Archive for February, 2008
Or not. 
Since my latest review is now up over at RC Power and garnering interest, I thought I'd take the subject of the review for a ride.
I think that club is cursed.
I forgot the ignitor that plugs into the power panel and I had to borrow one to start the engine. Unfortunately, its owner had to leave, in turn leaving me to try and use the half-dead ni-cad ignitor I had on hand.
Sputter...sputter...die. Repeat until battery dies for good. It just wasn't lighting up the plug enough to help it start and it was a brand new, previously unused plug to boot.
When it did run, the right landing gear kept collapsing. Wouldn't lock all the way.
Off came the wing. Several times. Finally got the pushrod working right.
Except the ignitor was totally kaput by then.
Looking on the bright side, I tried to start the engine with the power panel ignitor when I got home...zoom! Started strong, stayed running strong.
Too bad it was in my driveway at the time...
Since my latest review is now up over at RC Power and garnering interest, I thought I'd take the subject of the review for a ride.
I think that club is cursed.
I forgot the ignitor that plugs into the power panel and I had to borrow one to start the engine. Unfortunately, its owner had to leave, in turn leaving me to try and use the half-dead ni-cad ignitor I had on hand.
Sputter...sputter...die. Repeat until battery dies for good. It just wasn't lighting up the plug enough to help it start and it was a brand new, previously unused plug to boot.
When it did run, the right landing gear kept collapsing. Wouldn't lock all the way.
Off came the wing. Several times. Finally got the pushrod working right.
Except the ignitor was totally kaput by then.
Looking on the bright side, I tried to start the engine with the power panel ignitor when I got home...zoom! Started strong, stayed running strong.
Too bad it was in my driveway at the time...
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Tell you what: Had I known this was going to be so relatively simple, I probably wouldn't have bothered all of you with progress reports.
I'm pleased to say that I'm down to the nitty-gritty. Here's what's been done since my last update:
*Crud emptied frrom the inside of the wing.
*Holes in the wing patched and painted. Not quite true olive drab as it turns out (too much green in the original paint), but I'll try and match it later.
*New gears in the stripped Hitec HS-81 aileron servo.
*Ailerons realigned.
*Forward wing locator tab epoxied in place. Owner of the LHS suggested that I reattach rather than replace the tab since the epoxy would be stronger than the surrounding wood. He was right.
*Engine cleaned out as a precaution since there was sand stuck in the carb's intake. Off came the carb, in went some nitro engine spray. All was nice and clean. Reset the throttle cable as well.
*Original covering on the underside of the fuselage at the firewall epoxied in place over the trim tape I'd used to replace it in the first place. Went back on nice.
*Replaced 3x25 wing hold-down bolts (one was bent in the crash) with beefier 6/32x1 socket head bolts and #6 blind nuts. The blind nuts were a perfect fit, but I'll have to buy a 5/64 socket driver. HIGHLY recommended upgrade.
*The cowl is filled, sanded and ready for a coat of dope.
All that's left is to dope the cowl, reinstall the fuel tank, test the engine, resolder the antenna lead on the receiver (it snapped in two a couple of inches up from the receiver case) and test fly the little monster. Should be soon.
Pix on the way!
UPDATE: The fuel tank's in and the new prop is going on in a moment so that I can check the engine. Found an unforseen but minor problem: The power switch for the receiver is kaput. If I hook the battery directly to the receiver, all is well. Going through the switch gets me zilch.
I'm pleased to say that I'm down to the nitty-gritty. Here's what's been done since my last update:
*Crud emptied frrom the inside of the wing.
*Holes in the wing patched and painted. Not quite true olive drab as it turns out (too much green in the original paint), but I'll try and match it later.
*New gears in the stripped Hitec HS-81 aileron servo.
*Ailerons realigned.
*Forward wing locator tab epoxied in place. Owner of the LHS suggested that I reattach rather than replace the tab since the epoxy would be stronger than the surrounding wood. He was right.
*Engine cleaned out as a precaution since there was sand stuck in the carb's intake. Off came the carb, in went some nitro engine spray. All was nice and clean. Reset the throttle cable as well.
*Original covering on the underside of the fuselage at the firewall epoxied in place over the trim tape I'd used to replace it in the first place. Went back on nice.
*Replaced 3x25 wing hold-down bolts (one was bent in the crash) with beefier 6/32x1 socket head bolts and #6 blind nuts. The blind nuts were a perfect fit, but I'll have to buy a 5/64 socket driver. HIGHLY recommended upgrade.
*The cowl is filled, sanded and ready for a coat of dope.
All that's left is to dope the cowl, reinstall the fuel tank, test the engine, resolder the antenna lead on the receiver (it snapped in two a couple of inches up from the receiver case) and test fly the little monster. Should be soon.
Pix on the way!
UPDATE: The fuel tank's in and the new prop is going on in a moment so that I can check the engine. Found an unforseen but minor problem: The power switch for the receiver is kaput. If I hook the battery directly to the receiver, all is well. Going through the switch gets me zilch.
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Views: 288
Two of the tears on the right wing of the Zero. The ruler is just covering my private info on my AMA sticker. -
Views: 253
Broken locator tab. The broken pieces were in the fuselage and will be reattached with epoxy. -
Views: 243
Here's the cowl and snapped-off stab. The stab's now back on the plane as of this writing. -
Views: 230
A bit of epoxy, a bit of paint and a bit of sanding and this cowl will be as good as new. The crazing is the extent of the damage. -
Views: 222
Here's where the stabilzer made its clean break from the tail section. The joiner wire poked a small hole through the top of the elevator half. I used the hole later on to CA the joiner back in place. -
Views: 241
The cowl and surrounding wood after reattachment. That hole in the wood, caused by a cowl attaching screw, has been filled with new balsa. -
Views: 221
Another view of the reattached firewall surround. -
Views: 239
Like a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces don't quite fit back in the same way, so too did the little bits and pieces of the servo tray fit back in their original positions. Sort of.
Good news: Some minor tweaking to the Zero's rudder eliminated the ground wobble. Most of it was due to a slightly loose control horn.
Bad news: I'd forgotten that I'd reversed the elevator control at the transmitter, so it tried to nose down instead of up on takeoff.
So, what did I do? Right! Instinct took over and I went the other way on the stick, but just a bit too far and she took off.
Frankly, I wasn't sure if I had reversed the ailerons as well as the elevator The result, however, was pretty much what you'd expect.
Second crash in four days. Three altogether in the last two weeks; four if you count the Blade CP.
Like all of you, I pride myself on my piloting skills and I rarely damage a plane. It had been more than a year since I last got a case of "dumb thumbs" and totalled a model. Believe me, there's been a lot of flying during that ensuing year.
However, like the crashes before it, this is fixable. It isn't close to being a total loss and I am not in the mood to line Raiden Tech's pockets with more of my money.
Always cheaper to fix rather than replace, I always say.
"Project Zero 2.0" is on the way.
Bad news: I'd forgotten that I'd reversed the elevator control at the transmitter, so it tried to nose down instead of up on takeoff.
So, what did I do? Right! Instinct took over and I went the other way on the stick, but just a bit too far and she took off.
Frankly, I wasn't sure if I had reversed the ailerons as well as the elevator The result, however, was pretty much what you'd expect.
Second crash in four days. Three altogether in the last two weeks; four if you count the Blade CP.
Like all of you, I pride myself on my piloting skills and I rarely damage a plane. It had been more than a year since I last got a case of "dumb thumbs" and totalled a model. Believe me, there's been a lot of flying during that ensuing year.
However, like the crashes before it, this is fixable. It isn't close to being a total loss and I am not in the mood to line Raiden Tech's pockets with more of my money.
Always cheaper to fix rather than replace, I always say.
"Project Zero 2.0" is on the way.
...when nothing seems to go right. I refer to yesterday.
Brought the Raiden Tech Zero Fighter-25 to the field yesterday along with my little .25-powered combat plane. Despite the assembly problems which I had with the Zero (which are outlined in an RC Power product review), it is one sweet airplane and plenty fast to boot. Takeoffs and landings have always been a breeze. In fact, it's one of the easiest planes to land I've ever owned.
I tried swapping a pair of 2" DU-BRO rubber wheels which I had on hand in place of the stock foam wheels to see if it would handle better on the ground.
Nope.
Despite removing, bending and rebending the struts (which are made of K&S 1/8" music wire), I couldn't keep the thing from either torque rolling left on takeoff, pitching forward on its nose or both. A quick check of the CG showed all was well. Still, it wouldn't handle properly no matter what I did.
I even went one better when trying to straddle the fuselage ahead of the elevator in order to set the high end: I kicked the tail nearly clean off!
My flying buddy who was helping me through all of this provided the CA and kicker.
Landings were just as bad, with the tendency to want to nose over and/or shoot off into the dirt. I chewed up the tips of the original prop and put the very first scrape on the chin of the cowl, this after more than thirty successful flights to this point.
Thought I'd try the combat plane to which I'd added...Continue Reading
Brought the Raiden Tech Zero Fighter-25 to the field yesterday along with my little .25-powered combat plane. Despite the assembly problems which I had with the Zero (which are outlined in an RC Power product review), it is one sweet airplane and plenty fast to boot. Takeoffs and landings have always been a breeze. In fact, it's one of the easiest planes to land I've ever owned.
I tried swapping a pair of 2" DU-BRO rubber wheels which I had on hand in place of the stock foam wheels to see if it would handle better on the ground.
Nope.
Despite removing, bending and rebending the struts (which are made of K&S 1/8" music wire), I couldn't keep the thing from either torque rolling left on takeoff, pitching forward on its nose or both. A quick check of the CG showed all was well. Still, it wouldn't handle properly no matter what I did.
I even went one better when trying to straddle the fuselage ahead of the elevator in order to set the high end: I kicked the tail nearly clean off!
My flying buddy who was helping me through all of this provided the CA and kicker.
Landings were just as bad, with the tendency to want to nose over and/or shoot off into the dirt. I chewed up the tips of the original prop and put the very first scrape on the chin of the cowl, this after more than thirty successful flights to this point.
Thought I'd try the combat plane to which I'd added...Continue Reading
