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Trevor Crook

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Everything posted by Trevor Crook

  1. Trevor Crook
    Keep us posted on the weight when it's finished, Tony. My electrified one weighs exactly 4lb with 3000 3s lipo on board. My fuselage mod may help knife-edge performance and my torsion bar mod avoids bent u/c
  2. Trevor Crook
    And here's the cowl removed. Battery box at the top, with ESC velcroed to its underside. You can just see the motor down below, with a Rx pack underneath it. Here's the axle end, with the shirring elastic wrapped around the 16g cross-pieces which are soldered to the leg. The axle with the wheel on is bound and soldered to these cross-pieces in the centre. You can just see the slot in the wooden leg fairing that stops the axle moving fore and aft. This shows the wheel deflected. Note the axle fairing, which has a thin ply top, glued down in the middle and wrapped with solartex, but the ends can flex up with the axle. Finally, a view of the underside, showing how the 16g cross-pieces are bound and soldered to the legs.
  3. Trevor Crook
    OK JC, as promised, here are some photos of how I've arranged my U/C springing and cowl fixing: Here's the cowl in place, just retained at the front by the dummy radiator cap that rotates on an offset screw
  4. Trevor Crook

    Trevor Crook posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  5. Trevor Crook

    Trevor Crook posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  6. Trevor Crook

    Trevor Crook posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  7. Trevor Crook

    Trevor Crook posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  8. Trevor Crook

    Trevor Crook posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  9. Trevor Crook
    JC Sorry for the delay in responding re. request for photos. I'm a bit pressed for time for a couple of days but I'll try to provide some piccies before the weekend. I'll get the cowl and also the U/C as you've mentioned that also. Instead of using a single axle soldered across, mine has two lengths of 16g wire, spaced apart by about 4mm, soldered across between the legs and protuding by about 10mm, bent apart slightly at the ends. The wheel carrying axle is, as you proposed, 8g wire bound and soldered in the centre to the 16g pieces (running between them). I wrap shirring elastic between the ends of the 16g pieces, over the top of the wheel axle, to act as a spring. The U/C fairing is slotted to accommodate verticle movement of the axle. As you say, a picture is worth a thousand words - I'll try to oblige soon.
  10. Trevor Crook
    Oh, and JC, very neat motor mount!
  11. Trevor Crook
    I fitted a 4.8V rx pack to mine, under the motor, and the cg is perfect, albeit with a 3s 3000 lipo. Regarding the cowl. you can't use a spigot as the cowl has to be lowered down vertically. I've fitted a dummy radiator cap with an offset screw, so it just swings around over the top of the front of the cowl. Nothing holds the back, but it can't go anywhere. As the cowl is so well located (I've got flanges to prevent it moving sideways) magnets will work just fine.
  12. Trevor Crook
    Danny,the reason I suggested spruce spars is that the kit I had (admittedly many years ago) had spars that weren't very hard. There is a stress point where the dihedral braces end, and mine had the spars fracture here after relatively minor mishaps. You could miss a fracture under the covering very easily, leading to disaster. I wouldn't normally beef up a good design as it adds weight and moves the stress point to the next weakest part, but I think this one is worth doing. I haven't weighed my current SE5,which is built from the kit plan, but it's no featherweight, covered in Solartex - about 5lb I'd guess. But with all those wings it flies well on 400W, so I don't think weight is supercritical.
  13. Trevor Crook
    JC Looks like you're going to make a nice job of it. Can I offer a couple of tips? If it's not too late, replace the 1/4 square balsa wing spars with spruce - far more forgiving of minor accidents, and negligable weight gain. Also, I can't remember what the official method of holding on the top wing is, but on both the ones I've had, I used nylon wing bolts (M5 i think) screwing into tapped hardwood blocks. Have fun with the build, it flies really well.
  14. Trevor Crook
    OK, a bit more detail on mine. The motor is an E-max 2820/07, and the prop is actually a 12x6 APC clone. From memory, this motor is about 900kv, and pulls just under 40A, giving about 400W. This gives good scale performance for 8 minute flights on 3s 3000 batteries. By all means go for a higher power setup, you can always throttle down more.
  15. Trevor Crook
    Mine flies nicely on around 400W - 600W would give Pitts-like performance, although you can, of course, throttle back. The motor is an E-Max (900kV) from Giant Cod/Shark, with a 3s 3000 pack and, I think, an 11x7 prop. I'll try to post some more specific figures when I've at home tonight.
  16. Trevor Crook
    Mike If you haven't decided yet, have a look at XT60s. They give a good quality connection, the polarisation is foolproof (they even mark the polarity) and they are cheap and readily available. UK eBay sellers have them for less than £10 for 10 pairs, including heat shrink. They can be a little difficult to separate, but generally better than Deans.
  17. Trevor Crook
    Durafly Trojan I bought one of these from the 1100mm range a couple of weeks ago, and Tony asked on the previous page how the nose gear fared in use, so i thought I'd do a quick write-up. The kit comes in a nice box that would not be disgraced on a model shop shelf. the well-packed contents don't let it down - quality of mouldings and fittings are on a par with the Parkzone Wildcat I've also bought this year. Instructions are sparse, but at least theyt give the C of G position. No control throws are mentioned, so I used outer holes on servos and horns, except for the rudder where I used the inner horn hole. I dialled in my customary 25% expo. and that's fine. Glue (UHU Por Type) is provided for gluing in the tailplane. The only assembly issues were the motor rubbing slightly on the dummy motor, which was easily fixed by shaving the prop driver orifice with a scalpel, and marginal ground clearance for the prop. The noseleg is a bit short. There's room in the bay to retract a longer unit, but I couldn't see how to get the leg out of the retract unit, so I fitted a bigger wheel and trimmed 5mm off each prop blade, then re-balanced. The sprung gear doors don't quite close over the bigger wheel, but there's no buzzing or straining. I've had 8 flights so far, and she flies superbly. Take-offs are easy using half flap, there's enough power for scale manouevers, and landings on full flap are slow and controllable. No noseleg breakage issues so far. No time to write any more at present - overall verdict excellent, if anyone wants to know more, I'll try to answer any questions asked.
  18. Trevor Crook
    Been to SMC only a couple of times as I live 60 odd miles away. Each time I had to wait a bit to be served, as staff were busy with phone and shop customers. However,when my turn came they were polite and helpful. Very well stocked shop, too.
  19. Trevor Crook
    Just bought a Durafly T28 Trojan from HK. Ordered it on Monday night, it arrived today - pretty good. I ordered a spare prop while I was at it and the lot came to about £110 delivered. I've spent about an hour looking at all the parts and testing all of the electrics - everything seems to work ok. The quality of everything looks very good, and the value for money seems excellent. OK, it's not a large model (43" span) but it's fitted with 7 servos, electric retracts (noseleg has doors), an 850kV motor and 35A esc. When I started RC flying servos were £15 each - incredible! I'll file a flying report when it's happened.
  20. Trevor Crook
    Mark One of my flying buddies is a satisfied Multiplex user like yourself, but he's also bought a Spektrum Tx (DX8!) so he has access to the range of bind and fly models, specifically for indoors. You could do the same, although a DX6i would be a cheaper alternative that would do all you wanted. Peter Excellent summary of DSM2. What's really cool is the way that Spektrum have acheived full compatability beteween DSM2 and DSMX transmitters and receivers. Like Buster I've not had problems with DSM2, and can continue to use it with newer DSMX Rx's, but if I upgrade to, say, a DX8 Tx everything will still work.
  21. Trevor Crook
    Good summary Mark. Spektrum DSM2 uses 2 frequencies as you describe, but the DSSS system it uses is spread over a wide band, with sophisticated noise rejection techniques, so is a much more robust data link than a narrow band signal as used in a FHSS system. As you say, though, as FHSS changes frequency every few milliseconds, this doesn't matter. The reason I think that DSMX may be the best of both worlds is that it still uses the robust DSSS link, but hops as well (around 23 frequencies I believe) Anyway, back on topic. I bought an FMS EDF f-18, which to my surprise came with 2.4 radio. I didn't like the look of it so fitted my normal gear to fly it. I later tried the FMS set in a small, fairly expendable model well away from everyone and it seemed fine. Only had a few flights with it, though. It's now sitting on the shed shelf and may end up in a boat or car. I would certainly stick to a proven brand for my models, and although all my stuff is Spektrum, I would happily use any of the other big brands. I still fly a couple of models on 35, with no issues, so as someone said above, if you're getting on with that fine, no need to rush to 2.4.
  22. Trevor Crook
    Mark, can you elaborate on your assertion that the Spektrum system is "somewhat inferior"? I know that there has been much debate on the merits of DSM2 (broad spectrum using two frequencies) versus frequency hopping narrow spectrum, but technical assessments of the current DSMX system (broad spectrum frequency hopping) suggest it offers the best of both worlds. I've been using the older system for a few years with no problems. Don't want to turn this into a "this brand is better than that" thread, I'm just interested in what your reasoning is.
  23. Trevor Crook
    I had one of these years ago, powered by an OS40FS. I used flexi pipe from the engine to a length of brass tube that replicated the scale exhaust. This was slightly squashed at the end. The engine ran OK and was still pretty quiet. The one I fly now has a completely hidden engine and balsa exhausts - it's electric!
  24. Trevor Crook
    Cliff My son flies a 64 inch Decathlon on a 700W setup - I think the prop's around 12". It's the Black Horse one, intended for .40 glows. Flies just right, 8-10 mins from 3000 4s, this with a motor of about 900kV. Hope this gives practical help
  25. Trevor Crook
    I use XT60s now as they are such a nicely designed connector. They are sometimes a bit difficult to pull apart, but I can live with that. I like the way that the + and - terminals are identified so you don't have to adopt your own convention. I've never had one melt during soldering but there are some out there that don't use high temperature nylon. I usually buy them from EBay from a top rated seller that states that they are high temp. They also tend to come with the correct heatshrink.
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