Aerobeez 45% Extra 300 assembly

[Xpress]

The inlet on the ZDZ180 is 1/4", not the 1/8" we're used to, so the tubing has to be expanded which this tubing does not do well at all, even when heated to the point of nearly melting- it was advised to me by @Terryscustom to not use it between the clunk/tank and carb. I'll be picking up some of the Du-Bro Tygon to swap out today (I lucked out, the LHS has some in stock).

My servo boxes finally came in the mail today so looks like I'll have plenty to do tonight and tomorrow night. It's looking like a maiden might be imminent this weekend so long as my wheels and axles come in

 

[Xpress]

Got the Tygon in and put my servo boxes together tonight, will be doing more work tomorrow. Didn't get to doing the rudder linkages just yet, need to get batteries soldered up first and I didn't feel like breaking out the iron.

 

[Xpress]

Well here we are after what has been the most roller coaster-like week of the entire year. Not much has been done to the airplane since my last update, but I did get the choke servo in and functioning.

This is just before I glued it in place, I am trying to get the throttle setup but I will need to pull the engine off for that one and check the clearances with the throttle arm since it will wind up sitting in the middle of the firewall through-hole for the carb. Doubt I'll get much done tonight, a good friend of mine passed away earlier this week and tonight is a celebration of life/candle light vigil thing that will occupy most of my time.

 

[thurmma]

I pulled the factory arms off and put slip over arms on so I could make the geometry work easier

 

[Xpress]

I pulled the factory arms off and put slip over arms on so I could make the geometry work easier

That's what I did, I used the slip on arms that were supplied with the airplane.

Got my throttle servo in and setup. There's a couple of things that I want to change to try and get better movement out of the servo as right now I had to dial the high end down to 30% to keep the servo from opening the throttle more than it's supposed to. Will try changing the linkage geometry slightly to get the full resolution out of the servo if I can't help it.

 

[Xpress]

Aside from wheels and axles.... She is ready...

(OK I know it still has the JR graphics, but those will come off tomorrow)

 

[Xpress]

Yeehaww!!!! She flies

She flies totally awesome too! Extremely light, very crisp, and totally outrageously overpowered with the mighty ZDZ180 on the nose. I got 2 flights in and set the needles as per Joe Mitchell's recommendation, she REALLY woke up after that. I was blown away after the first flight though, it's a monster that rips the Falcon 32x12 like its nothing, the airplane hovers with almost no effort and rockets vertical when you let her loose.

Some changes I will be making this week though:

1. I have a new servo box and 6" long titanium turnbuckles coming in the mail so I can relocate the throttle servo farther away from the carb. Right now it sits only a couple inches away and has very poor geometry: advances quickly at low throttle and slows as the servo stretches out (the engine has far too much low end for that). I have a serious throttle curve in it for now to help tame it down and make it manageable.

2. I have wheels pants and my wheels/axles still coming in the mail- someone neglected to place the order (it was a batch order at work for many of us) so I won't get them until this coming week, had to borrow some loaner wheels for this weekend. Will have the pants and wheels/axles put on before next weekend.

3. Need to buy a spinner for it still.

All of this will happen this coming week, the goal for this weekend was just to get it flying so I could get some run time on the engine to prepare it for a lot of flying this coming weekend

Video to come!!

 

[Jetpainter]

Yeehaww!!!! She flies

View attachment 90440

She flies totally awesome too! Extremely light, very crisp, and totally outrageously overpowered with the mighty ZDZ180 on the nose. I got 2 flights in and set the needles as per Joe Mitchell's recommendation, she REALLY woke up after that. I was blown away after the first flight though, it's a monster that rips the Falcon 32x12 like its nothing, the airplane hovers with almost no effort and rockets vertical when you let her loose.

Some changes I will be making this week though:

1. I have a new servo box and 6" long titanium turnbuckles coming in the mail so I can relocate the throttle servo farther away from the carb. Right now it sits only a couple inches away and has very poor geometry: advances quickly at low throttle and slows as the servo stretches out (the engine has far too much low end for that). I have a serious throttle curve in it for now to help tame it down and make it manageable.

2. I have wheels pants and my wheels/axles still coming in the mail- someone neglected to place the order (it was a batch order at work for many of us) so I won't get them until this coming week, had to borrow some loaner wheels for this weekend. Will have the pants and wheels/axles put on before next weekend.

3. Need to buy a spinner for it still.

All of this will happen this coming week, the goal for this weekend was just to get it flying so I could get some run time on the engine to prepare it for a lot of flying this coming weekend

Video to come!!

Awesome! Glad to here it went well!

 

[Xpress]

Here's a quick video.

 

[Xpress]

With 7 flights on the airplane I obviously needed to check everything over to ensure all is tight and tidy. I didn't get time to get the ignition wires routed correctly so I got them secured in place with wire keepers tonight. I also checked all the engine and linkage bolts, landing gear bolts too, all good and tight.

I wound up losing a baffle today so I had to rebuild it and I put a cross brace up top to help keep it strong, saturated all the joints with CA as well.

Spinner ordered up and took care of the decals tonight, she's ready to do some hard nitty gritty huckin next weekend!!!