you think I can find it? Grrrrr ........ So it's a swift purchase from Nexus for £9.99 to source the correct one. That's about it until the box arrives.

Bit too hot to fly today (for me anyway) therefore I decided to do a bit on the Capiche. U/C comes next. Nothing strange here, but I must mention the wheel collets which have a proper hex bolt in them. Much better than the infernal grub screws which if you drop it's hells on job to find them. As a modification I strengthened the spats with fibre glass cloth and resin. The rest was conventional all fixed after that.

Great video on the vintage aircraft in June, Dom. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would want to be the guy spinning the prop to start though! 😅

I just add couple of photos to my previous post here. My ride-on (Atco 30H) was bought 3-4 years ago and I do all the maintenance such as oil change, plug and air filter. Blade and belt is serviced by the distributor locally. The main no-nos for a long life for the belts is definitely no mowing when wet and not trying to cut too much in one go. The belts seem to last around 3 years by and large. You see what I mean about the tunnel effect at the moment when flying!

I have my own ride-on for this purpose and is stored at the farm where my workshop is. I have noticed that this year I have had to cut the strip at least once a week which is a testament as to how much rain there has been. Most previous years during the summer I can get away with sometimes 2-3 weeks without having to mow it. 😒

nice bit of kit 😀

Next down to the other end. With the rudder servo at neutral I connected the wires to the rudder where most of the further required adjustment will take place. I re-covered the hole cut in the white film behind the the canopy as hopefully I won't need to get behind it again. Before I do anything else I will finish off the main undercarriage assembly. I will reinforce the spats internals with glass fibre cloth to help with wear and tear. That's for the next visit.

Back to the work shop this morning. Firstly, I pegged the rudder on neutral with a bulldog clip. I did try the saw scalpel to effect an enlarged cut out for the rudder cables. Not quite strong enough for the challenge. Pause for a bit of head scratching. The answer lay in my box of blades. I found a slightly stronger saw blade that nicely fitted into a modelling knife handle. First job is to remove the rudder servo and while I was at it I strengthened the screw holes with thin cyano and accelerator. Then set about cutting the slots and finishing off with a file. Back with the servo and arm and refitted the couplers. Much better though I say it myself. The new slots now allow for full movement of the servo horn. I decided, because of the limited space down the fuselage, to adopt crossed wire geometry for the rudder control. I know this method to be quite successful if my other models are anything to go by.