Jump to content

Lucas's Rans S-9 Chaos


Lucas Hofman
 Share

Recommended Posts

10 hours ago, Nick Cripps said:

Remove all the screws and the canopy then put a drop of cyano in each screw hole to harden the threads. Leave it for several minutes until the cyano is completely dry and then reassemble. No need for glue, the hardened threads in the balsa will be more than adequate to retain the canopy.

That sounds good to me.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Nick Cripps said:

Remove all the screws and the canopy then put a drop of cyano in each screw hole to harden the threads. Leave it for several minutes until the cyano is completely dry and then reassemble. No need for glue, the hardened threads in the balsa will be more than adequate to retain the canopy.

Thanks Nick, this is so great about the forum. I would not have thought about this myself. I may also do this in the holes I have to make for the aileron, elevator and rudder horns so that the balsa does not compress so easily.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Second part done. This one took a lot of time to get (more or less) right:

 

image.png.354228840d0b1f3ba345afaf17f6b185.png

 

I did not like the yellowish shine from the PETG I bought. And it was not very clear either. But by accident I found out that this was due to the protective film on both sides.... 

Better to leave the film on until everything is finished.

 

Cheers, Lucas

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The cockpit is very nice after the protective films are removed from the PET sheet!

 

Glueing the hinges is done:

 

image.png.d979d9bd1d0f948eeab428bb778b1689.png

 

and this time I did remember to mark where the slots for the hinges are while covering, so it was not difficult to find them back!

 

Soon the flappy bits will start flapping...

 

Cheers, Lucas

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Servo's are mounted in the wing and the leads pulled out. Aileron horns are mounted. I usually make the connections between the two (for the ailerons) by cutting 2mm carbon rod and glueing this with epoxy in the clevises. 

 

image.png.d2cdd7059bfc43b89915e98fa631c4d7.png

 

I prefer ball links, mostly because they do not add any slack. I addition here there is no good alignment due to the tapered wing. Ball links absorb minor misalignments gracefully.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The weight is 2250 gram ready to go. A bit heavy I would say. But I am using 4000mAh 5 cell batteries (because I have them), and a motor on the bigger side. The battery is halfway under the wing; I cannot get it further back and still have i on the battery plate. If I like the plane I can invest in 3000 mAh batteries, that should already help a 100 gram.

 

Today was a nice quiet day. The coming days are not, so it will be more towards the next weekend before we give it a try. I could do some details, but now I feel more like taking a break from building.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maiden today! -6 degees, no wind and sunshine. And (of course) no other pilots on the strip. 

 

image.png.173358c3b60370ab4f0291c7c816e551.png

 

I needed a lot of up trim to get her to fly straigth. Adding another 25gr to the tail helped with inverted flight. After some fiddling with expo (back to 0%) the plane behaved well. It took another battery to feel at home, but now we are friends. Thanks Peter for yet another good design!

 

Snow tomorrow, and a lot of wind in the weekend. Time to work on some more scale details.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since I used less then 2000mAh of the 4000mAh capacity in over 10 minutes flying I changed the motor from a Turnigy 4240 to a Turnigy 3542 that weighs 50 gram less. That made it possible to remove 20 grams of lead from the tail.

 

Testing this with a 4S 3000 mAh (that weight 300 gram) instead of the 5S 4000mAh (that weighs 450 gram) showed that the RANS does not need that much power. I could still do 2 rolls in a vertical upline before running out of steam. Actually the plane felt smoother, with both 200 grams less weight and less power.

 

This will be the "goto" plane for winter flying, also because I can transport it assembled and then one only needs to pop in a battery in the cold.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Very pleased with how the RANS is flying now. However, ground handling (wheels on asfalt) is challenging:

  1. The plane is unstable and has tendencies to ground loop. One needs to be very carefull in take-off to keep her straight. Same when landing, as soon as some yaw occurs (think sidewind) the oscilation gets worse.
  2. If not landing very carefully (3 point landing) the plane will bounce up. Espicially when it is a little gusty this is not so easy to achieve.

Partly this is probable due to the short tail moment, which we cannot do much with. The gear is as drawn, 4 mm steel wire. Currently with slight toe-out. 

Any ideas if this can be improved, and if so, how?

Cheers, Lucas 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...