RCRCM Typhoon Build

[Peewhit]

Mouldies are not "built".

They are just fitted out with the gear, so in a lot of ways it is easier.

Nevertheless, the deck of the Typhoon needs careful planning as there is not much space.

What servos are you going to use?

[Hydeflyer]

Hi, Yes I realise that it's a fit not a build.. just my figure of speech. Servos are: 2 x Savox SH-0257mg for R&E; 2 x Hitec HS-82mg for flaps and 2 x Hitec HS-125mg for ailerons. Rx is Hitec Optima 7 and battery Overlander NiMh "flat 4". Just from an initial look it seems that the battery will fit below the deck level, just behind the nose weight and the RX above the deck line in front of the servos. I will do a trial fit fairly soon in the New Year.

[Peewhit]

That seems a nice servo combination which should do the job well.

I am not familiar with a "flat 4" battery configuration.

What capacity (MAh) is it?

Hope to get out flying mine tomorrow - 25mph wind which should be 30mph+ on the edge of the slope.

[Hydeflyer]

The battery pack is 1600mAh and measures 60mm long x 30mm wide.

I'm hoping to get out tomorrow as well. Up to the Cat and Fiddle slope, half way between Buxton and Macclesfield. It's a fair altitude so may be affected by snow or ice tomorrow. Fingers crossed as wind forecast is 27 gusting to 40 mph! My Middle Phase will need some extra pb I think!

[RGPuk]

Posted by Peewhit on 29/12/2012 16:01:18:

.......... I am not familiar with a "flat 4" battery configuration. .........

Sounds like a 4 x 2/3AF cell flat four pack Peter. I run one in Flying Fish - and a more pointy 3+1 or 2+2 configuration in very narrow nosed machines like Tucan. The only downside I've found is that the available cells are far tenacious in extreme cold than Eneloops.

Ro.

[Peewhit]

Yes Roger, I understand now and have the same battery in the Stinger with a two up and two into the nose configuration.

Hydeflyer,

The battery will be fine and should last for as long as you want to fly with the servos you are using.

I run a 2000Mah Eneloop with four digital wing servos in my Typhoon and have had five hours flying time with some battery left at the end of it.

Now here we have a bit of a coincidence, or even two.

I used to live in Buxton - 1600ft above sea level, nine months winter, six inches of snow in a good year - and I loved it.

Hence I know the Cat & Fiddle well - the pub that is as I was not into sloping at the time.

I also learned to fly with a Middlephase - great plane and in some ways I regret passing it on to a colleague. it is now four years old and still flying.

Must confess that I chickened out of flying today due to a forecast for rain/snow and a feels like factor of -5 deg C. - perhaps I am getting old!

The Typhoon will fly much faster than the Middlephase, particularly when ballasted.

I usually fly mine with at least 4oz of ballast (even in light wind conditions) as the faster it flies, the more lift the wing produces.

The Typhoon was my first mouldie.

Beware that the mouldie route is highly addictive and quite expensive.

Three years on, I now have four mouldies and am still looking for another!

[Hydeflyer]

Went up to Cat and Fiddle this morning and it was fine but bitterly cold! Wind was 28 at the back of the slope, peaking at 38 at the edge! There were five of us flying a variety of models and my Middle Phase with about 4oz ballast just about got out and flew well. Sadly I went too far back on the landing circuit and it blew on to the road behind. They don't take a car wheel too well and now it's toast!

No way will the Typhoon be making an appearance until I can be sure of better landings. Doh!!

[Peewhit]

Well done for getting out and fying , particularly with 38mph on the edge.

I remember flying my Middlephase in 40 mph with a pair of plyers taped underneath it as ballast.

Bad luck with the car incident - Sod's law applies in that there will be a car just when you do not want it.

The Typhoon will be easier to land in that it has crow braking - a bit like those on a car - sorry to mention cars again.

Just get the Typhoon built (fitted out) and get it in the air.

You will be amazed at its performance.

Regards,

Peter.

[Hydeflyer]

Thanks for the reassurance but its slowly slowly with this baby!

The building board is out though and here is the new toy:

[Peewhit]

Nice colour scheme which should both look good and be highly visible in the air.

Here is a photo of my fus layout with the AMT servo arm longer than the rudder one.

AMT movement is maxed to the limit of the slot and with a bit of snap flap mixed in it will do 6ft loops - also does big ones.

[Hydeflyer]

Hi Peter,

I've been doing a "dry" fit of the wing servos and push rods today but the control horns for the ailerons and flaps are not pre-fitted in the newer models. Instead the horns are supplied loose for glueing in place. Trouble is there are two sizes and they can go into the surface pocket either pointing up or down . If pointing up, they foul the hump and if pointing down as seems right, they don't seem to provide enough travel to lift the surface. I don't want to glue them in until I'm sure! Have you (or anyone else) come across this? Photos:

[RGPuk]

I'm sure Peter will come back on this but .......

..... the Typhoon control surfaces are all top driven, the longer tanged horns are for the flaps, the shorter for the ailerons - and you'll have to slot the surface innards just enough so the horns slide into place, leaving the right amount of horn protruding, that clears the fairings with a clevice/connection fitted and with the drive hole as near as possible in line with the hinge line.

The horns in the pics at the following link are metal but still give a good idea of the fitting principle:

**LINK**

Ah - the vagaries of mouldie assembly. All very satisfying when it comes together though.

Ro.

Edited By RGPuk on 02/01/2013 18:08:03

[Peewhit]

Hi Slopeflyer,

In some ways you are lucky that the control horns are not pre-fitted as you can be sure of getting them in the right place.

The larger horns are for the flaps and the smaller ones for the ailerons.

They need to point up from the control surface and should be trimmed down a bit so that when the clevice is attached they just clear the "hump" fairing, and when the control surface is in neutral position they are bang in line vertically with the hinge.

They will then give the neccesary control surface movements.

See page 2 of this thread for when I replaced my control horns with brass ones.

Glue them in place with epoxy/ micro balloon mixture and if you trim them to be too small you can always support them using a drill.

ps drill the horns to take the clevice before you glue them in place.

If you are using M2 clevice then a 1/16" drill is just right but do test the hole size on a bit of scrap plastic or something first.

The important thing is that you get both aileron horns in the same position and both flap horns in the same position.

[Hydeflyer]

Cheers for that. I know how to proceed now. Just trying to source this elusive "Micro Balloon" stuff. Do you think my niece's birthday balloons will be OK?

[Peewhit]

I am sure your niece's bithday balloons will be fine.

Just fill them with helium, tie then to the Typhoon and let go.

Then you won't need to bother about installing all the electrical gear, linkages, or programming.

[Peewhit]

Managed to get out today and fly the Typhoon.

It was warm dry sunny and more like spring than winter - didn't even need gloves.

Wind was straight on to the slope and 30mph on the edge - ideal stuff.

With 20oz of ballast on board the Typhoon flew superbly, as always.

Three good flights and three gentle "hover down" landings using crow braking.

Also flew the Stinger F3B thing, but that's another story.

[Hydeflyer]

Good grief... where do you live.. on top of Snowdon!? Wind in North East Cheshire today was absolutely nil!

Lucky you!!

[Peewhit]

I live near York and fly at the Hole of Horcum or Levisham on the North York Moors.

It is not very often that there is no wind up there - can be lots of fog though.

Do you have those wing servos potted in yet?

Edited By Peewhit on 04/01/2013 19:17:33

[Hydeflyer]

No servos in place yet... I'm waiting on delivery of the balloons from Slough Models. I'll post a few piccies when I get really stuck into it (pun intended).

[Hydeflyer]

I've finally finished the Typhoon fit out. What a job it was for a relative novice where mouldies are concerned! Several issues as follows:

• The supplied M2 clevises are too long, even with a minimal length of threaded M2 rod and the clevises back to back. For the flaps I had to cut about 2mm off the threaded tube and use only the threaded portion of rod, about 20mm long. In any case only 6 clevis are supplied and with 2 for each wing servo and 2 for the fuz, there aren't enough. So I ended up using a cheap and cheerful shorter plastic clevis to connect to the control horn.
• Try as I might I couldn't then get free movement of the push rod without filing out a little bit of the T/E wing rib. Ouch!
• The metal clevis' then have to be ground into an arc on the lower surface to clear the servo hub to get sufficient travel for (almost) 90 deg flap.

Here's a few piccies. Apologies for quality.. done with the mobile phone!

[Hydeflyer]

Then came the fuz fit out. I marked out the cutting template on masking tape, cut out the servo hole first and brought the wiring loom through. What a frab!! Hardly any room either side of the ballast tube and a length of copper wire with a flattened hook on one end had to be pushed through from the front, then a length of 15lb fishing line attached to the hook at the wing root end and the line pulled back with the servo plugs tied on.

It's a hell of a squeeze to get the wiring in under eveything and I ended up with great loops above deck at the front! My Optima 7 Rx has a 200mm long aerial with a bulged "Boosted Omni Directional Antenna" on the end. This has to run in an arc above the deck, placing all but 2 of the 7 channel ports at the forward end of the receiver so extension leads were needed. I also squeezed a toggle swith in front of the fuz servos.

About 4 oz of lead was shaped pushed under the forward deck aperture, with the remainder (another 3.5 oz at the moment) was taped above it. It actually works very well in the end and a range check has indicated no restriction due to the curvature of the aerial or its location.

Some more piccies:

The final assembly.

Haven't had the guts to fly her yet but the programming of my Eclipse 7 Tx was pretty straightforward and I'm waiting for some better weather (and more experience with a less expensive model) before taking the plunge.

[Peewhit]

That is looking very good and thanks for all the pics.

Have you put and reinforcement under the deck?

[Hydeflyer]

HI... Yes I did as you suggested and epoxied a length of shaped spruce rail under the deck each side and as far back as they would go. The servos are screwed through the deck directly into the rails for a really solid job. By the way, in case you spot it... I did remeber to screw down the servo horns. Thanks for your help and advice and thanks to other build threads as well!

I've also now aquired a Fly Fly "Free Bird" to replace my Middle Phase. Also ready to go but on hold due to the impossible weather at the moment. My plan is to get some more hours in with this before a proper outing with the Typhoon.

Edited By Hydeflyer on 05/02/2013 19:32:23

[Hydeflyer]

Here's a picture of the Free Bird. It's a 1.45m ply / balsa pre-covered wing and fibreglass fuzz model. Pretty cheap at £75 and most of my radio gear from the Middel Phase has fitted in, except for the elevator servo. No finishing required so straight to the slope ASAP!

[Lee Smalley]

really not sure about those plastic clevises, your servos in the wing needed to go much further back mine ended up under the wing skin, this in turn gives you enough distance to use the metal clevises i was told not to screw servos in and use epoxy instead, any bangs then just pop the servo out with no or minimal damage