Devin McGRath
Mar 08, 2006, 09:33 PM
Well I had made this shocky about a month and a half to two months ago and haven’t had much time to post about it so I had some spare time and wanted to be able to contribute to this forum so here we go...
components
AXI 2204/54
CC10 amp
FMA direct M5 V2
Kokam 2 cell 340
Futaba 3110 servos
AUW 5.7 oz ( I did not go all out on this one for lightening because it was purely experimental)
I made a few different modifications to this one as you might be able to tell by the pictures ;) I made two counterbalances in the wing on this one. I was trying to achieve a faster roll rate. It did not to much at all. It did however make the plane roll perfectly axial at every aileron position before with my older ones they would start to loose there axial roll at extremely high deflections this one did not. These counter balances did not give the plane any bad characteristics at all. It did not hurt the precise aspect of the plane in any way. I also may little air dams right in front of the counterbalances that would block the airflow from catching the counterbalances at neutral and just around neutral because it is nearly impossible to get the entire aileron to center correctly when you are dealing with foam (these did add drag to the plane as well). On my previous F3A I had 90 degree pieces of foam off of the SFG’s to add drag I left them off on this one because of all of the extra drag created by the counterbalances and air dams.
Overall this F3A I think is a great flyer and an improvement on the original in every way except for the slight added weight of extra glue, carbon fiber, and probably the biggest downside would be the build time lol. Took a ling time to do.... one of the major lesson learned here is that round swept counter balances are inefficient. But it does look cool doesn’t it !
I can't get any detailed pictures of it for you guys right now but I do have these ones from the night I finished it. ( It's on its way to Memphis right now). Let me know what you guys think :) BTW the pieces on the leading edge are top secret as Jurgen might say.
components
AXI 2204/54
CC10 amp
FMA direct M5 V2
Kokam 2 cell 340
Futaba 3110 servos
AUW 5.7 oz ( I did not go all out on this one for lightening because it was purely experimental)
I made a few different modifications to this one as you might be able to tell by the pictures ;) I made two counterbalances in the wing on this one. I was trying to achieve a faster roll rate. It did not to much at all. It did however make the plane roll perfectly axial at every aileron position before with my older ones they would start to loose there axial roll at extremely high deflections this one did not. These counter balances did not give the plane any bad characteristics at all. It did not hurt the precise aspect of the plane in any way. I also may little air dams right in front of the counterbalances that would block the airflow from catching the counterbalances at neutral and just around neutral because it is nearly impossible to get the entire aileron to center correctly when you are dealing with foam (these did add drag to the plane as well). On my previous F3A I had 90 degree pieces of foam off of the SFG’s to add drag I left them off on this one because of all of the extra drag created by the counterbalances and air dams.
Overall this F3A I think is a great flyer and an improvement on the original in every way except for the slight added weight of extra glue, carbon fiber, and probably the biggest downside would be the build time lol. Took a ling time to do.... one of the major lesson learned here is that round swept counter balances are inefficient. But it does look cool doesn’t it !
I can't get any detailed pictures of it for you guys right now but I do have these ones from the night I finished it. ( It's on its way to Memphis right now). Let me know what you guys think :) BTW the pieces on the leading edge are top secret as Jurgen might say.