how are you guys shaping these?

hot wire , olfa knife (my fave), #11 exacto , sand paper ( try wet sanding less messy )
and large commercial nail file , rasps .. heck evena hack saw once.

Originally Posted by captaingeek

how are you guys shaping these?

I use a long, straight blade meat carving knife to rough cut the basic top and side profiles I want, then used the same to rough cut the corners to match. The knife has to be razor sharp to work well, with short sawing strokes to cut smoothly. Go slow and don't cut off a finger!

Then with 100 grit sand paper I refine the profiles using a flat sanding block. As it closer to final shape, just drop down a grade or two of sandpaper, eventually using a foam block your cupped hand to get the smooth curved contours. It goes pretty fast... maybe 20 minutes. Veyr messy... do it outside in the grass if you can!

Wow... the CG was way off! Did you forget to locate the CG and balance before the flight!?

Getting anxious to fly your new creations can do strange things like that!

Negative Ghost Rider.
I'll forget to put the prop on before I forget to spot my CG. I had it at 80mm from the trailing edge for the maiden as per recommended a few pages back. Now it's at 95mm from the TE.
I've got 1 3/4 oz worth of stick on tire weights in the batt tray. I'll start taking a 1/4 oz out at a time until it flies like I like it.

But hey! thanks for the compliments.
I roughed in the nose with #36 sandpaper, then went to #80 and final sand with #180. It goes real fast. Might have taken 10 min. at most.

On the next one I'm gonna sand more of a notch in the nose like the T-45 has just in front of the canopy. This one is more of a prototype for me to work out the kinks.
But there are several jets out there that you could "fake" the Titan into.

I just swapped out the 7x5 prop for an 8x6, watts went from 125 to 185 @ 23 oz AUW.
I'm about to go out and throw it up again.


Julian

Originally Posted by Boogie_

Negative Ghost Rider.
I'll forget to put the prop on before I forget to spot my CG. I had it at 80mm from the trailing edge for the maiden as per recommended a few pages back. Now it's at 95mm from the TE.
I've got 1 3/4 oz worth of stick on tire weights in the batt tray. I'll start taking a 1/4 oz out at a time until it flies like I like it.


Julian

I had to go back and look at your pics. If I moved my battery forward as much as you did plus add all that nose weigh my plane would head to a straight nose dig on launch. By when I saw how far aft you had your battery, it made a bit more sense. I use 1300 mAH 3S lipos, so they need to go pretty further forward to balance to begin with. But mine flies fine at 76mm in front of the stock TE, but then I added aileron area after of that which moved my sweep spot aft a tiny bit.

Just found these on sale in the Walmart and Toys R Us near me, but they jacked up the price from last year! Now they want almost $15!! Got one to try making a new tail with larger control surfaces. What are you guys using for paint on these, and would the stickiness in monocote activate at a temp low enough to not damage the foam? I'm thinking monocote would add a bit of durability to the plane. One more question, when I run my hextronic 1700kv motor (I think you guys call it the blue wonder) with my 3S 1000 mah battery, with an APC 8x3.8 prop, it gets very hot, even at half throttle. Yet I flew it at half throttle for about 6 minutes before bringing it down and it wasn't even warm. Is it safe to open it up to full throttle for extended periods? Hobbyking says to use 2S and max 9 amps. I've ordered a wattmeter but it hasn't arrived yet.

Originally Posted by AvistarAddict

Just found these on sale in the Walmart and Toys R Us near me, but they jacked up the price from last year! Now they want almost $15!! Got one to try making a new tail with larger control surfaces. What are you guys using for paint on these, and would the stickiness in monocote activate at a temp low enough to not damage the foam? I'm thinking monocote would add a bit of durability to the plane. One more question, when I run my hextronic 1700kv motor (I think you guys call it the blue wonder) with my 3S 1000 mah battery, with an APC 8x3.8 prop, it gets very hot, even at half throttle. Yet I flew it at half throttle for about 6 minutes before bringing it down and it wasn't even warm. Is it safe to open it up to full throttle for extended periods? Hobbyking says to use 2S and max 9 amps. I've ordered a wattmeter but it hasn't arrived yet.

I used Krylon Short Cuts spray paint for the main silver coat and then brushed on waterbased acrylics for color then sealed it with Krylon clear (waterbased).
That motor is same as this one
http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the...lectric/Detail
That prop you're using looks like the max for that motor on 3s, likely over 10a since it's a slo fly type prop. Look at the recommendations given

Originally Posted by AvistarAddict

...
when I run my hextronic 1700kv motor (I think you guys call it the blue wonder) with my 3S 1000 mah battery, with an APC 8x3.8 prop, it gets very hot, even at half throttle. Yet I flew it at half throttle for about 6 minutes before bringing it down and it wasn't even warm. Is it safe to open it up to full throttle for extended periods? Hobbyking says to use 2S and max 9 amps. I've ordered a wattmeter but it hasn't arrived yet.

The fact that it got hot at half throttle (static test) should tell you something important, even without a watt meter. It's too much prop for the motor!

In the air the prop will unload and draw less power as the plane gains speed, and having the motor out in the airflow also helps a lot, which is why you found it wasn't overly hot when flying at half throttle unless you have an on-board logging system that can monitor amps, temp, etc while the plane is flying.

At WOT with that prop it's risky guessing game that you will only be able to answer by trial and error (unless someone has already done it and can chime in here). The best approach is to use smaller diameter and/or pitch props that do not cause your power system to overload at half throttle in static tests (if you want them to be reliable and last, that is).

That's what I was thinking Tom. The only reason I tried it after it got hot was I seem to recall a few people using this set up on 3S and being fine. Being new to electric, I just assumed they knew something I didn't. Maybe I'll go down to a 7x3.8 to be safe. I don't relish the ideo of burning up a motor.

Have any of you guys tried this Liquid Sheeting?

http://www.wowplanes.com/product_inf...cb837ffbfac2b9

Originally Posted by AvistarAddict

That's what I was thinking Tom. The only reason I tried it after it got hot was I seem to recall a few people using this set up on 3S and being fine. Being new to electric, I just assumed they knew something I didn't. Maybe I'll go down to a 7x3.8 to be safe. I don't relish the ideo of burning up a motor.

If you can use throttle management and not go much padst half throttle, you'd probably be OK, but it's to forget or not pay attention to that when you are having fun flying. And then, if you put that same combo in a different plane where the motor does not get the great airflow for cooling, then fly the same way, what stayed reasonably cool in the first plane may overheat and torch itself in the new plane.

avistar .. watch my vid ... i posted a few pages back.

1700kv blue wonder type outrunner ...
7x5e apc ... hk 8-10a esc.
no excessive heat ... just warm to the touch static ..

T_Easy Maiden flight (6 min 12 sec)

my lil extra uses same motor .. but i have an 8x4slow fly ... and motor gets hot in static above 90% t .
i think 7x5e is the best speed n thrust combo i have personaly got off it .

The 8x6 prop made a huge difference but it was very windy so I don't know if the speed is what I want yet. Down wind passes were fast, of course, and up wind penetration was good. Vertical performance was a lot better.
We'll see.

Now pulling 15 amps on an 18A ESC. It was about to melt through the fuse. I'll have to swap it out with the 40A I've got laying around.
My flying buddy has a motor out of a Striker I'm going to try next.

Originally Posted by Boogie_

The 8x6 prop made a huge difference but it was very windy so I don't know if the speed is what I want yet. Down wind passes were fast, of course, and up wind penetration was good. Vertical performance was a lot better.
We'll see.

Now pulling 15 amps on an 18A ESC. It was about to melt through the fuse. I'll have to swap it out with the 40A I've got laying around.
My flying buddy has a motor out of a Striker I'm going to try next.

cool. The striker motor should be perfect! How did the rudder perform? Do you think the thick airfoil was waking away from your speed?

Prime do you think the canards are necessary