My First Scratch build

[Vettster]

Just got back from a very successful flight Not perfect yet as this was only its second flight.. but a big improvement. In preparation of this flight.. I reduced the horizontal stab angle -2* and raised the down thrust to about -1.5* I also moved the CG back 1"
I really should have done each separately, but time is not on my side.

Taxiing was much better since I replaced the keel with some very flexible rubber gasket material.

Take off: This time it took off in half the distance... but I still had to pull hard on the elevator. I had to max out the up elevator trim again, but still had some to play with this time. This area needs work as when I landed I could see I had it trimmed with 1/4" up elevator. What now? do I keep on moving the CG back? Do I pitch the horizontals stabs down more? In both cases the motor thrust angle had no effect on the pitch whether on the gas or not.

Flying: Well something has changed for sure. During the maiden the ailerons were perfect. Just the right amount with good response, but now they seem very unresponsive. It needs a lot to get it into the bank but then you quickly have to remove almost all of the input. The nose doesn't dive at all.
Did a full 4 min flight.

Landing: This time I kept two clicks of throttle on till she was about 20' off the ground and then killed the power. Its was nice to actually have elevator to input this time..lol She just glided in and landed as smoothly as you would expect from any foamy Polaris or Skipper.. Very Happy about that

The motor: Well I will admit I don't have much experience at all with Electric Prop planes.. Sure seems to have plenty of power! No complaints there. When on the gas all is good.. but when I back of the throttle there is a screeching noise? Anybody know what that is?

Sorry no video.. No one was available..but just as I took off I heard a car pull up. Turns out it was my dad..just a minute to late.. oh well.. glad he got to see it fly

[itizme]

Just got back from a very successful flight Not perfect yet as this was only its second flight.. but a big improvement. In preparation of this flight.. I reduced the horizontal stab angle -2* and raised the down thrust to about -1.5* I also moved the CG back 1"
I really should have done each separately, but time is not on my side.

Taxiing was much better since I replaced the keel with some very flexible rubber gasket material.

Take off: This time it took off in half the distance... but I still had to pull hard on the elevator. I had to max out the up elevator again, but still had some to play with this time. This area needs work as when I landed I could see I had it trimmed with 1/4" up elevator. What now? do I keep on moving the CG back? Do I pitch the horizontals stabs down more? In both cases the motor thrust angle had no effect on the pitch whether on the gas or not.

Flying: Well something has changed for sure. During the maiden the ailerons were perfect. Just the right amount with good response, but now they seem very unresponsive. It needs a lot to get it into the bank but then you quickly have to remove almost all of the input. The nose doesn't dive at all.
Did a full 4 min flight.

Landing: This time I kept two clicks of throttle on till she was about 20' off the ground and then killed the power. Its was nice to actually have elevator to input this time..lol She just glided in and landed as smoothly as you would expect from any foamy Polaris or Skipper.. Very Happy about that

The motor: Well I will admit I don't have much experience at all with Electric Prop planes.. Sure seems to have plenty of power! No complaints there. When on the gas all is good.. but when I back of the throttle there is a screeching noise? Anybody know what that is?

Sorry no video.. No one was available..but just as I took off I heard a car pull up. Turns out it was my dad..just a minute to late.. oh well.. glad he got to see it fly

Screeching noise could be your esc does not work well with the esc. you could try a different carrier frequency and see what happens.
Keep on trying

[akabek]

You can make changes to the ESC settings to work better with your motor. If you have a programmer specific to your ESC or the setup instructions you can change the timing with your transmitter. Do a search to see if others have the same motor/ESC combination what settings they used.

[Vettster]

The motor seems solid. No scratching or binding. I've heard the screech before on another plane or a buddies plane.. but that was always on powering UP not down. That was a timing issue. I suspect the bearings are crap right from the get go. HobbyKing

The elevator issue ... I decided to go -1.5 down on the hor stab. Don't want to try to many things at once or I will never know whats doing what. Im sure I can move the CG back even further.. but Im already 1" behind the step. With this latest change.. If I gain more elevator control I will know for sure that Ive found the problem. I was thinking about it, and the truth is that all these delta water plane fly with a nose UP attitude. I set the Hor stabs at zero with the fuse at Zero. I think that may have been the problem.

Haven't just been sitting on my hands waiting for good weather. Plugging away at the New Horizontal stabs. Gone is the Whale Tail

[Vettster]

So I finally got around to doing the new tail. I held off hoping for better weather ha! 3 days of rain every weekend.

So anyways its a ginormous improvement not only in looks but also weight savings.
With the full flying tail the electric version can take advantage of using only one servo. I'm setting up for turbine use so it has to use 2. With the new tail I'm saving.....500g!!!!! That's huge and I see me taking ALL of the nose weights out.

Can't post pictures . Mods???

[Vettster]

Lets try to upload the photos today shall we

[Vettster]

Got the 3rd flight in. Keep in mind this might as well have been the very first maiden as I completely redesigned the tail. Lightening up the tail by 1 full pound and this meant I had to remove all the weight from the nose..another pound!! YUP the plane is now 2 lbs lighter. Im ecstatic over that.

Finding the right location for the elevator servos was a bit of challenge for the geometry to work and also not to have any slop in the stabs. They are not in the location shown as the previous picture anymore.

Moving to a 2 bladed prop was for sure a great improvement.. although I think I need to go to a higher pitch as this one seems to rip at the top end.

So I headed out to a much smaller field as we are not permitted on the sod farms when there is standing water. It was a perfect day and I was a bit concerned that there would be a ton of pilots there as I wasn't ready to debut it just yet. Not a sol in sight and I quickly found out why.. the place was flooded! PERFECT! I found that the plane does not like long fresh damp grass, as it just sticks to the plane. Full throttle was a must just to move but when she hit the puddles...LOOK OUT!! it was a rocket! I loved to see it spray up all that water LOL So anyways up she goes and then the porpoising... OMG I thought it was all over. At first I was thing the CG was to far back(I moved it back another 1/2") and it felt like it was right on the edge the entire flight. I quickly reduced all the trows to LOW and it seemed much better but still scary. The ailerons worked perfectly again. I upped the throw a couple more mm and added offset.. One goes up and the other goes only half as much down.
Will it land slowly? Well I'll let you be the judge when I upload the video lol.

Oh yeah.. the motor didn't make any screeching noises and worked flawlessly now that I removed the grub screw

Prep for the next flight will be... move the CG forward 10mm and reduce the elevator throws.
vettster is online now

[RickyBoy]

Lookin good

[Vettster]

So I lied... turns out pops missed the landing. But anyways it was walking speed and HIGH ALPHA to high lol.

Watch it ripp threw the water and then looks like the brakes were slammed on as it hits the grass just before the runway. lol

Video pretty much ends at the 1:30 mark, after that its just sky. Wish I knew how to edit videos.. Im just not a computer type guy

https://youtu.be/M5ajr24Ha4s

[Ramjet]

Very cool congrats .