RipMax Alienator

[David E]

Well, I have *finally* got around to making some progress with my mothballed Alienator!

 

I now have one of these (1500kv, 380W!!) which seems to fit the motor mount perfectly in terms of length to the front of the cowling. I also have a 60A speed controller and an aeronaut 50mm spinner which seems a good match, along with 8x6 and 7x6 blades as I wasn't sure which would be better.

 

I think the motor might be a little OTT, now, having re read some of this thread and spotted Tim's earlier recommendation for 250W! I think I'll have to be a little cautious with it!

 

Now I just need to get the motor fitted nicely, add some air intakes to the cowling for cooling, and get it balanced properly. I hope the motor won't prove too heavy to balance without extra weight.

[Tim Mackey]

Mines at 350 Watts David and flies fine, although I use larger blades than you are proposing - currently 11 X 6 (and am now using a 1000kv keda outrunner ) which gives a nice climb.

Edited By Timbo - Administrator on 21/04/2010 13:24:54

[David E]

Cool, yeah, I saw that after posting, I think earlier on you mentioned 250W somewhere.

 

What are the main differences in performance between a large prop at low kv and a smaller prop at high kv where the wattage is the same? I suppose noise will be lower with the small prop due to lower rpm, but what about performance?

 

This motor should prove suitable for another motorless plane I have sitting around once the Alienator airframe becomes life expired. (it's already got quite a bit of damage)

 

What sort of speed do you get out of yours at the moment?

[John Privett]

As a little "aside" to this,  I recall one year at Wings n Wheels large numbers of these being sold.  Almost every other person seemed to be carrying an Alienator box round the show.  I guess one (or more) of the traders had bought-up the remaining stock cheaply and were offloading them cheaply in great numbers.  Anyone remember what year that might have been?

[Tim Mackey]

About the year 1800 I reckon

They are an old model

David, you're right about the noise, but also a larger diameter gives more thrust /climb, and more pitch gives more speed.

I get a slight torque roll with the larger 11" prop, but its nothing to worry about.

Speed? Hmm, never been very good at estimating this, but a clubmate reckoned in level flight at WOT ( not following a dive ) around 60MPH or so. My original was slightly faster due to the 1500 kv mega motor, but I find this plenty fast enough.

It climbs pretty well OOS in around 10 -12 seconds.

I am sure you know this already, but you must ensure you strengthen things up a fair bit if you are using decent powerplants - the basic model will clap hands in anything approaching a good performance.

[Phil Claridge]

hi folks, if anybodies interested i have just got an alienator complete with four servo's two futaba s133.one 3001 and one 3003 it has a 600 brushed motor and a  8in folding prop. it has a blue red and yellow colour scheme and is up for sale for 30 quid or £40 with a futaba reciever(35) r136f 6 chanel new and un used. pm me if interested

regards phil

[Stephen Grigg]

Is there anything you havent got Phil,the list is probably shorter, than the have got list,if you could find it all

[Phil Claridge]

lol, no jets yet stephen ca'nt seem to win the damn lottery, got a very nice thunder tiger trainer to flog as well

[David E]

Well! I finally got my Alienator flying last night! That took me a while!

 

The elevator servo (Futaba S120?) turned out to be ropey so I switched round the elevator and rudder, and disconnected the rudder and locked it in place.

 

It flies nicely, except that there is a nose-up tendancy under power. As there isn't much scope for adding downthrust, due to the way the motor is mounted (I reused the 600 motor mounting method from the previous owner) I may just have to add a throttle-to-elevator mix. It has an impressively shallow glide angle, which means I think I need to learn to slow it down more for landings. The stall seems impressively benign.

 

I was surprised that it wasn't faster or more powerful - it's definately less than 1:1 thrust to weight. (Forgot to check the AUW actually.)

 

The wattmeter shows 380W WOT, and a tacho shows 13,000 rpm on the 7x6 aeronaut folding prop (50mm spinner).

 

I'm thinking that it will make a very nice night flier though.

 

Unfortunately I ran out of paint half way through repainting, so it looks a bit of a mess at the moment!

 

The canopy retention arrangements are a bit daft, so I'm replacing with magnets.

 

Still think it's ugly! My wife keeps complaining about it! :D

[Phil Claridge]

mines just off to the bootsale

[Tim Mackey]

I eventually swopped out the keda motor for the original Mega 22/20/3e 1500Kv inrunner, and on 9 x 6 Graupner folding prop - it is well fast.

Mind you at over 800 Watts it should be

Climbs vertically ( rolling at the same time if required ) to almost out of sight in around 8 seconds or less.

Im now using 50C rated 2.3A 3s nano tech lipos, and get around 4 -5 minutes depending on throttle control - mind you its hard to keep the stick anywhere but WOT

As part of my fleet reduction policy its for sale at the moment .

( to make way for new stuff I try to have one in = one out )

Edited By Tim Mackey - Administrator on 01/07/2011 14:54:07

[Rob Lewis]

Always one to resurrect an old thread.

Just got an IC version of this off ebay. Was listed as new, although it has been very shoddily assembled, with glue hanging out of the hinges, one fin held on with clear tape and dents everywhere. But hey ho i was planning on glassing and painting it anyway. Going to be a while before i get round to it as i have the spit to finish, but should be good fun. Its fitted with a brand new irvine 25 so power should be no problem with the extra weight that glassing and reinforcing will add.

Does anyone have a manual that i could get a copy of? As i didn't get one with the plane.

Rob

[Rob Lewis]

Well a few months has gone by but heres my refurbed Alienator.

I used a hardwood spar in place of the balsa one and extended it into the fuselage, so in effect it became a full span spruce spar, and lined all the straight edges with balsa to square up. Also changed the hatch so the front section is removable and rear section is fixed with a tongue and magnet.

Its covered in lightweight glass cloth and poly c, then sprayed with b and q emulsion before a final few coats of sprayed poly c for fuel proofing.

I maidened it last weekend and it surprised me the roll rate you can get. Fast doesn't describe it. That said it need a fair chuck to hand launch because of the weight i added in glassing etc, but its a great addition to the hanger.

Rob

[SkippyUK]

Got an unassembled kit from Wings and Wheels about 10 years ago when they were selling them for about a tenner and was thinking about getting it flying.

I see the posts from all you speed birds but can this thing fly slowly?

I seem to remember when it was a current Ripmax model it was billed as virtually stall proof.

I don't fly anything fast down the beach so any suggestions on a power setup for 'pootling' around would be welcomed.

Skippy - in loft clearing mode....

[Andy Mc]

Posted by SkippyUK on 05/03/2013 22:19:51:

Got an unassembled kit from Wings and Wheels about 10 years ago when they were selling them for about a tenner and was thinking about getting it flying.

Me too, it still sits untouched in the back of my shed, I hope it hasn't warped or anything similar. I really must pull my finger out and get it airborne.

[David E]

Slippy, mine slows down fine and it's glassed underneath. It has a very tame stall indeed.

[SkippyUK]

Finaly got around to getting it all out the box and there's no instructions - must've been missing from when I bought it as the box was still sealed from new.

Anybody got a set they can scan for me please or got a link to an online set - none of the old links I've found in various forum still work.

Bumpy Green have good build thread but the original instructions would help a lot.

Skippy

[GONZO]

I'll try and dig my set out latter today.

HTH

[GONZO]

SkippyUK,

Found and scaned the instructions. If you PM me your email I'll send them over. But, to be honest, I don't think you will get much, if any, more info than you have from here and the Bumpy Green build.

HTH

[Yoda]

I was given one of these (or should I say a bag with alienator bits in it) about12 years ago and it's been sitting in my shed pretty much since then. I did get it out about a year ago but as there are no instructions with it and as the wooden bits are quite numerous I put it back. Just having totalled my Acrowot today (interference - I was interfering with the tx sticks!) and found this thread by accident, I'm now thinking that it might be fun to have a go building it. Seeing the building advice in here and that of Bumpy Green has inspired me!