Mark Stringer Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Although I have just about completed my Atom Special I thought I would put a few lines down just covering what I have done differently during the build of my Atom So a look at my parts shows the lack of a servo hole in the rear of the fuselage but a larger differently shaped tail plane to take the servo. The fins and rudders are larger too as seen from the tail plan image. You may also notice that the mast holding parts look different too as the head servos were to be side mounted rather than front or rear .. space for wires added too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Home made blades .. I planned on 2 sets so that I had a 3 blade and a 2 blade set. To get the 3 blade set nicely balanced (and give me a balanced spare) I used a single sheet of 6mm balsa that was 100mm wide and found 2 well matched pieces of 6mm square spruce to outline it. I then cut down the centre line with a circular saw and then each in half to give 4 blades. Some gluing later and servos popped into position to give me an idea of how it would look. I used 6 x 3 mm spruce for the servo mounts inset into the light ply mast holders. The tail plane, mast and booms are all removable so no gluing there. Fibre glass plate to reinforce where the mast screws fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 U/C added and the nose block. Also the boom has 6mm square spruce to define the servo location and give somewhere to screw the servo in place. Edited By Mark Stringer on 05/05/2015 13:31:17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Some cutting and sanding and it starts to take better shape Bare parts that I didn’t think would Solar Film were painted Got the Solar film out .. I added small fibre glass squares where the 4 screw positions were to be on the tail plane … you can just about make these out under the film. Canopy plug made to suit the body As the servos go on the sides a full cockpit can be made .. also added half inch balsa to the canopy plug ready for its pop bottle experience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Everything was then sanded to shape and a poor attempt made at a canopy. Rich has given me one now so I will add a pilot and dashboard and put a decent canopy on. My target was to get to the final trimming session so I am lacking any pictures after this as it was solid work .. i am not saying I cut it fine but on the Sunday morning it had no pushrods, radio, motor, canopy fitted, undercarriage fitted or blades trimmed to shape, balanced and covered! So a busy Sunday morning followed getting everything screwed in place .. a bit of grey matter in how to setup my Taranis, charge everything, finish and cover the blades .. bolt them on and throw everything in the car .. it was 3pm by now so already an hour late for the session. Fortunately it was only 30 minutes to the site and Rich and the experts welcomed me with open arms. But it was blowing an absolute gale! Angle of the dangle looked at and a couple of slabs of lead in the nose to give it about 14 degrees of nose down hang, head adjusted to give the right pitch, nut added to the head where one has mysteriously disappeared (how do they do that!!) and Rich took it for a couple of low hops. Blades spun up fine .. very chuffed! A few more tweaks to it and Rich took it for a fly … amazing!! I was so pleased with it and my son, Matthew, was just loving it.. couldn't believe it had a good long flight in such conditions. I will just be able to take some of the lead out for calm days .. so trimmed as promised! Thanks to all these amazing guys that have put so much time and effort into helping people like myself to become Gyro-Nuts! Edited By Mark Stringer on 05/05/2015 13:32:53 Edited By Mark Stringer on 05/05/2015 13:34:53 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 I will add more pictures once I have had chance to re-do the canopy with a pilot and to get some trim on it .. it will have yellow trim all round (hence the wheels and U/C) but I just didn’t have time for that before the trimming session. I will also tidy up all wiring etc to make it neater! Edited By Mark Stringer on 05/05/2015 13:37:40 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Any questions or more picture you would like to see just ask! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Barlow Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Wish I could have made the second trimming day but a windy slope was calling! Glad you got it finished in time for the trimming day! Flying with other Atoms is very nice as well as watching the other varieties, especially the bigger autogyros! What hardware have you used in yours Mark? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Winks Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Mark that was a very quick and efficient build indeed, the end result is great too, I have just one small observation, your mast securing screws are just where I 1st put mine, and being so close to the fuselage exit its exactly where mine broke on my first botched landing, since then I've changed to a single screw much lower down and slimmed the mast by 1.6 mm in both directions and reinforced the mast from 5mm above the exit point to its base with 0.8mm FG plate epoxied on, so should I break it again it will hopefully break outside the fuselage making removal a simpler job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Posted by Chris Barlow on 05/05/2015 19:02:45: Wish I could have made the second trimming day but a windy slope was calling! Glad you got it finished in time for the trimming day! Flying with other Atoms is very nice as well as watching the other varieties, especially the bigger autogyros! What hardware have you used in yours Mark? It was soooo windy so only one other Atom flew .. but the Whippets all flew .. they really are great. .. another one on my list ... you could have almost sloped at the field Hardware wise here goes ..... I bought a load of motor sets a few years back from Target Hobby very cheaply which keep me going for new models (motor, esc, mount, connectors, props etc as a set) so the motor is a Hobbymate HB2832 with its Hobbywing Pentium 30A esc ... HK929MG servos for the head, Tower Pro SG90 servo for the rudder, APC 10X7 prop, HK wheels, Turnigy Compact 2200mah 3S battery, HK head ... I think that covers it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Posted by Phil Winks on 05/05/2015 19:26:49: Mark that was a very quick and efficient build indeed, the end result is great too, I have just one small observation, your mast securing screws are just where I 1st put mine, and being so close to the fuselage exit its exactly where mine broke on my first botched landing, since then I've changed to a single screw much lower down and slimmed the mast by 1.6 mm in both directions and reinforced the mast from 5mm above the exit point to its base with 0.8mm FG plate epoxied on, so should I break it again it will hopefully break outside the fuselage making removal a simpler job Thanks Phil .. love your diesel powered version I will see how it goes with the mast .. they are only very fine servo type screws so i was hoping it wouldn't weaken it too much but thanks for pointing it out Having the servos on the side means i can pop one out and access the mast to pop it out if the worst happens .. but maybe i just get Rich to land it as he did it perfectly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Harris Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Mark, Glad to see you have put your build onto the mass build thread, after talking to a few atom builders there seems to be a lot of confusion about the MB this year which is a shame. I hope the canopy fits and I look forward to seeing it all trimmed up. To be honest the Atom handles the wind better than the Whippit, maybe down to its more stream line fuselage. Keep up the good work Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 6, 2015 Author Share Posted May 6, 2015 Thanks Rich Louise has just told me that she has got a nice roll of bright yellow pin stripes today for me ... and I am trying to sort out my lettering and a logo I have come up with. The canopy may be a slightly different shape to my cockpit .. if so I will have another bash at one and return the ones you gave me in the hope they can go to another good Atom home Spyro3 next then .... but first I want to get my hands on the sticks flying the Atom .. I will pop you an e-mail about club membership .. it will be for the 2 of us of course .. Matthew really enjoyed the day and looking forward to many more Sunday afternoons with yourself and the other members. Edited By Mark Stringer on 06/05/2015 13:35:01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 6, 2015 Author Share Posted May 6, 2015 I forgot to mention that I had minor issues with the head plate as the shims have very little bite on it. I had drawn up an alternate one anyway but had run out of time to finish it before the trimming day but will have it fitted for the next flight and will report back on how I get on with it. I have added the image of this to my Atom album. I have also added to my Atom photo album some of the other template things I have made and used during the build. There is a sheet with angles on that may help with the head setup .. so it has -17, -2, level, +7.5 and +17 on it .. just simple but may help Also blade ends for 50, 55 and 60mm blades ends .. just lots on a sheet for printing that I found handy .. I put one on each end of the blades that I made to help keep their profile as I sanded them. They are all better in pdf format as they print at "actual size" that way ... but I cannot work out how to add those on here so I will add them all to the Atom thread on RC Groups. Hope these are of help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 Almost there with my atom now .. all pictures in my album but here is an update Pilot and dashboard from pink foam (and a screen shot from a Cri Cri),new canopy from better quality strawberry water bottle and cowl from an olive oil bottle. My new head plate fitted Cowl blocks fitted Cowl fitted but just didn't look the right shade of green Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 So I had to cover it with Solar film!! A few stripes always help dash board going together after painting pop in the pilot looking about there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 A couple of shots of it all together .. just the tail wheel to go on (which is almost done but I haven't taken pictures yet) - cockpit looks cloudy as the paint wasn't quite dry on the pilot .. should clear soon! I am quite pleased with her .. and hopefully will get my flight next Sunday. I will add the last couple of pictures once the tail wheel is finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 OK .. so it is finally done!! I will only add more after today of I get some flying video .. but the build is over So I fitted a new receiver .. just 4 channel to save wasting a 7 channel one .. and this let me feed the spare wiring through the holes into the fuselage The Hatch is retained with three magnets now and the lead weights popped well up frony with some pink foam to keep it in place Three holes under the cowl to let the heat out .. also a 10 x 5 prop rather than the 10 x 7 it had on last time as even though it didn't use full throttle the battery was warm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 And finally the tail wheel .... this was awkward due to the rear mounted servo so I came up with a tiller design for this Standard tail wheel mount expoxied to the bottom (needs some paint touching up now) with the shaft passing through the tail plane ..this will make it a little trickier to remove but not too bad This uses its grommet on top of the tail with a retainer to maintain the height .. then bent like a boat tiller to pass through another retainer .. but this time it does not have the screw in so the tiller is free to slide through this retainer, which in turn can pivot in the servo arm. The length makes it neat at mid position and sticks out further as it turns - hope that makes sense! This works really well and smooth and gives an amount of tail wheel movement in keeping with the amount of rudder movement I also replaced the tail servo with an EMAX ES08MAII .. a little heavier I think but stronger then the earlier one and it comes with a lovely long servo arm that did the job perfectly A view with it turned So that is it .. no more updates unless I get some video .. all done .. and very happy with it I am too!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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