Durafly Sea Vixen ARF

[MThemadhatter]

I have picked up one of these for my birthday

I got the ARF version and am transplanting the power train and servos from my HABU

Here is a link to the kit with a buddy discount **LINK**

I am not going to do the whole unboxing thing, there are loads of threads and videos covering this out there but rather sharing my thoughts about putting one together from scratch.

Having said that the quality of the packaging and the kit its self is very good.

The first job I tackled was working out the installation of the ESC and routing the wires to the DF unit.

I put the ESC on the underside of the battery tray, the only snag with this is it will make removing it a bit of a pain in the future.

Routing the cables so that they do not interfere with the airflow is a little trickier. This is made harder because the ESC is on the top half of the fuse and the fan unit bolts to the bottom half so you can't finish the installation until the two halves are glued together. The Eflite DF-15 unit fits in neatly enough but I ended up digging out some foam and running the cables past the cheater holes and then down a channel on the side.

I am planning on hand launching and belly landing mine so I am leaving the landing gear off and will make some covers for the wheel wells.

I have used 30 min epoxy to glue the to fuse halves together, wings and booms the fit of these parts is nice and tight.

As it is going to be a belly lander I am reinforcing the fuel tanks. I am glassing them and then running some 2mm carbon rod through them and up into the wing.

I am not going for a perfect finish here as these fill take the brunt of landings. I am not planning on fitting the rest of the ordnance until I have flown it a few times.

[MThemadhatter]

I installed the stab today along with the servos.

I am using one of the DSV130 digital metal gear servo 's from the habu for the elevator. It required a little adjustment of the servo pocket.

I have an 800mm lightweight servo extension for the elevator.

For the wing servos I used the SV80 servos from the Habu. I did not have much choice in this as I could not undo the retaining screws for the servo arms on the remaning DSV130's and broke one screwdriver head trying

Again this required a little trimming of the servo pockets. I extended the servo leads to 800mm to reach the RX.

Its worth noting that the servo pockets have been paintes so I removed the paint before gluing the servos in

I have not taped down the servo leads but rather spot glued them in and painted them to help them blend in. That way if I change my mind about retracts I wont take a load of paint off the bottom of the wing. One thing I found is that the decals are very brittle and it hard even with a fresh blade to cut them away neatly.

Just waiting for the epoxy to set on the fuel tanks I will then smooth them off and put a flow coat on.

[Olly P]

Nice job so far!

[MThemadhatter]

Thanks

I have made some more progress with a couple of set backs. First off all after being tested before being installed one of the aileron servos went US so had to be replaced

Rather than having a large opening in the nose I carved some blue foam to fit and glassed the bottom of it

I then turned my attention to the war load. Mine is going to be armed for a CAP. I seperated the missiles from their pilons and shorted them by about 5mm so that the missiles just cleared the bottom of the fuse. I then put some rare earth magnets in the missile and pylons so that they will come off if they make contact with the ground during landing

 

With that done I attached the fuel tanks. These have 2mm carbon rod running right through them, the pylon and up through the wing and they feel pretty solid. I then finished the radio install

And this is where I hit a snag. With the battery in this position the plane is tail heavy. Unless you put something weighing 35gr, like a nose retract in place to balance it

With out the battery has to be here

Wich is the limit of reach for the battery leads, and it still a tad tail heavy. The cheapest solution would be to put 35gr of lead in the retract area, the expensive one would be putting a heavier battery in there Something like this **LINK** I have 3 of the 3.3A batteries already though so I will go with some lead first. It would be better to remove some of the ballast from the vertical stab but that a non starter now.

At the moment the flying weight is 1280gr

Edited By MThemadhatter on 20/06/2013 15:04:27

Edited By MThemadhatter on 20/06/2013 15:05:44

Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 29/06/2013 20:40:22

[MThemadhatter]

The manual has nothing to say about the control movements, can anyone else who has one tell me what there control throws are ?

[MThemadhatter]

Have done all the setting up now. A search of some other forums has given me some idea of the control throws I have settled on

Low rates Elevator +/- 7mm 25% expo Aileron +/- 7mm 25% expo
High rates Elevator +/- 11mm 50% expo Aileron +/-12mm 50% expo

The flying weight is now 1305gr including the ballast and lipo

Here are a couple more pictures of her

 

The only thing left to do now is to make some blanks for the main gear bays.

Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 29/06/2013 20:42:12

[MThemadhatter]

I have now added some covers for the gear wells

[john melia 1]

good job , i'm interested in how it flies , are you going to do a video

[Ian Jones]

Maidened one of these today for a friend of mine. Must have been one of the easiest maidens I've ever done. Flew a treat, had to guess the control throws as the instructions don't suggest any.

Added 20% expo to the ailerons after the first flight and my relatively inexperienced friend could fly it fine - for the few minutes I let him have it that is .

Ian

[MThemadhatter]

Posted by john melia 1 on 25/06/2013 17:33:50:

good job , i'm interested in how it flies , are you going to do a video

Here you go

This was the 4th flight. The maiden was totally uneventful I got some one else to toss her skywards. There is a video of the second flight but I camera man had a little trouble following here thought the sky.

I get 4mins of flight with 30% left in the lipo using a nanotech 3.3Ah 35C battery. She has reasonable power for a scale EDF and is certainly fast enough when you open up the taps.

I am toying with getting a 65C 3.3Ah battery or a 3.8Ah or 4.0Ah battery of the same make for longer duration. My instinct is to keep her light though.

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Very nice - and you display her well!

BEB

[Goose10]

Nice.

Not familiar with the EDF you mention, I used a ChangeSun 12 blade fan with a Cyclone Power engine, and the difference in both power and whoosh noise is noticeable; I also have this combo in my Vampire and its a doddle to hand launch both.

Ironically both with the same battery you mention.

I also concur about the CG, I got an ARF after my PNP version was no more (another story) and ended up fitting the nose wheel assembly to maintain the CG and avoid pushing the battery right up front.

Phil Nic

[MThemadhatter]

I am using this ducted fan

And this motor

One option I looked at was this **LINK** but as I had the power system from the Habu I decided to save some money.

I am toying with the idea of getting a pair of heavier larger capacity batteries and taking the lead out to give me a litte more power and duration.

[MThemadhatter]

I have now had 12 flights of my Sea Vixen

I have settled on the following rates

Elevator +/- 12mm 30% expo
Ailerons +/- 10mm 25% expo

I have found that the elevator loses authority at slow speeds so you need the extra travel for flaring on landing. And there have been a couple of times when she has needed more elevator to pull out of a steep dive than I would have reckoned.

I have made two further modifications one intentional one an accidental :eek:

As I have covered over the front wheel well there was no air going past the lipo. To counter this I cut out one of the window pains and made a hole in the cockpit floor. This directs air staight over the lipo.

The accidental mod was the removal of both pitot tubes. I just clipped the long grass around out patch and it caught on the pitot tube ripping one off and spinnig the plane in and breaking off the other one. There was a little damage to the right fin but a bit of glue fixed it.

Here is another video of her going low and slowish for the camera. Mine warns you if you are approaching a stall by rocking its wings, you can see this in the video.