Sunbird 60 maiden

[tony cooper 2]

Well it's taken a while to finish, due to work and other none flying related things but the sunbird was finally ready to maiden, so with a moderate westerly I set off to my local slope, surprisingly quiet for a lovely sunny day , so with a few nerves I took the plunge and launched my first mouldie.
Now im not the most experienced pilot , as ive only been flying about a year but nothing ventured nothing gained kept telling myself, but at nearly £400 fully kitted out you do have second thoughts!!!! I was slightly worried about the trim for the Tailplane and visions of it flying straight into the ground but as it turns out it was spot on, this plane certainly carries some speed, I didn't really push it , just enjoyed zipping along the slope and some doing some fast turns, nerves set in again with the thought of landing as my hands were getting cold, I tested the the crow brakes at height and all looked ok other than slightly too much elevator comp,
After bringing her round the back of the slope I applied the crow and she floated down with ease, and a big smile on my face, can't wait to get another nice day and have a play with the rates and expo. That's the maiden over with and she's still in one piece, great fun !!!!

[GeeW]

Well done on the maiden Tony. Love my S/bird. A good tip is to reduce crow just before touching to reduce the possibility of stripping flap servos on touch down as they hang below the bottom of the fuselage.

Just wait to your first strong wind day.....then you will learn all about enjoying yourself, the energy retention of these mouldies is a pleasure to behold.

[Bustergrunt]

I cannot wait to get my hands on the SB I've ordered...It'll be my 'other' 60" mouldie so I can now use the other as a holiday hack

[Simon Cunliffe]

I've just received my Sunbird and it is a nice bit of kit! I'm struggling with servo choice at the moment. I've seen these which should fly in!

**LINK**

**LINK**

My reservation is whether or not they will have sufficient torque or not. Any thoughts? (Which did you use Tony?)

Also I'm not really looking forward to putting in the control horns, it looks as though a spar has to be cut through! Also it looks like another spar will have to have a substantial amount of material removed to get the linkages through. Can someone reassure me.

Cheers

Simon

[Bill_B]

Hi Simon, yes, the aileron/ flap leading edge spars need to cut through to mount the horns. Also, the trailing edge spar will need a fair bit of material to be removed to enable the pushrods to fit through. Just take your time removing small amounts of material at a time and it'll be ok. I used Swiss (needle) files to fashion my holes.

There's some info that you may find useful here on RCGroups.

[tony cooper 2]

Simon

I used 255 savox servos all round on mine. After speaking with tony fu at sloperacer he recommended these as you can slide them between the skins if you remove the mounting holes which gives you a bit more room for the linkage. Its a tight fit but mine is a couple of years old now and had been trouble free. Can't comment on fitting the control horns as mine came pre fitted.?
Hope you enjoy your bird as much as I have.
Cheers Tony

[Simon Cunliffe]

Thanks for the advice and info.

It is good to know that the Savox 255's fit under the servo cover bubble... it must be a snug fit!

And in the RCGroups there are a few relevant posts regarding fitting the control horns dotted about through the thread.

P58 Nice clear image of where you go in to fit the horn and clearly shows orientation of horn

P59 Jig for fitting horns... I'm not sure about whether or not this is a good idea or needed

Thanks

Simon

[Bill_B]

I also used a jig to set the horns, but you don't have to, you just need a good eye for detail instead. What you might find is that the white plastic wipers on the control surfaces will need a little trimming and I used a very fine flat file to do mine. It's a painstaking process, but if done correctly will pay dividends. The worst on my particular Sunbird was the rudder wiper as it limited the amount of left rudder I could achieve. I've enclosed a couple of pics to show the flap horn position and the hole through the wing spar.

[Simon Cunliffe]

Cheers Bill, like they say a picture paints a thousand words! Looks a nice neat job.

Did you use a jig similar to the one on the other forum?

Simon

[Bill_B]

Yes, I did use something similar, but don't get hung up about creating a complex jig, I don't believe it's that critical. A couple of people I know with Sunbirds have just lined their's up by eye whilst using 10 min. epoxy without any issues.

Each to his own I guess. BTW, Are you putting a ballast tube in? If you are it'll need some careful planning to make sure it's over the CG so you don't get trim changes when you ballast it up. Fitting a ballast tube also means you'll need a small Rx as the Sunbird isn't known for having excess space up front!

Edited By Bill_B on 14/04/2014 10:42:53