[Dangaras]

Today was maiden day & we had bright sun, temps around 13C, a steady 8 KPH wind blowing from the South east (our runway is EAST - West), slightly damp ground with some post-winter lumpiness.

I am flying with 1 3 cell, 4900mAh, 25 Rhino battery, MA 11x7 3-blade props & two Turnigy 35-36-1100KV motors. The taxi out sucked, even wiht 3 inch, diamond tread, Dubro tires the soft ground and lumps kept grabbing her and tipping her nose over. The tailwheel had just about zero authority...

Then we lined up with the east, did a range test, powered up and nosed over then bounced back. Deep breath,,,,,,,,,,,, few swear words............. Power up again, quicker thie time and within 20 feet she was off the ground with a very steep takeoff angle almost as if she was tail heavy.. Pushed the power up a couple of clicks, couple of clicks of down elevator & she was flying straight and level.

I had 2 co-pilots who reminded me that we planned 3 circuits and then gear down, test flaps & land if all worked out. On the downward leg, dropped the gear, no issue, 1st flap click no issue, 2nd flap click and I saw a slight aspect change but nothing of any concern.

Then the final turn into the landing approach was smooth with the throttle under 1/2 with a good descent rate. Then as we got to within 6 feet I added a little throttle to decrease the descent rate and a few seconds later we touched down a little harder than I wanted.

That is when the soft ground and lumps grabbed the left wheel and ripped it off right at the top wheel collar!!!!! There was only slight damage to the balsa at the tip of the right wing (opposite side of the broken gear). Besides that the right gear was bent back ever so slightly right up at the vertical struts between the two cross bars.

I think the resolution to this will be building 2 new H-gear and shimming them with a 1-size smaller brass tube to make them so much strunger. I probably will add a 3rd wheel collar to give it all more holding strength.

Or I will use these spring loaded struts (shown on the right of the broken H-gear) as the struts.

Otherwise she flew straight and true like I expected. Can't wait to get repaired and back in the air...

[Max]

Great flight report, Andre! Too bad about the gear. Next time you go out, take the camcorder

[Dangaras]

Originally Posted by Max

Great flight report, Andre! Too bad about the gear. Next time you go out, take the camcorder

Yeah, experimentation sucks sometimes. I have a new plan for H-gear that will use spring-stuts to take some shock out of the landings.. Also will use some square brass stock to form the cross pieces.

Pictures to follow..

Cameras are the one thing I have noticed as lacking where I am flying from. Dont know why..

[Max]

Let me know how you make out, since I have been vexed by the same problem on my Mosquitos. I have yet to come up with a good solution for the undercarriage, one project has been languishing on the back bench for years because I haven't found a retract solution that works. Your first attempt on this one caught my attention. Lets see what your version 2 looks like

[Dangaras]

Originally Posted by Max

Let me know how you make out, since I have been vexed by the same problem on my Mosquitos. I have yet to come up with a good solution for the undercarriage, one project has been languishing on the back bench for years because I haven't found a retract solution that works. Your first attempt on this one caught my attention. Lets see what your version 2 looks like

I have some pictures of the new rigging, I decided to go with square stock with a tube inside to add rigidity (landing gear viagra) for the cross pieces. The two little uprights are also square but have a solid brass rod inside them.

I used spring loaded struts that I found in one of my parts bins, forgot I had them..

http://www.pw-rc.com/product_info.ph...oducts_id/1362

THe first pic shows the failed gear.

The pieces were all cut with a dremmel (the ruler gives the lenghts).

The square stock was cut drilled through to allow the upright supports to pass through and protude a couple of mm out the top.

I sanded everything till it was shining and coated everything with plumbers flux (acid helps remove corrosion from places inside the tubes).

Then I put the wheel collars on aligned with the through hole.

The last pics show the comparison to the old gear attempt.

I plan to add the cross tubes and diagonal tubes with steel epoxy later.

I thought, after putting them together, that I could have extended the uprights and had another cross piece and wheel collar like the original ones to add strength. Decided to try these first to see how they held up.

Final pix will follow once all is together and painted silver.

[Dangaras]

Originally Posted by bestwatchessale

Andre... I think you have the "twin" sickness.....

I like having both hands full, at all times!!!

[Dangaras]

Here are some pix from flying last weekend. Really nice flying model. She needs the power on most of the time and the only bad habit is weathervaning in stronger winds..

[DW_Crash]

Dangaras,

Awesome pics......can't wait to fly mine. wondered if you could confirm your power setup? motors and props. Also, how many watts the pair of motors arfe drawing. My current setup uses two turnigy C3548-900 motors with 11x7 two blade props. my weight is 6 lb 14 oz. Together, the two motors are drawing about 45 amps......475 watts. what are your numbers?

Thanks,
Dave

[Dangaras]

Originally Posted by DW_Crash

Dangaras,

Awesome pics......can't wait to fly mine. wondered if you could confirm your power setup? motors and props. Also, how many watts the pair of motors arfe drawing. My current setup uses two turnigy C3548-900 motors with 11x7 two blade props. my weight is 6 lb 14 oz. Together, the two motors are drawing about 45 amps......475 watts. what are your numbers?

Thanks,
Dave

Dave,

I an flying 13x9 MA props. I don't know what my power consumption is i have to make an adapter for my EC5 connectors to fit the EC3 conns on the power meter, but my 3 cell, 4900 is down at 11.1 v when I land after 5 to 6 minutes of flying. I do not fly at full throttle but 2/3 to 3/4. I think my weight is around 6.5 or 7 lbs.

She flies well just remember to keep the throttle up specially in turns and on landing to avoid a tip stall or the tail dropping. If the speed gets to low she will start dropping her tail.

[Max]

Superb photograph's Andre. Give my compliments to the photographer.

I also like your new version of the landing gear. It looks very scale and I can see it is more robust than the original.