Laser Arts Majestic

[RC_Soaring]

I just ordered a Laser Arts Majestic... I was wondering what servos I should use?? I've heard it comes out nose heavy so should I use full size servos and a bigger battery for balance?

[Kai@UCSB]

Blake,

I use two standard servos for R/E. two GWS naro servo for spoiler (cheap and stronger than HS-55).
Use as large battery as possible, I use a big one (forget how big) but still need like few oz nose weight...

-Kai

[RC_Soaring]

Thanks for the reply Kai.. Thats what I was thinking but wasnt for sure if full size servos would fit. Do you know on your Majestic if its got the stock tail or is it the Drella moded tail. Also if you get a chance and if its no trouble let me know what size batts you are using.

[Ric Duley]

It's a big fuse so you can use anything you choose. I'd plan on a big battery - better to put that nose weight to work. ;)

[John Walter]

This is a great plane. I used standard servos and a 1650 mAh NiMh battery, Drela mods on wing and tail. I suggest replacing the tailboom with CF.

[RC_Soaring]

Thanks for the info guys....

[RC_Soaring]

As far as servos go will I benefit from going with coreless bb servoes or will standard bb be fine? Also on the battery can anyone give me an idea of what size and type nicad or nimh?

[shhhhh!]

A good friend of mine just built one. Beautiful plane. Just pm him and I am sure he will answer any questions. His r/c groups name is kostuk. Also there is a picture of his plane at tucson thermal soaring,post #59.

[RC_Soaring]

Thanks for the info shhhhh!.. Thats a nice looking Majestic!!

[Ryan Archer]

did you try out my majestic 110 for realflight g3 yet? ryan

[RC_Soaring]

Not as of yet Ryan.. I want be able to run it until I get my video card troubles sorted out.

[Kai@UCSB]

check out my setup. not very cool but works good.

-Kai

[RC_Soaring]

Thanks for the pics Kai.. now I have an idea how the gear will fit..

[Kai@UCSB]

I suggest to route the R/E push-rod outside the boom. Will be much easier to set it straght. I put some pop-corn foam inside the boom to make the pushrod straight.

-Kai

[RC_Soaring]

Thanks for the suggestion Kai.. I've been thinking about that. I'm not sure which I'll do so I guess I'll tackle that when I get to it. I ordered my battery a GP2200 NIMH 4 cell pack maybe it will fit. I have never messed with NIMH batterys before only NICAD. I was wondering can the NIMH pack be charged with the wall charger that comes with the radio or do I need a different charger?

[trident58]

I'll chime in with some info on my Majestic. I followed Dr. Drela's advice on the washout in the wings and on using a CF tailboom (from the Bubble Dancer). I also replaced the metal tail mount rods with 3/16" CF rods. I used Airtronics 102 servos, and I placed them in front of the receiver. I used a 4 cell pack of GP1100 cells. I ended up adding only 2.25 oz of nose weight. The RTF weight is 58 oz.
It flies great, although it is a little sluggish in turns. With the modified washout, I haven't noticed any bad tip stall habits.
Jon

[RC_Soaring]

Thanks for the info Jon... Nice looking Majestic you have. I was wondering on the boom I was looking on tailboom.com at the Bubble Dancer boom. Why couldnt you use the Supra boom?? The specs are much closer to the Majestic/light 3m v-tail boom they used to sell for the Majestic.

Bubble dancer specs:
36" length
0.82" od tapering to 0.47" od


Majestic/light 3m v-tail boom specs (no longer sold):
36" length
0.87" od tapering to 0.52" od


Supra specs:
36" length
0.87" od tapering to 0.51" od

[RC_Soaring]

For anyone interested in the Majestic I sent an email to Rick at tailboom.com about the Bubble Dancer boom and the Supra boom. Here's the reply I got back..

The Supra is for F3J and F3B ships. The BD boom is for
Light cross-tail designs like the BD. The Majestic
with a cross-tail and BD boom would work fine, but I
have nothing that wil handle the torsion loads of a
v-tail, the Supra boom would be marginal at this, but
better than the BD.
Rick

From what I get from the email is if your going to use the v-tail the Supra boom would be a little better tha the Bubble Dancer boom. I've talked to several people thats used the stock boom with no problems so I'm not sure which I'll go with. I guess I'll figure that out when I get to it.

[Kai@UCSB]

I use stock boom and no problem so far.
As this is my first BIG TD plane, my comment may not be that useful but I think the only mod I will do on my majestic is the washout. :)

-Kai

[RC_Soaring]

Thanks for the reply Kai.... I'll probably use the stock boom myself... Like I said I've talked to several other using the stock boom with no problems. I plan to do the tail mod and add the washout and that will probably be it. Since I have no winch and dont use a winch the stock wing should be plenty strong enough for high start launches.

[Kai@UCSB]

The wing and wing rod are pretty strong.
I winch launch mine all the time with no problem. Not full paddle and no big zoom but launch good with winch.

-Kai

[kostuk]

Hi,
I finished a Majestic with a longer wing and more dihedral as per Mark Drela's advice. I also added a conventional tail. Mine came out at 54.4 oz with the stock boom. I've launched on a heavy duty winch (although I kited it up) several times and it does well without any problems. The only thing missing is a good ballast system. Last weekend it was windy and I taped on about a pound of lead and it flew much better - as expected with appropriate ballast. I think that it is a great plane for the money even with the stock boom.
Ray

[RC_Soaring]

Ray,
Do you have any measurements of the tail you built or any build pictures of it?

[trident58]

[The Supra is for F3J and F3B ships. The BD boom is for
Light cross-tail designs like the BD. The Majestic
with a cross-tail and BD boom would work fine, but I
have nothing that wil handle the torsion loads of a
v-tail, the Supra boom would be marginal at this, but
better than the BD.
Rick

That's interesting to hear. When I was shopping around to replace tha stock boom, the general info I got was that the 5-layer BD doom would be OK. For what it's worth, I don't abuse my planes in the air (at least not intentionally) and I don't use a winch for launching. So far, I haven't had any problems. After seeing this, though, I might add a few extra pieces of carbon to reinforce the boom.
Jon

[kostuk]

I'll try to get the dimensions of my tail and post them in the next few days. I drew up some plans but they are hand drawn. It was easy to build a conventional tail and the weight of the tail was about 2.5 oz covered. THe horizontal tail is bolted on with nylon bolts mounted on a balsa pedestal. Nothing fancy except for some carbon tow reinforcement of the stab spars.

on the boom issue...
I think that if you don't intend to do super zoom launches the stock boom is fine expecially if you lighten the tail. Bob Vixie flew his at the SW Classic contest in Phoenix for several years and lauched his fairly agressively without incident. He would consistently place in the top 20 out of about 200 contestants.
Ray

[RC_Soaring]

Can anyone tell me the stock length of the boom (in MM if possible) thats included with the Majestic kit? Also does the boom taper as it goes down to the tail or is it the same the entire length?

[trident58]

Stock boom length is 1018 mm. It tapers from 23 mm to 19 mm.
All this talk about twisting loads on the boom caused by the v-tail got me into doing some calculations. The elevator loads are not an issue as there are no unbalanced torques on the boom axis. The rudder action is what causes the twisting (torque). Imagine the airplane is making a turn to port. Standing behind the plane, looking towards the nose, you would see the port ruddervator move left and down, creating a counterclockwise torque. The starboard ruddervator would move left and up, also causing a counterclockwise torque. In a conventional tail, assuming there is no movable sub-fin, a left turn will also cause a net counterclockwise torque. The magnitude of these forces is going to depend on the amount of control surface area and its distance from the pivot point (boom centerline axis), not to mention control surface deflection. I do agree that the twisting on the conventional tail is going to be less because the net force vector is going to be moving at a tangent to the rotation.
I guess this proves I'm an incurable geek. It's Friday night, and I'm on a model airplane site yakking about physics. :eek: Help me!

[RC_Soaring]

Thanks for the info Trident..... As far as being a geek, dont feel bad your at home yakking about physics and I'm at home reading it :rolleyes: so I guess that makes us both geeks!!! :D

[RC_Soaring]

For all thats using the Majestic on a hi-start what size hi-start do you use? I've never thought to ask anyone but how well does the Majestic thermal?

[John Walter]

I used to use a NSP "Pinnacle L" histart ( http://www.nesail.com/detail.php?productID=874 ), but I now use only a winch.

Yes it thermals very well. I have had numerous flights over 1 hour and often specked out from 50'.

[kostuk]

Here are the specs and a picture of my Majestic tail. This plane really flies great! I'm not that intimidated by AVA's any more!

Here are the details on the tail.
Horizontal tail length: 25"
Fixed stab chord: 4" root>3" tip
Elevator: 2" root> 1.5" tip

Thickness is 1/4" rounded LE and tapered TE
Make the spar from 1/4X1/8" spruce laminated to a similar dimensioned piece of balsa.
Make center section from 2" wide by .25" thick balsa
LE 3/4" wide at root taper to 3/8"wide at tip

Make the Stab mount from 3/8" thick by .5" high balsa. Mount stab with nylon bolts going through the boom. Reinforce area where bolt goes through the top of the stab with 1/64" ply around bolt hole.

Vertical Stab: 11.5 " above boom
3 3/8" base > 1 5/8" top
rudder: 4.5" base > 2.5" tip
Make the spar the same as for the horizontal stab. Make the spar long enough so that you can glue it with epoxy to the aft end of the boom i.e the vertical stab spar extend past the boom.
The vertical stab is mounted at the end of the boom and the horizontal stab is mounted in fron to the LE of the vertical stab. You can put a notch in the elevator to get the stab aft a bit more. Its mounted the same as the tails on many DLGs (discus launch gliders, Spinner, Taboo, XP4, etc.)

[RC_Soaring]

kostuk... Thanks for the info and the picture, thats what I was needing...

[hangerdude1]

Nice looking tail, Kostuk. I did a similar thing about a year and a half ago, however, I made my stab full floating on a V mount. Plane flew great - in fact I sold it to a friend who is flying it at Visalia this weekend. Attached are some pictures of my modifications.

Ken

[dhable]

Post #18 says:

"For anyone interested in the Majestic I sent an email to Rick at tailboom.com about the Bubble Dancer boom and the Supra boom. Here's the reply I got back..

The Supra is for F3J and F3B ships. The BD boom is for Light cross-tail designs like the BD. The Majestic with a cross-tail and BD boom would work fine, but I have nothing that wil handle the torsion loads of a v-tail, the Supra boom would be marginal at this, but better than the BD.
Rick"

I checked directly with Brian at Laser Arts. Laser Arts manufactures the Majestic. Brian told me that the proper tailboom from tailboom.com for the Majestic is the Bubble Dancer 5-Layer boom, not the Supra boom.

I'm buying the 5-Layer Bubble Dancer boom for my Majestic kit.