Originally Posted by KTMRacr

Pulled the trigger on some Hitec HS-7954SH servos. I didn't like the grand total on the order all that much, but I'm sure I'll forget about it once I have a smile on my face cause the plane is in the air.

they are some nice servos. i really like the fact they are HV so you dont have to run a regulator (another failure point gone) and they are strong enough for a much larger aircraft so i am banking they last a lot longer than a less expensive/capable servo would flying in the 71's.

even for much more money the 7955TGs still have a MK first gear so IMO the 7954SH's are a really good deal...... no buyers remorse for me

thanks for the compliment i really like that blue against the orange too.... i have to customize so i can tell my planes apart from all the other addicts

Originally Posted by flyracer

KTM
I'm with you... it's a bit of sticker shock when you plunk down that load of cash for quality servos! My wife tracks the expenses on the credit card statements and when the servos arrived she said "you paid how much for those!"

Flyracer

Haha! No doubt!

My wife and I have completely separate accounts. She has certain things she has to pay for each month and I have my responsibilities. As long as those are met then there is no explaining to do. I like it that way...

BUT, she did come out in to the garage on Saturday and saw that I was looking a little depressed (I think I was in a daze). She asked what was going on and I told her about the servos I bought (and showed her the jitter). She was horrified. Told her I didn't know what I was going to do, but the dilemma at the time were $23 servos that a couple of people were happy with, or $77 servos that tons of people were happy with. Of course, you guys showed me some "mid priced" options as well and I really appreciate it. Although it just made the decision harder. In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the extra time or aggravation to take any more chances (or waste any more time... time is money when you are self employed), and "splurged". The wife actually said "Good!" when I told her...

Have I mentioned that my wife kicks ass?

Originally Posted by racerman27410

they are some nice servos. i really like the fact they are HV so you dont have to run a regulator (another failure point gone) and they are strong enough for a much larger aircraft so i am banking they last a lot longer than a less expensive/capable servo would flying in the 71's.

even for much more money the 7955TGs still have a MK first gear so IMO the 7954SH's are a really good deal...... no buyers remorse for me

thanks for the compliment i really like that blue against the orange too.... i have to customize so i can tell my planes apart from all the other addicts

I liked the fact that the description on Hitec's site said that these "were designed to run on an unregulated 2S lipo". Made me feel all all that more comfy in the decision.

Seriously, that blue accent looks killer! I've always liked at least 2 colors on my planes. Black and white don't count.

Hey guys!! I have a DLE 30 for sale. It has 3 gallons of gas through it. I am going back to school, but unfortunately that means I am not going to have time to fly. I am asking $225.00 for it.

My UPS guy usually shows up no later than 12:30. It's now 4:00. The wait is KILLING ME.

Checked the tracking and it is out for delivery, but for some reason they delivered it to another distribution center this morning, one that is about 45 mins from my house. The normal one is like 20 minutes. For that matter, they practically drove right past my house to take it to the other distribution center. I'll never understand their logistics without being able to see the big picture.

Originally Posted by hooliganpilot

Not a smart idea above. Just do it right so the bolts cant come loose. Install cap screws or bolts so the head is exposed, and drill a 1/16" hole through the bolt head and safety wire them together. Never lose a muffler because the bolts can't back out.

I disagree that it's not a smart idea to do it??? With a DLE the muffler bolt heads are recessed about 1" inside the muffler housing, so I'm not sure how you would safety wire the bolt heads it on this muffler setup. But I do like your method of wiring them together which would prevent them from turning out (good idea!) on the mufflers with the bolt head exposed.

Originally Posted by KTMRacr

My UPS guy usually shows up no later than 12:30. It's now 4:00. The wait is KILLING ME.

Checked the tracking and it is out for delivery, but for some reason they delivered it to another distribution center this morning, one that is about 45 mins from my house. The normal one is like 20 minutes. For that matter, they practically drove right past my house to take it to the other distribution center. I'll never understand their logistics without being able to see the big picture.

LOL i can totally relate to the UPS/Fedex/DHL/USPS emotional rollercoaster.....USPS has got to be the worst around here .... they didnt deliver a motrolfly motor to me even though their tracking said they did...two weeks later the package was returned to Ken (subsonic planes) from Durham NC saying the address was incomplete even though it wasn't

It's really kind of ironic....I want my parts to get here fast so i can take my time putting everything together.

I haven't had an exception on a delivery to the last two houses I've lived in AT ALL with UPS. And since I run my business out of my house, I get a lot of stuff delivered here. So for the first time today I saw an exception on the tracking info. Got on the online chat, and asked if I could go pick up the package at the distribution center. Within a few minutes they came back and said they are holding the package for me and to go down and pick it up by 6:00. It was 5:37 at the time, I made the 29 mile drive in 24 minutes.

I was in the parking lot in my truck when my UPS driver was leaving to go home, and he backed up to ask what I was doing there. I guess there was a container from the airport that for whatever reason got scanned as having been sent to the second distribution center, but it didn't make it on the truck.

Long story but I really like the way UPS handled it and had it out waiting for me to pick up. My UPS driver is cool too. Can't believe he recognized me sitting in my truck!

So anyway, I hooked one of these suckers up to a fully charged 2S LiPo. HOLY COW are these things fast and quiet! They feel REEEEEEALLY strong. I don't know if I could stall the servo with one hand or not. I think it might take two. Slapped it in the plane and it flips the rudder so fast and with so much authority it could be a fan for my shop. I'm very impressed (and HAPPY!).

4 more servos to go and I should be maidening this thing tomorrow!

Sweet... Nice progress

Still at the field on maiden day. 5 flights down ... a few more to go. Out of dr pepper!
Plane and engine are awesome!!!!! Full report later.

...

Man what a great day of flying!

I was worried about how easy this thing was going to be to start since they say in the manual that the engine is meant to be started with a starter and they say that the ignition doesn't fire till it sees 120 rpm. It was cake to start! Once I got some fuel sucked down the fuel line I turned the ignition, it popped after another flick or two. Cool!

Did some tweaking with the needles as the manual recommended and I was ready to go. Took me longer to get everything out and put together than it did to get my initial "flight ready" tuning done!

Went to the field out in Lawrence to start the day and fly with a buddy. I swear there were 25 cars in the lot when I got there! It was a nice day to fly, and I wish not so many other people had felt the same way. So I took my time and let the thing cool completely between flights. Flew the buck huck and Lance and I both flew our T-Rex 500s for intermissions. We hadn't ever put both of them in the air at the same time before, but we did today and had a lot of fun with it.

Lance had to get going so I decided to load up and get back closer to home. Went back to my home flying field and got three more flights in on the 71 and a couple more on the 41.

I had "temporarily" mounted my battery trays with hot glue cause I didn't know if they needed to be there permanently (to get CG in the right spot). On my 8th flight one of the trays popped loose and my battery was hanging on by the deans connector. Luckily I wasn't doing anything crazy with it.

So as it sits now with no cowling it is just a tad bit nose heavy. So it looks like I will have to move one or both of my packs back a bit, especially once I put the cowling on. Going to make some new trays tonight that go in the bay behind the rudder servo bay.

Also the plastic spinner broke on the last flight. I thought two of the screws vibrated loose, but the plastic around the screw holes actually broke! I guess I know why folks buy carbon spinners now...

This plane flies so freaking nice. After the first two flights I was doing big loops and inverted passes and cuban 8s and knife edge passes. Even did a couple of mild spins on my last flight (I think that is what broke the battery tray loose). Man does she land easy. They should call this thing the 3DHS Trainer 30.

I really like this OS engine. Starts pretty darn easy. And even though I'm still running her pretty rich on a break in prop, she has tons of power. VERY quiet too!

So new battery trays go in tonight and I'll give the plane a good once over to make sure nothing is about to vibrate off. Slap another spinner on there (I got a yellow one and a red one... I really liked the yellow one... But I guess red will work for now...) Supposed to have perfect flying weather again tomorrow and I should have a full gallon run through her by then, at which point I can switch over to some good synthetic oil mixed at the normal rate and then put the bigger prop on and lean her out a little.

Happy happy. Joy Joy!

PS Why didn't you guys tell me I was an idiot for putting my fuel dot below the fuel tank. The fuel fill line does a good job of siphoning fuel out on the ground. Kind of a pain to keep it pinched when hooking up to the pump! I may get another fuel dot and mount it up above the tank. However, I do like the switches where they are at... That Miracle switch is pretty nice!

Originally Posted by KTMRacr

Man what a great day of flying!

I was worried about how easy this thing was going to be to start since they say in the manual that the engine is meant to be started with a starter and they say that the ignition doesn't fire till it sees 120 rpm. It was cake to start! Once I got some fuel sucked down the fuel line I turned the ignition, it popped after another flick or two. Cool!

Did some tweaking with the needles as the manual recommended and I was ready to go. Took me longer to get everything out and put together than it did to get my initial "flight ready" tuning done!

Went to the field out in Lawrence to start the day and fly with a buddy. I swear there were 25 cars in the lot when I got there! It was a nice day to fly, and I wish not so many other people had felt the same way. So I took my time and let the thing cool completely between flights. Flew the buck huck and Lance and I both flew our T-Rex 500s for intermissions. We hadn't ever put both of them in the air at the same time before, but we did today and had a lot of fun with it.

Lance had to get going so I decided to load up and get back closer to home. Went back to my home flying field and got three more flights in on the 71 and a couple more on the 41.

I had "temporarily" mounted my battery trays with hot glue cause I didn't know if they needed to be there permanently (to get CG in the right spot). On my 8th flight one of the trays popped loose and my battery was hanging on by the deans connector. Luckily I wasn't doing anything crazy with it.

So as it sits now with no cowling it is just a tad bit nose heavy. So it looks like I will have to move one or both of my packs back a bit, especially once I put the cowling on. Going to make some new trays tonight that go in the bay behind the rudder servo bay.

Also the plastic spinner broke on the last flight. I thought two of the screws vibrated loose, but the plastic around the screw holes actually broke! I guess I know why folks buy carbon spinners now...

This plane flies so freaking nice. After the first two flights I was doing big loops and inverted passes and cuban 8s and knife edge passes. Even did a couple of mild spins on my last flight (I think that is what broke the battery tray loose). Man does she land easy. They should call this thing the 3DHS Trainer 30.

I really like this OS engine. Starts pretty darn easy. And even though I'm still running her pretty rich on a break in prop, she has tons of power. VERY quiet too!

So new battery trays go in tonight and I'll give the plane a good once over to make sure nothing is about to vibrate off. Slap another spinner on there (I got a yellow one and a red one... I really liked the yellow one... But I guess red will work for now...) Supposed to have perfect flying weather again tomorrow and I should have a full gallon run through her by then, at which point I can switch over to some good synthetic oil mixed at the normal rate and then put the bigger prop on and lean her out a little.

Happy happy. Joy Joy!

Congrats on your maiden day! It sounds like that engine is pretty sweet and maybe worth the extra cash.

Originally Posted by KTMRacr

PS Why didn't you guys tell me I was an idiot for putting my fuel dot below the fuel tank. The fuel fill line does a good job of siphoning fuel out on the ground. Kind of a pain to keep it pinched when hooking up to the pump! I may get another fuel dot and mount it up above the tank. However, I do like the switches where they are at... That Miracle switch is pretty nice!

I didn't notice the fuel dot location and I'm not sure I would have put two and two together if I had but now that you mention it...

Are there any carbon spinners that dont require cutting to clear the prop?