Raptor Glider Build Part 2

...sleek, slim and a tight squeeze

The Raptor Glider is now completed; set up, tested and ready to roll. While it goes together pretty well, there are a few items worth noting.

There are two pairs of servo housings provided for aileron and flap; as well as covering the servos they also double as servo mounts, with the servo screwing directly onto them. However, being supplied in pairs, this causes a problem for the flaps as the operation becomes mirrored; necessary for ailerons but not for flaps. My solution was to install a servo-reverser, substituted for one of the flap servo extension cables.

On the subject of extension cables, the rear of the fuselage, where the extension cables plug into the Y-cables, is very small area due to the sharply tapering fuselage. In order to accommodate the plethora of wiring, I had to feed all excess length of the servo extensions back into the wing cavity. Even then there was just sufficient room to fit the bulky Y-cables and connectors.

The lack of room here is also a casualty of the general layout; while the ESC generally fits neatly under the battery tray, due to the Raptor's battery tray being so low-slung, there's barely enough room for the cables to run underneath. As a result, the ESC sits aft of the battery tray, where I'd usually site the receiver and, because I want the receiver away from the battery and ESC, this got relocated in the back of the fuselage, where the cables would usually be sitting...

With a 2200mAh 3S lipo up front, the weight distribution is virtually spot on, with space to move the battery a little forward to make it slightly nose-heavy if you need.

So, everything's fitted and functional, just waiting for a trip to the field...

Trainstar Floatplane Sorted

...finally enjoying the moment

Yesterday afternoon I headed off to the lake again with the Trainstar, hoping that finally all the work I'd put into sorting it out would pay dividends and I'd be able to have an enjoyable afternoon punting it around the lake.

As it turned out the flights were really good; nice smooth takeoffs, peaceful and uneventful flights finished off with reasonably good landings. Using full elevator for landings this time, I managed to keep the Trainstar on its floats every time although it was still dropping too fast. The last tweak I need to do then, is to take off the flap mix I've been flying with.

This is good on the gliders when flying slowly however, with the Trainstar having to fly on about three-quarter throttle, the tail doesn't need any lifting. So, by switching the mixing off, it will give me a little extra elevator travel, just what I need to be able to level the Trainstar out on landing, hopefully enough to eliminate the bouncing which has been a characteristic of every landing it's made so far.

Changing the elevator setting will hopefully also give teh Trainstar teh ability to climb a bit better, as at the moment it flies pretty flat, which can be a slight concern given the number of trees lining the lake's edge.

The good landings were, of course, a great assistance ino keeping the servos dry...

DX6i Transmitter Flap Mix

...tail-heavy no more

I took the Phoenix out for a fly this afternoon, not having flown it for a while, and took the opportunity to try the flap mix which was something I'd overlooked when I first got the transmitter.

I'd set the Phoenix up for flaps when I'd first got it, but have never particularly liked flying with flaps as it makes the Phoenix fly tail-heavy, dampening what are generally immaculate flying manners.

This is because the wings are in a high-lift configuration but the tail is not, causing it to dip at low speeds associated with flaps. The other day, flipping through the menu's when setting up the Stinger, I came across the flap mix menu and suddenly it made sense.

The mix is very simple, allowing you to dial in a dose of elevator with the flaps. Now the trick is, to cure tail-heaviness as in the case of the Phoenix, you don't want positive elevator, as this would just push the tail down more and increase the angle of incidence of the wings.

What resolves the issue remarkable well is negative elevator, effectively working as a flap for the tail. On the Phoenix I set negative elevator at 20 for a flap setting of 10, which I tried out this afternoon and which works brilliantly well.

Highly recommended on the Phoenix...

Bend my Control Arm

...why aren't you all in the same position?

I'd finished the constructing the Walrus - pretty much straight forward with a robust glued tail section and screwed-in wings. 

Having previously had issues with servo centring, I left off connecting the control rods until I got it powered up so I would know where middle is. I consistently find this to be a problematic stage despite its innocuous appearance.

The Walrus servo arm positions aren't quite lined up, more of a problem on flaps which don't have side-to side-trim. For these, I adjusted the control arm length to suit, not ideal though because different crank positions have different travel distances (that whole sin/cos story...). It's less troublesome on ailerons fortunately as these have trim adjustment available.

So far I've done the flaps and ailerons, now for the elevator and rudder. I'm sure they'll be simple. Please...?