Passion 3D

[tashley]

Anyone building/flying CMP's Passion 3D?

Tom

[mpj220]

I had one.
I used a GMS 76 13x6 APC on the nose.

It flew OK and was extremely light. I changed out the pull-pull rods to cables to prevent binding. It would hover at less than half throttle with that combo.
I did not get to really set the plane up proper before I sold it. I still had it a bit nose heavy. Knife edge coupled toward the canopy. Flat spins were difficult but, I think it would have got better with balance.

My big problem with the plane was the quality of the factory. My maiden flight was short due to the sudden removal of half of the elevator. I was at a low throttle setting, just trimming it for level flight when it flew off. I was able to land without further damage. After looking at the damage, it was very clear that it was all glue failure. There was one broken piece of balsa and the rest was clean breaks at glue joints. The factory uses a hot melt style glue and it doesn't penetrate the balsa.
For fear of this happening again, I stripped all tail surfaces and CA'd everything and recovered it. I was a little dissapointed with Giantscaleplanes.com as they said they would follow up with the problem and never did. All I asked for was the covering so I could match it up. I ended up using yellow ultracote.
If you do get one of these or the 3D giles from the same factory, I would suggest stripping and recovering tail surfaces as I did have conversations with others (on another site I used to frequent) that had the same problem.

Mark

[tashley]

Thanks Mark, I already have a Giles 3D and after reading several posts on it it was my decision to go with two servos on the elevator and I have never had the problem with one elevator half breaking off. Because the Giles tends to be nose heavy I needed the extra weight anyway. I think the problem with the Giles, and maybe the Passion as well, is not so much the glue joints but the enormous control surfaces and the inadaquate connection on the elevator halves. In my opinion these planes are built really well, but built really light and not very forgiving when it comes to banging around and high speed flight. The Giles also had a yaw wiggle that took a little work to get out. I started with a digital servo and pull-pull and it wiggled, then I went to 2-56 pushrods and it still wiggled, and then I changed the pushrods to 4-40 and that did the trick. I plan on using the same system on my Passion.

Tom

[mpj220]

Two servos would definitely be the better way to go as the factory design to join the two elevator halves requires that you bend a piece of metal and drill two holes into soft balsa and epoxy. They should have had harder wood at that point.If I remember correctly, the fuse is a bit too narrow to put the servos back to back. You may have to stagger them.

Just be careful inspecting the glue joints. Hopefully the factory corrected the problem. When I removed the covering from the other surfaces, I found that the covering was holding most of the structure. Most all of the rudder fell apart after the covering was removed.
I was surprized as the fuse and wing seemed to be built much stronger.
It is light and like any plane not meant to be crashed :rolleyes:
With any headwind, you can have a kite with this one.

It lands so slow and has close to no stall speed. I would have kept it but, had a YS 91 given to me and decided to get a UCD for it. Wife would have hit the roof if she saw another plane come into the house without one leaving (the sacrifices one must endure).

Mark

[tashley]

Hit the roof, ey Mark? I got around the skinny fuselage problem with my Giles by using two Hitech HS-77 low profile servos and shimming the rear mount with 3/16" square spruce to have them parallel. I'm planning on a Saito .72 for mine, I had a Saito .50 in the Giles and it flew great. Does the Passion tend to be nose heavy like the Giles?

[mpj220]

It was a bit nose heavy but, the GMS 76 is not light at all. I think it was around 25oz with the muffler. I had made a shelf in the fuse beheind the wing to attach the battery. I believe I had a hitec 625 on rudder and elevator.
If you are using a Saito 72, you are saving a half pound on the nose over what I had - and everyone at the field thought mine was a floater. I still needed tail weight for better 3D but, didn't have it long enough to set it up right. It was promising though.

And hit the roof?? - OH YES - probably with me!!

Mark

[ivan40]

I do need the point CG for passion 60. A complete manual would be appricieted.
i.jeremic@dvor.org.yu

[flying-aces]

does anyone have any ideas on how to mount the fuel tank on the passion 3D?