Originally Posted by FoamCrusher

You mean like this? (See pix below)

My old tired beater of a Stryker is being replaced with a new B fuse and C hatch covers. It has a modified JustGoFly aluminum motor mount held on with zip ties. To take the load, the foam in the motor area is reinforced with 1/64" birch ply CA'd to the foam. The leading edge has also been thinned and tapered into the delta body.

The body has two CF arrow shafts buried in the foam and it is STIFF! The elevons are contest balsa aileron stock - also stiff - and I am considering laminating two pieces of square 1/8" stock with a CA hinge in the middle and gluing them to the TE. These reinforcements don't add much weight and should allow the airframe to deal with the anticipated power.

The fuse will be coated with 2 coats of flat WBPU, then paint and then one more coat of gloss WBPU.

I am going to experiment with four different motors; Mega 16/15/3, 16/15/4, Medusa 028-040-2500 and a JustGoFly 450TH. They run from mild to wild and at slightly different weights. They will be propped to draw about 30 -35A burst @ WOT, which should be OK for the 3S1P MaxAmps 2100 mAh packs.

This ought to go like a rocket.....at least that is what I hope. Stay tuned.

FC

PS Anyone know where I can get some factory fins right now? Everyone seems to be back ordered. I can make some out of blue foam or out of coroplast, but the first is fragile and the second is heavy.

If it's the vertical stabs you're needing, I have an extra pair lying around somewhere that have been used. If you can't do any better, then we will work something out.

FC try a hot glue hinge ala Superfly method. If you have large surfaces w/ lots of throw the ca hinges seem to rip out. Ask me how I know. I went to the beach once and left the verts at home. Made some out of cardboard and thin packing tape. Worked so well I also made some canted ones like an F-18,
They helped increase the roll rate to a blurr.

I made my fins out of 6mm Depron and they held up well. I made another set with a sandwich of 3mm Depron, 1mm birch plywood, 3mm Depron glued together with oderless CA. They are light and practically bullet proof.

Originally Posted by Sonofagun

FC try a hot glue hinge ala Superfly method. If you have large surfaces w/ lots of throw the ca hinges seem to rip out. Ask me how I know. I went to the beach once and left the verts at home. Made some out of cardboard and thin packing tape. Worked so well I also made some canted ones like an F-18,
They helped increase the roll rate to a blurr.

Any pictures of those new fins?

Originally Posted by FoamCrusher

You mean like this? (See pix below)

My old tired beater of a Stryker is being replaced with a new B fuse and C hatch covers. It has a modified JustGoFly aluminum motor mount held on with zip ties. To take the load, the foam in the motor area is reinforced with 1/64" birch ply CA'd to the foam. The leading edge has also been thinned and tapered into the delta body.

The body has two CF arrow shafts buried in the foam and it is STIFF! The elevons are contest balsa aileron stock - also stiff - and I am considering laminating two pieces of square 1/8" stock with a CA hinge in the middle and gluing them to the TE. These reinforcements don't add much weight and should allow the airframe to deal with the anticipated power.

The fuse will be coated with 2 coats of flat WBPU, then paint and then one more coat of gloss WBPU.

I am going to experiment with four different motors; Mega 16/15/3, 16/15/4, Medusa 028-040-2500 and a JustGoFly 450TH. They run from mild to wild and at slightly different weights. They will be propped to draw about 30 -35A burst @ WOT, which should be OK for the 3S1P MaxAmps 2100 mAh packs.

This ought to go like a rocket.....at least that is what I hope. Stay tuned.

FC

PS Anyone know where I can get some factory fins right now? Everyone seems to be back ordered. I can make some out of blue foam or out of coroplast, but the first is fragile and the second is heavy.

Actually, I thought I would epoxy a long pine stick, and use a GWS stick mount on a HiMaxx 2816-1220. The stick would also be married by epoxy to the cross-spars I added, as well as the CF tubular longeron running full-length to the fuse. The Reciever will be upfront.
This gives greater than 1/1 power to weight at high speed

The stick mount is not a bad solution if you want to stay with that motor. I want to be able to swap the outrunner with the Mega and the Medusa which requires the different approach. Also, I am not so sure that the stick will take a hard landing with the heavier Medusa at ~100 grams. Once you break a stick, they are a bear to replace without destroying the plane.

RE: Fins. I was trying to take the easy way out and use stock fins. They held up OK on my first Stryker, while on the second one (the one being replaced now) I tried all sorts of things; balsa covered with colored packing tape, stiff cardboard covered with Ultracoat, fan folded foam covered with Ultracoat, and painted coroplast. The coroplast held up the best, but at the time all I had was the 6mm stuff which is HEAVY.

I just remembered that I have some 3mm around here somewhere that I bought for wing tips on a Unicorn and there should be enough remaining to do the Stryker fins. If I don't like it they can always be replaced when the factory replacement parts are back in stock. I glue them in with Goop and they can be removed with the application of a little heat.

RE: Hinges. I have never had any trouble with CA or floppy disc drive hinges. I like pin type hinges the best since they have no resistance, but they need a larger slot and that is going to be difficult to cut (without one of those trick slot cutters) in the hard balsa so I may give the hot glue a try. Do you have a link the explains the best way to do it?

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

FC

link http://www.superflyrc.com/pdf/SuperFly.pdf Didn't realize u had a balsa te..

Yeah, I like the 2816-1220 Do you think a stick mount may detract or improve the thrust line?
Having less drag in the wind is actually what I am shooting for.....

I ordered the motor mount. Makes sense that the stick would be weak.
Good advice!!!

Originally Posted by Sonofagun

link http://www.superflyrc.com/pdf/SuperFly.pdf Didn't realize u had a balsa te..

After looking at the options I have elected to go with floppy disk hinges and the laminated balsa TE option - I would have liked to use CF but I could not find what I wanted - most of the stock was too heavy. The aileron stock I am using for the elevons is stiff and has a shape like this > on the leading edge,with the widest part in the center of the edge rather than with one acute angle so the hot glue hinge won't work. (It is a great idea however and I am going to use it on a Projeti that I am building). The FDD hinges are almost friction free and the mylar is almost impossible to tear, so they should be fine. Powered with HS-81MG servos they should take any amount of power I hang on the aft end.

One pre-coat of WBPU tonight and another tomorrow night with paint on Sunday. The weather will be punk this weekend so there is no hurry. I am off all but one day over the two week Christmas break, so there will plenty of time to try the different motors.

FC

I will be building this weekend as well. Special electronics for the new stryker is done, now for the physical plane itself

I'm waiting on Santa to bring my new Stryker 27C.

Right now, I am just securing my additional CF tubes. If you have never thinned epoxy with alcohol, it does a wonderful job. Goes in between foam and rod. Face it, what you see globbed out of the seam is nothing but weight, which I have none to spare today!

I flew my Stryker from a slope twice today. The first flight was good, even though it seemed as if the Stryker was running at half power. The LVC kicked in twice, and I landed the second time finding 10.4v still left on the battery. One of my friends (who also flies RC planes) set my aileron trim so I wouldn't have to take my eyes off the plane.

After that flight we went to find a good flat part of the road for a runway so we could fly his Easy Sport 40. After the battery charged I tossed the Stryker off again. It ws still rolling left so i asked him to give me "2 clicks right". He did one, and then said "Don't you mean left"? I said "The plane is turning left, so it needs right, knowing that the trim was almost all the way to the right. A misunderstanding, dislexia, or he did it on purpose so he could see someone end a long streak of him wrecking while no one else had, I don't know. He moved the aileron trim to center which made the Stryker roll violently left. I gave full right, it was still rolling left. I didn't notice it until he pulled his hand off & brushed my arm, & instead of telling him "all the way RIGHT!! QUICK!!", we argued until it hit the ground. The whole ride back he tried to say he didn't have nothing to do with it, even though he admitted to moving the trim. After I realized there was no saving it I cut the engine, looked down at the trim, and then walked off the mountain & began searching.

The damage: The hatches pulled off, all of them. I lost the back vented one. The motor mount broke, and the motor pulled the ESC & battery out with it. The prop broke in 2, and gashed one of the vertical tail stabs. It's repairable, but I'm still too mad to mess with it. I may post some pictures later. Amazingly, the CF re enforcements saved the main fuselage from any damage, but the stronger fuselage caused all of the internal stuff to take a lick.

The worst part, he wouldn't even apologize. I've wrecked the Stryker about 5 times prior, each time was my fault. This is the first time I've ever had someone affect my flying when I had the controller in my hand. I know I shouldn't have let anyone else touch it, so it really makes it my fault, but he is supposed to know what he's doing too. Long story short: The trim on this thing is touchy, and it CAN overpower the controls if your elevons aren't set up pretty well to begin with.

I also centered the rudder trim after the first flight, which was what caused it tobe so much out of trim on the second (I think.) I planned on flying it out of trim, but there was no flying it after he centered the aileron trim. After I thought about it a little more, I may have been able to fight it until I fixxed the trim myself if I had rolled it on through. I was in a canyon though, and it would have eventually hit the side.

Does the distance between the prop & motor affect power? Or maybe the 1880kv parkzone motor has degrading performance. It just didn't have the same power today. Also, using the stock charger takes way too long. It may have been I had to use too much full throttle, but my first flight only lasted 9 minutes, and the LVC kicked in twice. Once in a vertical climb, and again at the end as I was rolling. I had the perfect distance to land it beside me on the peak so I brought it in, and it was still at 10.4 or so. Whatever it is, the motor seems a lot weaker. Is it a good candidate for a smaller plane maybe?