Originally Posted by Charley38

I flew one for five years on a Park 450 motor & 3s1p 1800 mah batteries.

It needs strengthening in the motor mount and the LG block area. Some popsickle sticks to strengthen the LG block longitudinally and more glue in the motor box seams are a good idea.

You'll love it. It's a great flying model.

CR

Thank you for the info. Saves alot of reading.

I wanted to share a few mods that I've made to my Taylorcraft, based on knowledge found in this group. My thanks to everyone who provided information and inspiration.

Interior

I found the interior a blank slate waiting for augmentation. There's a lot of visibility into the cabin and just seeing wires and formers didn't feel right. I created an instrument panel from a sheet of balsa with holes drilled and a color print of dials behind it. Not highly detailed, but it works.

I also 3D printed two era appropriate yokes and mounted them on stalks. I originally intended to use a micro servo to drive them with the ailerons, but the weight and complexity was becoming an issue. They do move together thanks to a simple linkage system. Print your own yokes here: http://shpws.me/MqW9

The floor is covered with balsa sheet and the seats are mounted to the removable floor.

Battery Tray

The battery compartment on the Tcraft was an issue for me. The COG is highly impacted by battery position and I wanted a way to keep it consistent from flight to flight. I also wanted to make it easier to swap batteries. I built a box from balsa. It's held in-place with screws and adjustable to fine-tune the COG. The battery slides in and is retained by a velcro strap. The back of the battery box also serves to hold the AR610 receiver.

Wow,

Nice work! Your Taylorcraft will really look the part.

Just completed mine. I had an FMS 3536-Kv900 motor, left over from a Sky Trainer, which is now an organ donor, and mounted it. I bit heavier than the e-Flite motors, so I needed to add 1 ounce of weight under the stab. I have a 12x6 Xoar prop on it now, which should provide about 220W, but I can pull 350W from it, if I want. I wanted to be able to remove the wing so, after I reinforced the landing gear by adding strips of plywood to build up the longerons the gear is held by, I added screw in anchors that have 4-40 internal thread, so I could easily remove the struts without damaging the wood. After mounting the wing, it didn't look right through the top windows, so I added some 1/32 balsa to cover the openings into the wings, then painted it gray inside:

I first posted about my converting the TC to floats on Dec 22 2014 on pg 330 post #4938. I finally got to fly the TC on floats this past summer and after some minor adjustments in the takeoff procedure, it flew fine. The major problem was the prop picking up excessive water spray. I adjusted the elevator for more throw and that cured the problem. I have to hold a lot of up elevator when starting to take off, but once it gets up on step, I can release most of the up elevator and prevent it from leaping into the air and stalling.

The water rudder that I installed really helped with the steering when there was some wind. I flew it all Summer, but didn't get any video as my video camera's battery decided to give up. My wife did get some still photo's, so I'll post them and hopefully by next Summer, I'll have a new video camera.

J

Great photos. Taylorcraft makes a great looking and flying float plane.

Your TC looks great with the floats. Almost makes me wanna move near some water so that I could use floats on my TC.

Freddy

Thanks GCplane and Fredriksson for your kind words.

I agree, the TC is a good looking and good flying plane. If it didn't land so sweet on floats, I'd change the angle of the struts so it had more positive angle, but it's fairly easy to get a good take off by holding a lot of up Elevator until it gets on step. I'm going to see if I can get some video this Summer.

J

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You are onto a great idea on a great plane, Comrade. The TC will handle the bush plane mod without a glitch and will look great!! Are you planning to go with the 480 motor or stick with the 450?

Freddy

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The Legacy Aviation Littlefoot from Extreme Flight is another good choice for a balsa/flap/Bush plane.

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Well, we finally got a good day to test my TC on the runway. I started with taxi runs, to get the tail wheel aligned with the rudder. Found the wheel turned the model right, while the rudder turned it left - back to the stand. Next run, the tail wheel disappeared. I tried a spare wheel with a small Kwik-link, but it couldn't grab enough of the wire, and wheel was off again.

Trip to the LHS to get a collar and a wheel that is thin enough to let the collar lock on. Found a DuBro 1.23" white spoked wheel, and an almost identical MPI 1.25" wheel; the MPI had a slightly larger axle hole, though both were supposed to be 0.047" (too small for the wire), so I went with the MPI. It fits perfectly, so I assume the DuBro would be tight.

Now waiting for another flying day.

After all that drama, and waiting for good weather, I finally got the maiden flight in today. I attached the controls with DuBro E/Z connectors, so I could have 'infinite' resolution of adjustment. I tweaked all the controls to be as close as possible to neutral on the bench, and it paid off - I didn't have to add any trim at all!
During the flight, I did a few loops and rolls, and it really does maneuver well. I also chopped the throttle at about 200', and let it fall; it slowed until it just kind of floated down like a kite, with no roll or pitch changes. This model will be very easy to fly, at just about any speed.