JP Bluebird 100

[Phil Winks]

I obtained a JP bluebird 100" power assisted glider this weekend at greenacres and would like some comments / advice on setting it up. 1st I intend to swap the brushed 550 motor for a brushless one and use a lipo pack for electricery supply. this bit is easy. However I have 2 only partially answered questions, in the little research I've done so far I've seen suggestions that bending the wing joiner to increase dihedral is a good idea and somewhere I read that the ali triangles in the box are winglets for the tips of the main wing. however they appear to not be mentioned in the instructions has anyone any info on these two questions.

Phil

[WolstonFlyer]

That is an interesting glider, have you seen the comments on the YouTube video that say to watch for tip stalling? If they are winglets then that might help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP6IRuUANrA

[Phil Winks]

Hi James yes seen that video also found an article in "Sloping off" the christchurch mac 1/4erly news letter from 2006 where the guy bent the steel wing joiner to give 4" of dihedral under each wing tip, instead of 2", to improve the turn rate this too surely would hlep the tip stall tendency as will warping in about 1/4 to 1/2" of wash out. to the wing tips t his can be done easily as its a built up wing covered with film the reference to the winglets I can't find again, most frustrating still I always like a challenge. I'm assuming that if they are winglets they would be fitted at the wing tips in a near vertical position really need to find out if this is the case and somehow I doubt an email to JP would be very fruitfull as they are merely the distributors

 

Phil

edit)

in fact having just check JP's site they no longer list this bird I new it was an old model just found out how old lol

Edited By Phil Winks on 24/06/2013 21:21:55

[WolstonFlyer]

Hi Phil

I have just read the same review:

**Link**

It would seem to be a good idea to add the extra dihedral. Yes the winglets would be at the wing tips sticking up vertical.

This is the only info I can find on JPerkins website.

**Link**

[Tim C]

I see you have the links to old pages on my club site, they wre never the greatest sucess and a P2000 or Radian is in a different leage

[Phil Winks]

Thanks fella's

tim if I may several things occur to me here, similarities between this and the westwings fournier. Both it would appear were designed in an era when brushless motors and lipo's were either in their infancy or non existant.

my conversion of the fournier to brushless and lipo along with a couple of other tweaks actually resulted in a lighter more powerfull craft that was in a different league to the 400 brushed / Nicd version I 1st built, and became a lovely relaxing model that would stay aloft on a sunny day with a thermal or two for, on more than one occaision, in excess of an hour on a single 1800Mah bty (you needed a chair to fly that one on thermals)

Also after a thorough look at this bluebird this evening it appears to be a modified version of the original. the dihedral as set in the box is as described in that article ie: 8" under one wing with the other flat on the floor instead of the original 4" also the addition of the winglets, and that is indeed what they are, looks like an attempt to improve its tip stall tendancies

my guess at the min is that by swaping out the 550 motor and suggested Nimh btys for a 35mm outrunner and 2200Mah lipo will knock a chunk of weight out of her and give her a touch more power, both increasing the power to weight ratio, and warping in approx 8mm of wash out will have the desired effect on this model. of course unlike the fournier this one has no ailerons and that may be an issue that I have to address in the furure

So wish me luck and lets see if I can make another silk purse out of a cheap sows ear

Phil

[Phil Winks]

Finally got some time to get started on this 1st thing that I did was obviously remove the brushed lump and replace it with a 2830/11 lightning 18amp out runner wich will pull 200w on 3s with a 10x6 prop or with the same prop on 4s 270w just about right on 3s for the predicted weight of 2lb

to keep the wires etc away from the spinning motor bell I fitted a dummy fire wall

the motor esc wires pass under this in the keel groove in the fuse

the motor is paired with a lightning pro 25a esc, and as an aside I do like the quality of these two items the motor feels like a tunigy NTM series and comes with all the accessories as standard. ie bolt on prop driver X mount, bullet connectors, male and female, and all the screws and a good spec sheet all for, in this case under £15.00 for the motor and about the same for the fully programable esc and programme card.

I then had to remove the gear tray to adjust the servo mount slots to suit the Turnigy metal gear 9g ones I had and while at it I removed the lousy quality push rods and fitted a pair of snakes and so an extra former to secure the fwd end of the snakes. I also replace the wing bolt plate with one that actually had some T nuts in it

The tail feathers also got fitted and talk about spec savers see if you can spot what I missed untill I fitted the tail feathers. not just me but Martin M and the lad at merlin innovations who went through the box contents with me when I bought it

just waiting for a 45mm spinner for the folding prop, some velcro to mount the esc and rx and some solder on extenders for the for the push rod ends to fit into the snakes

also I have to fit the winglets to the main wings and warp in a little washout and tidy the covering up in the process

Phil

[Phil Winks]

Now I need to ask does anyone have any suggestions for initial control surface throw for this bird something sadly lacking in the instruction "manual"

I really am not sure how sensitive the V tail setup is to control surface movement

Phil

[WolstonFlyer]

It is looking good Phil.

I cannot help much as far as surface travel goes, personally if there are no instructions I would set three different rates on my DX8. One with full travel then 75% and 55% so I can quickly switch between them of needed.

[Phil Winks]

Thats what I'm planning in the absence of instructions and advice mate currently elevator has +/-10mm with rudder 30% more (V tail mixing is an interesting proceedure lol) and low rates set at 50% of this hoprfully the glider buffs at Blackdown rcfc won't fall about with laughter too much eh

Phil

PS did you spot the fri afternoon model evidence ? QC obviously had a bad day there lol

Edited By Phil Winks on 17/07/2013 20:55:49

[WolstonFlyer]

Hi Phil, did you ever fly this glider?

I just got a new old stock (stored in the loft of a workshop) JP Green Sleeve 2m glider for a song at an indoor meeting tonight, it looks to be a similar(ish) type of glider to the Bluebird, nice for a calm summer evening floating about.