The Atom Special

[Markus Drillkens]

Posted by Richard Harris on 31/10/2014 17:57:55:

Max,

I like the fins, I did wondered whether coupling a central fin would make the rudders more effective for the 'Hot Doggers' amongst us being in the prop wash etc? anyone want to try??

Rich

Hi Guys,

I was thinking the Idea of this central fin, but at least I came to another idea, but look for yourselves:

Greetings from Germany

Markus

[Richard Harris]

Sorry Joe,

There is also Nigel as well, so that makes 7. Hope the weather improves soon to test fly your friends Atom.

Markus,

Four rudders will most certainly give you a little more yaw authority! Its nearly completed

Rich

[Terry Whiting 1]

Markus,

You have a nice looking model there. It might be just the picture, but it looks as though your blade roots look a little too long, there should be about 14mm between blade root end and the blue triangular flex plate clamp

[Max Z]

Terry is right, Markus. I was confused about it and I raised the issue a while ago. You can read about it on this page: **LINK**

Max.

Edited By Max Z on 17/11/2014 12:24:58

[Steve Jones 2]

I have been very kindly given a laser cut kit of parts (quality is fantastic ) which I was about to start as my second Atom. I will make this one with a third central rudder to see how it goes............

I will keep progress posted as it goes on...

Steve

[Mike Stevens]

Posted by Steve Jones 2 on 17/11/2014 12:30:40:

I have been very kindly given a laser cut kit of parts (quality is fantastic ) which I was about to start as my second Atom. I will make this one with a third central rudder to see how it goes............

I will keep progress posted as it goes on...

Steve

You won the comp?

[Terry Whiting 1]

If there is anyone interested I find this hand held blade tester very handy (no pun intended) to check out new blades. prior to fitting I on the model, and. If you have the patience you can achieve reasonable dynamic balancing .

[Steve Jones 2]

Nope not from the competition but a pre kit supplied not via Traplet... Really high quality at a suggested great price

steve

[Markus Drillkens]

Posted by Terry Whiting 1 on 17/11/2014 08:56:48:

Markus,

You have a nice looking model there. It might be just the picture, but it looks as though your blade roots look a little too long, there should be about 14mm between blade root end and the blue triangular flex plate clamp

Hi Terry / Max

thanks for your advice!!! I totally missed that detail! Now I´m going to cut the roots to have at least that 14mm gap between the blue truiangular plate and the blade roots! Thanks a lot!!!

Today made up my cockpit area and the former to shrink my canopy around and that´s it!

Also found a little Pilot! In fact that smurfs do have really big heads I decided only to make a silhouette because I wanted the canopy closed! Canopy isn´t glued yet because I want to add a little instrument panel in front of him! Perhaps a Azrael or Gargamel Radar

Cheers

Markus

[Max Z]

Food for thought?

I am working on my fourth rotor mast right now, as part of the repairs needed after the last crash. All three previous masts broke at exactly the same place; at the exit point from the fuselage. I am using a multi-layer type of birch plywood, size 6.5 by 9.5 mm. I know, an odd size, but that's what I had at hand on the original build.

There is no such thing as crashproof design, so I am sticking to the same material in the hope that it prevents further damage to the rotor head and the rotor blades, and also to prevent ripping off parts from the fuselage when the mast breakpoint occurs inside of it. So far, the blades sustained slight damage only on the last crash, the spruce leading edges are fine but some cracks appeared in the balsa parts. The rotor head itself is ok.

The point is: I don't know what will happen when I use a stronger material for the mast, like pine or spruce, and I am wondering if anybody can share his experiences with this. I don't fancy increasing the dimensions, since hat will require major surgery to the fuse, like spacing the formers further apart.

Max.

[Max Z]

 

Food for thought?

I am working on my fourth rotor mast right now, as part of the repairs needed after the last crash. All three previous masts broke at exactly the same place (in a crash, that is); at the exit point from the fuselage. I am using a multi-layer type of birch plywood, size 6.5 by 9.5 mm. I know, an odd size, but that's what I had at hand on the original build.

There is no such thing as crashproof design, so I am sticking to the same material in the hope that it prevents further damage to the rotor head and the rotor blades, and also to prevent ripping off parts from the fuselage when the mast breakpoint occurs inside of it. So far, the blades sustained slight damage only on the last crash, the spruce leading edges are fine but some cracks appeared in the balsa parts. The rotor head itself is ok.

The point is: I don't know what will happen when I use a stronger material for the mast, like pine or spruce, and I am wondering if anybody can share his experiences with this. I don't fancy increasing the dimensions, since that will require major surgery to the fuselage, like spacing the formers further apart.

Max. (struggling with editing my post, sorry)

Edited By Max Z on 18/11/2014 19:08:32

Edited By Max Z on 18/11/2014 19:16:07

Edited By Max Z on 18/11/2014 19:17:17

Edited By Max Z on 18/11/2014 19:19:14

Edited By Max Z on 18/11/2014 19:21:38

Edited By Max Z on 18/11/2014 20:03:21

[Markus Drillkens]

Hi Max,

you´ve had it to hand but can a multi layer of birch ply resist that forces a Spruce Mast can?

Sorry I´m not an engineer but I had several rollovers with a fire Fly (also a design by Rich Harris) and never had problems with the Spruce Mast! Have not tryed a birch ply one yet!

Rich has drawn the Atom Mast on the plan with the measurements 6mm x 13mm but you took 6,5x9,5mm, perhaps the 3,5mm less material make the mast not resistant enough for the upcoming forces!?

Keep on going!

Regards

Markus

[Steve Jones 2]

Hi Max,

Making the mast from a stronger material may seem better but could just move the crash loads to another part of the airframe causing more damage. The load does not go away and maybe its better to allow the mast to break as a design 'weak link' to protect the rest of the model.

My vote would be to use Spruce, line mine and make a few spare masts while you learn.

Steve

[Steve Jones 2]

So for my second Build... the laser kit. Opening the small box shows all the parts, beautifully cut and marked and labelled.

For this build I will follow my original except making the rudders slightly larger, adding a 3rd central fin and rudder and a steering tail wheel...

Steve

Edited By Steve Jones 2 on 18/11/2014 21:32:46

[Stephen Jones]

Hmm looks ok But will need another kit of bit ordering,

The GF parts ,

some wire,

Some spruce ,

And of course the blades or at least the wood so one could make their own blades ,

And so not really a kit of parts ,

I made that lot out of my scrap box .

Steve,

[Richard Harris]

Max,

I have first hand experience with crashing the Atom with the spruce mast as mine 'browned out' a few weeks ago. The mast was fine but it broke the glue joints to the formers each side of the mast, just a simple task of re positioning and running a drop of super glue down the joints.

My only concern now is, do I stick with the spektrum orange receiver as this is the second model to be downed or do I swap for a futaba unit?

Rich

[Terry Whiting 1]

Hi Rich,

Signal failure was one of the reason I kept to 35meg and can honestly state I have never ever lost contact with any of my electric fleet,. Even in the early days of electric with can motors and NiCads..Another reason over the years I have invested heavily in Futaba 35meg.. All the "Glitch" hype was branded about to sell 2.4

I do own a Spektum DX7 but only use it for flying small hellies in my garden .

Terry

[Phil Winks]

Hi Richard I use orangeRX both tx and RX and never have suffered a brown out, and every case I've seen has arguably been caused by voltage drop to the RX not the link between tx and RX. Though I would, for safety always follow the rule coming into force on the show circuit of using the same brand of RX as your tx just makes sense to me. Like Terry I also never had a signal failure with 35mhz except when a fellow flyer switched on on the same channel as me, the main reason I switched

[Phil Winks]

Double post

Edited By Phil Winks on 19/11/2014 07:32:56

[Steve Jones 2]

Rich, glad the Atom is only wounded......

I too use Orange receivers in most of my Elect fleet. Normally I use the R610 single red aerial ones and in most instances I then fit the additional R100 satelite for extra security. This makes the set up less than £20 per model and I have never has an issue - even with an elect glide up so high I cannot see it with the RX sat on top of the ESC.....

More recently the R610 is harder to find and I have bought several or the 'improved' R615 double aerial ones, which does not have the satelite port facility. These however have given some interesting flying moments on a couple of times, I cannot fully prove it but a web search on some threads suggests others are challenging the R615 performance. It is claimed by some that the range on the R615 is less than the R610, again I have no proof and do not want to spark a debate in this thread - its all been said before in others....

So for me I am happy to continue with R610's only, fitted with satelites - my RPGs , Mantis, Gemini all run this without issues.

Steve

[Joe Anderson]

 

Hi Steve I see you have inherited one of the test semi kits I had made I took mine to The RC Hotel in Sept and with some other bits from Rich (canopy & cowl) I had great fun building and flying it

Joe

 

 

 

Edited By Joe Anderson on 19/11/2014 10:13:02

[Max Z]

Posted by Steve Jones 2 on 18/11/2014 21:29:14:Making the mast from a stronger material may seem better but could just move the crash loads to another part of the airframe causing more damage. The load does not go away and maybe its better to allow the mast to break as a design 'weak link' to protect the rest of the model.

That is exactly my point, except for the spruce. I would consider that the stronger material which could result in damage elsewhere, as proven by Rich:

Posted by Richard Harris on 19/11/2014 06:21:24:I have first hand experience with crashing the Atom with the spruce mast as mine 'browned out' a few weeks ago. The mast was fine but it broke the glue joints to the formers each side of the mast, just a simple task of re positioning and running a drop of super glue down the joints.

That is the kind of damage I hate repairing (just me ), so I will stay with my "weak point " material, combined with a removable mast so I can dig out the bits easily.

Max.

Edited By Max Z on 19/11/2014 10:31:49

[Terry Whiting 1]

Phil, Yes I had the same happen to me a few years back, but today my two old buddies and I have that frequency virtually to ourselves.......

Terry

[Max Z]

Posted by Steve Jones 2 on 18/11/2014 21:32:02:

For this build I will follow my original except making the rudders slightly larger, adding a 3rd central fin and rudder and a steering tail wheel...

Steve, I would suggest to make the hooked ends of the landing gear wires a bit longer than shown on the drawing and make them protruding through B2 for better anchorage.

Max.

[Kevin Flynn 1]

Rich I would say dump the Spektrum we have had nothing but problems with them. 4 of us fly on the weekends here in Calif. and I can tell you without a doubt we have all lost models because of brownouts. The last holdout who refused to admit he was having a brownout problem, until he crashed a very nice low wing model it eventually dived straight into the ground at full throttle, when it hit the ground the lipo caught fire and set the dry grass on fire, needless to say he is now a Futaba owner like the rest of us. I know the Spektrum is priced cheaper but if you account for the money and time lost on models the Futaba is a bargain. In Spektrums defense I will say it was advertised as a park flyer radio, (not full range) but on the other hand how far away do you fly your gyros? I don't think modelers believe they had a radio failure when the have a crash of any kind, but if they look at the receiver and although it works the giveaway is the receiver binding light flashing on and off which indicates the receiver lost signal contact at some point in the flight and that's all it takes.

Kevin