Originally Posted by DamonH

Nice! Any estimate on when the tamjets struts bungy version will be available?

Tams strut's will be here for development this week.

But I probably won't

Awesome Gary! I plan on ordering a set when you have the mains available so I can ofer both the mains and nose. this looks sweet!

Congrats on your first grandchild too!

Do people still have problems with the stock screws holding the main landing gear breaking? I believe I saw at least two of you having such problems. I just reached this stage in the build, and am considering buying better screws.

Originally Posted by ysolomon

Do people still have problems with the stock screws holding the main landing gear breaking? I believe I saw at least two of you having such problems. I just reached this stage in the build, and am considering buying better screws.

Just take your time when you screw them in and use dish soap to lubricate the screws, that will prevent them from snapping.

Originally Posted by ysolomon

Do people still have problems with the stock screws holding the main landing gear breaking? I believe I saw at least two of you having such problems. I just reached this stage in the build, and am considering buying better screws.

I replaced the screws with #4 x 5/8 flat head wood screws from the hardware store. AND drilled the existing holes a bit larger.
Just drilling the holes bigger would probably suffice.

Originally Posted by Jetnfast

Awesome Gary! I plan on ordering a set when you have the mains available so I can ofer both the mains and nose. this looks sweet!

Congrats on your first grandchild too!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by efflux RC

A few folks asked us to make a carbon nose gear door to go with the Carbon Mains doors we will be offering.

Here's the new Habu 32 Carbon Fiber Nose door Kit.

This nose door is a quick easy and inexpensive way to close your nose door, using a bungy pulled closed by the E-Flite retracts, and opened by the strut as it rotates out. This kit works with the E-Flite struts only.

The door is 1mm Carbon fiber. Mirror shiney on one side, rough (for glueing) on the other. It can be left "as is" or sanded and painted (by the customer) to match your paint scheme.

I'll also be offering a door kit with offset hinges, for those who wish to actuate the door with a servo. (for use with Tam's or or other trailing link struts)

I will also do a bungy verson that works with trailing link struts. there will be an additional part required.

I tried to use those hinges and had a hard time, because visually from the outside, it was a mess.
Offset hinges are much better and there is no need to cut anything:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...postcount=9533

It works very well with your bungee method, and the finish is perfect.
I did reinforce the inside of the cover, athough I think there's no need for it (it only gave me problems because the wheel pattern got caught in the edge of the CF reinforcement.

EDIT: it seems incredible that I have this plane for half a year now and it never flew. My twin babies were born after I finished the assembly and never gave me a chance to have a good night sleep...

Hey Jetnfast,

It seems you might be the only one that has data on the ICE 100 ESC running between the ducts vs. in the tail cone. I'm a little confused by this as it seems that the motor being so close to the ESC in the tailcone might not be the best solution. Even Stu from Stumax says that it's best away from the motor with a small cooling fan instead. Perhaps the high velocity air can get in through Tam's tailcone's holes and that saves it but I don't know.

There's two posts from James that show good temp numbers and prospect of running the ESC between the ducts since it has an opening which the fan sucks air through:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...3#post21623743

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...1#post21613930

Temperature stays around 110F. I'm not saying the tailcone is bad, I just want to learn from others experience with real numbers/data. Any comments on this anyone? Does anyone with a Jetfan on 6S have temperature readings with the ESC in the tailcone so that we can compare to 420flyboy's?

I have the esc between the ducts on this and the F4 , never gets hots , even this summer . I just read what Stu had to say also about heat from the motor , that's how I've always felt , there was enough heat coming off the motor , why add to it. Putting it in front made more sense , pulls cool air over it first , data logging shows this to be correct.

Yeah, I got that from you and that's how I'm running it. Made sense to me but I don't have the tail cone to compare. I would just like to hear from others to see what's the actual temperature benefit. This is the way I see it:

ESC in tailcone
Pros:
- Runs cooler??
- No heatsink so lighter
- ESC further back so better CG tuning
- Clean install with ESC out of sight

Cons:
- Long wires from battery to ESC, worst portion to lengthen
- Requires Capacitor bank due to long wires, maybe denies heatsink weight advantage?
- Next to motor it might prevent efficient cooling??
- $, tail cone cost + capacitor bank cost.

The two big unknowns above (??) are what can tell if the tail cone is a better choice than in between ducts or not. Running between the ducts doesn't require cap bank and is lighter since it needs no heat sink nor caps. It's not close to the hot motor, it has short battery wires which is mfr. recommended and it's free.

I am out of town right now but when I get back home I plan on tidying up the installation and doing a few test flights with the new ESC placements.

Castel, you have all valid points and have summed it up nicely. For me, I want the option to run 7s with the stock fan and motor and with the tailcone ESC placement it seems to be the best trade off for CG and cooling.

Something to add as well, with tams tailcone it also has the heatsink for the motor which helps keep the motor cool in addition to the rearward placement of the ESC. From what I can tell, the airflow to the ESC is seperate from the motor based on the cooling inlet holes around the motor heatsink that flow to the ESC and out the tailcone.

Originally Posted by Castel101

Yeah, I got that from you and that's how I'm running it. Made sense to me but I don't have the tail cone to compare. I would just like to hear from others to see what's the actual temperature benefit. This is the way I see it:

ESC in tailcone
Pros:
- Runs cooler??
- No heatsink so lighter
- ESC further back so better CG tuning
- Clean install with ESC out of sight

Cons:
- Long wires from battery to ESC, worst portion to lengthen
- Requires Capacitor bank due to long wires, maybe denies heatsink weight advantage?
- Next to motor it might prevent efficient cooling??
- $, tail cone cost + capacitor bank cost.

The two big unknowns above (??) are what can tell if the tail cone is a better choice than in between ducts or not. Running between the ducts doesn't require cap bank and is lighter since it needs no heat sink nor caps. It's not close to the hot motor, it has short battery wires which is mfr. recommended and it's free.

When I was running the stock Eflite motor with a CC 100 lite, I tried both methods; in the duct and in the fan tailcone. It was MUCH cooler in the ducts. My temp readings from the ESC were at least 40 degrees cooler in between the ducts. No idea if the same difference would be seen on the SM-80 but there was a drastic difference on the stock motor with ESC in the duct versus the stock motor with ESC in Tams tailcone.

Just my 2 cents.

Kent

Thanks Kent. That's more in line with what I would expect. If the ducts didn't have an opening in between then yeah, behind the motor would probably be better since air is flowing through. But since the ducts have that gap in between the fan would suck cold unrestricted air over the ESC which seems better in my opinion. About the CG tunability I think with Tam's mod of placing the rudder/elevator servos in the rear tray for the F-4 it's a non issue. My 6S battery is pushed further forward so I have room for adjustment for heavier batteries. This is in the F-4 though, not in the Habu so I'm not sure how it compares here.

For 7S batteries the weight of Gens Ace 60C 3S + 4S batteries is less than the weight of the 5000mah 6S stock battery so I think no issue there either. So far Kent is the only one that has shared actual data of both methods and it seems between the ducts is a much better solution. I'm looking forward to hearing from Jetnfast since I am also thinking of "enabling" the option of 7S power .

I vote to put the ESC behind the motor. Yes, there is "some" motor heat back there but we are talking about A LOT of air. My ESC runs pretty hot between the ducts. Motor heat or not, I guarantee you that the ESC is way, way, cooler sailing back there in the line of blast. Some guys have also had some good results putting the ESC heat sinks sticking out of the bottom of the fuse but that required cutting a hold in the fuse.

Got a quick question on retracts here for you guys. Im not really feeling the stock wire gear, Ive been pokin around on Extreme Radio Control, and they have a really nice alloy set on there thats pretty reasonable. Just wondering if anyone has experimented or used any
3rd party retracts. My girlfriend couldnt think of what to get me for Christmas this year so I helped her out, Ive been wanting this Jet for awhile now! Heres the link to that gear....http://www.extremerc.com.au/estore/i...roducts_id=700