View Poll Results: How much of a nin-cow-poop is HuweyII anyway? | |||
He's a master like Chuck Yeager | 5 | 15.15% | |
More of an engineer then a pilot | 11 | 33.33% | |
Having fun but no great shakes. | 7 | 21.21% | |
Whew this guy has a lot to learn. | 3 | 9.09% | |
It's amazing he hasen't killed anyone, don't let him fly near your house! | 7 | 21.21% | |
Voters: 33. You may not vote on this poll |
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My adventures with the Hobbico FlyZone Cessna 182
I’m starting this thread to track the changes I’m making to my Hobbico FlyZone Cessna 182. I’ll be posting lots of pictures.
A little history. I used to “fly” RC Heli’s. Namely a Miniature Aircraft X-Cell .90. It was a lot of fun, but also very scary. I never really flew it, but over a year or so I taught myself to hover it pretty well. Then when I lost my job I couldn’t afford the crashes anymore so I put it away. That was about 8 years ago. So this spring I decided to teach myself to fly fixed wing. So I headed out to the local hobby stores. I wanted something that had Rudders, Ailerons and Elevator and variable thrust (throttle) and I wanted electric. There where lots of planes that where rudder and elevator only but I didn’t figure that was really learning to fly. So I settled on the Cessna because it included everything I needed to fly and it was a four channel. Everything else the local hobby stores had was either too big, too advanced (balsa), or was only three channel. So I set up the Cessna, just did what the manual said to do: http://manuals.hobbico.com/hca/hcaa23-manual.pdf Took it out and threw it and really it wasn’t too bad. Once or twice around the field. I didn’t know enough to get some altitude for safety and I was trying to not burn up the battery so the first time I stalled it on accident it rolled over into the ground and broke one side of the elevator. But that elevator wasn’t totally gone, so I threw it again. Did OK, but near the end I nosed it over when I turned the wrong way with it coming toward me and smashed it into the ground pretty hard. This time the fuselage had a big break on the port side, just where the wing attaches. This would turn into a recurring problem with this airframe. So ends flying day one. |
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OK so time to repair that BIG crack in the fuselage and put that one piece of elevator back on.
I know Hot Glue! Whew, the plain old Styrofoam that the fuselage is made out of really doesn’t like my extra super heavy duty extra super hot craftsman glue gun from the 1980’s. I managed to make the repair work but it’s pretty ugly. I knew right away I needed some other kind of glue. I tried the little two-tube syringe thingy of epoxy I had, but it was dried up, even though I only bought it a few months before. Attached pictures of how the ugly repair looked. This picture was taken later after I filled the hot-glue gash with epoxy. |
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Unless they fixed the horrible stability issues the SkyPilot had with this one, you couldn't GIVE me one..Lol.
I remember my Skypilot..giving it any more control throw (Moving inboard on the control horn) made it unflyable. And every time I EVER sent it up the wing folded..Even the transmitter gimble broke mid-flight and I had no return-to-center on the rudder. That was interesting.. Let's just say that teh only useful things I got out of it were the servos.. |
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OK, so several more days of flying probably half a dozen flights total, did pretty well really. Just circling the field, except for trying a loop once or twice. FUN!
Had several hard landings when the long grass grabbed onto the landing gear and slammed the plane around a bit. Smashed the cowl up really well. Each time I flew I had to use a bunch of packing tape to put the cowl back together. I thought about flying without the cowl but I don’t know if that would be OK, or what it would do to the airworthiness of the plane. Then cruising along 20ft in the air it nosed over and SMASH. Another big crack in the fuselage on a different corner of the cabin area where the wing attaches, AGAIN. Also the other side of the elevator broke. Oh and broke the prop. Of course smashed the cowl again, *SIGH*. However the worst thing was that motor shaft was badly bent. The prop adaptor was OK but the shaft was bent right below that. Bent over at about a 40 degree angle. So off to my hobby shop. I ordered a new stock motor, another battery, two sets of tail fins and two cowls and two stock props. I couldn’t get the prop adaptor off, so the hobby store guy tried and the set screw broke off. So I ordered a stock prop adaptor too. Oh yea, while I was at the hobby store I bought some epoxy and some CA and some foam safe CA. OMG I love this epoxy! Less stinky then some other stuff I’ve used and seems to last forever. Seems to be a bit greasy after it dries though. While at the hobby store I bought a Fun Zone Aerobird Swift. OK it’s only three channels but it’s got ailerons and it’s a V-tail so I figure I can maybe convert it to V-tail mixing someday. This will give me something to fly what I wait for the parts to arrive for the Cessna. http://www.hobbyzone.com/rc_planes_h...bird_swift.htm ---------------------------------------- Just added a picture of that bent motor. |
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Last edited by HuweyII; Apr 26, 2007 at 01:46 AM.
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OK, so I epoxied the plane all back together while waiting for parts. I managed to attach the elevator with epoxy and it’s probably stronger then it was before so when I got the new elevator I just left the old one on.
Parts took about a week to arrive and in that time I had a lot of good flights and a lot of good crashes with the Aerobird swift. That little thing is fun to fly. It’s basically a glider with a big motor on it, so not much you can do to hurt it. Unless you’re too close to the ground of course .. *AHEM* So when I got the Cessna parts I installed the new motor, prop adaptor and prop. The cowls didn’t arrive so I put back on the 90% packing tape 10% plastic cowl. Also I noticed that the funky little plastic motor mount thing had a big crack in it. It’s made of this brittle white plastic. Not good stuff for this use I don’t think. So I epoxied that too. People at work wonder why I smell like sulpher. That epoxy sulfur smell doesn’t come off your hands easy. Rubbing alcohol seems to work best. I hold my hands over the sink and my daughter pours me a handful of rubbing alcohol and I rub. It helps. All repaired and ready to go. Going to try to fly ASAP. Two batteries now too, woot! |
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OK took the Cessna out. What a disappointment. Maybe my batteries weren’t charged but geez. Full power, almost full up elevator and the plane can’t get any altitude and just wallows just above stall speed. Never got above 10ft AGL. Once around the field and I was done brought it in for landing. Slow speed and no control Made for a pretty heavy landing. Broke a prop. Good thing I ordered several.
Took it back home, the next day I made really really sure the battery (8.4v 1100mah NiMH) had just been peaked before I flew. Didn’t take long to peak which worried me. I made sure to use the old battery not the new. Same thing wallow wallow, stall stall, no power to climb. Another hard landing, another prop broken. Drove directly to the hobby shop, and bought a real charger a bunch of banana plugs and deans connectors to connected all the power stuff with. No more partly charged batteries for me!. Hobbico Quick Field DC Charger MKII 12 Volt http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXCTZ5&P=0 Next day, deans soldered onto everything, freshly peaked known good battery. And I removed the gear from the plane to reduce weight and make for nice belly landings. SAME THING! No climb, no speed. Broke the prop on landing and broke the motor mount again. As homer would say, “Doh!” |
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OK, so I read on one forum how somebody got a bad EC with their Cessna. So I think maybe I can put a new EC in. Or maybe this new motor is bad. I read that the bigger the prop you put on the more thrust you get, and the greater angle on the prop the more top speed you get. I figure I need more thrust so I try a different prop.
The Cessna comes with a 7x3 so I buy an APC 8x3.8 at the local store. Hey, I didn’t even know there where different props for glow and for electric. But the guy at the store straitened me out. Took it out to the field and there is no difference with this new prop, except that it doesn’t break when I land. So I put the old prop back on and put in the other battery and it’s exactly the same. I give up, time to spend more money. I WILL make this little plane enjoyable! At least I’ve got the Aerobird Swift to fly. So I read up what to buy and find that I should have about 100watts of power in a motor per pound of plane. 150watts per pound for 3d action. So I figure anywhere in between these two figures will work. I decide on the the Great Planes Rimfire 28-26-1300 Out-Runner Brushless motor. My plane weights 1.2lbs with everything stock including battery and that motor will draw up to 165watts. If I remember Ohm’s Law correctly the motor won’t draw that many watts with my little 8.4v battery anyway, so it should be about right. Apparently the motor wants a 25amp ESC but tower hobbies is out of the great planes one so I order the 35amp ESC instead. It’s overkill I guess but the 35amp has 1/5th the resistance of the 25amp and it never hurts to run electronic stuff at under it’s rated power. And it’s only like $10 more. The motor has a built in prop saver so I also order a bunch of prop saver rubber band things. And I order a tachometer so I can see what the heck is going on. Stuff I ordered: Motor: http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?&I=LXLWT3 ESC: http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?&I=LXKSY5 Rubber Band things: http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?&I=LXJPH2 Tach: http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?&I=LXPT31 |
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While I’m waiting for the parts I start digging through the forums trying to figure out how I’m going to mount this motor to the firewall. I don’t really want to use a real motor mount because I’m afraid it’ll either be too heavy or it’ll just bend and break on my super skilled landings.
I decide that plain old machine bolts are the way to go. But that firewall is the same dang white brittle plastic that the old motor mount was. So it’s time to fix that before I mount a nice motor too it. What I ended up doing was buying a small piece of thin birch plywood at the hobby store. (Midwest 1/16thx6x12) Then I made a rubbing of the existing firewall onto office paper with one of my daughter’s crayons. This gave me a template to work from. I cut the plywood into the also exact shape of the firewall by scoring through the template with an exacto blade and then cutting it out with my dremel. Boy am I glad I bought the mondo dremel all those years ago, it took about all the thing had. The wood splintered a little. I had to put it a vise for a couple hours with some wood glue in between the splintered plys to bring it all back to one piece. I wrapped wax paper around the wood before clamping so it would come out easy. Then I laid the rough cut plywood shape against the firewall and went over any edges that weren’t flush with a sharpy and took those edges off. Repeated until it fit nicely. I figured the ESC inside the body would want some air going over it. So I held the plywood up against the firewall again and traced the big holes at the bottom of the firewall into the plywood from inside the fuselage. That was a cramped job! ( this would also be good for stearable nose gear linkage later. ) Cut those holes out with the dremel too. Next I roughed up the plastic of the firewall and one side of the plywood with a grinding wheel. I did this to give the epoxy something to grab onto. Then I applied epoxy to both the firewall and plywood and stuck it on. I just held it on there making sure everything was flush until the epoxy set up. Man I need to buy some gloves! I was picking epoxy off everything the next day. I also applied some epoxy along the sides and back along the fuselage about an inch or so, just to weld it all together. I’ve read some stories on the forums about firewalls coming off these planes. Looks great, ready for the motor to be mounted! |
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Last edited by HuweyII; May 06, 2007 at 03:36 PM.
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I got the parts in and the motor and the ESC use different sized bullet connectors. ARG! Guess I missed that.
Ran to the shop to buy some 3.5mm bullet connectors. I replaced the small ones on the motor to match the big ones on the ESC. Bullet connectors only comes in male/female pairs at my local hobby shop. I'm already starting to collect a lot of spare parts. |
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Good luck with your re-maiden! Given your drive to make the darn thing fly again, I bet tomorrow you'll be ready for it.
Serban |
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OK I said before that I flew Nitro Heli’s. So I can’t see just mounting a motor up without seeing what it will do. Maybe it’s because I’m an engineer in real life. (Apparently not a very good one, read on!)
So I mounted the new motor to an old piece of 2x4. I think I once used this piece of 2x4 as a hammer on some auto parts or something. Good thing I’m divorced or I wouldn’t be allowed to bring such a thing into the house. I couldn’t mount the motor directly to the wood because the outrunner has a shaft sticking out the back. So I had to drill a hole in the end of the 2x4 to make room for this. I also added some washers so some air could go through the motor. It wouldn’t be running long but I don’t want to burn up my new pretty. I setup the tach and two VOM’s (one for voltage and one for amps) and c-clamped the 2x4 so it hung over the side of the work bench. Hey the tach is reading the cycles coming out of the florescent lamps! I had to point an LED flashlight through the prop to get good readings during testing. No prop on the motor, full throttle: 0.8amps (didn’t get voltage reading this time) ESC sitting idle just powering Rx: 0.02amps @ 8.96v 8x3.8 prop on half throttle: 3.3amps @ 7.98v – 5460rpm 8x3.8 prop on full throttle: 6.71amp @ 6.95v – 6780rpm OK, maybe you figured it out. My battery was dead! I didn’t think of it until later, “why where the volts so low?” <smacks forehead> By that time I’d taken everything down so I didn’t remeasure. Makes me mad! |
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OK, so the motor works, time to mount it.
I bought a bunch of #6 size machine bolts, nuts and washers at Home Depot. Also picked up some blue locktite to keep it all together. I used the motor template to drill holes in the new firewall for each of the three bolts and a hole for the wires to go through. For the wire hole I used the hole on the template for the motor shaft to stick through. That made it nice and neat. It was a little bit of a bare to get the temple perfectly strait and right in the center of the firewall. The digital calipers where a great help here. I’d planned to mount the bolt heads on the inside of the fuselage with the threaded end sticking out, however the #6 nuts wouldn’t fit in the space on the motor between the motor mount hole and the edge of the motor case. So turned everything around. From the motor side I put the bolt through the hole, then a nut to secure it and some locktite. Interestingly the bolts all pointed toward the center. Turns out the space that wasn’t big enough for the nuts before also wasn’t big enough for the bolt heads. The Dremel to the rescue again. I just shaved one side of each bolt head down. Then two more nuts to hold each bolt onto the firewall. One on the inside and one on the outside. I managed to get to the inside nuts with a socket extension. It was easy to hold the outside one with an open end wrench. The thrust angle on the original motor was about 3 degrees down and one to the side. I decided that strait on was the best place to start since the main wing already has quite the upward angle of attack built in. So I used the digital calipers again to measure the distance between the nuts on the motor and the nuts on the firewall and got them all about the same. The attached pictures will probably make what I did a lot more clear. |
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